Watered Garden

We left before the lawsuits. When I read there were lawsuits against TWI, I thought someone had probably beaten a child to death or something. However, as Waysider said, there were a few isolated incidents and rumors. I definitely remember a limb coordinator who seemed a little too grabby for me to let my guard down around him and a bit of innuendo and whispering when I was on the WOW field living with an interim WC person. WG

Though I don't want to get very involved in this discussion, I have been thinking about the gift ministries lately, specifically "pastor." Both in and out of TWI, I have know a lot of people who were called "pastor" and didn't know beans from barium what that meant. So I do believe there is a gift that is given to those who then use it to shepherd and undershepherd God's people, tenderly and lovingly with great concern. Remember how a good shepherd cares for his sheep? How Christ cares for us? That's the example the true pastor follows. They don't do it for money or prestige or power, or to be able to get up in front of a bunch of people and draw attention to themselves. Thinking back, I have only known two or three people who truly had a gift ministry of a pastor. Two of them were (gasp of horror) women. Oh, and I do not believe being ordained means one has a gift ministry. Many people go quietly about God's business, keeping out of the spotlight, and are never recognized by man, only by God. WG

Another Charleston staple was stewed tomatoes and okra served over white rice. I never quite caught on to that, but I did make some passable Hoppin' John for New Year's day one time. Hoppin' John is field peas or black eyed peas, whichever the grocery store has on hand, cooked with ham hock or bacon, onion, green pepper and rice. Mr. Garden wasn't too impressed but the foster kids (all born there) and I thought it was pretty darn good. Also boiled raw peanuts once for a Charleston kid; done right, they are quite addictive WG

T'enk Gawd fuh Chastun! (Gullah for "Thank God for Charleston!") Gullah people, for those who are unaware, are descendants of freedmen from West Africa. Gullah language is a hodge-podge of English, West African, and West Indies dialects. Most of them speak English but it is hard to understand. One time, working in a hospital, I was delivering typed x-ray reports to the floors, when a couple of very nicely dressed ladies came up to be and asked a perfectly incomprehensible question that ended with "de mommie and de baby?" From that I deduced they wanted OB and sent them around the corner. A lot of them live on the islands in the coastal waters or at least used to before real estate out there got valuable to the tourist trade. WG

Red beans and rice? Are you from da South????? Like South Carolina? WG

I'll just weigh in here ever so briefly to say I know at least two church planters who definitely are NOT apostles! And that is all I'm gonna say on the matter! WG

I'm really sad you lost your kitty. I didn't know that when I posted you needed a cat. I did want to add there is a harmless spray called RepelsAll, made up mostly of rotten egg and red pepper, and harmless to food plants, that we use on certain trees and plants to keep Bambi and his cousins away. It seems to work; I haven't seen any nibbled on willows or anything since. Now we are at war with Japanese beetles. It never ends. WG

All I knew about creosote was that it smelled terrible and I suspected it wasn't good for the human body in any way. We slopped it on the railroad ties, and I was told to rinse out the container and clean things up. I ran water in the container, sloshed it around and dumped it on the grass in front of the side entrance to the limb building. The grass died, almost overnight. The limb leader was not happy, but later forgave me and told me "Don't let it be a sore spot on your heart." I was actually thinking, yeah, it was dumb, but why didn't someone think to TELL me not to get it on the grass? I didn't know much about the stuff. And No, I don't think you can buy it any more. There was a creosote plant on the west side of Indy when I was but a tadpole, and it stunk to high heaven. One of the reasons my parents moved when they did. They dipped telephone poles in it. It's related to tar and some nasty stuff. Leafy, you may need a cat or two. It's been a few years since I drove by former Limb HQ. I also think it is a party barn once again. Be nice to have a couple truckloads of that really well worked soil out back, which still contains faint DNA remnants of our sweat and tears. We have baby green tomatoes! Lotsa nice black raspberries, too! Learning to make ice cream! WG

Waysider may or may not remember what I learned the hard way - the creosote some bozo gives you to spray on the railroad ties around the flowers beds do not benefit the patch of grass where you dump out the remainder and spray the container clean. Limb Leader nearly provided us with more organic fertilizer than we could ever want. But it did grow back eventually. WG

There is only one weeping willow and it is two acres behind the well. The other four are a hybrid sort that has a more upright habit. They are also at the back of the lot. Our next door neighbor put in a pond, and they built up an embankment almost to the property line, thus causing us to have a very very low spot on our side of the property line, which is usually kind of swampy and is where we planted the willows. If the deer ever leave them alone they will be very pretty indeed. They will also make a nice windbreak. I cannot remember the name of the willow but I think it was in Stark's catalog. They use it as a windbreak around golf courses and such. Mine usually smell of cayenne pepper and rotten eggs from the RepelsAll that keeps Bambi from nibbling the new growth away. WG

