It's snowing like crazy here. It has been for the past half hour. This
is after a week of rain, hail, and tornado warnings. We've covered all
the Asiatic lilies and a few other low-growers with plastic buckets.
Luckily we haven't planted any vegetables yet. I picked over a dozen
irises in bloom, two to three weeks early. Tulips, crabapples, lilacs
are long gone.

Mother's Day will find the garden centers and big boxes filled with
people who left Mother till the last minute plus those who have been
buying and planting since Feb. or March when plants started appearing in
the stores. This climate is so crazy.

gloria p
SE Denver suburbs

On 5/9/2015 7:55 PM, gloria p wrote:
>
>
>
> It's snowing like crazy here. It has been for the past half hour. This
> is after a week of rain, hail, and tornado warnings. We've covered all
> the Asiatic lilies and a few other low-growers with plastic buckets.
> Luckily we haven't planted any vegetables yet. I picked over a dozen
> irises in bloom, two to three weeks early. Tulips, crabapples, lilacs
> are long gone.
>
> Mother's Day will find the garden centers and big boxes filled with
> people who left Mother till the last minute plus those who have been
> buying and planting since Feb. or March when plants started appearing in
> the stores. This climate is so crazy.
>
> gloria p
> SE Denver suburbs
Overcast but not raining here today, otherwise we have been getting a
lot of rain off and on. Temps ranging from 60F to 85F, strong winds from
all directions.

What's to preserve? Yesterday and today I put up 25 cups of shredded
zucchini in vacuum bags. Only had five zucchini, all running about 3 lbs
each but one was over 4 lbs. Only immature seeds in them, guess they
were soaking up all that rain and just grew huge. We picked four or five
fairly large yellow squash and they also only had immature seeds, we ate
some sauteed and slice and vacuum bagged the rest for the freezer.

Today we harvested a three-gallon bucket of scallions, had been growing
long enough they had bulbed somewhat and had scapes. They're resting on
the counter now, nice and clean and will be chopped and vacuum bagged
tomorrow or Monday.

The green beans are producing like crazy but are not long enough to
harvest and can as yet. Sweet chiles will be harvested for the first
time next week and, possibly, a few tomatoes. The fig tree is full of
fruit and we have our first two Tennousi pears on the tree in the front
yard, turns out the fruit is a russet color. Tennousi is a cross between
an Asian pear and a European pear, hope they will be good canners as I
was told. Lots of Swiss chard growing and will also be cut and bagged
this coming week. That bed of chard was planted in the very early spring
of 2013 and is still producing so far. It is shaded afternoon so that
may be why it is doing so well. The dwarf Barbados cherries are covered
with blooms, may get enough of the tiny fruit with large seeds to make
some jelly.

I'm having arthritis problems again and more problems from the ten years
and more ago strokes. Have appointments with specialists scatter over
this month and next month. I hope they don't write me more
prescriptions. In addition, Tilly Dawg had her right meniscus repaired
last month and she goes back to the super vet this coming week to
determine how well they did with the surgery. I've been doing rehab
exercises on her for a month now.

I hope all you ladies are having a wonderful Mother's Day tomorrow, I'm
cooking for three of the four mothers in our immediate family with
brunch tomorrow. Egg casserole, home made biscuits, pan fried sweet
potatoes, etc. The third mother is hauling her fourteen year old
daughter to a ball game the daughter is playing in. Females outnumber
the males in our family as our eldest grandson has four daughters. All
beauties too.

George, Miz Anne, and Tilly Dawg

On Sat, 09 May 2015 18:55:06 -0600, gloria p >
wrote:

>
>
>
>It's snowing like crazy here. It has been for the past half hour. This
>is after a week of rain, hail, and tornado warnings. We've covered all
>the Asiatic lilies and a few other low-growers with plastic buckets.
>Luckily we haven't planted any vegetables yet. I picked over a dozen
>irises in bloom, two to three weeks early. Tulips, crabapples, lilacs
>are long gone.
>
>Mother's Day will find the garden centers and big boxes filled with
>people who left Mother till the last minute plus those who have been
>buying and planting since Feb. or March when plants started appearing in
>the stores. This climate is so crazy.
>
>gloria p
>SE Denver suburbs

