USMB Coffee Shop IV

[ChrisL]

We're on to spring activities here too! Working on the beds nearest the house, then on to tackle the orchard and garden area. Still some frost at night here in the mountains.

On a few hot days the kids filled our small pool and pretended they were at the beach! Too cold for me, but they're hearty.

So many incalcuable blessings. May you all be so happy!

It must be grand to have an orchard! My yard is about the size of a postage stamp. I'd love to have apple and peach trees around.

Mine too. I really only have a patio area. If I want a garden of any kind, it has to be in pots.

 

[Gracie]

New roomie that just moved in last month gave notice. He is moving back to Santa Barbara to his old job. I haven't decided if I am happy or sad. Dude is NOISY. Doesn't know how to close a door or use a home with other inhabitants. SLAM! BANG! HAHA'S! TALKING LOUD ON CELL PHONE! BLARING TV. DISHES BANGED AROUND.

So now that I typed it all out....yeah. I think I am happy. Besides, I am going to rent his room out for more money and give it to the landlord. Maybe that will keep him happy.

 

[Dajjal]

Here is a new toy someone just invented.' A hover scooter'.

 

[Nosmo King]

My Pop fancied himself a 'Gentleman Farmer'. He was truly a gentleman, in the literal sense of the word. But his agricultural skills definitely needed work.

He rototilled out a patch of lawn at the Big House and began to cultivate vegetables. Green peppers, 48 tomato plants (24 staked for an early harvest, 24 caged for a sustainable harvest), a row of cabbage, a row of Brussels Sprouts (which, due to a mix up at the seed store turned out to be two rows of Brussels Sprouts) and even sweet corn, which did not do well at all because of his love of and respect for wildlife.

But Pop's greatest stab at home gardening had to be his grape arbor. He bought root stock and grafted sweet red table grapes on them. Then he erected the arbor. The first arbor was made of one inch diameter steel pipe, the kind usually used as natural gas lines. Pop built two structures that looked like giant staples, vertical posts and a horizontal lintel. But Pop did not dig down deep enough nor did he secure the posts in concrete.

The grapes grew magnificently! They draped themselves over the arbor and bore clusters of fruit. So heavy were the vines that by early Autumn, around harvest time the arbor collapsed under the weight.

Next Spring Pop put the apparatus back up but bolstered it with chicken wire spanning side to side. Again he produced a bumper crop of grapes. And again, the arbor collapsed. Mom was growing impatient.

One more try at building a successful grape arbor meant scraping the steel pipe and bringing in outdoor lumber. Three 4x4s on each side anchored in concrete and topped with a twelve foot long 4x4 looked as if it could not only stand up against the weight of the vines, but last for generations.

It did last for three growing seasons before it started to list to starboard and eventually collapse. This was the last straw for Mom who insisted that Pop was not Ernest and Julio Gallo, the upper Ohio River valley wasn't Napa California and Pop's viticulture had to end.

Down came the lumber. Down came the grafted vines. The grape arbor experiment was over.

Or was it?

The summer of 2007 was Pop's last summer. I went out to the Big House and saw him riding the mower around the grounds. There were four spots right where the great grape experiment happened that he apparently missed with the lawn tractor. I walked down to take a look and alert Pop of the missed spots.

There I saw the root stock of those grapes trying their best to grow all these years later. Pop mowed around them and let them be. I have no doubt that he thought with a little patience and understanding and luck, Mom would relent and let him make another try at growing his grapes.

 

[Nosmo King]

View attachment 73372

Here is a new toy someone just invented.' A hover scooter'.

Hover Scooter or Crazy Law Suit machine?

 

[Foxfyre]

We're on to spring activities here too! Working on the beds nearest the house, then on to tackle the orchard and garden area. Still some frost at night here in the mountains.

On a few hot days the kids filled our small pool and pretended they were at the beach! Too cold for me, but they're hearty.

So many incalcuable blessings. May you all be so happy!

It must be grand to have an orchard! My yard is about the size of a postage stamp. I'd love to have apple and peach trees around.

It is all well and good if you have the time, energy, and/or money to properly care for them and the fruit they bear. If you don't, they can be a royal pain in your yard.

