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Thursday, 09 September 2010 21:32 |
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by Bob Smith
Hi there.
I am seriously, at this time (12 a.m. 9/3/2010) looking forward to winter! ! This has been my hottest summer since wintering on Guam, a South Pacific island, during WWII, the BIG ONE, living with seven other Marines in a pyramidal tent, much exercise. It is now much easier here with air conditioning – and we have started opening the windows - with good screens tightly installed – when the outside temp is below 68, and turning off the AC. If it gets hotter as I think probable, we may install a fan in a window upstairs to blow the hot air out, sucking more cool air in downstairs!
We have had what I call a poor gardening year, but hope you had a good one. Weeds seemed to thrive too well, during the rainy (or Indiana Monsoon) period, we mowed our six acre homestead almost daily, and the darned weeds just loved the summer. I don’t mind weeds, and even unwanted trees, starting to grow in our lawns, because we mow them off whenever we mow, and eventually their roots give up and kick their buckets.
We have enjoyed produce from our garden, but we didn’t make freezer slaw, cabbage didn’t do well, but we can buy grocery cabbage and make it if we run out of what is left in our freezer. We haven’t canned the first canner of tomatoes – but we have eaten the usual number of tomato and mayonnaise sandwiches, and loved it. Judy harvests and prepares her many varieties of basil, I stay busy in the air conditioned kitchen preparing pesto to freeze. My daughter and her husband, who grew up in Michigan, now live in Denver.
They used to come to Michigan for his annual school reunion, rent a lake home, and we would give them leftover frozen pesto, and it survived the flight home. Last year, they didn’t come east (they are aging, too!), I airmailed the leftover pesto, delivered to them before it melted, for $64. This year we plan a trip to Denver to deliver our-left-over-from-last-year pesto. We may stay overnight - or longer!
Weeds come in many forms, and like other vegetables and plants, some are annuals, some perennial. All annual plants live one year, produce many seeds, and die. Biannuals live for two years, produce seeds, and die. Perennial plants may live forever, I think, and we have a few perennial weeds in our lawns, and they are pretty hard to eliminate, because the very birds we feed purchased seeds to, may deliver, unknowingly, perennial weed seeds when they stop to enjoy our green grass lawns, show us their colors, and try to spread natural fertilizer as they walk around.
We grow asparagus. Normally in the fall, after the tall asparagus plants turn brown, after they have stored in the underground crown of their plant, all the nutrients necessary to produce more asparagus than we can eat next year, we chop off the dead tops, cover the asparagus bed with Tom Cormany’s seed wheat straw, which contains NO WEED SEEDS! The biggest problem in growing asparagus is that annual weeds may provide competition.
Some people have put salt on their asparagus beds to kill the weeds. Guess what? That can kill the asparagus too, and does. It takes about five years to establish an asparagus bed, but many asparagus beds, treated properly, live nearly forever – or longer than I have. The worst enemy asparagus has is grass – and of course, if you didn’t know, asparagus is a grass! I prefer to not use any chemical that kills just the weeds in your lawn, I prefer Tom’s weed free straw, and I try to pay him more than he asks for each 40 pound bale. (I can’t handle the 450 pound bales he now uses, also.)
Well, I am old, and last year, I forgot to take Tom’s weed free wheat straw out of my barn and spread it on the asparagus bed, and this year we had a really good weed crop there. Many were as tall as the tallest asparagus, and I can, and have cut off all their seeds, so they won’t germinate next year. Judy is able to get down on her knees faster than I, and back to her feet without crawling to the nearest tree or tractor as I do to re- arise, and she wonderfully helped pull the weeds around the asparagus. Soon I will mow the brown asparagus tops, and seriously apply Tom’s weed free straw to our asparagus. . . . good gardening by Bob Smith Hi there. I am seriously, at this time (12 a.m. 9/3/2010) looking forward to winter! ! This has been my hottest summer since wintering on Guam, a South Pacific island, during WWII, the BIG ONE, living with seven other Marines in a pyramidal tent, much exercise.
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Wednesday, 01 September 2010 15:33 |
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by Bob Smith
Hi there.
We really like living in a farming community like Churubusco, and I would like to tell you about a few of the reasons. Bob Egolf, owner of Egolf’s IGA Grocery Store, does a lot of good things for the residents and his customers and Churubusco residents. His meat department is our favorite, and his store and personnel are excellent.
