Very Much Alive

Yes I know I haven't posted anything here since January. I have no excuses other than I am an old man with all kinds of other things to distract me and much of what little I have to say can be said on Facebook.
No promises it won't be weeks or more before I post again. \\ but I'll try and pay attention.
Anyhow, working every possible day in the garden and it is coming along. We've had some good weather though a late cold snap delayed be getting some stuff going. It does seem that each year older it takes a little bit longer to get it all going plus really hard days in the garden are much harder to recover from.
Pretty much 100% recovered from the surgery though I still feel a twinge now and again and I'm still being careful about how much I try and lift which adds to my time to get things done in the garden.

The election campaign doesn't have me fired up as usual. I guess I'm getting resigned to it all. I'm a Democrat and will vote for whoever is the candidate. Emotionally I like Sanders but pragmatically it makes sense to support Hillary. Sanders would be nearly a divisive and our current President and will Hillary will be as well maybe not so much. Fortunately, I can't see the Rethuglicans getting any traction this election regardless of their candidate but the thought of Trump or Crux in the Oval Office is a bit daunting. Yikes!
Off to walk Zoey and then the grocery(It's old peoples day and you get 5% off for having one foot in the grave.)

Merry Christmas 2015

Happy Christmas everyone. A very wet one here in the Atlanta burbs. Been raining for days and still promising to rain more. Yes, the basement flooded.

Still pretty hampered with the recovery from the surgery last Friday. I thought I would be pretty good by now but that is not happening. Lots of swelling and bruising. A lot of the bruising is fading but the swelling, especially the scrotum, is pretty impressive and causing me to walk funny. We won't talk about sitting down. The only real comfortable place is the bed. Still taking the Percoset plus Advil so the pain is manageable. I'm usually off the pain killers by now but not this time. Both sides are now reinforced so I shouldn't have to do any more hernia surgery thank goodness. It's not fun.

Not letting the disability keep the Christmas dinner from happening. Nice little 6 pound boneless prime rib that I will sear under the broiler (since I can't light off the charcoal grill) and then roast at 250F in the oven until it gets to 135F(Madam likes it medium and I like it rare so this is half way). If it was just me it would be to 125F and nice and rare. I've tried a lot of methods for prime rib and this is far and away the best. The slow cooking cooks it evenly so all the meat is the same color and you don't have that grey ring on the outside with a rare center. Yorkshire pudding cooked in popover pan and pickled beets. There will be a nice salad and a California Cab. There is only the two of us so there will be left overs which means hash could be in the future.

Madam has her big Boxing day lunch tomorrow for all her buddies. There will be 8 or 9 old ladies chirping away and yours truly will locked in the bedroom. Baby sitting Mini Monk's dog Peter tomorrow so it will be Zoey and Pete and me against the powdered horde.

In spite of my counsel Madam is cooking something she has never cooked before. She is insisting on Chicken a la Kiev. I'm not really up to helping here with it so here's hoping for the best. I suggested she at least practice once but it isn't going to happen. I will try and help here assemble them this evening but the breading and cooking will all be her tomorrow. At least the rest of the menu is do ahead and idle.

So anyhow, everybody enjoy their holiday and don't eat or drink too much. I am going to be good since I'm on narcotics and just have a few glasses of wine.

Long Morning

Hernia surgery scheduled for 1245 today so I am fasting. No food or liquid since about 830 last night. Sure miss my morning coffee. Recovery is going to put a bit of a damper on the holiday but it is what it is. This time of year is the best for this kind of stuff. No real work to do in the garden and the yard. I have some trees to trim and remove but they'll wait until later.

I 'll get a walk in with Zoey before I have to head to the surgery center. She just came back in after running off the white tail deer that were hanging out in the back. I don't know how she knows they are out there but she bounds out of bed and can't wait to get out the back door.

Rainy Saturday

Still mushy today. Not really raining hard but misty and drizzle seem to be our deal for the day. Looking ahead I got two batches of bread started yesterday. Sourdough whole wheat and dough for Parisian baguettes so I have baking to do today to keep me busy. Keeping the fingers crossed that the weather allows us to see the eclipse of the Blood Moon tomorrow. I've also got the new Jodi Taylor book ready to go so I'm set for the day.