Sounds familiar. When we lived in Aurora in the late 1960's it also
snowed on the Saturday before Mother's Day. I remember it because we
went to the Officer's Club with friends that night. Guess we had
been there long enough that we were not deterred by the snow.
--
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 5/10/2015 4:52 AM, The Cook wrote:
> On Sat, 09 May 2015 18:55:06 -0600, gloria p >
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>
>> It's snowing like crazy here. It has been for the past half hour. This
>> is after a week of rain, hail, and tornado warnings. We've covered all
>> the Asiatic lilies and a few other low-growers with plastic buckets.
>> Luckily we haven't planted any vegetables yet. I picked over a dozen
>> irises in bloom, two to three weeks early. Tulips, crabapples, lilacs
>> are long gone.
This climate is so crazy.
>>
>> gloria p
>> SE Denver suburbs
>
> Sounds familiar. When we lived in Aurora in the late 1960's it also
> snowed on the Saturday before Mother's Day. I remember it because we
> went to the Officer's Club with friends that night. Guess we had
> been there long enough that we were not deterred by the snow.
>

Absolutely. We had an official 9 inches of snow. With most of the
trees leafed out, the limb damage is severe and widespread. Not quite
as bad as the horrible snow in mid-September 1995 that took down entire
trees, but bad enough.

It is melting quickly but as you know from experience, there's no
assurance it won't happen again before the blistering summer heat
arrives. I know people love it here. Not I.

gloria p

I need to pick some rhubarb this afternoon. Maybe jam.

--
--
Barb
www.barbschaller.com, last update April 2013

On Wed, 13 May 2015 11:35:23 -0500, Melba's Jammin'
> wrote:

>I need to pick some rhubarb this afternoon. Maybe jam.
>
>--
I was going to make the rhubarb custard cake today but we picked
strawberries yesterday afternoon so it will be strawberry shortcake.
--
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 5/13/2015 11:35 AM, Melba's Jammin' wrote:
> I need to pick some rhubarb this afternoon. Maybe jam.
>
Where you been Barb? We've been missing you a lot. Tilly got cleared by
the vet today to run free again. The trauma of the vet visit hit her
hard, she finally quit shaking when she got home and is recovering with
a long nap.

I'm going to pick enough green beans this afternoon to have them with
dinner along with fresh zucchini fritters and some home canned carrots
from last year. Cukes are about ready to pick and the sweet chiles
definitely need to be picked again. Lots of large green tomatoes but no
ripe ones as yet.

We're trying to figure out when the rain stops so we can go pick
blueberries at the U pick 'em farm. Got three inches between midnight
and 0700 this last evening. No wonder the zukes are getting so big.

On Wed, 13 May 2015 12:20:03 -0500, George Shirley >
wrote:

>I'm going to pick enough green beans this afternoon to have them with
>dinner along with fresh zucchini fritters and some home canned carrots
>from last year. Cukes are about ready to pick and the sweet chiles
>definitely need to be picked again. Lots of large green tomatoes but no
>ripe ones as yet.

Keep rubbin' it in George!
Here's from our weather forecast for tonight:
(Temperature is in Celsius, of course).

Frost advisory in effect.
Tonight:
Partly cloudy. Clearing this evening. Low plus 1 with patchy frost.

Ross.
Southern Ontario, Canada

On 5/13/2015 5:16 PM, Ross@home wrote:
> On Wed, 13 May 2015 12:20:03 -0500, George Shirley >
> wrote:
>
>> I'm going to pick enough green beans this afternoon to have them with
>> dinner along with fresh zucchini fritters and some home canned carrots
>>from last year. Cukes are about ready to pick and the sweet chiles
>> definitely need to be picked again. Lots of large green tomatoes but no
>> ripe ones as yet.
>
> Keep rubbin' it in George!
> Here's from our weather forecast for tonight:
> (Temperature is in Celsius, of course).
>
> Frost advisory in effect.
> Tonight:
> Partly cloudy. Clearing this evening. Low plus 1 with patchy frost.
>
> Ross.
> Southern Ontario, Canada
>
I'll make it worse. Picked a small batch of Kentucky Blue green beans
this afternoon and cooked them for our dinner. Had a nice, crisp bite to
them and a smooth, somewhat sweet flavor. As the growing season
lengthens I will report on growth rate, hardiness in USDA heat zone 8b,
and length of season. So far we like them.

Found three more giant zucchini's, now I have to petition Miz Anne to
pull them out as we have more than enough zukes for another year. Hmm!
Wonder what would fit best in that spot?

In addition the corn we planted a month ago is just now coming up but
only a few kernels have developed. More rain on the way.

Tilly was cleared by the vet for running and jumping this morning, she's
been playing Pitiful Pearl ever since we came home. The vet hospital is
a traumatic place for her, she shook the whole time and tried to talk us
into going home. Been asleep most of the day, her most favorite thing to
do other than eating.

