it sure is nice to be able to open up a
jar of strawberry freezer jam, toast some
homemade bread, get out the butter and
have some preserved sunshine.

we are down to our last few squash in
the basket by the door. the last two we
cooked up were excellent still. very
sweet and deep orange like a pumpkin
should be.

today i cooked some red beans and dark
red kidney beans as Ma said she'd like some
for burritos. then she ended up making some
pizza so i put a few scoops of them on the
pizza. when it gets this cold a little
extra filler seems called for.

ok, only 1 out of 3 actual preservation
related, but i would say that dry beans are
a very nice preservation technique and
sitting squash in the bin by the front door
at least has kept them chilled enough and
dry enough to not rot. much better than
what a frozen garage would accomplish...

so what is up with y'allses (hee, i like
that 'un)...?


songbird

On Sat, 18 Jan 2014 20:37:09 -0500, songbird >
wrote:

> it sure is nice to be able to open up a
>jar of strawberry freezer jam, toast some
>homemade bread, get out the butter and
>have some preserved sunshine.
>
> we are down to our last few squash in
>the basket by the door. the last two we
>cooked up were excellent still. very
>sweet and deep orange like a pumpkin
>should be.
>
> today i cooked some red beans and dark
>red kidney beans as Ma said she'd like some
>for burritos. then she ended up making some
>pizza so i put a few scoops of them on the
>pizza. when it gets this cold a little
>extra filler seems called for.
>
> ok, only 1 out of 3 actual preservation
>related, but i would say that dry beans are
>a very nice preservation technique and
>sitting squash in the bin by the front door
>at least has kept them chilled enough and
>dry enough to not rot. much better than
>what a frozen garage would accomplish...
>
> so what is up with y'allses (hee, i like
>that 'un)...?
>
>
> songbird

I made soup the other day from the Cannellini beans I grew. Too bad
the onion and carrot had to come from the store.

It is very nice to be able to pick up stuff from the rack of canned
goods and the freezer. At least I know what I put in them without
having to find a magnifying glass to read the list of ingredients. If
the label says "tomatoes" that is what is in there possibly with some
salt.
--
Susan N.

"Moral indignation is in most cases two percent moral,
48 percent indignation, and 50 percent envy."
Vittorio De Sica, Italian movie director (1901-1974)

On 2014-01-19 01:37:09 +0000, songbird said:
>
> so what is up with y'allses (hee, i like
> that 'un)...?
>
>
> songbird

I believe the correct term is "all y'all." Up to? Up to my ass in
snow, that's what I'm up to. And why we aren't somewhere warm is still
beyond me. It was a plan that neither of us got off the dime to make!
--
--
Barb
www.barbschaller.com, last update April 2013

Melba's Jammin' wrote:
>songbird said:
>>
>> so what is up with y'allses (hee, i like
>> that 'un)...?
>
> I believe the correct term is "all y'all."

yeah, George educated me on that one. i've even
herd it used in the wild.


> Up to? Up to my ass in
> snow, that's what I'm up to. And why we aren't somewhere warm is still
> beyond me. It was a plan that neither of us got off the dime to make!

plenty of snow here too, the lastest blast came
through this afternoon, Ma had to run out today for
some errands and i was worried and then glad to
see her when she pulled in the driveway. i'd did
a bit of shovelling earlier so she had a straight
shot into the garage.

even with all the grumbles about cold, wind and
snow i'd not want to move. there's a lot to be
said for winter season indoor appreciation, i can
read and work on projects that i don't normally get
much chance at otherwise.


songbird

On 1/30/2014 6:57 PM, Melba's Jammin' wrote:
> On 2014-01-19 01:37:09 +0000, songbird said:
>>
>> so what is up with y'allses (hee, i like
>> that 'un)...?
>>
>>
>> songbird
>
> I believe the correct term is "all y'all." Up to? Up to my ass in
> snow, that's what I'm up to. And why we aren't somewhere warm is still
> beyond me. It was a plan that neither of us got off the dime to make!
We went to bed last night with a chill north wind blowing through with
just enough rain to make it miserable.

Woke up this morning to sunshine and, maybe, a balmy SE Texas day.

