Lettuce talk about the economy....

We ate our first lettuce from the garden yesterday. YUM! I made a kidney bean salad with red wine vinegar dressing and plpped it on the bed of lettuce with a piece of baked salmon and a hunk of fresh challah. Dr. Happy is still happy!

As for the stock market, Home Depot just got another chunk o'change from me for the micro irrigation supplies and Yahoo seems to think they are doing well (along with Hershey's, Kraft and Smith & Wesson):

On the earnings front, there are several major retailers set to post quarterly scorecards, including Dow component Home Depot and its major rival Lowe's Cos. Earlier this week, Citigroup upgraded its rating on Home Depot's stock to "buy" from "hold," saying it believes the earnings-per-share estimates for the top home improvement retailer may be conservative for 2009. Lowe's has reiterated its first-quarter outlook for profits and sales.

I have other projects planned for the lil homestead here, so I am just giving y'all a Insider Trading Tip (TM).

Have a great evening!

The Story of My Garden - So Far

In the beginning, Dr. Happy was a happy batchelor and, although GREEN is his favorite color, he was seldom so interested in keeping it green that the backyard was watered. Mainly 'cause he was working all the time and entertaining me, no small feat, of course. So, by default, his second favorite color became BROWN. Here is a little sample of what was here before me and my trusty Garden Claw (tm) moved in and got started. (Note the grapefruit tree in the right-hand corner. It will appear later in the story.)


As you can see, visually appealing in a rustic, eh, Mountain Man-kinda way. Unfortunately, not so tasty or appealing to MOI.


I have used probably 20 bags of amending soil to get the dirt back up to my exacting green thumb standards for my Precious Plants. My darling Dr. Happy still has not bought stock in Home Depot (HD). Their measley 3-4% dividend is not so exciting to him, I guess...


Although I started some of my plants in little peat starters, the tomatoes and strawberries were from the Local Nursery. Unfortunately, for Dr. Happy, they are not a publicly traded company. They do, however, give some nice discounts - sometimes. (Like this weekend is 20% off on everything! Woo-hoo!) Pictured above are the boysenberry and honeydew plants.


The beginning of all good gardens starts with a compost bin. Here is the obligatory, but not cooperating compost pile. It is just sitting there like a bump on a log.





On to the exciting part of the show: De Plants, De Plants!


This is a View of the Vegetable Garden from the Backyard looking towards the fence leading to the front yard.


Here is a pic of the garden starting in the right hand corner - the Strawberry Bed. I planted 18 plants and we've already had a batch this year. They were yummy!


The Strawberry Plants up close...


Here's some of the 14 tomato plants - again on the right hand side of the garden.


We are probably about 2 weeks away from enjoying the mixed salad greens from "The Lettuce Bed".


The Spinach and Green Onions are just starting to peek out at the sun...


There was a very nice Rose Bush under the Kitchen Window that smells so wonderful, I just let it stay there near the Spinach Bed.

Moving to the Other Side of the Gray Bricks (there is no "side-that-starts-with-L Side" in MY Victory Garden), there is a long patch of Dirt (starting at the gate and moving toward the backyard) where the cukes, cantaloupe, zuchini and scallopped squashes, watermelons and one honeydew melon plant will all live in harmony...hopefully. They will meet up with...



The Brussel Sprout plants against the fence, with four rows of Bok Choy plants between them and the bricks. Moving further into the backyard...


My salute to Iowa: "Looks Like Corn" against the fence. Hopefully, it will "taste" like corn in August.
Can't really tell, but there are short rows of beets and carrots between the corn and bricks.


And at the front of the Other Side are the Pea Plants. Between the Corn and Peas, there are green bean plants. I expect to plant the green peppers, chili peppers and something else (probably more green onions) between the bricks and peas/beans.


Moving around the yard away from the Veggies, toward the back fence, here are the Blueberry Bushes. (Yeah, I voted for Bush. Like that is such ancient history. Get over it already.) Our next door neighbor, Lou (who is older than Methuselah and even Harry F.) told me that nobody in the area has had much success growing blueberries. (They like acidic soil with a pH of around 4.5. I figure my ascebic wit should be enough to get them to produce fruit.)


Here is the Wild Rose Bush going, counter-clock-wise (screw that Right and L**t Crap!) from the Compose Heap. It will be getting a seriously needed trim next week.


Next up, is the Bird of Paradise, also in need of some pruning. Again, not so tasty, but nice to look at in the winter.


Here's the new Valencia Orange Tree. This is it's first year in our backyard. We'll see if I can manage to help it survive.


Next, there is a patch of calendula and I CANNOT get rid of them!!!), then the Ruby Red Grapefruit Tree, in honor of my mother, Ruby...Yeah, the pic is side-ways and I am not editing it just for you.

