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We’d be an entirely different program if the Belgian Waffler had stayed for 4 years.
I bet he drinks Stella. Artois that is…
Expectations of 100% effort is what’s wrong with kids today and it’s why we can’t have nice things. 100% is good but 110% would be stellar.
I thought our guys played their guts out a lot.
I think the title of this thread is inaccurate,demeaning and totally non-stellar. Kirk never de-committed so how could he possibly re-commit?
I demand a change.
Are them the only choices? Stellar-esque, Stellar-ish, Stellar Lite aren’t even on the table?
Stellar thread BTW.
The gardening thread is BACK!!! I was really enjoying this thread and then we went through the week from hell culminating in us having to bury our beloved German Shepherd Dog Moose who was my wife’s constant companion/shadow and her true soulmate. Tough time.
But it is gardening season, so that helps. Someone way back in the thread asked where I’m from and that’s way up in the NW part of Ashe County. 2 miles from the Voles and 5 miles from the Hokies. My gardens are at just shy of 4000 feet elevation. Gotta be tough and fast to grow up here.
I do everything organically and have been for over 40 years. We were in the certified organic vegetable business until a couple of years ago. Lots of folks still don’t understand organics very well. Certainly some practice organic by neglect but that’s not really the essence of it. It’s also way more than just avoiding certain “chemical” products and fertilizers. I use many techniques that focus on building the soil over time. There are some good organic fertilizers available, mostly based on chicken manure. I am going to be fertilizing my 15 acres of meadow with it this week if it dries out enough. I also keep it limed properly and oversees every 5 years o so. I keep a strong population of clover seeded because clovers actually capture nitrogen from the air and fix it into the soil.
Our lawn is mostly creeping red fescue mixed with white clover. Again, the clover helps fix fertilizer for free. I also will put down an inch or so of black cow every few years. That’s it. I mow it rather close in the spring a few times and then leave it at 2-3 inches after that. Healthy grass chokes out the weeds. I get a few dandelions and I dig out a few of them. Dandelions are a great indication that your soil is too compact.
Great discussion on peppers. My father’s people are from Barbados where the Scotchbonnet is king. I’ve always thought that they were more or less habaneros. Too much heat for my bride’s senses. I grow a few jalapeños and a scotch bonnet, but I do about a half dozen Joe E Parkers. I think they are considered an Anaheim chile. I also grow a few of the Italian peppers mentioned before. Corno de Toro (Horn of the Bull). They are sweet and real nice. Peppers are really easy to preserve. We just cut them up into usable slices or chunks and freeze them on cookie sheets and pop them into ziploc bags. You can just grab as many as you want for chili or whatever.
I’m big into edible landscaping. I had a vision some years ago of having my fence along the driveway covered with roses (RED) and raspberries (WHITE blossoms) to make a living Wolfpack fence. So the roses bloomed later than the berries and the berries choked out the roses. But now, we get gallons and gallons of red raspberries. Again, all you have to do is spread them out on one of those cookie trays with the lip around it and freeze and bag those suckers. I also preserve a bunch of raspberry sorbet. We have several blueberry bushes scattered around. Thye freeze super easy, too.
We love fresh cukes and do several varieties of those. Somebody mentioned having some problems growing them. Most of the issues with dukes are directly or indirectly due to them dang cucumber beetles, the spotted ones and the stripy ones. They can devour your seedlings overnight and if they just nibble on them they spread all kinds of viruses and stuff. Prior to bloom, I dust with diatomaceous earth. After the dukes blossom, I stop that so as to protect the bees. I also use a technique called “trap cropping.” In this case, I always plant a winter squash variety called Blue Hubbard at the ends of each row of squash and cukes.. For whatever reason, these Blue Hubbards are like crack to those duke beetles. They will swarm it and mostly ignore the other stuff. Then you can concentrate your spraying on the masses. It really works.
I’ll leave it at that for now. I enjoy sharing some of my decades of experience with gardening/farming. It’s always fun to learn from others.
Yepper. Just like his first year when we were also coming off a sweet 16 appearance. It really sucks. FIRE GOTTFRIED!!!!
Russians can grow them some taters. From the potato we get fries, chips and vodka. Every other vegetable needs to bow down.
I’ve been basically organic for 45 years. Had my first organic garden when I was 15. Let me know if you have challenges. We actually were in the vegetable business back in the late 70s (cabbage, Broccoli and pole beans) and again from 2005- 2012.
My asparagus tale is as follows: I love asparagus. When it is in season, I have no problem having it every day. It’s about a 6-8 week season. My current wife apparently loses her gung-ho sometime midseason or so. I had cooked her up a sweet Sunday Chicken with roasted veggies including some nice asparagus. So she hides her asparagus under her napkin so I don’t notice she didn’t touch it. Except I did notice.
If you’ve ever seen asparagus growing, the stalks emerge from the ground and you cut off said stalks. After about 6 weeks or so, you have to stop cutting because the stalks then grow into fronds that nourish next years production. When these stalks are left to grow, they turn into really really big stalks. I harvested several of those monsters and cooked them up for the little sneak. The next day at supper, i told her to just sit down. I’d fix her plate. Those dang things were longer than the plate was wide. The sigh she let out when she saw them is still a source of immense humor. Mostly for me.
Chronic lurker AsheWolf checking in from the high country. We figure on about 140 frost-free days here in a season. Tomatoes never go in before Memorial Day. My best success comes from Russian varieties (Cosmonaut Volkov, Paul Robeson, Koralik, etc) Czech varieties (Stupice) and such. Sungold cherry tomatoes do well here and I do have some luck with Brandywines some years.
Okra doesn’t grow up here nor peanuts or sweet potatoes. Irish potatoes are a staple and go in traditionally on Good Friday.
The advantage we have is we can grow lettuce, cabbage, broc, etc. right through the summer.I have about 1100 7 year old asparagus roots that keep us wrapped up in asparagus. I sell some locally and barter with some of it. It makes a great permanent planting and it’s purty.
Just a little correction from a noob. Mr. Dylan sang,” It don’t take a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” (not weathervane).
BTW, the so-called Weathermen of the radical Weather Underground took their name from that song. Allegedly.
Christmas time in NYC is unforgettable. Just window shopping at Macy’s would be a treat. They set up a bunch of animated windows. The Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular is also a must-do. Don’t want to spoil it but the live nativity scene with sheep and donkeys and camels is real cool.
Bus over and back. Easy as pie. Eat a pizza slice or three.
Tuffy only for kid’s and babies’ tee shirts? I wouldn’t let Tuffy hear that. He might rip some fake claw marks into your shoulders.
There’s a reason they call that hairdo a Tennessee neck rug. Unless you’re in Tennessee where they call it a Camaro crash helmet.