On 5/13/2015 4:26 PM, George Shirley wrote:

>
> Found three more giant zucchini's, now I have to petition Miz Anne to
> pull them out as we have more than enough zukes for another year. Hmm!


You can use them fresh in any recipe that calls for eggplant if you
find them before they are giant and full of seeds.

Have you ever tried the Golden Zucchini hybrid? Smooth skin, yellow,
with few/small seeds. It has the best characteristics of zucchini and
yellow squash.

gloria p

PS: We had 9 inches of snow Saturday. Most of the trees were fully
leafed so there was lots of limb damage all over the area. It also
bent/broke about 200 iris flower stems that were just starting to open
in our front yard. It's in the 60s-70s this week but more snow forecast
for the mts. this weekend.

Despite popular belief, Denver and its suburbs are on the plains, not
the mountains or even the foothills.

Dave Balderstone wrote:
....
> My rhubarb has just poked its head up out of the ground...

must have been a lot of snow still on the ground up
there?

ours is doing well, just had to pull the flower
stalks off and a good amount could be picked if
someone wanted it. i've let a friend know they
can come pick what they want any time they can
get over.


songbird

On 5/14/2015 11:06 PM, gloria p wrote:
> On 5/13/2015 4:26 PM, George Shirley wrote:
>
>>
>> Found three more giant zucchini's, now I have to petition Miz Anne to
>> pull them out as we have more than enough zukes for another year. Hmm!
>
>
> You can use them fresh in any recipe that calls for eggplant if you
> find them before they are giant and full of seeds.
We also have a nice crop of eggplant, Ichiban variety, very prolific.
>
> Have you ever tried the Golden Zucchini hybrid? Smooth skin, yellow,
> with few/small seeds. It has the best characteristics of zucchini and
> yellow squash.
No seeds in our giant zucchini's, they are getting so much rain they
just get very large almost over night. I will be shredding some more
today for use later in the year. In the meantime it seems we're having
zucchini for every meal but breakfast. Last night I sauteed some zukes
with sliced mushrooms and fresh Gypsy sweet chiles, made a nice side
dish for the ribeye steak we had along with fresh green beans from the
garden.
>
> gloria p
>
> PS: We had 9 inches of snow Saturday. Most of the trees were fully
> leafed so there was lots of limb damage all over the area. It also
> bent/broke about 200 iris flower stems that were just starting to open
> in our front yard. It's in the 60s-70s this week but more snow forecast
> for the mts. this weekend.
>
> Despite popular belief, Denver and its suburbs are on the plains, not
> the mountains or even the foothills.

Yup, been there a time or two, had relatives lived further up in the
mountains and they were REAL mountains there. Denver is still at a
higher elevation than where we live, we're only several feet above sea
level here. The builder put in five feet of clay so our subdivision
could be high enough we didn't have to have guvmint flood insurance.

Would you have been any better off if the snow was rain? We've had about
ten inches of rain in some places along the coast. My records show that
we've had about nine inches of rain this month. We do have good drainage
though. Went out with the dog last night and the frogs in the retention
pond were putting on the Hallelujah chorus, sounded nice but wet.

Dave Balderstone wrote:
> songbird wrote:
>> Dave Balderstone wrote:
>> ...
>> > My rhubarb has just poked its head up out of the ground...
>>
>> must have been a lot of snow still on the ground up
>> there?
>>
>> ours is doing well, just had to pull the flower
>> stalks off and a good amount could be picked if
>> someone wanted it. i've let a friend know they
>> can come pick what they want any time they can
>> get over.
>
> We got about a foot of heavy wet snow a couple of weeks ago. It''s all
> gone now, but still possible to get more. We're in another cold snap.
> about 10C below normal, with possible frost at night. And WINDY! I was
> hoping to fish today, but it's too windy to take the boat out.

i used to stream fish and then switched to fishing
from a canoe for several years before i finally
called it quits. once i left the north country i
can't say i want to eat too many fish from the
waters around here (downwater from agriculture or
chemical/industrial manufacturing). most of what
i caught i put back anyways. it was just a good
reason to get out and walk in the streams/woods.


> A few years back we had a hard frost in June that took out 95% of my
> apple blossoms.

we're supposed to get down pretty close to freezing
Tuesday night -- i may go out and cover some of the
strawberry plants... we'll see what the forecast is
like. we're in a low spot so even if it doesn't say
frost warning we can still get frosted.