The corner is wild grass, dandelions and weeds (review the pic at the top of the post.). Continuing counter-clockwise...

...is where the boysenberries will live. They are less fussy about soil, so we should have some in the autumn.


In the center of the yard is The Fig Tree that I gave Dr. Happy for The-Goyesha-Holiday-Where-You-Give-Tokens-Of-Affection-and-if-you-are-smart-chocolate. Dr. Happy planted it. He likes it there. He is hoping it will grow large enough that he will have a shady place to sit on the grass when he gets old and retires. Yeah, like he is going to retire. Or sit. *Pfffftttt.*
*snort*


Finally, we come to the Herb Bed. So far, I have planted Lavender, Lemon Balm, Basil, Rosemany, Oregano and, ummm, something else. I'm going to plant some cilantro and something-entirely-different-from-something-else. I'm sure it will taste good when I cook with it.


Here is a closeup of the Lavender and Lemon Balm.


Last, here my Frog Friend that I just picked up today. I like him in the Herb Bed for now, but He may be moved to someplace else. Dunno where, but we'll see. He seems happy here for now.

I bought the materials to put in the Drip Irrigation system today in honor of our Israeli siblings who have to do that. (BUY HD STOCK, Dr. Happy!) Plus, The Governator is messin' with the water supply. So we need to conserve water because it will soon be getting even MORE expensive and scarce.

Soon, very soon, My Pretties, Very Soon...

Unless, the Gorebots are right (which they are not) and the oceans will be rising rapidly in the very near future. In which case, we will all be swimming to Texas or Colorado or Kansas. (Yeah, good luck with that one!)


Hope you enjoyed the Virtual Garden Tour. Next, month - I eat stuff and tell you how good it was....ROFLMTO!

Those people that lean politically to the Other Side of Right may want to STOP reading here. You are warned.

:-)

Garden Pictures coming...

later tonight. Yup, I've been kickin' butt in the Victory Garden. Not giving anything away, you'll just have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, George, in talking about melting "stuff" and flooding "junk", there was a bright, shiny lining to the clouds in Washington DC. (Collapse Of Antarctic Ice Sheet Would Likely Put Washington, D.C. Largely Underwater) We can only hope that Congress is in session and Obama is home for the week. And all the boats in the area have big ole holes in the bottoms and there are NO floatation devices for a 300 mile radius. Of course, The People's Republik of Kalifornia will also be under water - and I'm not so sure I'll be able to swim to Kansas...

In a related posting, and to support his theory that Wash DC takes the above seriously, he posted this link: CIA Plans to Shift Work to Denver,
Domestic Division Would Be Moved. I think it has more to do with Obamessiah releasing classified data and the CIA feeling safer to "spook around" as far away from DC as possible. Of course, then they WOULD be out here in PSRK, so, maybe he's onto something.

Ah and Massachusetts is giving away free cars:
Massachusetts Welfare Recipients Given Cars
by Rodan
This is unreal, but another example of the creeping Socialist/Marxist direction America is going in. In the Radical Neo-Marxist state of Massachusetts, Gov. Deval Patrick is giving cars to welfare recipients.

Free cars for poor fuel road rage (in thr Boston Herald)
Gov. Deval Patrick’s free wheels for welfare recipients program is revving up despite the stalled economy, as the keys to donated cars loaded with state-funded insurance, repairs and even AAA membership are handed out to get them to work.
But the program - fueled by a funding boost despite the state’s fiscal crash - allows those who end up back on welfare to keep the cars anyway.
“It’s mind-boggling. You’ve got people out there saying, ‘I just lost my job. Hey, can I get a free car, too?’ ” said House Minority Leader Brad Jones (R-North Reading)

.

Here's a Flying Pig Flu Puzzle for ya. Found it on a website frequented by Right Wing Extremists (TM) and Conspiracy Theorists (TM). How fun will that be?

American Warriors in their own words...Just in time for Memorial Day.

Off to Home Depot for more supplies!

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood...

I fell better (still propped up with Chinese herbs, Alavert and Advil), the sun is shining, it will be about 70 degrees today and I'll be able to work in the garden. All is well in Paradise....except:

the Obama Drool Team notices the Recession is on and it is really bad. Of course, when you want to showcase "smart", always go to Iowa (where I was born):

These kinds of crushing debts are unimaginable to Jerry Miller, the frugal Iowan. He has never bought a new car and still lives in the house he got for $8,500 in 1960, the house where he and his wife of 54 years, Barbara, raised six kids.

This is a man who once logged every purchase he made in a year — down to a .29 cent pint of ice cream.

