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Thursday, 17 February 2011 00:10 |
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by Bob Smith
Hi there.
I think we live in a wonderful country, under a good system of government - of the people, by the people, and for the people, and I think it has been successful and powerful for years. The way we live has changed dramatically since our country was founded, and today life is much more comfortable for nearly everyone, and people from many countries would like to move here.
A Social Security system was proposed in the early 1900’s, and was defeated. The big depression of the 30’s renewed interest in some sort of economic stability, Social Security, to help disabled and aged citizens financially with a fund built by contributions from all employed citizens - which first was proposed to the country in the early 1900’s, but rejected - evolved, and has served us well since. In the 40’s, federal entitlement programs were started to help other groups needing financial help, and have benefitted many people, and been considered a waste of ‘our money’ by many others.
I have a very good friend who has given me many western paperback books, some of which we will continue to enjoy reading before we donate them to the Veterans Administration Hospital in Fort Wayne. He recently gave me some historical hardcovered books about the Civil War, and some about early American ranching.
The Native Indians weren’t happy when European strangers with guns started driving them from their hunting grounds and home gardens, but the guns won over the bows and arrows - then the captors didn’t know what to do with the captive Indians, so they established ‘reservations’ for them.
In 1780 our government decided they needed to help the Indians out, so each Indian family was issued 730 pounds of beef each fall, to help them survive the winter on the reservation. I wasn’t there, but I imagine the larger ranchers provided the cattle that were driven together, slaughtered, and the Indians collected their winter issue of beef. I am sure the Indians appreciated receiving the food on the reservation they had been driven into, and the ranchers appreciated getting what they considered a fair price for their cattle, and I don’t know who paid funds into the politicians that proposed and passed that progress.
I, personally, receive Social Security benefits, because I am old, and paid into the system while I worked, and still pay into the fund from my investments, my income during my earning years, and my Social Security payments, and payments as a disabled veteran. I am extremely happy the stock market has recovered as well as it has, and I am very glad I am not again young, married, - with a family of children, needing their education to have their own family – and having lost my job because of the recession.
A lot of our successful future depends on our government, and I will pray for their success, try to understand what they are proposing, and really try to not blame them for the increased cost of fuel, the cold weather, snow in my driveway, or my own mistakes and shortcomings. Whether republican or democratic, I think our politicians are elected based on we voter’s knowledge of their ability, and they are really trying to please us. . . . good voting, and - good gardening
by Bob Smith Hi there. I think we live in a wonderful country, under a good system of government - of the people, by the people, and for the people, and I think it has been successful and powerful for years. The way we live has changed dramatically since our country was founded, and today life is much more comfortable for nearly everyone, and people from many countries would like to move here.
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Thursday, 10 February 2011 16:42 |
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by Bob Smith
Hi there.
If you are like me, you haven’t yet gotten all the little jobs you didn’t find time to do, but planned to do when time became available. Well, there isn’t a whole lot of gardening things to do now as winter decides to get ready to leave in anticipation of another growing season, but the temperature will be warming up soon, the snow and ice will gradually disappear. When the soil is softer, and it is easier to dig into it, what a wonderful time for us to collect soil samples from our lawn and garden areas, and prepare them for analysis.
Many garden centers and farm service providers offer soil analysis, often spending their money to get your soil tested, hoping you will buy whatever nutrients and chemicals your gardens and lawns need. And every county has a County Extension Office, a good source for information about everything you grow, and for a fee, they will send your soil sample to a soils lab, and you will be mailed the resulting changes in your soil treatments needed to give you healthier plants.
I believe in testing my soils periodically – some nutrients may be needed every year, some will be leached out of your soil by rainfall over time, and sometimes, if you want to make your soil grow different crops, some other nutrients may be needed – and without repeated testing, we don’t know what nutrients have been used up, and need replacing in the future.
You will learn what amount of organic matter your soil now contains, and what the pH of each of your soil samples are. I test the soil in our vegetable garden area, fruit tree area, major flower gardens, and major lawn areas. Our good farmers have a G.P.S. system that receives soil test results, and fertilizer spreaders, also linked to the G.P.S. system, and as they sit in their air- conditioned expensive tractors, the wonderful G.P.S. system directs the fertilizer spreader to dispense the needed nutrients to each area of the field as they maneuver over it.
