Got the last of this season’s lettuce transplanted to the garden. Supposedly we have a stretch of at least 7 days with mid 70’s kind of temps so that should give them a good start before the potential of another cold snap. These should be pickable in March/April. Where I made my mistake with lettuce is the math of it. I figure you eat a salad every day, one head per salad so that’s 30 heads per month. Simple but wrong. First off, one head of lettuce lasts us a couple of meals and we don’t eat at home 7 days a week. The problem is compounded if we pick leaves off the growing plant – no telling how many salads come from one plant before it finally hangs it up. It’s just that there are literally hundreds of different varieties that all sound soooo tempting; the seeds are so tiny that each pack has hundreds and hundreds of seeds and those seeds store well; and when I get 10 of these and 10 of those started, I don’t have the discipline to just pick 2 or 3 and toss the rest. The final factor is that lettuce is edible from the get go, many varieties are mature in 40+ days, and it holds well without bolting in this cool weather. So the end result is we’re swimming in lettuce. Garden looks good though. We do give away a fair amount and in the end, if a head just gets too old, George’s Koi love to eat it.

The picture is (obviously) the latest carrot pick. There are two varieties, Kuroda and YaYa. Kuroda is a Japanese variety supposedly among the sweetest around. This is the first season I can say we’re getting all the nice carrots we need. I must have broken the code on growing them and finally defeated the feared and dreaded nematodes – at least in that spot. Carrots are an ideal veggie to grow in the backyard because you can grow so many in a small space and they keep really well – either in the ground or in the fridge. I’ve always known those two facts but up until now it seemed like even a small space was wasted based on the quality of the product. Now if I can only somehow break the code on beets. I’m giving that another shot in a patio container which will totally isolate them from the native soil.

Nancy and a quilt buddy headed up to Shands hospital in Gainesville today to deliver quilts they’d made for the Children’s Infusion Center. They keep the center quite cool and the kids have to spend hours there so they really appreciate the quilts. Having a free afternoon, I decided to attend a seminar I had read about concerning gardening in small spaces being held at the Ormond Beach library. The subject is “Square Foot Gardening” which is learning how to get the most from a small garden space. Our garden is fairly large as home gardens go but small spaces frequently open up and I might learn something interesting to do with those spaces. It’s also a good opportunity to take the laptop and install any software updates since the last round. I really didn’t expect to learn much but sometimes just one little gem pops out or I might meet some old guy that’s been doing this for a hundred years and has a few secrets.

As it turned out there were mostly old people there – lots of them too. The presenter knew his material quite well and I did learn a few things. Would have been better if it was just him and I but……………….. Lot’s of really dumb, off point questions. The net of it all is that if you want to start a garden, this square foot garden technique would be a great way to do it. You get lots of produce, in a small area, and with much less work than a traditional, in ground garden. There’s a book by a guy named Mel Bartholomew and a web site squarefootgardening.com to get you going. Since it’s a whole technique, it really didn’t tell me to do with my small spaces but I still picked up a few tidbits of interest.

I’m feeling stronger that the Republican Convention will end up putting forth a new candidate – new as in someone not currently declared. As I suspected, Romney will not be able to win the south – he’s a yankee and a Mormon and all the power brokers know that Gingrich can’t beat Obama. The Southern conservatives, an absolutely necessary vote block, are faced with selecting between a very moderate, to left leaning Mormon, a fiscally moderate Pennsylvania Catholic with a history of voting for some real dog earmarks, and a Southern Catholic with a 3 wife track record and some really lunatic/unstable moves as a member of congress. Not a good Southern Baptist conservative in the bunch. Think of all the bourbon/cigar meetings going on into the wee hours trying to figure their way out of this dilemma. I’m starting to smell a Goldwater kind of debacle in the end – and against the worst president in modern memory. Killing the pipeline project alone should be the end of his career. I think the only thing that can boost him is if the Iranians do something incredibly stupid – and they just might.

