Gardening To-Do List For May

Lady Espresso and I just love our yard and our gardens. These are photos of our stuff taken in April of "oh-nine."



Over at ivillage, found this gardening gardening to-do list for zone 5, for May. A lot of it does not apply to us, but some does, let's take a look.

* Set out cool-season annuals
* Set out seedlings of warm-season annuals
* Set out summer-flowering bulbs
* Plant fall-blooming bulbs

We have never grown seedlings in spring and don't pull bulbs in the fall. Fall bloomers sound like a great idea, but we're circling the financial wagons these days, so ideas with price tags will have to wait!

* Divide and replant crowded winter- and spring-blooming bulbs after leaves yellow

We don't have much dividing to do, but every year it seems we forget to move spring flowers, daffodils, hyacinths, and tulips, that have wandered into areas of the yard. We wait until they are done blooming, but are then distracted by other flowers and never get around to moving them. Then the next spring, it just happens again! We have a brilliant blue Salvia that is ready for dividing, but it's in bloom now. Last fall, I split a few of our Laitris plants, and their doing well!

* Plant balled-and-burlapped, container, and bare-root fruit trees

* Apply dormant spray to fruit trees before buds swell
* Spray apples, peaches, and pears that have been affected with canker problems

One of these shots is of our cherry tree, in full spring bloom, in the front yard. It's a striking little thing, and now it's just covered in green fruit. We plan to make some more wine, and see if we can make some preserves and soft drinks with it.
And I need to find out what "dormant spray" is!
We planted a peach tree last fall. I think it actually had a couple of flowers also. We're still (three years running now) trying to figure out blueberries - sheesh.

* Plant permanent ground covers
* Plant cool- and warm-season lawns

We've got some Periwinkle, Vinca vine, and English Ivy for ground cover in various areas. There's some ajuga in the rock garden that's doing pretty well, also. Our lawns have as much clover as grass. I've heard that clover actually makes a nice lawn!

* Plant bare-root perennial vegetables
* Plant seedlings of cool-weather vegetables

I love fresh asparagus. It's so expensive that we gave it a whirl in our garden. It's just a breeze to grow! Being a perennial, it's just a matter of patience before it starts growing in large bunches. The variety we have produces in the spring, so the trees aren't yet shading the area, impinging growth.

* Sow fast-growing warm-season vegetables
* Sow seeds for frost-tolerant perennials
* Sow seeds for tender perennials
* Divide and replant spring-blooming perennials after bloom
* Plant container roses

This almost doesn't reflect the "zone 5" reality that we have. This zone includes Nove Scotia, for Pete's sake, and it's just not that cold for that long around here. We've been out of danger of frost for at least a couple of weeks, and we've already been through our Hyacinths and early Tulips!!

* Plant balled-and-burlapped, container, and bare-root trees, shrubs, and vines

I would really like for this to be the year I figure out blueberries. If they can grow in Michigan, (about $2 billion annually) they sure should be able to grow here!

* Apply dormant spray to shrubs and vines
* Plant tender shrubs and vines
* Plant summer-blooming shrubs and vines
* Plant balled-and-burlapped trees
* Plant trees in containers
* Plant frost-tolerant trees
* Plant needle-leafed evergreens

We've got a couple of Blueberry starts to plant. They've been in a planter in the sunroom since we picked them up about a month ago. Pray for our blueberries! They haven't prospered under our care in the past...

Sort of a Round Up of the Indy Tea Party

First, let me do this ted nugent "star spangled banner" video ... nevr thought I'd say this "Even better than Jimi!"
Outstanding...Now I wonder why I never liked Nugent?
Here we go...
The Yahoo! version of the national story was entitled "Thousands rally with 'tea parties' on tax day" but I've read elsewhere that there were over 550,000 participants across the country. The photos on this page are all mine from the statehouse lawn.



The lead paragraph is predictably snarly...

ATLANTA – Whipped up by conservative commentators and bloggers, tens of thousands of protesters staged "tea parties" around the country Wednesday to tap into the collective angst stirred up by a bad economy, government spending and bailouts. The rallies were directed at President Barack Obama's new administration on a symbolic day: the deadline to file income taxes. Protesters even threw what appeared to be a box of tea bags toward the White House, causing a brief lockdown at the compound.

