It's a start

Not what I was hoping for, but it's a start! 

This is what I have for a garden this year.  Only 13X13, but considering I had to turn it by hand,  and it took me 3 days to turn it, and another 2 to rake it clean,  I'll take what I can get! 

I have corn, green beans, beets, sunflower, peas, onions, acorn, zucchini, yellow, butternut squash, pumpkin, cantaloupe, watermelon, carrots, tomatoes,  pickles,  and spinach, so I'm pretty pleased for now. I doubt I'll have enough of any of them to do much canning, but it will help keep down my produce bill this fall. 

I also started my salad greens inside, and have transferred them into my small salad garden:

This has kale, spinach, tomato, romaine, Bibb, and Simpson lettuces, cabbage, and collard greens.  

I have my herbs started in the house, and will be putting them in larger individual pots outside for the warm months, then bring them back in for the winter.

Working on the front stair railing tomorrow. Hopefully get that done and then get the aluminum skirting done.

It may be a small start, but my attitude toward life gets better with every task completed. Better to start small and add on then do nothing...

I know. Boring shit. But hey, again, better than nothing.
Take care my friends. And keep your powder dry!

About that cancer thing

Said I'd let ya know about this leukemia thing, right? Well, the results are in and I seem to have something called Splenic something leukemia.
Basically, it's a blood cancer that originates from the spleen and affects the white blood cells produced in the body's bone marrow.  No, I don't know (or care) how this happens.  I have a 'sightly' enlarged spleen with no other inordinate side effects; it's a 'non-Hodgkins' cancer; less than 1% of leukemia patients have it; and by the time it kills me, I'll have more than likely already been dead from old age anyway.

Kinda like I told my wife Rose: I lived through being shot with a .12ga at point blank range; fucking leukemia ain't got shit!

Who said it... About whom?

Let's start today with a little guessing game.
I read this in an email yesterday, and thought it might be fun to see if my readers got the same impression I did. I'll paste the relevant paragraph leaving two blanks, and let's see if you come up with the same gut feeling I did:

The                              said :
“This new authority is aimed at persons involved in or responsible for the erosion of human rights guarantees, persecution of political opponents, curtailment of press freedoms, use of violence and human rights violations and abuses in response to anti-government protests, and arbitrary arrest and detention of anti-government protesters, as well as the significant public corruption by senior government officials in                        * .” (http://www.cnbc.com/id/102488102)

My first thought was it must be a Patriot talking about Washington DC... Because the real answers would be WAY too much hypocrisy, right? Right?


*Actually, this was from the White House referring to Venezuela...

Good advice...

Sit back, relax, enjoy:

XenoBabes - repost for old times sake...

nowhere near close

Woke up to another shitty day. Rain and cold. Can't get much done lately,  and there is SO much needs doing.
Getting this trailer 'up to code' has been a nightmare. The electric finally passed after I'd finally gotten so frustrated I just said fuck it, and me and the wife went to the local watering hole to shoot some pool and tie one on. (I was tying one on, Rose came along to keep me out of trouble... She doesn't imbibe...)
Couple of guys were shooting at the table next to us, and after the usual barroom banter,  we ended up shooting partners.  Turns out one of the guys, Steve, owned A1 Electric (http://www.a-1heatair.com/), and generously offered to run the permits and provide all the materials and labor to get my electric finished!
So now I have a nice trailer,  electricity, and can finally sleep warm and comfortable nights.
However,  the trailer still isn't up to code on the site building permit until I get all the skirting up and the stairs completed. Rainy and cold days keep putting me farther and farther behind and I'm still short on materials.
I wouldn't mind so much, but there are so many other things I need or want to get done!  I have my seedlings ready to plant sitting in the kitchen,  but I had to hock my tiller last year and until I can get the ground broken I can't do much about it. And I can't purchase a tiller until I get my trailer done.

Gratuitous naked woman shot...