Went out to the garden Sunday morning and was met with what appeared to be a total disaster. It was supposed to get cold last night but not cold, cold. No use of the dreaded “F” word by the forecasters. At 8:30AM the ground and garden were covered with “F”. All the plants that I hadn’t covered – that would be everything but a few very young transplants – were coated with white and wilted badly. I thought if maybe I could get the sprinklers on quickly, that would warm things up in a hurry – the well water is about 72 degrees. The water in the hoses had frozen solid, so no watering possible. Should I do a Tebow? nah, he bombed out last night and that may be a bad political move. Time to start thinking about summer plants but I really started thinking about hanging up my farmer duds totally. Had those numbskull forecasters on the tube suggested frost or freezing, I would have covered the garden just as I did last week. I went back out at 9:00 and the frost had melted off and all the wimpy looking plants had returned to full on perky. The ice in the hoses had melted and I got all the sprinklers going. It’ll be a day or so before I know fully how things made out, but as of right now I think everything survived with maybe a few burned edges.

I’m thinking of doing carrot pasta next time since that crop is coming in big time. I’ve grown carrots a few times but they never really did well until this year. In the past the ones that made it were tasty but misshaped – twisted, double legs, runty etc. We ate them but they were too ugly to show. This year they actually look like real carrots. It doesn’t have anything to do with the particular variety since I’ve used this same seed packet for a couple of years. Has to be totally based on the soil improvements and the absence of nematodes. They’re doing so good I’m going to pop in another batch so we’ll have carrots into late spring. I honestly don’t know how late in the season I can still have carrots.

One of the key ingredients in a dish of linguine and clams is the parsley. It really has to be the right kind of parsley – exactly the kind I grow of course. What I’m wondering is if I use parsley as an ingredient in making the pasta, in place of spinach, would the overall meal be even better? I personally would jump all over it but Nancy is a bit of a traditionalist on some things and I have a feeling linguine and clams would fit into that category. Assuming I just took the leap into the unknown, there is another decision to be made. I make the dough in the food processor and can either just pitch a handful of fresh out of the garden parsley into the processor along with the other ingredients or wilt the parsley first by popping it into sizzling water for a few seconds. The difference is that without the wilting process, the parsley will appear as little flecks of green in the white pasta whereas if I wilt it, the pasta turns green – no flecks. No way Nancy would miss the fact that I doctored the pasta if it’s a bright green but if it just has flecks throughout, she might miss the subtle tone. Yeah, that’s the way I’m going.

The problem with the Denver Bronco’s is they don’t have enough Gators on the team.

Little Tommy spent the last few days of his Christmas break with us which made it extra special for us. Hard to believe this is his last semester before taking on the world. Here’s what really made my day, week, month, year…………….. Tom Sr. drove Jr. up to a midway meeting point for breakfast. He had a mid morning meeting so this arrangement worked out best for him and worked just fine for us. Met at Big Rig for breakfast. I think I mentioned before that the Rig has a large breakfast menu but I hadn’t gotten to the back page of it ever before so when Tommy ordered the chicken and waffles, I was surprised there was even such an offering. Turned out to be a plate size waffle and 4 pieces of fried chicken – basically half a chicken. He actually put it down. Anyway, naturally Tommy had packed a suitcase for the three day stay but his dad drove away from the restaurant with the suitcase still in the car. We didn’t realize that until about halfway back home. Here’s the good part – last year Nancy spotted a bargain on camo pants at the local Dollar Store but they are 36‘s – which is a tight squeeze for me. I had been losing weight for a while and Nancy is/was convinced that 36‘s are in my future. She broke them out for Tommy and sure enough, they fit nicely. Just a bit loose, but not all that loose. So 22 years after his birth, he and I are wearing the same size pants – almost. He’s certainly not fat, overweight, or even chunky so that sure made me feel good.

Luckily for me, the big Florida maple decided overnight to drop all it’s leaves at exactly the same time as I transferred and turned over a new compost pile and I had Tommy here to help vacuum the leaves into the leaf mulcher. The mulcher hold 15 gallons of shredded leaves per load and we did 5 loads so that’s a serious pile of shredded leaves. So this batch of compost will be heavily loaded with citrus in the form of grapefruit peelings and maple. Sounds like a candle scent.