As the silver-haired grandfather heads toward another pharmacy on his five-stop, 160-mile route, Miller talks about fiscal responsibility. It's not just about money, he says. It's reputation, too.

"If you've got a good name, they can't take that away from you," he says, jabbing a finger in the air to make a point.

It would have been nice, he adds, if he had a choice about retirement. But Miller says he needs the cash from this 15-hour a week job to pay for health care for himself and his wife.

Just after 12:30 p.m., Miller arrives home in Conrad, Iowa and the veteran of many recessions has some parting words:

"This, right now, is something different," he says. "You've got to have faith in the system. But can you tell me, where did all the money go?"

Swine flu may be in San Luis Obispo. 30 people locally have been tested; three probable cases at Grizzly Youth Academy (the local reform school)so far. Gotta give up the fajitas, Kiddos.

Swine flu probably is manufactured. Here's a nice morsel for your morning musings:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved NanoBio's Investigational New Drug (IND) application for the Phase 1 clinical study of NB-1008, a seasonal influenza vaccine administered via a nasal dropper. The Phase 1 trial was iniated in April of 2009 and is a randomized, controlled study in the United States involving 120 healthy human volunteers. ...

Cross strain immunogenicity after vaccination against a single strain: Mice were vaccinated with the H2N2 strain, then challenged with a lethal dose of H2N2. 100% of these mice survived. These same mice were then rechallenged with a lethal dose of a different strain, H1N1, again resulting in a 100% survival. Cross strain immunogenicity was also demonstrated in several studies in Ferrets in 2009.

Lots of scary stuff on WorldNetDaily.com today:
DHS broadened the descriptors for Right Wing Extremists (tm) so that Mr. Miller from Iowa and I both can be in the Big Tent.
Euthanasia is rearing it's ugly head in the USA again, as is eugenics.
A bright spot is Orange CO, CA yanking Planned Parenthood funding because of their gross violations of sexual assault laws pertaining to minors.

On the other hand, some things are just going to go on, and on, and on...you know the drill: "It's all Booosh's fault!"

*grabbin' the hoe and heading off to the Victory Garden....*

“Doctor, doctor, I think I have swine flu,”

“Try oinkment.”

UK pseudo-media types prep people to imprudent behavior:

The novelist and Evening Standard columnist Will Self has been similarly scathing, describing the predictions of imminent Apocalypse – or “Aporkalypse”, as some wags put it – as so much media “squealing”. Meanwhile, Michael O’Leary, the embattled boss of Ryanair, in a desperate effort to stave off a further catastrophic fall in passenger numbers in a business only just beginning to recover from the credit crunch, claims that only people “living in slums” in Mexico and Asia are at risk.

And then we have Marc Segal,MD at FOX:

In the current swine flu scare the virus is assumed to be a more powerful human killer than it actually is. In reality it appears to [be]losing virulence as it spreads human to human and is not that transmissable, and is NOT becoming widespread.

The vast overreaction to this virus and its potential has severe economic consequences as it did previously in 1976, 2003, and 2006. This time the hysteria may lead to billions of dollars lost to the travel industry, tourism, the Mexican economy, and to closing schools due to hysterical children and overreacting nurses. Vice President Biden’s statement that we should all avoid planes, trains, and crowded places was not at all consistent with the very low prevalence of the virus. It made me think he had become disoriented and suddenly thought he was back in 1918! Even President Obama’s statement that we should wash our hands (of course we should, they are loaded with bacteria and viruses of all kinds) sent the wrong message that there is far more of this particular virus around than there actually is. (The chance that this virus is on your hands as you read this is extremely close to zero).

As one commenter put it, Dr. Segal probably has a stock Tamaflu under his bed, so he'll be fine.

The rest of us are on our own.

And I AM feeling better today. I hope to get out to my garden tomorrow morning. Weather should be just dandy for planting the beans and herbs.

Hammagedon or APORKalypse Now

Okay, the MSM has a grip o'us with our panties bunched over the Flying Pig Flu (FPF). But now, it is REALLY getting nutty. Egypt is slaughtering all pigs, companies that produce Thyroid medicine are putting out press releases, and now we can't call a pig a "pig".

Luv George and all, but in his factoring of mortality rate for FPF using calculations and statistics from WHO, it seems to me that reports show that there was gross underreporting of infection. For instance, one report I read reported over 1000 people in Mexico alone were infected. Today there was another report saying, AHEM, that there may be some exagerration of numbers. I know we don't wanna stand around holding our "privates" waiting for data ('cause now we KNOW it will be nairishkite), but neither do we want to be part of the chattering masses, performing the stir-n-scare for the Administration. Here's a fer-instance:

"In the United States, the confirmed case count stood at 132. State lab operators say there are more cases than the confirmed number because they are not testing all suspected cases, focusing on finding new outbreak hot spots and limiting the flu's spread.