All gardeners in the Midwest - the Japanese beetles are here! Found a few on the baby willow trees yesterday and sprayed with Sevin Dust. This morning I sprayed the roses, some of which were showing damage, the raspberry canes, and some baby oak trees. These creatures are nasty and voracious. They will strip a raspberry, eating both leaves and fruit! Sevin Dust gets them away but must be reapplied every so often, especially after a rain. It is harmless to people and you can spray it on food producing plants. We didn't have too much trouble with the damn things when we lived in town, but hereabouts they are plentiful - and hungry! And there were a couple on the raspberries! You realize of course that this means WAR! WG

And don't forget the "pot likker" you pour over the cornbread (at least as I recall; I was never much of a Southern cook). WG

When I was a WOW one of my WOW brothers had a habit of not just saying just but adding "Father." "Father, I just want to thank you, Father, for today, Father, for just helping me find a job, Father, and just blessing all of us today, Father, and Father, just....." Finally, my other WOW brother broke in with complete exasperation: "****, God knows He's your Father, Bro. You don't have to keep reminding Him!" WG

RR, when we were in FLO, the first year the garden had yielded a lot more greens than normal people know what to do with. Mustard greens, Swiss Chard, whatever else could be plucked was thrown into a bowl and dressed with this cooked, heated dressing containing chopped egg, bacon, oil and vinegar. This and water comprised our dinner. Very very inadequate in filling us up whether we liked the taste or not. Thank God for Friendly's. WG

When we lived in the South, we grew some okra. Now okra contains a viscous liquid, similar to what comes out of your two-year-old child's nose in the winter, but the okra only releases it during cooking. You can cut it into chunks, dip the chunks in egg, roll them in cornmeal and deep fry them, but this recipe I used included onion, green pepper, bacon and sliced okra. It didn't taste too bad but seeing the snot coming out of it while cooking made me swear off okra forever. Another greens incident: While we were living on the Left Coast, this woman took me along with her and her four kids to pick green beans at an organic pick your own farm. They were also growing Swiss chard. Imagine my surprise when one of the boys came up to me, happily munching on a big old leaf of chard, exclaiming over its deliciousness, and offered to pick me a leaf of my very own. When I said no thank you, I don't like Swiss chard, he looked at me as if I were possessed with evil spirits. Poor kid; brainwashed at age 6, by Swiss chard and such like. Perhaps I should have reported them for child abuse! WG

Beets! We've got beets! First time ever they grew and could be eaten! WG

Yep, they're dangerous all right and Mr. Garden knows how to handle them. However, we haven't planted any for a couple of years. This is due to my own dislike; he thinks the plants are neat looking and I think they are ugly. Plus a couple years back, some guy in California grew a whole row of them in his garden and got arrested by Homeland Security because they figured he was growing them for ricin. I just think they are too bizarre looking, plus the deer just walk around them. WG Oh and of course prayers for safety for gc & co.

Dropping in to add... Mr. Garden occasionally grows castor bean plants which get huge but repel just about anything. He used to grow them here and there in the garden and while they take up some space, they will indeed keep critters at bay. They are deadly poison however, so never mess with them. A good way to eliminate cabbage worms, which are really caterpillars: Wait until evening, generously sprinkle white flour on the leaves of the plants; you have to be pretty sure you will get a nice dewfall the next morning. The caterpillars come out to eat holes in your cabbage plant. Then the sun comes out, and turns them into little burritos. We had to replant beans; we got a very (after Mother's Day) frost and they died. Corn is looking good though, black raspberries are going to be stellar this year! Our tomato plants, in the new bed full of composted mulch and good soil, are lovely. If all goes well, I'll be canning in August! WG

Well, y'all, I talked to Paw and he removed the offending post and rebuked the offending poster...but I am still taking a leave of absence for the summer. I will check in when leaves start to blow, and I'll check my PMs every so often to see if anything is there. I love you one and all. Take care and have a great summer! WG

Garth - Exactly! WordWolf - thanks for the kind words, and your honesty and integrity. Krys: Thanks! GStG: Thank you - I believe y'all have made a huge difference for the Gardens. Waysider - Chard is disgusting. We are growing lettuce, beets and those peas where you eat the whole pod. Skypilot - Thanks! WG

At some time I knew I was going to need some space. I love you guys but I need to move on. Perhaps at some time I will return with a new username, but I need to not be here for a while. I love you all. Thank you for everything I've learned, and thank you especially for your prayers. I've asked Pawtucket to cancel my account. God bless you every one. Watered Garden

edited by WG

edited by WG

Well, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away.... I was on the high school newspaper staff and a friend and I got to go to some department store shindig and interview Sandra Dee soon after her marriage to Bobby Darrin. She always had that kind of chubby-cheeked look in her studio portraits, but truth was, she was painfully thin, about 5'5" and 90 pounds. Her manager or whatever ordered her around. There was no spontaneity. She seemed tired. Gave a little speech about hair and makeup and took questions. Then we all walked down to another room for something or other. My friend snapped photos that were to be used in the newspaper. When I asked for the film, she had sent it off to another state to be developed. We never got the pictures back but I did get to write a nice article with a by-line for it. WG

"very active, kinda willfully ignorant/stubborn personality." Sounds like the Sprout has met his dog self. WG