Can't speak for others, but what "whipped" me up to attend was the ceaseless repititious criticism from D.C. about the Bush administration while promoting policies that are even worse. If Bush's deficit spending was SO bad - and no one is saying they were any good - then why isn't the Obama administration's four times worse?

Over at the Indianapolis Tea Party website, they are saying ...

Although the local media would have us believe we only had around 2,000 attendees at the event (which would be correct if you were counting 2 hours before the event even started!), those trained in crowd control AND the IMPD estimated our rally had somewhere between 12,000 - 15,000 Peaceful Patriots!!!! In fact, the Capital Police remarked that they were amazed at how well behaved our crowd was!! AND, what's more, our volunteers expected to spend a few hours after the event, picking up trash and cleaning the area, BUT, there was hardly ANY evidence that 15,000 people were just there!! We Patriots sure know how to party AND not make a mess!!!

Richard and I want to thank each one of you who braved the crowds, the parking, the chilly temps AND rearranged your schedules to be a part of the rally to have our voices heard together! We really were the ROARING LION!! I know most of you did not have the vantage point that we had and could not see the crowd fully, but I want to tell you I was moved to tears on a number of occasions yesterday as I looked out at the sea of faces, the signs, the red, white and blue, ....friends, we most assuredly are NOT ALONE!

.........a few paragraphs later, the article closes...

Again, on behalf of the over 100 Tea Party volunteers, THANK YOU Freedom-Loving Americans for joining us in having our voices heard. Let the non-representing representatives in Washington say, as Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto said after his attack on Pearl Harbor, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."

We are asleep no longer.

FREEDOM!!!

Richard & Laura Behney
Indianapolis Tea Party Coordinators

The website includes links for further action...
Indy Defenders of Liberty

...and......
The Independence Caucus

A Citizen's movement* to take
our government back from the
"Big Money" Special Interests groups...

*(...And the first to defeat a compromised incumbent!)

Someone started a comment thread for the Indy Tea at
free republic with some pictures...

related RCB post Indianapolis Tea Party

Do-Re-Mi at the Train Station

I agree with the commenter who said that efforts like this should not go unrewarded. I don't knoe the story of this video but I encourage everyone to watch and forward to friends!

Sound of Music Train Station @ Yahoo! Video

espresso beans to ganas consulting

Indianapolis Tea Party

This event was well put together. My congratulations to those involved, WELL done! The local press is saying the crowd numbered about two thousand. I would have been happy with two hundred, and thought the predictions by organizers of 8,000 had some other, possibly marketing, motives. I was ecstatic at the crowd. It was kind of like realizing that we really aren't alone.






I felt as natural and welcome here as I would at a church cook-out. Honestly, the only thing missing was the grill, barbeque sauce and the the buns.




It was a little cool, probably about fifty degrees, but some were on fire, some were just supplying some friendly warmth. Even "Satan" wore a hearty smile! The event organizershad printed signs that read "ENOUGH" (I got one of those - for the wife of course. Poor dear couldn't make it, flu.) But the signs were, for the most part, hand written. Some were very catchy, some caught me by surprise, all were right on the money. I saw a couple of Libertarian Party signs, otherwise, there was no party politicking.







Got some pretty cool photos - I'm gonna put together a slide show, but wanted to get some pictures up quick - blogger is threatening a "scheduled outage" soon.




I was especially surprised and pleased at the turnout among younger adults. Some brought their own young children with them. Made it all the more homey feeling.
















I had a great time wandering the crowd. Everyone was very polite, and there wasn't an unfriendly vibe on the whole block. You could sense the boredom in the faces of the police crowd hanging out. We used to call that kinda' gig "easy money!"






Indianapolis
Tax Day Tea Party
April 15th

ENOUGH!

Congress, Repeal the Stimulus Packages
& uphold the Constitution of
the United States
NOW
OR we will replace every
Member of Congress starting in 2010!

