The journey continues...

Brian Bilbrey June 20, 2013

A goodbye, and a garden

Barbara Thompson's dad died this morning. I had the honor of meeting this retired marine a few times, he was a kind bloke with a good sense of humor. Sad to see him go, but everything in its time. Goodbye, Dutch. * * * The garden is progressing nicely, given the late spring. I've got tomato sets on nearly all the plants, the zucchini is starting to be productive, and I expect great things from the peppers and potatoes this year. I got the lawns mowed after work, weeded a bit in the garden beds, and roasted some coffee this…

Brian Bilbrey June 16, 2013

Powerful storms ... crap predictions

The news leading into Thursday was designed to instill fear ... only 10 times in the last 30 years (or was it 5 times in the last 10, but whatever) had the mid-Atlantic states had such a powerful storm prediction laid on in advance. I noted at the time that the article had neglected to mention the success rate of those prior predictions. I, however, predict that based on the overall low impact of these current storms on our area, the prior prediction success rate was also low. I indict the MSM as a messenger that tries to instill terror…

Brian Bilbrey June 10, 2013

Rainy days and Mondays

Or both, as the case surely has been. In this back yard, we've had 4 inches of rain in the last four days. Locally around the area, lots more, I hear. But everything is pretty squelchy outside. It'll be a few days before I can mow again... But the garden, it grows like topsy, and the first small tomatoes and peppers are making an appearance. * * * Sorry for the delay. Saturday was building cabinet carcasses in the workshop. Early Sunday morning was upset gastric bits and lost sleep, followed by patching work at 0700. It turned out to…

Brian Bilbrey June 4, 2013

Postal flowers

Last year, instead of installing annuals at the post box, I put in some perennials. Frankly, they weren't stellar ... but they didn't die. And they've come up wonderfully this year: Next year, I'll put some more here and there, and see if I can cut down further on the planting of annuals. I spread some of the tiger lilies over to the blue spruce island left of the driveway, but something ate the tops off of those this year, grrrrr! Anyway, I just stopped in to show off the pretty. Ciao!

Brian Bilbrey June 2, 2013

Garden doings...

I've been pretty good about weeding out the garden, while preserving volunteers for replanting around the beds. I've got three volunteer tomato plants and several peppers. I have no idea what specific variety of either is likely to result ... but yummy is as yummy does. Here's the garden in progress, from a couple of days ago: As I write this, the wind is up, lightning all around, and rain the size of small hatchbacks is falling. The good news is that the garden is young. Big wind when the plants are large tends to blow things over, or even…