Nice Birthday

Nice birthday yesterday. Number 66 but who's counting? Indulged myself with bacon and cream cheese on homemade sourdough toast for breakfast and then a BLT for lunch. I splurged a while back and bought 3 pounds of Benton's bacon which many consider to be the best. It is very good but Madam doesn't like it because it is very smokey. Dinner was a nice rib eye and frites. I pan fried the steak is some of the bacon grease from breakfast and that was tasty. I splurged on a nice Bordeaux as well. St. Emillion Chateau St. Louis. Very nice.

Got a lot of work done in the garden. Purple top turnips in as well as bok choy and more peas. I also got two beds turned and planted with buckwheat for a cover crop and it will be ready to turn over in about a month and a half.

All in all a good day. Looks like rain most of the day today so gardening may be minimal. We'll see. Right now a little dog is looking at me and wanting to know why it's already 830a and still no walk.

Catching up and Bread

I've been bad about not posting but I have been putting some stuff over on Facebook. Any how, the garden is winding down for the summer and I am spending most of my time cleaning up and getting ready for the fall garden. Our friends from the UK are coming the last of October and Wendy has already warned me that she is expecting some 'produce' from the garden so I's better be getting on with it. As usual I'll be putting in garlic that will grow slowly over the winter and which I harvest the end of June. Bumper crop of 4 different varieties this year and all of it is better than what you get the in store. Most of the store garlic is California white which is reliable to grow but not nearly as flavorful as some of the lesser known ones.

I'm back to baking regularly with a new twist. I'm grinding my own flour from hard red wheat and it is amazing how much better bread I am producing. Store bought flours have oxidized and lost a lot of flavor and worse nutrition by the time they get to your store shelf. It is extremely easy and I have the grinding attachment for the KitchenAid which cost me a hundred dollars but I already feel I have my money's worth as I also use it to grind corn for cornmeal and grits.

Here is my current recipe for a simple whole wheat sourdough.

600 grams whole wheat ground finely (see note)
400 grams of 100% sour dough started refreshed (see note)
375 grams water(preferably spring or at least filtered)
20 grams of kosher salt
1 tsp rapid rise yeast
3 TBSp honey

Mix everything except the salt in the bowl of your stand mixer or in a big bowl and mix until the flour is fully moistened. Let it stand covered for at least 30 minuted to allow the whole wheat to absorb the water. Add the salt and knead with the mixer or by hand until you have a good pliable dough it is nice and smooth. Put it in a lightly oil bowl and cover letting it rise until double. Turn it out and divide into to two or three balls. I do two. Form into balls for a boule or a loaf shape for a batard or even put it into a standard loaf pan(s). Let it rise again until double and then bake at 425F for 25 minutes. At the beginning of baking a throw a cup of ice cubes into the bottom of the oven to steam the loaves for the first bit of cooking. This insures you get the maximum oven spring from the dough.

Note:
I grind my own wheat but you can use a good whole wheat flour like that from King Arthur or Arrowhead. You won't have the flavor or nutrition but it will still be good.
If you don't maintain a sour dough starter, shame on you, but you can make a poolish of 200 grams of all purpose flour(again preferably King Arthur) and 200 grams of water  and the yeast from the recipe. Mix this all together the night before and let it stand covered on the counter overnight. Add this instead of the 400 grams of starter. This will have all the yeast you need so you don't need to add more.

Holy Flying Monkeys Dorothy

I just realized that I have posted here in over a month. Such a bad blogger. I'd use the excuse of being busy in the garden but that would be a lie and you would know it if you were a friend on Facebook. I guess posting there kind of feeds my need to run my mouth online. Thanks for reminding me Steve that I am a miserable excuse for a blogger. I'll try and do a little bit better. Now that the clown show is getting underway for the election I'll have some incentive.

Happy Easter and Passover

I know you have probably stopped checking for anything new here. I don't blame you but I do promise to try and do better. This time of year is for getting the garden in and little else. I've been working hard and it is starting to pay off. Spinach and carrots went in yesterday and radishes and beets the day before. I'm trying to get two beds ready a day but I have failed in that goal so far. The excuse yesterday was that I had to mow the yard.

