Smartie's Bar & Grill #72

If you find a shrub that trims itself, do let us know, I'm sure there is some money to be made on that!

 

Doesn’t look like hops to me but what ever floats your boat.

 

Does that come before or after the class on interwoven natural fibers?

I've done that before, just rather larger rocks. Actually boulders, used in landscaping. Big ones, ton or better each. Some people can be so picky....

 

I'm getting impatient with the lack of progress with the yard. The landscape guy has been on vacation, for a week, while he's officiating a mountain bike race.

 

I thought you are retired now. What's the hurry?

 

I dunno. I want to see progress. That's why I had the dirt piles hauled away.

Maybe I need something stronger; to make me not care.

 

Yeah... refocus.

 

Good morning good people. Brand new week... we can do this.



.

 

Mornin'

 

Not. Funny.

It's not so much the actual Idea of Christmas, it's the two weeks after Christmas that makes my stomach clench....

 

While I was busy taking it's picture, the other one snuck right past me.

 

You got some new lawn mowers?

 

I didn't know the second one was there until it walked into the picture. It could not have been more than ten feet away when it went past me.

 

On account yer fists clenched first.Musta been a nutter sappy
Christmas with presents like a used Chop-O-Matic.However a brand new
still in the original box { unopened } Veg-O-Matic.
Plus promises of a Ronco pocket fisherman for next Christmas.
I had me Christmas' like that for awhile.Until me wiles gave way.

 

When One lawn mower just ain't enough.
Doesn't quite cut it anymore.

 

They will also be new shrub & flower eaters. Choose carefully, TC! Don't get expensive deer food!

 

Spent the weekend outside getting our garden ready for our Winter veggies and mowing the grass I left alone during the heat wave so it wouldn't burn up. Several of the garden beds got overgrown with weeds and our invasive field grass so we spent most of our Saturday contending with that detail. Yesterday we started to get down to planting (and more mowing) and got a tray of Leeks in the ground. I'm planning on getting some Leek seeds planted next week (on vacation!) so I can get a succession crop working for later. Tonight, Mrs. Talon might start planting the Kale and Collard Greens while I make a new home for our Lavendar sprouts. I had been told that they are difficult to grow from seed but I planted a tray of Mumford Lavendar seeds and I had no problems getting them to germinate and grow. For a whopping $2.50 and some TLC and patience I've got around 40 little plants that I'm going to overwinter in the veggie garden and then move into their permanent locations next Spring.

In the meantime, the plants in our new pumpkin patch and gourd tunnel are crankin' along - we've already got a few baby gourds sprouting. I'm thinking of hitting the base of those plants with some Thuricide to thwart any borers from setting up shop. We haven't planted any squash in a few years so I'm not expecting any problems but a little preventative medicine won't hurt the plants or the bees that have started shacking up in the flowers. In a couple weeks we should be seeing our first little pumpkins emerging on the vines.

Thanks goodness Fall is almost here! It's the best time of year in Virginia...

 

If the does aren't eating the shrubs and flowers the bucks are wrecking the trees...

KILL 'EM ALL!!

 

In addition to a thousand other things, I deal with W-2s and payroll taxes, and prep for corporate taxes. January 2 is the beginning of my personal nightmares....

 

Seeded cool weather root crops last Saturday. Moon phases say this coming Saturday is time for lettuce and spinach.

The new veggie beds will do nicely. Will be able to put in arches (thin black PVC hose over spikes) to lay row cover over the cool weather plants if frost or freeze comes early, and bird/deer netting over strawberries.

 

So instead of a paper shredder try the Chop-O-Matic for
forms and such.I mean,why not.The Era of Humans is ending.
We are being replaced by Cyborgs.That have been designed and
built by themselves.
I wonder what Franz Kafka would have thunk.
No I doesn't.

 

'Just file a complaint with the Castle and wait.' F. Kafka

 

Glad you mentioned spinach! I have to run over the Southern States co-op to pick up a few things and I might as well pick up some seeds.

We've got the ability to cover all our cold weather crops, too. When we were designed our veggie garden 5 years ago I patterned it off of the Medieval potagers where you have rows of contained beds with grass walkways running in between - something like this:



Most of the beds are 4' X 8' but I have a few 4' X 20' beds running between them. Since they're only 4' wide it's easy to run arches over the width of the bed and plastic sheeting over the length. I drove thin segments of PVC pipe into the ground for the spikes and then inserted lengths of heavy galvanized wire into the pipes to make the arches. Then we use cheap 2 mil clear plastic sheeting (the kind painters use for drop cloths) to cover the rows. Works like a champ.

I also came up with a much larger and heavier PVC-framed tarp rig to protect the Gardenias that flank the sun room in the front of our house from extreme bouts of subfreezing cold. If it gets down near zero I'll put a little electrical heater in each tent to keep the temps above freezing. If it wasn't for those rigs we would have had to give up on those bushes years ago, which would have been a darned shame. They're a lovely evergreen and when they're in bloom the scent of their flowers permeates the air all around them.

 

Thanks for the reminder. I need to check the Hallmark Channel to see if the Christmas movies have started yet.

 

Mommie ... Mommie ... Guess what I learned in school today.
Ok Harold.What did you learn.
I learn't me that them Cyborgs are getting ready,Ma.
You mean " those " Cyborgs ... Harold. " Those Cyborgs ".
Ya,ma ... them Cyborgs.
Ok I give Harold.What did you learn about them cyborgs.?
I learned me that they can do stuff like build a new Santa Klaus.
How so ... Harold.?
Here's how so,Ma.Because all the kids in class say they ain't
no Santa Clause.And pop still insists there is.
Harold ... you still believe everything someone tells ya.?
Is Pop ... a someone Ma.?
Good point Harold.Real good point.
He wasn't until I married him.