I noted that Tommy was totally untrained in the fine art of pasta making and took it on my own to fill that gap in his resume. I also learned that he had never eaten spinach pasta and didn’t remember if he had ever eaten freshly made pasta so I set about to fill these missing pieces in his life. Last time I made pasta I used Swiss Chard in lieu of spinach – the Chard was ready, the spinach wasn’t. Now the spinach is ready to pick so I made the switch. Didn’t expect much difference but it turned out that there is. The spinach definitely has more internal moisture so no additional water was added to the dough at all – usually have to add a few tablespoons. My taste buds are long since burned out but Nancy assured me that she liked the spinach pasta better than the chard pasta and Tommy loved it. I didn’t think of it but next time I’ll try to remember to take a picture of the finished product.

I guess the next time we’ll see him is in Missouri at his graduation in May. Shouldn’t teaching him how to make pasta count as a graduation gift?

Planted 4 seeds each of 4 different tomato varieties. I’ll cull out the best 2 of each and get them out of the greenhouse and into the garden this time next month. Normally that would be way too early but I have water filled protection devices that will protect them from the cold so this way I get a really early start on the season. That makes a big difference here because the plants will be fairly mature by the time the bugs start making an appearance, so more able to deal with them. I also ordered two new seed varieties and will get those seeds going on Feb. 1 and into the garden early March. My plan is to end up with a dozen plants just loaded with tomatoes. In a perfect world that will be 2 each of 6 different varieties. The reality is that some will make it and some won’t and the mix will end up somewhat different – that’s why I always start spares.

Ever think about planting veggies in a container or window box? I tried it a month or so back with some lettuce and the photo shows the results. This is a leaf lettuce so you can just pick the leaves you want, not the whole plant. For one or two people, just these few plants will keep you in salad for months. Of course you save money, but the convenience of just clipping off a few leave just before dinner time or to pop onto a sandwich at lunch is sure nice.

The other photo is a hybrid called Veronica. It’s a cross between a cauliflower and broccoli. In some catalogs it’s listed along with the cauliflower, in others with the broccoli. Tastes just like cauliflower. Every time I see one of these I think about those National Geographic exotic lizards with the protruding eyes. Now that I think of it, it does have just the faintest hint of lizard taste. I think next season I’m going to grow the full rainbow of cauliflowers – cheddar, lime, white, and purple.

Another T-Bow Sunday. I still can’t get interested in any other NFL game but, I guess because of the strong Gator connection, I’m drawn to the Bronco games and they are consistently exciting – even the losses. You’re almost forced to watch the fourth quarter just because historically, this season, that’s when it all happens. I’ll have to admit I wouldn’t have bet two cents against the Steelers last game but I still watched. I can’t imagine them beating the Patriots but for sure, I just have to watch. What I wonder – is all the Bronco attention driving the other teams crazy? Speaking of football, I’m happy the Gators hired the offensive coach from Boise State. Not sure what kind of quarterback situation we’re looking at next season but I feel better with a blow and go kind of offensive coordinator.

This is a photo of the current harvest. The lettuce is a red leaf variety called Danyelle. One of Nancy’s quilt buddies had tried it and bombed out so I inherited the seed. Great variety. That head will last us about 3 days in terms of salad days. Ditto the broccoli which was a heritage variety called Calabrese. I like the taste and it puts out a goodly quantity of side shoots. It’s the tallest of the 5 varieties I’m trying this year which actually makes it easier to pick. The only negative is that it doesn’t hold as long on the plant – turns to flowers more quickly – so you have to stay on top of it. That’s probably a characteristic that’s been bred out of it in the newer varieties. If you look closely, on the right side of the lettuce is a head of cauliflower. Doesn’t show up to well on the white bench.

I finally moved the Flower Sprouts into the main garden after nursing them from seeds to seedlings in the greenhouse. The plants really seem strong and healthy and made it in the real world overnight. I thought that the plants would be indistinguishable from real Brussels but they have distinctive red/purple stems and leaf veins so no doubting where they’re planted.