Then of course there are the voles everywhere out here! Before I put any seeds or plants in, I have to put fencing around the area and bury it at least a foot deep. Don't know how I'm gonna manage a corn and wheat field!
I need to get a nanny goat to go with my buck. And the pig pen needs to be moved to fresh ground.  My geese have all been killed just as the goose started nesting.  I'm down to two male ducks,  and a couple of chicken hens. Varmints are pretty thick here, and all my guns were sold off to get through the winter.
And yesterday I discovered my gas line under the trailer has a crack in it that I have to somehow fix before I can get propane in the tank I had installed.

Don't get me wrong though. Just bumps in the road.  It may take me longer than I'd hoped,  but I WILL get this place moving. Now if only the weather would just be a little more accommodating...

3 years trying

Any of y'all grow hot peppers?  It's a pain in the ass and usually hit or miss to get them to propagate. Well, since I've been having to warm this place up with a portable space heater,  I decided to put a shelf over it and start my seeds there.  I finally,  after three years, have managed to get my bhut jalokia peppers to sprout!
For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, that's GHOST PEPPERS! Upwards of 1,000,000 on the Scoville heat scale.  For reference, jalapeños are somewhere on the average of one hundred THOUSAND...
I see some serious homemade pepper spray in the future.

Finally!

Got a phone that actually picks up the Internet out here!  Can't guarantee I'll be posting a lot, but at least i can do a lot more than i have.
Things aren't great,  but I'm managing;  and looking forward to putting my two cents in more often when i get pissed of on the direction this once great nation is taking.
Keep an eye on me here. I'm back!

Not dead yet, but working on it...

Hi folks. Sorry its been so long. I am finally getting there. My electric, after a long struggle with the city of Norman, was turned on 2 weeks ago, (still no internet connection though, damn it!), my well is up and working, and as soon as I get my hot water heater, oven, and furnace converted to LP gas, I'll have all the amenities that come with that!


A lot has been happening here. I caught an ear infection about three months ago, and my doc sent me to give blood. Two days later, they call to tell me I have leukemia!


Of course, everyone freaked out. Well, everyone  but me. They told me it was chronic lymphoma leukemia, and I'd probably had it for years. So no big deal where I'm sitting.


Then, after setting up a blood test every six months, they called me back to give blood after 30 days, because they weren't sure what kind of leukemia it actually is. Seems it doesn't fit in any box. But definitely leukemia....


I get to go for a cat scan tomorrow followed by a bone marrow biopsy. FUN! And again, everyone is sweating it but me. If a .12 gauge shotgun at point blank range can't finish me off, leukemia can go fuck itself!


Working on getting internet. Not looking good in the near future. I'll make sure to post the results of my tests when I find out. Hope there's still a few folks out there who give a shit....




Take care and watch out for each other.


Ciao.


Xeno

I HATE Norman

I bought Turn Here Rose because it had a Noble,  OK address,  zip code, and postal service. After I had already closed on the land I found out that I'm on the very edge of Norman city zones...
Did I mention I hate Norman?
I still don't have electric,  gas, water... And all because of stringent and unfuckin'reasonable codes. Like no metal siding allowed. On manufactured homes. Keep in mind this is an area that was completely destroyed by fire 2 years ago. Go figure.

So, January 1st, 2015 finds me in a mobile home, electric hooked up, but the electric company won't turn on the juice until the city clears the permit. Which they won't do until the building permit is cleared, and I still need to put skirting on the trailer, have an electrician wire the pump in,(which I've had wired in for over two months and using with my generator), porch rails and handrails on the little 4X4 porch I constructed,  and build another stairway on the back door which I can't even GET to on the outside.

I have my gas tank installed, but need to have my stove, furnace, and water heater converted from natural gas to propane. By a QUALIFIED heat and air tech, before they will hook it up.

So, I'm making progress. It's 9 degrees today, I have a small gas heater that will heat up the living room OR bedroom to a maximum of 55 degrees, using my generator to pull water as needed, have a camp stove
for cooking, a smoker to use as a makeshift oven, and a long way to go. Nevermind getting internet out here!

Keep the faith, friends! Happy New Year!!!

XENOLITH