Bibles

     A few weeks ago I was at the tool store. Upon leaving I saw a trio at a van with a sign "Free Bibles". I stopped by, we chatted for a bit and I left with a King James  that I keep an my car and have been reading on my lunch breaks.
     
     Last week my Jehovah's Witness friends stopped by and we met and talked as we always do. One asked if I have a Bible and I showed him the KJV in my car. He said he had a New World Translation of The Holy Scriptures that I could have if I wanted it. Now, I don't agree with the Witnesses 100% on everything but I jumped on this "plain talk" version of the Bible like  duck on a June bug. After all, the KJV was written some 500 years ago. I must admit some of the vernacular can be puzzling.at times.
     To make a long story short, I've been reading my"new" Bible at lunch breaks bit at times I will go back to the old standard KJV when I guess for lack of better way of saying, "I need to hear the word of GOD.

    I'm not gonna preach and tell you to read the Bible. All I ask is this:  Open your heart to God and Jesus. Love one another as you would be loved.

LOVE!

Volunteers

     After all the work and money I put into my veggie gardens I seem to have best results from what God plants Out back where I had my ducks & geese, I never dropped a seed. Yet I have sunflowers, and one each tomato and what appear to be squash and perhaps watermelon growing stronger than anything I'm tending.
     I'm just mowing around them and letting them do whatever God wants them to do. Also I have a few stalks of corn where I had bird feeders that are SO much taller than the corn I planted.

     In a pair of my raised beds I've planted herbs & garlic. All over my bit of property I find wild garlic growing, well wildly. Whenever I find it I pull it up and replant it in my garlic patch. The regular garlic is quite larger but the wild stuff is native or at least has been here long enough to know where it wants to grow. I believe in  a few years I'll have a strain with the size of domestic and the hardiness of wild.

How My Gardens Grow

     We've lately had gully washer rains here.  But I've filled my herb garden with an assortment of plants that seem to be doing quite well except my peppermint which fizzled out rather quickly. I sowed a handful of dill and fennel seeds as well as a sack of leek bulbs and a head of garlic broken into separate cloves.
     Most on my tomato plants are doing fair to middling.  Corn and okra are sprouting  but so far peppers are all no show.  I'll sow another bunch of seeds for them PDQ. I ordered online and have received 1/4 pound of Salsify (Oyster Root) seeds which I'll probably give one entire 6' x 6' raised bed to.
     I have volunteer sunflowers and even wheat in my back yard where I had the ducks as well as wild garlic all over the place and a patch of dewberries at the front door.
     When I lived in the trailerhood, I had a small garden patch. I tossed an overripe tomatillo into the dirt and Lo and behold soon had a half dozen or so tomatillo plants. I bought one of the fruits the other day so I'll just slice it up, place the slices and cover with dirt to see what happens. As happy as I am to see something I plant grow, I think it's even better when God plants a seed in my garden and it thrives. I don't recall where all my dill came from in the 'hood but it was spreading across the yard, the base or mother plant had a trunk almost 1/2" thick. Whenever I mowed, the whole yard reeked of pickles!
     I've some 1/2 dozen or so bundles of catnip that I've harvested and dried, at least another 2 bunches ready to cut and a pair of 4" x 16" or so planters of roots I've pulled. When I'm certain they'll survive, I can separate them into individual cups for sale.

     The store where I work marked down all their 40 pound sacks of topsoil  to 2/ $3.00 or $1.50 each and I fetched home 8 sacks or 320 pounds (as marked). Some had taken on some water and were more than the poundage marked. I just looked at the added water weight as water I didn't have to add myself. I got 1 sack for each 6' x 6' bed, by the way.

     I'm looking at perhaps another month until I get my truckload of sand shoveled and barrowed to where I want/need it.  With all the rain we've lately had I reckon it won't be long after that I'll order a truckload of brown dirt. Hey, that's what the lady who answered the phone called it! I've been marking where I bog down in the back yard and low spots up front.

     If I want to work in sunshine but it rains, I say.... "I wanted sunshine but GOD wanted rain. Am I gonna argue with Him?"

Home Gown Tomatoes

     My neighbor mowed down and killed all my volunteer tomato plants so I'm forced to try and grow some by work again. I'm not mad at my neighbor. She said she and her family didn't eat them.
     Anyway, I went to she seed & feed store and bought 3 or 4 different varieties of seedlings as well as another 3 or 4 of seeds. I'm just gonna let em go do their thing. If they wanna cross pollinate and make a whole new hybrid "Merlin's Mississippi Maters" that's fine and dandy with me.

