Hello, everyone! I hope you are all doing well. We have certainly had a strange winter with the temps up and down. It gets cold then the temps go up into the upper 60’s and even the 70’s. It seems like spring is here then winter comes back. It snowed a little yesterday off and on but the roads were fine. Then I got up this morning and looked out the front window and saw A LOT more “S”…

I measured the “S” on a plant table on the back porch and it was 9″ deep… I have been feeding a friend’s cows and I have to drive up a long hill to get to his house. I called him this morning and said I didn’t think I could make it up the hill. He said he had 11″ but he cleared off his drive and it was already melting.

The thermometer on the back porch was in the sun when I took the photo at about 9:30 AM… I think it was actually 21° F. It will warm up to about 30 by noon…

I have been doing another friend’s chores farther out of town on a back road but I can’t get there today. He fell about a month ago and dislocated his shoulder and has a lot of bone fragments. The surgeon said he is going to try to repair it rather than do a replacement… The road to his house drifts pretty bad and likely the county won’t grade the road…

The good news is that spring officially arrives on March 20… We have to remind “whoever” is in charge of the weather so maybe we won’t have anymore “S” and the temperatures will stay warm. Just a thought. 🙂

Until next time… Stay warm, be safe, stay positive, and always be thankful…

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope this post finds you well. Another year has gone by and it is time to move forward. 2022 came with the coldest weekend so far this winter. We have had great weather so far.

2021 was difficult for many people throughout the world. Many have lost loved ones, income, and businesses. COVID still lingers and it is likely it will continue to be a problem. Two very good friends of mine now have COVID…

I haven’t posted for a while because I have been working on updates. Well, it is partly because I haven’t had much to talk about either. One day leads to another and now it is 2022.

I don’t get out much but I did go to my sister’s for Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was good to get away for a few days each time. My brother-in-law told me they enjoyed my company and I didn’t have to wait until next Thanksgiving to come for a visit. Hmmm… Getting to their house in Raytown is fairly simple and only takes about 1 1/2 hours. Leaving their house and getting back on the right road is a little different and isn’t just a matter of going in the opposite direction… If I went there more often I know it would be easier.

Anyway, both of their vehicles are broke down, so I was glad I decided to go on Friday afternoon instead of waiting until Christmas morning. We went to their church’s Christmas Eve service Friday evening and again to church on Sunday morning.

I didn’t take my camera but I wish I did. They feed the birds and squirrels and have MANY feeders in their front yard and back deck. The squirrels seem to come from the whole neighborhood and one is a silvery color. Sunday, a couple of interesting wrens showed up on the back deck like I haven’t seen before. They were browner than the wrens that come to my yard in the summer. They also have quite a few hummingbird feeders with perches which is quite interesting. They way they don’t have to hoover and can sit on the perch while they eat. I am going to have to get one of those so I can get better photos…

I bought birdseed a few days ago and filled the tube feeder in the front yard. I haven’t seen many birds yet, but I am sure they will come. I think many of the migrating birds haven’t come because of the mild weather.

There isn’t much else to talk about. My birthday came and went with only four people remembering. 🙂 My own kids didn’t even remember so I didn’t remind them. It’s just another day. It’s odd how when we are young we want to be older, and when we get older we think we need more time to get done with what we wanted to accomplish… Time waits for no one… I am very thankful to be in great shape with no health problems at 61.

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions but I do have a mental list of things I need to accomplish in 2022. It is somehow the same as 2021 and possibly the same as 2020. I have made some progress and I seem to like to use income as an excuse. Then when summer gets here I use the heat as an excuse. The fact that I am 61 now will be another excuse I can use. I always “think to myself” I am too old to get out in the heat even though I wouldn’t like it someone else reminded me of that. In my mind, I am thinking it doesn’t matter how old I am. So, there is this argument in my head… I am still quite capable of doing whatever I need to do so I should just do it… So, I suppose if I were to have a New Year’s resolution, it would be to stop procrastinating and just do it…

I think as we get older, we should challenge ourselves. We somehow get in a rut, and perhaps get comfortable, with thinking we need to slow down, or perhaps maybe we think we don’t have to do as much. If we are still healthy and capable, we need to keep going and do as much as we can. We still have a home (and farm) that needs to be taken care of. Once we retire (not that I am retired), we have more time to do things we want to do, things we have put off for when we have more time. If you slow down, one day you may not be able. You will notice your joints getting stiff, or maybe you will get tired sooner. It gets easier to say, “I can do that tomorrow.” Maybe it will rain tomorrow, or be too hot or cold. Tomorrow leads to another tomorrow and soon that small tree along the foundation gets so big you have to get out the chainsaw…

So, in 2022 I vow to get more done so my small trees won’t get so large. I have some big ones I need to cut because I procrastinated when they were small. Of course, it is not just actual trees I am talking about… 2022 will be a year of accomplishment.

Until next time, be safe, stay positive, and always be thankful! Wishing you the best for the year ahead!

Hello everyone! I hope this post finds you all well. This has been the weirdest Fall I can remember. I finally had to bring the potted plants inside on the 28th. I haven’t had an “F” yet, but a friend of mine said there has been in lower lying areas around where he lives.

The photo above is from the National Weather Service for Windsor, MO. That changed from a few days ago when they were predicting rain and even snow several days this week. Now it says mostly clear and sunny with temps as low as 31° F. I am sure the forecast will change. The National Weather Service says the high on Saturday will be near 58° F with a low of around 39. The Weather Channel says the high will be 63° with a low of 45. Hmmm… I guess you can take your pick but we will just have to wait to see what happens. No matter, the sun is much better than rain and snow.

The leaves on the old maple tree in “the other yad” didn’t change to their beautiful orange glow. Instead, they are turning kind to a yellowish-orange color then brown before falling off.

The maple on the north side of the front yard is still completely green while the one on the south side is about 1/4 reddish.

The two on the south side are beginning to change color…

Even the Colocasia esculenta have been enjoying the mild temps. The Alocasia are now in the basement…

The first flower on the Stapelia gigantea lasted four or five days. The second one opened on October 30, and the third on November 1. It is inside now and I haven’t noticed such a terrible odor. It just smells somewhat gassy although I haven’t bent down to take a whiff. I am not doing that again…

SO, on October 28, I photographed and measured the cactus on the back porch as I moved them inside for the winter. That means I will be posting about their progress.

I continue to make updates on the plant pages, adding photos I took over the summer and adding new pages. Not so many names have changed in 2021 compared to before. Plants of the World Online by Kew continually make updates sometimes I send the senior editor an email when I see something whacky. Their staff works very hard to keep everything updated and I am sure that is no easy task and very frustrating at times. Right now, they are still working on their synonyms, so some species pages are way off from before. As a result, I can’t update the synonyms list on some of my plant pages. I am close to finishing the species of the family Asteraceae. I have been working on the Asteraceae page for at least two weeks… Well, I got this whacky idea a while back to make updates by family instead of alphabetical order. I wanted to spruce up the family pages with photos and links to each species page. That has proved to be quite a process as I update each species and add new pages in the process. The Asteraceae page is the biggest so far which will have 54 species linked when it is finished… You can check it out to see what you think. I appreciate other people’s opinions. I still haven’t added a top photo because I haven’t decided which one to use… The page is almost finished with only 3-4 more species to add.

Until next time, when I start posting the cactus updates, be safe, stay positive, and always be thankful.

Sweet corn and green beans on 8-12-21 at 3:24 PM…

Hello everyone! I hope this post finds you well. I am sitting at the desk in front of my computer a little after 2 PM scratching my bald head on occasion trying to think of what to say. It is 93° F outside and the wind has been blowing consistently for several days. Well, it is supposedly blowing in a storm. The different weather websites seem to have mixed opinions. The first time I checked the weather forecast in the drop-down menu on the top right of my screen the Weather Channel said there was a 40% chance this evening. Then I checked again about 1:30 and it said 20%. I checked the National Weather Service and it said it was on its way but I didn’t check the radar. I went to the garden about 3:30 to take photos for this post and there wasn’t hardly a cloud in the sky. Like I mentioned, it was 93° F.

OH, the doe has not been back in the garden since I redid the electric fence and added another wire around the top.

Sweet Corn ‘Ambrosia’ on 8-12-21 at 3:31 PM.

A few days ago when the wind started blowing, the ‘Ambrosia’ Sweet Corn started falling over. Luckily, I had already picked all that was ready and it may be finished. This is the first year I haven’t had to stand the corn back up before it was ready to harvest.

19 bags of ‘Top Crop’ Green Beans in the freezer so far.

I started picking green beans last week and started picking corn on the 8th. I was going to take a photo of the five-gallon bucket of green beans from the first picking but I forgot about it… In total, I have picked 12-13 gallons. Of course, I have already been eating some. I doubt I will can any because I don’t have time to watch the pressure canner. That was dad’s job. 🙂 Well, I suppose I have time, but I just don’t want to do it. I think frozen beans taste fresher anyway. I just cut off the ends and freeze them whole. It is quite simple… Once I get the beans ready, I bring water in a couple of large stock pots to a boil, add the beans and blanch for three minutes, then drain and put them in ice water for three minutes. Then I scatter the beans out on sheet cake pans and put them in the freezer for three hours. You have to scatter the beans out thinly so when you pick them up they won’t be stuck together so bad. Since I like them whole, if they are stuck together they can break more easily when I get them to come apart to put them in bags. Doing it makes more sense than trying to explain it… Maybe I should have done a video or taken photos of the process. It’s an afterthought thing… 🙂 I use quart bags so I can bring a couple from the freezer in the basement as I need them.

231 ears of corn in the freezer as of 8-12-21.

