Morning all! Sheesh, where did last week go, already?! I'm hoping this one will be a little less hectic...tee-hee, giggle, snort - I just crack myself up!

Still a lot of garden work to do. Wandered down to Uncle Ivan's garden last night and had to laugh - he wasn't going to plant nuthin' this year - "Nuthin'!" I know I counted at least 60 tomato plants, along with the other garden stuff! I wonder if he and I went hungry in a past life, as we are always finding just one more spot to plant just one more thing....

Of the three old hens, Red is starting to molt. A couple of weeks ago, I had to convince her that we don't have a rooster, so there was no sense settin' on those eggs. She wasn't easy to convince, in fact - I still think she's a little bit annoyed over the whole thing. I'd love to have another rooster (our last one had a little testosterone induced dominance battle with Hazard the Hound from Hell, which he lost), but Hubby is enjoying sleeping in 'til 0630. Not a good idea to put the chicken house in the east side yard, you say?!

Well, Mike and Phyllis are coming over today - Mike found a mini-bike at a garage sale that he wants Hubby to take a look at - so I need to go clean my house before they get here...wouldn't want them to know how we REALLY live!

You all take care - and have a great week!

-- Anonymous, June 17, 2001

Answers

We just got back from the huge flea market/rendezvous in Friendship, Indiana. We had a great time but my legs are sooo tired. My husband has been getting his black powder gear together for some time and now it was time to start getting our personas together. He's definitely going to be a mountainman type. I'm still not sure if I'm going to be an english wife or a squaw yet. I've got the moccasins that would work with either, just can't decide on the clothing. I've been trying to decide on some way to make some extra money around here and was in spired by all the handmade jewelry. I'm certain I could make some really nice things. I just need to do research on supply sources and see if there's any profit. I haven't seen much of it right here where I live and can think of a few places where I could display it and see if it sold. I don't think I want to do the flea market thing as I'm afraid there would be too much competition especially in the type that we went to yesterday. I got the patterns for my husband's garb yesterday. I'm feeling a bit nervous about making drop front pants as I've never done them and haven't really looked at the pattern yet. I think the shirts will be easy though. Wish me luck!!

-- Anonymous, June 17, 2001

Hi Everybody! Ah the blessed days of June! We had a real hot spell ,was so glad when the cold front pushed through. Now the humity is gone and it is clear and blue The Larkspur is blooming blue, purple and pink alongside the Golden Margurite and the Sweet William naturlized beneath the pines is blushing pink, red, and white.

The crickets are chirping now and Lea caught her first firefly of the year yesterday evening. She let out a holler of joy and held it in her hands peeking through at it's light. Then she tossed it up into the night proclaiming " it is summer!". Indeed it is.

My husband and I married on the summer soltice, so our aniversery is on the first day of summer, June the 21st.The borage is beginning to show her beautiful colbolt blue and purple flowers which we will add to our bottle of wine, for the happiness and joy that they bring.Then

Now, ,can you believe this , we are taking off! Got the neighbor to do the chickens, taking Cocketilly and Paraketta to a friend. Poor Laddy he is gonna go to the Vet's kennel, and lets see the girls we are gonna take to my brother and his wife, and hm, the cats we are gonna leave in the house, with an extra litter box, lots of water and food.turn off the coffe pot, lock the door. O.K. can we leave now!

We are going to take off for Morgan County, There are less people living in the whole of Morgan County then there are living in this town that I live outside of. There is a ridgetop country road that we are going to travel. There is an old covered bridge which has a waterfall beneath it that we are going to find. Going to a daylily farm, and to see a stained glass artist who has made a huge old barn into a studio. Can't wait to see that.

then we are going to go on down that country road to the little river town of McConnelsville where we will have our first experiance at a bed and breakfast at The Outback Inn, and we will have dinner, and some of that borage wine at the Historical, Howard House.

Then the next morning we are gonna put our jeans on and head for Blue Rock State park where we are gonna camp out.

so, see you when we get back, I will bring you a back something!

Polly I know what ya mean about having to clean you house before anybody comes over. Guess it's a good thing that people come over some times so that I will take an honest look at my surroundings! Sometimes I just have to tell them , My house is pretty honest today!

Love ya all. Tren

-- Anonymous, June 17, 2001

Well, just to let you all know, Polly's house is just beautiful! She is in a pretty location and just a pretty place. Back to the mini bike that Michael got, you should see this video of him riding it that my sister-n-law cam corded. It is so funny! Polly, that wouldn't be the red hen I was going to borrow that is molting would it? I sure hope not and If you need a rooster, I have plenty of young fine specimens for you. Michael is suppose be outside tilling me up a place for the strawberries. We have a truckload of ground feed to unlaod from the truck first though. I went out and picked a gallon of raspberries this morning. They aren't near as plentiful this year as they were last year. I will also take these to grandma's. It was a really nice day yesterday. Looks like today will be a winner also. I better go get busy. Phyllis

-- Anonymous, June 17, 2001

Hello folks. Happy fathers day to you dad types. :-)

This suburban farming is getting harder to hide with the last of the little roosters insisting on crowing EARLY every morning. I keep waiting for one of the neighbors to walk over and inquire about the noise. I figure if they do, I'll just offer to let'em dress their own, and hand'em a rooster! I've been having homicidal (rooster based) fantasies in the morning, so it's allmost dress day again.

