Walking on Sunshine: No Generic Substitute available

I don't think I ever gave the final garden update but the it has now been mowed over and I will probably just stick to tomatoes and cucumbers this year. Maybe some more lettuce. That was kind of cool. I will see how lazy I am in the spring. I wouldn't mind growing some onions.

Back on topic, I am getting sick of all the prescription drug commercials. I like listening to Classic Rock on the radio but nowadays it makes a person feel like a geezer. They advertise drugs for old people. TV isn't any better. Even my local Cinimark in Katy. I went to see a movie over there a couple of months ago and before the previews they had a commercial for the new Katy Cancer treatment facilities now available. Not that it isn't a good thing and will make it much more convenient for people who need the help, It is just that when I plop down $9 for a ticket and then 8 more for some popcorn and a drink, I want to get the traditional magical movie theater experience. I don't want to be thinking about any particular illness that I am somehow now the target market for thier advertising.

The other thing is that the side effects sound worse than the actual ailment that the pill is for. They have the wonderful music and people runnging through fields of flowers with no allergy symtoms but then you get a warning to stop using the drug if you have a stroke, kidney failure, or cough up blood. And is always such a small percentage that actually die but that isn't what I consider a good selling point. Of course they are required by law or fear of getting sued but damn. What about the one where they tell you to call your doctor if your erection lasts longer than 6 hours. Just consider how long it takes to get to see a doctor. You have to figure that most people are not going to be taking sexual enhancement drugs during work hours so if you do need to call a doctor, then it will be the emergency room. It won't do any good to call them but you better hope that there are not any heart attacks or other more serious cases that will get seen infront of you. If after 6 hours you decide to go to the emergency room, it is going to take 15 minutes to half an hour to drive over and then at least half an hour to be processed and then you have to wait until it is your turn. It could turn out to be a 10 hour erection before you actually get help. It is like your fears from Junior Highschool have come to pass. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't a few women out there who figured they had put in thier time when it comes to having sex with the old geezer that they are married to. There had to be at least a few that really wish that viagra had never been discovered.

I do believe in going to the doctor and getting the appropriate check ups and blood tests and so forth but it does scare me a little when I hear that over 30 percent of all treatments after false positives are not needed. There is no question that the health care industry is just that. An industry. I even saw a study on TV that when business is slow in a particual area or they have too many hospitals. Those health care networks just generate more tests and unneeded procedures to make up for it.

There is no way around it. Nobody Gets out alive.

What else?

Not much really. I have reconfigured my one man band using less equipment. I got burned out on carrying around so much equipment and having to set it up and break it down that I decided to see what I could do to make it a little more mobile.

I decided to eliminate the symbols and the actual Bass drum but I did come up with an Idea to purchase an electronic drum machine brain and I now put a second drumstick on my foot which extends backward and I made a Hi Hat in to a Low hat and I then put a sensor on it and which will fire off the bass drum sound when I hit it. It actually does sound tighter. The next I idea was just to run everything through the mixer and amp into one speaker. I am currently using a bass cab but I might see if I can find a powered speaker and elimnate the need for the amp. I do like the idea of it being a bass rig since I am running a bass drum and bass gutiar through it. Maybe I will just add a horn tweeter and see how that works for small settings. I am thinking of looking for a gig here or there but am not that organized yet.

Besides that you will have to go buy a newspaper or something cause that is all I got.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Austin Wonderland Limits

My sincerest digitized greetings to you all and thanks for stopping back in.

Last night I went over to the "spot" on 18th street. It would fit into the "dive" category as far as venues/bars go but that is how I like em. Even though I had a diet coke and then a glass of water, I like the honest feel of a local beer joint with live music. The Blue Flash band was playing and it was Beverly's birthday. She is a friend of the band and the girlfriend of one of the crew. I was invited to play a couple of tunes so I had brought my guitar along. Lately I have been playing my Epiphone SG. It is a white one with a set neck. That means the neck is glued and not bolted to the body of the guitar. It is also different in that there is a cut out in the body for the wood to slide into as opposed to a neck that just flatly bolts on like a stratocaster. There is a distinctly different sound. In the old days, Epiphones and Gibsons were made at the same factory and I have heard that in some cases, the only difference is the label. Nowadays, The epiphones are the import models that are made to specs in this case in China. I know I could go and spend about 800 or a thousand dollars more and get an official Gibson but this one sounds just fine to me so until I can afford one of those I will stay content with this one. Besides I like the guitar. Blue Flash was in excellent form and Marty J was looking like he was doing well. They have a new drummer that I don't know but he is very good. I started out the second set with the band and played 3 songs. Then a guy named Leonard Low Down Brown came up and played for a while then back to the Blue Flash lin-up with greg, ron, and Marty. I really enjoy listening to live music so it was a good night for me.