With everything else I am having some work done on my legs which eats a day a week and sometimes more for recovery. The "very close veins" as my grandmother used to call them were beginning to bother me so I am having all of the surface veins in both legs eliminated. I thought it was going to be with laser but there is a new treatment that uses a chemical and is less painful with faster recovery. So any way, the doctor only does one area a week so it took a month to do the right leg and we started on the left this week. Not too painful but there is some tenderness for a few weeks. The worst is having to wear support stockings for 30 days after the work. What a pain.

So if you celebrate the day then happy, happy. If you don't just enjoy the spring. It will be another gorgeous day here in the Atlanta burbs and after Miss Zoey has her walk we will be back in the garden.

Ostara Is Upon Us

Ok, here we are just a week away from Ostara also known as the beginning of Spring and it is time to plant some of the warm weather seeds like tomatoes and eggplant. All the pepper, leek, shallot and onion plants are up and going. It is also time to get your flower seeds going. Marigolds. zinnas, and nasturtium to attract pollinators and discourage pests. I'm going to try and get all my different peas in the ground this weekend as well. I'm a little late as I was waiting for my inoculant to show up. Insuring the legumes like peas have the proper bacteria they need to fix nitrogen from the air makes a big difference in yield. Everybody get planting.

I'm running a little slow as I am having some laser surgery on my legs and it makes them a little tender, not to mention that I have to wear compression stockings which limit my flexibility a bit. The old "very close vein" thing. Getting old sucks but the other option isn't too great either.

Wind Wimp

I should be in the garden but I'm a wimp. I just got back from taking Zoey for a walk and the wind beat me up. It's not really that cold (45F) but the wind is a steady 20 mph or so with gusts of probably 30 or more. I dislike it immensely. My task for the day in the garden was to continue putting wood chips in the paths between the beds. This necessitates laying newspaper down first which is impossible with any wind. There...I've justified staying in and reading and drinking tea.

Sane versus Crazy

It's becoming clearer to me. This whole hubbub is not between the white and nonwhite and police and protesters. It’s actually between sane people and crazy people. It’s between people who believe in peace and justice and those that want to hate and see people that don't look and believe as they do as something less than human. The tragedy is that they will never change.

Samhain and a New Year

Well it is Halloween and Samhain, the Pagan New Year. A new turn of the wheel starts tomorrow. I did my duty and voted today. I figure it was poetic to vote for the freak show we are about to see in the Senate on Halloween. We could be pleasantly surprised but I am not going to be betting in serious money on such an outcome.

I did get my new ovens ordered and it should be delivered on Saturday. If you haven't priced them double electric oven are very expensive, like we are talking 2 grand and up. I settled for a nice GE that has convection (fan oven for you Brits) in the top plus regular and just conventional in the bottom. I have convection in both upper and lower in the unit I have but I never used the lower for much of anything so I won't miss it all. If you are unfortunate enough to have to replace a double oven then beware that there are all kinds of little add-ons you have to pay for on top of the price of the oven itself. Measuring fee for the installer to measure and see if any modifications are in order...$69. Hall off of the old unit $20 and in my case removing the piece of wood I added to make the hole fit my current oven which is 110 dollars. Since I bought this at Home Depot another company will do the install but Home Depot will deliver. They advertise free haul off of the old appliance but that is only if the old appliance is already uninstalled which it won't be. So I've paid for everything and scheduled the delivery but have no word from the installers when they will appear.

So anyway, I broke down and bought a bag of Kit-Kat snack size if any trick-or-treaters show up....probably not. I can count on my two hands the number of T&T's we have had in the 33 years we have lived here but I am always ready and yes, the pumpkins are off the front porch as well.

I usually do pizza for Halloween night but that's out since I have no oven....

Rest Day

I decided I needed a rest day today. All I've done in the garden is water. Madam and I took Zoey for a walk around the park. I've started a batch of sourdough bread. That's about it. Mabon is upon us (23 Sep) and the Autumnal Equinox finds me pretty much finished with the summer garden and hard at work putting in the stuff for fall and winter. The experiment with transplanting beets from flats to the garden has been pretty successful as I only lost a couple of percent...I actually did worse with cabbage and even more worse with cauliflower. I am actually going to restart some more cauliflower seeds since I lost so many of the seedlings....might have still been too hot. The broccoli, however, is doing fine...who knows.
I'll swing back into action tomorrow but today is chill. I do have picture of Zoey I took the other day to share. She likes to spend the day with me in the garden until it gets too hot and then she moves indoors. She also keeps a watchful eye out for evildoers.