Trying to get the barn cleaned out for the new doeling on it's way. It's been busy times trying to line up pick-ups and deliveries, figure out where we can keep the goat to keep the neighbors from seeing us when we move her from the barn to the fenced back yard every morning. Good thing she's LaMancha, it'll take all them neighbors whos peeking a while to figure out just what animal that would be w/o ears! LOL. D.H. says we'll tape on lab ears, and tell'em she's a retreiver.

Gardens doing good. It's about time to drag out veggie stand stuff, so that means corn and 'maters are coming! Yumsters.

-- Anonymous, June 17, 2001

Hi all...

We went to the Freemont Parade yesterday (in Seattle.) It's an artist/freak/Fellini manifesto! What an interesting parade! It's been going on for around 20 years. No mechanized floats (any floats have to be pushed); no political statements (although there were may "statements" i.e. Bush chained to a derrick of oil; a car chained to the world with gas pump hoses extending out from it; a salmon on a bier with smoke emanating; caribou dancers (in incredibly crafted papier mache heads attached to gently undulating bodies); the green man (natch) and goddess statues(big on the soltice here too) plus men in favor of wearing kilts (like Carhartt-style kilts); lotsa belly dancers, and of course the requisite naked people riding bicycles. Interesting this year: no arrests! Probably b/c the naked people wore very interesting body paint!! After WTO, I wasn't sure if this wasn't going to turn into a riot of some kind, but it was very peaceful (as were the parade participants and spectators.) Lasted about an hour. I have been looking for pics online but haven't spotted any yet. Please let me know if you find any! Then we went to a dear friend's house for a salmon burger barbecue (hypocrites that we are ...snarl...)

Today, my 10-year-old nephew, Mr. S, a friend of ours + his two kids aged 9 and 7, did a moderate hike in the mountains. Very nice day, although still snow and cold at the glacier terminus. The kids had so much fun! So did we!

I'm beat! I saw the threads from Earthmama about the stories she is starting. Looks like fun, although I have no brains left (weren't much to start with!)to respond right now.

The corn is up... beans starts are 3 or 4 inches... and my perennial beds are starting to look good.

Still not hot here. Maybe got up to 65 today. M's lost. But it was Father's Day and the hike was fun. So was the barbecue!

-- Anonymous, June 17, 2001

I would have liked to see that parade, Sheepish!

Got the tomatoes into the garden and mulched with red plastic. We'll see how that goes. This must me the slowest gardening effort in the world. If it would just stop raining! Poured again tonight. Got some corn coming up, and I think the zinnias are coming up too, but if so, the are VERY tiny at the moment. If they didn't get beat to death in this latest downpour.

-- Anonymous, June 17, 2001

Here's what I found, Sheepish --

Previous years pics: http://www.scn.org/fremont/fac/solstice.htm

More: http://www.speakeasy.org/~docschlk/kich7.htm

No pics yet from this year, but this is the official site, I guess: http://www.fremontartscouncil.org/parade2001/main.html

http://www.fremontfair.com/

-- Anonymous, June 17, 2001

Well, from Joy's report I guess we have rain on the way again. Had a quiet day today, enjoyed just having us be at home. The garden is starting to look pretty good, almost everything except the very last planting of greens is up. The old garden site is finally dry enough to till so we tilled that up and hope to plant a large sweet corn patch for late corn. This is the first year for the 30 blue berry bushes and I thought I had picked all the blossoms off. Looks like the very few I left are making huge berries so we will have some for eating this year. The June strawberries are almost finishing off, maybe another week of picking. I have put a lot in the freezer but I am NOT ready for the season to be over. I can see that I had better put some everbearings back in as they were good eating when the others were gone.

After surveying all my friends and relatives that have yahoo mailboxes I have discovered that it is definately NOT a yahoo thing that I have been getting tons of rather ugly annoying phorn mail so I finally broke down and told my son-in-law the cop about it. He has forwarded it all on to someone who knows how to trace and assures me that they will get to the bottom of it. I thought about posting a public service announcement to any lurker who might be responsible. (sorry Vinnie and Guido but you know the blood thing, I was going to have you handle it but when you have as many hotblooded sons as I do you don't really have all that much control!!) They are making little comments about the person learning to type with their nose. As you can tell by the fact that I have one son-in-law that is a cop, one who is SF and two sons that are ex 82nd Airborne, this old mennonite woman lost control of her kids a long time ago. (should have let them play with guns when they were kids!!!)

Hope everyone had a nice weekend and have a great week. Oh, and I found out this weekend that we have TWO more grandkids on the way. My cup runneth over.

