bi-cycle, bicycle

Its a thing,

Two wheels, frame, human is the prime mover, has gears multiple or two, handlebars.

I went on a little trip with my neighbour. Along the Trans Canada Trail, from Lindsay to Campbellford. It was fun, I was surprised at how well I was doing, though it got a little tougher once we hit the 82 or 84 km mark my legs didn't seem to want to go any further. Took a couple extra breaks.

I thought something was rubbing on my rear wheel maybe the brakes or or maybe something from my saddlebags(panniers) but nope totally just my legs telling the to F-off.

Got the Campbellford, got to the motel, showered changed and had a Burger at The Bridge Eatery and Public House, pretty fancy little spot for a small town, the burger was awesome, and the specials sounded long winded but fantastic(sign of a good place right?), but I just really wanted a burg.

Had three beers and that about did me in, fell asleep watching The Simpsons or some stupid discovery show thing about cars.

Wow

I have been bad at this lately, I have not written a thing in quite awhile now.

First off gardens are coming together, back yard is a mess, big circle fenced off from the dogs trying to grow some grass there, and trying to get grass in the front also, its full of weeds, I don't really like grass I think its rather stupid why would you put something on your property that you constantly have to work at and spend your hard earned money for a fancy lawn mower, grass seed, time and energy. But that is what people want and if you want to sell your home you gotta make it look the way people want it. People are stupid..............

Second off...... i will get to the second later.

Well that's that. Peace I'm out.

Who smells like garlic?

I smell like garlic! Those who dout me, take a whiff.

This is our first attempt at growing garlic, K cleared out the community garden last week, I planted 194 cloves in it tonight. We really like garlic, almost all our recipes call for garlic and we usually double it. So hopefully if all goes well we will never have to buy it again...... maybe.

We got the garlic from a friend who grows copious amounts of garlic. All together there were 46 bulbs, 40 Music or "Musica" is another name thrown around, so I've heard and read a few times. It is a Porcelain variety which netted me 155 cloves of really good size. 6 Persian Star, which are of the Purple stripe varieties and got 39 cloves.

I really don't know a whole lot about growing it so I read quite a bit about it, and talked to some of our friends. Everyone seemed to be in the same boat with depth and spacing.

This is what we started with, spent a little bit of time separating them while watching some shows.

This is where all those cloves ended up. My rows aren't the straightest, but that's alright to me! I tend to wobble a little too.

And then it got dark @ 5:30, so this is how it ended.

194 so that's 8 rows of 24, two of those rows may have had 25 in them, you do the math. Rows are 10" apart, planted 6-8" apart and 3-4" deep with 2" of mulch and going to throw some more on there this week before the neighbours get rid of their leaves. Straw is a preferable mulch, but we had plenty of leaves off the neighbours lawn and he already bagged it so half the job was already done. That's permaculture right there, let someone else do half the work... haha I kid. But seriously straw would have been better, the leaves are going to turn into a mat, in the spring when the leaves thaw we will have to loosen them up so as to let the little garlics poke out. Just another reason to get out of the house and out of doors earlier in the season I guess.

well

Adios Amigos. Go listen to Ramones now.

Getting to the end

I am not really good at keeping up with regular posts I have failed a few times already at trying to up date regularly, but I am doing it now so get over it.

The date is August 12th 2013, I am featured watering the plants and petting Herc while hes lounging in the grass, Zoey our fluffy ridiculous cat also makes an appearance, and some bees.

Tomatoes have really started producing at this point and everything is flowering.

thanks for watching, now go to bed
PEACE.

Another Video.....

Here is another quick video of our garden 17 days after the last video. It was a bright sunny day with wind. Please keep speakers down wind blowing can be a little loud. I have been pretty busy didn't have time to post this a lot of fancy book learnin been going on studying for EGSA (Electrical Generating Systems Assosiation) exam, taking online John Deere courses, and working way to many hours.

Here is the Vid starring Herc (our furry friend) at the end.

July 2nd 2013

This video is from July 2nd, the highlight of this video is the black cat Boss, who distracts the director during a few moments of filming and the giant cherry tomato plant. Everything looks a lot better in this video, all the plants have taken root and taken off very well, this is where the real excitement of gardening comes in. So with out further ado the video.

June 11 2013 Garden Updates and garage sale finds.

A few weekends ago I scored 3 pieces of vinyl @ a yard sale two doors down, $2 bucks for Paranoid - Black Sabbath, Who's Next - The Who & Frantic City - Teenage Head. Been playing them quite a bit. What a beauty find good thing I walked the dogs or I would have missed them. I stopped when I saw Teenage Head poking outah the back of a milk crate. To my surprise she had a few good records in an otherwise mediocre collection, she had all the same stuff you would find sitting for ages at a thrift shop.

Well this is interesting looking up our garden video to post for this blog I came across plenty other videos of people doing garden updates for the same day so here is some links just because I want to.