Tonight I decided to mow the back yard before it got too dark. I took a look at garden number 2 and there was a ripe canteloupe just sitting there. It was in the garden but it wasn't hooked onto a vine. I guess when they get ripe they just come loose. I also wondered if maybe someone hadn't gone to the grocery store as part of some elaborate hoax but this don't look like no grocery store cantaloupe. Maybe I will take a picture of it and add it later. I also found another squash. I was glad to see it since I thought I had harvested the last of the yellow squash. Over in Garden number one I found there were quite a few ripe cherrytomatoes and some more cucumbers alos. I also found one cucumber that I had missed and it is huge. I just decided to leave it and maybe see if it gets bigger. It is too big to eat now anyway. I am going to use it to see if the seeds from it can be used next year.

After all that I decied to click around the TV and got caught up watching one of those "48 hours mysteries" about a dude who was appealing his conviction. I don't want to ruin the ending but he was not guilty. After that I clicked over to PBS to see who was on Austin City Limits and it was Carolyn Wonderland. I had missed the original broadcast so I fired up the DVR. The first half of the show was Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. I had never seen Sharon before (pictured above left) but she is very entertaining. Carolyn is orignally from Houston and she has grown from being Houston's favorite to becoming a Texas favorite and now she is even bigger than that. I first became aware of her from seeing her at the Shakespeare Pub Blues Jams from time to time back about 8 to 5 years back. She would stop by ocasionally and it was always a memorable event for me. The first time I saw her play I was an instant fan. The times I saw her at the Shakespear Pub she mostly played blues. She is a hell of a blues Singer and guitar player both. One time I had my amp on the stage at the blues jam and when it was her turn she plugged into it. It is the same amp that Little Joe Washington and Ozell have played through also. Little Joe and Ozell have both played my gutiar also. Little Joe always was borring guitars and one time Ozell was there getting ready to play after me and since I was all set up I just handed him my guitar and he took over. It made me realize tha my rig at the time was just fine. He was a hell of a player and I realized I needed to focus on playing and not buying new amps. The amp I am talking about is a 70s Silverface Twin Reverb (fender) that I bought at a pawn shop sometime around 1994 or thereabouts. I now usually play through a blues Junior since the Twin Reverb it a 100 watt amp and it is pretty loud and heavier to carry. But back to Carolyn Wonderland. She did a short interview after the show and did talk about being from Houston which was cool since alot of people in Houston are proud she is from around here. It was also very relaxing to get to watch some good music in my own living room. It was one of the best Austin City Limits episodes in a long time.

dropping names & false claims

I never liked it when people who play music list all the people that they have "shared the stage" with. It is even worse when the person they "shared the stage" with has passed on. So what? Does that mean that person endoreses your music?

This past weekend I had a few days off so I decided to get out and about and see some live music. My friend Greg from the blue flash band was hired to play with a band Saturday night at the Last Concert Cafe which is basially an outdoors venue. The place has been around for a long time and is located on the outskirts of downtown Houston on nance street. There is a mexican restaurant and then a large outdoor area with sand, hoola hoops, picnic tables and a nice stage and sound system.

After I happened onto a really good parking space, I parked and entered the establishment and paid the cover charge. As I walked in I saw a guy that I recongnized named Mark May. He is a local guitar player that auditioned with the Allman brothers and also toured with them as an opening act. He doesn't know me so when he walked by I didn't bother him. The entrance takes you straight to the bar which is indoors along with some restaruant tables. I then went on "in" to the outside patio area and found my friends that I was meeting up there. They were sitting at a table and I went around and greeted everyone. There was also a lady that I didn't recognize so I introduced myself and told her my name was Marc. She said it is so nice to meet you and she gave me a hug. I was looking at my friends while she gave me the hug and I am sure I had a puzzled look on my face. She then asked me if I was going to play "call on the blues" so then I knew she thought I was Mark May. I told her that I was a different "Mark" and it didn't seem to upset her too much.

