Well, I’ve been kind of more silent than normal but I have an excuse. I’ve been traveling weekly shooting (video of) sheep. It all began in late July with a trip to Sacramento followed by trips to Ohio, Iowa, Meeker CO, and Greeley. Below are some photos of the folks we shot interviews with for the American Sheep Industry. The interviews will break up the panel discussion segments during a live television broadcast on the RFD-TV channel in September. It was a very interesting set of shoots and the editing is going great. I learned so much about sheep and what it takes to raise them here in our country… oh and I met some GREAT folks who put food on your table every year.

Great times! Thanks Amy Trinidad from the American Sheep Industry and Dan Borgmann of Vendor Hippo for all the help!

I’ve dubbed it our “spread-arden” because we’re using small places across the yard to grow our veggies rather than one big section. The seedlings we planted on May 2 are transplanted into a large brick area around a tree, but we’re going to have to move them since they don’t seem to get enough sun. More on that later.

The tomato plants we got from a friend that were in a little Target starter pack (seeds, soil, envelope — just add water) started out great in the starter pack, but once transplanted went to pieces. So we replaced them with a starter plant from a local nursery and added two other types of tomatoes as well as red, green, yellow and orange bell pepper starter plants, a jalapeño starter, an Anaheim green chile starter plant (thank you Rod Grice for introducing us to these as hors d’oeuvres to be placed on the grill as it’s heating up and eaten while the real meal is cooking on the warmed grill), and last but certainly not least a cucumber starter plant.

It’s only been 2 months and we’ve already learned so much and can’t wait to set out next year’s “crop” based on what we’ve learned so far. Nonetheless I’m really enjoying tending the small plants and watching the beginnings of the fruit (or veggies) of our efforts. Today we added tomato cages around the tomatoes and bell peppers so I thought I’d snap some photos to share.

"Caged" Tomatoes

"Caged" Yellow, Orange, and Red Bell Peppers

"Caged" Green Bell Peppers, Jalapeño, and Green Chiles

Week 4 plus a few days we planted the herbs and we got some starter plants for our veggies. Here’s some pics:

Herbs Planted & Sage Transplanted

Tomatoes

Green Bell & Jalepeno Peppers

Cucumbers

So we are 14 days into our seedling nurturing. As you can see several FINALLY have sprouted and are beginning to look hopeful. Lavendar, Spearmint, and Parsley pots still show now sign of life but the others just popped out one day over the last week (Basil was first) and seem to be progressing quite well. Today we may spend some time prepping their outdoor home for transplanting in the next couple of weeks.

Yesterday we bicycled around town to a couple of nurseries to look at starter plants for some flowers, fruit, and vegetables we hope to add to our horticultury mix for the season. Other than a few pretty flowers for Julie, we’re planning to put out some tomatoes, peppers (jalepeno, anaheim, bell), squash, cucumbers, cantalope, watermelon, and I want to try some beans of some sort… green, peas… not sure yet.

The last time we attempted a garden was in TN and we planted a number of seeds for tomatoes and peppers. What we got was WAY too many. Yesterday we were thinking one or two tomato plants initially. Then we remembered we could make fresh salsa and decided to up it to four or five. YUM!

When we lived in Hendersonville TN we attempted to plant and eat some of our food from a garden. We were not very successful. Partly because we were pulled in SO many different directions with work and other commitments. Now though, we’re less over extended and more motivated since Julie’s diagnosis with a wheat allergy and it’s associated food changes. This morning thanks to some seeds and materials from our daughter and friends we attempted to launch at least the seasoning and spice portion of our new garden for this year. (and some tomatoes not pictured here… maybe another day)
We’re attempting to grow some seasonings and spices, as well as some vegetables. I’m going to try really hard to post regular pictures and blog posts of some of the stuff we’re trying to do. So for today, here’s the first post and picture:

Our Seed Nursery Day 1

So I don’t really know when it happend but I noticed a few months ago when I entered just a set of words in the address bar in Firefox rather than giving me a list of Google results I was presented some kind of Comcast sponsored Ask.com search (thanks Comcast… I’m guessing some “gift” from you since I’m a Comcast subscriber). I wanted my Google results back. A quick search on Google gave me the answer to fixing it. Here’s the page I found to help me get it back the way I wanted it:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/06/12/hack-to-modify-firefox-3-address-bar-to-return-search-results-when-query-or-invalid-url-is-entered/

With all the hyper-marketing to buy stuff surrounding them these days, holidays in the USA seem to have simply lost the essence of their meaning. To many, Easter means candy and gifts, Christmas means food and gifts, and Thanksgiving means food, football, and Black Friday. Today I’m going to do my best to spend the day looking at the many amazing people who have been provided all around me to help me become a better person and to just plain enrich my life. So if you are reading this, chances are you are one of those folks and I’m just plain thankful for you.

(Ma, don’t panic over the title… it was the only appropriate comment I could find for the title)

So, I’ve put off writing about this for a while. But felt like writing about it today. In September 2007 we “purchased” a home in Henderson CO via an owner finance deal (that’s the simplified version of the whole deal) where the owner held a mortgage from CitiMortgage (a subsidiary of Citi which has seen at least $25billion of our tax dollars) and was supposed to pass our payments through to the Citi loan for two years until our self employed status allowed us to refinance with a conventional mortgage. In September of 2008 we became aware the owner had not been passing our monthly payments back through to the CitiMortgage loan and Citi was proceeding with foreclosure on that loan. Essentially that meant we were screwed and would lose all we had invested in the owner finance deal. At the time the house we had “purchased” for $275k was valued at around $242k and the outstanding on the original owner’s Citi loan was right at $242k (our outstanding was $235k).

All that to get to this beef. On June 15, 2009 the property was sold by the the clerk’s office at Adam’s County for $263k to a single bidder. Who was that bidder that paid $21k over what the home was valued and the same amount over what the original owner owed to CitiMortgage? Yep, you guessed it… a Citi subsidiary. So the huge and failing mortgage company you and I are paying taxes to cover a $25billion plus bailout to, paid $21k more for a house than the value of the home, not to mention $21k more than the orginal loan that they were foreclosing on.

So there’s another reason for the bailout to have a bad taste in your mouth.

Seems that all the news these days about things happening in public places like plane and train terminals is negative. This video is simply a feel-good (obviously staged) event that makes me smile when I see it. We need more great stuff happening, and promoted, in big places where people gather rather than all the stuff we tend to see on the news these days. So, here’s my part to promote it!

I think several folks when I had told them I heard this in a science/health related news story thought I was nuts. But now I see this article so I have some proof my madness is at least founded!

We are entering a whole new era in dentistry. One in which we’ll be able to eat candy to prevent cavities. Specifically, we’ll be able to suck on a licorice lollipop….

So one day soon we’ll be able to prevent cavities with lollipops. Maybe next we’ll have plaque scraping treats and edibles that floss for us. Though it is still a thing of the present, this gives me hope that a trip to the dentist will one day be a thing of the past.

http://www.slashfood.com/2008/02/09/suck-on-this-for-healthy-teeth/