Skip to main content

Mi Jardine

Hi all, I've started the music off with Nina Simone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkDtrheq6A0 . I seem to see her music showing up in TV and movies with pretty sociopath government hitwomen listening.  Apparently nothing to wind one down after a hard day of killing like a little Nina!? 
  I'm anticipating the roofers will be starting in the next hour. Like most of the neighborhood the hailstorm got our roof, thus the sound of the summer has been the tat tat tat of nailguns.  That and some Ranchero music as all of the roofing crews are Mexican.  (and oddly all of the adjusters and salesmen were Texans?!)
  Like my Sister in law Bennie I've found I like the 'life' of most of the Mexican music.  I should point out that while Benilde is Venezuelan by birth, Venezuelan music ain't Mexican.  Homeland security might get by with a box to check "OTM" (other than Mexican) but music has all sorts of delineations.  Kinda like assuming I like Brittany Spears.  That said what I'm calling Ranchero might actually be Tejano or who knows what.
  To go slightly political I would point out that no matter what your view on immigration no one can say Mexicans are not hard working.  The crew that did my neighbors roof worked literally from dawn to dusk (just under 14 hrs) in a hot June sun.  This was certainly a job they weren't stealing from this old gringo.  Back in the day when I worked construction in Texas all the Mexicans I worked with were hard working.  I recognize good people can have different views on immigration, me I'm an open borders Libertarian.  I can't understand how lines drawn on a map by politicians can or should be allowed to tell me where I can go.  Heck I don't like the idea of government issued drivers licenses. (since when are God given Rights subject to politician's permissions - just saying!)  Feel free to argue your perspective on the issue in the comments section.
  I had some tiny plans for the garden today but I'll use the excuse of the roofers to hang out indoors with the dogs.  Thankfully we got a nice cool weekend that allowed me to catch up on the bindweed and actually think about some move ahead projects. With the growth spurt of the grape vines this month I've got to think about places for them to grow.  I'm trying to decide between a small arbor and a fan of ropes for my newly planted seedless Concord.  The arbor would provide a nice little morning shaded place to sit and would likely last a bit longer.  The ropes could be strung in a day with the grapes doing the construction as they grow and fill in.  The Himrod grape vine is also looking for space.  It has a nice arched trellis Deb and I got married under but because of it's location needs a bit more.  The tough part with it is it still hasn't proved itself.  I planted it specifically because it was considered "excellent for drying for raisins". I figured some table grapes for eating fresh, but I'm not a canner (yet) and grapes can overwhelm you in good years.  But I haven't had anything but hard years since I planted this little guy - not one grape.  It's been killed back and declared dead more times than I can count but it's taking this living thing pretty serious.  Life is precious, if you are given life as a grape vine might just as well grow - right?!
  The truly yippee news with the garden isn't actually in the garden. I've lost weight!!!!!!! We're not talking 'get on a TV ad promoting some supplement' lost weight, just a couple of pounds.  The scale at the gym was killing me this winter creeping up up and up till I just stopped weighing myself (hey it's a solution!).  This Scottish gardener couldn't eat enough salads to keep up with the lettuce and spinach and I just have a hard time tossing it in the compost pile.  Thus salad salad salad including some pretty inventive ones with some herbs and other garden pickings.  During a particularly uninspired visit to the gym I stopped on the way to the steam room and hopped on the scale.  I expected to grunt and mentally flip off the scale but hey sometimes you win.
