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Tomatoes After All

Category: Gardening | Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2014 10:15 am

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I didn't do so well with my tomatoes this year, but thankfully I was able to work around that. My sister-in-law's family leases out land to a local farmer and he has a large U-pick tomato field. He called her up this past weekend and told her to come get all of the tomatoes that she wanted. So, of course she called my wife and on Monday they headed to the tomato field.

My mom fried some green tomatoes that evening. I didn't think my dad would ever get through eating them. The majority of them were pink so they got put out in the shed to ripen. It looks like we will be putting them up on Saturday. We'll get the jars ready today and pull out everything we need to get the job done.

I never was a fan of canning tomatoes when I was a kid, but I've learned to appreciate it now that I'm a little bit older. It's funny how things work out that way.

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Thirty Minutes of Tranquility

Category: Chickens | Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2014 10:10 am

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Last week I started letting the chickens out thirty minutes before dark so they could get used to being outside. I'll sit out there with them and then make sure they go back in for the evening. They are such funny creatures. As soon as they get past the gate they start jumping and flying around as if to say, "Yes! Freedom!" The life of any insect with the misfortune of passing through the area comes to an abrupt (and quite violent) end and anything that is green gets quickly pecked into nonexistence.

I'm finding that my thirty minutes outside with the chickens is turning into my favorite part of the day. It is so peaceful and relaxing just to sit there and watch them. On Monday night my wife, mom and dad all sat outside with me. The air was cool from a recent rain, the sun was sitting, the chickens were scratching and all seemed right with the world.

Now, if I can only get that thirty minutes of tranquility to last another 23 ½ hours.

Last edited: Mon Aug 18, 2014 7:16 pm

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Chaste Trees

Category: Gardening | Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 10:13 am

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Over the weekend I planted four chaste trees close to the new chicken pen. They serve three purposes. First, after they are a little bigger they will be protection for the chickens. Second, the bees love the purple blooms. Third, it makes me happy. Not only do I get the satisfaction of enjoying the trees as they grow, but I can rest contently in the fact that I got them for half off.

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The Deposit

Category: Short Stories | Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2014 12:30 pm

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Okay, moving away from gardening back into a short story. This particular story is "open ended", meaning the ending is left open for the reader to interpret. I would really be interested to know what some of you think might have happened next.

Vince glanced at his ATM receipt and did a double take. He stared at it positive that he must have read it wrong, but the balance still read the same: $75,137.17. With a shaky hand he quickly put his card back into the machine. From behind him an irritated voice called out, "Come on Dude."

Vince turned to see a teenage boy in a blue t-shirt and baggy, faded jeans with a black cap sitting on his head so the bill was turned sideways. He started to apologize, but changed his mind simply because of the hat. He always hated it when guys wore their hat sideways, thought it made them look stupid. Vince turned back toward the ATM without saying a word.

He punched in his PIN number and then made his way to CHECKING ACCOUNT BALANCE. He chose to view it on the screen and waited for the display. After a few seconds the screen confirmed his account balance: $75,137.17. His mind was racing. There was obviously a mistake. He had no doubt that the hundred dollars was his, but somehow an additional seventy five thousand had been deposited into his account. He stared at the screen, dumbfounded, until the teenager spoke up once again, "Hey old man, can you hurry it up?"

Vince came out of his stupor. Old man? Did he just call me an old man? Vince was forty five years old and in good physical shape; made that way from years of working road construction. His skin was deeply tanned from the sun and a full head of sandy blonde hair hung down to his shoulders. His muscles were hard and lean and, despite the comment from the teenager, there was nothing in his six foot frame that looked like an old man. He tapped the screen to finish his transaction and retrieved his card. He turned away from the ATM and walked toward the teenager who was already making his way up the ramp. When they drew close to one another the teenager muttered, "It's about time."

On the way by Vince bumped him, giving a solid push with his shoulder. The boy tumbled and caught the metal handrail in the square of his stomach, causing him to double over. The violent jerk caused his hat to fly off and Vince chuckled when it landed in a small mud puddle. The boy recovered quickly and yelled after Vince. Vince continued to walk away at a leisurely pace. Without even looking back he said, "Looks like you could use a new hat."

Then, with a satisfied grin on his face, he headed to his truck.

Before he even got into the driver's seat his mind was back on the seventy five thousand dollars. Where did it come from? The bank had made a mistake, he was certain of that. However, it was in his account. What would happen if he withdrew it? Wasn't there something about possession being nine tenths of the law? Could he even withdraw that much money at once? He didn't know. He had never withdrawn more than a couple of hundred dollars at the time. Come to think of it, he never even had more than a couple of hundred dollars at the time. Every paycheck seemed to be already spent before he even got it and spare cash was a commodity that he seldom had the luxury of. Seventy five thousand dollars. That's a lot of money.