The sweet corn did pretty well, but not as well as I hoped for. It isn’t quite finished and a good rain would help immensely. I picked the ‘Ambrosia’ first (the bi-color counterpart to Bodacious) and so far have frozen 98 ears of it. A few stalks had no “pickable” ears and some had none at all. The same was with the Bodacious, which I was able to freeze 133 ears from so far. I would say 70% of the stalks had one good ear so far. It wasn’t a pollination issue because there was plenty of it. 🙂 I also noticed the good ears were on top, while the lower ears were barely even filled out. You might think the pollen fell on the top ear, but the lower ears are on the opposite side of the stalk… The pollen landed on the silk just fine. Likely, it is a moisture issue and soaker hoses or T-tape would have been great. I don’t have either one and the sprinklers would have been useless with the corn being so tall… Much taller than me at this point. I hope to invest in a T-tape system at some point, but funds are extremely limited…

Sweet corn from the second for of ‘Bodacious’ on 8-11-21.

The second row of Bodacious was AMAZING with 54 beautiful ears. Some were quite large. If all four rows were like that… Most of the ears were filled out from one end to the other. I have seen very few worms this year compared to last year. I have only seen two large caterpillars and four tiny green ones that hadn’t made it inside to the cob. There have been a few of those tiny black bugs… Hmmm… I identified them last summer but have forgotten what they are called and didn’t want to back and look. 🙂 OH, with the bi-color corn in the other section, some of the ‘Bodacious’ at the beginning of the rows have a few white kernels… That is perfectly fine and wonderful… All the corn I planted is SE (Sugar Enhanced).

Mind you, not all the sweet corn has made it to the freezer. About a week before I “officially” started picking the corn, I picked six ears of ‘Ambrosia’ and put them in a pot. They weren’t “quite” ready but I had to give it a shot. It’s funny how you can barely see the white kernels…

Yesterday, after I was finished with the ‘Bodacious’, I picked seven ears of ‘Incredible’ from the first planting. The biggest ear, before it was shucked, turned out to be a dud… Four out of the seven made it to the pan and they were indeed “incredible”.

Sweet Corn ‘Incredible’ on 8-12-21 at 3:26 PM…

SO, I have been eye-balling the ‘Incredible’… Although ‘Incredible’ can prove frustrating in the beginning, it will come around. I proved to myself this variety is very picky when it comes to soil temperature. Once you plant and replant and it gets going, it will live up to its name.

Sweet Corn ‘Incredible’…

Until 2013 when I came back here, I hadn’t grown sweet corn since the early 1980s. For the life of me, I can’t remember ever having any issues with it coming up or blowing over. I remember the first year, 1981 after my grandfather passed away in April, I moved to the farm. I planted 14 rows of sweet corn and only ate a few ears. Grandpa had quite a clientele of elderly ladies that bought his produce and they bought everything I could grow. One man bought all my green beans… 110 pounds!

Hmmm…

I have been pulling up what I “thought” were Morning Glories in the green beans and sweet corn. There is one climbing all over the Asparagus and a few days ago I noticed it had a lot of buds. I thought, “HMMM… That is NOT a Morning Glory.”

Cynanchum laeve (Honey-vine Climbing Milkweed)…

DOUBLE HMMM… I took photos, as you can see, and uploaded them on iNaturalist. Low and behold it is a Milkweed! Well, certainly not in the way we think of as Milkweeds. The scientific name is Cynancum laeve, commonly known as Honey-Vine Climbing Milkweed… I took photos of another vine that has bigger flowers in the briar patch along the south hayfield that turned out to be a Hedge Bindweed. It had bigger flowers like Morning Glories… How many species of these things are there anyway? What happened to the regular old Morning Glories?

Sweet Corn ‘Incredible’…

Where was I? I am just going down the grid of photos as I took them… Oh yeah, the sweet corn. Yesterday I found a stalk with five good-sized ears but I didn’t have the camera and today I couldn’t find it. I was walking through the corn without a long-sleeved shirt on and my arms were beginning to get itchy…

Smut…

There is only one stalk of corn with smut this year. I had to leave it because I wanted to get a photo. Smut is very interesting in a weird kind of way. Last summer I wrote a little about it and how it is actually edible. Well, I am certainly not going to fry any up and give it a shot. It looks way too weird…

Sweet Corn ‘Incredible’..

The last planting of ‘Incredible’ has a ways to go yet but it is looking very well… At least at 3:31 PM when this photo was taken…

One of the ‘Celebrity’ tomato vines…

The tomatoes are SLOW this season because I was late getting them in the ground.

Tomato ‘Celebrity’…

I have picked one already and one is almost ready…

Tomato ‘Brandywine’…

The ‘Brandywine’ tomato vines have grown like crazy!

Tomato ‘Brandywine’…

I have only found two tobacco worms and NO armyworms this year (yet). Hopefully, there won’t be anymore.

Moving along from the garden…

Hosta ‘Potomac Pride’ on 8-12-21…

The clump Hosta ‘Potomac Pride’ is normally at least 2′ tall and over 50″ wide… Thanks to the doe it has not been able to grow… Normally, the deer nibble on the ‘Potomac Pride’ just a little when the Hosta first start to leaf out in the spring then don’t bother any of them the rest of the year.

Hosta ‘Dancing Queen’ on 8-12-21…

The Hosta ‘Dancing Queen’ has met a similar fate. Sadly, the ‘Krossa Regal’ are basically non-existent… I am certainly not happy with the doe… I know it has to be the same one, because I have seen her occasionally in the pasture behind the house all by herself. There is plenty to eat for her in the pasture/hayfield. Oh well, even though the Hosta are shot this summer, hopefully, the doe will relocate and I can find a solution to keep her out of them by next spring. I can’t very well relocate the shade bed and I don’t intend to put up an electric fence around such a small area…

When I was mowing last week, I noticed the right front wheel was getting a little wobbly… Earlier this spring, I had to replace the entire steering rod… Since dad and I brought this mower home it has had its issues. It’s a John Deere LT120… It mows weird, but I think I have that issue figured out… It was all about changing the way I mowed from a 36″ deck to a 48″deck… The Gator blades I started using last summer are still working fine.

Instead of using bearings in the wheel, there are only two bushings… They wear out quite often, as I have just found out. I hadn’t paid much attention until I noticed the wheel wobbling when I was turning. I thought the steering rod gizmo was about to have another issue. I drove the mower into the garage, jacked it up, and had a look… Then I went to the internet and found out people are replacing the bushings with bearings. I did NOT even call John Deere for a price on the conversion kit because they can be bought on Ebay (or Amazon) for at least half the price. The kits on Ebay run from $19.95 on up and include new washers and hubcaps for both wheels… I decided since all I needed were the bearings I would buy four for $9.95 and use the same washers I already have. If I need new washers, I can get them at the hardware store for a few cents… You would think the wheels would have had bearings in the first place. The spindles (axle) are kind of worn because of the bushings cutting into them, but I will have to replace them at a later date…

I went back inside at about 4 PM and decided to have a nap and finish the post later on. Maybe after dinner… There was not a cloud in the sky… The next thing I knew, it seemed to be getting dark and the wind was blowing like crazy. I got up and looked outside and the clouds had arrived…

Looking toward the garden from the front porch at 6:04 PM…

At 6 PM it started POURING like crazy. I went to the front porch and took a shot… The wind had completely changed directions and now was blowing out of the north.

The garden at 6:44 PM…

After the rain stopped, I went to the garden to have a look… The temperature has really dropped! Looking back at the first photo taken at 3:24 PM, you can see the ‘Ambrosia’ had blown to the north since the wind had been blowing out of the south for several days. At 6:44 PM is more leaning toward the south because the wind switched directions…

Sweet Corn ‘Incredible’ at 6:45 PM…

The ‘Incredible’ blew over a little. It could have been much worse…

Sweet Corn ‘Incredible’ at 6:45 PM…

From the north side… It doesn’t appear any of the stalks have been broken…

Sweet Corn ‘Bodacious’…

Not to bad… I have seen it MUCH, MUCH worse. Then again, we have more rain and wind in the forecast through Saturday evening.

View of the sweet corn from the northwest corner at 6:45 PM…

I knew we couldn’t get through a season without the corn blowing over but I was kind of hopeful. We certainly did need the rain so I am not going to complain. I have learned to accept the weather no matter what it does. I had to come back inside because it was starting to rain again.

I checked the rain gauge and it said 7/10″. The temperature dropped from 93 F to 70. That’s a 23° drop! Well, it sure cooled things off a bit and I am sure thankful for the rain. I guess the wind blowing the corn around a bit helped to get the moisture to the roots.

There is more rain, and wind, coming so I won’t bother standing the corn back up until it is finished… Well, we will see about that. It depends. The ‘Ambrosia’ and Bodacious’ were just about finished, but the rain may help what is still not ready. It will certainly help the ‘Incredible’, so I will definitely stand it back up…

Well, now it is 8:54 PM. Time to cook something for dinner. Hmmm… Grammarly says I have four errors but I want to eat dinner. SO, if you read this post before I edit it, you may find some mistakes…

Until next time, be safe, stay positive, and always be thankful!

Hello everyone! I hope this post finds you well. The above photo looks MUCH different from the last photo of the garden. I was almost in panic mode for a while… I was late planting the garden because of the weird weather and then it started raining AGAIN…

The last post about the garden was a month ago on 6-28-21. It had been raining for several days and I was having to wait to till the soil (above photo). FINALLY, after it stopped raining and the soil was dry enough I got in and worked it over. Once the corn and beans were tall enough I hilled all the rows up. With all the moisture, everything was looking a bit yellow. With no cows, there hadn’t been any of the “good stuff” to put on the garden for several years before planting. I know corn needs nitrogen, so I had to make a decision. SO… breaking my organic rules (which I really had very few of) I bought a bag of 12-12-12 from the hardware store for the sweet corn. I checked with the Farmer’s Co-op first and they were completely out because many other people were having the same issues with their sweet corn.