Later on I saw Mark May sitting at a table so I walked on over and asked him if Paul Ramirez was there. He is a guitar player that I know from several years back when he was in the 420 band. They hosted Jam sessions and also hung out at some of the blues jams. Mark told me that Paul was not there and I told him the story about the lady hugging me and told him that I know what it is like to be Rock Star. It turned out that the lady was there with her husband who was the sound man and knew Mark May was going to be there but I left that out to make the story sound better. After that I left Mark May alone. He doesn't know me and I didn't want to bother him. He was there to sit in with the band greg (from blue flash) was playing with and when he did play, He just plugged in and it seemed like he was already warmed up. I didn't reallyl stay all that long because I didn't want to be driving when the bars closed and the drunks were out so I headed on home about about midnight.


On Sunday I still had some energy left so I headed over the Sunday night blues jam at the Shakespear Pub. I got there early so I could catch the house band. They started at about 9. There was a guy named John McVey sitting in. He plays gigs there and is a club favorite. He is an Austin Blues player that moved to houston and is a local favorite who is very good. The band sounded great but the crowd was kind of small being that it was the end of a 3 day weekend. There were no other "jammers" there so I signed the jam list. I was the first "jammer" so I played after the house band. I have seen John McVey play several times and met him before but he meets alot of fans so I assumed he wouldn't have a clue who I was. He left his guitar and amp on the stage so I said hello to him and told him that he was welcome to sit in on my set if he wanted to. It was me, Spare Time Murray on bass, And Dave Corbett on drums. Both from the house band and a solid blues rhythm section. I played my first tune and there were about 5 or 6 poeple in the bar and John McVey came on up and plugged back in. He sat in for a couple of songs and it was very cool. I told him afterwards that I really appreciated it and I think could tell I was sincere. I also jokingly told him that I was going to call the newspaper and update my website and say that I "shared the stage" with John McVey.

I don't know the moral of the story. Maybe I just wanted to let you know how humble and honest I am. The truth is that if you like live blues you will probably enjoy catching a love show with either Mark May or John McVey. Mark May is a little more rock oriented but he can play the blues and will not let you down. John McVey is usually described as Texas Blues and a favorite of mine.

Now I think it is time for a nap.

Nite nite.

People for the ethical treatment of salads

I was in HEB, my favorite local grocery store, on Friday. It was crowded because everybody was buying stuff for the holiday weekend. I decided that since it has been so hot for so many days straight that I didn't feel like cooking outdoors and went with a plan to do fried chicken. I bought some drumsticks and chicken breasts and also some cooking oil. Last time I fried chicken I used corn oil because of the temperature chart on the back of the container. It really didn't come out all that great and I do think the oil was the reason. It wasn't bad, just not great. This time I went with Wesson "best blend" which was on sale for 2.49 for a large bottle. I was on the same aisle looking for the best type of flour. They had some mixes for frying chicken but I don't like those since they all have loads of sodium. I went ahead and got some store brand all purpose flour. The flour I had been using is labled "bread" flour. I was still looking around and a dude came shopping along who works at the store but was off duty. He is the guy who works a in the area between produce and the meat and fish sections. He will cook free samples and then promote a special using those samples. I generally don't eat the free samples but I have watched several of his presentations and he seems to know how to cook. I said hello and told him I recognized him from his job and then asked him if he could give me any tips on what to use to fry chicken. He said the flour I selected was the best way to go but he said a good trick was to put the spices on the chicken itself before you put it in the flour. He said to use an "egg wash" and I didn't question him at the time but I assumed he was talking about milk and egg. I prepared the chicken the way he said but I wasn't sure if I should have put the spices on first and then dipped it in the milk and egg or aftarwards. I decided to dip it first, then the spices, then the flour. Usually I haven't been using milk and eggs but just washing the chicken in water and then going straight to the spiced flour. I also used two skillets to cut the cooking time. It did come out well and I will probably do it pretty much the same way next time. I might try some with out the milk and egg just to compare. I might also try double dipping to see how that comes out also.


The salad in the picture above is all from the Garden. I had hoped to be able to eat a 100% actual garden salad and some tomatoes did ripen up in time so I had the cucumbers, leaf lettuce and tomatoes. I ended up cutting the cherry tomatoes in half and using a balsamic vinegarette dressing. I am a humble person but it was very good. We had a little cold fried chicken, a good sized salad, and some bread I bought HEB in the bakery section. If you are jealous of me right now it probably won't be a sin.