> The joys of living in the land free of poisonous snakes...

there's a poisonous snake here in MI, but it isn't
common, especially if you don't live near a wooded
marshy area. the lady down the road has seen them,
but we've never seen any here (a half mile away).

i'd like a large snake or two around here, like if
they could get some of the woodchucks or raccoons.


songbird

On 5/19/2015 9:47 PM, Dave Balderstone wrote:
> In article >, songbird
> > wrote:
>
>> there's a poisonous snake here in MI, but it isn't
>> common, especially if you don't live near a wooded
>> marshy area. the lady down the road has seen them,
>> but we've never seen any here (a half mile away).
>
> There are some rattlers in the very southwest corner of Saskatchewan,
> but they
> 're rare, and nowhere near where I am.
>
Let's see, Texas has cotton mouth water snakes, copperhead and coral
snakes, timber rattlers, ground rattlers, king snakes (two kinds) and a
lot of other beneficial snakes. Keep the rats and mice down and the king
snakes take care of a good many poisonous snakes. Otherwise they just
leave you alone.

When I was about ten years old I stepped on a very small ground rattler
while barefoot, it bit me and it died* and I wasn't even sick. * I did
the snake two step on that snake. Reckon it had hit a small critter so
it's poison wasn't much. Stepped on a coral snake and a copperhead at
one time or another but was wearing boots at the time so did the snake
two step on them too. I'm not afraid of snakes and avoid them when
possible but they do provide a service to mankind in that they eat a lot
of rodents and other useless critters.

We're just cautious about where we put our hands and feet and cats and
dogs help out too. Dogs will throw a fit at a snake so you know where
the snake is, cats will easily kill and eat small snakes. Scariest
episode I remember is when an eight foot long rat snake fell out of a
tree in the front yard. Reckon it had been chasing a squirrel and missed
a limb or something. It came to pretty quick and I gathered it up and
took it into the nearby woods. Was happy I wasn't standing under the
tree when the snake came down, probably would have had a heart attack.

On 5/20/2015 9:52 AM, Dave Balderstone wrote:
> In article >, George Shirley
> > wrote:
>
>> When I was about ten years old I stepped on a very small ground rattler
>> while barefoot, it bit me and it died*
>
> You're Chuck Norris!
>
> lol!
>
Pretty much at that age, fearless, short on brains, etc. Dad came
hunting for me one afternoon after hollering for me to come home. I was
sixty feet up between two large pine trees crawling along a big mess of
muscadine vines. He told me later that he was afraid to holler at me
again because he was afraid I would fall. I was being Johnny Weissmuller
as Tarzan, King of the Apes.

Mom would send me off to school wearing shoes and socks, I would take
them off and hang them around my neck and then walk the two miles to
school along US highway 90, aka the "Old Spanish Trail." I could beat
the school bus by fifteen minutes, gave me time to get dirty on the
playground before school started. Mom used to give me hell when I came
home, her favorite saying was, "Wet to your crotch, covered with dirt,
smelling like a dog and grinning like a possum." Pretty much accurate at
that age. I didn't clean up much until I found out about girls. <G>

My kids had pretty much the same childhood in the same neighborhood,
grands and great grands grew up in metropolitan areas and didn't have
the privileges we had in the forties and fifties. The country just got
bigger and bigger and more people. My great grands like to hear Granpa
George tell his childhood stories and we try to get them out in the
woods and on the creeks but they're more into television computers.
Different generations but, they too, will have stories to tell their
grands and great grands. At least I hope so.

We're having a joint birthday party on Saturday, Miz Anne is 75 years
old today, eldest great grandson was 12 on the sixteenth, one of the
great granddaughters is 12 tomorrow. So, big party, three cakes, lots of
presents, lots more love, and tales to tell. I'm just glad to still be
able to be there.

Picking sweet chiles, eggplant, squash and radishes again today.
Probably picking green beans again by next Monday. Already have fourteen
pints in the pantry.

On 2015-05-13 17:20:03 +0000, George Shirley said:

> On 5/13/2015 11:35 AM, Melba's Jammin' wrote:
>> I need to pick some rhubarb this afternoon. Maybe jam.
>>
> Where you been Barb? We've been missing you a lot. Tilly got cleared by
> the vet today to run free again. The trauma of the vet visit hit her
> hard, she finally quit shaking when she got home and is recovering with
> a long nap.
>
> Treading water and trying to not drown, George. Life's been hard this
> last year. Too many family deaths, and my brother with the wicked,
> wicked disease endures. He's now in a nursing home 3 miles from me.
> Realistically, I could lose all three of my remaining brothers within a
> year. The 82 and the 92 are pretty frail.


> --
--
Barb
www.barbschaller.com, last update April 2013