Shady Solar

     What a difference a few months ban bring in the amount of Sunlight one area receives! During the Summer my back yard is almost constantly from Sunrise to Sunset being baked in the solar light. Now it is almost always in the shade from my neighbors' trees.
     The east side of my house faces the street and I have one huge oak at the Southeast corner which all by itself is making placement of the solar spotlights in the front yard tricky. My fruit trees that I planted; one each apple, pear, Meyer lemon and olive are small enough still not to affect the Sunlight scheme at all. In the back yard my neighbors to the South, North and West all have large oaks and the Southwest corner has pines I'd estimate at being no less than 100' tall. So during the Winter I'll be hard pressed to find enough hours of Sunlight to charge the batteries of my solar powered lights in the back yard. Once we swing into Spring I expect the situation to change dramatically and I'll have plenty of Sunlight I'll try a few times to place the lights where they'll have at least some chance of charging but I believe my best hope will be for some of the neighbors' trees to come down.
     Meanwhile, I'll do the best I can with what solar energy I do get in regards to placing the lights. Perhaps when the oaks lose their leaves I'll get better results.
   
     Only time will tell.

Thanksgiving Day @ Mom's

     Yesterday I went down to Mom's for Thanksgiving and it was a mixed bag. Being with Mom and spending time with her and my brother was good but my brother's Alzheimer's is eating him up, aging him well beyond his years. He's never been known for a great attention span nor regard for the feelings of others but he is rapidly becoming your stereotypical grumpy old man.
     The most disturbing thing to me is his inability to see how some of his words to Mom hurt her feelings. We realize he doesn't mean to be mean or rude so we just try to accept that he he can't help himself sometimes.

     Enough of the not so good, onto the good stuff. Mom cooked a turkey, dressing, gravy, sweet taters, tater salad, corn & rice & cheese casserole, peas and opened a can of jellied cranberry sauce.
The ham that I bought had a packet of glaze with it but when I read the list of ingredients I saw stuff I couldn't pronounce nor had any idea what they were. So I just covered the ham with foil and put it n the oven at 275 for an hour then slathered it with plain honey and put it back in for another half hour. It turned out quite well for my first bone in spiral sliced ham.
   
     My electric carving knife worked like a champ! I carved up the bird and took the meat off the ham bone as if I knew what I was doing. For years I watched people using the electric carvers and thought the whole idea and process silly. Had I only known I would have bought one myself 20 years ago.

Thnksgiving Day Eve

     Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day here in the US of A and I'll be heading over to Mama's house as per usual.

     Allow me to stand on my soap box and preach a moment if you don't mind. It seems to me that Thanksgiving day has become sort of an overlooked holiday. It's the bastard child between Halloween and Christmas. So many decorate for Halloween and Christmas but Thanksgiving gets lost in the shuffle. The true meaning behind the day gets overlooked, doesn't it?  True, it's a time many of us get together with family members we really don't like, but for what?  To watch NFL football games between teams we otherwise wouldn't watch ? Or to gorge ourselves into a food induced coma?
     Or to give thanks to God Almighty who provides all we need?

     That said, I talked to Mama on the phone t'other day regarding the menu feast and she said she was expecting about eight folks to show. First thing I suggested was as I work in a grocery store
ore that offers for sale, the whole meal deal, I would order and pay for the whole shebang. Well, Mom shot that down as she was already getting the bird ready along with several sides. I then came up with, I could bring plastic forks, spoons, plates, cups so she would have to do dishes. Shot down again when she said, and I quote, "Mama don't do that on Thanksgiving".

     I was at my wit's end trying to figure out what I could do to help Mom out when Crazy Mike at work asked me about my Thanksgiving Day plans. I told him what all Mom was fixing and he asked about ham.  Last minute shopping got us a 7.93 pound, spiral sliced ham. I reckoned a near 8 pound hunk of hog's butt (minus the bone) and along with all the other vittles would be plenty for a sammich or 3 for everybody later.

     This morning (that is, Wednesday) I got a call from Mom and she said 5 of the 8 had come up with other plans so we're looking at dinner for 8 to try to be et by 3. Mom, my brother and myself.