This week is a big compost week. We’ve harvested quite a bit in the past month and one of the compost piles is ready for spreading; in fact I’ve spread about 90%, probably 2 CF, in the past few days, since removing the garden covers. That’s not the big job. The current, active pile, the one that’s been receiving all the new input since early December, is chock full. So what I do is pitchfork that pile over to the spot vacated by the compost just spread and shut it down to new inputs. Believe it or not, that will take a couple of hours of heavy going. That pile just cooks for a couple of months, turning it every 3-4 days for aeration. Next I start a brand new fresh batch in the new vacancy. I already have quite a bit of material ready to go, mostly in the form of fallen leaves, and this new pile will be open to all new garden and kitchen input for the next couple of months. I’ll probably spend 4-6 hours on the whole project over the next few days. Great exercise. Based on history, I’ll have a another batch ready for the garden the first part of April and another the first part of June. The top surface of the garden does keep rising as I keep adding new material but there’s always plenty of room for more as the older stuff compresses and settles. Each new layer I put down adds about 4” at the time but settles down to less than half that over the next 6 months or so.

Got the blood test results. My PSA dropped from 4.0 before the cryo procedure to 0.3 now, so all is well in PSA land. If I recall correctly, it’s lower now than it was at the same time after the radiation. Next checkpoint is mid June. My appointment was at 9:00AM and Nancy had an appointment at another doctor, across the street for 10:30. Just enough time between appointments for us to have breakfast at Big Rig. Big Rig is a favorite breakfast/lunch place and has hearty offerings of good stuff. I had to laugh when I looked at the “specials” board today where the main attraction was “Monster Tots, covered in chili and melted cheese”, with a drink for $4.95. I would pay $4.95 just to see a plate of Monster Tots. Wonder if you have to sign a waiver or anything absolving the Rig of any responsibility if you drop over dead from a cholesterol overload.

Pulled the covers off the garden and found pretty much what I had expected: Those plants which are really sensitive were zapped – that’s the peppers and eggplants; the mature winter crops were totally fine; the newly planted stuff was iffy. Some made it, some didn’t – the losses were maybe 20-25%. Everything in the greenhouse survived so I have replacements ready to go for the ones that got hammered. If I had thought a little bit before covering, I probably could have saved even the youngest plants by covering them individually with a plastic cup. I never even gave it a thought at the time. I’m soaking it down really good today and perhaps some of the sad looking ones will recover. I feel pretty good about the event since we had three consecutive nights of solid freezing weather. The covers are started to show the wear with a few rips and tears but this is their 3rd service year so I have no complaints.

A day later I did a thorough examination and did find some leaf burn. Nothing that should kill the plant but more than first appeared. The lake took the big hit. The farmers pumped hard and long for 3 nights and dropped the lake about a foot. That may not sound like much but think how much water that is in a 60 acre lake. It’ll take quite while to recover from that.

Have to report another find. Except for Joey, nobody in our family likes lima beans. I mean really, really don’t like lima beans. Nancy used to make vegetable soup and the frozen mixed vegetables she used included lima beans. We would all scoop out the limas and put them in Joey’s bowl, to his delight. The other night we went out to eat at what’s become one of our favorite restaurants, a Greek restaurant in downtown Deland. They have a very limited offering of sides to complement the entree and this time we had a choice among a potato, rice pilaf, and lima beans. Nancy ordered something called Pastachio which sounded like a baked macaroni and cheese kind of dish so a potato or rice side didn’t go so with lima beans as the last choice, she passed on the side. The waitress chirped in that the lima beans were really good so I told her to go ahead and add that side to Nancy’s dish. We agreed – nothing to lose. What a great decision. The beans were cooked “Greek style”, which meant they were sauteed in olive oil along with other ingredients. I took the first bite from her plate and was blown away by how good they were. Nancy tried a bite and totally agreed. Luckily it was a hearty serving and we both ate our way through them. We had the same experience there a few months back when the side was green peas. We’re both ok with peas but not on the top 10 list for either of us. These were awesome so I’ve come to the conclusion that Greeks really know how to do vegetables. By the way, the Pastachio turned out more like baked ziti than Mac and cheese; excellent.