  I mentioned the herbs and I've been slowly adding a mix of them into the garden.  One that has taken off this year is winter savory.  My Sister Leslie gave me some seeds two winters back with the encouragement that it was good for bee's hive health.  (The neighbor has some hives) I started it indoors with pretty good success and put it out at the base of my raised beds last spring.  The plants were so tiny I marked each with a wooden stake to keep me from stepping on them.  I think I can pull the stakes out soon.  Not only have they grown but I started seeing tiny white flowers just this last week.  Come on down bees Dr Savory is in. Now I've just got to learn more recipes using it.  Meanwhile it's a nice garnish on salads.
  The neighbor with the hive has been a little cheap in doling out the honey these last couple of years.  I mean come on I'm feeding 'em.  Perhaps I'll have to up his cut of the tomatoes. Social swaps are a delicate and complicated affair.  You soon learn some folks are oblivious to the concept of reciprocity and than learn you've hurt feelings by not complimenting the 4 lbs zucchini they've passed your way.
  The roofers just arrived so I got to practice a bit of my bad Spanish.  Thankfully it's not like German in that most Mexicans have a sense of humor about bad tenses wrong words and the like.  Additionally the music has flipped over to Tony Bennett https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv_odYE4Bu8 so I'll switch tracks a bit also.
  The free rider concept is often used as an argument against free market or libertarian/ non government solutions.  How could we possibly build roads without government taxes and powers of eminent domain.  What if everyone but one so and so agrees to pay their share.  Oh we know he'll use it, but pay up - come on dude. I mean life is easy when it's just me deciding what to grow in my garden. Heck it's even easy when I bring the lady up the alley's chickens bolted lettuce and she gives me some extra eggs.  But try to build a pipeline.  Oh sure your PR people will say everybody benefits from the oil getting cheaply to market but you seem to be the only one getting the monetized benefit.  As no doubt the rancher who only sees hassles and the Indian nation that only sees sacrilegious trespass will share with you.
  Now some of you like roads and some of you dislike oil pipelines thus depending on the case using the power of government to get your desired outcome seems an easy solution.  So I gotta ask how has that worked out for you.  There always seems to be some malevolent so and so on the other side.  With more political power!
  I want more roads built so I can get to work faster (hey that's green isn't it).  But some SOB spent all the tax money on something else and I'm stuck in traffic.  I want a clean environment and don't want to pay when some SOB oil company sticks me with at least part of the bill when they rupture a line or blow up a house.  That's it that's all I got - How is that working out for you?
  Essentially in most things political you're left with a rather binary choice voice vs exit. Head in the sand "I can't stand politics" is however what we mostly choose (it's really more of a non-choice.)  That leaves the outcome to the malevolent SOBs.  So if that is unacceptable you have to either figure out how to increase your voice by either holding office or supporting those who agree with you.  Or exit - step outside the system and figure out a way to do it without permission and government interference.  Outside of 'head in the sand' the next most popular choice is increase your voice.  We just had an election for Congress that cost $57,000,000 perhaps not the norm but I think you would agree megaphones seem to be expensive these days. So how's that working out for you?  Even if an election goes your way it's rare the elected official that votes and pushes 100% your way. You voted for and contributed to Barack because you wanted the US out of Iraq and Single payer health care. hmmm!  Oh wait you voted for Trump because you wanted to drain the swamp and health care premiums you could afford. hmmm, how's that working out for you?  Exit is personally exhausting, difficult to imagine let alone pull off, and expensive. That tends to be the argument against freemarket/libertarian solutions. But I think it has to be compared against the cost of the other choices.  Each person has to decide what they will plant in this world.  Doug A.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Taste like cucumber