My first banker was Gary Wright, formerly with Churubusco National Bank, but he financed the purchase of my farmstead, when other banks refused, because I, being an over-the-road trucker, had no residence address, (or expense!) receiving my mail at North American Van Lines, Fort Wayne Freightliner Garage, or my tax address in Nevada, a moving company agent’s office. Gary, an old time country banker, said, “Heck, just put down my address, they don’t come out and check!”
His son, Bruce, is my banker now, with Lake City, and the second in command at his bank is Denise Ramsey, married to Mark, of 3Kings Flooring. Mark just wonderfully repaired linoleum in the kitchen floor of my country home, built in 1890, maintained since then by eye dee I 0 t ‘s like me (let me spell that differently – IDIOTS!) His sister, Monica, (Mane Street Designs) is Judy’s hair stylist, and keeps her hair so good that (without cause) I stay suspiciously jealous when Judy isn’t at my side, or in the garden, or kitchen!
Doc Willyard is my family doctor, son of a minister with a wonderful wife, and seems to know the exact expert doctor to send me to when my ancient body threatens to dis-function. He always wanted to be a country doctor, and he and his staff are an asset.
I consider the Churubusco Police the finest I have lived near, they are always available and on watch, they are polite, courteous, and efficient – the fact that I have never received either a ticket or a summons in this area is not the reason I respect them – I also respected the many States’ Troopers who gave me speeding tickets while delivering my freight.
I think we have excellent fire department and emergency medical personnel, and the Magic Wand’s breakfast cook’s husband (whose name I can’t reveal – it might loose him his job!) once got my ancient body off the floor and mobile again, but you might already know of whom I speak.
The Volunteer Fire Department is better than any, paid or volunteer, that I have ever experienced. Jim Horne, a volunteer fireman, (and owner of Parker Insurance) was in my front yard, in full fire fighting gear, with fire and police red lights rotating and shining into my bedroom window at about 2:30 a. m. one Sunday morning a few years ago, and I leapt to my feet, dashed out to see what the H___ was going on, and discovered an inebriated someone had run off the road across from my house, the car at that speed had broken off at the base, a heavy power pole.
The police found the car empty, except for beer cans (empty, Jim said), and the license had been removed and carried away by the owners (later arrested). One of the two power company’s trucks whose lines were on that pole arrived, power was not interrupted, and later that day the pole was replaced.
But later, when I left the Magic Wand after breakfast, Horne was sitting at a table near the door with other Churubusco firemen, and said, “Next time, before you come out, put on some pants!” He has become one of my many favorite residents.
I think the owner, the editor, and the staff, of the Churubusco News do an excellent job (of course, they print my columns, which I hope you like, and - I enjoy expressing my views, whether or not you agree. I may be an eye D I 0 T also, (try idiot) - that is not a crime – in Churubusco and vicinity, or out where we live! !
I took my car to Larry, owner of Churubusco Window Tinting (Dave does the tinting!), and they did a great job! My car is cooler inside! . . . good gardening by Bob Smith Hi there. We really like living in a farming community like Churubusco, and I would like to tell you about a few of the reasons. Bob Egolf, owner of Egolf’s IGA Grocery Store, does a lot of good things for the residents and his customers and Churubusco residents. His meat department is our favorite, and his store and personnel are excellent.
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Thursday, 26 August 2010 11:04 |
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by Bob Smith
Hi there.
If you have lived constantly inside an air conditioned castle, you probably haven’t noticed how hot it is in a car now, when the sun is shining in the window on any part of your body. We have, and I don’t mind when the sun shines in Judy’s window, and I am cool, but if we return on the same road, the sunshine heating my body is downright disgusting.
I have had my car windows tinted by a good local professional window tinter, and it makes a world of difference when the sun wants to shine on anyone’s body, either Judy’s or mine. I also plan to have them tint those windows of my house that face the eastern rising sun, and we are happy that we have a screened porch facing west, that prevents the afternoon’s setting sun from heating up that side of our house. I always ask permission before using anyone’s name (except Judy’s!) and I will ask, and put the name and phone number in if allowed, but the location is just a mile or two south of Busco on the west side of 33.
Busco is a wonderful place to live, and nearly full of wonderful people. One of them eats Sunday morning breakfast at the Magic Wand at the same time we do, and he noticed that I was carrying a Louis Lamour western pocket book when I walked in, and asked if I liked Lamour western books, and I said I did. Within the last year, I had gone for my regular six month VA physical, with my assigned Doctor Suseela Doravari, with a Lamour western in my pocket to read while waiting for her to see me. She also, asked if I liked Lamour westerns, and when I enthused, she told me that when she was ten years old, still living in India, where her Father was a Medical Doctor, he used to give her Lamour westerns, and that was when and how she came to learn about, and love, this country.