We have another smoker event planned for Saturday. Doing beef ribs this time and will probably pitch in a few chicken thighs to balance it out. I made my widely acclaimed Dutch Cole Slaw again with a few mods to the published ingredient list. The official Dutch version has cabbage, onion and green pepper plus all the stuff that goes into the sauce. My new version has the same basic ingredients plus shredded carrots, chopped broccoli, and pencil cut kohlrabi. I’m turning cole slaw, as I do with pizza, into an art form not easily replicated. I am only using one variety of cabbage this time as compared to using two different varieties last go round. And, as the last time, one thing I don’t understand is why the water in the pan isn’t boiling off. The temp gauge say 225 degrees and the unused meat thermometer just sitting inside the smoker also say 225 degrees but the water is not boiling off. Used to be water boiled at 212 but maybe that’s changed and I didn’t get the word. Smoke is billowing out so I can’t imagine that there’s a pressure build up inside the unit so the only other explanation I can conjure is that the grease dripping from the meat is changing the boiling point of the liquid. I bet that’s it because after about an hour cooking some water drips out of the unit but after a while the dripping stops. So before the fat drips off the meat, water probably steams off the water pan and then when the fat drips off the meat into the pan, the chemistry of the water changes and no longer steams. That’s got to be it – man do I feel better now. You probably wonder why I worry about that. About a 100 years ago in Utah I had a smoker and I wasn’t attentive to what was going on inside the smoker and it ran out of water and screwed up the meal. Tom told me he had run out of water with his but it was a long, long cook. My old one was a charcoal machine so maybe it just got hotter but for now I’m going to quit worrying about it and assume my dripping theory is correct and I’ll never run it dry. Wonder if the chemistry change is the same for pork, beef and chicken?

Here’s something that surprised me. I went out to check the greenhouse seedlings about noon and was amazed at just how warm it was inside. The outside temp was about 45 but inside it was more like 75 and all the seedlings looked just fine. I knew it would be warmer and totally protected from the strong NW winds but really only expected maybe a 10 degree rise. I’ve got 6 one gallon jugs of water set out in the sun that I’ll move into the greenhouse before sundown. I also have a 40 watt lamp burning inside so I’m feeling good about seedling outlook. I set out a bowl of water on the deck, not under any cover, and another inside the screen porch to see if there was any temp difference between the two areas. I checked about 6:30AM and the one on the deck had frozen solid whereas the one under the screen remained unfrozen. I also peaked in the green house and nothing looked stressed so I’m thinking it’s all ok. I plan to leave the garden and plants covered for the next three days until there’s no danger of frost at all.

So here’s the problem, it’s cold and windy. I can do cold ok but cold and windy, not so much. I’m breaking out my snowmobile suit and going out after spec’s – as soon as the wind stops.

When we moved to the lake in 2003, there were nine lived in dwellings on the lake in our cove; there are now only 4. One of the missing was a bankruptcy but the rest are vacant due to deaths. I think at this point, the average age of the remaining folks is probably 75. What’s nice about that is that the folks in the cove are not boaters in the sense that they don’t have big or noisy boats. This is the canoe, kayak, paddle boat, john boat end of the lake but that could all change with new owners. It’s rare to see anyone, other than moi, even fishing on the lake so I sure enjoy the privacy, peace and quiet. I think the place directly across from us, the double wide, is close to being sold and we were told that the person who bought it also bought the adjacent acreage. All I’ve seen over there are some older folks so fingers crossed that it’s another retiree.

Got a blood test and will see the doc next week to see if everything is behaving. I certainly feel ok but still don’t want to be too far from the potty.

Sure glad Iowa is over. I have to admit I was surprised to see Rick Santorem do so well there but it was a scruffy field to start with so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised at any outcome. I don’t think any other state could have had Santorem and Ron Paul among the top 3. Until he opened his mouth, I was cheering for Rick Perry but he crashed and burned early on. I’m still hoping that the whole thing starts anew at the Convention in July and someone is drafted into service. With the current batch of candidates I’m afraid we lose no matter who ends up winning the election in November – be it Obama or Romney. I hate it that the Florida primary is coming up soon, as in a few weeks. All of a sudden we’re getting the political ad overload on TV. I’m tired of them already and still have weeks to go. At my advanced age, I think I’ve been through a dozen or so presidential elections (as a voter) and can honestly say the election coming up will be the first I can remember in which none of the candidates, either party, do it for me. Nothing but losers for the next 5 years unless something bizarre happens before the election.

Started moving the last batch of winter plants from the green house to the garden. I have 40 to move as space permits including cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and the flower sprouts. I have lettuce started that should make the big move towards the end of January. This batch of seedlings should take us through April. Believe it or not, I start seeds for tomatoes in a couple of weeks. Spending an hour a day or so memorizing the new round of seed catalogs. Except for one or two items, I really have enough seed on hand to get me through next season which would leave one to believe that I probably won’t be ordering any new seed. Don’t count on it.