It may sound funny, but I watched videos on YouTube to see how to fertilize the corn… In all the years as a gardener, I have never bought fertilizer for the garden. Giving the green beans 12-12-12 would be an absolute NO but the corn needed some ZIP. I also bought some fertilizer spikes for the tomatoes. Sometime between now and next spring, I plan on cleaning out the chicken house to put on the garden. I usually pile up their old stuff in an open area next to the chicken house, but it just kind of disappears…

Like I mentioned in the last post about the garden, Nathan planted four rows of Ambrosia (bicolor) and I planted four rows of Bodacious along the west side of the garden On June 3. On the 4th, I planted four rows of Incredible next to the Bodacious. The Ambrosia and Bodacious, which I had not tried before, came up pretty good but the Incredible did not come up well at all. Once I was able, I replanted it and it came up MUCH better. But, as you can see in the above photo, the Incredible is just now looking good. It didn’t get fertilized and hilled until a few days ago because it wasn’t ready…

HMMM… Jade saw me go toward the garden, so she had to come as well. She likes being with me in the garden and walking around to see if she can find anything to chase. She seems to enjoy the butterflies…

Last week, I think (or maybe the week before) I noticed the Ambrosia and Bodacious had started tasseling… It was only like 4′ or so tall! I thought, “GEEZ! That is weird…” I am so used to corn being much taller and it seemed too soon. It is 75-day corn so it should be ready around August 17 (or thereabouts). The past week the corn shot up like magic. I am not saying it was because of the fertilizer because the earlier Incredible that did come up did the same thing without being fertilized. Incredible is also a 75-day corn, but it had not started tasseling.

The Ambrosia and Bodacious have ears on the lower half of the stalk, making it easier for raccoons to get to if they have a chance. Since I have the electric fence around the garden with five wires raccoons seldom get in the garden. Kernal row numbers are determined during the 5th and 6th stage.

Not all the stalks are progressing at the same rate, even though the seed germinated at the same time. Some are just beginning to silk while the silk on others are beginning to show more color.

I had wondered about pollination, but there is certainly no need to worry about that. Depending on the sweet corn variety, pollination occurs 45-50 days after emergence. Normally, the last branch of the tassel is visible 2-3 days before silk appears. I may need to hand pollinate the Incredible that came up first…

I had not done any research about the different stages of sweet corn growth until now. Normally, I just get the garden ready to plant and then plant it. Dad always used the seeder and planted the green beans and sweet corn in double rows. While he was still alive, I did it like he wanted, even though at times I may not agree. Last summer I continued planting in double rows with the seeder but I paid closer attention and I learned a few things. The holes in the seeder are big enough for 2-4 seeds to get planted in the same spot a certain many inches apart. Watching the seeder, I noticed that sometimes the seed would fall out and not get planted, especially if too many tried to get in the cup on the seeder disc. Angling the seeder a little helped somewhat. The two problems with the seeder were 1) sometimes it didn’t plant the seed, and 2) the seed was planted too close together. To me, having to thin out that many plants was such a waste of seed.

SO, this year I decided I would plant single rows instead of double and do t by hand instead of using the seeder. I showed Nathan how to plant corn, so he started with the Ambrosia at one end of the garden, and I started planting the Bodacious about 30 or so feet away (25′ row, a five foot space, then another 25′ row). I put a stick where I wanted him to stop and I had a tape measure laid out so “we” could plant one seed every 8 inches. When Nathan was finished with his 25′ row, he kept going and I didn’t notice at first. The next thing I know he had passed the stick and was planting Ambrosia where I already planted Boadacous. GEEZ! Somehow he was faster than I was. (I was thinking, “GEEZ! That kid screwed up somewhere.”). Anyway, after I finished my row, we measured 3′ over, put the stakes in the ground with the string to mark our rows, moved the tape measure over, and started again. This time, I told Nathan we would plant 3-4 seeds every 8 inches. We repeated the process until we had both planted 4 rows.

There are a couple of reasons I planted single rows instead of double… One is because the spacing is somewhat more tricky. To get the spacing right, you have to plant the second row 8″ from the first one. I guess that isn’t so tricky when I think about it, but the other reason makes more sense. Hilling one row is much easier than hilling two together. Not only that, standing a double row of corn back up after the wind has blown it over is a REAL pain in the neck… I figure it will be much easier with a single row. Now all I need is some wind to find out. Wait a minute… I don’t really want that much wind, I am just saying I am prepared.

Before, I noticed there were a lot of stalks that had no ears which is a sign they were too close together. This year, I can assure you that all the corn that emerged at the same time, being 8″ apart, have ears. The majority have four ears, some have three, and I have even noticed several stalks with five. This would be a GREAT time for rain… Using T-tape would be great because corn produces best with consistent moisture. But you know, the soil is still not that dry. If most of the ears fill out well, and they should with all the pollen, I may pass last year’s crop of 373 ears. That will be with less than half as many stalks…

I still don’t understand why some of the seeds didn’t emerge. You would think planting 3-4 seeds per “hill” or “hole” (whatever you call it) at least one would make it. But, that is not the case. I dug down in the soil where the corn didn’t emerge only to find all the seed had sprouted but died before emerging. SO, all the Incredible that didn’t come up simply rotted that was planted a day later in the same conditions. I did find out Incredible has a poor germination rate at cooler temps than Bodacious. Even though the temperature was warm enough when I planted, it started raining and the temps dropped for several days. That was likely the problem… I wouldn’t mind planting four more rows of Incredible, but that would put the harvest date to mid-October. Hmmm… That would be a gamble with the first “F” happening around then… But I have this HUGE 14′ x 53′ bare spot!

I read a very good article about the stages of sweet corn by Seminis which was very helpful. I didn’t realize there were so many stages of growth… I also watched several videos where experiment stations had experimented with spacing on field corn.

The dark spot a little above the center of the photo is where Jade is laying down. She is about 4 feet into the section where the Bodacious is planted. I knew when I got ready to leave she would not come when I called her. She constantly reminds me she is a cat, not a dog.

The ‘Top Crop’ Green Beans are coming along very well and blooming up a storm. I don’t bother them too much because in the heat I think the flowers fall off more easily.

I think I will get my first picking in a couple of days so they are right on schedule. I didn’t take any photos of the tomatoes but they are doing pretty good and growing well. Not too many tomatoes, but the vines look great. Hmmm…

As I suspected, I was ready to leave the garden and Jade didn’t come when I called. I went back where she was before and she was still there. Even when I squatted down at the end of the row she still refused to come. I threw a small clod of dirt at her when she wasn’t looking which made her jump up. At least I got her attention then she followed me out of the garden… 🙂

The Barn Cat was taking it easy on the back porch…

And so was Simba…

Most of the cactus are on the back porch enjoying the heat and sun of the summer.

The Alocasia are also looking GREAT!

Well, that’s about all have today for now. I will take a few photos of the plants on the front porch. They seem to be all in pretty good shape enjoying the summer outside. We won’t talk about the flower beds or the Hosta. The deer have been busy in the shade bed, which usually never happens. They have ruined a few of the Hosta… GEEZ!

Until next time, be safe, stay positive, and always be thankful. As always, GET DIRTY!

Sauromatum venosum (Voodoo Lily) tubers on 6-27-21, #805-12.

Hello everyone! I hope this post finds you all well. I have been wanting a Dracunculus vulgaris for a while but when I was looking on Ebay, the listings for the tubers were a bit pricy. I did find some inexpensive Sauromatum venosum which have similar leaves. I bought a Dracunculus vulgaris tuber in 2009 or 2010 when I lived in Mississippi, which I think was really a Sauromatum vulgaris. Unfortunately, I forgot about it and left it behind when I moved back here in 2013. Well, it was dormant at the time and just slipped my mind. I had so many plants and other things to give away and decide what to bring with me.

So, I found this listing on Ebay that said, “Sauromatum venosum HYBRID Indian GiantxNormal Voodoo Lily Amorphophallus Rare”… I looked at the many photos he had uploaded and read his description. Apparently, the guy has A LOT of them including the cultivar called ‘Indian Giant’. He had quite a few tubers that hadn’t broken dormancy so he decided to list them on Ebay. He had crossed his normal Sauromatum venosum with the ‘Indian Giant’ and he said you couldn’t get them anywhere else. I am not sure why he crossed them in the first place unless he was just experimenting. Kind of like me cross-pollinating the two Schlumbergera truncata. I wanted to see what would happen. 🙂 Anyway, by the time I saw the listing, the larger tubers were all gone and he said he would send me four smaller ones for the same price. I was very fortunate to get them in the first place. The cultivar ‘Indian Giant’ has larger leaves, up to 40 or so ” across, and has different spots than the normal Sauromatum venosum on their petioles.

The tubers arrived on June 26 and were quite interesting… They were a bit different than the Amorphophallus tubers I am used to seeing. For one thing, I couldn’t tell the top from the bottom. Amorphophallus tubers have a small dip in the top, but these didn’t have that feature. After looking them over a bit, I decided what I thought was the top and bottom and planted them… I could have very well not planted them until I saw signs of life. They will sprout without soil like the Amorphophallus, but I had never tried it with them either

I started checking to see if they had sprouted after a week by sticking my finger through the soil to the top of the tuber. Then I saw something weird on July 15…

Sauromatum venosum (Voodoo Lily) on 7-15-21, #812-3.

HMMMM… Two of the tubers had sprouted but the petiole was NOT in the center of the pot. I had for sure planted the tubers upsidedown… GEEZ!!!

