Day 24 - The attack of the Magpies

The watermelon transplants appear to have survived going from the paper cup starter pots to being planted into hills of topsoil.

This week I noticed the Magpies started to show up in the garden area. They stand on the top edge of the watermelon hills and disturb the loose soil. On one plant they picked at it and cut off a leaf.

I thought about making a scarecrow or something similar. Instead I stopped by my local Lowe’s and sure enough there was this scary looking owl. It claims to keep the birds away but you have to move the owl around. For $13 it is worth a try.

While purchasing the owl I wondered. What is the real purpose of the owl, to scare birds away or catch the eye of the gardener so he would purchase it?

Somewhat like fishing lures. They are all made up pretty and shiny with promises to catch lots of fish. But is the real purpose of those fish lures to catch fish or catch buyers?

Mr. Owl is now perched on his pole looking stately and in control. The big question is, will the birds respect him and leave my garden alone, especially the 200 lb watermelon plants?

Stay tuned.

Day 20 in the life of the gigantic watermelons

Today I moved some top soil into the garden area to create hills. On top of each hill I transplanted a watermelon plant. These aren’t just any watermelon plants, these are going to produce watermelons up to 200 lbs each. That’s what the package states.

I also located a neighbor who raises racing pigeons. He has offered to keep me supplied with pigeon manure for this special project. Picked up my first sack of manure. People swear by pigeon manure claiming it is the best fertilizer to use. Things are starting to move forward now that the plants are in the ground.

The package states fruit can be harvested in about 100 days. The seeds were planted June 1st. This means harvest time is around mid September. Once the plants are large enough to produce flowers it will probably be mid-July. This leaves about 60 days to grow a 200 lb watermelon. This works out to a watermelon averaging 3 lbs of weight gain per day. Something does not seem to add up. I guess it also means they will require lots of water during the growth time since watermelons are about 90 – 93% water.

Only time will tell.

The King's Brass Concert

http://www.kingsbrass.org/

I had the opportunity to attend a concert by Tim Zimmerman and The King’s Brass last night. Wasn’t sure what it would be like other than there would be no singing, just a brass band.

They were good!!!! You must see them if they come your way. For their 2009 tour they have 9 members. Each member is very talented in their choice of instrument. The band had 3 trombones, 3 trumpets, 1 tuba, 1 drummer / xylophone, 1 keyboard / piano and different sizes of trumpets / horns throughout the concert.

The band started the show by playing “Fanfare for the Common Man”. From there it just got better and better. At times, part of the band would disappear away then show up playing from the back of the concert hall. What an incredible stereo effect that filled the hall. They mingled with the audience as they played while strolling down the isles. There were a few solos including the drums, trumpets and tuba. The tuba solo was a blast.

Other crowd favorites they played were, “American Salute” (a rendition of “When Johnny Comes Marching Home”), “Bugler’s Holiday”, “Yankee Doodle”, “Armed Forces Tribute”, “When the Saints Go Marching In”.

During the “Armed Forces Tribute”, members of the audience stood up when they heard the song of the service branch they served. The audience clapped hard to show their appreciation of our service men and women.

They couldn’t leave without the crowd standing and applauding for an encore. They came back on stage and played “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”. They left and again the crowd stood up to applaud for another encore. Once again they returned and this time played “The Stars and Stripes Forever”.

It was a very positive and uplifting experience which lasted almost 2 hours. The concert was free but a love offering was passed around and music CD’s were available after the concert.

Check out their website for their concert schedule and other interesting information about Tim Zimmerman and the King’s Brass. http://www.kingsbrass.org/

Take your kids, take your teens, take your friends, take your neighbors but don’t miss out. How often do you get to listen to a top performing brass band in person?

Day 16 in the life of the gigantic watermelons

All 5 seeds have sprouted. That’s a 100% success rate so far. This weekend we’ll be transplanting into the garden.

Not sure what I need to do to make these grow into 200 lb watermelons but I have a few ideas I’ll be testing out.

I did learn the other day there are male and female flowers on watermelon plants. Most of the flowers are male flowers and only the female flowers can produce a watermelon. I have seen many bees in the garden this year so pollination should not be a problem.

What I am not clear on is how much water to give these plants. Should I keep it moist or allow them to dry out between watering?

I also know they will require fertilizer. I will try to locate a source of pigeon manure. I hear it works well and does not burn the plants. I may also test the soil pH. For watermelons I’ve read the pH should be between 6 – 7.

