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A Letter to Home

October 11, 2012

Bishop Gardening, Hand watering, Philosophical, Relationships , , , 2 Comments

Dear Kathy,

It seems that I have been on the road far too many times this year. I haven’t slept well on this trip and the only factor that comes to mind has nothing to do with the bed quality, the room or the hotel…….it has to do with missing you and not having you here with me. I wish that we had opportunities for you to travel with me when I am off on my consulting trips. One more day and I will be home! I do miss you.

By the way how is the garden coming along? I know that some of the lettuces and carrots were beginning to look good. While you were out in the garden watering, did you remember to pull the weeds that seem to be constantly invading the garden? If you get a chance pull the slats out of the compost bin and turn the contents over for me. The pitch fork is located next to the bins. Try doing it early in the morning Hun because you will work up a bit of a sweat while lifting the heavy fork loads, but take your time …. I don’t want you worn out for my return on Friday. I trust that you have been feeding the worms all of the vegetable scraps and pulverized egg shells – please use the coffee grinder to pulverize the shells but also remember to wipe it out so it won’t contaminate my coffee.

Here is an example of what the pulverized eggshells and coffee grounds should look like.

I wasn’t able to run the weed-whacker around the edges of the garden before I left so if you would fire it up and knock the weeds down if you would Hun! he engine can be a little temperamental – push the fuel bulb 6-8 times, put the choke lever over on full choke for a couple of pulls, then mid choke for a couple and then open and it should start. Make sure you wear eye protection….you know how much I love the beautiful star eye look…you know what I mean. Before it gets too warm please rake up the weeds and dump them in the freshly turned compost bin.
I know how good you are at tidying things up so if you would, try organizing the tool cabinet hanging over in the corner. I also have quite a few stakes piled up over  there too ….could you just move them around a little to make it look a little better. Please wear gloves when you handle the stakes…they have some spurs and slivers – I would feel so bad if you hurt your beautiful and loving hands. Oh, on the rack in that same corner would you also roll up the kayak straps and place them in the garage.

Again Dear, thank you and I am so anxious to get back home and spend some time in your warm embrace.

Your loving husband,

Bishop

Smile all y’all – some of the above was really tongue in cheek! Fortunately we don’t have a dog, I could be sleeping with the dog for a few nights….

TTFN

Bishop

 

Gardening Perspective – Thrifty or Cheap?

October 3, 2012

Bishop Gardening, Philosophical, Recycling , , Leave a comment

Am I cheap or am I thrifty? I guess, if I were to answer my own question, I would say yes! I am a bit of both. For example, this morning I was out in the garden straightening a few things up. As I was removing some of the supports/stakes for the cucumber vines I started saving bits and pieces of twine to use next time I need to support my vines. Twine, jute garden twine is about $ 2.00 for a 200 foot roll, that’s about a penny per foot. In about 10 minutes I saved maybe 50 feet of twine, 50 cents worth. That works out to a $ 3.00 per hour rate of return….. That sounds cheap to me! I will probably continue to waste my time with this effort. The twine is a very slow decomposer in my compost piles.

My ball of twine salvaged!

A diffrent look at my salvage efforts.

$$$$$ Saved eh? Some twine and a few stakes/supports…about a 3 year life for the crepe myrtle limbs.

The supports/stakes I use in the garden are from my Crepe Myrtles. Ugh….Just read how to prune Crepe Myrtles and my technique has been labeled crepe murder! My technique does produce an abundance of tall straight limbs that I use to support vines and such in the garden. My technique produces knobby looking plants. This past year I looked at some of the professionally trimmed crepes and modified my technique but I inherited stumpy crepes when I moved in…. don’t take that statement as a political jab at the current administration…I would never do that. My Crepe Myrtle is definitely not better off than it was 4 years ago. But, I have saved money over buying commercial stakes/supports. A six foot bamboo stake will cost a buck and a half. I use 50 or so every year. I am saving at least $ 75.00 annually – I am discounting the labor cost because I have to cut the crepe myrtle every year regardless of the use of the limbs….I am also keeping waste out of the landfill – my verdict – thrifty and “green”!

An example of the mess I inherited! Murder is a strong word – lets just say brutalized!

The way they should be!!!

What aspire to accomplish…..may require removal of the brutalized example in my yard!