Alderman Farms - Brookhaven, Mississippi
J&J Acres - Toomsuba, Mississippi

Another Video

We are going back in time again to May 29th 2013, how did I do it? Well I went on my computer, then to Youtube on my internet browser and drank an espresso and amazingly we traveled back in time and heres a video to prove it.. oh? we didn't travel in time? prove it! Video #2

Peace, its bedtime.

Things I like.

There are a few things that I enjoy.
I can wake up, go outside and pick some vegetables. Come in and make breakfast a tomato and cucumber sandwich to be exact. Sit in my back garden with a cup of coffee, watch all the bugs do their thing (minus the ones I whack with a badminton raquette). There are Hover flies which are pretty fun to watch float in one place like a helicopter, the bees bees bees everywhere which is a great sound to have about you one flower to the next mostly staying at the Bee Balm, and Anise Hissop. Then there are the birds Chickadees daring ballsy little devils, who will swoop in for their meal even if standing a foot from the feeder, the Golden finches flash of yellow hanging out at the feeder getting its full share, Cardinals make an appearance you hear them more than see them. The pesky bullies that are the Bluejays scaring all the others away. The quiet little Doves sitting atop the garage waiting for everyone to be done to come in and clean up. Dark Eyed Juncos who I think are the goofiest ones they make me smile I don't know why but I think they are funny as hell. Nuthatches up and down the cedars calling they aren't too quiet at all. Squirrels? well they can fuck right off. Those are the things that I enjoy right now.

Peace

The Garden

Yesterday was productive, Well it was productive in the back garden. Meaning we planted a lot of stuff or re-potted a lot of stuff. We had planted 7 Tomatoes of varying species earlier, I listed them HERE! but we still had quite a few more maybe 15 more plants. Anybody want a Cherry Tomato plant, here in the Kawarthas? I went and bought 3 more storage totes, from that place that sells a bunch of stuff and has tire in their name. A 115 liter tote holds two tomatoes very well we had two from last year so 5 all together now, plus our 3.5gal pails from the grocery store bakery which used to hold frosting (the gross kind). We also planted 4 Cucumbers which will be trellised, 3 or 4 Courgettes, 4 Basil we have 6 more to plant, 3 Nasturtiums. Also sowed 14 Bush green Beans, and 4 Scarlet runner Beans which will also be trellised, Cilantro lots of em, Chamomile hundreds of em.
Our Kale, Spinach and Chard, are all coming along nice. A couple more Chard and Kale seeds have sprouted and been coming along now for about a week. Leaf miners, Leaf Miners, Leaf Miners have already made an entrance into the raised bed. Picking off eggs sucks, they do what their name means, they hatch burrow themselves in the leaves, and eat eat eat, leaving a miners tunnel behind. They look like little bugger maggots. To Remove poke a hole at one end of the tunnel carefully push from the opposite end of the tunnel to the open end, as if you were trying to get air bubbles out of your phones screen protector. Depending on how early you do it, little tiny maggots pop out or how late bigger ones will come out with a little black dot for a head. CRUSH! those little bastards they are very unwanted. So row covers have been implemented over our chard and Spinach they seem to leave the kale alone.


We have been hardening off our Peppers, Aubergines, Watermelons and Delicata Squash.

Pictures will come later it was uncomfortably humid to be fiddling with a camera today or yesterday. Not used to our season yet.

Peace I'll be back.

Woah!

So yesterday was wicked beautiful out, sun shinning. Just beauty bod, had lots of good sun time today. Raked up all the twigs that the cedars dropped over the winter, top dressed the raised garden bed with some sheep manure, brushed all the loose hair off the dogs. just thrilled that it was so warm out, I fully enjoyed it. Got time to take some pictures of our seeds we have been starting in the collector room (the room that collects everything).

First up we have from Edible Antiques, Azoychka Tomato, Pirkstine Orange Tomato, and Moon and Stars Watermellon, This was our first time ordering from E.A. I'm not into writing reviews but delivery was fast, nice envelopes with good description.

Edible Antiques, I like the envelopes.

Then from The Cottage Gardener, we ordered new Sandul Moldovan Tomato, Little Finger Eggplant(I kid here it is), Some flowers Calendula, Heirloom Sunflower mix, Cardinal Climber, Sensation Mixed Cosmos.
From last year we are using King of the North Sweet Pepper, Five-Colour Silverbeet Swiss Chard. We also bought Organic Kelp Extract, we have a hard time finding any good fertilizers that aren't Scotts Miracle-gro brands in our area, so this will apparently make upto 255L.

and from last year or maybe the year before we have from Cubits Chadwick Cherry Toms, Bloomsdale Spinach and from Urban Harvest, Little Bells Pepper (which we saved seeds from last year) we couldn't find anybody who had them and were running low. and Vates Blue Curled Kale.

We have our small greenhouses heating up the soil in the raised garden beds to transplant house Kale, Chard, and Spinach. We took them out yesterday to harden off in the nice weather, today isn't as nice, hence why I am writing this.