     One last note. Last year Mom asked me to carve the turkey but the sharpest knife she could find was a wee paring knife. If you've ever (or never) tried carving a turkey with a paring knife, it's akin to my moving that truckload of sand I had delivered  with my shovel and wheelbarrow. Progress is SLOW!
     But I got what my friend, Gail calls "a God hug". It's when you see something you didn't know you needed or wanted but when you see it, it's a "Voila!" moment. I wasn't thinking about last year's carving ordeal nor how to make this year's easier but I passed a display of electric carving knives. It was once loaded with knives but was down to maybe 5 or 6 on sale for a mere $9.99. Needless to say, I stashed one and as I was making my last minute Thanksgiving Day purchases I passed by the display... it was empty! Had I not stashed mine I would have missed out.


     One last thing, if I may?  Thanksgiving.... Thanks giving.....Giving Thanks. Not only for the food we eat each day (our daily bread) but for everything God gives us each and every day, When Jesus broke the bread at His last Passover "And He took the bread and gave thanks and brake it and gave unto them saying, "This is my body which is given for you, do this in remembrance of me"

Give thanks to Him who deserves all our thanks. Remember the challenge of taxes? Render to Caesar that which is Caesar's.

Render unto God that which is God's......... LOVE!

Spotlights Received & Installed

     I received my solar powered LED spotlights the other day and wasted no time in installing the same. It's gonna take a bit of fine tuning to get them located where they'll get enough sunlight to keep the lit all night and pointed to where I exactly want them shining.
     The main thing is now I have a little light more or less where I wished and a little is better than none.

    Actually I need more AC (Alternating Current, not Air Conditioning) outlets around back and at least one out front. The only means I presently have of getting power to the back is one dual outlet and zero outlets in front.  There is a motion detector style spotlight by the side door (which is my main entrance) but it doesn't work.  I'll be on a week's vacation next week or the one after. I'm praying for the weather to cooperate so maybe I can climb my ladder and slap my meter on it with hopes of locating the malfunction and making repairs.

     To make a long story short, I just want more lights around my home.  There's a street light at the Northeast corner of the property, at the street (duh, at the street) but it doesn't put light where I want it.

    Perhaps after Christmas I can pick up Christmas lights on sale or at my favorite shopping place: curbside!

     Meanwhile, I continue to try to do the most with the least. It's not that I cannot afford to buy stuff (at full price) it's that I simply prefer not to when I can wait and get it for less. And as always with curb shopping I can possibly get it free for the hauling.

R.I.P. , Little Emily

     At my previous job I worked with two ladies named Emily. One was a "larger" lady near my age whom we just called "Emily". The other was a wee one we called "Little Emily". Little Emily was one some call  "Goth" or some other term for young uns who are into tattoos, piercings, and/or wearing black clothing and/or heavy mascara and such as all that. I'm sure you all know what I mean.
     I always thought Little Emily was rather off in left field with her manner of dress and all. I'm rather certain she thought I was a bit of an oddball, wearing either overalls or camouflage.
     We did share a particular bond, however, as we had the same birthday so we loved each other despite our differences.

     By now, most of you have noticed most of my references to Little E are in the past tense.

     I just learned today that Little E committed suicide yesterday. I knew she had been into drugs and was having problems therewith but I never expected this.  It's still hard for me to grasp that she's gone. I'll be trying to contact her ex husband and her parents to let them know that she and they are in my deepest prayers.

     I really wish I had something pleasant to share with you all, but today I simply do not. We, yes I do now that I think on it. No matter how bad you think things are for you, remember that all the bad thoughts you have are put there by Satan, the great liar and deceiver. Our Father, God, Jehovah loves you and me no matter what we've done. He sent his son, Yeshua (Jesus) to pay for our sins. We don't have to pay for our sins as Jesus paid already for them in full.

Waste Not, Want Not

     I do enjoy making my own bread and pasta and I hate wasting anything.
So what do I do when  drain the water off of a can of canned beans, beets or any other canned veggies? I pour it into a quart jar and put it into the refrigerator until I need water in a recipe. I figure that water that the canned veg has more nutrients and vitamins than tap water does so why not use it and get all the good out or our dollar spent?