Adventures In Offense and ForgivenessPt 4

See here for "Adventures In Offense and Forgiveness Pt 3."
See here for "Adventures In Offense and Forgiveness Pt 2."
See here for "Adventures In Offense and Forgiveness."

In the first, God is telling me to repeat again the necessary refrain. “I am not God.” I am the small flat stone. God is and has always been the power – He is my strength and He is (and has always been) the one holding me up. And here am I, afraid that He might let go? I am not supposed to be the one holding up my being. I may have the task of inhaling and exhaling, but “breath” is for God to give, not me. To believe in my own strength is to live in terror!

In the second vision, God shows me that forward motion, especially from a stopped position (or attitude) not only occurs with turmoil, but that it depends on turmoil! And I have to recognize that it is only from my perspective only that it looks like turmoil in the first place. If the demons are irritated I will feel their awkwardness in my flesh as a strong negative sensation. Like fear. Like guilt, or hatred. In my case God is showing me is that the “churning waters” are a delightful sign of His dynamic miracle working power, so hostile to the evil of distraction that had found place In me.

My movement was first in forgiveness. It seemed for a few days that in every direction I was asking for it or offering it. That I could live peacefully without forgiving and seeking forgiveness was a lie that caused a shift in my spiritual walk. If I was going to harbor doubts about God's love for me, then I had to walk in the strength of my own flesh. Without my consent, indeed, without my knowledge, I was distancing myself from God.

My flesh has too fond a remembrance of fear, and is impatient for its return. To prevent that, I must fill my temple with the things of God. There are many wonderful “furnishings” from which to choose. God not only commands me to fear only Him, and to be of good cheer and take courage, but in the word we are given an array of armaments to choose from that Satan and his minions are defenseless agianst.

Ps 91:14 “The Lord says, 'Because he is devoted to me, I will deliver him;
I will protect him because he is loyal to me.
91:15 'When he calls out to me, I will answer him.
I will be with him when he is in trouble;
I will rescue him and bring him honor.”
Rom 8:2 “For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.”

But while God is putting thoughts of a career change in my heart, hesitations and reluctance are unwelcome spirits emanating from the wrong law. He wants me to act with courage and boldness from Him, and knowing that my persuasive abilities are His concern, they were never mine because the message is His.

Rom 8:32 “Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things?”

Adventures in Offense and Forgiveness Pt 3

See here for "Adventures In Offense and Forgiveness Pt 2."

See here for "Adventures In Offense and Forgiveness Pt 1."

In my abject fear that I was close to immediate bankruptcy, I not only had to deal with an out of control family budget, I had to deal with some pretty well entrenched and sadly familiar demons.

The Holy Spirit gave me at least two visions. The first was of me as a small flat “skipping stone” that had been expertly and powerfully thrown. That was it. That was my vision! I couldn't help but think that I was bound to run out of whatever energies were keeping me just above the surface. The “law” of physics say the energy must eventually disperse, I must eventually sink, and I was so certain that it would happen any second. If you've ever skipped stones across a quiet lake, you know it doesn't take long.

The next came weeks later, and thankfully I understood what was being said. The second was of the propeller of a large ship. The ship had been moored but it was now time to leave the port. The propellers are spinning furiously and with great roar and froth and churning. But the boat does not move right away. Its bulk is simply too great, and the water needs to move a great deal to get any motion out of the boat.

I don't consider the presence of water in both visions to be a coincidence, and I believe both are related.

Adventures In Offense and Forgiveness Pt 2

See here for Adventures In Offense and Forgiveness; part 1.

It was many, many years before I realized I was carrying the terror around with me, and that I had to forgive him to get past it. Authority figures just scared me, especially if they came across as threatening or if they succeeded in intimidating me. It wasn't easy, though I have from a distance relieved myself of his evil by forgiving him.

Here's what is odd. It wasn't until I forgave HIM that I realized he wasn't the real culprit because, like me, he was just a kid. And fear, though it was real and sometimes debilitating, wasn't my real problem. It was given to me that I was really more upset with my dad. How could he have left me with him? I know my sister and another brother corroborated my story. Yet dad continued to leave us with the older brother. My soul was trying to grapple with betrayal. My heart had come to believe that there is no use in trying to convince anyone of anything. They weren't going to believe me anyway. My lot was to suffer quietly like a good boy.

