Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Great stories. I wish I could say my disdain of all things blue happened in utero but I came to it a bit later. Mine is a bit of a cutters vs. townies story. My brother was living in Chatham County in the 70’s and I moved in with him while trying to find myself or female companionship, whichever came first. I figured to fit in, I’d buy a pulpwood truck and make my living out in the fresh air. So that’s what I did. My little business grew to three trucks. One fall day it was too wet for the woods, so the crew and my brother decided to head up to what the CBers called Hippie Hill. We set out to drank it dry. I drove my 1953 Ford pickup that we had dropped a 460 T-bird motor into. After a day of carousing we saw this basement bar (perhaps called The Rathskeller?). Nasty little dive. Just outside the hole was one of those heavy duty water hoses. Kinda like a mini fire hose. Attached to the spigot. With the little wrench thing right there. My crazy bro picks up the hose, has it between his legs and instructs us to turn it on in exactly 10 seconds. He heads in. He screams something and proceeds to soak the place mercilessly. He comes hauling up the steps with a bunch of holes hot in pursuit. The look on those seedy students when they chased him around a corner right into the midst of 8 or 9 Chatham County pulpwooders. After a brief skirmish, we took flight back to our people. Ah, youth.
Back in the day before the mighty interstate, Hwy.701 was a particularly busy road on beach weekends. In Newton Grove, there is a traffic circle that had to be traversed on 701. Some of the local Newtonians would gather a few cars together and get to running laps in the circle so tight that nobody could enter the circle. “They” could get traffic backed up halfway to Clinnon without even trying.
Allegedly.
What’s the difference in the 2016 RNC and Lord of the Flies?
One is a bunch of emotionally-challenged adolescents debasing themselves and engaging in violence while betraying each other and worshiping a pig’s head. The other is a novel.
(The above joke was plagiarized by me from some dude on the internet)
Speaking of which, in a statement earlier today, Melania Trump said that the accusations of plagiarism were extremely hurtful not only to her but to her daughters, Sasha and Malia.
Alrighty then. Checking in from the upper reaches of Ashe county AKA The Lost Province.
The bird discussion is interesting. Back in the 70s and 80s there was a huge population of grouse up here. A fair number of doves and a few quail and very rarely a ring-neck. Turkeys were rare as well…hens’ teeth. The something happened and the turkeys made a big comeback. I see turkeys nearly every day. Back a few years we were growing for the certified organic market. I had about 500 tomato plants out that year. Damn turkeys pecked a hole in every mater they could reach as they turned red.
So apparently turkeys hunt grouse nests and eat the eggs. Nowadays I see a grouse jump a few times a year but they are nearly gone. The only thing that’s changed in my mind is that we now have a ton of coyotes (coywolves actually) around here.
Up here at 4000 feet we’ve had a very cool season. Only a day or two has touched 80 and nuff rain for everybody. Just harvested the last of the bloc and lettuce. Cabbage is finishing up. Cukes are pouring in. I’ve been growing a variety for several years now that you should try. It’s called H-19 Littleleaf, sometimes Arkansas Litteleaf. Not surprisingly it has smaller leaves. Makes finding those little picklers before they become dirigibles a lot easier. They are really hardy even up here in the cold. They are also parthenocarpic. That apparently means they don’t need pollinators to make little cukes. Good for greenhouse or containers. Great flavor.
Companion planting is an art into itself. I have often planted the three sisters which is corn planted with pole beans and squash. Plant the corn and when it’s over a foot tall, plant some beans around the base. The beans will grow up the cornstalk as the corn grows. Plant the squash at the base and it shades the corn roots and keeps weeds from growing.
Also using trap crops is fun. I always plant a few baby blue hubbards near any other squash or cukes. Those striped and spotted cucumber beetles thing that baby blue is crack. When they’re all gathered together on the hubbard you can nuke them with whatever you use on them. And if they don’t destroy the plants you end up with some squash.
Planting that curly parsley near your maters will keep the big green baccer worms off your maters. Usually.
