The cucumbers are just strange- they call these “Burpless Muncher” cukes, and they’re supposed to be longish and smooth. They are smooth, but most of them are short, fat and curly! They’ve had plenty of water, so I’m not sure why they grew like this. They taste the same, but they don’t quite look like picklers that I was hoping for this year. We’ll see how they do as the plant matures.

The banana pepper plants are really doing well… if you’re squeezed for space I’ve proven that you can cram 6 yellow banana pepper plants right next to each other and they will still grow a lot of peppers!  

It’s fun to see everything growing, to enjoy the garden’s time in summer- and soon we’ll plant a few more things.  But first it’s time for a weeklong trip back east- we’re scrambling to get packed up this morning.  I may try to write from the road, but we’ll see.   Have a great week!

Imagine the playfulness of that dog in the picture… and then imagine he’s that way no matter where  he is, and that the boy loves  to play with him.  They both have a smile on their faces.  I think watering flowers was the mission, as you can see by the watering can.  But it didn’t work out that way.  It’s like having a 90 pound three year old racing around with an 8-year old boy.  Neither of them listen very well, and both of them are intent on doing something.   Since I’m never quite sure what that is, I usually just direct traffic or try to stay out of the way…  

On July 4th, 1776, the delegates to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia voted to adopt the Declaration of Independence.  Most of us knew that, but we don’t often think about the price those men and their families paid for doing so.  Or why they voted for independence in the first place.

There were many reasons leading to the desire to be an independent nation.  I remember the story of the Boston Tea Party as a child for example.  In 1773 angry colonists dressed as Mohawk Indians and dumped over 40 tons of taxed British tea into the Boston Harbor.  This in response to the Tea Act- levying taxes on colonists by an unelected legislature far across the Atlantic Ocean.  In response, Boston Harbor was shut down completely by the British, stopping all commerce and hurting businesses and families. 

That was one of the Coercive acts that led to the first Continental Congress  meeting in 1774.  It’s hard to even relate to events so long ago, until we feel or see how our lives may be touched in similar ways.  Those who serve this great nation at home and abroad feel deeply about their service in much the same way as those patriots of long ago- they are serving because they believe in America.  

Those who believe strongly in limited government and fiscal responsibility also feel deeply about things, for example to what degree our government should be involved today in our lives in terms of laws and taxation.  And others believe that government should have a much larger role to play. Sometimes it leaves you wondering- here in Missouri for example, there are a host of auto workers who just produced the last Dodge Ram pick-up truck at a plant near St. Louis, Missouri.  The plant is being closed down, presumably for good.  And while these fine men and women are out of jobs- they watched as tax dollars were spent bailing out the auto companies- and those tax dollars in essence have been funneled to another auto plant in a different country to produce the same vehicles.   Competitiveness is one thing- but it doesn’t seem appropriate that taxpayers have been asked to support jobs to make American cars and trucks in another country, while leaving our own citizens without jobs at home.

Some have even chosen July 4th this year as TEA Party Day- representing a remembrance and organized form of protest over how much spending and taxation we may see in the years ahead.    We see California beginning to write IOU’s because they can’t figure out a state budget.  Other states struggle with the same debate over increasing taxes, or reducing spending, and these issues are integral to the lives and fortunes of the people who live there.

We live in a great country- where we can freely discuss, debate and organize over issues people believe are important.  We may not always agree- but the pendulum still swings. Have a great weekend!

The japanese beetles are still with us- I won’t show the picture, but we had a totally filled “bag-o-beetles” across the pond.  I moved the traps further away and it has helped keep the numbers down around the house and garden.   Look at this muscadine or wild grape vine- it’s growing on top of a rusty old hay rake, and the little black dots are the beetles just covering it.

The wild elderberry is in full bloom too.  I think the wet spring really helped the elderberries this year, and they’re growing abundantly all along the roadsides.  The berries will be ripe in August and September.

