On Sat, 16 Apr 2011 11:39:37 -0500, George Shirley
> wrote:

>Yesterday I harvested a large bucket of Swiss chard, washed, then
>blanched, froze in two-person servings on a bun sheet, then vacuum
>bagged it this morning. Ended up with four packages, good eats for a
>little later.
>
>I also harvested the last of the BEETS and carrots yesterday. I've got
>the liquid slow simmering at the moment and then the mixture of BEETS,
>onion, and elephant garlic will go in to simmer for a bit. After that it
>is the jar, most likely be about five or six pints of loverly pickled BEETS.
>
>If I feel up to it I am going to put up several jars of dilly carrots
>today also. The great grands just love those and pickled green beans.
>
>Yesterday we worked in our garden off and on for the whole day. We
>planted four more tomato plants, two Ichiban eggplant, a dozen straight
>neck yellow squash plants, about a dozen Armenian cucumber seeds on one
>side of the garden and about the same amount of burpless cukes on the
>other side. Also a row and a half of Bush Blue Lake green beans for
>canning, freezing, and pickling. Will plant some other stuff later just
>to fill in the empty places.
>
>The two plums, the peach, the quince, and the Japanese persimmon have
>set fruit and the fig tree is starting to put out some fruit also. This
>may be a good year if we can beat off the birds, squirrels, and other
>assorted vermin.
>
>Our new lawn man is working out well, comes every two weeks to mow and
>edge and is available on a moments notice for other work (he lives two
>doors down on the other side of the street). A couple of days ago he
>took out a holly bush at the corner of the house that has been the bane
>of my life for twenty years, now it has gone to the tree eater the city
>uses. Other trash trees are slated to come out in coming days,
>magnolias, a crape myrtle that has consumed the front door along with
>some old roses by the front walk that will be transplanted so they don't
>snag us as we walk by. Lots of work to do to get this old place in shape
>to be sold.
>
>Miz Anne is mostly walking with a cane now and has the doctors
>authorization to drive as long as she doesn't need her left leg to do
>it. She never fails to amaze me with her determination to get her full
>life back, hip replacement or not.
>
>George

There you go again George, rubbing it in on gardening. Temperature
here this morning running right around 0ºC with light snow.
On hips, congratulations to Miz Anne on her progress.
Gerry's right hip has been bothering quite a bit lately so she went to
the doctor earlier in the week. It's been 14 years since it was
replaced and after X-rays he told her it was time for some
maintenance. Left hip still seems fine and it was replaced just 6
months after the right. He also said there'd be no gardening for her
this summer if she decided to have the tuneup done now so she's trying
to decide if she'll live with the hurt and put it off 'till fall,
after the garden is done. Quilting is her other passion so that way
she could garden this summer and spend more time quilting during
recovery.
I can't keep up with her, but then again, she's just a youngster, only
turns 70 next week.
OB preserving: Opened a jar from a different lot of dilly beans
yesterday, that Pickle Crisp sure works well and it's so easy to use.
When I first found it late last season I bought two jars to make sure
I wouldn't run out. Hardly made a dent in the first jar. At the rate
it's used, I'll be gone before it is.
Just looked out the window and the snow is not so light anymore, and
it's travelling almost horizontally with the wind at ~ 60 km/h.

Ross.