A link to a pruning lesson and the source of the photos…

http://thedailysouth.southernliving.com/2009/02/24/what-concerns-p/

A spring look at a portion of my garden using the crepe myrtle limbs –

Supports/Stakes in action this past spring.

California – Fruit Basket and Nut Case

September 22, 2012

Bishop California, Gardening, mulching, Philosophical, Photography, Travel , , , , Leave a comment

I mean that in the nicest way. I am in the Golden State for a bit of work and then off to the coast to visit my Mom. Her to-do list has grown to two pages. I am keeping with the gardening theme as several tasks deal with re-potting and replanting! I get spoiled on my California visits….you can find a twig, stick into the soil, add water and it will grow.

Oh, there are some draw backs – this is the time of the year in and around Bakersfield when they are defoliating the cotton and the shakers are knocking the dust and almonds off the trees. The air is thick. I have also noticed that there is a familiar strong scent all over town. I grew up a little south of town near Larson’s dairy. This familiar scent reminds me of time spent across the road around the dairy….There is an earthy component in my Larson’s dairy memories but I am afraid that the proliferation of the mega dairies that have invaded the Kern County landscape have permeated the south end of the San Joaquin Valley with a scent that has gone beyond the earthy farm scent it is an odor…..it has begun to stink!

Shift gears – the good things are abundant….I drove over to Mom’s place through the Cuyama River Valley – truck loads of carrots were heading down to the processing facilities in and around Bakersfield – I passed through probably 10’s of thousand of acres of carrot fields….many just harvested and others dense with lush tops crowded into little green furry hedges. Melons lying in the fields leftover from the recent harvest, thousands of burlap sacks bulging with harvested onions waiting for the trucks to roll through. Sprinklers shooting the high arching streams of water irrigating the fields spreading across the valley floor in a seemingly endless vista. And yes, the big guys are here too – Grimway Farms and William H. Bolthouse – in the next week or two look at the label on a carrot bag…..I just drove by what you are eating now! (US based readers and maybe Canada too).

Los Osos, the bears in Spanish, is where Mom now makes here home….the cooler weather is home to the lettuce, cabbage, parsley and flower growers….I will try to shoot some photos today or tomorrow for another post….Pumpkins both large and small are peeking through the dying vines in the fields now…..beautiful, dark black rich soils contrasting  with the greens, yellowing leaves and bright orange of the pumpkins! Should have stopped then but I was on a timeline to catch a sunset!

Looking across the bay in Baywood adjoining Los Osos.

 

Lovely evening….I was one of dozens at water’s edge watching the sun put on it’s evening show – free of charge!

 

TTFN

Bishop

 

 

Global Warming? Yes it Is, But ……..

September 4, 2012

Bishop Gardening, Optimism, Philosophical , , 3 Comments

My position will probably ruffle the feathers of the “Greenpeace crowd, the Liberals and the politicians needing another lever to generate tax revenue. That said, I agree that the earth is warming. That is a fact but in the history of the earth this is not unique. What we need to do, to better understand the issue, is to step back and look back beyond this dot on the earth’s history timeline called the present. The earth is actually warming on a long-term cooling trend that will fluctuate over periods of time, periods that are much, much longer than a generation or two. Take a look at the graph below.

The trend is toward the cooler side…what is interesting is the increasing variability in the swings!

This figure shows the climate record of Lisiecki and Raymo (2005) [1] constructed by combining measurements from 57 globally distributed deep-sea sediment cores. The measured quantity is oxygen isotope fractionation ([[δ18O]]) in benthic foraminifera, which serves as a proxy for the total global mass of glacial ice sheets.

It is like the old adage….what goes up must come down. There is nothing in the scientific record that indicates that this period of warming will go on forever. It shows a historical pattern of warming and cooling with an overall trend to the cooler side. Has man added to the CO2 load, you bet we have.  Has the earth responded to those past swings, yes it has.  What’s next…..rising sea levels – most likely. Changes in weather patterns – yes again. Has it happened before, yes it has – only this time with far-reaching disruption to our way of life in the coastal regions.

I remember a geology field trip in California where we counted 7 wave cut terraces going many hundreds of feet up a mountain side. Those terraces are a product of both mountain building and changes in sea levels….it is complex, just as the current debate over the same set of climate facts.  Can our actions really stop and reverse this trend….. don’t kid yourself. What we can do and should be doing is conserving our natural resources…..conservation is the right thing to do but it will not reverse the trend. We should be preparing for the future and not playing Chicken Little – the sky is falling!