I thought the hard work of forgiveness was over, but God was just waiting for me to open up to Him before He could work on me.

After forgiving dad, the real task began. I had to confront the God who was always aware, and yet always allowed the pain. God is God. He is in charge. He can't pretend, as mom and dad would, that He did not know. He knew, and allowed it. Is it arrogant to suppose I should forgive God?

Job 40:2 “Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let the person who accuses God give him an answer!”

Maybe real faith is hardest when the victory is nearest. When the revelation is most important, the obstacles will rise up in my flesh so as to seem so much more urgent. I am most likely to forget who God is when I find myself thinking He is most pleased with me. When my flaws (still mighty, still plentiful) are revealed to me – however gently – I still want to run for cover.

Job 40:8 “Would you indeed annul my justice? Would you declare me guilty so that you might be right?”

Busted.

I am not God. I am not God. The repetition is necessary. I am not God. I'm sorry, Lord, I do indeed forget which of us is mighty, and which of us is needed by the other just to stand. When God brought His revelation of my forgiveness to mind He used terror. He knew exactly how to get my attention. In my careless wandering through post home-schooling life, he reminded me there is still plenty of life to live, and still some trash to take to the curb.

Adventures In Offense and Forgiveness

Forgiveness is so weird.

When I was a kid, my oldest brother would baby sit for mom and dad when they went out. It was sometimes a happy evening. There would be board games, TV, and my favorite, home made popcorn. Elder brother made some very good popcorn with hot melted butter and plenty of salt.

In my memory, he was always healthy, I don't remember him ever being ill. But he was a “miracle child” of sorts. He developed polio when very young, and I'm sure my parents were scared to death for him. Certainly modern medicine played a part, but I was told the treatments that eventually cured him were very painful. Being a Catholic family, I know many prayers went up to the Father.

Perhaps that explains some of why they wouldn't listen. Not to diminish my brother's toughness in continuing with the struggle, but his cure was an answer to prayer, proof of God's awareness of their sorrow. It's my understanding that Salk could prevent the dreaded disease, but not cure it. How my brother was spared I don't know, except for God's intervention.

I don't know why my brother seemed to pick me out for torment; perhaps I was too much of a handful, a whiner, or a baby for him. Maybe having been freed from having to watch from the sidelines, he resented being put back on the sidelines for his slobbering, helpless siblings. He used to beat me up. I'm not sure if he ever really hurt me, I don't remember that. But I remember being terrified whenever my parents went out. And I remember they had a very difficult time believing me.

Townhall For Hope with Dave Ramsey

The title takes you to the homepage. Lady Espresso and I will be at the presentation given at Southport Christian Church.

Connect with families across the nation for a truly radical message: HOPE.

Tired of hearing the fear, doom and gloom that’s filling the airwaves? Join Dave Ramsey for a nationwide town hall meeting and discover what’s happening with the economy, how we got here, and where we’re going. Plus, Dave will answer your questions live throughout the event!

Join us for this free event April 23 at 8:00 p.m. EDT in one of the thousands of venues across the country as we stand together to reignite the fire of hope!

Citi Gas Shot

Screenshot of our gas bill, I love being able to say - "Click To Enlarge"(!). Probably a typical Indiana use pattern - but methinks it reflects a high gas dollar amount. Our old house is not well insulated and the old wooden windows need extra plastic film every winter.

I didn't highlight this difference, but I like the much faster March fall-off in 2009. Actually, I was expecting a bigger savings this year because we bought an electric stove, I believe last April, to replace a vintage dual oven/six burner with large pilots.
But then the cost of gas went up by at least twenty-five per cent from 2007/08 prices. So keeping within sight of last year's dollar amounts is a good thing. I need to look at electric usage now.

My Blog's First Adsense Ad!!

I finally updated this blog to the new format, so - since everyone else is - I put google's adsense on the page. Of course, for it to do any good a blog must have readers. As hard as I had to work to get the ads on the page I may as well put some effort into this thing,eh?
The process to get them kept insisting that this computer's cookies were disabled, but they weren't. I finally straightened it all out but lady espresso is going through the same thing and her cookies are resisting a "fix" even harder than mine did.
I figured I'd memorialize the event with a fireshot screen shot...