When I said I loved Lamour westerns, he said he had a lot of them that he had read, and didn’t know what to do with them, would I like them? I said “sure,” the next Sunday he brought about 30 in a bag, and said he had more, and has kept bringing them. I hope a picture of our dining room table is attached, where I am listing the 48 titles now in my house, in my alphabetical order, and would consider contributing them to a ‘Busco Lamour Lending Library,’ (location to be determined) when available, and if you are a Lamour Western reader, we would like them to be available, to be borrowed, read, and returned for future readers.
He has never read “Taggart,” a Lamour western book, and I have seen it listed in several Lamour book listings, (he has written 89 western books, several short stories, many of which are in books) but I haven’t been able to locate ‘Taggart’ for him yet. While leasing a truck to North American Van Lines, I met Louis Lamour in Boulder, Colorado. He grew up in Jamestown, North Dakota. My first professional position as an Agricultural Economist with the Bureau of Reclamation ($2,835 per annum) was in Minot, N.D., and we talked maybe five times before I retired and found my Busco Farmstead, then he died. I miss him, and Judy and I both love his books.
If you are interested, I’ll bet one of my five most favorite LOCAL businesses will give us space for maybe 30 Louis Lamour western books, or you could find a home, and notify the Busco News. If I don’t find a home here, and you don’t tell the News about one, I will give them, and the more than a hundred to the Veteran’s Hospital, just as soon as we have read them! They are well researched, well written, he has been to all locations mentioned, and Fred Swindell, who gave us the collection, Judy, and I will be happy to share them with our neighbors as long as they are returned for the next reader, and stay glued together, or are well repaired, and even if they are borrowed and not returned, there are enough different books and subjects, from cowboys to mining to Indians and war battles, to maintain a lending library for many years, just because the residents of Churubusco really are GOOD PEOPLE. . . . . good gardening
by Bob Smith Hi there. If you have lived constantly inside an air conditioned castle, you probably haven’t noticed how hot it is in a car now, when the sun is shining in the window on any part of your body. We have, and I don’t mind when the sun shines in Judy’s window, and I am cool, but if we return on the same road, the sunshine heating my body is downright disgusting.
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Thursday, 19 August 2010 21:45 |
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by Bob Smith
Hi there.
Do you ever think about why you like to garden? I liked the food from my parent’ s garden, and in those days everybody had similar gardens, some food was prepared differently than at our house, but it was all edible – my Mother’s always tasted better, but theirs was O.K. When I was married, living in Denver, we tried gardening – but I was an over the road salesman, only home on most weekends, with a multistate territory. Our gardens didn’t do well.
While I love to look at and eat produce from our gardens, I really believe that part of my love, is in thinking that I am helping the plants by providing a good home, environment, food and drink. If it wasn’t so darned hot, I would be out even on blistering hot afternoons, killing weeds, or at least deadheading the annual weeds to prevent next year’s crop. (Well, at least until the heat index is over 100 degrees.)
Actually, we are both actively acting in helping others. We support church activities, recycle glass, metal, and acceptable plastic, don’t regularly buy BP, and donate platelets to the Red Cross every two weeks for ill or injured people who can’t make their own. We used to donate blood (for our own near future operation if needed), then for others.
Now we give family and friends, knowledge, companionship, and humor that is not always appreciated, and try to give good homes to our pets, which well deserve a good life. So I think some part of our pleasure exceeds the pleasure of harvest and consumption, and comes from helping our gardens, shrubs, trees, and lawns succeed.
Now that we are in the extreme hot Dog Days of August – are you beginning to believe in Global Warming? My simplified world history of the world starts with an unimaginable creation of the spinning gaseous world that eventually cooled and consolidated into a globe, which cooled until liquids and solids formed, ooze developed, and the first life occurred. Many, many centuries later, man and woman arrived, survived, and prospered.
Soon they discovered cooked tasted better, and they cooked with whatever burned, then coal showed up, followed by oil. Unnoticed by all, combustion of carbon material in oxygen creates CO2 (Carbon Dioxide), but life was good, and we kept on burning more and more wood, coal, and petroleum materials, until so much CO2 was floating in the air, that it interfered with the wonderful air that came with our world as it cooled.
Too much CO2, and shockingly enough, the world has started re-heating, the glacier ices and the Arctic and Sub Arctic frozen seas started to melt and get smaller, and more and more scientific greats started getting alarmed, and started to get our attentions focused on reducing the Carbon Dioxide in the air, and still being produced worldwide.