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

Ah hah! So that is why my mail to you rebounded, Diane!! I read your message questioning using gelatin for joints on CS and really didn't want another one of those "Yes it DOES!!!"/"NO, it DOESN'T!!" brangles (it loses something without the proper whiney inflection...). What I was gonna say was that my experience with the use of gelatin -- and my vet's advice (I trust his word more than most human doctors) - - is that it basically does not work. My aunt has been drinking it daily for I don't know HOW many years now, but at least 15, and got hip replacement done. Didn't help at all.

Chrondroitin sulfate and glucosamine, taken in combination are very effective. I used it on geriatric horses and saw quite an improvement, and you sure can't fool a horse with a placebo. Oral supplements with shark cartlige and hyluronic acid are likewise a waste of your money...the shark cartlige just doesn't work, and hyluronic acid can't be absorbed into joints orally, it has to be injected in. IF you ever decide to go that route, I will testify that it has performed wonders on my old horses and vastly improved their quality of life, and reduced their painful joints wonderfully. Perna mussell shell has gotten some publicity too, but it is more costly than the G/CS combination. I took one made by Springtime for about a month andit made a BIG difference in my knees.

We had hail yesterday. Surprisingly, it didn't do much damage, maybe because the tent worms have already stripped most everything. They seem to be 'tenting' now, so pretty soon we're going to be out fishing for them with bamboo poles strapped with flaming rags (that oughta be fun! Flaming caterpillars raining down on our heads!! Man, maybe we oughta charge admission!) and torching them.

We've also been having rain every day lately, after predicting a nice sunny weekend when I could get some garden work done. Bah. I hope that it's nice this week so I can get going on those next 4 raised beds!! It's my ambition to get those in, plus a rhubarb bed, and an asparagas bed prepared for next spring's planting. I want to dig a NICE deep trench and start filling it with horse manure.

The new Mega CompostaPlex is now done and open for business!! A bunch of leaves from last year still kicking about were the first thing to go in over top of a straw layer, and now for some nice veggie scraps! It's a 4-bin wonder, each bin being about 5' square! Question is, which next? The bunny hutch, or the fence around the rest of the yard to keep the deer out?

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

Just finished a new 70 foot by 3 foot bed next to the new sidewalk. Wow. It was great moving the perennials and some rose bush starts, etc. all around. Now if it would just hurry up and grow!

Our new shed (12 feet by 16 feet) is coming this week and I can't wait. Just got stung several times by wasps in a nest in the old 'building' (back of a truck) and am looking forward to having a closed up storage space again.

The older dog is at the vet's this morning for ligament surgery. I shopped around and knocked a bundle off the price so we're doing it. The pup gets neutered later this week and then I figure I'll just have my client's write their checks out straight to the vet! LOL.

The battle against the poison ivy and bamboo continues.....

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

Joy, thanks for the links to the pics! They are cool. Interesting that there's more to see than just the picture when you click on 'em.

Going to the Olympic Peninsula (western WA) tomorrow with Mom. Nice and quiet and looks like the weather might be decent (although we are going into the rain forest...ya never know!) No teevee, radio, computer, traffic, work. Ahhhh.. Mr. S. is kindly going to watch the farm. I will reciprocate in August when he takes off to climb mts in Colorado.

Gotta run. Sun is shining. Thanks again for the links!

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

You guys are such a bad influence on me! Keith and I thought we were going to get tossed into jail on Saturday! For future reference, don't ever get directions from a gravedigger, especially when he only has 5 teeth, all of them pointing in different directions.

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

Sherri, what is that about? And how is it OUR fault?! Details!

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

OK, here's the story...Here in Indy we have a huge cemetary on the west side of the city. It's called Crown Hill, and several famous people, like John Dillinger, are buried there. A few weeks ago I was driving past Crown Hill and they had a sign out front that said "Free Firewood" and gave a phone number. Hanging around you fine folks has taught me never to turn down a good free offer, so I copied down the number.

As I mentioned in another post, we have a big campout planned for this weekend, and of course when you're camping you have to have a campfire. So I fished the phone number out of my purse and called to see if there was any of that free firewood left. The fellow who answered the phone said that there still was lots of wood left, but that it was too hard to describe over the phone where to find it. He gave me directions to the Cemetary Service Garage and told me to ask someone where the wood was when I got there. I asked if it was OK to come on Saturday and he said yes.

So Saturday Keith and I hop into my car to go get the firewood. We had some other errands to do first, so we didn't get to Crown Hill until about noon. We found the service garage without any problem, but apparently everyone was on lunch break because the place was deserted. I wandered around a bit and finally found the above- mentioned 5-toothed gravedigger stretched out on a picnic table asleep. It took a few throat clearings and "excuse me"s, but I finally got him to wake up. Of course, he had no idea what I was talking about. He finally said that there was a big woodpile at the end of that gravel road over yonder and I could go help myself.