Hey PETA, What about misquitos?

First of all, If you are from my Homeowners Association, My front yard looks fine. I just have had a bout with allergies and am holding off on mowing the back until I get past that.

Above are some pictures I took today. I am starting to get some watermellons. As you can see in relation to the blades of grass, they are pretty small right now but I am still excited about the thought of fresh watermelons. I am going to keep my fingers crossed.

I had planted some additional green bean plants and harvested some today along with the squash. I am planning on cooking them in the same pan with garlic and onions. I think the beans will take a little more cooking so I will add the squash last.

Also, You can see that the tomato plants have gotten pretty big and there are starting to fruit also but nothing has turned red yet.

If I do plant again next year, I am going to plant everything that worked this year and try some new stuff also. I will also pay more attention to the spacing and location of plants. I will do the lettuce again but only in pots since that is where I am having the best luck. I tried transplanting some from the garden into pots yesterday and I am hoping that they will take.

There was a misquito biting me on my leg today and I swatted it. I know PETA got mad at President Obama for killing the fly but I hope they cut me some slack since the misquito bit me first. It was self defense so I hope they don't picket in front of my house. If they do maybe I can bribe them with fresh fruits and vegetables.

I won't tell them about the chicken that I am thawing out. It was already dead when I put it in the freezer but I don't think they will approve. I am going to use the large stainless steel skillet and cook the chicken on top of brown rice with spices, chopped onions, garlic, and whatever else I find in to throw in there. Maybe some carrots but I am not sure. I think I have told you enough about that so don't ask me any more questions.

Gday Mates!

The Bad Guys Win

The Lakers are a good team and Kobe is a very good player but I still don't care for em. I liked Shaq but he was humble. I think it takes a certain amount of humility to be as good as Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan. Sure there has to be natural talent and a huge competetive drive. Kobe has both of those. He is a pure shooter and he can also drive to the hoop and on top of that he is an excellent defensive player. I still would not consider him the number one pick for my team and I wouldn't hire Phil Jackson either. Congratulations Assholes. You too Jack Nicholson. Good for you. You goofy bastard.

Ive fallen and and I cant get up

I thought I was all ready for the switchover from anolog to digital. I had even passed the test when they did it on the news. They said if you can see the broadcast now you are ready. I had sent off for the coupon for the converter box but since I passed the test, I did not buy one. I think I even posted about that here. When the official switch happened the o ther day I could still get a few channels but about half of them would not come through. I guess I was getting the channels that were being transmitted in digital but not high definition.


I had several choices. One is to get cable TV or buy a new TV or maybe buy a DVD recorder that would convert the signal, Or do what I did and just head over to my friendly Neighborhood Walmart and buy a converter box. It took me a while to get over the fact that my coupons had expired and I didn't want to wait on the federal government so I just paid full price which is about $49.

I felt kind of embarrased walking through the store with the Converter box. I was worried that someone would see me and I would have to explain that I don't have cable TV or an up to date TV. I did make it out of the store safely and I got everything all hooked up and I am able to use my existing DVR which is set up to take in an analog signal.

Garden Salad Surgery

The Squash in the picture (above) is about ready to harvest. I planted two varieties and this one is called "Early Golden Crookneck. There are some of the other variety, "Early Summer Straigtneck" that are growing also.

Overall the garden is getting tangled and I need to do some work. I put the metal posts in last week but the plants are not gravitating towards them so I guess I will actually have to do some work. The Tomatoes need some support now so I am probably going to have to figure something out.

Hopefully I will get a chance to work on it tomorrow but today I was to lazy, I mean busy.

Oh yeah, The lettuce in the containers seems to do a little better than the ones in the ground but I will have to wait and see. No sign of any cucumbers or tomatoes yet. I was hoping to make a salad. We will see how it goes.

Nice People don't tell kids about Santa Clause

Speaking of "Nice People", Today I was getting off the freeway and needed to get over 3 lanes to take a right turn and there was a lady who actually slowed down and let me over. I know it is the law to yield to vehicles coming off the freeway but it isn't something that drivers in Houston usually do. Thanks Lady.

The other night I was clicking around on the Color TV set and there wasn't much on and I got stuck watching a show I don't even like. I don't like the idea of giving away magic tricks. It is much more entertaining to watch the trick and be mystified.

