Big Bee Buzz Starts Tonight.

Registration Starts at 5:30.

Eastside Christian Church.

15th and Harvard

Better Days

Got up early to get dirt picked up at Amanda's. David saw the upside down wheelbarrow in his way at the garage door - guess he took it as a hint. I was still awake when he came in and nothing harsh was exchanged.

Life got a lot better today - he tilled the garden again, helped me get the potting soil and I just took the bird to the greenhouse with me- wore her out. Did I mention we have a Goffin Cockatoo? Time - they eat time up but if you put her on your shoulder and work - hey, killing birds with a stone. Got a lot done - tomatoes transplanted - 2 flats, 5 more hanging baskets, 5 pots of mixed flowers - edible types and even took time to run to store to find trellises. And she's tired - Peaches it the bird's name - whoohoo I won't have to hear her screaming tonight - she's not said a word this afternoon at all - Pooooooped I tell ya!

I mentioned Food Inc to Amanda - she's not seen it - but I think she saw the previews on Oprah's show regarding it. I need to cook a meal or two but my motion right now is plant, plant, plant - and not cook, cook, cook - amazing I've lost weight eating out - just doesn't include Hamburger buns, french fries or large quantities of gravy on anything. I've made sugar my enemy - now if I could get off diet Coke - my last refuge of bad food habituation - I think that's a word.

Like I said, it was a better day - first thing in the morning - two flats must be watered, remaining seedless tomatoes transplanted and then the beefsteaks seem the tallest - oh, I got all kinds of squash planted today - 8-ball zucchini - round stuff, cocozelle - light green zuch, straightneck and white scallop and a whole flat of parks whopper cucumbers - they do well but I am completely hooked on their Whopper line except the stupid squash is treated - I don't like treated seed. Next two days I hope to get cole crops into the garden for our use, peas would be nice, beets, carrots, and all the dang onions are growing in the bag - literally up and green onion sized greens - rolls eyes - not bragging - either - that's not entirely normal.

My lower garden is going to be dedicated to Okra - local grocery will take Okra - can't start it till it warms up - and I keep expecting these cold nights and cool days to burst straight from crappy yucky dampness and chill to blistering heat - we don't have a spring in Oklahoma much and seldom a fall - just Summer and Winter - in all their individual ugly HOT or COLD.

If you get close enough to - kick Inhofe in the shorts - I'll do the same if I get close enough too.

Peace and enjoy

Mad or out of Holy Basil

OK - not a good day in the greenhouse - friend shows up and wants 3 flats and of course he doesn't have potting soil worth anything and so I gave him potting soil, and spaghnum moss and 3 six packs - he gave me $5.00 but he also needed a silver pen - to mark the pots. It was the time that was so precious - and once used up it is gone forever.

David seems useless right now - he doesn't want to wake up before 9 and grudgenly does arise about 8 - but then there's breakfast that he cannot live without - and by the time we get to the feed store and stop at the grocery store we get home around 10 - dang it - the days shot. I mentioned potting soil - he didn't seem to absorb that request - so now I have to go pick it up in the morning - we store it at Amanda's - she grows scented geraniums and has a big building and she works cleaning and restoring gardens - and her season has begun so she's not home this time of year during ordinary hours. And he leaves at 1 pm - to get to work by a quarter to 3 - shrugs - don't ask, I still don't understand.

I am out of my Holy Basil tablets - which I am using for depression so I am not sure I am not rightfully mad or just lacking my happy pills - but the trash is overflowing, the carpet is a mess, the table is loaded with a plethora of crappola and I want my life back and it is only mid March.

As I ate supper I filled in the US Census and the OK Dept of Ag has sent me 3 survey's to fill in - one for my own farm and one each for the two markets - oh glory - goodie, goodie. So while I eat, I work. I came home to find my beekeeper feeding the bees. She needed a check, and somehow could not find her order form or her receipt for the check. I feel for her - cuz that's how my day had been going - then I got a phone call from a former greenhouse getting-back-into-the-business friend - guess she will be at Jenks Herb and Plant Festival and UPS made a deliver - germs to kill the small larvae called fungus gnats. Oh joy - if it would dry out I'd have less of them - but the soil itself that the greenhouse sits on is a haven for those minor greenhouse pests - I should thank God everyday that is the only menace in the greenhouse.

So up to dark - I end up filling large 4 inch pots with dirt so I can water them in first thing AM and then start - yes start - squash - for my own farm and for sales - cuz this year food it where I am focusing - if you can't eat it - well, there's a few things I am growing like Sweet Grass and Aloe Vera - but mostly I am thinking food.

Nuff - maybe it is just a need for Holy Basil to keep my stern in gear - otherwise - if you don't see David at a show - I buried him - with his tiller - out back - under the woodpile - winks.