     All the corn seed I can find are hybrid varieties. Not surprising as corn is actually one of the oldest hybrid crops known to mankind. I got 1 pack each of one early variety and one of a later breed for my corn patch. As with the tomatoes, I'll let them do whatever God wants them to do.
     My corn seed went into the ground a couple of weeks ago. My assorted bean seed went in the other day as the corn seedlings were a few inches tall.  As with the corn and tomatoes, they are free to make whatever bean grows best for me. Once the beans are sprouted I'll stab in a few seeds of green and yellow zucchini squash.
     The corn gives the beans something to climb on and the squash shades out the weeds. The American Indians used this technique for ages before Columbus arrived so it is a proven method.

My Dad's Birthday

     Today is June 4, 2017. My Dad would have turned 79 today. I'm not going to grieve over my loss but give thanks to God  The good times we had together outnumber the bad, although most were just okay, I guess. I'll thank God that Dad passed away quickly. His health was failing and the last thing my step Mom asked him was, "Roy, What's wrong?"  He said , "I don't know but  it ain't good". Those were his last words on this good earth.

     I'm also thanking the Lord my Mom is in good if not great health for a lady her age. She'll be 79 in September, 4 days before I reach 58. She's having a rough time caring for my brother, her son who is a mere 2.5 years older than I am. He can take care of his basic staying clean and such but that's about all he can do. He can't cook, wash dishes, help clean house nor do yard work. Actually, he can't do any kind of work. Mom is fighting the system to get him on disability but "the system" keeps rejecting.

     Enough of the grumbling. I've made a decision that when my knees and/or feet hurt instead of whining, I thank God that I still have and can feel them. Sometimes I will say, "Thank you, Father. I am really feeling them tonight!" Last night I was actually to the point in my knees I prayed, " Father, if You don't mind turning it down just a tiny bit?"

     Back on the home front, I've been getting happy in my gardens. Yesterday I planted bean seeds in a fine and lovely mist rain. I came inside after the task was completed to rest a bit and was thinking, "Fella, you reek and them britches you have on are filthy! The dirt under your nails (finger and toe) makes you look like a grave robber."
     The back door was open and directly I hears water gushing off the roof. I fetched a towel, tossed on the washing machine right there by the back door and went and took a God shower. I did keep my shorts on during my God shower. Not out of modesty but because as I said before, they were filthy.

     I've been watching religious programs on TV and listening to praise songs on the radio as of late. Some rabbis and preachers touch me more than others. Some songs by some artists I like more than others. For now, I'll not endorse any given preacher nor rabbi. I'll not tell you what songs move me.
     I will ask this of you, however. If you've tried everything else and aren't happy, try GOD. Give Him a mere 30 minutes a day surfing the TV or internet to hear His word.
      I started by finding what I thought was a like History Channel series about Jesus and now I am hooked. I feel saved and blessed by God's grace and Jesus's blood.

My Jamaica Friend

     Last night at work a customer asked me if we had any Jamaica jerk seasoning.  As I led him to over to the seasonings section we got to talking and he told me he was from Jamaica. He was getting ready to cook some ribs then shared with me a "secret".
      Precook your ribs then mix barbecue sauce with Jamaica jerk and apple sauce. Cool and cut your ribs apart, slather them with the sauce, put them in an aluminum tray and cover with foil then put them in the oven.
     The he said, "Jesus Christ, man It's so good!"
     I got to laughing so hard I forgot to ask him how much barbecue sauce, jerk seasoning and apple sauce.

     He comes in every week or two so next time I see him I can ask amounts and try it for myself. I know the apple sauce will be sweet and I've heard (even from him) jerk is spicy so it ought to be pretty damned tasty.

Memorial Day 2017

     Monday was Memorial Day here where we give thanks to all those Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines who gave all for their and our country.  Sadly, for most civilians it is just a day off of work with pay and a  time to cook out and party down. As a veteran myself, I take a somewhat more somber look at the day. As the saying goes: All gave some, some gave all.

     During my daily prayers as I was asking God to remember my fallen brothers and sisters in uniform, I cried.

     Later in the day I got my fingers and toes in the dirt of my gardens and felt better as always happens when I do such. All the herbs in my herb garden are doing well save the peppermint which is nigh onto dead. I bought a big pot of rosemary normally $9.99 for $3.99. Saturday I'll go to the hardware/garden store that has the 50% off Saturday morning sale and see can I replace the mint. While there I'm gonna stock up on cactus and succulent seeds to add to the store for my little greenhouse/nursery business.
     Meanwhile, I've been harvesting and drying catnip for sale. I pulled up a few plants and roots and potted them to sale as live plants as well.