Here is a very likely scenario for the northern hemisphere ….. the melting of the northern ice cap will raise the sea level, how much – don’t know, probably many feet, a few meters. What may be of bigger concern is the impact on the Gulf Stream current bringing warm Atlantic water north and allowing the comfortable climate currently in place in the UK. Get your heavy coats out….it may be a number of generations out, but it will become much colder when that warm current is disrupted… then some thousands of years later it will warm up again….. then repeat….. and repeat……

Conservation of finite resources should always be a concern for the inhabitants of planet earth. Climate control by carbon tax is, to use a crude Texas term, like “pissing into the wind”. Our efforts would be better spent getting a head start on the outcome side of this current trend, key word – trend. I use the word trend because it will swing the other way…….way beyond my time on earth but my progeny will be dealing with the issues….either well thought out and planned for or smelling like urine soaked pants, pants worn by “chicken little”!

A little longer look at the historical record….yes the data is inferred, not directly measured,…..but there is agreement in general on the overall  trends.

This is a bit like a log graph….at the far right is a 10,000 year segment, to the left of it is a 500,000 year segment then a 5 million year segment and so on. The present trend is up…historically it is ALWAYS followed by a swing in the other direction.

Rob Rohde’s palaeotemperature graphs pasted together on one page, with Royer et al.s CO2-corrected Paleozoic – Mesozoic record substituted for Veizer et al.s uncorrected record.

The Vostok and Lisiecki/Zachos temperatures are polar, not global, so the range has been compressed to compensate – by about the usual one-half. The relativities are very approximate.

Oh by the way, could there be some benefits to warming???? The increase in temperature leads to more water vapor which adds to global warming – but clouds from the increase in water vapor reflect heat and then will cool the earth…. a feedback loop. The earth’s climate has always been in a state of flux. We can choose to respond in a planned and logical manner or we can scream in fear over something we have little, if any control over. This link should demonstrate that as CO2 goes up, my tomatoes should do better!

http://www.co2science.org/data/plant_growth/plantgrowth.php

The more I read the more I realize how complex the issue is. There is evidence that the phytoplankton are increasing – a photosynthetic organism that pulls CO2 out of the oceans – on the other hand, massive deforestation reduces terrestrial CO2 sequestering opportunities. I believe that the earth’s feedback loop will kick in and the swing in to other direction will happen. I worry about the ineffective efforts to stop climate change and how little is being done to prepare for the impacts of rising sea levels…

For more reading;

NASA website – great current data – what strikes me is the melting ice data and the sea level rise data –  we should be preparing to address these impacts!

http://climate.nasa.gov/keyIndicators/

I am a firm believer in conserving finite natural resources – I believe we should do more to develop wind and solar power – I believe in a balanced approach and an orderly plan for the future based on civil dialog and a realistic view of the future. Some of the green solutions are shot down by the concerned citizens with the “not in my backyard” approach. The government has hamstrung many potential green projects due the complex and costly permitting processes.  Lets all do our part, recognize that the future will look different from it does today – but just wait  – the trend will reverse. Deal with the real pending problems and prepare. The time horizons are probably long enough to deal with the low elevation coastal populations and infrastructure issues. We should always be looking for a return on our investments. Carbon trading benefits only those that know how to game the system. Invest in our future, plan and prepare.

Ok…it is off my chest. Let the debate rage…

TTFN

Bishop

Nature – Strong, Resilient and Inspiring

September 1, 2012

Bishop Philosophical, Photography, Travel , , , 2 Comments

This past summer we (my wife, son and his girlfriend), spent most of two weeks wandering through Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee (very brief), Mississippi and Louisiana. Hurricane Isaac made it’s way through a portion of our trip’s route, most impactfully through the Mississippi and Louisiana portions of the trip. I will start with some thoughts about the three days we spent in Biloxi, MS.

In 2008 Kathy and I drove the coastal road front the Gulf in Biloxi, Gulfport, Long Beach, Christian and Bay St. Louis. The devastation from Hurricane Katrina, August 29, 2005, was abundant and still fresh. Life moves on and the resilient spirit of the people is amazing. We passed through and encountered a Mardi Gras parade, people laughing, celebrating and moving forward – with piles of Katrina debris a few blocks behind them.

