Watered Garden

When I lived in NC, our state was volunteer bless patrol for the ROA. I participated a couple of times. My most dramatic incidents were kids on grounds riding their bikes in the wrong places or too fast, crossing the road without looking, etc. One time they were staff kids, I think one of them might have been a prince or something, so they gave me dirty looks and continued to try to mow down pedestrians, etc. At RC, I absolutely hated it. We had to wait until midnight, then check the flossing list, and go wake up anyone who had not checked off that he/she had yea verily flossed his/her teeth that night and make them go check off their name or floss their teeth and then check off their name. One FWC 19, whose name escapes me, except that his wife was a dancer and he knew about bees, flatly refused to make people get up and check it off. He figured they worked too hard, so a subtle tap, didja floss buddy? and he checked it off for them. WG

Well, more cherry trees might make them happy. I would feed them to fatness if there was some natural birth control I could put in their feed. But then I wouldn't have seen the doe out back with her tottering, tiny little fawn, probably only a couple days old. WG

When we lived in NC, we had a pecan tree in our back yard. We also had a huge silver maple, which was hollow and full of squirrels. OUr house had been empty for 11 years, then lived in by the woman who sold it to us for a year or two, then we bought it. Naturally, the squirrels thought the pecan tree was theirs. Our cocker spaniel, Maxx the Wonder Dog, and I soon convinced them there was a new bully in town. They would shake the tree top to knock the pecans down. Maxx and I would hear them fall, and run out the back door. Maxx would keep the little tree rats up in the tree while I gathered the nuts. Our house was brick, and the squirrels used to climb up the bricks. One even was climbing a window screen much to my surprise. I totally agree about the deer. They have eaten two cherry trees we planted right down to the ground. Ditto the willows. There is a herd of from 10-20 in the woods back of our house, which belongs to our next door neighbor, who feeds the damn things! They come over to my side for dessert. They are pretty though. Both my brothers-in-law offered to come thin the herd the first hunting season we lived here, but there are too many kids around, and I really like my neighbors and wouldn't want them upset. You can get stuff to spray on your plants and trees to keep them off. And Ro-Pel will protect your bulbs. WG

TOMATO HORN WORMS!!!!! My next door neighbor got back from vacation and his tomato plants and the tomatoes had been decimated by a huge tomato horn worm. I looked, and sure enough both my volunteers have been attacked, the best one is halfway gone and we found four of the little bas**rds on it. I sprayed with Sevin Dust and wonder if anyone out there has any tips for killing/preventing these gobbling monsters? WG

Thank so much for posting that link. That was awesome. I was thinking the other day about writing something along the lines of "Live Like a Lab". Maybe I will. WG

Dooj et al, Our tiny town had a 4th of July festival the weekend before the 4th and the features guests were The Drifters! It was free, outdoors under the evening sky, and we went. They sang all those songs and more! Some of them, at least, were the original guys. The sound was the same. I just sat there and grinned like a fool, with tears in my eyes. To my ancient mind, there is something charming and innocent about summer music, the Beach Boys, the Drifters, Jan and Dean, and so on. I wish my grandson could grow up in such a summer. WG

Mr. Garden's simple but good zucchini skillet: 3 zucchini about 6 - 8 inches long, sliced about 1/4 inch thick 3 yellow squash, same size, same slice 1 Vidalia onion, sliced thin and separated into rings 3 big fresh tomatoes or more if you like, cut into wedges fresh (hopefully) basil to taste, I like about a tablespoon if it's fresh and minced. 2 teaspoons minced garlic Olive oil or butter warm oil or butter over medium heat. Add squash, onion, garlic and sautee. Add tomatoes and cover; reduce heat and cook until veggies are desired doneness. Garnish with basil leaves. You can also sprinkle cheese on top if you like. I like my veggies tender-crisp. My favorite summer meal: Grilled burgers fresh sweet corn about 10 or so sliced homegrown tomatoes. Come to think of it if you don't have the burgers or corn, you can still be happy! WG