 

[Foxfyre]

View attachment 73372

Here is a new toy someone just invented.' A hover scooter'.

Sure would take up a lot of room in the garage, and where do you put the groceries?

 

[Foxfyre]

We're on to spring activities here too! Working on the beds nearest the house, then on to tackle the orchard and garden area. Still some frost at night here in the mountains.

On a few hot days the kids filled our small pool and pretended they were at the beach! Too cold for me, but they're hearty.

So many incalcuable blessings. May you all be so happy!

It must be grand to have an orchard! My yard is about the size of a postage stamp. I'd love to have apple and peach trees around.

Mine too. I really only have a patio area. If I want a garden of any kind, it has to be in pots.

We have more yard than that, but it is all xeroscaped, and without the wherewithal to put in an automatic sprinkler system and with our physical limitations, a garden just isn't practical. Except in pots. But pots are okay too.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

We're on to spring activities here too! Working on the beds nearest the house, then on to tackle the orchard and garden area. Still some frost at night here in the mountains.

On a few hot days the kids filled our small pool and pretended they were at the beach! Too cold for me, but they're hearty.

So many incalcuable blessings. May you all be so happy!

It must be grand to have an orchard! My yard is about the size of a postage stamp. I'd love to have apple and peach trees around.

Mine too. I really only have a patio area. If I want a garden of any kind, it has to be in pots.

Nice photo

 

[ChrisL]

We're on to spring activities here too! Working on the beds nearest the house, then on to tackle the orchard and garden area. Still some frost at night here in the mountains.

On a few hot days the kids filled our small pool and pretended they were at the beach! Too cold for me, but they're hearty.

So many incalcuable blessings. May you all be so happy!

It must be grand to have an orchard! My yard is about the size of a postage stamp. I'd love to have apple and peach trees around.

Mine too. I really only have a patio area. If I want a garden of any kind, it has to be in pots.

Nice photo

Thanks sweets! I appreciate the compliment.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

I grow herbs every year outside in pots.

Edit: No not that kind of herb!

 

[ChrisL]

I grow herbs every year outside in pots.

Edit: No not that kind of herb!

I love growing fresh herbs. It's so nice to be able to go out back and just pick them, convenient too!

 

[Dhara]

View attachment 73359

Here is one of my large abstracts which I may try and finish. I will not paint over this one. It's five feet wide.
It's called ' the war between blue and yellow'

I really like it.

 

[Foxfyre]

I grow herbs every year outside in pots.

Edit: No not that kind of herb!

I love growing fresh herbs. It's so nice to be able to go out back and just pick them, convenient too!

I rarely use all called for in a lot of recipes but there are a few that are absolutely necessary. Which do you grow?

 

[Foxfyre]

I grow herbs every year outside in pots.

Edit: No not that kind of herb!

Which ones do you grow?

 

[ChrisL]

I grow herbs every year outside in pots.

Edit: No not that kind of herb!

I love growing fresh herbs. It's so nice to be able to go out back and just pick them, convenient too!

I rarely use all called for in a lot of recipes but there are a few that are absolutely necessary. Which do you grow?

I like to grow thyme (or rosemary - they taste similar to me), basil, sage, parsley. I did it a couple of summers ago. I'm thinking about doing it again this summer.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I grow herbs every year outside in pots.

Edit: No not that kind of herb!

Bummer

 

[iamwhatiseem]

I grow herbs every year outside in pots.

Edit: No not that kind of herb!

Which ones do you grow?

Basil, lemon basil, thyme, chives, rosemary and mint (for tea)

 

[ChrisL]

I grow herbs every year outside in pots.

Edit: No not that kind of herb!

Which ones do you grow?

Basil, lemon basil, thyme, chives, rosemary and mint (for tea)

I like flower gardens too, but at least you can eat herbs. Lol.

 

[Foxfyre]

I grow herbs every year outside in pots.

Edit: No not that kind of herb!

Which ones do you grow?

Basil, lemon basil, thyme, chives, rosemary and mint (for tea)

I like flower gardens too, but at least you can eat herbs. Lol.

I have to have a few flowers though. They make me happy when I grow them. I enjoy cut flowers when given to me too, but it is sad when they wither so quickly so prefer those that continue to grow.