On this particlular episode they kept doing teasers showing how to make a street car vanish before your eyes. When they finally got to the end of the show and showed how it was done, They showed the trick and then went into the part of how it is done. The announcer for the show then says that this trick can only be done on TV and it only works becuase they point the camera at the front of the curtain over the bus while they drive the bus off of the set out of the camera's view. What a lame show.

I haven't had time to really work in the Garden too much lately but I am surprised to see that the lettuce is coming back and the spinich is now pretty much wiped out. Everything else is growing fine and at a pretty good pace. I am not seeing any squash or tomatoes yet but the plants seem to be growing pretty well. I will have to add some stakes pretty soon and I will probably plant (or transplant) something else where the spinache was unless it comes back. I don't know anything about growing spinnach or lettuce but I do like the idea of being able to make a real garden salad.

Harvest & Tamales

First of all, Happy Mothers Day and to all the rest of you I will say Happy Others Day.

I was watering the garden the other day and I noticed that those little things that were hanging from the Bean plants were actually green beans. I took a look at the seed package today and it said to pick early and often to promote growth so I harvested the green beans pictured above and also planted a few more seeds since the instructions on the seed package said to plant more every couple of weeks.

The Picture above is from Garden#2 which is the watermelons, squash and Cantalope. The taller plants are the Squash and It looks like I will have to figure out how to keep them from covering up the other plants. I did take some shots of the other garden but it wasn't in my camera when I uploaded so I don't know what happened.

The harvest was not huge but it worked out just fine since I had some tamales that my Aunt Lou had sent via my mom from California. She makes the best tamales I have ever tasted. I also had cooked some chicken and vegetables in the Crock Pot the other night so it worked out great.

I cooked them in Olive Oil with Garlic and as you can see from the photo, plenty of onion.

What else do you need to know?

Oh yeah, It was good to see the Houston Rockets beat the Lakers even though Yao Ming was out. The Lakers are definitely a good team but the seem sort of un-humble to me and I guess that is why it make the game more fun to watch. I will admit that if Kobe was a Houston Rocket, I would probably have no problem with his attitude.

I will get back soon with a report on the missing garden photos and I do apologize to keep you waiting. I know how important it is to you and I hope it doesn't cause you too much grief.

Good Night.

Plight and Fight

First the Plight. As you may have heard on the news, we had some more rain yesterday and it caused some flooding to the point that several local school districts cancelled class. It wasn't a problem for my commute but the underpass at I-10 and the west belt. That area always floods but this time it was bad enough for news crews to show up and also for people driving by on the freeway to act like idiots and pull over and act like it was a big party.

It wasn't much of a problem for Garden #2 which has the melons and squash but Garden Number one got hit pretty hard. The Spinach and Lettuce that were starting to come back got pretty much obliterated and the peas were hit pretty hard also. The mounds of dirt I had created pretty much all got flattened out and quite a few roots were exposed on the tomato and cucumber plants. Still, It looks like it will probably come back if we can get a break from the heavy rains. I will just have to wait and see.

Today, K-Love, one of my co-workers and friends, decided to head over to Sams Diner to get a Hamburger. As we drove up the feeder street to the turn-around/underpass, I noticed one of the local hobo street people walking across the street. There was a guy on the right side of the street who had a cardboard sign and was working the traffic. There are about 8 or 10 lcal hobos in this area. They all pretty much look like homelesss people and I had never thought about the fact that they all happened to be white but the New Dude that was working the corner on the right was a black guy. The white guy had long hair and a beard and walked up to the Black guy and it was pretty obvious that he was being aggressive. He started raising his hands and trying to intimitdate the black dude. It was pretty clear that he was telling him to get off the corner. He raised his hands a few time and made some agressive type motions but did not touch the new guy. The new guy then kind of repositioned his stance, threw a fake with his left and then came across with a Right and the white street guy was on the ground. It wasn't a true knock-down as far as official scoring. He did hit him but the guy also tripped backwards and did catch his fall with his hands and came back up. He backed away a good distance and continued with the verbal assault so the new guy walked on towards him and at that point horns were honking and we had to move on. Off to the left a group of the local orignals had come out from under the underpass and were just watching thier friend get his ass kicked.