Al, my mom had a summer with rain and no bees. Now she loved zucchini so she got a little paintbrush and went from flower to flower, hand pollinating the Zukes. I expect it would work with about anything. I thought I heard something on TV lkast week or read it or something that honeybees are dying off of some mysterious cause. I haven't seen as many but have plenty of other kinds to deal with. It's been a weird summer.... WG

That is one great looking pepper plant, too. We got more rain last night. Went out this morning and yanked weeds for a couple hours until we are exhausted. I have some dandy Roma tomato plants. One has 33 baby green tomatoes on it . If nothing else, I will be making sauce in a week or two. we weeded the squash too, found several bby zucchinis and yellow squash. WG

Roped together.....That very thought is enough to make me lose my lunch. I liked my privacy. I was up in arms my first year in at the thought of room inspections. The coordinator was a male and I thought he had no friggin' business checking to see if I properly folded my undies. He smoked a pipe with this perfumy smelling tobacco in it and I can remember whenever the subject of room inspections came up, I would rush upstairs when I got home to sniff the air and see if it stunk of pipe tobacco. I was a bit of a rebel in my early days. I had always had a "day off" from the WOW program so I could do my laundry, go to a library, shop, or just get the he11 out of the presence of the rest of the WOWs. No such deal in FLO. I remember one time I was supposed to be going someplace, felt unwell, and was in a resultant lousy mood, and rather snappily told the FLO coordinator I didn't feel like going to wherever and thanks but no thanks. He looked at me for a minute, and said "Well! You're an arrogant little bytch, aren't you?" Fortunately for both of us, he left my room right afterward, leaving me with my mouth hanging open in outraged astonishment. My house leader and another girl coaxed me into participating in whatever the happy activity was for that night, but I have never forgotten that moment. WG

RAIN!!! WE GOT RAIN!!! Okay, not much rain, but more is promised. It's muggy outside so I decided to clean the refrigerator. A funny okra story: When we lived in North Carolina and had the big garden, our TC told us he loved okra. So, being the kind soul that I am, I decided to grow some for him. I'm from the midwest originally and had NO idea what okra looked like on the plant, so I carefully picked the first oblong things I saw and brought them to him. Being a true southern gentleman, he told me they were delicious the next time he saw us. A couple weeks later, I noticed that one of those oblong things was ......BLOOMING! I had picked all the flower buds and given them to him. WG

The only thing I would add, and I'm sure your counsellor has stressed this too, is that your daughter understand that it is NOT HER FAULT that her father acts this way. Too often the kids blame themselves. WG

I don't know how to edit that post - at least I didn't capitalize it! WG

Oh, golly, I'm sorry. It was just a FOS. (figure of speech). How about "on another plane of existence?" There's no one here with that user name, is there????? WG

Exxie, He was just joking around. It was 1974-75 and there had been a plethora of airplane hijackings that year, such that it was made a crime to even joke about hijacking a plane. If you bebopped up to the checkin and made some stupid comment like he did, you were liable to be grabbed, searched, and arrested. However, in spite of my immediate concern, the women just looked at him as if to say "Fool!" and x-rayed his Bible cover, which he had laughingly said contained his firearm, and let him go through. He was definitely "out there" though. I never did think he was the sharpest knife in the drawer. It seemed he tried to get by on looks and personality. I was never all that impressed with him, and could never figure out why my roomie was. It seems I was out WOW with some strange people, or maybe I was the strange one. Who knows/ WG

Doojable, I'm gonna PM you as soon as I get through babysitting my grandson, who has more energy than a thousand volcanoes! Okay, sorry for the WG

Actually the guy across the road has the cukes - he has several horses and thus a ready supply of organic fertilizer, which he has promised to share with me. I don't think anyone has grown anything on our property other than weeds for a couple of decades. It is kind of hard going, since I don't want to use nasty carcinogens to kill them. I do think, however, that in another year or so we should have vastly improved soil if we keep at it. WG

