Garden Update

Things are going well in the garden. Yesterday I had some good help too. My nephew and my niece helped me pick cucumbers, tomatoes, banana peppers, onions, broccoli, and green beans. They also helped me to put out some more soaker hose for irrigation. And we also encouraged the purplehull runners to climb the trellis. My niece told me, "Uncle Jonathan, this is the most fun we have ever had together!" That did my heart good!

All told we picked about 2 gallons of green beans. They were some of the prettiest ones I have ever seen. I'm looking forward to tasting them soon too! My niece even helped me to string and break the beans last night. While we watched the Braves finish their sweep of the Phillies! Whoo! Now if the Braves can just keep it going for the rest of the season. Gardening is great because it gives me an excuse to watch baseball! You might as well do something while you are processing the harvest!

Some of the new tomato varieties that I grew this year are pretty good. I really like the taste of both the Celebrity and the Early Girl tomatoes. The Celebrity tastes a lot like the Better Boy whereas the Early Girl is really sweet. The German Johnson had a good taste too. We should have some other varieties to taste soon. I have been a little disappointed with the Roma tomatoes' seeming proclivity to bloom end rot. I haven't been able to get any Calcinit Tropicote on them this year and I am sure that it isn't helping matters, but I have only found the problem on my Better Boys and my Romas. I have been putting off putting out the CT because the pellets melted and have become one large block. I don't look forward to breaking that block up into a powder that will get all over my hands when I go to put it out. Blech.

Onions are hanging in there but I'll be pulling them up soon. I think they are about done.

I still need to sort some irrigation issues. I need to get some for my corn and some for the remainder of the purplehulls. My corn isn't up yet, probably because I haven't been able to get any water on it yet. I need to get that sorted quickly because I need to get it going. And I also want to do a couple successive plantings and that needs to be done soon. I'd also like to get some pumpkins planted soon.

Loving the summer weather this week. If it would stay like this I wouldn't mind summers at all. Keep me under 90 degrees and I'm a pretty happy camper.

Garden Update

Things are going nicely in the garden, although it is starting to get a little dry. I have started getting tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, onions, broccoli, and peppers. All of my beans are blooming, the cantaloupe and watermelon are doing nicely, and the okra is finally getting going.

It is a pretty garden this year. We have put up trellises for the green beans, purplehull peas, and cucumbers to climb. Everything is nice and green. At least for now.

I'm still sorting out irrigation issues. I noticed my green beans starting to go a little yellow on me from the lack of rain and abundant heat over the past week so I went to work to make sure that I got irrigation to them today. I ended up putting 6 patches on one of the soaker hoses. It could have used 8, but I only had 6, so I cut out a bigger section than normal so that I could get the last two leaks repaired. I have two more hoses to get sorted out. I need to do so soon because I have corn in the ground now that I doubt will come up if I don't get some water on it. The purplehulls are going to be needing water too.

And that is your farm report!

A Quote For Today

Is it the role of the church to shape the culture or to merely reflect it?... Christians need to take a break from worshiping this culture and the idols it produces. We need to take a closer look at the man in the mirror.

- Mike Adams from his article The Advocate Of The Episcopal Church

Ubercool Picture

Beach Pictures

If you are interested you can see more pictures from Corolla on my Facebook page. I would post more here, but I don't feel like trying to resize each one! For some reason the small medium and large editor on Blogger isn't working. I will leave you this picture though. It is one of my favorites...


What could be cooler than a monster bus that can drive on the beach? Awesome!

It is hard to believe that this has already been over two weeks ago!

Wynton Marsalis On Integrity

Excellent interview. I really like the way Wynton Marsalis thinks. He is clearly a very intelligent man. I'd love to have a few hours to sit down with him and talk - and jam too! Too bad most of the folks in charge don't see things a clearly and reasonably as he does.

More From The Beach

Wednesday we ended up going over to the Currituck lighthouse. It is a very beautiful structure. I believe that it may be my favorite NC lighthouse now. The lighthouse is open for visitors to climb, and climb we did. I got some pretty good pictures all along the way. I would love to share them with you now, but for some reason, my friends' computer cannot find the driver for my camera. I blame Vista. We also looked around at the buildings around the lighthouse too. There were some very interesting details.

For instance, there was a two-holer latrine/outhouse out there. It was not in operation, but an inspection of the building revealed that there would be absolutely no privacy in the privy. If I can get pictures up, you'll see what I mean. I also saw what looked to be a double cistern and water collection system on the keeper's house. I have pictures of that too. It is a shame that they didn't have someone out there to explain what everything is and to give some background information about the lighthouse and grounds.

We also explored the old Corolla village and shops. It is pretty much all tourist boutiques. The one big score that we did get was a barbecue joint that was in the village. Excellent 'que. Their ribs were very good and everything that I tasted was, well, tasty. For Eastern style barbecue it was a pleasant surprise.

Wednesday night we took another swing at Triopoly - although we probably should have called it Dupoly? We took the top level off to help shorten the game. I was playing great and had lots of sets and had even built several skyscrapers, but once again the other players started boycotting my properties. It was very sad, and somehow I ended up being cash poor and going down in ignominious defeat. "The Godfather" seems to have lost his touch. Perhaps it is because we are playing the international edition instead of the original one! After Triopoly we did a little bowling on the Wii. Very fun night. I even managed to pull off a few of my niece's over the shoulder strikes.

Yesterday we went to get some supplies for fishing. We bought bait at one store, but they didn't have licenses and they didn't have the other tackle that we needed. Afterwards we went shopping for some gifts. I was generally underwhelmed at the offerings. I saw absolutely nothing that I couldn't live without. We finished up at another tackle shop where I was able to get my license and some flounder rigs. It was a nice shop and the owner was very helpful. I don't recall the name of the store right now, but it was in the same shopping center as the Food Lion. His prices were pretty reasonable too.