Time to cut more grass too- which is strange because there’s a ton of clover growing and bees all about.  So there I am worrying about running over the bees while they’re trying to gather nectar for honey.  I went in the hives yesterday… lo and behold one of the hives is really building out their frames with honey.  The other hive, not so much.  But since this is our second year, the bees are not only gathering nectar, but they have to build out each frame with wax honeycomb.  It takes time and energy, so there won’t be a lot of honey this year.  But as I pulled apart the supers (boxes of frames), the wax broke in several places with glorious light colored honey pooling on top of the frames.  One of these days very soon…

On a personal note, Mom is eighty years old today- Happy Birthday!  I can only hope to be as strong and healthy… we went blueberry picking the other day, filling up our little buckets.  I really tried hard to put up a nice, clear picture… must be my camera :)

With that data-centric awareness we can always be ”plugged in” but our minds can easily be filled with extraneous and brain-consuming information.  I use the computer every day, and love technology for the productivity it can bring to our lives.  Yet sometimes I wonder what we miss or give up to stay so connected.   They say that folks aged 16-24 are “texting” around 50% of the time while on the road driving… that amazes me.  And that about 20% of adults are texting on the road.   I’m sorry but that is a dumb thing to do.  It just isn’t necessary- why risk your life or someone else’s to have a conversation with your fingers? 

I don’t like the idea of state laws dictating what we can or can’t do in a car, but can you imagine being responsible for an accident while texting (or even talking on the phone)?   The problem is that it doesn’t relate directly to operating the vehicle.    Even voice converstations can be so distracting- I’ve talked on the phone while driving, but it takes a lot of concentration.   It’s just not a natural thing to do for most people, and because it doesn’t relate to the physical activity taking place, it is a separate activity. 

There’s a reason the FAA has rules for airline pilots that prohibit “small talk” unrelated to cockpit duties while the aircraft is below certain altitudes…  so they can concentrate on operating their aircraft.  I flew a couple jet aircraft in the navy- incorporating some amazing technologies.  Sometimes our hands would operate dozens of near-simultaneous command inputs while flying- usually without voice actions inside the cockpit.  But tons of voice information would come into the cockpit at the same time.  I can tell you it’s very difficult to concentrate on the mission- but just about everything is related to that mission.  And there’s a ton of training that takes place.   Texting and talking while driving is not related to the actions of driving- it’s a distraction, and it’s usually a distraction in an incredibly dense operational environment.  Anyway, it’s an issue sure to grow, I would think especially in legal realms.

It’s more than just driving.  I was in the grocery store a while back- stuck behind a woman in the aisle.  I thought she was trying to choose something from the shelf… then after a couple minutes I realized she was texting!  Sheesh…  for some people it’s like their brain turns off.   She was embarassed when she realized she was blocking the aisle, lost in her digital world.  

Sometimes I yearn for those days when our world seemed so much smaller at home, and bigger far away- we just didn’t know everything, hear everything… or wonder or care about everything.   I think it’s important to get outside, slow down and take the time to detach… for me, a rural lifestyle provides that balance but it’s a choice.   Real life matters.  

*******

Two icons of pop-culture passed away yesterday.  I remember growing up admiring the Farrah posters that I would see in stores or at friends houses- and yes, I even watched Charlie’s Angels a time or two.   Seems like yesterday, and we all have our time.   And the musician.  I remember wondering what the point was of a tv music channel that was on every day… until I spent a summer in college studying physics.  Then I would take a break and watch MTV at a friends place, amazed by it all.   Watching Michael Jackson’s Thriller music video the next year… what an amazing musician and performer. But I never watched a lot of MTV.  Real life mattered more.

That long range digital forecast says it will start cooling down this weekend, with a cooler week coming up.  That sounds pretty good and I hope you stay cool too.

I’m curious to try the yellow banana peppers- the plants are really producing many right now and they seem to love the heat too.  They’re supposed to be sweet and yellow at maturity- but they’re all staying greenish so far.  This one is five inches long now.  It’s supposed to turn a brighter yellow on the plant but I think I’m going to pick it!