You could have come down here Barb, lots of folks here don't know how to
drive when it is snowing, hailing, and sleeting. We huddled around a
warm dawg and stayed home. <G>

George, off to give a car dealer a lot of money

On Monday, February 3, 2014 6:19:34 AM UTC-8, George Shirley wrote:
> On 1/30/2014 6:57 PM, Melba's Jammin' wrote:
>
> > On 2014-01-19 01:37:09 +0000, songbird said:
>
> >>
>
> >> so what is up with y'allses (hee, i like
>
> >> that 'un)...?
>
> >>
>
> >>
>
> >> songbird
>
> >
>
> > I believe the correct term is "all y'all." Up to? Up to my ass in
>
> > snow, that's what I'm up to. And why we aren't somewhere warm is still
>
> > beyond me. It was a plan that neither of us got off the dime to make!
>
> We went to bed last night with a chill north wind blowing through with
>
> just enough rain to make it miserable.
>
>
>
> Woke up this morning to sunshine and, maybe, a balmy SE Texas day.
>
>
>
> You could have come down here Barb, lots of folks here don't know how to
>
> drive when it is snowing, hailing, and sleeting. We huddled around a
>
> warm dawg and stayed home. <G>
>
>
>
> George, off to give a car dealer a lot of money

Ooooh, a new car, how wonderful!

George, do you have a hard time with winter vegetables when the weather is warm during the winter?

We, in the SF Bay Area have had unseasonably warm weather, high 60s low 70s and my veggies, especially the bok choy are not doing well. I am getting some kale and rainbow chard, but not at all like I should.

I need to get some more mulch down but otherwise everything is the same as before.

What do you do?

Julie

On 2014-02-03 14:19:34 +0000, George Shirley said:

> On 1/30/2014 6:57 PM, Melba's Jammin' wrote:
>> On 2014-01-19 01:37:09 +0000, songbird said:
>>>
>>> so what is up with y'allses (hee, i like
>>> that 'un)...?
>>>
>>>
>>> songbird
>>
>> I believe the correct term is "all y'all." Up to? Up to my ass in
>> snow, that's what I'm up to. And why we aren't somewhere warm is still
>> beyond me. It was a plan that neither of us got off the dime to make!
> We went to bed last night with a chill north wind blowing through with
> just enough rain to make it miserable.
>
> Woke up this morning to sunshine and, maybe, a balmy SE Texas day.
>
> You could have come down here Barb, lots of folks here don't know how
> to drive when it is snowing, hailing, and sleeting. We huddled around a
> warm dawg and stayed home. <G>
>
> George, off to give a car dealer a lot of money

What'dja get?
--
--
Barb
www.barbschaller.com, last update April 2013

On 1/31/2014 4:16 AM, songbird wrote:
> Melba's Jammin' wrote:
>> songbird said:
>>>
>>> so what is up with y'allses (hee, i like
>>> that 'un)...?
>>
>> I believe the correct term is "all y'all."
>
> yeah, George educated me on that one. i've even
> herd it used in the wild.
>
>
>> Up to? Up to my ass in
>> snow, that's what I'm up to. And why we aren't somewhere warm is still
>> beyond me. It was a plan that neither of us got off the dime to make!
>
> plenty of snow here too, the lastest blast came
> through this afternoon, Ma had to run out today for
> some errands and i was worried and then glad to
> see her when she pulled in the driveway. i'd did
> a bit of shovelling earlier so she had a straight
> shot into the garage.
>
> even with all the grumbles about cold, wind and
> snow i'd not want to move. there's a lot to be
> said for winter season indoor appreciation, i can
> read and work on projects that i don't normally get
> much chance at otherwise.
>
>
> songbird
>
We do that in August when the heat gets up to 100+, stay in the air
conditioning and do things to the house. If you own property there's
always something to fix, paint, or tear out and start over. I hate the
ceilings in this house, the living room, kitchen/dining, and master
bedroom have ten foot ceilings. That was useful a hundred years ago but,
in the era of central heat and air it's a waste of heat. Now you have to
have ceiling fans to push the heat back down from the ceiling in the
winter and pull the cold air up in the summer. Bah! Humbug!

Beautiful day today, temps in the low sixties, blue skies, bright
sunshine. We got to be outside without jackets or sweaters on. Tilly
napped in her favorite sunbeam napping place and we cleaned out the herb
garden, blueberry patch, and flower beds. I pruned the fruit trees as
now is the time, just before they start putting on new leaves.

George

On 2/14/2014 7:16 PM, George Shirley wrote:

> Beautiful day today, temps in the low sixties, blue skies, bright
> sunshine. We got to be outside without jackets or sweaters on. Tilly
> napped in her favorite sunbeam napping place and we cleaned out the herb
> garden, blueberry patch, and flower beds. I pruned the fruit trees as
> now is the time, just before they start putting on new leaves.
>
> George




I always thought that most fruit trees set fruit buds in the fall and
that they fruited on year-old branches. If you've had success with
winter pruning, I guess I'd heard wrong.

gloria p

George Shirley wrote:

....enjoying indoor weather...