We’re having winter this week. The dreaded “freeze warnings” have been posted and I’m organizing my defenses. They’re saying it will be a 3 day event. Usually we experience a windy, rainy storm late in the afternoon and then a freeze that night. I don’t see the storm in the forecast- just the cold – but I’m still going to cover up a day early while the weather is still fantastic. I’m usually trying to cover the crops in a gale but this time it’s going to be done in dead calm, a day in advance of the real need date. I had already gathered up most of the planters down by the dock and put them on the deck by the house so it should take me 5 minutes to bring them into the screen porch and then cover them with one or two covers. Speaking of covers, I was up in Nancy’s shed and spotted a large roll of something she calls batting. Looks like plant blanket to me. Wonder if I should bring the subject up or just go ahead and use it? I mean some of the plants that I’ll be covering are her plants, aren’t they? She did come up with what could be the winning idea of the season – use the smoker to warm the plants I brought in the screened porch. How much electricity could it use if I set it at 100 degrees, I think the lowest possible setting, and timed it on about 8PM for 10 hours?

Update – Hey, this really is a serious freeze – ie in the 20’s kind of freeze; pick all the remaining citrus kind of freeze; leave the water running in a faucet overnight to keep the pipes from freezing kind of freeze. We’ll have gallons of grapefruit/tangerine juice before the end of the day. It’s possible that even after covering the garden, there will be some damage, especially to the recently planted stuff. I wasn’t worried about a normal, just below freezing for an hour or so, kind of freeze but this one falls into the hard freeze category so all bets are off. Too bad mosquitoes. Will the cold weather trigger the spec’s?

Nancy is truly in hog heaven – nah, Angry Birds heaven. Not only did she get a new version, Angry Birds Seasons, but the two previously downloaded versions had major updates so she’s just birding her little heart out. Even though I downloaded all this the day after Christmas, I think it should count as part of the Christmas present package, don’t you?

Nancy’s bridge was cancelled for Friday and it unexpectedly turned into a honey do day. I think she badly needs a backup bridge club in case this ever happens again. It was the kind of honey do day that starts with a trip to Lowes, spending about $150, and then sustaining multiples blows to the head while trying to work upside down under the kitchen cabinets. That’s what it took to replace the under cabinet florescent lighting with LED lights. At my advanced age, working over my head while laying on the counters is a bit dizzying and much more wearing on the bod than working in the vertical mode. I never could remove the brackets for the old lights but we can live with that until someone with the requisite skills and tools shows up to finish the job. The next job involved getting in the bathtub, removing the drain plug and mechanism, and replacing it with a new one. How you break a drain plug is beyond me but Nancy figured out the way. The hard part of that job was removing the old one but I did, somehow, manage to get it out, screw in a new one, and get it properly caulked. Hopefully it won’t leak.

Nancy and I decided a few years back that exchanging Christmas presents didn’t make much sense because each of us pretty much buys whatever we want. So, for example, when we were in Costco early December they had a cast iron pot that would be perfect for making cacciatore. So Nancy said that we should buy it and I could wrap it up for her Christmas present. Made sense to me but it needed just something extra to personalize it. Turns out her favorite meal is the cacciatore I make; trouble is it’s really a big deal to make so it’s not something I want to jump into very often. When Chris was home, he helped and it was fun to do together but by myself, it’s a real chore. So to spice up the gift and complement the pan, I drew up a set of coupons entitling her to a cacciatore dinner each month. Each coupon had the month printed on it so you couldn’t save them up and if you passed a month – tough. I know she was totally surprised by the gift. Comes Jan 1, out comes the first coupon. Wow, that was quicker than I thought. This time I made Swiss Chard pasta – same as spinach pasta – and improved on the last batch by cutting the veggies a bit chunkier and using a more suitable type of tomatoes. I also cooked it all at a lower temp which eliminated the burned stuff on the bottom of the pan that happened last time. Knowing that I’m facing this job once a month, unless she loses the coupons, I have a few more mods in mind that will take it totally over the top.