Letter of the law, and all that ...

There seems to be an unwritten rule that whoever uses the last of the toilet tissue has to replace it with a new one, right? Technically, if you leave two squares on the cardboard tube, you've not used the last of it -- but ... hey! What's up with that?!?

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Wednesday marked the fifth anniversary of the day we had to come home from the hospital without our eldest son. It hardly seems possible that five years have passed, and yet sometimes it feels like it's been forever. There's a book titled, "A Broken Heart Still Beats ..." That about sums it up. I would highly recommend it to anyone who's gone through the agony of losing a child. Or anyone who wants a painfully honest look at some of the thoughts that cross the parents' minds. This stuff never goes away; we just get better at keeping it to ourselves as time goes by. Five years ... twenty years ... still counting. And still struggling. A dear friend accompanied me to the cemetery and we left some flowers. (sigh)

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Garden news: got lots of stuff set out into the garden yesterday, and I plan to do more today. I've got some Malabar spinach, but can't decide where to put it. Sounds like it is a plant that will take over the world if given a chance. At least it will be killed off by frost in our area if it turns out we hate it. I looked it up online and there's already a red flag flashing it's warning on this one. Does the word "mucilaginous" give you a hint? How did I miss that when I was reading the seed catalogs?

Every year I try to find something I haven't grown before and give it a try. One year we had a ton of okra. Yeah ... way up here in the North! Not a big hit in our family. It got the nickname "snotweed." I sneaked it into soups and got away with it. It's actually quite good battered and fried. (What isn't?) It was really quite clever-looking canned in jars with a slim red pepper for color, but that stuff is still right where I put it back in, what? 2001? Time to feed it to the chickens. (They're like Mikey in the old commercial ... they'll eat anything.)

Here's my new strategy for foiling the rabbits this year:




















I'm planting garlic everywhere as a deterrent. See how the lettuce is doing inside the garlic barrier? So far, so good. We have literally THOUSANDS of garlic volunteers. BTW: if you have some that sprout up from little pieces left in the ground after harvesting last year, they make great a wonder addition to salads, sautees, or anywhere you'd use scallions or garlic. They're just a little milder this young.


My sister just informed me that blueberries are 4.99 for 6 oz. in her supermarket. Yow! I have 12 blueberry bushes that were here when we bought the place back in 1976. They still produce lots and lots of berries every year. There are always plenty to eat fresh, and then I can and/or freeze what we don't use. At that rate, we'll soon have recouped the cost of the farm in blueberries alone! Too bad I didn't have the foresight (and the energy) to plant a few acres to berry bushes. I could be rich by now.


Oh ... the things I would do if I were rich ... You'd see a new wave of the Beverly Hillbillies!