> We do that in August when the heat gets up to 100+, stay in the air
> conditioning and do things to the house. If you own property there's
> always something to fix, paint, or tear out and start over. I hate the
> ceilings in this house, the living room, kitchen/dining, and master
> bedroom have ten foot ceilings. That was useful a hundred years ago but,
> in the era of central heat and air it's a waste of heat. Now you have to
> have ceiling fans to push the heat back down from the ceiling in the
> winter and pull the cold air up in the summer. Bah! Humbug!

if the house isn't insulated well enough at
least you have room to add more. i much
prefer natural cooling or breezes over air
conditioning any time. so a ceiling fan is
good by me. they are pretty efficient. most
time we can get by without AC here with the
cross breezes through the house. Ma does not
do well now in high-humidity, so we run the AC
more than i would alone. when i was in TN i
loved the heat. just a little fan was enough
for me on the really hot nights.

as for inside jobs, yeah, i just moved a
shelf in a closet, which took all of a half
hour. i think she felt sorry it didn't take
longer as she asked if we should paint. i
painted this place when they built it, high
cielings, didn't much like it, but got it
done. until i know we have the last leak up
top taken care of i don't want to paint it
again. so, we'll see if/when that happens.
won't be as bad as the first time.


> Beautiful day today, temps in the low sixties, blue skies, bright
> sunshine. We got to be outside without jackets or sweaters on. Tilly
> napped in her favorite sunbeam napping place and we cleaned out the herb
> garden, blueberry patch, and flower beds. I pruned the fruit trees as
> now is the time, just before they start putting on new leaves.

sounds nice, i'd enjoy a nap in a sunbeam right
about now. the sun is out, it snowed a bit
last night, warmer weather coming this week,
supposedly, i believe it when i feel it, hope this
snow doesn't all melt at once...


songbird

On 2/3/2014 6:17 PM, wrote:
> On Monday, February 3, 2014 6:19:34 AM UTC-8, George Shirley wrote:
>> On 1/30/2014 6:57 PM, Melba's Jammin' wrote:
>>
>>> On 2014-01-19 01:37:09 +0000, songbird said:
>>
>>>>
>>
>>>> so what is up with y'allses (hee, i like
>>
>>>> that 'un)...?
>>
>>>>
>>
>>>>
>>
>>>> songbird
>>
>>>
>>
>>> I believe the correct term is "all y'all." Up to? Up to my ass in
>>
>>> snow, that's what I'm up to. And why we aren't somewhere warm is still
>>
>>> beyond me. It was a plan that neither of us got off the dime to make!
>>
>> We went to bed last night with a chill north wind blowing through with
>>
>> just enough rain to make it miserable.
>>
>>
>>
>> Woke up this morning to sunshine and, maybe, a balmy SE Texas day.
>>
>>
>>
>> You could have come down here Barb, lots of folks here don't know how to
>>
>> drive when it is snowing, hailing, and sleeting. We huddled around a
>>
>> warm dawg and stayed home. <G>
>>
>>
>>
>> George, off to give a car dealer a lot of money
>
> Ooooh, a new car, how wonderful!
>
> George, do you have a hard time with winter vegetables when the weather is warm during the winter?
>
> We, in the SF Bay Area have had unseasonably warm weather, high 60s low 70s and my veggies, especially the bok choy are not doing well. I am getting some kale and rainbow chard, but not at all like I should.
>
> I need to get some more mulch down but otherwise everything is the same as before.
>
> What do you do?
>
> Julie
>
Not really, this past winter was the hardest one for us in about 16 or
17 years, cold with lots of north wind, lots of rain and drizzle, some
light snow and hail, not to mention about half a day of mild sleet. We
still have beets, carrots, lettuce, chard, and cauliflower growing and
being harvested. Most of the winter stuff we plant goes in in September
and is gone by mid-March at the latest. We tend to mulch everything in
order to keep the moisture from evaporating and to keep critters away
from the plants.

Pretty basically we garden year around, rotating crops as the seasons
allow and when one crop goes out another goes in.

We're currently prepping our raised bed and in the ground gardens for
spring. Taking out the weeds that have sprouted, pulling out the grass
that has either crept into the beds or stuff growing from seeds that
have blown in. We've been in this house for about fourteen months now
and we find volcanic dust on the outside car every morning. I don't
remember the volcano way far away that is dropping it out of the jet stream.