Transplant Insanity

Tomatoes and peppers are never consistent so I never try to direct sow those for the festivals or the markets. So that means that I use the 6 packs with 72 plants in a tray. I have about 35 flats of transplants and I got one done today. Ten hanging baskets were completed and all of my January tomato starts are now transplanted into gallon pots- there was 68 of those total so it isn't like I was sitting on my hands today.

I noticed in the Tulsa World a picture of plants - I think they were tomatoes and the caption indicated that the disease commonly known as Damping Off - was a huge problem to the home grower - cleanliness was required. I have a better answer to that age old dilemma - get some spaghnum moss - either milled or just a big bag of the brown messy moss and simply sprinkle this over your babies as they emerge. Park's Seed Company sells books on growing plants - years ago I bought the one about successful herb growing and in the first section of the book it discussed the use of milled spaghnum moss as a starter medium. Now don't go dropping the unmilled on top of your plants but do take the stuff and rub it between your hands to create a dusting of this like powdering a babies behind. Moss has a bacteria in it that prevents the bacteria that causes Damping Off to occur. Voila - no more pretty plants one day and nasty looking pinch waisted plants falling over dying. Be careful that you don't suck this stuff into your lungs - I've done this for 17 yrs and thus far, no lung cancer or hacking cough but just be careful - natural doesn't mean be stupid.

Happy Planting ya'll.

Am I the only one without a Debit Card

I stopped today at Garden Ridge - I needed some kind of very inexpensive trellis for hyacinth bean to climb on and found some florist wreath hangers with 3 legs - bend them a bit and they will fit the pots - voila. I pick up ten, meander around to the front and get into line - and of course the new method of checking out seems so odd as the stores line you up like cattle waiting to be branded and take you one at a time. I had my checkbook out with pen in hand and without batting an eyelash, the young lady didn't even say, Oh, I'm sorry - she just flatly said, we don't take checks. Flatly.

I looked at her and simply didn't say a word, I reached over into my basket and yanked my purse out and turned on my heel and walked out. They didn't want me to pay them with a check, I had two credit cards but no debit card and I didn't want to add them to my credit cards enough to want the little wire wreath hanger in the first place. Not if they won't take a check. And I had cash but cash is for meals - checks are for purchases.

I already buy stuff at places where they deduct my check thru some machine the instant I am at their cash register - and I hate getting my check and a receipt stub unstapled but at least they take the check to begin with. I guess Garden Ridge is off my shopping list from now on - I wan't one of their best anyway.

Finally saw Food Inc

Wow, went to Turley last night to see Food Inc. Huge Sigh! OMG - our food system is so screwed up - much like our Corporate America. When the lady spoke of losing her 2 1/2 yr old son to ecoli - I almost lost it.

Something is terribly wrong here - cows being fed corn to grow fatter quicker develop stomach problems that result in ecoli bacteria that are pooped into massive pens with millions of other cows that all shit and stink and are killed and put into our hamburger - chickens are fed massive amounts of antibiotics to control disease and grow fat so fast their lungs and hearts cannot keep up and are loaded into trucks for the slaughter house by men who kick them and stuff them into bins going to Tyson. If you are upset with the illegals from Mexico and other south of the border countries - talk to the slaughter houses where they were encouraged to move here after we shipped cheap corn to their countries putting their farmers out of business. And don't get me started on Monsanto. They have coopted the corn, wheat, soy and now are working on alfalfa seeds. Farmers who have been feeding this nation now belong to their inner sanctum of roundup proof seed users - that resist certain bugs for now - but as those bugs begin to feed and develop resistence - no telling where that will take us. And GMO seeds- are they good for us - has the FDA really tested its affects.

I only eat beef once very two weeks only because of anemia prevention. I still buy too much chicken and ground turkey and I still eat out but my eating has changed enough I've lost 40 lbs. I cut white flour and white sugar out of my diet mostly - white flour creeps in here and there but the sugar is pretty much gone.

I know people who buy gold and horde it as a shield against some future disaster but right now I am thinking seed. Before Monsanto starts in on Tomatoes. Before they get their hands on greenbeans. I have three tom turkeys I need to butcher soon - they are a yr old - and I wish one had been a hen but they were not. I am kinda scared for those who live in town with small yards and more scared for those who live in apartments. I have bees - and am adding a full 10 hives to the property and keeping them alive - two hives are thriving - the third was weak to begin with and may be out of the loop before their is enough food. I am going to get worms - for compost - I have a bunny and I have access to goat nahnah.

Maybe I need to learn to kill bunnies - can't believe I just said that - but they breed pretty fast and aren't huge like a cow or pigs. And I need a dozen or more chickens. Wow - are you planting - are you going to grow enough to eat and put some in your freezer, are you going to take on the job of feeding your own family this year. Yep, I am a market manager for two markets - and I am still scared that no matter how loud we yell, you will still buy from WalMart or even Whole Foods and think you are doing good but maybe it is time you think growing.

I knew I'd be smacked in the face again by the movie Food Inc. I just didn't realize how much I want you all to know I'm still scared.

Wow

What a difference a day makes.