Isabella Woodhouse wrote:
> In article >,
> George Shirley > wrote:
>
>> Isabella Woodhouse wrote:
>
>>> I, too, have a nice kitchen garden for my herbs. But try as I might,
>>> thyme just doesn't do well here due to the freezing and thawing. We did
>>> not have dill or caraway this year either. But I usually have fresh
>>> parsley until December. This year, I may cover it.
>
>> It is generally hot here so thyme, the English version, makes it about
>> two years and then I have to start over. The French version seldom makes
>> a whole year.
>
> The one that seems to do best here is lime thyme. But, as you may
> surmise, it tastes limey instead of thymey. I'll bring in the
> rosemary for the winter and hope for the best.
Rosemary can be a pest here. My old one would get cut back to a stub
each winter and by mid-summer following it would be a four foot by four
foot bush. I probably started a hundred or more by staking limbs to the
ground until they rooted and then cutting them loose and potting them.
Sold a lot, gave away a bunch and still had more than anyone could use.
>
>>> Yesterday, I picked another 9 pounds of beans, until my back gave out,
>>> and that was only half of what is planted. But I should not complain.
>>> Next year we could have none. I can tell you one thing. Mr. Bill will
>>> definitely NOT be planting so many beans.
>
>> Last year I put up 40 pints of green beans from one 24 foot row. This
>> year we got enough to have green beans twice for dinner.
>
> I hear ya. And that's why I feel guilty complaining. That's a good
> amount for 24 feet, George. We just had our soil retested and, while it
> improved a lot over the last few years, it still could use more organic
> matter. Except for the woods, the rest of our property had been
> pasture.
Once Ike blows through I will stop by the extension office and pick up a
couple of sample boxes/bags to send off to LSU extension for soil tests.
>
> We usually plant a green crop for the winter but, too often, the deer
> have eaten it before Mr. Bill could plow it under. Hopefully, the
> electric deer wire will continue to keep them mostly out. I did find
> some nipped-off beans the other day and can't imagine how they got in.
> OTOH, I did not see a single footprint so maybe it was something else.
> Maybe it was Laser-Cat... but I don't think cats eat vegetables. We
> have both seen a cat that looks to be about 30-40 pounds with a very
> long tail. This cat does not seem like a domestic feline. DH thinks
> he's seen it at night, when out checking the fence-line for fallen
> branches, hence the "Laser-Cat" tag.
Maybe a young bobcat except they have short tails. May just be an
extraordinarily large domestic cat. I had one when I was a kid that was
huge, ol' Tom weighed in at 22 lbs and he wasn't fat.
>
>>> But today I took a break from all the bean freezing (and gnashing of
>>> totally bored teeth) and made 4.5 pints of raspberry-blueberry jam.
>
>> Isabella, you're obviously not dressing right nor playing the correct
>> music for the chore. Try a nice Donna Reed dress, some pearls, high
>> heels, and some very good music of your choice. Works for Barb, works
>> for me. <VBG>
>
> Like these perhaps?
> <http://good-times.webshots.com/album/566800936xbBELs>
Looks like the dresses DW made and wore in the fifties and sixties.
>
>>> [...] ...Yum! My cupboard runneth over.
>
>> Lawdy, you done put up more stuff in one year than I do in three or
>> four. Keep it up and we'll all have to move in with you.
>
> Yeah, you'll all have to move in with me and we can start the first
> preserving commune and call ourselves.... what? I'm finally starting to
> slow down a little. I've been making up for lost time and having so
> much fun after having been so horribly ill for a few years. It's
> wonderful to be able to function again and do normal things.
>
> (Public Service OT Sidebar: The average time it takes for someone with
> celiac syndrome in the US to get diagnosed is ELEVEN years. Untreated,
> the condition is ultimately fatal but the treatment is simple--- no more
> wheat, barley or rye. Some people die w/o ever having been diagnosed.
> For some reason, US physicians thought it was a rare condition but it
> isn't. Celiac, gluten intolerance and gluten allergy affect at least 3
> in 100 people, maybe more. Anyone who has a lot of ongoing digestive
> problems, especially in addition to other auto-immune conditions (ie-
> diabetes, MS, arthritis, thyroid disease, lupus, etc) should at least
> get screened with a simple blood test that detects antibodies to gluten
> in your blood. People with undiagnosed, untreated celiac have an
> extraordinarily high rate of fatal lymphoma.)
>
>> Note: Ike's winds are starting to build up here.
>
> When I heard that Ike was heading for Galveston, I got chills up my
> spine, recalling how terrible that storm was at the turn of the next to
> last century. Oh what was that book? It's been so long since I read
> it, I had to Google it. _Isaac's Storm_ is an amazing true narrative
> that I highly recommend if you haven't read it. I think over 6000
> people were killed in that storm surge and aftermath. It also has some
> fascinating history of the development of the national weather service
> we now know as NOAA and how politics played a role in the fate of
> Galveston even then.
Historians are now saying that it was closer to 8K to 12K killed in that
one. Hurricane Audrey killed between 500 and 750 people here in 1957. I
came home from Navy boot camp just in time to get sent out on a
helicopter to pick up bodies in the marshes and swamps. Not a nice thing
for a 17-year old person to do for the first time.
>
> Isabella
Ike looks to be putting more surge water ashore and less wind than some
hurricanes we've experienced. I don't think our home is any danger as we
are at the highest point of land in our city, 19 feet above sea level.
Doesn't seem like a high point but we're 52 miles inland from the Gulf
and about ten miles from the Calcasieu River but do have a few bayous
and some drainage canals that can back up.