Saturday, July 30, 2005

New garden arrangment - Aphid invasion!


Here you have an up-to-date view of the gardening rearrangement. You may notice I moved about half the plants. Here is a summary of changes:

1) moved the Kale from front center to rear middle left (between 2 tomato plants) to improve sun exposure for front cabbage, collard, and remaining 2 lettuce plants.
2) moved cabbage plant from between the left-most tomato plants to the right rear spot to improve sunlight exposure.
3) replaced dying lettuce plants in front right with Collard.

A guest remarks that I am a "Lettuce Killer". I am offended by this accusation. Listen up: my actions to remove 2 dying lettuce plants were "mercy killing". Don't you understand? I had to kill a few sick plants to save the crop. So please, stop labeling me a "killer".

On another note, while doing the replantings, I noticed that the cabbage appears to be in less than perfect health. You may have noticed the holes in the cabbage leaves. There is also some kind of white slime that has collected in the "armpits" of the cabbage leaves. I can only guess that this is due to some kind of aphids, or "cabbage loopers", whatever those are (looked it up on google). So I took the unconventional step of brewing a home remedy consisting of diluted, cooked mashed garlic, and poured a little of if on all the cabbages. Now things smell wonderfully like garlic in the evening. All Aphids must die! If this doesn't do the trick, I will think about putting on a plant screen next.

Thursday, July 28, 2005

New Garden Work Crew

Well it's been a full two weeks since I last updated my Gardening site. The reason is, everything's coming along splendidly in the garden so there wasn't much news to report. There was some new growth in the tomatoes. I will make another post to display that. Also, I had to kill some lettuce plants. They apparently don't like the direct sunlight. Or the bat guano.

A recent guest remarked he'd like to see more girls in bikinis. So to "spice things up", I decided to hire a work crew I will call the "Tomato Girls". These girls, dressed mostly in red to honor the produce that rules my batch of land, are as you can see hard-working, salt-of-the-earth, roll-your-pant-leg-up types. I only hire the best :-)



They are expert in using the gardening implements I provide and their effect on plant reproduction seems quite amazing. After just one shift of them toiling in my backyard, my tomato and cabbage plants had "spruced right up".

On another note, it appears my time here as master of Apartment E at 3912 Harrison Street may be soon ending. I found another place just up the street that offers more space and a garage for my car (see my earlier parking post from May), for the same rent I pay now. I will have to make side trips to take care of my plants. Since it's only a 1/2 block away, and it appears the rental market is moving real slow around here, that shouldn't be a problem....

Stay tuned! And thanks for visiting

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Garden update



Quick update on my garden, which because I have little other social life, has become my main topic of conversation. The plants all responded to my emergency bat guano- planting mix quite well from 2 weeks ago. Interestingly, the plants on the near / "house" and middle sides of the garden - the tomatoes in the cages, most of the 5 cabbages, and the kale - are doing the best, while the lettuce on the far side of the garden is only staying green, but not really growing. It was in the far side of the garden, where the lettuce is, that I "dropped the load", meaning, I used about 85% bat guano mix there, because I'd run out of the topsoil from doing the grading in the rest of the small garden. So it seems to me that you CAN over-fertilize vegetable plants. Maybe they're like us humans - you give them too much of a good thing, and they start wilting.

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

July 4th weekend in the Midwest

I'm back refreshed after a long (5 day) weekend in Wisconsin. I know this blog is supposed to be more about the area I moved to in northern California, but it wouldn't be complete without some journalistic impressions from home. After all, I suspect that the majority of the 5 people who visit my site are from my home state :-)

Anyways, the first order of business after arriving at my parents' last Thursday was to prepare for a trip Up North. Nothing to exciting to report about this. My friends, Julia, Zurab and Yury (Zurab is from formerly Soviet Georgia), had prepared their stuff the night before, and came to pick me up in their car. Since the place we were going to up north is fully furnished, all I needed was a bag with some extra clothes. I took more than I needed.

Arriving in Wausaukee, everything was prepared for us. In contrast to winter months, we could immediately settle in to the place, since it wasn't necessary to heat the building first. During winter, on the other hand, you have to have the old electric heaters running at least 4 hrs before the place is habitable. See my winter travel diary if you want to know more about visiting north country in the winter.

Here you see a picture of the cabin - as you can see, a "real" log cabin.



I've been all over Marinette county, and besides the couple of similar looking buildings that relatives have built, there aren't many homes like this. The logs, besides being rustic looking, are also excellent insulators. The white stuff you see in between the logs is a type of mortar. The original part on the left was built in 1980. The original logs and mortar are still in pretty good shape. The right side was added on by the Pashek brothers, a nearby building company (I tried to google them online, but couldn't find them).

Enjoying some fine food prepared by Julia - the best quiche I've maybe ever tasted - we relaxed during the first evening. The next day was our swimming adventure on Wolf Lake. This featured some muck-walking, to the amusement of all 4 of us. Did you know that the bottom sediment of such northern lakes as this one is composed largely of plant detritus and ground mussels and clams? I happily happily demonstrated the application of mud to myself and others in the group.



I'll spare you the rest of my northern adventures, since they involved mostly me working around the place to "pay rent". Unfortunately my friends had to leave already after 1 1/2 days, far too short a time. They appeared to like it there and I suppose we'll return again. And again unfortunately, I didn't think to take any digital pictures while they were up there ... bummer!

In Milwaukee on July 4th, I got together with my friend and fellow blogger, Steve Schroeder. Besides gambling a lot, he has also surpassed me in terms of blogging volume. Here is a picture of us two taking a break from watching the Brewers and babysitting. Actually, Theresa, Steve's wife, was doing most of the babysitting. I tickled the baby a little bit and coo-ed to him, but I think he was more interested in food. Below you see a picture of me and Steve, followed by Theresa and little red-eyed Alex.





Steve actually did gamble a little on his laptop that day, but didn't appear to win much. Checking his blog shows that he lost $2. Well Steve, you could have blamed me for distracting you from your favorite past time. Then again, I could say you should be happy it was only $2 you lost that day!

During my visit to the Schroeders', we were also entertained by some nice views of the sunset in Milwaukee.





So as you can see, I got around a lot over the weekend and saw a lot of people. That was the main objective. Plus, I never once used the computer (except to help some friends, and my mother, with their questions). I was very pleased with this!

During the return flight(s) to California, I had the opportunity to see my tax dollars at work in the Milwaukee Airport - in the form of extra security staff. These guys checked me for bombs like nobody's business. I got "selected" for a "special" security check consisting of frisking and wanding my entire body. Maybe it was because I presented California ID - I don't know. The TSA guy, after he finished wanding and frisking me, made me take off my belt buckle, and turn up the waistline of my pants! It was so ridiculous. I wanted to yell at the guy but it's like in a bad movie, where the cops have you, and you know if you speak up, they'll only treat you worse.

Don't get me wrong - I don't think those people working for TSA, or cops in general are bad people. It's just that these types of experiences, coupled with things I have heard and read about, like incidents of police brutality in Oakland, only reinforce my opinion that we live in a police state. p.s. I know the girl pictured in the linked CNN article - the article is true.

OK, I went off on a mini tangent. When I start talking about politics, I tend to do that. The next blog will be from California again. I'm not sure what it will be yet, but I'll try to pick something good. Thanks for reading! p.s. leave a comment please - it helps motivate me to keep writing.