Sauromatum venosum (Voodoo Lily) on 7-15-21, #812-4.

Now what? I screwed up for sure…

Sauromatum venosum (Voodoo Lily) on 7-15-21, #812-5.

I removed one of the tubers from the pot and was kind of surprised to see roots. The Amorphophallus, so I read, do not produce roots until the leaf starts to emerge from the petiole. I think I will experiment in 2022 and leave a tuber on the shelf and see what happens.

Sauromatum venosum (Voodoo Lily) on 7-15-21, #812-6.

Yep, I screwed up. This is definitely a learning curve! I turned the other two tubers over that haven’t sprouted but I will definitely keep an eye on them… I left the two that already sprouted upsidedown… GEEZ!

The genus Sauromatum is a member of the plant Araceae and hails from tropical Africa, Tropical Asia, and the Arabian Peninsula. According to the Pacific Bulb Society, Sauromatum venosum is a native of the Himalayas and southern India. Common names include at least Voodoo Lily and Monarch of the East. At one point, all species of Sauromatum were moved to the genus Typhonium but DNA analysis proved otherwise. Plants of the World Online lists 10 species in the Sauromatum genus and Sauromatum venosum has 29 synonyms.

The plant listed as Dracunculus vulgaris in Mississippi on April 15 in 2012.

The above photo was taken of the assumed Dracunculus vulgaris when I was living at the mansion in Mississippi. I now believe it was probably a Sauromatum vulgaris because its leaves were solid green while I think Dracunculus vulgaris leaves have whitish markings. The yellow spots on the leaves is pollen from the Ligustrum tree.

Amorphophallus sp. at 32″ tall on July 15, 2021.

The two older Amorphophallus are doing great and have grown to 32″ tall so far. I am still shocked their tubers were still fairly small when I dug them up to put them in their own pots this spring. Heck,  I have had them since 2017 and the tubers were still a little less than 2″ in diameter! I am getting tired of calling these plants Amorphophallus sp. because they need a proper name. I am almost certain they are likely Amorphophallus konjac and I am not really sure what waiting for flowers would prove. I am certainly not an aroid expert.

Amorphophallus sp. on 7-15-21, #812-2.

The seven kids are doing great and are 17″ tall. I will take these to Wagler’s Greenhouse soon… Maybe she has something else I can bring home. I need to pot some of the Aloe maculata pus for her as well. I think she said she wanted more Bilbergera nutans, so I might just take her one of the three pots so she can divide them herself. That is a real challenge! She still has one of several pots I took to her a few years ago but it isn’t for sale. She keeps putting it in a larger pot like I did for many years, and it became a HUGE packed mess. We have traded a lot of plants. 🙂

Well, I will close this post and move on to the next. We received another inch of rain over the past couple of days which helps, but I had work to do in the garden. I also need to go check on the Pale Indian Plantain in the south hayfield… I want to see if the flowers have opened. Rain was in the forecast for the next several days, but that has changed somewhat to just a 20% chance. We shall see what happens. 🙂

Until next time, be safe and stay positive. Always be thankful and GET DIRTY!

My new Stihl FSA85 on the left and the Cub Cadet BC490 on the right.

Hello everyone! I hope this post finds you well. It appears I have upgraded to a cordless line trimmer. I guess the proper name would be brushless and I think it has something to do with the motor. I never wanted a battery-powered trimmer because I thought it meant a lack of power. In 2018 (I think) I decided we needed a new more powerful trimmer. Well, since I was doing the trimming instead of dad, I was more interested in power and performance. I wanted one with a brush cutter attachment as well. Dad had an Echo, his second one, but it just wasn’t up to snuff. I am not saying Echo isn’t a good brand, it is just that this one was not adequate for all the trimming I was doing. The other problem was the motor would get very hot and burn my arm (I found out I could just turn the motor to solve that issue).

The local small engine shop had several Jonsered trimmers available with brush cutter attachments. They had the saw blade that I thought would be better but the price was over $300. Dad wasn’t going for that so we went to Tractor Supply in Clinton to see what they had… Well, we looked them over and dad decided on the Cub Cadet BC490… The brush cutter attachment was like the ones I was steering away from but since dad was paying for it, I agreed. How much? Over $300! We could have bought the better Jonsared for the same price!

The Cub Cadet BC490 was much better than the old Echo GT225 in many ways. I wanted a 4 cycle so I wouldn’t have to mix gas and oil which I thought was a good thing. But it is so HEAVY buy the time it ran out of gas I was also out of gas. The straight shaft was also a plus and the string is easier to load than the Echo.

Well, in May I started painting the interior of a rental house in Clinton for a friend (also the minister of the church I attend) and I needed to mow the yard. We went to his house and loaded his riding mower on the trailer and he grabbed his trimmer. First of all, I had used his mower a couple of times before… A Simplicity… At first I thought (to myself) Simplicity was some kind of an off-brand. Once I used it I was shocked! It could run circles around my John Deere! It worked great! It was more comfortable and had a better turning radius than my John Deere LT120. The yard at this rental was uneven and there were a lot of holes but the Simplicity did a great job. It is hard to imagine, but it seemed flexible. That sounds whacky, I know, but flexible is the only word I can think of. I quizzed him about the mower and then looked it up online and found out Simplicity is NOT an off-brand at all. Simplicity bought Snapper in 2002, then Simplicity was bought out by Briggs and Stratton in 2004. Well, they also have an interesting history. I had known for a while that green paint isn’t what it used to be…

Now, for his trimmer… It was a Stihl FSA85. With a battery… I thought, “GEEZ!” I picked it up, looked it over, and I was somewhat skeptical. It weighed nothing compared to my Cub Cadet… I didn’t even know how to turn it on and had to ask. He showed me and all I had to do was press the safety switch and throttle and it just came on… It was very quiet, and again, I thought, “GEEZ!” There are two settings, one for high speed and one for a lower speed, depending on the grass and what you are cutting. The lower speed also conserves battery life. Well, everything I use has to be in full throttle…

Stihl FSA85.

Well, I was shocked! This thing really worked so I thought I needed one. Once he paid me for my work, I set out to find one… Before that, I watched several videos on YouTube about the Stihl FSA85 and a few about trimmer reviews. Ace Hardware in Clinton sells Stihl but they didn’t have this model. I went to the mower shop where David bought his, but he didn’t have any in stock either. I did get the prices, though, which wasn’t very pleasant… I knew Heritage Tractor (a John Deere dealership also in Clinton) sold Stihl so I went there. Ummm… Same deal but the price was a little less ($10). The salesman, who I worked with before to get parts for my mower, explained a lot more to me and he said he could have one in a week. He said I was under no obligation and they could just have one sent from another store. So, I agreed…

I could have bought an upgraded battery and charger, but I decided the standard models would be good enough. For me, they are completely fine. If I bought an upgraded battery it would last longer and the upgraded charger would charge faster. The standard battery lasts long enough in the heat anyway. I am not one to know when to quit sometimes, so when what I am using stops working or runs out of gas, it does help to remind me maybe I should take a break.

Some reviews I read were negative, saying the trimmer string would advance well, it wasn’t powerful enough, and so on. Honestly, every trimmer I have used has some issues with the string advancing 100% of the time. I had to fiddle with the Cub Cadet almost every time I used it. As far as power, it has plenty. Reviews and other people’s opinions are sometimes debatable. It is like reading reviews of movies. Even if I think a movie is perfectly great, there are others who think it stinks. Well, I do have to add my opinion to the mix. (I am a movieaholic and have been since the early 1980’s when videos first came out).

SO, how does the Stihl compare to the Cub Cadet? I am was impressed how powerful it was to be so quiet. It cut through tall, heavy, thick clumps of fescue just about as fast as the Cub Cadet. Once I saw this, I didn’t hold anything back and it took everything I dished out. It cut through the clumps right down to the dirt. The Stihl has a wire guard that you can swing down to protect small trees or whatever you don’t want to cut down. I found it works great around steel fence posts that normally play heck with trimmer string. ALSO, and this was a miracle… Tall grass stems, like with fescue and foxtail, were all the time wrapping around the shaft above the trimmer head with the Echo and Cub Cadet. I used the brush guard in the down position and never once had any issues with the stems wrapping around the head. No more repeated stopping to unwrap the grass saved a lot of time. The bottom electric fence wire around the garden is pretty low and it always gave me a few issues when trimming. I just slid the brush guard under the bottom wire and went to town. I know, I know… If I trimmed every time I mow I may not have this issue. I mow approximately three acres, so who wants to trim after that? Consequently, the grass in the two ditches, around fences, trees, foundations, the water hydrant, the martin house pole, the barn, garage, two sheds, the chicken house, the wagon… It gets taller than it should. One time someone mentioned it looked like I need to do some trimming. I told them I was letting the fescue go to seed. 🙂

Oh, yeah. I almost forgot to mention the Stihl trimmer’s motor is not on the top of the handle… It is at the bottom where the guard is, making the trimmer more balanced. The handle is fully adjustable so you can move it to where it is the most comfortable for your height (the others probably do that, too). It only weighs a little over 6 pounds… I suppose all battery-operated (brushless trimmer) motors are at the bottom of the shaft.

From left to right… Weedeater FL25C, Echo GT225, Cub Cadet BC490, Stihl FSA 85, and the old weed whacker.

SO… My first experience owning a trimmer was the Weedeater FL25C that I bought when I was at the mansion in Mississippi. I didn’t have a lot of money, but I needed a trimmer. Well, you know, they always say you get what you pay for. It didn’t have an auto-advance for the line and it was also hard to load by hand… It did get the job done, but it was very frustrating. The letters FL stand for FeatherLite… One day I did some yard work for a friend who had a straight shaft trimmer,  a very expensive brand but I forgot what. I did their landscape maintenance, cleaned and painted a rental for them, and when their housekeeper quit, I started cleaning their house. Anyway, it was my first experience using a professional trimmer with a straight shaft. I am not even going to compare it with my small inexpensive weedeater.