We then took the U-Turn and came around to the other side of the freeway and I see all kinds of flashing lights and vehicles about a quarter mile down the road. There were news crews and also many curious bystanders. It was the location where a 43 year old hispanic man accidentally turned right into the cement drainage culvert which is pretty deep. Apparantly it was flooded and he thought he was turning onto the street but instead ended up in the water. They found his body today and you can read about it in the news. It is really sad to think about how out of the blue, this guys life was just over.


After we ate and were headed back to the office, I asked K-Love if he wanted to drive by and have a look to see if the black dude was still there with his cardboard sign. He actually was very positive about the idea so we drove on. It turned out he was still there and we pulled up and K-Love handed him a couple of bucks and let him know it was for the right hook. It was a pretty clear that the other poeple were being fairly nasty to him and it was good to see that he stood his ground.

That is all for now.

Please get some sleep. It is good for your health.

a total crock!

First of all, there is on first of all. I am just typing this in here to feed your obsession to know every little thing about me.

Yesterday I was at HEB, my favorite neighborhood grocery store, checking to see what they had on special that I could barbeque. They usually have something so I try to go with the flow. This week they had pot roast. It looked like a good deal but I didn't really have a good pot to cook it in. I decided that I would just pass on the bbq idea for this weekend and didn't really give it much though.

Fast forward to the checkout counter at JC Penny out on 99 on the way home from Red Lobster. The guy was so excited. When I told hime that we had never had a Crock Pot before he said "You are going to love it". I told him that I was going to stop on the way home and buy a potroast. He seemed to get even more excited. He said I had to stab it with a knife and put garlic cloves in it and then cook it in a bottle of wine. We got the cooker becuase it was a good deal; Only $19.95 after mail in rebate. Don't get me started on mail in rebates. Besides it makes me feel like I got a better deal to assume I will get the $10 check in the mail some day in the futre.

Well of course I drove staight to HEB and bought the pot roast and a bottle of wine. I cut up some potatoes, carrots, celery, and onions. I put the roast and everything else including a half a bottle of wine in the Crock Pot and set it on low and went to bed.

It was just like a scene in the movies. You know when the life boat scene where they are in a raging storm in the dark of night and it looks hopeless but then they all wake up the next morning in a calm sea. It was just like that except that instead of a life boat, It is a crock pot and instead of the the calming of the sea, it is a cooked pot roast.

Pot Roast! Its what for breakfast!

Now you want to know about the garden. Forget about it. Too much information at one time will cause you to have an overload. Please calm down.

The elements

Howdy,

I know you are here because you are excited to know how the garden is doing. I feel you but I have to talk about somethingelse first.

As my regular blog reader(s) will already know, I made resolution to get caught up with the current century. So yesterday, I broke down and bought an MP3 Player. A friend from work had told me that I could get one for $25 so I got excited about it and decided to make the purchase.

The problem I ran into was that when I went into Best Buy, They didn't have anything for $25 and the sales staff were not that friendly so I left and went to WalMart. When I asked one Best Buy associate where the MP3 players were, He told me "under the MP3 Sign" and pointed. Best Buy seems to have a knucklehead customer service approach.

Fast forward to Walmart eletronics department. No service but at least nobody was a smart ass.

I first chose a 2 GB MP3 player that was $35 made by RCA. I chose it because has the capablity for expanding the memory. After I bought it, I realized that it required AAA bateries and I didn't want to have to fool with that so I found one made by Phillips with 4GB memory but not expandable. This one has a built in rechargable battery and also runs videos. I really don't plan to use the video player but maybe it will come in handy one day if I am ever marketing the one man band to a venue owner or something like that. It also has FM radio and uses the headphones as the antenna. I spent a little time loading some CDs on it and listening to it and I do like it.

I did enjoy sitting in the back yard this afternoon and listening to probably the best version ever of America the Beatiful. It features John Campbell on Slide guitar and Odetta on Vocals with Doctor John on Piano. What an awesome recording.

The good news with the Garden is that all the seeds have sprouted. The bad news is that the Lettuce, which had sprouted nicely , seemed to have taken a real beating with the recent wave of thunderstorms and heavy rain. We needed the rain and I was thinking it wasn't going to be a problem but the lettuce spouts seem to be very fragile. I had trouble trying to transplant them and I am going to wait and see if I have a few that survived.

The summer squash in that is in garden#2 is coming in pretty fast so I placed a couple of plants in containers also and will have to thin it out pretty quick.