There were a lot of snakes on that property. I remember one young lady weeding potatoes spotted a little garter snake in a potato plant, patiently waiting to eat some potato beetles, I'm sure. She went about 5 feet straight up, from a sitting position to scrambling to get away. We also had some dandy spiders, which DO give me the creeps. However, we couldn't kill them in the garden, since they were doing their job of killing insects. And my husband one day opened a drawer in the kitchen of his apartment and a mouse jumped out at him. This set off a chain reaction; there was a mouse in the box containing the dirty dishes in our house - GP found that one - and we all ended up setting traps. I don't remember the results, but at that time there was a big field in front of the apartment complex, and every autumn the little critters would seek shelter for the winter months in our homes. Mice dont' bother me much either, but the telltale, blood curdlings shrieks from my FLO "sisters" were very entertaining. Let me describe our living quarters. On Bruce Road, off Hills-Miller Road in Delaware, Ohio, are town-house apartments, two to a building. These contain living room, L-shaped eat-in kitchen and maybe a pantry downstairs, also a half-bath. Upstairs, there were three bedrooms and a full bath. They had at least partial basements, and I think in fact they were full basements. The back doors of the apartments emptied out onto a parking area. They were pretty generously sized for rentals. However, with six people living in each apartment it was a bit crowded, and could even be claustrophobic. Some of us lucky souls got a bed in a bedroom, while others were assigned rooms with bunkbeds. I lived for several months in deathly fear of falling out of a top bunk, to which I was assigned while in a particular room in a particular apartment. My bunkmate had a bad back and couldn't climb to the top bunk. I had screaming fear of heights, which of course I was to "overcome by believing". However, the only person to ever crash out of a top bunk in the middle of the night was the sleepwalker I mentioned in another posting. I did warn her it was a bad idea, so when she thudded onto the floor at dark-thirty, I wasn't surprised. Most of the furnishings were yard-sale chic. I had brought my furniture with me, but was not permitted to move it from apartment to apartment so had to pray it wouldn't get cigarette burns on it or anything, as it was fairly new. I had a complete set of dishes, which ended up stored in a basement because my fellow fellowlaborers didn't take care of them and I objected (which of course I got screamed at for). Here the commune thing kicks in. If you had a nice set of, say, tools to work on cars, and someone borrowed something like your favorite open end wrench and didn't bother to return it, and you found it three months later rusting in the grass outside their apartment, you were not supposed to bytch because that wrench belonged as much to your brother as to you. I loaned a pair of expensive silver bracelets to some girl to wear once. She kept them for a month, and finally I saw them locked in her car. She was deeply offended when I made her get them for me immediately. After all, she had as much right to them as I did! There were six women in my apartment and I was one of two who owned hair dryers. The four without cheerfully used mine until it wore out and I had to get a new one. By them I had wised up and what was mine was hands-off. I got some grief for that, but the he11, they worked too, and they ended up buying their own. Maybe I'm too materialistic or maybe I'm just a good steward. It's been my experience, however, if I take care of something I don't need to replace it as quickly. WG

KS took the PFAL class in my WOW twig, and was hanging around our place, which I think is where he met his wife. I was a total innocent back then, and sort of vaguely remember him being great pals with my WOW sister/branch leader/interim 4th year WC. Since she was WC and The Boss, whenever any VIPs came through we had to host them, and he was always on hand. He had as I recall been married before and had a daughter in Ky. I remember taking him to the airport to fly back there. He was making a total fool of himself at that point, waving his Bible in its cover around and joking with the employees about hijacking the plane, which could have gotten him tossed in the slammer, but I guess they knew a dingbat when they saw one. They were not amused, however. Then he was off to some bigger things I guess. I was surprised when he married H. I didn't think much of him, he was too loud and brash and all over SB, my WOW sister. I never knew what became of him and H. I'm truly sorry - I feel a little guilty knowing he "got in the Word" where I was a WOW. Had I know how much grief he was going to cause y'all, I could have put a tarantula in his boots or somethin'. WG :unsure:

Cindy!, You might have your county extension test the soil. I took in about 4 core samples 6 feet apart, about 1/2 cup each to the Knox Co. extension service which is courtesy of OSU. It cost about $10 for shipping & handling and in about 5 weeks or so, they sent me an analysis. This includes pH of the soil and the trace minerals it lacks and/or excels in. This is where I got the 4.9 pH info that has improved but not totally amended our soil by any means. Big containers full of purchased topsoil and special soil mixes would do the same with less bother, also. Happy growing! WG