When I came back here in 2013, dad had an Echo GT225. Now, you would think anything that says GT would be badass. Like the Mustang GT and other performance cars, GT meant something about performance. Well, I am sure for an average homeowner with a little trimming to do every week, it would be fine. My problem is, I will admit, I use my tools for all they are worth mainly because I used hand tools with my own power for a long time. As long as I kept the blades sharp there were no issues. SO, I have a tendency to try and force inadequate tools to do more than they were made for. I think I bent the shaft on the Echo because it is weird now… LOL! Truthfully, I never told dad that and he didn’t use it after I started. WHEW! Damn kid! I did read where grass wrapping around the shaft can bend it. I could never see how, but that “could be” what happened. Dad said to start at the top of the grass and go down, but I thought I had enough grass on me for that.

Brushcutter attachment for the Cub Cadet BC490.

Hmmm… The brush cutter on the Cub Cadet BC490 takes A LOT of getting used to. While it works OK on smaller saplings and some thick weeds, there are just some things it refuses to do. Sometimes you have to whack what you are cutting and then it works OK. (Hmmm… That would probably bend the shaft, too, huh?). Like with Ironweed… The first time I tried using it with Ironweed was quite interesting. The sparks flew and there was smoke! I am very tempted to put a small saw blade on it to see what happens… It has to be better than this gizmo but it would probably void the warranty that has now expired… I just have to remember this is a trimmer, not a chainsaw…

Oregon Magnum GATORLINE ™ and Vortex™ Professional Trimmer Line on the right.

Then there is the line issue. All trimmer lines are NOT created equal. I had been using the same line dad had been using from the small engine shop for years and we had to buy a new roll every spring. Fortunately, when we bought the Cub Cadet, it came with line was A LOT different and lasted a long time. I did some investigating online and found out square, or even three-sided line didn’t last that long. I found this Vortex™ Professional Trimmer Line on Ebay in 2018 and I might finally run out this summer. It has lasted that much longer than the other square line of the same thickness.

Vortex™ Professional Trimmer Line.

It looks like two lines wrapped together and it lasts a long time. You have to be careful because the line can eventually wear where it comes out of the head and break off. When I was at Heritage Tractor, the salesman showed me some of the other attachments and line they had that wil also break off before it wears out. If you are interested in the Vortex™ string, it is part #27-12161. It gets a Belmont Rooster 5 Gold Star rating…

Top left to right, Black and Decker 22″ cordless and Black and Decker 16″ corded trimmers; Center, Corona shears; bottom, 100′ extension cord.

When I moved back here in 2013, dad had a Black and Decker hedge trimmer that was kind of dull. I have no clue what happened to the one I had in Mississippi… Well, I mainly used the Corona shears at the mansion because they did a better job. There was an overgrown Privet hedge at least 150′ long and parts of it were probably 12′ tall along the street. There was also holly all along the front porch and sunrooms that were maybe 8′ tall. The hedge had other trees and Poison Ivy mixed in to boot. I managed to get it all trimmed back and they looked very good after a few years. The holly was a nightmare to trim and I had scratches all up and down my arms. It was worth the battle scars in the long run, though.

Dad’s Black and Decker hedge trimmers were just fine with the Yew in front of the house. He always told me to make sure I cleaned up good because the Yew would dull the mower blades. I always mowed the grass before I trimmed the Yew so I could clean up better anyway. The trimmer blades were definitely dull and sometimes I just used the Coronas. In 2019, I think, I started doing the landscape maintenance for Kevin, the friend I have mentioned before several times. Anyway, his Privet hedge runs along one side and in front of his house. I could definitely tell not only were the electric trimmers dull, so was the Corona… I figured it was from all the sap from the Yew. The top of his hedge would literally turn white because of all the smashed leaves. They looked like they were sunburned, but when I looked closer I could tell it was from dull trimmers. I cleaned the trimmers with this stuff that was also a lubricant, and it did seem to help.

Black and Decker 22″ Cordless Trimmer.

Last summer I went to the hardware store to see about buying a new pair but the only thing they had was a cordless trimmer that cost about $100. Well, I passed at first but later in the summer when I had the extra money I went ahead and bought one. My first battery-powered trimmer…  By that time, I didn’t need them for Kevin’s hedge, but I did for my own…

I will tell you I was very impressed. The teeth are farther apart plus I had an additional 6″ of blade and the battery lasted the whole time I was trimming. This trimmer also has a power button to use when you get into thicker branches. On Monday, I went to Kevins to try it out on his hedge for the first time. Unfortunately, his brother-in-law had already done it… GEEZ! I had more plants for his planters, so I finished planting then came back home.

Since I was in the trimming mood, I started in on the Yew in front of the house… When I came here in 2013, dad had been trimming the Yew as individual bushes. I told dad they would look better if they looked more like a hedge. He didn’t care, so I let them fill out. They started growing like weeds and within a couple of years, they looked great. I had to really give the front a good pruning AGAIN because they are getting so wide. I am not finished yet… I cut back so much you can see the gaps between the individual bushes and the top edge needs more work.

The one on the corner is more of an upright grower that I have managed to trim round for a few years. Before, it was just plain weird… There are still a few holes because of the way it grows. Some of the longer branches, or whatever you call them, need to branch out.

Seriously, I think I would prefer other shrubs here besides Yew. They certainly aren’t my favorite bush. Forget about low maintenance, because these are definitely not that… Every time I trim, they seem to get taller. I tied a baling string along the front of the porch a few years ago I used as a guide to keep the hedge level. The yard kind of slopes, so it is hard to keep them level when you are walking downhill… The string is almost a foot below where the top of the hedge is now… Hmmm…

Over the years, I have learned to be open-minded when it comes to tools and brand names. Bigger companies, not necessarily better, have bought out other companies to the point you don’t know who owns who. You have to really do your research because some of the less expensive brand name products are made by not-so-favorable companies… Several years ago, Electrolux bought out Huskavarna and Jonsared. The story goes when Huskvarna became more popular and made more income, they bought the company back from Electrolux and also bought Jonsered. Both Huskvarna and Jonsared are from Sweden like Electrolux. I remember Electrolux vacuum cleaners, but the company also owns a lot of other companies now, mainly vacuums and major appliances. The Weed Eater company was bought out by Emerson Electric which merged with Poulan which was later bought by Electrolux. Now Weed Eater and Poulan are on Huskvarna’s list of brands. Electrolux bought White-Westinghouse which had bought out several other appliance companies. Well, appliance companies are a different ball of wax.

I don’t want to get into MTD, but In September 2018, Stanley Black & Decker bought 20% of MTD Products for $234 million. Stanley Black & Decker will have the option to acquire the remaining 80% of MTD (starting July 1, 2021). With the acquisition of Craftsman by Stanley Black & Decker, the brand’s products are now produced by MTD through this partnership… MTD owns several companies or brands, so Stanley Black and Decker… The list of companies Stanley Black and Decker owns in many segments is VAST and it makes a good read! I am not an MTD fan, by the way…

Stihl is privately owned by the descendants of its founder, Andreas Stihl, and has a manufacturing company in the United States.

I better stop looking up companies or this post will get way out of hand. 🙂

In closing, you have to get the right stuff for your needs that works well or the task at hand becomes more of a chore. Sometimes, I will admit, I splurge on something of better quality that I really can’t afford. If you settle for less, you may be disappointed in the long run.

I started two posts before I wrote this one, but I wanted to write about the new trimmer. Then, I trimmed the shrubbery and thought I would write about the new hedge trimmer, too. Grammarly seems to be running slow, well it is the internet, so there may be a few weird words in this post. Grammarly’s red circle just keeps turning so one only knows… 🙂

Until next time, be safe and stay positive! Always be thankful and GET DIRTY.

The Barn Cat on 7-1-21.

Hello everyone! I hope this post finds you well. I think the rain may be over for a few days. I did manage to get in the garden early yesterday evening to pull the grass away from the sweet corn. I couldn’t do the green beans because they were still in mud. In all, I would say we received around 7″ of rain. There is no rain in the forecast to speak of (10% chance) until next Wednesday so maybe I can get the garden tilled. GEEZ!

The above photo is The Barn Cat. Well, that is what dad called her. She is very old, and until recently, she was one of the healthiest of mom and dad’s cats. When I moved back to the family farm with mom and dad in 2013, there were 20 cats and more on the way. There was no way dad was going to pay to have them spayed, so I got the help of a local organization and we got it done… Over the years, some died, at least one was hit by a car, and some just simply disappeared. Susie was one of the last of the older cats and she died on April 15. She was perfectly fine the day before…

A couple of weeks before Susie died, the Barn Cat came up to me with an infected tooth. It was bad! Then she disappeared for two days and I thought she had died. Two days later, she was on the back porch and she looked pretty rough and could barely stand up. I started feeding her canned cat food (which I had to share with the others). She started doing better and then one day she was on the propagating table… The next morning she could not move her back legs. It is possible she fell on her back when she tried to get off the table. During two weeks of her dragging herself around, I would pick her up and stand her on her back legs but they just wouldn’t work… Then one morning, she miraculously walked across the porch. That was on April 15, the same day Susie didn’t show up for breakfast. That was odd because Susie never missed a meal.