That's all for today.

back yard almanac

Above is a picture from today of garden#1. Everything has sprouted except the squash that would be in the closest row. The bigger ones are green beans and the three rows this side of the beans are tomatoes. Then the next two closer rows are cucumbers. The row to the left of the beans and near the owl is peas. On the other side of the beans, there are a couple of short rows lettuce and spinach.

The one above that is Garden#2 which is all sprouted also. I planted a different variety of squash and those are the ones with the biggest leaves. The closer row has cantaloupes and the back two are water melons. Please don't send any cards or letters. I already know there is not enough space but I am wanting to experiment with it just in case society goes to chaos and I only have a small patch of ground to work with and just happen to have a good supply of seeds.

The plants in the pots are all from the garen sprouts. The hardest ones to transplant are the lettuce since they are so fragile. If they don't take, I still have plenty more thinning to do and will try when they are bigger.

Rock On.

real life better than Sienfield

Greetings my fellow Sodbusters.

I was out at the garden implements section of my local walmart yesterday and went out to look at the potting soil and noticed that people were driving awfully close by. For some reason people drive through the side of he Walmart parking lot like there are not going to be pedestrians but this was worse than normal. I was focused on the potting mix and garden soil so much that I hadn't noticed two vehicles that were directly behind me that were sitting face to face with each other about 2 feet apart. I then noticed 3 walmart employees standing on the side walk and the top boss of them all (somehow it was obvious) came up to the guy leaning on the back one of the vehicles which was a pickup truck.

The manager lady walked up to him and asked if she could help him. He told her that they had a "situatoin". At this point I was only pretending to look at the potting soil and was as focused on the "situation" as I could be with out looking obivious.

It turns out that the guy in the truck had pulled over to go around someone or for someother reason was driving on the "wrong" side of the parking lot lane and he had come face to face with a lady in a car who wanted him to get out of the way. I didn't get to see the initial face off but I would imagine that the walmart people reviewed on tape.

As far as the guy with the truck, He was a black dude about 40 to fifty years old and the expression on his face when the manager walked up was what reminded me of the sienfeld episode. There was a scene where George was parking his car on the street below Jerry's apartment and another guy was backing in at the same time. George and the other guy both had thier cars angled in about halfway into the spot.

The difference between the Walmart scene and sienfield was that Goerge and this other guy were actually trying to get a tangable thing, the parking space. I know it is tough to find parking in NY City. But back here at the Walmart, They really had a dispute about nothing. It was only about being right and both were stubborn enough to take a halt from thier rest of thier lives to get this dispute resolved to thier own best interest.

The manager lady did show me why it is she is a manager. She made a smart decision to not go in and tell anybody to do anything. She actually told the guy that he was welcome to keep his car parked there as long as he wanted to. She then walked over the the lady in the car. She younger than the guy. Maybe 30 and was in a small car. The lady in the car was getting into the specifics of who was right and how the guy was on the wrong side of the lane and so forth and the manager lady at the end told her that it was with in her (car ladys) power to resolve the situation and she did not need any help from her (manager lady).

What was smart was that the Manager Lady did not paint herself into a corner. She did not make the situation worse by trying to express that she was in authority and then tell anybody to actually do anything. She avoided confrontation.

She then went back over to the dude in the truck and spoke to him some more and then she walked back into the store. As she was walking, he got in his truck and pulled around.

Good Job Walmart Manager Lady.


Now back to my exciting gardening news. Please keep in mind this is not as bad as posting about being on a diet. I know the difference between boring and rude thank you.

I did purchase 5 small plastic pots and some potting mix. I also mixed in some Miracle Grow Garden soil. I know you re not supposed to used the topsoil as potting mix but the Miracle grow potting mix was too expensive. I just bought the walmart version of some miacle grow plant food to add later.

I did fill three of the pots and put some of the excess cherry tomato plants from the garden. I needed to thin the cherry tomatos anyway since it looks like just about all the seeds sprouted. I also bought a package of seeds for garlic flavored chives and will probably plant those in a pot today.

In other exciting news, The lettuce I planted last week sprouted a couple of days ago and this morning I saw that the spinnach and peas have started to sprout also. Nothing yet with the squash, watermellon, or cantalope seeds.

My plan at this point is to put some of the spinach and lettuce in pots also becuase they will need some seriouls thinning out and more space than what is currently allocated the garden.

It is kind of exciting to see the seeds coming up.

I did have a run in with the elements already. Mt neighbors Cat came around and dug up a spot and killed a couple of the cucumber plants but he did actually help by adding some fertilizer.