    I very seldom buy canned fruits but if you do, why not save and use that juice in your cake, cookie and other sweet cooking? A friend of mine who bakes a lot of cakes uses the juice from canned pineapple to add moisture and flavor to pineapple cake. instead of pouring it down the drain

     We paid as much for the juice and/or water as we did for the fruit and/or veg in the can. Why pour the juice/water down the drain?

     Not long ago, I had canned beets and saved the juice thereof. Next time I have any other canned veg, I can add that water to my jar of otherwise wasted goodness. As so on. I can either use it as I get it or save it until I have enough to make a batch of veggie infused pasta or bread.

     All I am saying her is this....We paid as much for the water in the can as we did  for the veg or fruit. Don't pour the juice down the drain. It still has good stuff in it. We have room in our fridge for a quart jar to save the probably best part of canned goods! Don't we?

Tomatoes, Okra & Cold frames

     I'm still harvesting green tomatoes here and they are wonderful & delicious fried. I can't believe my best tomato harvest of the year is green ones in November!
   
     I am also still bringing in okra seed for next Spring. I've harvested almost a quart and a half of seeds and have more ripening on the stalk. By the end of picking and such I expect to have a quart and 3/4 if not 2 whole quarts. If there are any like me who waited last year until all the seeds sold out of the stores, I just may become the okra seed Baron if my area!

     It's still too warm to actually install my cold frames but I have them set up and in place for when Winter does arrive. For some reason, I cannot seem to grow a head of lettuce nor any member of the cabbage family: cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, etc... greens just don't seem to work for me, at least not yet. Perhaps I'll have better results in Winter.

     My yard, especially the back yard when walking around is like the dark side of the Moon except covered in grass. By that I mean that there are so many craters ans uneven areas. Many I believe are caused by the rotting stumps of pine trees that my neighbors tell me once lived here.
     Come Spring I'll be ordering a truckload of what the lady at the company calls "brown dirt".  I reckon that's just what she says it is... dirt! Anyway,  it'll fill in (hopefully) all the holes and I can more or less level out the yard and make a better garden for years to come.

Field Mice & Outdoor Lights

     It seems with the cooler weather coming in, the field mice are reappearing in my home. I've already caught a trio on glue boards in the past week or so. I'll be purchasing more boards in the near future as well as resetting all my snap traps.

     I'm thinking that one of the reasons I have mice coming in is the lack of light in my yard, especially in the back.It seems the folks who owned my home before I bought it didn't spend much if any time in the back yard after the Sun went down. The back of my house is shaped like the letter "L" and the only light is right by the back door which is in the crotch of the "L" so there is zero light back there much past the back door itself, even past the edge of the deck is darkness. It's like my late Dad called, "Black as Cody's ass". I don't know who Cody was but seems he had a black ass.
     Now I enjoy being outdoors as long as it isn't what I call "Ass Biting Cold" or "ABC" for short. I have only one dual outlet for electricity on the entire back side of my house and none on the front. There is a single bulb light on my front porch but it casts little light there.
     Rather than run extension cords all across the front and back yards I have opted for the most safe and I believe logical alternative, solar lighting. Tonight I went online and ordered five each 2 piece solar powered spotlights so within the next week or so I should have myself 10 lights in total.  The first pair will be in the front yard, one each aimed at my front door and one at the side door. In the back yard I plan for one aimed towards the back door, one at the gate nearest. One towards the Northeast corner and another towards my storage building Four down and 6 to go...
   
      I'm fairly certain that most of the vermin are entering my property from the West side,  a some 90' border. On the other side of my fence is as wilderness of overgrown shrubbery and briers that I fight a never ending battle trying to keep to a minimal amount of encroachment onto my land. I spray, lop, prune but the weeds and other assorted unwanted flora return bringing with them undesirable fauna.
     The critters most likely invade under cover of darkness so I'll use the last 6 lights to light up that fence line like Time's Square in New York City!