I still have the nagging question in the back of my mind. What do you do with a 200 lb watermelon?

We only have about 100 days till harvest time so visit often as the warm weather arrives and growth kicks into high gear. I’ll be keeping this blog updated regularly.

Giant Watermelon – Day 11

Three of the five seeds have sprouted. Hopefully the other two will cooperate and also show up for the party.

Now I need to start thinking about transplanting and protecting from each and all potential hazards. Things like dogs, snails, slugs, skunks, birds, bugs, jealous gardeners. Hmm… maybe I should build a machine gun tower in the corner. Do I need an electric fence or just a razor fence? So many variables to deal with. I didn’t know growing gigantic watermelons was going to be so complex.

It’s going to be great watching these puppies grow and produce 200 lb watermelon. What do you do with a 200 lb watermelon?

The concerned husband

A concerned husband went to a doctor to talk about his wife. He says to the doctor, "Doctor, I think my wife is deaf because she never hears me the first time and always asks me to repeat things." "Well," the doctor replied, "go home and tonight stand about 15 feet from her and say something to her. If she doesn't reply move about 5 feet close and say it again. Keep doing this so that we'll get an idea about the severity of her deafness". Sure enough, the husband goes home and does exactly as instructed. He starts off about 15 feet from his wife in the kitchen as she is chopping some vegetables and says, "Honey, what's for dinner?" He hears no response. He moves about 5 feet closer and asks again. No reply. He moves 5 feet closer. Still no reply. He gets fed up and moves right behind her, about an inch away, and asks again, "Honey, what's for dinner?" She replies, "For the fourth time, vegetable stew!"

How to Geocache with a TomTom One

Geocaching is the sport of locating a hidden item with the use of a GPS. The longitude and latitude of the hidden object is entered into the GPS which then guides you to the objects location.

The TomTom ONE (TT1) is a budget priced GPS which works well under normal driving conditions. I received my TomTom ONE as a gift but didn’t think about geocaching until I realized I could enter the destination as longitude and latitude.

Geocaching locations can be found at http://www.geocaching.com/ the premier site for all things geocached. You will need to register but there is no fee unless you want the paid membership. For starters the free membership is all you need.

Once you are logged in locate a geocache near your home and print the longitude and latitude coordinates. Now enter the coordinates into your TT1. Next follow the driving directions to the general area of the geocache. Most geocaches are located away from the road sometimes in a park but generally in a location which you must walk to.

Here is where it gets tricky since TT1 expects to guide you along a road instead of across a park area with no roads. Once you park, you will want to change your TT1 to pedestrian mode. This is found under Planning preferences. In addition you want to set TT1 to display GPS status. This shows the N and W coordinates as you move about.

Remember, the printed coordinates is where you are headed to and the TT1 displayed coordinates is your current location.

With the printed coordinates in hand you start walking in any direction until the TT1 coordinates begin to change as you walk. The printed coordinates are your final destination.

If the TT1 North coordinate is smaller than the printed North coordinate then you must walk North. If it is larger then you must walk South.
If the TT1 West coordinate is smaller than the printed West coordinate then you must walk West. If it is larger then you must walk East.

The rule is:
While viewing the TT1 GPS status screen if you want to move toward a larger coordinate you walk in the direction of North or West.

You will know you have arrived when the TT1 coordinates match the printed coordinates. At that point then you must figure out where the Geocache item is hidden.

Good Luck and Happy Geocaching!

Why Google Chrome is not GREEN

Excessive printing is a waste of paper. There are times as I surf when I need to print information from a website. I don’t want to print the whole page, just a paragraph or two.

The normal process when using MS IE is to highlight the portion I want to print, choose Print Selection and bingo, I get what I want on the fewest sheets of paper.

Google Chrome is great EXCEPT it will not allow me to print a selection. The few times I tried printing, it dumped more pages than I wanted. What a waste of resources! That’s why Google Chrome is not GREEN.

I submitted the request but no one is listening. Until Print Selection is added to Chrome, I won’t be using it.

What do you think?

Saga of the Gigantic Watermelons

This is our first year we planted a serious garden. Lawn area was converted to garden area. An area about 12 feet by 44 feet now has tomatoes, corn, zucchini, crook neck squash, peas, cucumber, strawberries, flowers, sun flowers, black berries, red raspberries, onions, garlic, beets, radish, cayenne pepper, watermelon, cantaloupe and chayote squash.