When we were still in Louisiana we had plenty of mulch, a hundred year
old cherry bark oak, nine feet through the butt, in our backyard,
dropped enough leaves to use them for mulch and compost both. Here we
have to buy mulch but also have a compost barrel that compostible
materials from the kitchen and yard goes into. I have a good paper
shredder and we put that paper into the compost barrel also.

Gerge

On 2/14/2014 9:32 PM, gloria p wrote:
> On 2/14/2014 7:16 PM, George Shirley wrote:
>
>> Beautiful day today, temps in the low sixties, blue skies, bright
>> sunshine. We got to be outside without jackets or sweaters on. Tilly
>> napped in her favorite sunbeam napping place and we cleaned out the herb
>> garden, blueberry patch, and flower beds. I pruned the fruit trees as
>> now is the time, just before they start putting on new leaves.
>>
>> George
>
>
>
>
> I always thought that most fruit trees set fruit buds in the fall and
> that they fruited on year-old branches. If you've had success with
> winter pruning, I guess I'd heard wrong.
>
> gloria p
Depends on where you live, here we generally prune in January/February
as the trees will be budding very soon. I prune according to what Texas
A&M ag says to do and when, seems to work out. Apples and pears, etc. in
your area might do that but not here. Fig trees get pruned in the
summer, just to open them up to more sunshine and it's done gingerly.
Usually we don't have much of a winter, this one has been different.

I keep an eye on our trees and mark limbs for cutting out. I also cut
out the "rain" limbs, those that sprout along the bigger limbs and cut
back on light penetration. Helps to set more fruit and, then, you have
to thin the fruit on apples and pears, even peaches and plums, if not
you have small fruit. Trying to be an orchardist is a PITA with all the
this and that's that go on all year. What the hell, I'm retired, what
else do I have to do other than babysit some of the great grands
occasionally?

George

On 2/16/2014 4:19 PM, songbird wrote:
> George Shirley wrote:
>
> ...enjoying indoor weather...
>
>> We do that in August when the heat gets up to 100+, stay in the air
>> conditioning and do things to the house. If you own property there's
>> always something to fix, paint, or tear out and start over. I hate the
>> ceilings in this house, the living room, kitchen/dining, and master
>> bedroom have ten foot ceilings. That was useful a hundred years ago but,
>> in the era of central heat and air it's a waste of heat. Now you have to
>> have ceiling fans to push the heat back down from the ceiling in the
>> winter and pull the cold air up in the summer. Bah! Humbug!
>
> if the house isn't insulated well enough at
> least you have room to add more. i much
> prefer natural cooling or breezes over air
> conditioning any time. so a ceiling fan is
> good by me. they are pretty efficient. most
> time we can get by without AC here with the
> cross breezes through the house. Ma does not
> do well now in high-humidity, so we run the AC
> more than i would alone. when i was in TN i
> loved the heat. just a little fan was enough
> for me on the really hot nights.
We run the heat at 68F in the winter and the AC at 80F in the summer.
Every room in the house but the bathrooms have ceiling fans in them. The
humidity here runs around 85-90% most of the year. Get a cold spell and
the humidity generally drops a good bit. Most important household
maintenance person here is your friendly HVAC person, ours is a jewel.
>
> as for inside jobs, yeah, i just moved a
> shelf in a closet, which took all of a half
> hour. i think she felt sorry it didn't take
> longer as she asked if we should paint. i
> painted this place when they built it, high
> cielings, didn't much like it, but got it
> done. until i know we have the last leak up
> top taken care of i don't want to paint it
> again. so, we'll see if/when that happens.
> won't be as bad as the first time.
>
>
>> Beautiful day today, temps in the low sixties, blue skies, bright
>> sunshine. We got to be outside without jackets or sweaters on. Tilly
>> napped in her favorite sunbeam napping place and we cleaned out the herb
>> garden, blueberry patch, and flower beds. I pruned the fruit trees as
>> now is the time, just before they start putting on new leaves.
>
> sounds nice, i'd enjoy a nap in a sunbeam right
> about now. the sun is out, it snowed a bit
> last night, warmer weather coming this week,
> supposedly, i believe it when i feel it, hope this
> snow doesn't all melt at once...
>
>
> songbird
>
We were out in short sleeves most of the day, the house is at least five
degrees cooler than the outside at the moment.

I'm going to check jars and lids tomorrow, just bought some extra vacuum
bag material just in case.

George