A movement caught his eye and he spotted the teenager in front of his truck. He was walking with his head down, staring at the soaked cap in his hands. He looked up, saw Vince and gave him the finger. Vince jerked his door open and made like he was going to jump out. The boy took off running, pushing down on a remote unlock as he fled the scene. He ran past a tall van and disappeared on the other side of it.

A few seconds later there was a squeal of tires and Vince caught sight of a car in his rear view mirror. It was a red Ford Mustang. There was a large white racing stripe across the hood and the windows were tinted black. It stopped directly behind him with its passenger side facing his truck and sat there a moment, engine revving up and down. Then, the tires started spinning, but the driver held onto the brake and a large cloud of smoke rose up and drifted right over Vince's truck. The driver took his foot off the brake and left the parking lot, squealing his tires all the way onto the main highway. He turned left and drove back by the bank. As he went by the teenager rolled down his window and, through the smoke, Vince could see the smirk on his face… and the wet hat sitting sideways on his head.

Vince shook his head as the smell of burnt rubber lingered in his nostrils. How do kids get cars like that anyways? He glanced around at his own vehicle, a ten year old Chevy S-10 pickup. It was a good truck, but it was getting old and had well over 150,000 miles on it. The headliner was starting to sag and there were a few cracks in the dash. He thought about getting a newer truck plenty of times, but there just wasn't enough money. After the divorce, there never seemed to be enough money. He survived from paycheck to paycheck, barely scraping by and, to be honest, he was pretty tired of it.

A small band of onlookers had rushed outside to see what was going on. They stopped gawking after the speeding Mustang and slowly made their way back inside the bank. Vince sat in his truck, staring at nothing in particular. Seventy five thousand dollars. That's a lot of money.

The sound of passing cars filled his ears. Somewhere, a bird chirped happily. Seventy five thousand dollars.

Suddenly, Vince knew what he was going to do. With a new found confidence he opened the door, stepped out and walked toward the bank.

Last edited: Sun Apr 17, 2016 1:30 pm

This blog entry has been viewed 617 times

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Me And Tomatoes

Category: Gardening | Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 12:12 pm

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I do great with everything else, but for some reason I always seem to struggle with tomatoes. Last year I grew a determinate tomato called Floradade that was specifically designed for my area by the University of Florida. That was the best crop of tomato plants I ever grew, but I thought the taste wasn't that great.

My brother always grows Cherokee Purple tomatoes. I love the taste and he does great with them so I thought I would try them this year. I guess they did okay, but I've already had to pull them up because they were looking bad and stopped producing.

My grandfather is probably looking down shaking his head. If he was here he would tell me what I am doing wrong. I guess I'll keep reading and talking to others. Eventually I'll figure out the secret.

This blog entry has been viewed 580 times

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Straw Bale Experiment

Category: Gardening | Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2014 10:10 am

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I read about growing in straw bales a while back so last year I decided to give it a try. I bought two straw bales and set them up in the garden. Then, I mixed up some chicken manure tea and poured it over the top of the bales. I let it set for a couple of weeks and then I dug out about 2 inches of straw so that I had two rows, filled them up with potting soil and planted one row of beets and one row of carrots. They came up, but didn't do very well. This was at the end of last summer, so I figured that I must have planted the beets and carrots in the wrong time of year.

I let the bales set over the winter and then back in February I planted onion bulbs. I also tried a few carrots and beets. Again, the beets and carrots didn't do so well. The onions, however, seemed to take off.

As the season progressed I transplanted a couple of borage plants in the bale and even stuck in a marigold or two. The borage grew, but not like the borage that I had in the garden. The same with the marigolds.

When it was all said and done the onion bulbs never really grew that big except for one. The rest just grew big tops. When I pulled them up the root system on the onions was incredible, but the bulbs themselves were pretty small.

I wouldn't say it was a complete failure because I had fun doing it and learned a lot. Plus, now that I've spread the straw out on the garden it has made a very nice mulch. I'm thinking that I might not have prepared the bale enough before planting, but I don't believe I'm going to try it again.




Straw bale in the beginning ( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )






Straw bale - 30 days ( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )






Straw bale - 60 days ( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )






Straw bale - 90 days ( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )






Straw bale - spread out ( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )






The onions from the straw bale ( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )





Last edited: Thu Jun 19, 2014 10:16 am

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Letting The Chickens Out

Category: Chickens | Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 9:46 am

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I let the chickens out of their pen for the first time yesterday to get them used to being out in the open. I also wanted to see how much it was going to take to get them back in the pen.