The wood was beautiful, already split and dried, so we decided to grab as much as we could stuff into the trunk of a Ford Escort. The trunk was about 2/3 full when one of the groundskeepers comes tearing up in his pickup, all pissed off and calling for security on the radio. Apparently old 5-tooth had directed us to the groundskeeper's secret firewood stash. It was pretty tense for a few minutes, he was threatening to have us arrested. At first he denied that there was any free firewood, but when I pulled out the phone number and the directions I had written down he changed his story and said that the free wood "must be that junk back in the dump". I offered to unload our trunk and get the stuff from the dump if he would drive us back there. He told us not to bother, to just get out of there and never come back. Then he tore out of there and went up to yell at old 5- tooth for giving away his secret.

We waited until he was out of sight, then finished loading up the car before we left.

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

I see! Well, sounds like you were pretty calm about the whole thing. Have you picked out a night to go back and get some more? ;-)

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

Peek a boooo!

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2001

Hey Denise, are you guys planning on coming to the Feast of the Hunter's Moon Rendezvous in Lafayette IN? I think it's the first weekend in October. We'll probably be up there visiting some friends who are reinactors, maybe we could meet up!

No, I'm not going back to Crown Hill some night to get more wood! It's not exactly a section of the city that I plan on going to in the middle of the night. I was nervous enough going there during daylight. No, I'm not afraid of the ghosts. The neighborhoods around the cemetary are more frightening than the people buried there!

I just found out that even though Indianapolis is the 12th largest city in the US, the section where I live is considered rural by the US Census Bureau. Guess I'm beyond the sidewalks after all! The government figures out whether an area is urban or rural based on population density, and the township where I live has a whole lot of land and not as many people so we're classified as rural. It doesn't matter that most of the land is taken up by factories, warehouses, and Indianapolis International Airport! That's why we don't have many people here, the Airport authorities are kind of funny about letting people build houses on the runways! :-)

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2001

Just to update everyone outthere, still no greenbeans! My sister has even took pity on me and says she will plant a couple more rows in her garden for me. Otherwise, the tomatoes are blooming and have little green ones on them, the cucumbers are blooming and starting to run, and everything else in the garden is doing fine. Maranda's potatoes are growing and she is still watching them, waiting for potatoes. Her softball game for tonight was cancelled, for just as we all got there it came a storm. It had thundered alot and the lightening was bad at my house at about 4pm. Then it finally rained for about 5 minutes. It seemed to set over the ball field for more than 5 minutes and the game was called. My son, Justin's boy scout meeting went off last night just fine. They are getting ready for their camporee this weekend. It's at our local state park, not far from home. I will be helping with some event on Saturday, but he goes friday night to camp out and Saturday night. I will have to let everyone know where Angie, the leader puts me and what she had me doing. It just may be a learning experience for me and the boys. Hope everyone out there is having a good day and I just love reading all the different subject matters. Phyllis Oh- The other evening at Polly's was wonderful! She is such a good hostess and such a giving person. She fixed a huge meal and she even played pitch and catch with my daughter and we had a really good time. John got the kinks out of Michael's minibike and he was riding it today. He is just a kid at heart. Phyllis

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2001

Oh, I am a hurting unit tonight....the answer to what to do after finishing the compost bins turns out to be....make 4 new raised bed planters!!! Ouch. I spent all day working on the frames, and papering/cardboarding the bottoms to keep the weeds out. Tomorrow the dirt is coming for them, and I've gotta be out mixing in the compost etc as it goes in. I could have tried the lasagna method, but I just don't have the time for it, nor the strength to keep working at it for months at a time, so I'm going the quick and easy (um...easier???) route of the 'goulash' method instead, mixing it all together. Whoo hoo!!! Another 200 or so square feet to plant!!! What to do with all those homeless tomatoes, and now I can put in more bunny/guinea pig food, more potatoes, peppers, and whatever my little heart fancies. I fancy some herbs and flowers too! One of my thoughts is to use yet another one of these beds next spring to start another strawberry patch so that I will be able to rotate between the beds when I have to strip them and start over again.

What's anyone's opinion of everbearing strawberries, and the method where you cut off all the runners and force it to all go into a mega- sized plant instead? The manual says that you can get up to 6 years harvest that way before having to start over....

You know, it seems like doubling my garden space would give me just oodles of space to work with, but as I start thinking about what I want to put in, that space sure starts to shrink in a hurry...I'm working on the square foot methods, doing intensive gardening to smother the weeds out, and so far it's worked out pretty well, I don't do much weeding (the lambsquarters that do come up are very popular with the small domestic herbivoires, so I can just go and weed 'em a nice salad)

The apple trees are surviving the tentworm onslaught pretty well. I have been out picking them by hand and spraying. They're trying to eat the roses tho, and I'm battling them on that front. Not only do I like the roses (I'm planting a hedge of them, along with elderberries, currants, Josta berries, and hopefully some rowan/mountain ash too. The shadblow has to be inside the fence or the deer will eat it), but I want rosehips to make jam with, so I'm dueling with the worms.