That system has a very expensive price tag to start, but the successful users are pleased with the resulting increased crop yields, and continue to expand its use. We gardeners are nearly as well served by gathering a few cupfuls of soil, three to six inches below the soil surface, taken from a few points in each area we would like to have serve us better.
I think it is good to NOW make a map of the areas we want tested, then draw an x where we take a sample, write the date, file it where it can be located in the future to note what and when we did something as a result of the test, then note any change in production we notice. I plan to test my garden and lawns every three years (often it takes me four or five years to think about it again!) and I believe it’s a good practice. Some of our gardening neighbors all seem to have some better crops than we do, but we believe ours are better than before we tested – and we all believe that next year’s gardens will be better than ever!
All this snow will help our 2011 crops, and I am extremely pleased by the quick road-snow plowing, and no interruption of electricity! We stayed WARM! And - got caught up on recorded TV stuff and fresh homemade popcorn! ! ! ! good gardening by Bob Smith Hi there. If you are like me, you haven’t yet gotten all the little jobs you didn’t find time to do, but planned to do when time became available. Well, there isn’t a whole lot of gardening things to do now as winter decides to get ready to leave in anticipation of another growing season, but the temperature will be warming up soon, the snow and ice will gradually disappear. When the soil is softer, and it is easier to dig into it, what a wonderful time for us to collect soil samples from our lawn and garden areas, and prepare them for analysis.
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Thursday, 27 January 2011 16:32 |
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by Bob Smith
Hi there,
You may, after last week, be a believer in “Black Ice.” I drove my North American Van Lines tractor trailer on “black ice” while climbing a mountain in Utah in midwinter, years ago. Black ice occurs when it rains while the temperature rapidly drops to below freezing, and it is invisible on macadam roads (or almost any roads, nowadays!) My co-driver was asleep in the sleeper, and when the truck stopped, asked “What happened? Why are we in the ditch?” I had no excuse! When the Utah State Trooper arrived, he skidded into the same ditch when he tried to stop at the scene. I wasn’t given a ticket, but my tractor repairs were $17,000. I have since insisted on an outside temperature gauge on any vehicle I drive in winter.
On last Wednesday, we had black ice on our highways and sidewalks, and I was extremely pleased when we left at about 10:30, at how excellently well our country and town roads had been salted. We left home to attend the funeral of the gentleman who dug out and laid the concrete footings and floor of our attached garage, and the driveway from the road to the garage. The Catholic funeral was well attended, and was well deserved, and we will all miss his presence.
I have been using a cane, I hope temporarily, but canes do not work well on occasional icy ground, they not only slip there, but they are smart enough to keep some snow and ice on their bottom, where the cane meets the ground, and when the user gets into the house or onto solid, dry footing, the ice the cane brought along will bring the user down, - and I have a lot to fall, - and I am very tall, so I move very cautiously, out, or recently in.
So it is winter – but spring is approaching, and this is a good time to work on sharpening garden tools we cut, prune, dig, or excavate with. If you don’t have current garden catalogs, they are readily available, and are mailed to us free. Your County Extension Office, and good garden centers are full of information, knowledge, instructions, and literature about gardening, and none of us knows everything – but now is an ideal time to look for what we want to grow this year, and plan where to plant it.
I spotted Judy looking at pictures of plants in “Johnny’s Selected Seeds,” 953 Benton Avenue, Winslow, Maine, 04901-2601, where we buy most of our seeds and some plants, it is employee owned, and we have visited it – and been treated well. So we will be placing a mail order soon to start to augment the seeds we have kept sealed, refrigerated, and dry, and start garden seeds in the basement, beside the furnace, where the temperature is maintained at 65 degrees.
We plant the seeds in plastic flats, about 11 X 22 inches, in rows about one inch apart. Seeds, to germinate, need warmth and moisture. The seeds contain enough nutrients to grow a stem and leaves! The rows of seeds are covered with a clear plastic cover, we check them about every other day (we keep canned vegetables and other edibles down there on shelves in our dungeon area). While the soil is moist at that temperature, drops of moisture form on the inside of the clear dome, and we know the soil is moist as well. We usually add need to water every third or fourth day.
