exclusive Bin Laden photos!!!

Obtained from secret documents of the death of Osama Bin Laden!!!

OHHHH Those damn Seal Team 6 Angry Birds!!!!

Time to Garden

So it's time to start the garden! This is the first time I've worked the soil at the new house and man the soil and lighting sucks! In the fall we took 4 large trees down (I am still splitting that wood) and even without all the leaves forming, my garden is still considered 'partial sun.' The garden is about 40 feet by 25 feet. The soil is very clay based. I have added a yard of garden soil, 3.8 Cft of peat moss and about a yard of horse manure. Still I am weary of the quality of the soil. Last weekend Jaiden and I sowed seeds for arugula, kale, collards, radishes, and spinach. All are very easy to grow, but I would be surprised if they grow. A few days ago I also planted about 160 onions. I don't know what I'm going to do with all of these onions. I think I wont let some of them grow big and just pickle the small ones. I've been using wood chips to mark my plantings.

Also I have two raised beds that this year I planted two rhubard plants, 5 horserashish plants and some garlic in. I'll have ot build some more raised beds because I have previously ordered asparagus which if I can grow it correctly will take over.

In the front of the yard I have planted two large Duke Blueberry plants and two red rasberries. the Blueberrys are already doing well since I had some pine wood chips to put in the hole. Blueberries love acidic soil and pine sap provides that. I have some more blueberries coming and will also plant them in the front.

It's all coming along. On saturday I pick up the bees for my hives. Anna and Hailee had made thier first batch of lip balm using bees wax. It came out pretty good. Alot cheaper than if we were to buy it.

 

Thrifty Northern Rednecks

So just when you think you've seen it all. How about a gas fired hibachi outside the second story window? I mean it is pretty difficult to walk down the stairs and go outside to grill a hot dog. So lets just grill it out the window. So if you are on the first floor, don't look up- I forgot the grease catch pan! Hopefully the wind wont blow those nice curtains on the hibachi.

Jaiden and I at the father daughter dance

My new project

So this is my first attempt at bee Keeping. Lynne bought me on of these Hive Kits from Brushy Mountain Bee Farm fro Christmas and I picked up the other one soon after. They are 8 frame shallow garden hives and I'll expand as my bee populations grows (which hopefully they will). Both of the hives are almost identical except one is using wax foundation and the other hive is using that plastic foundation. My bee's are being delivered in April from Georgia so I'll take pictures of us putting them in.

Unrest in the Middle East

I've been reading about the unrest in the Middle East, it's spreading from country to country, the protesters, and the violence. there is one thing I notices in all of these reports from 'reading between the lines;' NONE OF THE PROTESTS ARE ANTI-US! Those of us that have been around for a while are pretty shocked that none of these protesters have been blaming the United States for their problems.

So why aren't these protests anti-US? After all we supported almost all the regimes that are being ousted.

Perhaps its because of the success we had in developing democracy in Iraq! Perhaps, this might be a crazy idea, that by invading Iraq and setting up a democracy, other Muslim peoples realized that this could happen and what was going on in their country for years was wrong. Perhaps seeing all the development in Afghanistan has motivated the middle east to a better way of life. Perhaps this is also why we are staying out of it, we lit this fuse - and so far it seems to be a good thing, but only time will tell. Now if they will only get rid of Hezbollah.

Oh another thing, if you are a young 100 lbs, 20 something female reporter- do not let your boss deploy you to report from the middle of a middle eastern protest. Nothing good can happen. Men should be weary also. Here is a news flash- the people in the rest of the world cannot identify Katie Curic! They care about America's CBS news as much as America cares about the BBC and soccer. The rest of the world will treat Katie Curic just as they would anyone else.

Chishis

I made my fist set of Chishi last night. Very easy construction. I had an old rake handle that I split in two, put some concrete screws at the end, then set that handle and screws into the concrete. this morning the concrete is still green and they will need a few more days to harden.

The larger one is about 35 lbs, the smaller about 25 lbs. I need to make some more with some less weight for the girls and wrist training. Because some of the exercises are pretty tough when using even a 25 lb chishi.

Next I need to make some makiwaras. I would like some to mount to the basement floor, but I haven't found any steel floor mounts yet.