     I tried talking to the folks that own the property back there a while back but they wouldn't answer the door nor reply to notes I left asking them to call me. I may try knocking again to ask if I can cut some of the crap down and hopefully make it more difficult for the critters to pass to and fro.

     I'll keep posting re: lights, mice, etc.
     Love and Shalom to all,
     Merlin

Malachi 4:6

      I'm still reading my Bible (more or less) daily and have recently finished the Old Testament and gotten into the New.

     For those unfamiliar with the last verse of the Old Testament (King James Version)  Malachi 4:6 says: "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."

     I am by no means trying to claim to be a Rabbi, Pastor, Preacher, Bishop nor even anyone who can quote book, chapter and verse of the Bible to anyone. The only one who knows me better than I do that is the Lord Himself.

     Let me say this if I may:
     No matter what troubles you, no matter what ill comes your way, be it sickness, finances, family, anything. Put it  in God's hands.
     I heard a preacher on TV the other day say more or less "Jesus paid the price for our  (MY)  sins. If I keep worrying  that means I don't believe Jesus' blood was price enough to be paid".
     Jesus paid the price for our (MY) sins. All we have to do is believe in Him and God's grace. There is noting we can do to earn our heavenly Father's love and grace. Jesus died for us. He paid the price of sin for us. All we have to do is love the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit... and each other!

Fried Green Tomatoes, Now?

     By my count it's a mere 10 days from Thanksgiving Day and I'm  fetching in fresh off the vine green tomatoes from my barrel gardens to fry. If you've never had a fried green tomato, you are truly missing out on something special! The thing that blows my socks off is this. Green  tomato season is normally late Spring to early Summer when tomatoes are just (normally) getting large but still green. My large (frying size variety) maters are just now getting to the pick and fry stage.

     I'll not complain. While I did have to wait an extra few months to fry me some green tomatoes, they will be extra special. All good things come to those who wait. Not many get fresh home grown fried green maters on their Thanksgiving table!

Veterans' Day

     We recently celebrated Veterans' day here in the good old US of A. I am proud to say that I am a veteran of our armed forces. I did 5 years active duty US Air Force, 4 US Naval Reserves and 3 US Army National Guard.

     To all my brothers and sisters, active duty, retired, discharged, whatever... I love you all!
I never saw any action other than a few bar fights in Bossier City, Louisiana. My active duty years were 1977 - 1982, just after the Vietnam War and military personnel were not very popular among nor appreciated by the local civilian populace. But I'm not complaining, just stating the facts.
     It does my heart good to see America honoring her fighting men and women once again, as she should.

     I don't feel in my heart that you have to agree with our country's policies, foreign or domestic to love our country. But if you do or don't, you should respect and love the brave young men and women who put their lives on the line 24/7 so you can sleep peacefully and in comfort.

     Here's a challenge for any and all who have ever spat upon or yelled at a service man or woman returning home from a conflict overseas...     Buy the best sleeping bag and tent your money can buy. Get the best camping stove and food you can cook on it. Now, go out in your back yard and spend a weekend. How many of you can take 48 hours without the comforts of home?

     When I was in the Army National Guard, we went to camp Shelby, Mississippi for our 2 weeks a year. After I'd been discharged for a while I saw a report on the news that some honcho from the state penal system visited and said that the conditions there would be declared unsuitable for criminals to be incarcerated there.
     What? Criminals deserve better conditions than soldiers? Soldiers volunteered to protect you and me. Criminals are those here at home we need protecting against!

     I'll get off my soap box and quit screeching now.
   
   

Portable Carports

     Some of you may recall a while back I bought a pair of 6' x 6' greenhouses. Well, recently I saw an ad for a 10' x 17' portable garage. Me being the inept computer operator that I am, I mashed the "order" button twice and ordered 2 of them! Oops!
     It seems the good Lord was watching over me as He always does. My yard & garden equipment that I wanted to protect from the elements filled one pretty much up so I have the other set up as my sanctuary where I can go when I need an uncluttered area, out of the elements to go clear my mind and talk to God.
     I still need to cinch down the straps, batten down the hatches and such but the pair of  10' x 17' structures went up amazingly more easily than the 6' x 6' duo did. Admittedly, the covers did blow off a few times before I managed to install temporary tie downs but there was no damage done. All I had to do was hoist the covers back into position.
     I have several 20' x 20' blue tarps that I'm thinking of using to cover the 10' x 17's just as an added layer of protection and insulation (one blue 20' x 20' per).