My tendonitis is kicking up something fierce, and I don't have anyone to animal-sit, so I guess I'm going to be missing the Energy Fair this year...maybe its just because I don't have the energy!!

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Julie,

I have everbearing Strawberrys. I take the runners and start a new bed each year. You need 3 separtate beds and you will never have to buy plants again. After 3 years, the origional bed is too old to make big berrys, they will be small and harder to pick and not really worth it. When you get to 3 beds with plants, go back and till the first, and plant with runners from the third! I am real sore too still from doing field fence for 3 days. I am outta shape!

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Sherri, there IS a distinct possibility we might be there! We would be there as observers still at that point. We have quite a bit of equipment to gather yet in order to participate. It's the camping gear we have to work on next. In the meantime I have some sewing to do. I'm thinking about being a white woman in either an Indian trade dress with moccasins or possibly a deerskin dress. Maybe I could say I was captured and raised by the Indians and am now living with my mountainman husband. I also thought about dressing like a man. I wonder if there were ever any mountain women? There were women pirates and women that lived a man's life in the wild west! Well I'm open to ideas if anyone has any for me. I'll have to let you know for sure about the Hunter's Moon Rendezvous once we are certain of our plans. If we go, I'd love to meet up!

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

So, you black powder and rendez-vousing folk, you DO know about Amazon Drygoods don't you? Historical patterns and fabrics and supplies. I have other references too. I'm more into the Ren Faire stuff, but came across the "frontier" type stuff while searching. I bookmarked most of it -- never know when you might need that stuff! Email me if you want me to dig them out!

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Denise have you read any books by James Alexander Thom? Or it might be Alexander James Thom, I can't keep his name straight in my head. His book "Follow the River" is about a woman who is captured by the Shawnee and later escapes, it might give you some ideas for your persona. If you do come up to Lafayette for Feast, be sure to read "Panther in the Sky" first, because it's set in the same location where the rendezvous is held.

Anybody else been following the big blow-up on CS and FSR? Apparently CS just gave Hoot the boot.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Oy! Nope, I hadn't seen that, Sherri. I looked at CS briefly this morning, but didn't notice anything like that.

I've read a bunch of James Alexander Thom's stuff too. Follow the River was the first that I read. He also had a good one about the Clarks, and the Lewis & Clark expedition -- From Sea to Shining Sea. The most recent one that I read was The Red Heart. It's based on a real woman, who was taken by Indians when she was quite young, 5 or 6. It's an excellent book. I was also interested in his description of the Indian plantings of the Three Sisters (maize, beans, & squash) and their agricultural methods.

I just looked at Thom's books on Amazon. Don't read the reviews of The Red Heart if you don't want parts of the story "spoiled". I think you would still enjoy it, even after the "spoiling".

Right now, I am reading Janice Holt Giles' series on the American Frontier (written from the early 1950's through the late 1960's). Just finished The Kentuckians and am in the midst of Hannah Fowler. I got them from the public library, although I think they are back in print at present. Any of you living in Kentucky would probably enjoy reading them!

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Sherri, I don't think Hoot was given the boot, just asked to tone down. The deleted post was strictly a call to Christians to be counted and not the type of post that Hoot usually makes. I personally am very disturbed that he found it necessary to push the window until they pushed back. I have continued to participate on CS and found that for the most part everyone was doing a decent job of following the new rules. I am not sure what got into Hoot, but now we are back to "us vs. them" again and everyone seems to need to take sides. These forums are really getting to be no fun. To bad; I still think we are all needing to find our commonalities and build on that.I was not terribly happy with the way Jim handled the anonymous poster here and I will not be posting any more of that sort of thing. So much for the touchy-feely people leading out in love.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Sherri, thanks for the suggestions. I know the story of Follow the River but not the other. Would I get it at the library under that title? I mentioned the rendezvous to Jim and he seemed like he wants to go.

After you mentioned it I took a ride over to CS and FSR. I had no idea about what happened. I feel really bad that Hoot got deleted. It seemed a harmless post to me. It was clearly labeled as Christian. I don't see how anyone would have been offended. He seems to think that heathen, pagan, and witch posts would still be allowed. I know he's probably angry but I don't think they would be. It's gotten pretty intolerant at CS. Maybe it's for the best though? That way we can still all meet on the common ground of homesteading over CS and talk about all walks over here. Maybe I'm too willing to just go with the flow. If so give me some food for thought. They would say at FSR that my kind of thinking is what is making us lose our freedom. I just don't know!

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

(((Oh Diane))) I'm so sorry you feel that way. Maybe Jim was a little strong but he did apologize with you especially in mind. I for one would be really disappointed if we weren't able to share these things with you. WARNING is just the sort of person that would like to see such a thing happen. I'm sure he/ she would feel quite proud to have had so much power. It's definitely your call but I hope you won't stop :(

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

I just called the library and had them put aside Panther in the Sky. I'm going to end up like Joy if I don't watch out! I'm just going to be reading all the time!

