Lots of 40 & 8 pins, some Marlin Fishing tournament pins, and a few obscure collected (some military) pins. I come from a military family.
If you don't know 40 & 8, it's a post-military organization that provides scholarships for kids wanting to be nurses, runs basketball camps for underprivileged kids, and all that sort of thing.
The name comes from WW1 when the boxcars in France would hold 40 of our troups, or 8 horses.
Weather Watching Summer 2013 #2
I had not heard of that before, Darius. Sounds like a good cause.
wow Jen!
1/2 inch here overnight, an inch+ sunday.
The straw hat is very cute Gita!
It's been dry here -- little bursts of rain every other day or so, but not enough to do more than tease the plants.
Darius--
Maybe you put all the pins in a plastic baggie or maybe in an envelope
and stuck it somewhere in your laundry room?
Maybe to keep them safe--you put them in a drawer in your bedroom?
Maybe you wanted to be really careful--and put them in a canister
with something else--
Or--maybe you hung the bag of the pins in your closet on a string?
Have you moved since this? Then they could be packed into anything!
15 years! One would think you would have come across them sometime.
My Mom went slowly downhill with dementia-and, also, because her
home had been broken into once--she had started hiding things.
For the life of us all--we could never find her watch.
After she died and my sister had to clear out her house--she found it,
wrapped in a hanky and dropped down behind her dresser in a corner...
I am sure I have things I have long forgotten that I have---may be a happy
discovery some day...
Gita
Gita, I've moved 3-4 times since I put those pins away, and I still have some boxes that have never been unpacked because of limited space here (where I've been for 7 years).
It's hard to squeeze the contents of my mother's house, my sister's house and my old house all into one smaller house.
We had a couple downpours last night, enough to add 3"s to my rain barrel (pool).LOL I always hate to add h2o from the well because we use so much watering, and of course it waited till after I finished watering all the beds and garden to rain.
So it goes Ric. So it goes. I was out cutting the grass at 830 last night in anticipation of rain, I honestly can't remember the last time I cut it. It got so hot and dry there never was a good time and it stunted.
I've only had 1- 10 day period without mowing, unless we have a down right drought, I usually mow once a week from Easter through Thanksgiving. Years ago all the neighborhood children played in our yard and it looked it, bare paths and patches everywhere. I talked to a local greens-keeper and he recommended what was basically a fairway mix with inoculated white clover added, once established the kids couldn't wear it out, even under the swing set. Now I'm paying for it. LOL I've considered wiping it out and starting over but, it is so drought tolerant, disease free, and non chemical dependent I just can't justify that. Sustaining a beautiful monoculture is too costly and time consuming. I could be a little more aggressive in treating perennial weeds though. As I sit here looking out at maybe 150-200 mixed butterflies in the upper back garden alone, I'm not interested in adding much more than some per-emergence weed block.
Darius---
I would die of curiosity after a year or two as to WHAT was in those
unpacked boxes.
Put some nice music on and sit down and go at it some day when
nothing else is urgent to do.
Paul--I also mowed my lawn last evening....had been procrastinating
about a week plus AFTER the week it should have been mowed...
However--rain or not--it is odd that the grass did look like it had stopped growing...
I sure did not feel like it--but did it anyway.....tired as I was....all drippy...
One more BIG MUST DO off my list.....
Started plugging away at some more "Must Do's today.
I never got to trimming my shrubs in front of my house this spring..
They all just put out new growth and got all lush....
NOW--wayyyy too late in the season--I started trimming off all the beautiful,
new growth of one of my Hemlocks. CHOP!!! NO mercy!!!
Have the other one to go--and the Yew and the Boxwoods by my front steps.
Sure could use your 6'4" Paul---as I have to use my small ladder
to get to the tops. Oh well--I do this every year,,,holding my breath...
The Junipers have grown out overly long new growths...Need to do those too.
I hand-prune those--one stem at a time--because that way, you cannot
even tell that it was pruned...AND--this gives me the monster grip I have.....:o)
Many hundreds of presses of the pruner....ouch!