I've got to start us off with Waylon Jennings' classic.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxll2-th4Gc Deb and I went down to our cabin in the mountains for the Memorial weekend.  More exactly we went down to our tiny RV on the property next to the cabin.  The cabin floor is close to finished and thus the bed and all are stuffed in the bathroom awaiting warm weather and the final coat of shellac.  A 20' RV two adults and two dogs makes for close quarters, especially when it starts raining.  That said there is something quite wonderful about playing rummy 500 by lantern light with Deb.  It's way too easy in a marriage to get to plinking along in your little path and forget how nice it is to have a wife you love. I suggested to Deb that although the RV is getting on 40 years old we could probably get a pretty penny for it if we marketed it as a marital therapy tool.  (therapy dogs extra!)   Being a gardener I have sprinkled some seeds as the cabin h...

The tomatoes are red the gardener is blue

 I'm stuck in a loop. I think that's what software programmers call it. I know the roots of this hopelessness are firmly planted in the utter destruction of our cabin and property in the forest fire that I alluded to in the last blog's prologue. Knowing the source of a polluted stream doesn't really help if your just wallowing in it. It's the wallowing that is the loop. A sporadic series of should haves and could haves that leave you so second guessed out that I've got little mental energy to accomplish all but the littlest things. Musically speaking I got da blues!   The music is Billie Holiday - Lady in Autumn.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Npoe5XeeMYE&list=PLbYb5_Imn1rsDMoIU38jxi_O0aRaYj4CG 'cause given my mood - well, it was the obvious choice.   If you're a libertarian like me it's hard not to on occasion reflect on a woman who's life included heroin abuse, alcohol abuse, abusive relationships and died at 44. The line between libert...

Bleeping grackles

 I've just spent the last 15 minutes searching bird guides on-line and on paper to try to figure out what is nesting in the grape arbor.  It looks like a nuthatch or wren that has dressed to go to work for UPS.  It's incredibly tiny and quite cute but clearly not one to be pushed around.  When I first saw it at the beginning of summer it was trying to take over a bird house I had created out of an old boot.  Some chickadees had moved in and I was thrilled to see the house used.  The chickadees had dutifully carried a boots worth of material from the yard to their nest.  At a moment when both the male and female were out collecting material my little UPS bird 'discovered' the boot.  He sat at the hole pulling material out.  Clearly their tastes in furnishings were different you could almost see him (her?) shaking his head "this straw with those drapes - come on!".  The chickadees returned and a battle royal ensued with it ending with two ...

The price of free

I came in when I heard the thunder but was intentionally not going to write.  Couldn't live up to that commitment when Pryor Baird & the Deacons started playing Little Red Wagon. I can't find a YouTube link so I'm substituting with  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEmvBdRLg4k  and I'll leave you to find this driving rhythm.  If you're thinking I've heard Little Red Wagon done by___.  Yeah everybody done it.  Some versions are so slow and deep delta bluesish that you gotta figure heroin was on the menu.  This is I think you'd call it more Chicago blues with a staccato driving beat. No matter what you call it my hands started slapping the desk and that led to slapping this keyboard. For some technical reason beyond my imagination the stereo has flipped past the rest of the CD and gone on to John Mayall Plays John Mayall.  It's John Mayall so I'm not going to argue.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3BK8-Mmn1s&list=PL94gOvpr5yt2BTHyFMsHR...

Three Little Birds

  It's Saturday the day before Mother's day so I'll start with a little eye candy for the ladies.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8nm_jvE_Xs   Jake is essentially the MSNBC (vs say Fox) version of the youtube movie I shared last time "Back to Eden" which emphasizes wood chip based gardening.  While the whole video is worth watching I especially liked his gardening philosophy which he touches on around the 10 minute mark.   Got to jump off topic (quelle surprise!) Jimmy Cliff has me boogieing to Let Your Yeah Be Yeah https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDp_7kSli0w   Jake's 'just start making mistakes' philosophy is akin to my own.  I can't tell you how many gardening books (Permaculture books are the worst) devote chapter after chapter to 'creating your plan'.  Yeah I would have killed a lot fewer plants and my fruit trees would have been planted years ago not to mention a quality watering system.  No doubt people with 5 year life plans ...

notes from the bunker - a thought on freezes in spring

The snow from yesterday is mostly melted as I write. The only thing left to be figured out is was there any serious damage. It was really little more than a simple spring storm with a bit of a hard freeze or near hard freeze last night. Possibly again tonight. The mizuna and arugula I had put out last week under a little row cover of plastic got an added bit of fleece for protection.  I'm sure they'll be fine, pretty cold hardy stuff. A bit more of a worry is some spinach and lettuce which I'd also put out. It was being killed off by some unknown thing on my window ledges indoors and thus was at least as safe outside. I had, knowing that the storm was coming, covered these with Wall O Waters. Wall O Waters are kind of the PPEs for plants in spring. A brilliant little invention which adds a good measure of protection from temporary light freezes. Hard freezes are something again and this is a bit early for my normal sowing of spinach and lettuce, so I'll hope. If I'm...