*******

The other evening after a hot day the storm clouds were building to the west.  This one looked like a beautiful windswept face.

*******

In other garden news (unfortunately) it’s japanese beetle season!  Which is a little much these days.  Those of you further to the west probably don’t have them around yet.  They only arrived in our area a few years ago, but they’re marching steadily west it seems- how far they go is the question. It seems like they’re all ending up here!

They are not a native species, and were introduced accidentally in the early 1900’s in New Jersey on nursery plants.  But as they invade new local environments they have no natural predators and just go crazy.  They are particularly fond of roses- which are covered with them in the summer.  But they’ve also stripped our little cherry trees of leaves already.  They emerge in June and July in our area, laying eggs in summer, which hatch and become larvae that burrow deeper  into the soil and overwinter until the following year.

They’re also really annoying… nickel sized bugs flying and buzzing everywhere like alien space invaders.  “Buzzzzz!  Whoa! What was that!? ” is your first reaction… then, “Oh…”  Here’s a few of the lovely critters munching on a rose bush:

I’m hoping some enterprising bird learns to enjoy eating the little buggers at some point, or that the population explosion diminishes over time.  Probably futile wishes, at least in terms of a few years.   In order to control them around our landscape, we’re using beetle traps.  These consist of a flower scent and a sex pheromone that seems to drive the beetles crazy.  Here’s a picture of a hundreds of these beetles that have fallen into the plastic bag trap.  I put this trap up the day before this picture and it’s already getting full.   Kind of gross, but it makes the point.

We have three of these bags set fifty yards from the garden, and it draws the beetles away from more valuable landscape plants.  Thank heavens they don’t eat anything in the garden that I can tell so far!   Who knows- maybe I should put the bags a few acres away- for all I know I’m attracting them here.   Another choice would be to spread insecticide throughout the landscape to kill the larval grubs in the ground where they live.  But I’m too stubborn and don’t want to spread chemicals around… everything washes down hill toward the pond, and I have no idea of the toxicity of those chemicals over time.   There’s another control agent we could try- a powdered form of Bacillus popilliae, which is a bacterium that causes milky spore disease and provides natural control against grubs.

We’ll see how it goes with the traps for now.  Lovely oddities of nature, but it drives home the importance of not introducing non-native plant and animal species where they don’t belong throughout the world.

As the sun rose this morning, the light filtered through the trees- lighting up a patch of day lilies on the property line.  They lilies have not opened yet for the day, but I really like their bright orange coloration.  Next to the day lily patch a few white stones are stacked up to mark Sparky’s grave. 

When I was out early this morning the air was cool, and the scene above just stood out in the light.  It looked nice so I captured a quick shot. After I was looking through the pictures, I was amazed to realize that exactly a year ago this week we put Sparky down at the vet,  after a coyote or a fox nearly killed him, (or well, mortally wounded him).

Sparky was a one-of-a-kind cat that we all loved, more like a dog really, and one of those animals you always remember.  He would jump into my lap while I was on the tractor, and follow me around while I worked.  The young boy would carry him everywhere and Sparky gladly went along.  He didn’t hunt much of anything, but had a good life, happy and carefree, and wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else but outside.  He used to love playing on the pond ice in winter- one time racing all around chasing a little chunk.  Another time he actually fell into the pond!

We buried him under the oak tree above, next to the day lilies.  If you ever wanted to see a picture of a cat walking side-by-side with a dog, here’s your chance! 

I wrote a little remembrance of Sparky in Ode to a Cat. 

*******

The long awaited day for the barn swallows has arrived as they have begun leaving the nest.  This year I was amazed to see five fledgling barn swallows in the little mud nest above the garage light.  How do they all fit in there?!  Once the first one leaves, the rest all follow within 24 hours or so.  I took this photo last night, and this morning there are only three in the nest.

Oddly, I have never actually seen a fledgling barn swallow leave the nest.  One of those mysteries of life- perhaps the adults have some type of call or something that induces the young birds to leave, maybe very early in the morning?  The birds probably make sure no animals or people are around.  Still, I’d love to see one fly for the first time.