Thai and Her Kittens

They called it the five mile stare.


It's the look in the eyes of the one who does not see what is right in front of them. Some believe it to be the denial of reality.








It's the look that sees what no one else sees. Some say it means the mind is trying to make sense of recent events.




The eyes are open but what is seen by the viewer is not seen by others.





I hope I don't diminish the heroism of combat vets when I say that I have a mama cat, "Thai" that has those eyes. She never used to.



But with a playful, hungry, and unbothered but demanding litter of four kittens practically "hanging" from her nipples I see similarities between the mom and the vet.



If God created anything more delightfully helpless than a feline fur ball I'm at a loss to recall it.



These kittens were screaming at pitches that piccolo players get paid grandly to execute. They are irritatingly high, but not loud.


Thai, the geatest mama cat ever, heard them immediately and demanded the photo session be considered completed.






When she comes to her senses she'll probably insist on a modeling talent agent and legal representation. She may even have a case.


Before long she'll own this blog. Well ... darn it.

She can have it.

She's always been my favorite cat, but...

Her ridiculous demands may just ruin our relationship.

another try

In the post immediately below this, I expressed my dismay that the firefox add-on wasn't working, and I couldn't even show what happened because my image upload button stopped working. HEY HEY success!! very cool! Now I can give it the review it deserves...
Let me say I downloaded fireshot the second time from their website rather than firefox's add-ons page. This article's title is linked to the "screenshot studio" page, the link is about half-way down, and the one that worked for me is the one for firefox.
I first heard about fireshot here, at lady programmer. I'd add her to my blogroll, but blogger isn't working at the moment either.
(Besides, if there's money to be made in writing, it won't be - i don't think - in politics. So I may pop back occasionally, but my future is elsewhere, so I'm going to use this blog as a trial site, and start another writing site out there some where.)
Anyhow, she's got several good ideas and I may publish more of them soon. After all, I'm on vacation!! WooHoo!!
This is how she describes the firefox add-on.

FireShot takes a screenshot of the visible or entire part of the browser page then lets the user edit, upload, save, or copy to the clipboard, print email or even edit it in other external editor. Its free version is very powerful indeed for simple jobs, but if you are working on batch images then consider an upgrade.

Read more: Useful Firefox Extensions for Writing and Promoting Blogs | The Lady Programmer - http://www.theladyprogrammer.com/firefox-extensions-for-writing-and-promoting-blogs/#ixzz0BqrJRASw

(i'm going to leave in that humiliating, shameless self-promotion just because i think it's cool! It's not in what I copied so there's a command in her html that forces it?)
Anyway, another thought brings me to the app's "crop" function. There is a button on the top of fireshot's editor that draws a rectangle or an ellipse, and I mistook it for the tool that cuts up the full page down to what I want shown. THAT is called the crop tool. duh. And that's why my first image came out so tall! Another neat thing about the images is they have that "click to enlarge" thing happenin'. Mine comes up in Picasa, I don't know what happens if the reader doesn't run that program?
I know I'll use this add-on many times, so thanks to the lady programmer! My final product looks good, and I've wanted one of these thing-a-ma-jigs for a long time!
With this post, I introduce a new label...

fireshot

The promise is fabulous but I'm having trouble realizing to my little site here. I downloaded a capture of this blog to my photo editor/viewer but it didn't show up in the way I cropped it. I was going to show how unusable it is, but now it won't upload...,in fact, the image upload button on my blogger editor seems to be disabled!

Unlike other extensions, this plugin provides a set of editing and annotation tools, which let users quickly modify captures and insert text and graphical annotations. Such functionality will be especially useful for web designers, testers and content reviewers.

It has a very cool editor that allows (well, is supposed to...) arrows, text boxes, even drawing - all under user control. Hope I get my image uploader back. Rats.

Cincinnati Tea Party

From the Right Wing Nut Job blog, a refreshing video of the protest. Though it's a different experience for me to admire "protesters!"