Our fishing expedition didn't go so well. I was fishing with an old Penn Number 9 baitcaster. I had never fished with it before. I guess it would probably be safe to still say that! I spent most of my time "fishing" trying to get backlashes out of the line. I thought a couple of times that I had figured out how to do it, but another cast using the same technique demonstrated (with a mighty snarl of 20 lb test) that I had not. I also had my license checked for the first time on the beach this trip. I thought that it was interesting that it was checked by a deputy instead of a Wildlife officer.

After a couple hours in which no one had gotten a bite (but a lot of fish had gotten a free meal) David's son was tired of fishing. So I left the baitcaster and went back to my more familiar Penn spinning reel. I did have better success, although not with the flounder rig. After about a half an hour of fishing with it getting no bites I decided to switch to a drum rig like we usually use in the fall. It wasn't long before I did get a really nice blue bite. However, by that point most everyone was ready to move on so we packed up and headed on up the beach to look around some.

We didn't see the horses this time, but we did see a wedding on the beach complete with a steel drum band. I have never quite understood the fascination with beach weddings. Not for me, thanks.

Last night we started trying to get rid of some of the leftovers that we have been amassing. Most of the dinner was veggies, although we did take the leftover grilled chicken and steak from earlier in the week and added them to salads. Mmmmmm. Very tasty.

Instead of a game last night we ended up working on development of a game that David and I am working on. It is an iPhone application. I added some information to the database and he did some coding. We also kept an eye on the Baltimore/Seattle baseball game. Tonight Baltimore is playing the Braves. I hope that we can watch some of that too.

Today we have taken our time and not done too much. David and his family went out to play some miniature golf and I have been enjoying the solitude of having the house to myself.

Tonight we will probably play some more games. I am hoping to play some Risk. I've only played it once before and want to take another swing at it. Of course we will also continue to play billiards too. David, his son and his dad are all pretty good. I rarely win against them, but I have managed to pull off some pretty cool shots this week, including a few jumped cue shots to sink a snookered ball.

Sadly, our time here at the beach is coming to an end. We have to relinquish this wonderful house and head back to reality. I'll probably go kicking and screaming!

Update From The Beach

Yesterday we drove out on the beach above Corolla. It was nice out there. The dunes are really cool. It is strange to see people out on the beach doing anything besides fishing... it has been so long since I have been at the beach during peak season. Usually when I'm here the only folks here are fishermen! The water is also much colder now than it usually is when I am here in November. I doubt the water is much warmer than 60 degrees right now.

I also got to see some of the wild horses yesterday. I only saw them from a distance, but two of the ladies from our group walked up the beach and were able to get pretty close to them. In fact they got pictures taken with them and autographs too.... OK there were no autographs, but there were pictures. My friend, David, drove up to pick up the ladies and he managed to get his picture taken with them too. We also saw some porpoises or dolphins, lots of pelicans, and something that I had never seen before - a whole flock (probably 40 or more) of Canadian geese sitting out on the ocean. They hung around until they saw the dolphins...

The SPF-40 seemed to do the job yesterday. No sunburn.

A big thunderstorm came up after we had been there a couple hours. That was sufficient to get us off the beach. It ended up raining most of the rest of the night. So to pass the afternoon we broke out Triopoli. For those who have not played Triopoly before it is a modification of Monopoly. But the truth be told it is probably not enough of a modification of Monopoly to have kept the creators from getting shut down for copyright infringement. It is almost impossible to find the game now.

But anyway the game is basically Monopoly on steroids. Up to 8 people can play and it takes hours. I have not ever actually finished a game to the bitter end. Instead of one board you have three concentric boards. I'll try to include a picture here in a little bit. There is a whole lot more property than in Monopoly and the stakes are higher. There are also two casinos in the game that can either save you or ruin you! They had almost saved me yesterday. I hit it big 5 times out of six with 100-1 odds.

Last night we enjoyed the best fajitas that I have had in a long time, got down with our bad selves to some 80s funk and 70s disco and played some billiards. A good time was had by all. David is the reigning billiards champ, but you need to look out for his dad who has been dubbed "the closer."

Today I'm not sure what we'll end up doing. Roughly half of our party has to leave today so we will probably go back down to the beach for them to get in one last huzzah before the long drive back home. There has been talk of going to see the movie Up. I'm looking forward to that. I've been wanting to see it ever since I first started seeing the trailers on Facebook. I'm also going to try to make my way over to see the lighthouse and the stuff around it today or tomorrow.

We also have two more games to play. My friend brought the Emergency! board game, which will have to be tried out. It doesn't look all that complicated, but well, it was my favorite TV show as a kid. I also brought Risk. I hope we'll take a shot at that too. I've only played it once, but had a good time even though I made the classic blunder - I got involved in a land war in Asia.

So that's what's new and exciting here in Corolla. I'll update again when there is something fun to report.

Some Time Away

Today I have headed down to Corolla with some friends, leaving things at home in the capable hands of my cousin, and my dad is keeping an eye on my garden for me.

This is my first time to this part of the Outer Banks. It is really different from the area around Hatteras, but I think it is prettier here than Hatteras is. There are some really interesting things close by that I am going to do my best to go see. Currituck lighthouse is within blocks of the house where I am staying. Definitely will go see that. I also passed by the place where the Wright brothers flew for the first time. Would like to see that too. It seems like I passed something else that I thought I'd like to see. Hmmm.

Gas is a lot cheaper down here than it is at home. It was $2.55 in Salisbury and I saw it for as low as $2.46 here. Never expected that. Not that I'm arguing...

I'll see if I can get some pictures for you. I don't know if I will be able to download pictures while I am here or not. If not. I'll post them when I get back! More later!