Susie…

Susie was always one of the most affectionate of the cats. I usually called her Susie Q and she often followed me to the chicken house and the garden. Always, when mom gathered the eggs, Susie was right there at her feet. Dad didn’t know how old she was. Like the other older cats, he just said they were very old… She was a very healthy cat right up to the end… I remember a lot of funny things about Susie. She liked sneaking into the house and looking around hoping I wouldn’t see her. I left her alone a few times to see what she would do and she would wind up laying down on the bed or on top of the couch. She was perfectly content anywhere she was. Strange, but I kind of miss that darn cat…

Little Bit on April 6.

Little Bit was weird but very loving. Little Bit was just a tiny kitten when it showed up at a friend’s house in 2019. He watched her one night while she was catching bugs and eating them so he started feeding her. He eventually caught her and put her in the bathroom. He couldn’t keep her, so he gave her to me. I am not sure how many cats were here at the time, maybe 7-8. Anyway, I brought her home and she was still pretty wild. She hid behind my toilet for two days…

Little Bit on July 29, 2019.

Finally, she tamed down enough I let her walk around in the bedroom. Then, after a few more days she started roaming the house… I found a small ball of yarn and it became her favorite toy. Once she had it all strung out, she would come to me and meow so I could roll it back up again.

She was kind of odd, VERY alert and skittish. She never missed a thing and always, always, eased up to anything new.  Jade did NOT like Little Bit in the house and it took a while for her to accept her. Simba, on the other hand, thought she was cute. The first day Simba and Little Bit met would have made an interesting video. Simba came in from outside and went to the kitchen. He saw her in the hallway and started making weird sounds like he was calling her. Little Bit walked up to him, they touched noses, and that was that. When Little Bit started eating on the back porch, the other cats hissed at her. Simba, who wouldn’t eat with the other cats and wouldn’t let them eat with him, allowed Little Bit to share his cat food. Later on, Nathan brought home a very small black tomcat. Simba also adopted him but now he is as big as Simba and he gets ran off…

Every night when I went to bed, Little Bit was laying on the railing on the side porch. Anyway, early in April after The Barn Cat had her episode, Little Bit was laying out by the garage one morning and wasn’t moving. She was still alive because I could see her breathing. I had to leave and wouldn’t be back home until late in the afternoon. Nathan came to where I was painting a house, 20 miles away, and told me he put food and water next to her and she would just scream at him. No, I don’t have a cell phone, so Nathan drove all the 20 miles to tell me about the cat! After I came back home, I picker her up and put her on the back porch. The next morning she was dead. I am not sure what happened to her, perhaps she ventured to the street and was hit by a car. She always stayed around the back yard, the barn, the back porch, and sometimes the front porch. She was too much of a scaredy-cat to go near the street. It is just a mystery what happened to her.

Jade on the propagating table on the back porch on June 27, 2021.

Jade and Simba are my son’s cats in case you don’t already know from previous posts. He came in maybe January or February in 2019 and didn’t mention the cats were coming, too. I didn’t know until he brought in the cat carrier… When Nathan left, the cats stayed with me. Both Jade and Simba were not used to being outside and Jade doesn’t have front claws. After they were here for a while, I started putting Simba outside. Nathan didn’t like that very well, but I did it anyway. Simba is a male and he tried dominating Jade. He was even growling at the cats through the door, so I thought it was time he went out. Suzie and The Barn Cat already didn’t like him… There were issues but Susie and The Barn Cat did NOT back off, so Simba pretty much left them alone. The other cats pretty much gave him a wide birth.

Normally, Jade does NOT like being on the back porch. I think she was a little uppity toward the other cats and thought maybe she was special because she was in the house. Last summer I started taking her to the garden and she liked it. She got to see what was going on outside and she enjoyed chasing butterflies. Now, she spends most of her time on the front porch and sometimes on the side porch. She likes sitting on the railing on the front porch so she can watch over the neighborhood. I never wanted a cat, or a dog, in the house with long hair but here she is… Hair and all… Before I started putting her outside, she thought she had to be with me constantly. That was OK because she just mainly laid at the foot of the bed while I was working on the computer. If she started toward the pillows, I would just point and she would go back to where she belonged.

Simba…

Simba on February 19, 2019.

Simba is a genuine tomcat but he also loves attention. Nathan says he is a Russian Blue but to me, he is just a gray cat. Well, someone told him Jade is a Norwegian Forest Cat but I don’t know about that either. I don’t have many photos of Simba because he does his own thing during the day but he doesn’t miss a meal.

I would not allow Simba to stay in the house, even though he just lays down somewhere. I feed Jade in the kitchen, and Simba likes to come in and eat her food. Since Nathan and Chris are back, Simba gets to come into the house when I am not looking. He is a very good cat, I will admit. I think it is funny Jade now prefers it outside, while Simba would rather be in the house. I would prefer Simba stayed outside, and Jade be in the house during the night. I told Nathan to make sure Jade is in the house during the night, but that rarely happens. However, I have got up during the night only to find Simba in the house. He always comes to me asking for food…

CATS OF THE PAST…

Over the years, I have posted about the cats. Well, there were a lot, at least 20, so there were cats everywhere. On the back porch, side porch, front porch, the barn, laying in the flower beds, on the old foundation… Most of the cats had names, but a few just had numbers (like the cows).

Spike and her kittens on June 11, 2013.

The above photo is of Spike and her last litter of kittens on June 11 in 2013. There were two of these boxes on the back porch dad had made for the cats to have kittens in. Sometimes, more than one cat would have their kittens in the same box.

Dad’s pickup with 2 cats on 6-12-13.

When I was taking photos of plants, if there was a cat around I took their photos, too. At first, I didn’t even know their names and it was somewhat confusing for a while. Some looked so much alike I couldn’t tell them apart. Dad could tell them apart, just like he could tell the cows apart when they were all black. Well, like the cows, I soon learned their personalities and other features to tell them apart.

My 2002 Ford Explorer with at least two cats on July 24, 2013.

There were at least two cats under the Explorer…

Susie on 7-17-13.

Susie was a wanderer and just showed up many times when I was taking photos. Of course, she would get hers taken, too.

#6 on August 1, 2013.

#6 was one of the older cats that didn’t venture off too far from the back porch.

The Coop Cat’s kitten on August 3, 2013.

The Coop Cat was weird and mom was the only one who could touch her. In 2013, she had one kitten… This kitten was a boy and it took up with dad. Every time dad would sit on the porch to smoke his pipe, this cat would crawl on his lap. When dad died, this cat really missed him. This cat died last summer and really never had a name.

Hmmm… This is #6’s kitten on August 3, 2013.

Like I mentioned, some cats just had numbers and apparently, #6’s kitten didn’t even have a name. Dad and I laughed about that all the time. I don’t know what became of #6 or this cat.

Old Blue on August 3, 2013.

Old Blue sounds more like a dog’s name, but that was what dad called this blue calico. She was a good cat, but a bit strange at times. She had four kittens in 2013 whose father was a HUGE fuzzy cat that came for a visit. Dad didn’t like that tomcat and one day he handed me the 22 and told me to shoot it. Well, there were several tomcats here and none of the cats liked him. I didn’t know where he came from, may have been someone’s pet, so I would have felt bad about shooting him… After seeing what he did with some of the other cats, he did disappear. Nuff said… I think Old Blue was Fuzzy’s kitten… Her fur was a bit longer, but not as long as her mother’s.

Kitten sleeping on a brick on the back porch on August 3, 2013.

You have to admit, if you have cats, they can sleep in some of the strangest positions. This kitten sleeping on a brick was by far the most interesting…

The Barn Cat in her prime on August 3, 2013.

I think a blog reader wanted me to write a post about the cats in 2013, so that’s what I did. That must be why there are so many cat photos from August 3… The Barn Cat was always a mind reader. I could not get anywhere near her for a long time. This was just a lucky shot… It wasn’t until after mom died in 2015 that she even allowed me to touch her. Even now, sometimes she doesn’t want to be bothered. If you hold out your hand, if she is in the mood, you can pet her. Once you start, though, she will drive you nuts. She has really been lovey-dovey the past couple of weeks… The Barn Cat got her name because she always stayed in the barn. For the past couple of years, she has always been on the back porch. She was one of the oldest cats when I came here and she is the last survivor. She was definitely a nice-looking cat in her prime.

The Coop Cat on August 3, 2013.

Another lucky shot for sure. This is The Coop Cat that no one could touch except mom. She always looked so sweet and I tried to pet her several times but no dice… I am not sure how I even managed to get this photo of her on the bottom step of the side porch…

The Coop Cat sleeping on a fence post on August 3, 2013.

Well, I just had to get a photo of The Coop Cat sleeping on this post. I had to zoom in to get it. I took several photos of her while she was there and each time her eyes began to open more. I don’t know what happened to this cat. She just disappeared. One night I saw a fox walk up to her in the driveway. Since the cat didn’t run, the fox just walked away. Dad said the foxes wouldn’t bother the cats as long as they didn’t run. If they ran, that was the end of the cat. Dad always said that was what happened to a lot of the cats.

Shhh… The cats are sleeping.

Who could resist that photo…

Bossy on the front porch on August 5, 2013.

Oh yeah, Bossy… He was the old tomcat. He was friendly but had his limits. One day mom was picking on him when he was on the back porch. He just couldn’t figure out why mom was behaving like that and he eventually had enough so he slapped mom’s hand. Mom thought it was funny and kept picking at him so he just walked away.

Old Maid on August 5, 2013.

I have no clue why dad called her Old Maid. This cat was very sweet but definitely very old. Dad said he had seen a fox walk up to her one night, too, and she didn’t run… She lived to tell the tale, so maybe that was an experience she passed on to the others…

Pee Wee on August 5, 2013.

Pee Wee… I forgot who his mother was (maybe Spike) but he was one of dad’s favorites. This one was also born in early 2013 and would sleep on dad’s lap. I think he got sick somewhere down the line and died…

Another cat with no name on August 5, 2013.