Still no rain, maybe toward the end of the week. We are still amending our soil. When we got it tested at the Ohio State extension, the pH was 4.9, not good for growing much except blueberries, which died anyway. There are other things that also need to be added. We have used a great deal of agricultural lime, and that has helped, but it's still dry out there. One trick I learned from an old guy in NC was to take gallon milk jugs, rinse them, and puncture a very small hole in the bottom edge, then set it next to a tomato plant and fill it up every day or so. The water will slowly leak out. I'm doing this, would've done it sooner but husband didn't think it was necessary. We have only one small patch of level ground, and that is where the leach bed is located. So when I water at the top of a row, the water runs downhill. The best tomato plants are in the middle of the rows. So I've started putting the jugs at the top of the rows, so the plants there can get some extra moisture. When we lived is Salisbury, NC, the aforementioned elderly gentleman lived next door to us and owned a home and some land outside of town, where he let us garden. He had amended the hard red clay year after year so that it was absolutely wonderful. I grew 24 tomato plants there, which made a hedge down the middle of the garden. I canned over 100 quarts of tomatoes, sauce, and juice. He told us to put lime in the hole we'd dug, then a nice shovel full of compost, which consisted of ground up leaves and manure and all sorts of stuff. Last week our new neighbor in the farm house across the road came over to donate some cukes. They have horses and I am welcome to help myself to the manure pile, which I will certainly do this fall to work into the soil in the spring. Also I'm going to get some Planters2 mix, which is a trace mineral additive we used in Fellowlaborers of Ohio garden. Will be looking for that recipe, Dooj. WG

OMIGOSH! I remember that snake. I think his name was Slick? I am not particularly afraid of snakes, and since there are no cottonmouth moccasins in Ohio (I hope) and he was swimming away from me, I thoroughly enjoyed the scene. I bet the Israelites scrambled through the opening in the Red Sea with far less alacrity than my fellow Fellowlaborers getting out of that stinking creek. The property Limb HQ was on contained a small house and a large barn-like structure that had once housed a dance barn, which was made into two classrooms, one of which we used for "dining", and another just for classes that actually had a fireplace in it. We were allegedly cleaning out the creek, which also contained, in addition to Slick and the leeches, (not the band that played in the dance barn) a lot of broken beer bottles. So wading in it was a more dangerous adventure than one realized, until someone brought up a jagged, neckless Bud bottle. I was more concerned about tetanus than anything else. I thought it was absolutely foolhardy to send us into that creek barefoot. And who knows what kind of diseases leeches carry? I remember one sweet young girl who got a couple on her leg and was very upset. I would've been too. WG

Geez, I didn't remember that happening to G. I didn't remember him graduating, either. That must have been our second year. Our illustrious leader was good at that. And there were those who dated outside the household of FLO. I know one third year FL who dated a girl in a Cols. Way Home our first year there. She was a 5th year and told me all about it. WG

Breeze, Thanks for posting. I don't think evil of anyone who survived FLO, including the individuals I might have strangled at the time, given the opportunity. I expect there were more than a few who would've clobbered me for some reason or other. Thanks for the kind words. I was not a happy camper in FL, at least not until Mr. Garden and I got engaged. I would do it again for just that reason. I do think I learned a lot though, even if only about gritting my teeth and seeing something through to the end. I sure hope I haven't said anything that offends you. Please take my posts with a grain of salt. Some of them are just meant to be humorous, mostly laughing at myself and the situation. WG

I was just posting over on the Fellowlaborers thread, and I think at least the one I was in fit into that category also in some ways. We didn't choose our roommates, our work detail, our leisure activities, anything. We were never alone, we were always watched and reported on and supposed about. We were all supposed to be crammed into that little mold and like it. My three months in FWC were even worse, because it extended to the children. God forbid you step out of line, start walking with the wrong foot, touch a wall. WG