Ric--I have not even dreamed of starting with the front edging and your rocks yet...
NOT a 90* day job! It will get done--whenever.....
To be continued.......as my private, Chinese gardener is on LOA.
G.
Gita, my boxes are all in storage. If my sister happens to die before me, I'll sell this house and move somewhere that the natives are friendly and then unpack it all!
I wish I had a spruce growing, just read a recipe for spruce bitters I'd like to make. Bitters in iced tea or even just icy cold water make a refreshing non-alcoholic summer drink.
What are Spruce Bitters? Is that like Juniper berries?
I can get loads of Juniper berries from the house across the street from me.
There is a Juniper living there covered in them.
Just a bachelor Guy living there--and the back yard is a nightmare!
All kinds of stuff growing there...even bamboo...no one takes care of it...
The mother (in her 60's) comes and tries to clean things up.
Shame on the young son who is not ashamed that his mother and Aunt
have to sweat for hours pruning and weeding and hacking things out.
But--then again--she raised him. They are from the Philipines....
Gita: That is so interesting about the juniper berries. We use them in cooking -- and as obvious as it is, I never connected "juniper berries" with a living juniper!
Happy--
Maybe all Junipers do not have berries? But I know they have culinary
uses. Even some Liqueurs have Juniper berry seasoning in them.
I'll have to go and pick a bunch before some birds (???) get them...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniper_berry
Hmmmm--the berries i saw were not round....they were a bit angular....
Maybe it is a different shrub? Maybe a yew?
Stay tuned.....G.
There s a specific juniper berry used in cooking, but now I disremember the variety. I use a LOT of it in cooking wild game as it cuts the gamey taste.
Spruce bitters is made from freshly grown spruce tips.
http://frombellytobacon.com/2013/07/22/spruce-tip-bitters/
Darius, I saved that website, some great stuff there. I love bitters and will have to try that. Our juniper berries are more irregular than those pictured in Gita's link. I never liked the taste of gin and juniper is the flavoring in gin, but I may like it as a seasoning in game meats. I'll also have to try that, and here I thought juniper berry was only good for gin and cedar waxwings driven out of the pinewoods by bad winter.
Ric, I go through 3-4 jars of juniper berries every fall (mostly with venison and homemade sausage) and I NEED to grow/make my own!
I have a bunch of bitters' recipes in my files (amazing how many there are online), but just haven't gotten a round tuit to make some.
at Grand Canyon they say the native people used those juniper berries. Sounds like they all are 'edible'
I've got a couple to spare
Quote from Ric_of_MAF :
I never liked the taste of gin and juniper is the flavoring in gin, but I may like it as a seasoning in game meats. I'll also have to try that, and here I thought juniper berry was only good for gin...
Ooooh boy, in my youth... had I known how to turn those berries into a good gin and tonic, I'd have been in BIG trouble.... **snicker**
Judy, may I borrow that purple one today please? My lawn needs a good mowing too.
Paul, does your mower have headlights? HAAA!!!! < =D
More on 'juniper' which hereabouts we call 'cedar'. Not all varieties have edible or consumable berries so caution to know what it is before ingesting.
http://www.eattheweeds.com/junipers/
Speedie, purple tuit will be available all day Thurs but I'm using it today. I've pretty well worn out a number of them over the years of daily use for one thing or another!
Seems our weather has finally gotten tuit with lower humidity and temps.
You're funny, Judy!
Isn't she though?? Sitting here giggling my fool head off, she is such a doll!! < =D
And I come by it honestly.
{quote}Fiddler Jones
The earth keeps some vibration going
There in your heart, and that is you.
And if the people find you can fiddle,
Why, fiddle you must, for all your life.
What do you see, a harvest of clover?
Or a meadow to walk through to the river?
The wind's in the corn; you rub your hands
For beeves hereafter ready for market;
Or else you hear the rustle of skirts
Like the girls when dancing at Little Grove.
To Cooney Potter a pillar of dust
Or whirling leaves meant ruinous drouth;
They looked to me like Red-Head Sammy
Stepping it off to 'Toor-a-Loor.'