I just got the most cool double CD of Loreena McKennit. I knew I liked a few of her songs but this is great! I feel like buying a pair of hand cymbols and learning bellydancing!!

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

I agree Diane, I was sad to see things stirred up again just when the CS forum seemed to be functioning smoothly again. I thought that Dave's reasoning for removing the post was consistent with the new rules. I also though that he brought up an interesting point about some poeple enjoying playing the underdog.I wouldn't be suprised if one day he just up and deletes the entire forum, it probably would save him a lot of gray hairs and ulcers.

Diane, I appreciate you and the other Christians on this forum so much. IMO you are beautiful shining examples of what Christianity ought to be, and I bet that St. Peter has a big ol' gold star next to your names.

OK, enough of the touchie-feelie stuff!

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

...I wouldn't be suprised if one day he just up and deletes the entire forum, it probably would save him a lot of gray hairs and ulcers.

I've thought the same thing, Sherri. But if that happens then we'll *definitely* have to borrow sharon's cloaking device - otherwise we'd be over-run with refugees from CS!

Diane, I appreciate you and the other Christians on this forum so much. IMO you are beautiful shining examples of what Christianity ought to be, and I bet that St. Peter has a big ol' gold star next to your names.

I am in FULL agreement with that statement!

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Diane please take a few days and think about all this,OK? I have been doing that myself,bc of your advice to just that very thing on another thread,recently.Sherri is right,if you stop posting your lovely thoughts bc of that sort of thing,that troll gets what he wants.

I will definitely stick up for Jim on this one.I can't blame him,it was strong,but that's the only language some of these guys understand.They are not nice.They are trying to stir up trouble.Do not give them that satisfaction.Divide and conquer.

And,NOONE can be patient all the time. I can't. Jim can't.And shouldn't.Jim definitely has his reasons,please don't be hard on him. It's not warrented,IMO. Give my words some thought,please? I do understand how you feel.

Dont' know what is up at CS. Haven't been there and prob won't be. All I know is people just aren't always who they seem,on internet forums.

Joy,I've read some of her works. Here's some I like better,tho.Try Little Shepard of Kingdom Come(now a state park) by Sam? Fox. Turn of the century story abt the hills at that time.One of my faves.The Good Son,by Chris Offut is modern day story that is excellent.Any Barbara Kingsolver,she is a native daughter.Bobbi Ann Mason is too. Try Jesse Stuart novels too.Oh my lots of local color.

Dark and Bloody Ground(boy i hope that is the title) is abt the feuds and a very good read,Yes Cindy the McCoys are in there,but that was just a little spat.Where I lived in Clay Co,they had one that lasted over 100 years(as far as I'm concerned it is still going on-same family still runs things).And it never was backwoods hicks either,contrary to popular belief.They were the teachers,and lawyers ,and salt mine owners,the upper level people of the community.It was over money and timber and salt,and serving on seperate sides of the civil war. Good read.

My friend who had moved there in the 1940's told of seeing Courthouse hill run red with blood.That is descriped in the book.She said she didn't want to move there bc "Those folks feuded!" She lived one county away.Funny.

Very good historical perspective on what the civil war did here.Enuff from me.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Yawwnn! Just got up a bit ago - well, okay - I did crawl out of bed at noon today to go pee and had to go out and put a couple of chickens back in - but I managed to fall right back to sleep, much to Pop's disgust! Trying to get my body re-acclimated to night shift after being on vacation....

Need to get out and weed the garden and get some last "spring" stuff planted - now that it's nearly time to get to work on the fall garden! Pop got a hammock for Father's Day and has been putting it to good use; Hubby got a leatherman tool - now he just needs a belt to put it on! Never noticed that the man doesn't wear a belt (shaking head in disbelief!) Wonder if I could get a clip for it like his cell phone has to just hook on his britches waistband?

There is hope for the future of homesteading!! Mike and Phyllis's little girl Maranda is gonna be in the next generation of homesteaders, I just know it!! She popped right out to the garden and helped pick stuff for supper, took geens to Bun, helped her brother chase the chickens back in, gathered eggs, and helped fix dinner. She peeled the hard boiled eggs for the deviled eggs and 'tater salad, then filled the eggs. After we got done with that, I said "Oh oh, Maranda - I forgot to fix anything for dessert - what're we going to do?" She saw bananas sitting in a basket on the counter and asked what I had to go with them. I told her to go take a look in the pantry and she ended up making a beautiful layered dessert with bananas and pudding and graham crackers that she mushed into crumbs. Hey - if she can do that at 10 years old; she's gonna really be a wonder when she gets her own kitchen!! Poor Justin though, is disappointed in me - a whole wall of books down in the basement and NO science fiction or fantasy! I'm going to have to do better!!