We move the young plants into plastic cells, that are made in connected six cell groups. We put a label on each group that reminds us what kind of plants are in those cells. Thirty-six of these cells exactly fills a plastic flat with compressed, dampened, potting soil (usually I leave one cell empty, since I prefer to water from the bottom, and I look into that empty cell regularly to determine when to add water). Now light needs to be added, and you can buy expensive lighting to provide proper plant growing light (like the sun), but I use two fluorescent light bulbs that provide light equal to the suns rays. I place two flats on each of the shelves built for this use, and hang a four foot, two fluorescent bulb fixture above each shelf, containing one cool white, and one warm white fluorescent bulb (they are both available in different lengths – this is the length I chose to build, four foot sections, in our canned vegetable storage area, and it works for me!)
The lights need to be hung about four inches above the tops of the plants, and need to be raised as the plants grow. I identify the variety of plants are in each six cell container, and Judy makes a map of our gardens, and marking where each group of plants is planted, and we save those maps to help better plan the next year’s garden for greatest results in appearance, results, ease in harvesting, and overall pleasurable. . . . good gardening by Bob Smith Hi there, You may, after last week, be a believer in “Black Ice.” I drove my North American Van Lines tractor trailer on “black ice” while climbing a mountain in Utah in midwinter, years ago. Black ice occurs when it rains while the temperature rapidly drops to below freezing, and it is invisible on macadam roads (or almost any roads, nowadays!) My co-driver was asleep in the sleeper, and when the truck stopped, asked “What happened? Why are we in the ditch?” I had no excuse! When the Utah State Trooper arrived, he skidded into the same ditch when he tried to stop at the scene. I wasn’t given a ticket, but my tractor repairs were $17,000. I have since insisted on an outside temperature gauge on any vehicle I drive in winter.
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Wednesday, 19 January 2011 17:47 |
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by Bob Smith
Hi there.
I may have mentioned that my favorite time of the year is the beginning of each season, and suddenly, I am more anxious for SPRING to begin than I have been for years. The winter of 2009-2010 was really easy to get through, and I laughed at the rich guys like Gary that went to Arizona, when our weather nearly equaled theirs.
When I was young – fairly recently, in geologic terms – nearly everyone in rural Bradford County Pennsylvania cut and burned their own wood to keep warm, and for mother to cook their food in the winter. We lived in the farming countryside, and didn’t know anyone that lived in a city, and I have no knowledge of what that was like, but probably those residents lived more like the luxury we now enjoy everywhere, with heat from an unseen source, light we didn’t have to strike a match to ignite, and neighbors and friends we could rely on – and they could rely on us – if asked.
In the one room, six grade country school, the lady teacher had to arrive early enough to start a fire in the wood stove, warm the one room schoolhouse (outdoor outhouses, unlit, smelly, and unheated!) prepare to teach about 10 students at six different grade levels, and play the piano or pump organ while we sang patriotic or religious songs, or “Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines” (my most favorite) before school hours started.
At lunch break, nearly every one of the students would discuss who they liked the best, and disliked the worst – sometimes (but not always!) even the teachers’ names would be mentioned, on either list! Everyone that I knew had chores at home, some mothers were good cooks, some weren’t, but when invited to eat away from home, we knew that we should eat everything, and say “Thank You!” sincerely, but we all liked our food at home better, because we were used to mom’s cooking!
My parents always received and read several papers and magazines, and read them and saved most of them. Last year’s Sears Roebucks catalogs often wound up in our outdoor rest room, and was widely used by all. Life seems much easier now, life in the country seems simpler now, and thanks to many modern conveniences, much easier to sincerely enjoy.
Radio and television bring news closer and in more detailed fashion than was possible then, and government today seems closer and more concerned in our lives, than it seemed to me when I was young. Looking back, life looks harder then than now with modern inventions and conveniences, but I am amazed to wonder how my mother could cook and bake on a wood fired kitchen stove, with no oven temperature dial telling how hot the interior was – yet all the food she produced was consumed with enthusiasm and praise!