How could I till my forty acres
Not to speak of getting more,
With a medley of horns, bassoons and piccolos
Stirred in my brain by crows and robins
And the creak of a wind-mill--only these?
And I never started to plow in my life
That some one did not stop in the road
And take me away to a dance or picnic.
I ended up with forty acres;
I ended up with a broken fiddle--
And a broken laugh, and a thousand memories,
And not a single regret.
Edgar Lee Masters{/quote}
Now THAT's living LIFE!!
Huzzah!
My grand kids tell me that I "don't seem really all grown up" because of my attitude on life. I baby sit them often, have run a trucking company business and done lots of serious stuff without giving up the good stuff. I do like to find time to find the naturally fun things in life.
Like following a little bee around through the yard just to see where he's going... DH calls me a goofball. OK, I confess!! < =D
All things of interest, boys never grow up either. Ask Holly about Batty Coda or the perfect bird skeleton I keep. It reminds me of Gita's dish full of butterflies and such. I couldn't help looking at it to see her treasures. LOL
PS I've been known to carry rocks home from everywhere I go.
Cute poem Judy!
This message was edited Jul 25, 2013 11:26 AM
Heehee I did that, too, Ric!! Oh, honey, look at those rocks. Just one more?
I love the idea of collecting treasures.
Did you see the skeletal heads in my garden? And the turtle shells? Things my dad picked up on the farm years ago and brought to me. Since I taught biology it was a no-brainer. When the school where I had taught was wanting to get rid of the display case I asked for them back and out in the garden they went.
The weather out here in Oregon is delightful. Gets hot during the day, but cools down nicely at night. Tomorrow we head to a lake just east of Mt. Hood for the weekend. DIL's grandparents had property there. The house was sold, but DIL and her sister were given a small lakeside plot. There is a permanent trailer, a shed/bunkhouse and a shed with a toilet. Everything we need. Jeff is really looking forward to it.
Perfect day for line dry laundry!
Please don't think I am ignoring you all, in fact I am here now only because of you. I love reading all your informative posts and follow your activities and weather but, the problems that are on DG just now keep me from posting and reading most of the posts.I do not have time to zoom in and out or even use my Zoom Text for one Garden Site. I am debating what I am going to do since there seems to be no end in sight now. I had all the adjustments made and was doing great until yesterday and now it is back to square one. Text in post boxes is fine when I type it, but it comes out very small. I am hoping they soon get it fixed.
If anyone wants to contact me please use my email address:
Jberger431@aol.com, I seldom even check my dmail anymore.
LOVE YOU ALL. JB
Edited to finish typing the weather.
Having explained my absence, the weather here is cloudy and cool....just great for working in the greenhouse. Got all the cuttings planted that were ready and now if the grass is dry enough I will try and mow again. Have a wonderful day.
This message was edited Jul 25, 2013 12:40 PM
JB -- so nice to hear from you. The formatting snafus have really been a pain. I hope it is worked out soon so we can hear from you more frequently!
Well, since she invited so nicely and all, I took JB up on it and dropped her a note! =)
With the weather being so nice today and all, now I wish I'd waited to mow the lawn, 'cause now I feel like doing it today! < =/
It is absolutely delightful outside right now. Gonna make my iced tea and take the laptop out to the deck.
So I'm not the only ghoul here who has some dried up critter parts hidden away as curious treasure? love it.
Heehee.
Up to 92 here, but dry. Doesn't feel like it does back on the east coast when it gets that hot. At night it drops to a very comfortable level.
felt like fall today and I loved it!!!
Eeeeek!! Isn't it a bit early to use the word "Fall"!?!? But, yeah, it sure felt great yesterday, huh? I was actually wishing yesterday that I'd not mowed my lawn the day before; yesterday would have been the perfect day for it... oh well.
What's in store for us today? I gotta work today and it's Friday, so hopefully we'll have wonderful weather and the customers will FLOCK to us in droves and cackles!!! (or, in the case of you ghouls... in MURDERS. Muuaahahahaaa!!!)
So nice to have a little heat relief.