Ran into Cass's mom at the grocery and she got a giggle out of asking me about the strawberry crop - ornery woman! We laughed almost as much as we did the morning we met for breakfast! It is soooo nice to know of like minded people nearby!

Getting Sis ready to head for 4 days of cheerleading camp next week - she and Brittany have got the stuff together to decorate their dorm room already. Mom's job is to gather the sheets and blankets and towels, and to fix enough snacks to last the 4 days! Thinking that maybe a pizza gift cert would be a good idea! It is held on a campus of a local college, and the girls are not allowed to take their cars; but can walk to local sandwich shops if their coach allows - most don't. They are supposed to go everywhere as a group - just try to get 14 girls to agree on any one thing!! They are kept pretty busy most of the day and into the evening anyway. I think Jes is spoiled - she says she can't imagine living in a dorm room with another person for a whole school year!! Some of the kids drag enough stuff for a year with them for this 4 day stay - TVs, stereos, microwaves!! Amazing that they don't think they can get along without that stuff for such a short period of time, isn't it! Surely was a breath of fresh air to spend Sunday evening playing catch with Maranda - a child that knows how to enjoy the simple pleasures of life!

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Happy Midsummer everyone! I hope that your gardens are full of lovely plants and weed-free! I've been reading a really neat book called "Kindling the Celtic Spirit", it's full of legends and folk traditions for each month of the year. Here's a Midsummer charm to keep the weeds out of your herb garden.

It was traditional on Midsummer to build a bonfire to help strengthen the sun through the now-shorter days. Women would gather up sprigs of herbs from their gardens, along with any weeds that are troubling them. The would tie up the bouquet with the following ribbons: white for strength, green for wisdom, blue for love, red for sacrifice, and yellow for the sun. The bouquet would then be tossed into the bonfire while reciting the following poem:

In one bunch together bound Flowers for burning here are are found Both good and ill. Thousandfold let good seed spring Wicked weeds, fast withering let this fire kill!

Even if you don't believe in folk-magic, I bet it would be really satisfying to watch all those nasty weeds shriveling up on the fire. I think that I'll try it this weekend on our camping trip. My carrots and dill have been invaded by nettles, it makes harvesting quite a 'stimulating' experience! :)

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2001

And a happy Midsummer to you! I've read parts of that book too. I liked it also.

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2001

Ahhhhh-- the longest day of the year! I love this time of year . . .

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2001

I know, now it is just beginning to get light as Steve is finishing milking Ginger and I am carrying his lunch and coffee out to the van in my T-shirt and slippers. There's an owl close by I've never heard before. The rooster sits on the old milkstand and crows facing down into the vally below, filled with fog in the mornings. Then another rooster way down there and to the east crows back, and my rooster waits for him to finish, then he goes again, over and over.

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2001

Thank you Sherri, for that wondrous poem! And Cindy, for your astonishingly moving words.......you took me right to where you are!........

Namaste!

-- Anonymous, June 22, 2001

Last night was truly wonderful. We didn't do anything particularly special, just mowed the lawn and weeded beds, but after finishing, we sat in chairs outdoors and just "were." It was light out until 10, the best part of summer. The sun sets on the exact n.w. corner of our property at the summer solstice, and the exact s.w. corner at the winter one.

We had participated in the "Roll Your Own Blackout" ("Roll your own blackout" is a poetic and direct response to the irresponsible behavior of energy suppliers, utilities, and government officials. We're in this together, and in the end, we hold the power.")

It was nice to have the daylight until it was time to turn the breakers back on.

Mom and I had a refreshing and laid-back trip to the rainforest and to the ocean. I brought back a few flat rocks to paint. Anyone paint rocks? I haven't done this since high school. Just oil paints? Or ???

-- Anonymous, June 22, 2001

Dagnabbit! I forgot about the rolling blackout! It got dark and started raining her around 7:30, so it seemed shorter than other days -- lightwise anyway.

Sheepish, I THINK you could use acrylic paints. They dry faster than oil paint. Julie, chime in here, you're the expert on acrylic paints and their durability.

-- Anonymous, June 22, 2001

Okay, who sent Vinnie and Guido over here to beat me with a club?! I'm sure that's what happened - why, I'm so sore and achey, poor old Hubby had to help me out of the bathtub! Couldn't possibly have a thing to do with those 5 tons of composted manure from the salebarn that neighbor Mike delivered today, could it? Nah - surely not!

I only moved about a ton of it so far - with a shovel and a wheelbarrow. I think I'm going to borrow Mike's tractor with the scoop to move some of the rest!! I'm gonna try to get Sis to take a picture of me on my "dung hill" for the picture page - don't know if she'll cooperate or not; she's at that age where it's not cool to do dumb things - sure am glad I outgrew that stage!!

The Hounds from Hell are in Doggy Heaven - they're rolling, digging, burrowing and playing King of the Mountain on the piles. Also carrying chunks around and stashing them in the yard for a little snacky-poo later - Gaaak! No doggy smooches for me for a while!!

