RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY...

Funny thing how our property taxes go up year after year, regardless of the changes that happen all around us. Six months ago, MHMR (Mental Health & Mental Retardation) moved into the building behind us. They wasted no time spiffing the place up, spared no expense in fixing the 2,000 sq foot flat roof and outfitting it with handsome spouts that drain directly into our property. On a normal day this is not a problem, but add a little rain to the equation and it is like someone has opened the floodgates. The city claims it can do nothing about it-instead they are suggesting we file a civil suit against this federally funded organization. I say bull...., bring on the sand bags, and a load of sand to fill 'em up with, and let's see who ends up having to deal with the thousands of gallons of water that now flow into my property.

Blue Moon

January 1, 2010, 7:30 a.m. Take a good look. This is the last blue moon you'll see on New Year's day for a couple of decades. Happy New Year to all!

Summer at Sunshine Gardens

In spite of record heat and drought, we managed to raise a fairly successful crop this year. Thanks to Frances, we had heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, and peppers. Though not included in this photo, we also grew lots of acorn and butternut squash, and basil.

Some of you have met Lani, though most of you have not. She and Paul have shown an interest in gardening, and lucky for them, Frances had many seedlings left over from her summer stock, and we had plenty of room for another raised bed or two in our double plot at the Sunshine Gardens. Though they got a rather late start, the little plants you see here are no longer recognizable.

While Paul and Lani's plants are beginning to bear the fruits of their labor, the rest of the plot is winding down. I've been uprooting the old spent plants to make room for the fall garden. Seems a bit premature, but this relentless heat has taken its toll and given us an extremely short growing season.

HELLO

I too am guilty of negligence. There are so many excuses I could fill a volume with them, but instead I'll cram them all together and call it procrastination.

The spring garden is coming along. So far we've planted (almost exclusively) vegetables that Frances grew and cultivated from seed. The tomatoes were a little late in getting into the ground, but it didn't take them long to toughen up and bloom. There's hope for a bountiful crop a few months down the road.

But there is still work ahead: ant hills to annihilate, weeds to extract, dirt to be turned and fed and made ready for planting, beds to raise and frames to build to contain them, seedlings to plant, mulch, and water. So much work, so little time.

I'm still pulling last fall's beets out of the ground. I've given a few of them away, and in this spirit of generosity have found that most people will have nothing to do with them. They're not my favorites, but I'll eat them occasionally. I sure would like to find a good recipe or two, because I have so many, in the fridge and in the ground.

A PERSONAL TOUCH

While it is a verifiable fact that Christmas at the Schmidt household was nothing short of spectacular this year, I must point out that two gifts stood out as more special than all the others.
Michelle's cookbook was a labor of love, creative as well as entertaining, and everyone got one. It is a mystery where she drudged up those old picutres, but she managed to make us all look young and beautiful. Hurray!
And then there is the calendar we have all come to depend upon, with fantastic artwork by none other than our talented Adam. If you haven't taken the time to get a good look at it, I recommend you do so. Wow! Many thanks to Bob and Julia for taking the time to put this attractive calendar together.
And now, we say farewell to 2008. It is time to hang up our 2009 calendars, wiggle into our aprons and get down to some serious cooking. I plan to whip up a delicious Cheese Spoon Bread. Thanks to Michelle, I don't have to call and inconvenience anyone for the recipe.

MORE ON THE OLD PECAN TREE

This is a picture of the top of the pecan tree we had to take down. If you click to enlarge it, you will clearly see the now misplaced woodpecker at work. I am not an advocate of removing sound trees, but this one had become unsightly, and worse yet, dangerous. Just the day before it came down, on a dry and windless day, a large branch came crashing down- broke two of the fence pickets.

You may revisit an old post in my blog dated December 2007 and titled A GUST OF WIND for an example of the kind of surprises the old pecan tree was prone to spring on us.

OLD PECAN TREE

It was sad to see the old pecan tree come down. It was quite an ordeal, what with a cherry picker and three brave Mexicans sawing away half a mile up in the air and easing the chunks to the ground with a pulley. It took them two hours to complete the job that probably took the tree a hundred years to produce. We don't know what to do with the empty space it has left in our yard. Frances has ideas, and it will be our project for next year to get some decent landscaping done. Meanwhile, there is a very misplaced woodpecker. Doesn't know where to peck now that his tree is gone. I hear him pecking here and there, trying out new trees, but so far he has not found the likes of the old pecan tree he so diligently pecked at day after day.