The hollyhocks are in bloom too- these grew on a couple of stalks last year, but now there are three times that many growing very tall- reaching past six feet.  

Everything is starting to produce, so now it’s a matter of keeping the weeds down and the bugs away from the goodies.  In another experiment I’m going to try training cucumbers (below middle) on a wire fence. 

I supported the top of the fence because cukes can get somewhat heavy, but we just don’t have a lot of room for them to spread out.  If you’ve grown cucumbers before you know they could take over the whole garden if you let them!

The sugar and snow peas are finally here and even the beets look halfway decent with the tops filling out.   The beets don’t seem to get very large though, and I’m wondering if that’s because our soil is too compacted? I didn’t till this year, but instead topdressed the rows with a couple inches of mulch and organic compost.  Much of that probably washed off in the rain.  Perhaps I’ll do the same next year, but only after tilling the row to loosen it up.

That may also be better for our potatoes (above). They’ve come along really well, but the soil is pretty thick.  Some of you professional potato growers have figured out that loose mulch works very well and makes  harvesting that much easier.  Maybe we’ll try that next year too. 

This morning I went out to pick some of the peas- they grow so fast once they get going!  Fortunately the spring has been cool and wet, but I don’t know how long our pea harvest will be.  This will be the first big week for them.  Last year we grew beans that lasted almost all summer.  But I enjoy peas so much more than beans!  Maybe we’ll plant them again in September for a fall harvest?  Never tried that before.

*******

On a different note in recent gardening news, a lot of folks are worried about looming passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act (HR 875).    While the idea and intent make sense in terms of safer foods for everyone, some organizations (here with comments) and people (here and here) believe small farm and livestock operations, organic gardening, farmer’s markets, and even backyard gardens could all be affected negatively by government regulations run amok over time.   In some areas of the blogosphere the subject nearly incites panic.  

With all due respect to our most principled and esteemed lawyer friends :),  I find one of the comments to the Slow Food USA Blog posting from April 10th particularly appropriate:

“The fact that Rep. DeLauro is “shocked” that people have taken notice of her piece of ambiguous and questionable legislation should be a wake up for our nation that our politicrats are expecting us to continue being sheep. There is nothing wrong with the American public demanding greater transparency and a much more well-defined bill to be set on Obama’s desk once the legislative process is complete.  When politician’s don’t hear from anyone but corporate lobbyists, lawyers, and special interest groups is when the legislative process goes awry.  Kudos to the radicals and the misinformed public for asking questions and demanding clarification…if even they are “inflammatory”, “hysterical”, or “misguided”. ”   Glenn Grossman

After a little reading and practical reasoning however, the fears don’t appear to be justified.   But fears are borne from lack of clarity and/or transparency of intention.   There are simply too many questions left unanswered and that’s where the concern arises.     I have to say I’m squarely in the camp that opposes bigger government intruding into our lives.  Meaning I don’t enjoy seeing more government… more regulations… more laws to juggle and comply with and obey.  I don’t believe the government can protect us from all evils, including ourselves, nor should it attempt to.   But hey, the folks on capitol hill just want to do what’s best for us, right?  I have visions of FDA inspectors running around looking for ways to justify their existence…

*******

Here at home the leaves on the trees are becoming that deep summer green once again.  It’s nice to see shade, and places where dappled sunlight falls through the trees.  Somehow it brings thoughts of quiet afternoons or exploring places not seen. 

While I walked around early this morning I saw that the heron was back again.  It had an even bigger fish in its bill as it flew away.  I just shook my head…  the dogs wandered around with me, looking for the rabbit that haunts the garden.

Old man basset hound tells the yellow lab  “Woo…woo…wooooo… this is my spot!”  How about those ears!?

We’re due for some warmer, sunnier days and I know they’ll come.  I really do appreciate the cooler weather for getting work accomplished, but the bugs and weeds have gone crazy.  I think the birds thrive on the moisture at this time of year because insects are so abundant.   Its fun to watch flycatchers and bluebirds chase insects around beneath the trees.  And the flowers love the rain too- this hydrangea is showing off.

