sniper shovel

Good Evening.

Today I planted a few shrubs. The Houston Garden Center over on the Katy Freeway is where I usually buy shrubs & stuff like that. Usually, the fall is the best time to buy but the have sales going on right now since it is so hot in Houston right now. It really is too. Yesterday, while I was looking around and picking out some shrubs, I was about ready to get back in the Air Conditioning and do it another time but my perserverence perservered.

I was walking around and I ran into the dude over there who gives out advice on what to buy. He either really knows what he is talking about or he is a very good bullshitter. He always answers with confidence and makes a solid purchase suggestion. I told him I had bought some red tip photenias over there about 15 years ago and at that time they were supposed to be very easy to take care of. Since that time they have become less hearty and succeptable to blight or fungus or whatever it is that makes them die so fast. He pointed me out to some "silver" (in the sunlight) looking shrubs and I picked of three of them and then went over to Walmart and bought three bags of scotts top soil (.75 cubic liter). Walmart is cheaper for stuff like that.

I had left the shrubs and bags of topsoil on my driveway and today I carted them around to the back yard. My plan was to work in stages to keep from getting too hot but I didn't expect to be coming inside after just moving the shrubs to the backyard. I had my straw hat and a towel over my head so I looked like a landscaper and I brought some water outside and tried to stay in the shade as much as possible. I also brougth two shovels, one regular looking shovel made for digging and one that my dad, Kent Twyman, had used to plant trees and shrubs in our family home back in the 1960s. We had nine kids in the family and Kent wanted us to have trees to climb in so he planted fast growing trees. He knew trees and plants pretty well and I am sure he would have preferred to have Oaks and other trees like that but he planted quite a few chinese tallow trees. When I was a kid, there were plenty of trees to climb and we did spend a fair amout of time in the trees and shooting china berries with our slingshots. Many of them are already gone but they served the purpose and Kent was happy that his kids had trees to climb. There was one tree that was right outside the kitchen sink window that had a natural "crows nest" and I used to climb up there and watch the fireworks going off at astroworld at 10pm. It was a pretty good distance away but I could see them pretty well. Even as a young teenager, it was nice to have a place to "hang out" at night. It was very peaceful to be up in a tree but you had to stay alert. I never did have a fall. My dad had convinced me at a young age that I was a good tree climber and now that I am older, I realize that he was just giving me confidence but since I had so much practice, I did turn out to be a pretty good tree climber after all.

Well, back to today. I dug the holes, put some topsoil in, and then finished planting the shrubs. The "sharpshooter" shovel that my dad used to use made the job much easier. It is a little bit worn but still cuts right through roots & such and does a fabulous job.

After that, I spent the rest of the day in the AC, made some noodles and I took a nap. I had some dreams but if you want to know the contents of all my dreams too, that is going to far. I told you about my dinner, my shrubs and my childhood of climbing trees. Seems like you should be satisfied with that.

OK, I will tell you how I made the noodles but that is it. I just used some elbow macaroni and boiled them with a little olive oil. As far as the sauce, I didn't start from scratch but it was still pretty good. I used a jar of "Classico" sauce with "mushrooms and ripe olives". I also added a can of diced tomatoes (salt free). In a separate pan I put about 4 large cloves of chopped garlic and about half an onion, chopped up also. I then threw some hamburger meat in with the onions and garlic and put a little bit of garlic powder, black pepper, oionion powder with parsley, and some other spice but I don't remember which one. Once the meat was cooked, I drained off the fat and dumped it in the large skillet with the sauce and diced tomatoes and left it on simmer for about an hour. That is the trick if you use store bought spagetti sauce, You gotta cook the acidity or whatever it is out of it that makes it taste like it does if you don't cook it for a while. I also put some parmesan cheese in with the sauce to cheat a little bit and that was it.

See, this is really too much information. You are creeping me out again and I have to go.

Bye.