I decided to get seme plastic drinking water bottles (individual size) and place them in the valleys between the rows. I figured it would make the cat less comfortable walking around and digging. It has seemed to work so far.

Then this morning we had some heavy rains for about half an hour. They have passed through and it looks like nothing washed out. It does make me think about how it was for the people in the old days who were farmng becuase they had to. I can also see why that country people are more likley to shoot a critter woutout thinking twice.

I have a plastic owl that I bought a while back and I placed it on the ground next to the garden. I know that is not going to be enough and when the time comes I have already decided to make a couple of scare crows. I may not know what I am doing but I can promise you that I am not fooling around. Go ahead and look over my fence and laugh at my scarecrows. It isn't going to deter me one iota. I am not going to move my car!


That is it for now but we will be back soon with more exciting details.

Farming on the Katy Prairie

Hey Farmhands and Buckaroos. I just saw a Burger King Commerical about square butts. I don't get how that will sell whoppers but maybe it is another clue that I am getting old.

Here is a breakdown:

I have a AAA membership. I bought it when I was doing the one man band gigs and driving to Galveston every Sunday. I got the extra coverage that covers towing up to 100 miles.

I have two Chihuahuas. A sure sign of old age. Still, They are cool dogs.

I now enjoy Gardening.

I want an RV.

I guess all that is left is to start eating dinner at 4pm to miss the dinner rush.

Now back the the Garden. As you can see from the picture it was not very big so I expanded it and also dug up another area on the other side of the yard. I will take some pictures and post them here if I think about it. I know it isn't exciting to see a small garden planted by someone who knows very little about gardening but what are you gonna do?

In Garden Area #1 I added more space and planted more seeds; Spinach, Lettuce, Peas to go along with the Cucumbers, tomatos, and green beans.

In Garden Area #2 I planted 2 varieties of Watermelon, Cantalopes, and some more summer squash but a different variety than in garden#1.

Like I said, I don't know what I am doing. I just bought 3 more bags of the Miracle Grow garden soil and mixed it in with the existing topsoil. My plan was to plant several different things and just see which ones grow well.

I already know that I did not properly plan the garden and there is not near enough space so I will have to do some thinning out and maybe transplant some of the plants to buckets or something.

In other news:

I got a new guitar. I know I had posted sometime back that I was looking at the Epiphone Casino and was plannng to buy it at Fullers Vintage Guitars. I still want the Casino but I decided I would actually get more use of of a new acoustic.

I picked up a Talor 210E (one, not mine, is pictured above) It is an awfully nice sounding guitar that plays well and I am really enjoying it.

I went to Guitar Center first and was planning to go to Fullers but I had a 10% off coupon and the guitar did come with a case also so I bought it. The one thing I started thinking about is that this particular Guitar Center is where I go when I am buying Strings, Harmonicas, tubes, and other misc items and the people at the accessory counter have taken good care of me & I felt like that was worth something & I actually took a moment to go over and tell them why I made my guitar purchase there without shopping around anymore.

Thanks for checking in. Keep the cards and letters coming in, and I will try to hold up my end of the bargain with some truly fascinating garden photos in the not too distant future.

Happy Gardening to all and to all a good night!

Garden variety garden

Hi,

I took the time this weekend to go ahead and dig up a small garden in the back yard. It isn't real big but I planted seeds for Cherry Tomatoes, Tomato Tomatoes, Two varieties of Cucumbers and some green beans. I am not sure about the beens but I thought I would give em a try. I wanted to plant some yellow squash but it isn't time yet. I guess that is why they call them summer squash.

I dug up the ground with the same shovel that my dad, Kent Twyman, used to plant trees in our yard with when he first bought our family home here in Houston about 48 Years ago.

I am not sure how this garden is going to work since I don't really have that much experience with vegetable gardens. I bought a couple of bags of miracle grow garden soil and mixed it in and I am hoping it works as good as in the commercials. I did follow the directions on the seed packets and I am hoping that is all it will take.

If I am lucky enough to get something to grow, there are quite a few birds, squirrels, Possums, and other creatures that I think I will have to contend with. I am thinking that I will have to make a chicken wire cover to keep the birds out since we have quite a few birds due to some large shrubs in my yard and also the fact that my neigbors put out bird food.

That is all for now but I will check back in the future.

Thanks