Man, you ought to see this stuff! It's beautiful black and crumbly; very little bit of an ammonia smell when you stir it a lot, but as I raked it out in the new beds and it dried, the smell disappeared. It's still working as I could feel it nice and warm through the soles of my sneakers. I took an 8" perennial pot with the top cut out and set it over my tomatoes, then put a ring of compost around each one - I think it's far enough away that it shouldn't burn the plants. It's been composting for at least a year, some of it up to three years! I think I might just say the heck with a fall garden this year, and start putting it on the beds as I pull out the spring and summer crops, as my soil is so heavy and poor.

Now, I don't know if you guys remember last year when I built the first section of my raised bed garden and how Pop and Uncle Ivan gave me a ration of nonsense about using manure in the beds.....

Well, my last year garden must have convinced them, cause Unc went and asked Mike to bring him three loads for HIS garden, and Pop was plumb enthusiastic about how much lighter the soil was, and how it held moisture so much better! Musta convinced Mike too, as he has hauled three loads for himself! Once I get this bunch spread out where it goes, I think I'll have him bring me 4 or 5 more loads this fall - to put where the new raised beds go next spring!!

I love you guys - where else could I rhopsodize over someone giving me a load of sh**!!

-- Anonymous, June 22, 2001

Nothing like a little bulls*it to end the evening right! Love those hounds. Hey,they need a late night snack,too.Which is exactly why I never let my dogs(except for Daddy Dog ;o)) kiss me.I know where there mouths have been.Yuck.

-- Anonymous, June 23, 2001

It's a lie! A LIE I tell you!!! I NEVER beat anyone with a club!! (I always use a black steel baseball bat!!!!)

Sorry...I was possessed of a wiled hare there for a moment. (yeah, I know, but I liked the way it sounded).

Painting rocks....hm. You can use oil paints if that's what you've got, and they would probably be more durable if you plan to put them back outside, such as in the garden. If you are painting to keep them in the house, acrylics are a fine way to go too. The clean-up is a snap compared to oils, and if you get it on your clothes by accident, you can go and wash it out with soap and water if you get at it immediately.

I am not sure about their ultimate durability with acylics if put outside tho. I did some fancy trompe l'oeil painting on some horse jumps for one of the stables I used to be affiliated with, used acrylics on wood, let it dry for 24 hours in a pretty hot summer, and then sprayed over it with acrylic sealer. Those jumps sat outside year round and only a small area peeled off after 5 years of that treatment. If I'd let it dry longer before sealing, I think that the red wouldn't have peeled at all.

If you paint with acrylics on leather, or cotton clothing, and let it dry, it bonds so tightly with the natural fibers that in essence it becomes part of the leather (or fabric). Acrylics do dry faster than oil paints, if that is useful to you, Sheepish. Years ago when I was in a painting class, someone used some of the very intense pigments of green and blue in oil painting, and it STILL wasn't dry three weeks later. Bummer. Mixing the oils in with some drier (liquid, sometimes called Japan Drier) will make them dry faster, earth-tones dry with it in a day or three. Acrylics will dry totally in a couple hours so that they are insoluable with water, however, after they have dried on a water impermeable surface like a rock (most rocks), and if you soak it in water, it WILL remove with some light scrubbing if you don't like what you did. I would let acrylics dry a couple weeks on water impermeable surfaces before spraying sealer on for maximum quality/durability.

Do we get to see what you paint on the rocks? Or is it going to be more of a 'Turn Me Over'....'Thank You' type thing?

I'm working on my raised beds too. Oof. Turning under the compost, making 4 new beds (that I can plant!!) After that I should think about A. a rhubarb bed, or B. a yard fence, or C. bigger permanent bunny-hutch...... Tomorrow I take BunnyBoy out with me and let him run while I work, he should like that. He loves to dance/kick up his heels. He has been contributing daily to the feeding of my rosebushes while consuming all the plantain and dandelions that I weed out. What a good little conversion unit!! No one seems to be able to tell me what breed he might be (I suspect American Meat...), so I have dubbed him American Roadside Affection-Sponge.

I participated in the Roll Your Own Blackout, but I forgot to do it intentionally....I was outside!! Oh well, it had the same effect.

-- Anonymous, June 23, 2001

OH Polly! Peeeeeeeyewwwwwww! Mucho caca. My dogs are the same way, I don't know why I bother cleaning the barn, I should just let them in there for a while! They should put dried caca in dog food bags and sell it! Sounds like you are having a poopy good time at your place! Love that black gold.

I have 2 books called "Painting animals on Rocks" and one called "Painting buildings on Rocks". Way, way cool. There is a web site for it. I saved pics in my computer from the site. Just put it in Google and it should come up, if not I'll find it for ya.

I gotta pull weeds today, and Steve went to the auction to TRY to find some bottle calves, I sure hope he does. No baby goats yet. Keep on Laughing! It's good for ya.

-- Anonymous, June 23, 2001