Summer of 2012, the empty beach lots across the highway from the Gulf of Mexico waters is a grim reminder of the past. I am also amazed that these empty lots are not totally empty. These lots are home to massive, gnarled and stately oaks that seem to reflect on the human spirit of the region. I would like to share with you the strength of the people embodied in these wonderful oak trees.

The gnarly oak again – I can only imagine what wonderful bowls could be turned from the knotty burls on this tree! It can wait!

Swinging on the long horizontal branch.

Gnarly oak….Joe and Leah standing in the crotch of the tree.

The ring in the oak – an old Indian legend is tied to this tree…

Life goes on in the Gulf, the trees survive, the people thrive and the cycle continues.

An oak shading a rebuilt guest house at the site of the Jefferson Davis house.

Looking east from the Jefferson Davis house – a large oak and the lonely chimney that remains standing after Katrina.

The flag pole bent over from Hurricane Camille – 1969 – one of the most powerful hurricanes to make landfall in the US. A grim reminder of life on the Gulf.

A tribute to the strength of the people and the oaks that reflect that strength, our thoughts and prayers are with you.

TTFN

Bishop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Gardening Convert

August 24, 2012

Bishop Gardening, Healthy Lifestyle, Philosophical , , , , 6 Comments

I think I mentioned sometime in the not too distant past that my son Benjamin, (really just Ben – Benjamin is usually reserved for those occasions when we need to make a point), has started a vegetable garden in his front yard. His growing environment is very much like Houston but on average it can be a degree or two cooler and possibly a little more rain.

Talking rain…..this past weekend we had a ¼ inch on one day and 2.9 the next. For the metric folks the 2.9 is about 7.4 cm. It fell in just about an hour of intense downpour. I have raised beds for this reason, really one of many reasons, otherwise the plants would have soggy feet during the spring and summer rains.

Ok, let’s get back to Ben and his Baton Rouge, Louisiana growing efforts. He planted the first seeds in early June, some sugar snap peas….I smiled when he mentioned the peas. I suggested that they may not do well at this time of year. They sprouted shot up a bit and I never heard much more until he told me that they had expired, died, shriveled up, became compost material and just really browned up nicely in the BR heat.

Ben came home for a few weeks at the end of his summer session, puttered around, fished a little, watered for me when I was out of town and played with his dog, Sierra. We talked about his little plot in the front yard and what he thought he might plant for the fall. Most of my suggestions were dismissed – I proposed some items that would grow well and are good for him. Ben does not eat much that is green in color…..that pretty well limits his choices. He does love one green item – Jalapeno peppers. He adds them to his pepperoni pizza, sandwiches and other college kid snack fare.

Just before he headed back to school last week, I bought him a couple of Jalapeno pepper plants from the local nursery up at the front of Kingwood. They are local folks, they know the growing environment and what grows best. They tend to stock the plant varieties that the big box stores don’t. I scored a couple of Juliet tomato plants for my fall planting. I love this indeterminate variety of tomato and missed having them available for my spring and summer choices. I am hoping that I will have a good harvest before it gets too chilly and the days too short. The pepper plants – well they seem to be able to overwinter here with a little care.

The pepper plants in Ben’s bed show evidence of a little too much water but they are hardy plants. Ben is studying construction management at LSU and seems to like having everything plumb, square and laid out nicely. You may notice that he has laid a grid….square foot gardening style, in his beds….I am not so precise in my plantings!!!!!

Ben’s Jalapeno – one of two in his front yard plot

TTFN

Bishop

 

Nature and Sharing

August 18, 2012

Bishop Memories, Philosophical, Travel , , , , 3 Comments

I am sitting in my kayak about 400 yds offshore, big rollers sweeping by, sharing the morning with my oldest son……….Ben

Saturday August 11th my son Ben and I loaded up and headed down to the Galveston area for a day of fishing. Fishing wasn’t so good and we had quite an adventure “trying” to navigate the much heavier than usual surf getting back in.  Ben shot this photo in the early morning light….he caught the mood of the day – kind of solitary but shared with a fishing buddy and in this case, someone I love and care for.  We don’t normally have lots of conversation….he and I are sometimes pretty quiet. We share a lot quietly. He is back to school at LSU and we will quietly remember this day spent together. The photo perfectly captures my heart and emotiuons…Thanks Ben

On Sunday Ben drove me out to the airport to drop me off. He did more than drop me off though… he walked around to my side of the truck gave me a big hug, it didn’t need words… I felt the love. Thanks again Ben….. I love you too!