Lazy Day

Not gardening today. Took Zoey for a walk in the Hembree Park and that looks like about all I get done outside today. I did water the greenhouse as I have a bunch of tender little plants to guard against the mid 90F heat. Other than that I am going to work on pictures and stuff where I can sit in the cool and drink iced tea. Took this shot of a couple of white tail the other day. There were actually three but one was very shy. It just amazes my that there are so many deer here in the middle of town. There are a few islands of woodland around but not that much.

Dog Days

We are in the full "dog days" of summer now. Hot and humid here in Atlanta. The garden is looking pretty sad as things have made their big run and are now just tapering off. I'm beginning to remove some of the tomatoes and peppers to make room for the fall garden. Lots of stuff started in the green house and it should be ready to go into the ground in the next few weeks. The good news is that the forecast is for some cooler temperatures starting tomorrow. I've got the late summer beans for drying in and they are coming along fast in all this heat and humidity. These are the beans for leaving on the plant and letting dry for storage and seed for next year.
I need to get out and get some work done before the heat gets unbearable but I did the big Sunday breakfast thing with biscuits, and bacon and eggs with baked beans so I'm a bit slow getting out of the blocks as you can imagine. Everyone enjoy the rest of the weekend. Here is an okra blossom for you to ponder.

As Good As It Gets

The garden that is. I finished the last (at least for this season) raised bed yesterday, filled it and planted it. That means that except for maintenance I am finished. The last bed got beets and arugula yesterday and that finishes the spring planting. Everything but the second okra planting from seed is up and the stuff I planted yesterday, of course, but the rest is going along. Most peppers have blooms as do the tomatoes and egg plant. We have even had radishes, spinach and spring onions to munch on so far. The green peas and the mange tout are within a day or two of harvest as well.

The bad thing is I no longer have the excuse of having to get the garden in for not going to the gym. I guess I will start back on that routine on Monday. Even though I have been working hard and for long hours in the garden virtually every day I have still managed to put on a few pounds. Mostly because I am having regular meals (no early or late shifts at Home Depot) and since I am no loner working many days when the sun is "over the yardarm" I am drinking a bit more "2 buck". Couple the extra food and booze with no pumping iron or aerobic stuff and you get fat. In my own defense I did have to lay off for the three months due to the hernia but I have only driven by the gym since December. I'll do better.

Just futzing around today. Did get some mulching and weeding done before it started to sprinkle. It is really not raining hard enough to stop me from working if I really wanted to but since I have declared it finished I don't feel guilty about coming in at noon. I even celebrated with a big lunch of buttermilk cornbread and pinto beans. Madam is out with friends today so I ate my beans poured over the cornbread which she hates. She'll never know.

So to continue futzing I will now get some rainy day things done. All the kitchen knives need to be sharpened. The basement needs some attention as does my desk. I need to get some chicken thighs marinating for dinner and some other stuff. Oh! The Vidalia onions are in the markets so it will be an onion something to go along with the chicken just haven't figured out whether it will be roasted or stuffed. It was Italian sausage with red pepper and onions last night. They seem to be pretty good this year. Me and a lot of other folks complained about the quality for the last couple of years. They have not been as sweet and tasty as in the past but the one I did last night was nice. I'll probably wind up roasting tonight and that's a definitive test.

BTW, If you are one of the 3 or 4 people who still stop by this blog, I apologize for being so scarce and basically only talking about gardening. Now that I am not under such pressure I should be able to pay attention here a bit more. I haven't been ignoring the tragedy unfolding in what used to be the "American Dream" just too tired to talk about it.

If it quits raining and gets sunny I'll take a picture of my masterpiece to share. It sure is making me happy so far. It's been a tremendous amount of work but I think it shows. The good thing is I get to spend all day in the fresh air getting dirty and watching to majick of growing stuff. Nobody to please but myself and nothing to worry about that I can change (i.e. weather, temperature).