Here they are with their packages.

I wanna thank these people also for the work that they do finding suppliers, collecting seeds, find sustainable organic and Heirloom Varieties. Cause its something that I would not want to do. I am happy to support them.

These are our planned plants for this season, we are getting quite the collection.

Sleepers, enjoying the weather. Guarding the Gnomes home.

Oh, Ahead

So, as I sit here in a coffee shop, listeing to spongebob on the TV hanging over my head, waiting for the work on my work truck to be complete. I have some time to write a post.

 We have sowed, watched and waited for the first batch of our veggies to develop, all but 6 pots have sprouted. We saved some pepper seeds "Little Bells" from last season, last spring we couldn't find any from the suppliers that we use. All of our own have sprouted which is awesome, can't wait they were good producers, we froze quite a few of them little buggers.

We ordered from The Cottage Gardener, we also ordered from Edible-Antiques.

We are trying a different variety of Tomatoes this year. Last year was kind of a let down with our Brandy-wines, though it was a shitty season altogether but we want something that isn't as prone to cat facing, and blossom end rot. We got another variety of Eggplant which produces more, but smaller fruit, which is alright (I am not that big a fan of those Aubergines).

Chard and Kale in the back.

Kale

Zoey

Peace I am out......... doing stuff I am supposed to be doing.

Spring, what?

Spring, Spring is almost here, nothing has been happening all that much.

We made a purchase of a vehicle, we needed one that was more reliable (starts every time you want it too), doesn't leak(we had little seedlings sprouting on the drivers side floor in the summer, ice rink in the winter, with any warm sun rays getting to the vehicle it would create a nice sauna in there, conveniently sticking to the windows, just to freeze up over night so you have ice on the inside and outside of the windows), and windows that go back up(not stuck down on the 401) 2007 Tucson it has a lot more room than our grand am, its nice to have more space for the pups.

There has been more snow than we have had in a few years which is kinda nice, to actually have winter and not just teased with miserable weather. Whats the point of winter with out any snow? I had to get my snow blower started one day, cleared the lane about 3 times in a day, a few Fridays ago. Dogs have been appreciating the snow too, we have enjoyed it too! it wears them out a lot faster, cats not so much appreciation.

Doing her best kangaroo impression.

Funnin in the backyard

The Snow

Well it's official there is snow on the ground snow on the kale which is looking defeated going to have to gather up the last of it and see what we can do, the salad greens and chard under our home made greenhouse/frost protectors, are still looking well. little flakes of snow are still floating down onto the ground, our new cat is still unsure of the snow she was attacking it on the deck earlier which was pretty comical. We made Sweet Potato Biscuits yesterday, they were delicious, forgot to take pictures though so if we make them again I will be all over that.

Kids in the Street.

I remember growing up in the east side of Toronto, East York, to be exact Sammon Ave, and Woodbine Ave. My brother and our friends on the street or a few blocks down, running in the street skateboarding, rollerblading, playing catch, climbing the sides of our house, putting speakers on the outside on the roof from our bedroom playing records and tapes maybe CDs and pretending we had a radio show, microphone and all the whole block probably heard it through my dads stereo system. Running around outside was not foreign, playing Cops and Robbers with my parents Black Pontiac, Parisienne (the bat mobile) it would be the Cop car and getaway car depending on who was in the drivers seat, now we didn't have the keys and the thing didn't move but we would jump around in and out of it slamming the doors, probably yelling and carrying on like boys would do. Playing Basketball, road hockey and baseball in the alley between the houses were in our repertoire, I was young but I am pretty sure there were no complaints to our parents about this racket.
Then "Game On!" we move to Napanee near Kingston, and in Kingston there are people complaining about street Hockey and wanting it banned, the main complaint, was that someone had to wait a moment while they cleared the equipment or just the players to get out of the way. That opens up another issue with the mentality people have of they need to get where they want to go, as fast as possible. Now they didn't ban street hockey and most people say they did but the put restrictions on it, they just pointed out the obvious. Clear the way when vehicles approach, don't break neighbours lawn or things, keep noise down(F-that one right there) you can't play between 8pm - 9am Street Hockey in Kingston, By-Law.
Then again "from downtown" we, my partner and I move to The City of Kawartha Lakes, and a friend from Toronto who used to partake in the noise in the streets with my brother and I, well he posted a link about a woman in Peterborough complaining about a kid playing basketball in his parents driveway, and getting the Ministry of Environment involved. Are people that out of touch with their younger selves? Do they not remember they were annoying loud bastards also? Its what kids are, That is why we ourselves don't want any yet, we enjoy quietly walking the dogs and sleeping in.
Kids need to be outside playing, making noise, breaking things, getting hurt, adventuring, doing things that might get them in trouble, from the greatest movie ever made, The Sandlot Mothers plea for son to go outside.