Worm Castings Harvested & More Yard Chores

August 7, 2012

Bishop Composting, Gardening, Optimism, Philosophical, Rubbermaid , , 5 Comments

If you have read my past posts you know that I measure summer yard work by how many T-shirts I soak through! Yesterday was a 4 T-shirt day and the work is still not complete. It will be at least a two T-shirt day today….need to finish that last chore so Ben and I can take the kayaks down to Galveston and harvest a few Redfish, Speckled Trout or Flounder!!!

The worms had being toiling away in my Rubbermaid bin eating up the kitchen scraps and providing lots of good food for the garden. As I was harvesting I noticed something that the worms wouldn’t eat…..the skins off of my tomatoes. Six or eight weeks ago I made salsa, tomato sauce and gazpacho. I peeled the skin off of the tomatoes after dipping them in boiling water for 30 seconds or so and then dipping them in cold water. The skins just slide off. That old phrase, “waste not want not” is always part of my “green” credo so the skins, cores and bad spots cut out of the tomatoes went into the bin…..Everything was eaten save the skins. I learned something. I went with the fast harvest practice and a pretty good number passed through the 1/4 inch screen but they will do fine in the garden. Compost worms work near the surface and they should be happy living in the compost I recently spread. The process is outlined in the pictures below.

Soaking strips of newspaper to be added as bedding as I transfer those that toil in the dark into their new home.

The new home waiting for the transfer. Newspaper strips are wrung out so they are not too wet!

That great garden supplement – worm castings….screen box in the background

I pulled weeds, cut back the canes on the rest of the blackberries, cut some flowers for Kathy…..yes I do grow a few flowers. My son Joe had cut John’s lawn and brought back a couple of sacks of grass clippings for my compost pile that I dumped on top of the watermelon rinds and remnants of the fresh pineapple we cored the night before. I sweated some more….made up some organic fertilizer to help the veggies along and then we, Ben, Sierra and I jumped into the next project.

Station 5 on my sprinkler system has needed repair for a long time….I had some young blood to help with the digging so in we dove. First we had to find the valve boxes. I knew approximate locations so it was soon done. Then to decide which valve wa number 5…… Now that was done. We uncovered it and found that it was an inexpensive valve, the diaphragm was horribly mangled so off to Alspaugh’s Ace Hardware I went…. no luck on parts so off to the internet…. part located but with shipping I can replace the valve with a new one….with parts that are readily available.

I order to replace the valve we need to enlarge the hole in order to cut the pipe……no screwed fittings – all glued! Problem two. As the hole was enlarge the signal wires got in the way of the axe…..oh yes an axe – lots of roots and the shovel…… now we have to do some splicing…..got that done.

I installed the sprinkler system in our yard back in Bakersfield California. I worked in the oil patch and was a fan of having the valves arranged in a manifold, with union couplings so if one needed to be removed for replacement I didn’t have to cut pipe. The other benefit is that all if the wiring was run to one spot, location known and protected…. I ran it in a pvc sleeve. The drawback is more PVC to run but that is dirt cheap. My current yard – no map for the valve locations…they are scattered and the wires run willy-nilly!!!!

Ok – glue one side in and move the piping just a little and the pvc behind the valve breaks off – I am on shirt # 4 and I am not changing again. We probe a little and discover that where the next cuts will need to be made there is another PVC line snuggled up against it……Let’s drink a good pale ale Ben and plan to finish in the morning…..Good choice a thunderstorm rolls in, fills the hole with water knocks the power ou as my wife was doing ravioli on the electric stove…….No problem, I am an ex-camper. I brought out my single burner stove and finished the meal off outside…..Hope the power comes back on soon as I am beginning to soak another T-shirt  – need my AC!

This hole keeps getting bigger and more complicated! Ben, Sierra and me…the old sweaty guy.

Ben and his rescue dog, Sierra checking on the progess.

Today will be a better day!