Hmmm… You know, this cat was very sweet but very shy. I could pet her, but it wasn’t one of her favorite ideas. She had the greenest eyes that just kind of glowed. Her fur was always raggy looking, though, and seemed to change color…

Fuzzy on 8-5-13.

This was another cat that dad said was very old. Not only was Fuzzy old, but she was also an oddball. No matter where she was going, she was always in a run. One thing I always remember about her is how she would dart in the side door or front door and run to the back door. It was like she was taking a shortcut… She was a sweet cat, also…

Old Blue’s kittens on August 9, 2013.

Old Blue had kittens in the old foundation and were rarely seen. One day I saw her walking with them toward the barn… If one got behind she would go back and pick it up. On August 9, I heard dad say, “Old Blue has her kittens on the porch.” So, I grabbed the camera…

Another photo of Old Blue’s kittens.

He said I needed to see if I could catch them and put them in the cage in the chicken house (where he raised the baby chicks in the feed room). They were very wild and he thought it we put them in the cage we could tame them down. Eventually, I did catch all four but it wasn’t easy. One died, the lady from Pawsibilities found a new home for one, one tamed down, and one didn’t. The kitten in the front of the photo is the one that found a new home, and the black and white one is the one that died.

Three of the cats ready to go to the vet to get spayed on August 16, 2013.

Finally, little by little, all the cats made their way to the vet to be spayed and neutered. The kittens had to be old enough before they could go and the wild tom cat never made it…

Three cats on the side porch on October 11, 2013.

The lady from Pawsibilities also found a new home for one of the older calico females. I don’t remember the cat’s name but she adapted well to her new home.

How’s that for a family photo?

I think this was as many cats I ever saw at once on the side porch. Usually, there would only be 1-3 cats together on the side porch, so this many here was unusual.

Spike on December 7, 2013.

Spike was also an odd cat. Dad called her spike because she had lost her fang teeth. Dad said she ate too many screws… When he first told me that, I thought “HUH?” Then I realized what he meant. There were some words dad couldn’t pronounce well, so I just had to kind of roll with it. He was saying she ate too many shrews… One day my brother was here for a visit and we were sitting on the back porch when Spike came. Dad told him, “That is Spike. She doesn’t have any front teeth because she ate too many screws.” My brother said, “Screws?” Dad said, “Yeah, screws. She catches them and eats them and they broke out her front teeth.” Leroy had a weird look on his face so I explained dad was talking about shrews, not screws. Then dad laughed because he knew he couldn’t pronounce shrew. He knew Leroy would be confused by calling them screws. I am not sure how eating shrews broke out Spike’s front teeth. I laugh every time I tell this story. My sister brings up the time dad told her the same thing. 🙂

Cats on the back porch on February 13, 2014.

During the day the cats were here and there. Several stayed in the barn most of the time. When it came time for them to be fed, they would all show on or near the porch which is why there were so many at once in the above photo. Mom would count the cats every time she fed them. Mom had dementia, but she knew how many cats were supposed to be there. If one was missing, she would tell us which one…

Old Blue’s kitten, the wild one, on April 13, 2018.

The above photo is of Old Blue’s kitten, the wild one. He just never tamed down. He was a dark yellow and white, while his brother was a lighter yellow and white. This cat became sick and died in 2020 and his brother followed a few weeks later.

Susie and the Coop Cat’s kitten on August 28, 2018.

Susie and the Coop Cat’s kitten were together A LOT.

The Barn Cat, Susie, Simba, Little Bit, and the young tom eating on October 21, 2020.

Usually, Simba eats with Little Bit and the young tom, but here is with The Barn Cat. Susie was somewhat confused about the ordeal and it looks like she was telling Simba he was in the wrong place. Of course, Jade was in the house where her food is.

There are more cat photos, but I think it is time to close this post and work on another one. I am not sure what sparked writing this post, I guess the first photo of The Barn Cat. There are a lot of memories here and many of them make me smile.

Until next time, be safe and stay positive. Always be thankful and GET DIRTY if you can.

Hello everyone! I hope this post finds you well. I was out doing some trimming Wednesday evening and was walking toward one of the Chinese Elms and looked up and saw a swarm of bees. I have not seen a swarm of bees since I was a kid! I called a man who has hives and he called one of his neighbors who has just started beekeeping to see if he wanted them. He came as soon as he could and said it was too late in the day to try to move them. He said if he tried it then it would just make them mad. He also said since it was a small swarm they were likely from a hive that split.

This small piece of honeycomb was found under the branch where the swarm was. This likely means the swarm has been in the tree for several days and that they could be feeding… That is a little odd because swarming bees normally only stay on a tree branch for a few hours before the workers have found and agreed upon a suitable nesting site. Sometimes it can take a few days, though. The guy that was here said he thinks the cluster has been on the branches for several days already. He said that worker bees have been bringing food to the cluster because they have made this cone and is definitely sticky with honey. He said he has seen where clusters have stayed in a branch like this for quite a while although it is uncommon.

He said he would be back this early this morning to get the bees and said he might need to leave the hive for a while to make sure most of the bees enter the new box.

I got up earlier than usual to check to see if he was here or had been here. He came even earlier than I expected and the cluster of bees was already gone. Then it rained for quite a while so it was a good thing he came early. I called him at 11:00 and he said it took him about 30 minutes to get the bees in the box. He had to cut several branches because the cluster was in kind of a fork and a lot of twigs were involved. He managed to get all but a handful of bees into the hive so he didn’t feel like he needed to leave the box until tis evening when they would all be in the box for the night. He left me the branch with the fork and another twig where the bees had already been making honeycomb and filling it with honey. Judging by this, he estimated they had been in the tree for 3-5 days and may have very well planned to stick around even longer. Perhaps because the scout bees had not found a suitable spot for their new nest…

I became curious, so I did a little research on bee swarms, queen bees, etc. I read information on several sites and each one had about the same information, some more than others.

There are a few reasons why bees swarm. One is if they outgrow their hive and need to split and part of their colony moves out. Sometimes there is a lack of food so the entire colony will leave the old hive and find a new spot where food is more plentiful. There are other reasons but they are unlikely the case here.

A lot has to happen before a colony of bees can swarm if a hive has to divide so part of the colony can relocate. Worker bees make “queen cups” for the queen to lay eggs and stop feeding her. She has to lay the eggs and stop eating or she will be too heavy to fly. These eggs will be for future queens, and once the eggs are laid, the queen cups are capped. Queen cups are where the queen wil lay eggs that become new virgin queens.

I didn’t know it, but the queen determines what “type” of eggs she lays and even the sex of the new bees. IF the queen is very old, female worker bees can lay eggs for new queens but they won’t be as large. Also, queen bee larvae are fed ONLY royal jelly, whereas other types of bee larvae are fed a combination of royal jelly and pollen…

Sometimes the bees that leave the old hive will do so with the old queen before virgin queens emerge from the queen cups. Once the virgin queens emerge, they will fight to the death even though worker bees try to keep them from fighting. There may need more than one virgin queen in case the hive has to divide more than once (called “cast swarms” where part of the hive leaves with a virgin queen). They may also kill the virgin queens that have not emerged from the queen cups. If part of the hive doesn’t leave with the old queen before the virgin queens emerge, workers also have to protect the old queen. Up to 2/3 of the bees will leave with the old queen.

OH, another weird thing is that when the virgin queen bee mates, she will leave the nest (hive) and go to where drones have congregated and mate (in flight). She may do this for several days until she is fully mated. She then stores up to 6 million sperm from multiple drones in her spermatheca which she will use for her entire life of 3-7 years. The Wikipedia article says female worker bees gather food for the larvae while the males (drones) function is primarily to mate with the queen then they die.

When a colony is ready to swarm, scout bees go out and find a nearby location for the swarm to cluster, sometimes very close to the original hive. That means the hive they left may even be in this same tree. The bees will eat before they leave and may not eat again until the workers have found a new suitable nesting spot. Once the bees have clustered on a branch, 20-50 scouts set off to find suitable nesting sites. The scouts communicate by dancing in such a way that points to where they have found a possible site (called a waggle dance). If their dance is really excited, it encourages other scouts to have a look at what they have found. This dancing and checking out suitable sites goes on until a location is agreed upon then the swarm will relocate.

I am sure I have missed something because it seems like a lot to take in… There are quite a few good websites about bees, so I will include a few links to the ones I thoroughly read…

SWARMING (HONEY BEES)-Wikipedia article.

QUEEN BEE-Interesting Wikipedia article about queen bees.

WHY BEES SWARM AND WHAT YOU SHOULD-OR SHOULDN’T DO- ABOUT THEM. Article by the UC Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County.

HONEYCOMB IDENTIFICATION-BROOD NEST-Great article by BackYardHive.

Definitely, if you find a swarm of bees, you should contact a beekeeper to see if they will come and remove them and put them in a suitable hive box. Sometimes, homeowners find a swarm on the side of their house under an eve and spray like they would a paper wasp nest. If they have been there for a while and have started making honeycomb, spraying not only kills that colony, it can also endanger other colonies as well. Bees from other nests can come and eat the honey and take the pesticide back to their own nest.

Experienced beekeepers are interesting to watch as they remove swarms and put them into a box. I remember as a kid my grandpa had several hives here. One time we were visiting my cousins on their farm and there was a swarm of bees in a tree next to their house. They had relocated to another farm when the Corps of Engineers bought their old farm because the Truman Dam was being built and water would eventually cover their land. Anyway, the farm they relocated to had a HUGE old farmhouse. There were a few rooms they couldn’t use because honey bees were living in and on the walls. Anyway, my mom called grandpa and he came with a box to remove the swarm. Grandpa put his hand inside the cluster of bees and found the queen. The swarm then circled his arm and he just raked the bees off into the box. He didn’t get stung once!

