Kitchen Garden Spring 2015

Macro photos of this springs veggies plus a couple others.

Spring 2015 flowers

Vegetable Garden for 2015

Another great year of gardening is upon us.  
Tomatoes
This year, I am going to try to grow some tomatoes again, even though

I have failed for many years.  Right along the coast of California there is a difficult problem: the air coming off the ocean is much cooler than the ground heated by the constant sunshine (sounds horrible eh?).  I also seem to have the tomato blight fungus or virus in the soil, so the plants die right at harvest of the first tomatoes.  A solution passed to me from friends is to make a silo of clear plastic for each plant.  That keeps the heat the plants love, and protects them from the frigid ocean breeze.



Squash
This year i am starting early on the "butter" squashes: buttertop, and butternut.  They make the most incredible soups, I also am trying to grow Ginger to complement the soups.  Zucchini and crookneck are standard issue here too.

Cucumbers

Last year I got some Persian Cucumbers from a local hardware store.  They turned out to be 14-18 inch long wonders.  We had so much, I couldn't give enough away.  This year, I am trying Telephone Post Cucumbers (never had them, but great writeup on the package).  I'm always a sucker for pretty things in pictures.  As many of you know, I grow many veggies vertically to save square feet.  I use concrete reinforcing sheets from the lumber yard with 5" squares; I weave a few long sticks through the openings and pound the ends into the ground.  This provides a great climbing wall, and provides easy removal at the end of the season.

Harvested already

Cauliflower

The winter crops of cauliflower, broccoli, and lettuce have already been harvested.  I'm going to try a 2nd season of cauliflower because the first was so successful.  Giant heads of great tasting cauliflower. They don't like the heat, but we usually have a cool April through July, with a lot of June Gloom (foggy days). This should translate into "cool weather" planting.



Well that's it for today,  More to follow soon

On Wisconsin

When I grew up in Wisconsin during the late 50s and early 60s, the Green Bay Packers would move between  Green Bay and Milwaukee for their home field.  The stadium in Green Bay was small, and seldom full.  Then Vince Lombardi came to coach and a phenomenon  call The Super Bowl was soon born, and Green Bay won the first two bouts.  The candle of  excitement was lit in the whole state.  During football season, everyone watched and still watches the game.  That momentum has become viral in the state, and throughout the diaspora of Wisconsinites.

Moving forward to the 1990s, Fox outbid CBS for the NFC broadcast rights.  This had a tremendous effect on the media markets in states like Wisconsin.  Fox was a non-existent network in the state, so the CBS stations switched to Fox, knowing that was where the people put their eyes before, during and after football.  Murdock and his News Corp had the money to build an extensive network fast.  They also had the money to buy loudmouths who in turn won the hearts and minds of the conservative political movement.  So instead of listening to the Evening News with Dan Rather, the football fans were watching the faux news of Fox.  In a few short years, the strongly Democratic state elected a slate of incompetent boobs like Scott Walker and Ron Johnson.  The message of ignorance, prejudice, and hatred from the blathering fools at Fox, manifest into a once-progressive state turning dark. 

Wisconsin is becoming the Texas of the north with restrictive laws passed with no objective evidence: restricting women’s rights; ignoring union contracts; destroying jobs; protecting polluters; restricting voting rights; and limiting access to the Affordable Care Act.  So the Packers became the bait to turn a state Republican.  Murdock is truly the evil genius.

Replacement for Old Faithful

Well the insurance company finally heard me.  I stated quite clearly that it was not fair for a drunk driver to smash into my vehicle and then I have to fork out over a thousand dollars just to replace it.  Apparently something clicked, because the offer saw a 33% increase.  I was satisfied that it represented a value close to what my vehicle was worth.

Friday, I picked up my replacement for Old Faithful.  You may have read the previous installment where a drunk driver smashed into my pick-up truck and pushed it into our tree and across the sidewalk.  To honor my long history with Dodge trucks, I decided to purchase another one.   With as little as I drive and as long as I usually keep a vehicle, we bought the extended warranty that reads 99 years, 999,999 miles. The coverage is for most everything on the vehicle, except wear items such as:  brakes, tires, and spark plugs.  All the electronics, seats, and things like that are covered for as long as I own the vehicle (not transferrable).  For us that is quite good, we usually hold a vehicle 12-15 years.  This is the best warranty I’ve heard of for a truck.

We bought a two door with a V-6 engine and an eight speed transmission. The EPA sticker announces 25 mpg. The paint is a silver (light grey). The shorter truck swings around much easier than the longer Quad cab did. I find the eight speed transmission very smooth, and a bit odd. The shifter is below the radio on the dash – it’s a knob you turn to P-R-N-D with no other choices, if you want to upshift or downshift you do that by pressing the + or – on the steering wheel.  So far,  I’ve only driven 50 miles so there is much to experiment with – interestingly, the tachometer stays near 1500 everywhere except when driving over 65 mph.

An interesting sidelight to the accident is the tree.  You will remember all the hassle I’ve gone through with the estimates for the truck’s value, well the tree is done completely differently.  I find a nurseryman (or woman) to estimate the value of the tree replacement, and submit the estimate.  Here was my opportunity to go to Beverly Hills and gouge the eyes out of the insurance people, but instead, I went to our favorite nursery, Moneta Nursery in Gardena, CA.  Where we were provided a fair estimate of the replacement costs.  The insurance company took almost no notice of it.  I find this very odd.   I could have easily improved the price by a couple thousand dollars and been the beneficiary of a small windfall, well not exactly a windfall, but enough for some extra wine. 

If you have any questions about the truck or want to know more about dealing with insurance companies, please add a comment, or send me a note.