Happy Beltane

Happy Beltane to one and all. Happy May Day to you as well. It is time to turn the cows out of the barns to search for green pasture and have the children gather wildflowers. The 'official' beginning of spring in much of Europe but not so much here in the U.S.

We really dodged the bullet here in Atlanta with respect to the recent horrific weather. I actually only measured .4 inches of rain here at the farm. Coupled with the rain from a few days ago it is plenty wet in the garden so there is not much I can do except pick a few weeds. I will haul a few more loads of wood chips to fill the aisles but that is about it.

I did re-purpose some 6x6 timbers a friend gave me. They had a porch redone and enclosed and had these 6 big posts left over. They are now a 9 foot by 4 foot asparagus bed (or will be as soon as the asparagus crowns arrive). The old asparagus bed was way too small and in a very poor location. I'll try and rescue the crowns from there in the fall but for now we are going with all new. That, of course, means a 3 year wait for asparagus. Oh well.

Everyone enjoy the first of May.

Testing Me

The weather forecast is not too good. Anywhere from 3 - 5 inches of rain over the next two days and other severe weather stuff. Going to test all of the work in the garden over the last few months. The raised beds will definitely help but it will interesting to see what happens between them where I have so carefully piled wood chips. I'll spend some time this morning trying to beef up the defenses. Just going to wait and see. I did notice this morning that the rain we had last night overwhelmed my effort to control the runoff from the driveway. All the pine bark mulch on one side of the blueberry bed is up against the fence. I put in a drain and a large flexible pipe to try and move the water around but it is evidently not up to the task. Looks like a re-engineering job for that as well. So we are off to the garden to see if everything survived and do what we can to prevent heavy storm damage. If you are in the path of this big weather system headed this way...be careful and make sure you are ready. Flashlights, extra batteries and all that stuff.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter if you celebrate it. This, BTW, is the first time in a while that the Orthodox Easter and Western Easter fall on the same Sunday. Two of my most memorable Easter's were when I was in Cyprus and the Greeks really do a big deal. Lots of lamb cooked on open fires and the air filled with the scents of lemon, oregano, and roasting lamb. There are so many cookling fires going on Easter that there is a haze across the countryside. I thought about lamb for dinner today but a whole leg of lamb is just too much for Madam and I to handle. Lamb is way under utilized in the U.S. where I think the per capita consumption is only a pound or two and I didn't really have an opportunity to develop a taste for it until I was in the Middle East.

Since we don't actually celebrate I've spent the day out in the garden. It's too wet to dig or construct another bed but I did go ahead and replace all the plants that got burned in our little surprise frost. Very odd that only a couple of tomatoes succumbed but I am not complaining. Probably a dozen peppers of the various types needed to be replaced. Again it was odd that only 1, 2, or 3 plants on a row with 7 plants were damaged. Must be some very small micro climates. I also went ahead and replaced all the eggplant since none of it looked too happy. Don't tell Madam but I also reduced the number of plants by 8 and put in some habanero peppers and heirloom yellow plum tomatoes. It's no secret that aubergine is not one of my favorite things and I had way too much planted.

New Dog, Old Tricks

Just came in from a full day in the garden. Going to set back, drink a few beers and watch the Master's. Got 20 tomatoes in the ground and the last of the peppers. All of the tomatoes and peppers now have their cages and, if needed, a little extra support in the form of a bamboo stick. The rest of the tomatoes will go in tomorrow.

Miss Zoey has learned a new trick  from Minimonk's new dog Mr. Peterson who loves to play with and demolish pine cones. Miss Zoey, being very prim and neat, makes sure she brings the pine cone indoors and demolishes it on the white  living room carpet. Doesn't do any real damage but there is enough of a mess and quantity of small bits that it requires getting out the suck broom to clean it up.

Zoey was a big help in the garden today. I use Popsicle sticks to label the individual plants I put out since peppers and tomatoes pretty much all look alike until they start to fruit. Miss Zoey likes Popsicle sticks and likes to pull them from the ground by the plants and play with them for a while. She has not learned to put them back where she found them.

Oh! The Met Life balloon flew directly overhead today and at a pretty low altitude. I would guess about 1500 feet. Cool!