This year I am nearly 100% in raised beds. I have 16 4×8 beds that are just some timber I cut and sawmill some years back. When i first filled them I used some old rotten round bales of hay, some native dirt and a few bags of black cow. I also threw in some peat bales along the way and a few big bags of the commercial coarse vermiculite and perlite. I used to keep a largish flock of free-range layers. I harvested their bounty from their house and composted it and added it very year for a while. Now I’m down to 4 OLD hens. But basically you can fill the beds a lot of different ways with what you have locally. Grass clippings, leaves, branches always a good start. One of the best gardens I ever had was when I lived near a peanut processor. They used to let you back right up and load all the peanut hulls you wanted.
One thing I would recommend is that any new garden area should receive a good dose of Azomite. Azomite is OMRI approved and is a mineral mix which provides the macro and micro minerals every garden needs. We are boron deficient up here so it handles that for me. Azomite is apparently sourced from a natural volcanic ash deposit in Utah.
Another way to keep building the soil is cover crops. I even use cover crops in my raised beds, usually clover. Buckwheat as a cover crop is awesome. When it gets those little white blossoms it is sweet and the bees attack it. Just make sure to chop it in prior to it going to seed or you gonna have buckwheat 4ever. Austrian peas are a great way to add tons of organic matter…just be aware that deer will come from miles around to eat it. Clovers grab nitrogen from the air and fix it in the soil. Small grains like wheat, oats and barley are probably best for larger field based gardens where you can mow it and turn it under.
Rye is interesting. It has what they call allelopathic traits. Basically it produces compounds that are herbicidal. So when you plow it in, you need to wait for a while before planting broadleaf stuff in particular. It will stunt the growth. One trick to use when starting a new garden is to till it and plant ryegrass. After the rye is established, mow it down and cover it with clear plastic. The solar baking and the rye compounds will nearly sterilize the surface of that area.
Growing on “plastic” mulch is something I’m ambivalent about. I did it for several years on about 3 acres. Our local extension service has bought a mulch-layer that can be checked out and used. It is slick. Lays down a nice straight row of tight plastic when it’s all adjusted just right. Just poke a hole in it and plant. The problem for me is that the plastic is there forever. No matter how hard you work to clean it up, you never get it all. I raised 500 mater plants on that red plastic mulch 5 years ago. I’m still picking up pieces of that red plastic. I used so-called biodegradable film. 5 years later I still find pieces that haven’t biodegraded. Damn stuff does work well as far as keeping weeds down and moisture up. Also less bugs I think. Less blight and such.
Anyway. I appreciate the discussion.
And here’s one from Sturgill’s new cd… Goes from emo to motown in a split second. If this is meh….
But what do I know. I’m from Ashe County.
Here’s another version of Black Diamond Strings by the feller that wrote it, my friend Larry Cordle. Larry is currently undergoing treatment for leukemia.
I think the recent Sturgill record is real good. A notch behind his last one perhaps but mostly just different. Horns? Motown?
Here’s one for the weekend. Bad camera work. Good audio.
We’re fools to make war on our brothers in arms…
Let me try another one. Best song I know about chicken fighting. Tom Russell song. Vocals by Joe Ely.
Nah. That’s shrooms growing on that pie. But not that kind of shroom. I spent some formative years in Gainesville FL during the 60’s and 70’s. I was a fun guy if you know what I mean.
Nowadays I carry a flask of whiskey at all times on account of snakebites. I also carry a small snake with me. Just in case.
The Bulldawgs finished the season ranked #25 by Sagarin and they played the 28th toughest SOS. We finished at #47 and played the 66th SOS. They are ranked ahead of Louisville (35) and VaTech (46). It will take a very good game for us to win.
Another great songwriter…Tom Russell. His Wounded Heart of America is one masterpiece after another. Here’s one about the story of Jimmy Martin, the King of Bluegrass, who never gained admittance to the Grand Ole Opry. Jimmy loved to run rabbits with his dogs who he named Pete.
Here’s one by my friend Larry Cordle. This is a song in memory of the great Keith Whitley. Cordle is an awesome writer (Murder on Music Row…) and I really love his voice.