Swarming bees are usually harmless because they have filled up on honey before they leave the old hive. There are several species of honey bees, but they all generally have the same characteristics and reasons for swarming. However, in some areas, there are more aggressive Africanized bees that can be a problem. Some beekeepers that bring home aggressive species have found them too dangerous and need help getting rid of them. More experienced beekeepers will introduce queens from a docile hive and within 45 days or so, the aggressive bees will be replaced by docile bees. If nests are disturbed or threatened, guard bees can also attack people and pets. More aggressive species will become agitated by mowers or other loud noises…

OK, I better close this post. As I said, there is a lot online about bees, swarms, keeping bees, etc. I learned a lot I didn’t know.

Until next time, take care, be safe, stay well, be positive, and always be thankful…

My son Nathan, next to a Cirsium altissimum (Tall Thistle) on 6-15-21. Don’t even say he looks like me.

Hello everyone! I hope this post finds you well. It has been a while since my last post because of several reasons which, in this case, are kind of just excuses. Last summer my camera would sometimes come on and show a “lens error” message then automatically shut off. I could press the button and it would come back on just fine. This spring it started doing it repeatedly then the lens would come out partway and wouldn’t go back in. I could turn the lens somewhat and it would work OK for a while then it would get weird again. I knew turning the lens was not a good idea and would probably wind up doing more harm than good which is what ultimately happened.

I read up on the issue and it could have been from dirt being in the gizmo. 🙂 I found a video on YouTube on how to replace the lens but it almost gave me a headache watching it. So many tiny screws and this and that to remove. The guy who made the video has a circle of parts all around the camera and he kept saying “make sure” to do this and that. The video was about 30 minutes long and he said “if” you get it all back together properly and it still doesn’t work, you have to start over… He said the new lens cost him $43 on Ebay or Amazon and Cannon had quoted him about $150 to fix it… I opted to buy a new camera.

Over the past couple of months, I started looking at cameras on Ebay. Lack of funds most of the time kept me from purchasing one but finally, I had enough money to bid. A guy was selling a Canon XS610 HS like my old one on Ebay without a charger which was no big deal since I already had one. He didn’t give very much information about the camera except that it had no charger so he couldn’t turn it on to see if it worked. He also said no refunds. That in itself would keep a lot of people from bidding. I senT him a message and he replied that he had bought it new for a two-week vacation then put it in a drawer. When he moved from his parent’s home he couldn’t find the charger so he decided to sell it on Ebay. He had it listed twice before but the buyers didn’t pay so he listed it again. I think they are (were) around $250 new and I bought it for $66 and it arrived on June 15.

A few people, including my son, said I needed a cell phone because they take photos just as well as a camera. Well, he is back AGAIN so I took him wildflower hunting on May 24 when my camera decided to work again. I pressed the power button on and off several times and for some reason it started working so I had to go… Anyway, it worked fine until half way back to the house then it went whacky again. When we were almost back to the house I spotted a plant I hadn’t identified. GEEZ!!! SO, I used his camera. He sent the photos to in an email… Hmmm… He had been taking photos the whole time we were out walking so there were ALOT! The problem was he only sent a few through the email and he said I had to get the rest on some other site I had to sign up for and he sent a link… I was thinking bad words and I didn’t want to do that. He said it was taking to long for him to upload them with email. Fortunately, the photos of the plant I needed were sent in the email but they were HUGE! I started thinking bad words again… I may have even said a few out loud especially when the photos weren’t that good anyway. Last time he was here I wanted him to take my photo with the Colocasia with my camera. He thought he just had to use his iPad instead of the camera. The photos made me look even weirder than I already do so I told him to use the camera. Then I showed him the difference and he didn’t have much to say about that… I was MUCH happier though… 🙂 🙂 🙂

Taking Nathan wildflower hunting was quite interesting, esecially the second time… He would take a photo with his phone then send it to everyone he could think of. Then they would message him back and he would have to reply… Sometimes I would be so far ahead of him I couldn’t even see him. I walked back to see where he was at one point and he was clear over on the other side of the pasture… He lost his signal so he had to move. 🙂 So, I walked all the way down to the “swamp”. Next thing I knew he was calling me so I walked back until I saw him. He was all the way on the other side of the fence on the neighbors property. He said he saw turkeys over there and went to investigate but they ran off…

Not having a camera that worked whenever I needed to take a photo screwed with my brain. Even if the camera came on and I was able to take a few of photos, it wouldn’t continue working. That just put me out of the mood to write a post with the photos I was able to take. So, I just continued working on making updates and writing new wildflower pages with the photos I already had. Normally, I finish with the updates over the winter but I just finished a few days ago. There were some glitches along the way, like when the USDA updated their website and even changed the URL. All the wildflower pages have links, and some maps, from the USDA Plants Database. The old link wouldn’t redirect at first, so I had to START OVER and change the URL on every wildflower page. Sometimes the new USDA website wouldn’t even work so I sent an email to the “guy in change” and he said they were having server issues and a lot of bugs to work out. After a couple of weeks it started working fine. The last time I checked to see if the old links would redirect it just went to a blank blue page. By that time I was almost finished updating AGAIN so I don’t know if they got that fixed or not.

I am not sure how many new wildflower pages I published because I didn’t count them. I don’t even know how many wildflowers are on my list and there are a few that still don’t have pages. I guess the ones without pages are mainly grasses and species I am not sure about at the moment because I need photos of their flowers. It takes A LONG TIME to write descriptions of plant parts, so the last 20 or so pages I just added the photos, wrote species information, a little about the plant and where I saw it, added the maps, and links to other websites. I will go back later and write descriptions as I have time. At least they are published. WHEW! 🙂

After the new camera arrived, I was FINALLY able to go wildflower hunting without wondering when the camera would screw up. I was very glad to find a few Triodanis perfoliata (Clasping Venus Looking Glass). Another few days and there would have been no flowers left. I identified a few more species on the farm (and trail next to the farm) on June 15 and 16. That will be for another post coming up…

I have decided to try and make the posts shorter and spread my observations out. That way I can post more often. I will try anyway.

Until next time, be safe, stay well, stay positive, give thanks, and GET DIRTY!

Hello everyone! I hope this post finds you all well. With all the nice weather we have had we were hoping winter was over. Then the extended forecast started showing the weather had other plans… I was hoping the percentages would lessen day by day and the “S” in the forecast would disappear. Well, that didn’t happen. Even so, it is unlikely there will be much accumulation but the temps will drop considerably Tuesday night…

Then the temps will warm and more rain is on the way…

Over the winter I repotted a few of the cactus but I didn’t get them all finished. I took the cactus outside on April 9 to look them over a repot a few more. I was able to get nine repotted but at around 6 PM I had to quit because I thought it would start sprinkling.. SO, I moved everything back inside. I repotted five more on the 14th but I still have a few to go.

A few of the cactus had a few mealy bugs. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had mealy bug issues with a few of the Aloe in the back bedroom. I hadn’t noticed any problems with them anywhere else until I started repotting the cactus on the 9th. The cactus were in my bedroom on the new plant shelf minding their own business over the winter and I thought all was well. Well, you know how it is. Cactus don’t need much attention, especially over the winter, so one may overlook any issues. A couple of weeks ago I had taken the cactus to the kitchen to water them and look them over and didn’t notice any problems.  Well, the kitchen is where I had taken the Aloe that had mealy bugs so maybe there were a few lurking around and hitched a ride on the cactus.

MANY years ago (when I was a kid), mom bought several aluminum nails to poke through potatoes when she baked them in the oven. I have found they make great tools when repotting the cactus. You can use the nails to poke the soil down around their roots and the head to tamp down the soil around the top. It works great when dealing with spiny friends… Using a cotton swab with alcohol on the cactus is kind of difficult because the cotton gets stuck on the spines. The spines can also make it hard to get the end of the swab down between the ribs. So, I dipped the pointed end of the nail in alcohol and was able to remove the mealy bugs.

I was going to take more photos but my camera has been acting up… Some kind of a weird lens issue…

Well, that’s all for this post. I took a few photos of wildflowers a couple of days ago, so maybe another post for them is in order. The Hosta are all up and running but I haven’t taken their photos yet… I need to close now so I can replace a part on the mower. GEEZ! OH, I did get the garden tilled a few days ago before it rained. 🙂

Until net time, be safe and stay positive. I hope you are all doing well. GET DIRTY and always be thankful!

Hello everyone! I just wanted to tell you about my latest issue with WordPress. Last October there was an issue when WordPress updated and our OLD Classic Editor seemed to have disappeared. It was an easy to solve issue and I wrote the post titled “To Use The Classic Editor” on October 7. Well, this time it was WAY weirder… 

Monday evening I was writing a post about my trip to Wagler’s Greenhouse and the pants I picked up. I started out as usual by clicking on the Classic Editor option as I explained to do in the post from October 7, 2020. I added all the photos to the post then clicked “save draft” then went ahead to do some research for the plants.

Tuesday, when I went to finish the post, everything was whacky! I was met with NO option to edit the post using the Classic Editor. I went to the page and the above photo is what I saw. I went ahead and finished the post which was easier since I had already added the photos. Then, when I went to add tags it was a bit frustrating…

Then I spent a long time in a chat with a member from the WordPress support team. Whoever I talked to was helpful but they really didn’t tell me anything I hadn’t figured out before by trial and error. Just a few new details about using the “NEW” Classic Editor and they encouraged me to try it out… They did write a support ticket which would be revied by other members of the support team.

At 2:37 AM I received an email from one of the Happiness Engineers from WordPress. She explained how to get back to the Classic Editor I have been using a different way I didn’t even know existed…