We planted everything not really understanding what might and might not grow. This would give us a good education for next year’s garden.

Then I came across some large watermelon seeds, the Carolina Cross #183 by Burpee. The package states gigantic fruits grow up to 200 lbs. I can’t let a challenge like that just pass me by.
Since I will be tending the garden this summer anyhow, what’s another half dozen gigantic watermelon plants to water and nurture?

I will post weekly updates as these monster watermelons grow for the next 100 plus days. That’s what’s great about being new to gardening. You believe you can grow anything. You haven’t established preconceived boundaries.

Day 1 – June 1st: Today we placed 5 gigantic watermelon seeds in Miracle Soil. Package states the seeds will sprout in 7 – 10 days.

Hmm… has anyone ever really grown a 200 lb watermelon?

Lesson Learned

She was 4 years old and attending pre-school. Every day on the way to work, Daddy would drop her off. They had a ritual. She would race a bee line to the swing set, hop on and wait for Daddy to catch up and give her a few pushes before going off to work.

Many times she would race past other kids to reach the swing set first. Daddy would explain to her that sharing is a good idea.

Then one time she raced past a little boy. She arrived at the swing seat, stood for half a second then stepped back as the little boy arrived and proceeded to hop onto the swing.

Daddy was very surprised as he looked towards the play yard teacher. He had the “my little girl is learning to share and that makes me proud” look on his face.

He raced over to his little girl to let her know how pleased he was to see her share.

She looked up to him and said, “It was wet”. Apparently the landscape sprinklers had wet the swing seat.

That day Daddy learned a lesson. Things are not always what they appear to be.

Oatmeal at 60 Miles Per Hour

How do you like your oatmeal? How about at 60 miles per hour while changing lanes.

I don’t think you will find anyone who will question the fact that oatmeal is good for you. But how can you enjoy hot healthy oatmeal with fruit, in the morning when you are in a hurry to get to work?

Here’s how.

Start out with a soup cup. Boil 1 and ¼ cups of water in the microwave. Dump ½ cup of rolled oats into the water. Now add any extras you want such as dried fruit, chopped nuts maybe some brown sugar or honey. Let this mixture sit in the hot water for about 10 minutes. If you want to add fresh fruit, don’t add it at this point.

For dried fruit use pitted dates, dried plums, raisins, dried cranberries, dried mangos or whatever you like.

After the oats and extras have been sitting in the hot water for about 10 minutes dump the mixture into a blender. It doesn’t have to be one of those fancy high speed blenders. Just the good old fashion kitchen blender works fine.

If you are going to add fresh fruit such as peach slices, bananas, apples, berries or whatever is in season this is the time to add it.

Finally add ½ cup of soy milk, regular milk or even orange juice. Again it’s your choice.

Now blend the mixture on high speed for a couple of minutes until thick and creamy. Pour it back into the soup cup.

By now you must be wondering how am I supposed to drink this at 60 miles per hour while changing lanes? Glad you asked. You use a big diameter straw.

Go to your nearest Lowe’s, Home Depot, OSH, Ace hardware or your favorite hardware store. In the plumbing department you can buy a foot of polyethylene tubing. It’s the tubing that’s milky white in color. You want the ½ inch inside diameter size. It should cost around 25 - 50 cents for a foot. You don’t want the clear vinyl tubing or the black rubber tubing. They are not good for food consumption. Now cut the tubing into 6 inch straws.

So now you have your blended oatmeal with a big straw. Pop your blue tooth into one ear, grab your oatmeal and take off.

It’s best to prepare the oatmeal the night before, cover with saran wrap and microwave in the morning. You can even prepare a weekly batch ahead of time.

Don’t be surprised to someday see oatmeal on the go with the big straw at places like Jamba Juice, Starbucks or even McDonald’s. Isn’t that how we like our food, fast and healthy.

By the way, the straw is dishwasher safe.

Just for ducks - the name

I can't tell you the real origin of the term "just for ducks". I do recall using the term when we were kids as a reference to "just for the heck of it". I've always liked the sound of "just for ducks". It seems to have a carefree lazy summer day feeling. That's something we don't get to experience very often anymore. I hope a visit to this blog will leave you feeling better than when you arrived. I have a general plan on where I want to take my readers. Overall I want my readers to come here for a smile, to learn something or leave wondering about what they just read. Let's get started.