Surprises & Didn't Plants....

First, you may be wondering what didn't plants are.  They are plants that you didn't plant, myabe last year, but not this year.  This growing season was pretty mixed up here in Nebraska.  At least in my backyard.  We had a late spring frost, a neighbor became seriously ill, and I went to Texas for a couple of weeks so I could enjoy there drought.

My garden suffered.  I mean REALLY suffered.  In fact, it was pretty much non-existent.  However, my rototilling apparently kicked into overdrive a few cantaloupe plants.  Last year, I had minimal success with my cantaloupes.  They were small, delicious, but scarce.  Without replanting this year, I ended up with more and bigger cantaloupes.  AND, I still have some growing.

  This one is about softball size, but most of the ones I've picked have been twice this size (by volume, not diameter).

Here's another one. 

 

I also have some didn't plant tomatoes, but no pictures yet since they are still green.

And speaking of green, here's a nice shot of some peppers, although I am not sure what kind they are since I planted a package of variety peppers.

Now, I did intentionally plant some cucumbers in our small patio planter just outside the back door.  They did fairly well (picked 3 cucumbers yesterday, for instance).  The strange thing about cucumbers is that one can pick all to be seen and then one or two days later it's "Whoa, where did that come from?"

My wife asked me to come sit outside on that little patio and had me scan the fence.  As I sat there thinking that something was wrong with the fence that my very kind son-in-law, Tornado Tim, built for us last year.  As I looked back and forth, I saw it.

 

  There it was--standing on the top rail of the fence.  It had sent a clinging, twisting tendril onto a tree branch.  A cucumber grew where I hadn't looked!

Now I ask you, "Did that make me smile?"

 

 



I guess you can be the judge of that.

Nebraska--Less People, Less Stress



My 2011 Seeds Have Arrived....

Seeds from Burpee's have arrived today!  I'm already planning out my garden for the spring, which will not be here for a while.  Average Last Spring Frost date is the beginning of May.  That means that I can start my cabbage seeds indoors starting the week of February 22, not that far away.

My seeds include, among others, Organic Red Express Cabbage.  I'll tell you more as it becomes time to plant them.  I'm looking forward to this year's garden since last year's was mostly successful.  Two major disappointments were my peppers & radishes.

Spring is around the corner!

Nebraska--LessPeople, Less Stress

Some Salsa on the West Side Story...

Yesterday was a very unusual day, in fact, the week has been strange since Wednesday morning.  I'll start there.  I normally get up at 6:30 a. m.  I know that is late but, hey, I'm semi-retired.  Anyway, I woke up and it was dark.  That's not unusual right before the time change from Daylight Savings to Standard Time.  I use my phone for an alarm, reached over to see the time and...IT'S, OH MY, 7:23!  I have to leave at 7:35 to go do some semi-work.  Out of bed, put head under faucet, brush some teeth, get dressed, and out the door.  I made it to school on time.

My phone had been set on silent so as no to disturb anyone on Tuesday evening, but I forgot to reset it to the annoyingly loud whistle that I use for phone ringing and alarm beckoning.  I'm just slightly hard of hearing.

Thursday morning finds me up at the right time and arriving at school at 8:15 a. m.  While walking through the commons area, I see the teacher forwhom I am supposed to substitute.  I inquire about subbing for her and she says that I will sub for her----at 11:30----I'm 3 hours early.  I look at my pocket calendar,  Guess what time I had written there.  11:30.  Oh, well.

Friday I was still reeling from confusion, but nothing unusual happened.

Saturday, that's yesterday,  I used up the final part of my tomatoes with just a few tiny ones left over.  And, what did I make?

That's right, salsa.  It was my first attempt at that.  I was going to do that earlier this season, but got sidetracked.

I had to show you what the last of the tomatoes looked like next to the 5 pints of homemade salsa.  Do you have any idea how long it takes to dice 10 cups of tomatoes from tomatoes that size?  By the time you cut out any bad spots, cut out the stem area, finely dice them, well, much longer than I thought.  Now the jars have to age.  I made that up.

So, that is half of the title for today's post.  And the other half?

Until yesterday, I had never seen West Side Story.  Have you ever been to a local high school play/musical?  It was terrific.

Some highlights:

• Maria (played by local singing wonder Caitlin) has a terrific voice.  I was truly impressed.
• Tony (played by Elvis, a genuinely nice & talented young man) was superbly done.
• Bernardo & Riff (played by twins Joel & Reid) as the opposing gangs' leaders did a fine job.
• Clarice (played by the multi-talented Makayla) really had to act to play the bad girl type since that is just not her.
• Doc (played by Maclane, a medalist in the recent state cross country event) looked & sounded quite the white-coated type.
• Officer Krupke, Ms. Glad Hand, & her assistant (played respectively by Sarah, Kyla, & Cheyanne) added some female charm to a large cast.

I could go on for each and every member if I thought you would read it.  But I have to mention just one more, my personal favorite of the entire cast...

• Anita (played by Heidi), with her black wig and comedic flair, showed some great talent.

Of course, all comments are the highly regarded opinion of this author.  Yours may differ.  Write about them in your blog.  The show included dinner (for a price, of course).

I almost forgot to mention the hard work of the show's directors, teachers Senja Stephens and Pam Breinig.  They did a great job.

Until the next time...

Nebraska--Less People, Less Stress

Well, That Just Frosts My....

     Tomatoes.  That's Right.  Last night we had a frost.  I picked all the tomatoes that had even a hint of a tint of anything except green.  And I picked 4 zucchinis, 1 cantaloupe, 5 acorn squash.  I'll give anything else a few days to produce or be pulled screaming to the compost pile.  My green peppers are pathetic--haven't eaten ONE yet.  The plants have flower buds and small, not-worth-the-effort-to-clean, peppers on them.
     So what should I do now?  Ah, reminisce from the first vegetable garden by the head of household in Nebraska.

     This brave zucchini sacrificed him/her/itself on the grill.  Many indistinguishable comrades, like lemmings, did the same thing.  Some others, however, led a more complicated end.

     Some became as bread to a hungry nation, er, household, such as the just-right-for-two-loaves guy below.

     And, speaking of bread, we were talking about bread weren't we?  Focus.  Okay.  I made homemade bread from scratch, and, no, I didn't grow any of the ingredients in my garden.

     I also tried some recipes that I am so glad that I did.  I know not to again.

Nebraska--Less People, Less Stress

Crank, Crank, Crank Those Knuckles Raw....

     You'll just have to use your imagination for this one (I haven't gotten into posting pictures for everything like she does at countdowntoasimplerlife.blogspot.com).  My wife bought me a hand crank shredder at a yard sale or the thrift store, her two favorite places to shop.  The thing is made of aluminum, has five different cutters, and works fantastic.  This evening I shredded about a third of the zucchini sitting on the kitchen island.
     Why did I name today's post what I did?  Did I mention the cranking hand shredder my wife bought for me?  That's right--it will shred vegetables or fingers with equal ease, however, I don't usually need a bandage for the vegetables.  I made a note to myself that says basically to keep my fingers not so close to the whirling blades.  Another note is not to crank so fast so fingers can be yanked out of the way before too much skin has to be found.
     Here in Nebraska, if you can't grow zucchini, you probably drool profusely while someone feeds you.  The second easiest thing to grow in a backyard garden is weeds.  They love Miracle-Gro.  I used a weed and feed on the lawn, but the weeds thought the label said, "Feed the weeds."
     I baked a cherry pie today.  Don't get too excited.  It was from a neighbor, sort of, Mrs. Smith.  She leaves them at the grocery store here in town.  Nebraska--Less People, Less Stress