Notes from the bunker -Spring

  If you want to find the most interesting things in my garden you have to go to the edges. It's the first full day of spring.  This being Denver, after a couple weeks of 60°s to finish off winter, I'm looking out at 3 or 4 inches of snow and ice. Highs today perhaps the 30°s. Nothing really unusual in that. My desk calendar might be printed in black and white "SPRING BEGINS" but any gardener knows that it's not that binary a world. Heck it's not even analog as in a smooth gradual transition. Weather at a mile high is predictable in the sense that winter will be colder than summer but not in the sense that you can't have an 80° day in February and a freeze in July. It's more a what are the chances thing.  That gamble is part of the joy of gardening. It's also why the heart of my garden is located in the best sun, in raised beds with the best soil and best access to water. Ya gotta stack the odds some years just to have a chance.   Ah but those ed...

After the Garden

  Those of you who know me know I hover somewhere between Catholic and agnostic. Thus when I say there are surprisingly few words about Adam in the Bible, you know I had to look to check. If you need to check it yourself go ahead you'll see. A little about how he came to be, a touch about Eve, a bit about that garden thing and then on to what the kids did. Really, I expected a lot more!   I mean what about that day Adam was sitting outside the garden fence thwacking a stick against a tree?! He was just thinking, I don't want any more sadness God. Yeah, yeah I know it's your plan and I'm not supposed to question it but your plan sucks! He flipped his middle finger towards heaven. As he did a hummingbird who had become blind landed on it. Yeah, see that's what I mean God. How am I supposed to fix this? Sure I can name it and that's fun but how can I fix the pain in the world?  Look at the old garden! It's an overgrown jungle. I need pruners, saws and a shovel...

Not saying I've been holding back but for a little more money I could do Moore*

We passed 90 yesterday and I think we'll hit it again today. I got up early but other than a brief walk around in the cool of the morning the garden didn't capture my attention. It's Friends of the Library's annual Whale of a book sale this morning. My focus was of course on the CDs. I'm proud to say I kept my obsession below the divorce threshold and still caught a few good finds.   Among the finds is Eric Clapton's - ME and MR JOHNSON https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENbUS87wZys&list=PLVvg4t71YncxcWh5sMpHpBF8OJRMrxVHG which I've stacked up on the stereo with a progression of sorts of Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Blues Brothers, & Blues Traveler.   In June it gets complicated. While walking the dogs this morning I had a bit of a deep gardening discussion with my neighbor Matt. He was watering his raised beds in the front yard and had his young son strapped to his back in a backpack type arrangement. I don't know the term or if one exists so ...

Winter

 Just came in from digging the kitchen scraps into the latest raised bed. The soil is essentially non-existent merely a fill of leaves, a tiny amount of grass clippings, and some wonderful chicken coop material Deb's sister had saved aside for me. The chicken poop has already started heating the pile after watering it yesterday. All very hopeful, that it might burn down into something plant-able by spring. Adding to the hope a light drizzle has begun with rain expected through the afternoon and evening. Yeah I know chicken poop and compost are kinda out there on the garden nerd spectrum.   The rain is the perfect accompaniment to the blues on the stereo. The weather outside gray and more invigorating than cold. Inside a mug of tea and a combo of Fats Waller, Howlin' Wolf and best of all the Alligator Records' 20th Anniversary Collection. The enclosed notes in the Alligator two CD edition are the story of legends of the blues. The talent list is a powerhouse going from Pinet...