The seriousness of this problem is not equal around the world, but it is progressing, world wide. We are at the point that we must start doing something to slow down this growing problem!!
We are certainly better educated than the first ever human beings, or we wasted a lot of tuition money over the centuries, or everybody paid no attention to the teachers, - but we have to first learn about, understand, and believe the problem, and we better start correcting the over production of carbon dioxide, regardless of which side your political party thinks is the solution for this country and the world.
I am sure there are, and will be unbelievers in every community, country, and organization, because stopping the increasing of, or reducing the existing levels, but we hope that at least all gardeners will look seriously at the facts of this issue, even if we have to walk, and only go outside on really cloudy days, because the sun’s heat might boil the rain!
Today, in my air conditioned car, when the sun shines in the window on me, and the air conditioner is on high, it is HOT! When the sky is cloudy, with the exact same outside temperature, the air conditioner cools! . . . good gardening by Bob Smith Hi there. Do you ever think about why you like to garden? I liked the food from my parent’ s garden, and in those days everybody had similar gardens, some food was prepared differently than at our house, but it was all edible – my Mother’s always tasted better, but theirs was O.K. When I was married, living in Denver, we tried gardening – but I was an over the road salesman, only home on most weekends, with a multistate territory. Our gardens didn’t do well.
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Friday, 13 August 2010 08:21 |
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by Bob Smith Hi there.
Before finding my dream six acre farmstead, I spent 28 years driving various trucks I owned, and leased to North American Van Lines, headquartered in Fort Wayne. I enjoyed the work and the opportunity, and I had, and still, enjoy more friends in this area than any place I had lived before. This summer has been exceptionally hot, and I really appreciate my geothermal system that heats in the winter, and cools in the summer, all based on water from my well.
The last of many changes made to our 1890 house was an attached garage, which keeps our car ready to drive out, whether into the coldest of winters, or the hottest 2010 summer, and we consider the geothermal system and the attached garage our greatest treasures. This 2010 summer really makes us think Global Warming may be going on, since this summer, highest temperatures are occurring, worldwide.
The well water that heats and cools our house, drains eventually into the Atlantic Ocean. The system was installed by the Robert Sloffer father-and-son family of excellent plumbers. Bob Jr. suggested that I could plumb the water from the system out to my garden, since he knew that gardening was one of our greatest favorite things to do, and by opening one valve, and closing another one, I can do that, or let that used water run into our pond instead of heading for New Orleans. As soon as Judy and I get our work brought up-to-date, we plan to enjoy fishing in our pond, and eating fish we catch instead of enjoying fishes others catch there.
Weeds seem to really thrive in this summer’s weather, and we are spending a lot more gas and time mowing our lawns than we like. I feel better when we mow before the weeds’ seeds have matured, knowing that there won’t be so many produced next year! Well, didn’t I say the exact same thing last year? And the year before?
Our kitchen has the first tomatoes of this season, ready to produce our first feast of tomato and mayonnaise sandwiches! Hooray! In years past we had the first tomatoes by the fourth of July! Well, maybe next year will be a better, early tomato year!
I don’t like Republicans blaming Democrats for government problems, and I don’t like Democrats blaming Republicans, either! England has a ruling family, and I think the direct descendants have done a good job since we resigned from their rule, but – maybe we should try working under a one party government – we would be more likely, if not forced, to look at each prospective candidate’s record closely as we decide whom we should vote for to elect who should govern us, and less likely to blindly follow ‘Party Policy’. Maybe that one party could be named rather “Dempublicans” or “Repubocrats,” if we are forced to choose the party name by popular election.
I ran once for City Council when I lived in Colorado, and lost, and decided that being a politician was not for me. I was sort of used to failing, having been a salesman for years, and when making cold calls (I sold radio and TV program material), no one expected me to make a sale from every presentation, and I certainly did not, but I enjoyed that work until I got married, had a family, and called home from several states distant. My very juvenile son, home alone, answered the phone, and just kept repeating these words, “Please come home, Daddy! Please come home. Daddy! Please come home, Daddy!” So I came home and sought other employment.
Eventually I wound up in the home I love, with all the gardening books I read during lonely nights while traveling the cities and highways of America, and can fully enjoy the geothermal system, the attached garage, and the wonderful friends, neighbors, Judy, and our gardening activities. . . . good gardening Hi there. Before finding my dream six acre farmstead, I spent 28 years driving various trucks I owned, and leased to North American Van Lines, headquartered in Fort Wayne. I enjoyed the work and the opportunity, and I had, and still, enjoy more friends in this area than any place I had lived before.
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