Nesting birds are really busy everywhere it seems.  I was excited to see my first Baltimore Oriole nest high in an oak tree on the hillside overlooking the pond.  I had seen the female oriole around for a couple of weeks, and one bright morning the nest just stood out in the sunlight, hanging pensile near the top of the oak tree.    I went out early and waited for over a half hour to try and get a photo of an oriole together near the nest.   The nest would move and shake but the oriole would not appear… so I went out a second day and finally the oriole made it’s way back to the nest in a secretive fashion.  I captured a shot with the bird nearby, but it went in and out of that nest so quickly!

The garden has shown  a few surprises this year as well.  We have many dill plants that have grown as volunteers from letting plants go to seed in previous years.  One plant is growing near the base of a Saint Francis statue, with a little friend happily munching on it. 

The caterpillar is the larval stage of the Black Swallowtail Butterfly, fairly common in our region.  We’ve got enough dill around, so I enjoy watching these guys.  But I’m on the lookout for tomato hornworms- they can tear down a tomato plant in a matter of days, and that’s my sauce for the next year.

For some more exciting news I saw a flying fish today!  I was out early checking on the bees, and saw a heron catch a really big bluegill.   I started down the hill to chase it away, and it took off across the pond with the fish flopping in its bill the whole way.  It was kind of funny looking, but I was miffed.  Those bluegill are prized for catching with the boy!  And if they’re too big to swallow, the heron just drops ‘em on the bank and goes for more.  Practical bird, huh?  There’s lots of smaller bass and I suppose the heron eats some of those too.  But man that gangly bird has been around every morning lately- I wonder how many pounds of fish it eats in a month!? 

I wandered back into the garden (I just love strolling around the vegetables!)  and I thought of how such a few seeds can become such a grand harvest with a little steady attention.   Then I looked over the fence at my 16 year old diesel farm truck and remembered it needed a little attention too.  Well farm truck is a bit of an exaggeration since we really aren’t farmers.  Unless you count a hundred thousand bees as livestock, which the Department of Agriculture actually does.  But no, we’re just a small family living in the country.  Down the road there’s a real dairy farm and a hog farm, and after talking with the dairyman about his mornings, I’m pretty thankful for mine.

But I digress… I was going to say something about that old 3/4 ton truck, eventually.  Yesterday the Cash for Clunkers plan passed in the House, and now it’s on to the Senate and presumably the President.  On the surface it sounds like a great idea.  But looking a little deeper it’s just another basket of taxpayers dollars in an effort to support the auto industry.  Which I have mixed feelings about.  I’m not a fan of government largesse and program development, especially when it seems like we’re playing Wheel of Fortune with so much money these days.  But I know there are real folks out there whose jobs and livelihoods depend on the auto industry- and I would like to support them.  We’ve given disappearing billions to the financial industry, what’s a few more to help workers that actually create something?

With the Cash for Clunkers plan, that old truck sitting out back might actually be worth something.  It served its purpose enjoyably over many years, and I still had ambitious plans for it.  Somehow I don’t remember what those were.   We don’t really use it much anymore except to hold fuel, and maybe it would be more useful if I traded it in on something that gets better mileage.  It gets all of about 14-15 mpg.  Who can argue with a handsome rebate from Uncle Sam?  Maybe I could think of it as a rebate of taxes paid and feel better.  Gas prices are heading up again too, so that could be just the excuse I need.  Let’s see, more rationalization…  the truck is really hard to start because the glow plugs need replaced and the fuel filter assembly needs fixed too.    Instead of a big ‘ole truck, I might just have $4500 parked on gravel by the garden!

Of course that still means car payments for something else, and that old paid-for truck has a lot of memories going for it.  Still runs and looks pretty good too, at least once you get it started.  There’s something about driving down the road in an older truck, and seeing people look admiringly at it, sharing memories of years past.   Clunker or not, I really like that old truck.