     All things considered, I believe things are going to work out just fine with my new (and improved via red neck improvising) structures.

     As per usual, it was an ordeal for me to get onto this here blog page to share this with y'all so you better enjoy it! LOL
   
     Love always,
     Merlin

Secrets & Sales

     First thing is "secrets" in the trash tabloids. It seems more than stupid to me when I see that tabloid headlines of So and so had a "secret" wedding, baby or whatever.
     If it was such a secret, how did it make front page news in the tabloids?

     Second is "sales". As I do work at a grocery store, I see so many ads saying "up to".....Most say "up to" 99% cleaner or faster or whatever. I never see any stating "No less than".
   
     So isn't saying, "Up to"- he same as saying, "We're no worse than"?

Send The Sea Bees To Puerto Rico

     Watching the news after the hurricane in Puerto Rico I see most of the island still doesn't have electricity. Some piss ant company, I think, out of Montana? got a multi million dollar contract to restore power there and from what I see on the news are doing a less than fantastic job.

     My solution is too simple to be put in action. Back in the mid to late 1980's I was in the U.S. Naval Reserves as a  "Fighting Sea Bee". Sea Bee is Navy speak for C B or Construction Battalion.
     We have hundreds, if not thousands of Sea Bees in the Reserves and/or Navy Guard who want and need real life training.
     The Sea Bee motto is, "We build, We fight!"

     Instead of spending millions on inept civilian contractors, why not spend our tax dollars training our military men and women to do the jobs we pay them to do? Send the Sea Bees and/or the Army Corps of Engineers to rebuild Puerto Rico's infrastructure? Puerto Rico gets their lives rebuilt faster and our military gets hands on traning?

Garden Things

     Hard Okra:
I mentioned earlier how difficult (nigh impossible) it was to find a packet of okra seed late in the okra season last Spring To avoid such this coming Spring I decided to let my first okra go to seed. Bad idea on my part. I had plenty of small okra pods on my plants just the other week so I harvested what we refer to as a "mess" of them. Kids, they boiled up like a pot full of  hickory sticks!
     I reckon the lesson I learned is to harvest eating okra early and make seed from later pods.
The one good thing is that I've almost a quart of seeds already for next season and plenty to share with anyone who waits until the stores sell out.

      My other "garden thing" is all the dried out okra pods and other things I would normally just toss into my compost buckets have found a new process that makes them easier to break down. It is so simple that I am surprised hat I never thought of it before yet it makes the breakdown process so much faster. I set one small section of my back yard apart and every week or so I toss my soon to be compost there. Then I run it over with my lawn mower (with a bagger)... Then it goes into my compost buckets. The compostables then break down so much faster.

    If you compost, try it! You'll love it!

Halloweed ?

     Just before Halloween I saw a news report of people putting marijuana laced candy in kid's Halloween candy sacks. Now I'll be brutally honest here. Back in the day, I would have loved me some pot laced candy but here and now in 2017 I was shocked to see that there is actually pot laced candy for sale (I don't know where, nor do I care to know) but it's out there and looks nearly like normal chocolate bars!
     It's probably too late for this heads up for this Halloween, but all you parents out there PLEASE check all the candy your kiddos bring home!

     I remember back when I was trick or treating, we'd get homemade candy apples and popcorn balls. We'd gobble them down with nary a care in the world.

     It is a totally different world we live in nowadays. I reckon all I can say is hope for the best in people but always beware of them you don't know.
   

Why Me, Lord?

      I have no idea why, but it seems when I have more than just one thing I want to share with y'all it takes me a week or more to be able to get onto my blog. Maybe it's just God's way of seeing how badly I want to share.
     Anyway, I finally got back here and have several things to pass along from a bit past Halloween.
 I'll be posting them in order as I remember them.