TTFN

Bishop

 

 

 

Hands in the Garden – And Fishing

August 5, 2012

Bishop Composting, Family, Gardening, Philosophical, Relationships, Vermicoposting , , , , 3 Comments

My son Ben walked into the house with his fishing pole. “Going fishing?” I asked. “Yep!”, was his concise answer with no fluff! A man of fewest words!

Then the surprise, a multiple word sentence….”Wanna go with me”, he asks? There was no hesitation on my part so off to the garden we go to dig up some worms. The first shovel full was loaded with big fat wrigglers…..the soil is healthy because of the work these guys do behind the scenes as they churn the compost I add to  the beds…. they add their castings, aerate to soil and create drainage….sorry guys, I need some volunteers to give the up the life of toiling in the garden. I needed some volunteers to go out in a blaze of glory, sacrificing for that trophy catfish waiting in the pond!

On a side note – I probably have three, four or more types of earthworms helping me in the garden. I have added the big store-bought night crawlers left over from past fishing trip. They a larger and seem to thrive in my well composted beds. I have an abundance now of the red wriggler type that stay near the surface and do not burrow. These are also working away in my compost bins – that reminds me….I need to add harvesting the castings to list of chores for the week.

The worms sacrificed themselves but I was a little disappointed in the results – it was as if Ben and I were competing to see who would the smallest fish and the second category was for the fewest fish caught. Not our usual competitive measures of success. I caught the fewest(4) and Ben caught the smallest fish(small perch). All were returned in good health to be caught again. The pond near the house is a great place to take young ones – I love the smile on a child when they catch their first fish…and for that matter their second, third, fourth – and you get the idea….. always a smile.

It was nice to sit with Ben and even though he is a man of few words, with the right questions we can converse. I was pleased a few months ago when he built a small raised bed at his house in Baton Rouge. I smiled when he told me what he had planted – not the best choices for mid summer but he wass working thee soil, watering and seeing his efforts produce some green foliage. A success in my eyes. We did discuss what to plant when he returns to Baton Rouge August 19th….should be his last year of school at LSU!!!! He doesn’t eat much green stuff  so growing food that he would consume is a challenge. Maybe one of his roommates will be able to enjoy the harvest.

Both off my sons have built raised beds this summer, Joe for his girlfriend and Ben for himself – converts in the making. I have also done somethingelse  right! They fish and fish and find time to fish again. Earlier this summer Ben was home for a week or so for the summer session at LSU he and my youngest joe went off to the lake in our canoe for some bonding and fishing. It looks like success on both fronts. Click on an imaage to display the slideshow.

TTFN

Bishop

Ahhhhhhhh – Back Home!

July 8, 2012

Bishop Family, Gardening, Healthy Lifestyle, Philosophical, Tomato Growing , , 7 Comments

I have been on the road for much of the past 6 weeks with brief trips home for laundry and repacking. The travels were not without a bit of fun and a few new learnings, but I am tired off the road. I received a nice goodnight text message from my wife last night – oh, by the way I am home but she is still visiting family in California – The message, ” ‘Night – sleep well in our bed Hun.” and I certainly did. I have been waking up multiple times every night in the hotel beds, tripping off to shed some water….last night – I closed my eyes at 10:30 and opened them at 6:30 – Yee haw!

I did a quick walk through the garden yesterday evening and Lisa did a wonderful job keeping things green. I will be picking tomatoes and cucumbers today. I will take a lesson learned from a restaurant in Carlsbad New Mexico, The Stock Exchange, and make some cucumber gazpacho. I may not add quite as much of the hot peppers but it was both refreshing as well as having a good “bite” in the mouth. I will post an update to my culinary efforts soon.

Today – weeding is high on the list – They seem to enjoy my garden beds and grow like – well weeds – with the water, warmth and sun. Rain has helped keep the water meter from spinning too much. Son Joe will need to crank up the mower and fill up the compost bin today – The grass  is ankle-deep – at least!

I may do something I haven’t tried in twenty plus years….I will try to direct seed a few tomatoes for fall replacements – The Oxheart, Mortgage Lifter and Early girl tomato plants are succumbing tot he Houston heat and humidity. In their place I will plant some Juliette seeds(couldn’t find plants this past spring…they do so well here) Arkansas Traveler and ????? not sure for the third yet until I review my seed inventory. The volunteer cherry tomato is still “kicking butt” – the term is not as violent as it sounds….it means “out producing everything in the garden”!

It is so nice to be home!

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