In Mexico, the outbreak's epicenter, new cases and the death rate were leveling off, the country's top medical officer said. Health authorities said they have confirmed 300 swine flu cases and 12 deaths due to the virus...

As recently as Wednesday, Mexico's health secretary said there 168 suspected swine flu deaths and almost 2,500 suspected cases. Mexican officials have stopped updating that number and say those totals may have been inflated."

I suppose the Chinese herbs, antihistamines and other assorted chemicals with which I've been dosing myself to get rid of this hideous cold may be affecting my ability to process data. BTW, my accupuncturist told me of a soup one can make to fight off runny noses and "stuff":

1 tbl yang jiang preserved beans,
5-6 green onions (scallions)
1/2 tsp fresh ginger
couple white pepper corns
4 cups water (I used prepared kosher chicken broth)
I also added a handful of green pea pods and 1/2 green pepper
Boil for a few minutes and drink.
I found it a little salty, but tasty. And I wanted to pick out the beans, they felt mushy in mah mouth. But I didn't.

Yahoo had another FPF for Dummies article today.

Also, WH spokesman Gibbs' report that one of the WH staffers and members of his family have/had FPF.

And God bless Mr. Biden for telling the "truth". He truly is the WH Court Jester. It makes me just feel so proud to know that ANYONE can get into the WH, regardless of intellectual or diplomatic capacities

The rest of the news makes me want to be beheaded (Three possible SCOTUS judges needing replaced, Craigslist Murderer's Girlfriend came to her senses, Gay Couples crossing state lines to get "married"...), so I'll go back to my comfy bed and get better.

Thank goodness for Kinneret challah. I am just too tired to make my own today. Red snapper, carrots/scallions and cuke/tomato/garbanzo salad for Shabbat dinner.

Shabbat Shalom, y'all.

Gonna Kick this Nasty, Nasty Cold...

"Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things you couldn't do before." ~ White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel

OTC meds, lemon tea and soup be darned, I'm going to see the accupuncturist today. I am SO impatient to be well again. But, did that encourage me to follow Dr. Happy's advice and stay prone as much possible. N-O-O-O-O-O! I thought working in the garden would make me feel better. Like compounding grass allergies and Nasty Cold was a good idea. You know, the homeopathic thing - like-cures-like? Yeah, don't try that at home...

Off-topic: George has some interesting background on the the transmission, mode of death and treatment protocols (better said, lack there-of) for the Flying Pig Flu. Most of the data he has relates to the Avian flu from a couple years ago, but, since this one is a COMBO TREAT of swine and avian flu viruses, some of it will be applicable. I like the new moniker he posted - goes with the HHS reaction - "You-the-people will get all of the above either when you're all dead or when pigs fly, which ever comes first." I know which I'm betting on.)

And, great news - Arlen Specter is now a Democrat. Leaves only one Jewish Republican on Capitol Hill. Um, yeah, like Arlen has voted with Republicans since, like, in FOREVER. *another one bites the dust*

Oh, and lest you think that I've ignored The One's 100 Day Anniversary (how immature is THAT? I mean the 100 Day Anniversary, you know, like the teens who celebrate their "First Week Together"...),
Michelle Malkin has a screed,
here's a rememberance of the Rahm-it-Down-America's-Throat-Self-Stimulus package at the Wall Street Journal
and Mere Rhetoric's Posting of a Few Obama Gaffes missing from CNN's round-up.

Please don't think of the above as a slight Pam Geller, who collected these tidbits for your Right Wing Extremist (TM) amusement

or Debbie Schlussel, who announces FOX's running of the Obama Slobber-100-Day-"I-Won-Bow-down-and-worship-Me"-Slobber-Fest - ROTFLMAO!

On a serious note, what IS up with Iowa and their Gay-Marriage-Issue? The Iowa Legislature reaffirmed traditional marriage in a 1998 statute, so what's the Iowa Judiciary got up their butts? (Eh, don't go there, Peanuts...)

Lastly, as gift His Loyal Followers, Obama will attempt to change the Sentence Guidelines for Crack Cocaine Possession. Gotta keep the Obamanation people *able* to vote for His Obamaness in 2012 without their ability to consider the seriousness of their actions...Here is a little taste of FOX's analysis -'cause "statistics showing 82 percent of federal crack cocaine convicts were black, while nine percent were white...Attorney General Lanny Breuer argued, prosecutors' views of crack cocaine has evolved to a more "refined understanding" of crack and powdered cocaine usage."
Yup - just as with marijuana and alcohol, this will keep the court busy with DimCap and Insanity pleas for a long time.

*oy - where are my nose tissues?*

*cough,cough*