My two brothers and I slept upstairs in a room where ice formed on the inside of winter windows, and my sister slept next door, and mother, just before bedtime, would remove from the still hot oven, a flat piece of inch thick, about 8 by 12 inches sandstone, with a short broomstick for a handle, corral us all, and usher us upstairs, where she would peel back the bedcovers, rub the warmed sandstone between the sheets, warming the bed for us. No wonder we look happily back to childhood! ! ! good gardening by Bob Smith Hi there. I may have mentioned that my favorite time of the year is the beginning of each season, and suddenly, I am more anxious for SPRING to begin than I have been for years. The winter of 2009-2010 was really easy to get through, and I laughed at the rich guys like Gary that went to Arizona, when our weather nearly equaled theirs.
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Wednesday, 05 January 2011 22:06 |
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by Bob Smith
Hi there.
We had a very welcome warm spell and rain just before this new year of 2011 started and I was happy - then the rain stopped, the weather turned cold, and I realized I still lived in Indiana, where the weather is not always what we expect, but I am glad we live here, aren’t you? I have good, intelligent friends that annually travel to southern, warmer regions of our country -- but, thankfully, they always come home.
We really like the changing seasons we have here -- we have no desire to visit either the North or South Pole, much less live there -- and having travelled millions of miles, mostly in an air-conditioned truck, I still love best the start of each of our four seasons, and can put up with the remaining short periods.
We hope you are enthused about growing flowers and vegetable gardens, and are studying seed, plant, and tree catalogs for knowledge and sources of what you would like to grow. There are more restrictions on growing and selling “organic vegetables than are required to grow and enjoy produce from your own garden, and there are more tools, supplies, instructions, seeds and plants available than ever before, to make gardening easier and more enjoyable; and it is good exercise, a good family activity, and economically favorable -- so get started, and increase your activities and gardening.
You have read of vast amounts of commercially grown foods being recalled by processors, and if you are like us, you sigh deeply when you realize (or are pretty sure) that you didn’t buy any of the bad stuff. Why in Heaven’s name shouldn’t we do more growing of our own food -- there is a way! The sun shines everywhere! Soil is everywhere, and if you are confined, potting soil and pots can be set in any window, on any walkway or porch (although one allowing the sun to shine on the leaves will do the best job!)
One of the new produce things is ‘organic food,’ and if you are going to pay the price, you should know what the requirements are for labeling food “Organic,” and how you can be sure the ‘organic food’ you pay extra for is really ‘organic,’ and what to do if it is not, and who really decides, and who pays the damages if they occur. We like to buy locally grown produce that we can’t as easily produce, like mince meat, for instance, at farmer’s markets we trust.
There is interest now in growing ‘heirloom’ plants, and we do love Heirloom Brandywine tomatoes, for example. They produce uniformly large, luscious fruit that slice into sandwich bread-sized portions, and are easily canned to preserve for later consumption, or Christmas gifts to family and friends. ‘Heirloom’ varieties are different from modern garden varieties, because they breed true from collected seeds.
One should not collect seeds of hybrid varieties, because the offspring may not have the same characteristics as their parents had. In general, heirloom varieties may be more nutritious than modern hybrids (although a few modern hybrids have been produced that provide better nutrition).
We believe the heirlooms we grow taste better than we have found elsewhere, but that, of course, is a matter of taste -- you don’t know until you try!! The choice is up to you, based on your thriftiness, energy, and ambition. My parents saved garden seeds from their own garden, started behind their kitchen stove, and while I, the only survivor, ain’t dead yet, the rest of their offsprings lived to be well into their nineties -- and if I can stand it, I am willing to at least match their scores . . . good gardening by Bob Smith Hi there. We had a very welcome warm spell and rain just before this new year of 2011 started and I was happy - then the rain stopped, the weather turned cold, and I realized I still lived in Indiana, where the weather is not always what we expect, but I am glad we live here, aren’t you? I have good, intelligent friends that annually travel to southern, warmer regions of our country -- but, thankfully, they always come home.
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