They had a blast foraging the tall Bahia grass and mostly stayed right beside the pen. It was right before the sun went down so they were only out about thirty minutes. Just as the sun began to set they all ran back inside together.

I'll let them out late in the evening for a while. Eventually I will let them out earlier with the ultimate goal of allowing them to free range most of the day. We do have coyotes, hawks and owls so that is something that I have to be aware of. I haven't lost any of the other chickens lately, but it only takes one bad day.



The New Chickens ( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )





Last edited: Mon Aug 18, 2014 7:17 pm

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Sayonara Squash

Category: Gardening | Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 12:43 pm

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It's been a good run, but yesterday I pulled up one row of the yellow squash. It produced until it could produce no more. I have gotten more squash this year than ever before. I'm going to attribute that to all of the bees. I still have another row of squash that was started about three weeks later. This is the first time that I have staggered plantings. It makes so much sense, I don't know why I never did that before. That is what I love about gardening; I always learn something new every year.

Last edited: Sun Jun 15, 2014 12:45 pm

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True Story

Category: Life As I Know It | Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2014 10:35 am

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Early in our marriage my wife and I got interested in plate collecting. I don't mean plates that you eat off of, but collector's plates that have scenes painted on them. At the time there as a magazine called "Plate World" that came out every other month showing all of the latest and upcoming plates. One particular day, recognizing that it was time for the latest edition, we decided to see if we could buy it locally. We were living in Layton, Utah, serving at Hill Air Force Base at the time. "Plate World" isn't a magazine that is carried by just anyone, so we decided to drive into Salt Lake City and see if we could find it there.

We had my young daughter and son in the car so I would drive up to a magazine store and drop my wife off so she could check and see if they had it. We did this quite a few times unsuccessfully and were about ready to give up when we saw another magazine store. I dropped her off and found a nearby parking space in the shade to sit and wait. After a little while I saw her walking to the car extremely fast with one hand shielding the side of her face. She opened the door quickly and slid in.

"Let's get out of here!"

"Did you find it?" I asked.

"Just get out of here!" she yelled.

It was obvious that she was upset, so I wisely did as she demanded and pulled onto the road and away from the magazine store. It took a while but I finally managed to get her to tell me what happened. I'll do my best to describe it accurately:

Upon entering the magazine store, she was greeted by a middle aged man of Indian descent. "May I help you?" he asked in a thick Indian accent.

She responded with, "Yes, do you carry Plate World magazine?"

To her surprise he answered, "Yes, go down this aisle all the way to end and take a left. You will find it on the top shelf."

"Thank you."

"You are most welcome."

She took off down the aisle, excited to finally have found someone that carried the magazine. She noticed a lot of men standing in the aisles looking at magazines. It was at this point that she started getting a little suspicious, but the clerk said they carried "Plate World" so she pressed on, anxious to see the latest issue.

She walked by a few of the men and felt their stares as she passed by. As she passed by one of the men she glanced at his magazine and was shocked to see a glossy picture of a naked woman. She was starting to feel very uncomfortable, but pressed on anyway. She finally made it to the end of the aisle and took a left. She looked where the clerk had told her and quickly realized that he had misunderstood her question. There, on the top shelf, was a whole row of "Playgirl" magazines. For the first time, she took a good look at her surroundings and understood that she was in an adult book store. It wasn't too long before she was sliding into our car, yelling at me to get out of there.

I sat and listened to her tell the story and did the only thing that a loving, caring husband would do in a situation like this. I laughed until I cried. Needless to say, shortly thereafter we took out a subscription to "Plate World" magazine.


Last edited: Fri Jun 13, 2014 10:41 am

This blog entry has been viewed 556 times

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New Chicken Pen

Category: Chickens | Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2014 10:19 am

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I've been working on a chicken pen. It is built from used fence boards. I had some old no climb fence wire laying around that I used on the top, front and one side. The other side is chain link that was already in place. I decided to make it two levels so the hens could be well off the ground. I don't think it turned out too bad considering I designed it as I went. The only money I spent was for the tin for the roof, screws, door hardware and a gallon of paint. Total cost, $128.79.


New Chicken Pen ( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )






The Entrance ( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )






The Run ( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )






The Brood Box ( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )






Double Ramp ( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )






The Upper Level ( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )






Planter Made From An Old Pallet ( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )





Last edited: Mon Aug 18, 2014 7:17 pm

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