Tukie's Tomatoes

One of my friends gave me three heirloom tomatoes. Black Prince on the right, Dixie Yellow Giant on the left. There is assorted basil in the middle. The third tomato, Mortgage Lifter is in my main tomato row and will be posted soon.

Thanks Tukie.

My Favorite Podcasts

I know that many of you have ipods and or listen to podcasts. Missus Wookie asked me to list my favorite podcasts You can subscribe to any of these through itunes and all are free. Here goes:

Spiritual Development podcast

• 1 Year Daily Audio Bible Reading through the Bible in a year. Something I have committed to myself to do many times but have never followed through. But this podcast has made it do able.

Gardening podcasts:

• coopette.com- Alternative Kitchen Garden A delightful podcast from a British woman who has a backyard garden complete with growdome and chickens. She experiments constantly and is really fun to listen to.
• The Gestalt Gardener From Mississippi. Felder Rushing is just plain fun to listen too and has good tips about southern gardening. When asked can you plant a poinsetta outside in Mississppi his answer is yes, but it will die with the first freeze.
  
• You Bet Your Garden From Pensylvania. He is a little coarse but totally committed to being organic in addition to being very entertaining.
• Master Gardener From Georgia. Some very interesting topical discussions, iris, hosta, roof gardening etc.

Home/Life Management podcasts

• BTR: Flylady This is flylady's call in radio show and is also available on Blog Talk Radio. This puts reality and grace into the flylady "system" and has helped me with perspective and balance.
• BTR: Simply Organized This podcast is done by a Certified Professional Organizer (whatever that really means). She gives really good ideas for organizing, decluttering and more. This show has a different focus than flylady and gives good tips for dealing with certian situations.
  
• GTD Virtual Study Group A confrence call study group which explores GTD and how different people use this too in their own lives. Some session are focused on using certian gagdgets better. Some interview/Q&A sessions with big names in GTD.
• David Allen Company Podcast Good podcasts about the basics of GTD and some interesting discussion of good tricks to use. David Allen is on several of the shows.
• 43 Folders I recomend this podcast with some reservations. Merlin Mann used coarse, sometimes explicit language. But the GTD ideas on this podcast are excellent especially the Productive Talk Compilation from 11/06.

Astronomy podcasts

• The 365 Days of Astronomy Short daily podcasts that explore the length and breadth of Astronomy. These podcasts are done by different individuals who are interested in all aspects of Astronomy. Very interesting.
• Astronomy Cast A longer weekly podcast that more deeply explores Astronomy topics.

Cooking podcast

• APM: The Splendid Table If you are interested in food, the history of food and or cooking you will enjoy this podcast.

That's all of them. Hope you will enjoy some of these.

Broccoli Raisin Salad

Someone asked for this recipe so I'm posting it here. It is a family favorite and usually a hit with even kids who do not like broccoli

1 lb bunch broccoli, broken into bite sized pieces, chop the stem too
1/2 cup Raisins
4 slices cooked bacon, chopped (optional)
1/4 to 1/2 red onion, diced
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/2 cup pine nuts(optional) I sometimes use pecans

Dressing
1/2 cup mayonaise
2 T sugar
2 T red wine vinegar

Combine salad ingredients in a large bowl. Combine dressings ingredients in a small bowl. Pour dressing over the salad, stir. Refrigerate a couple of hours or overnight. Serve and enjoy.

An easy fruit we can grow that Bright Eyes likes.

We have finally found a fruit that is easy to grow and Bright Eyes likes. It is ground cherries. They look like underdeveloped tomatillos, with the paper husk still closed. But they are sweeter. The variety I have is called pineapple and there are definite pineapple notes to their flavor. The big things is that they are not more difficult to grow than tomatoes or peppers. I will definitely have to plant more next year.

The Garden Grows

I went outside to walk around the vegetable garden and to pick some sunflowers. Pick is really not the right work as they are much taller than I am and I cannot even reach high enought to cut the biggest flowers.


The pepper plants seem to have doubled in size since I look at them earlier this week and I know the tomato plants have added at least a foot each. So many green tomatoes, I should fry some tonight.

Still a long way from cucumbers. The last of the lettuce has bolted. But the broccoli is still making sideshoots, though the flavor is not what it was earlier in the season. The ground cherries are full of their peculiar fruit and hopefully will be tasty.


The garlic is ready to be harvested and hung up to dry. I think I got the garlic and the leeks mixed. If it has a bulb and smells like garlic it must be garlic if not it must be leek. They look identical to me above ground.


Hope your gardens are growing well.

Titanic's last secrets : the further adventures of shadow divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler

I just finished reading this book by Bradford Matsen. It is a fascinating read with lots of stuff about deep sea diving, submersibles, the history of the White Star Line, ship building and inside info about the logistics of putting diving projects together. It tells a new part of the Titanic tragedy.

I am not a Titanic buff but have read a couple of books about it. With the exception of a small section when they detailed the history of the White Star Line, it is a well paced book that drew me on to the end.

My First "Weekly" Review

I don't know if many of you know it but I have been studying GTD(David Allen's system for Getting Things Done) for the past month or so. I have listened through the book in both abridged and unabridged form, listened to many related podcasts and spent time getting in to empty and downloading my brain(GTD terms for making decisions about what you will do with what is in every "inbox" in your life, and transferring all the things that float around in your brain onto paper or into a digital storage system.
I now have many lists with titles like Areas of Focus, Someday/Maybe, Projects. Tickler and the all important context based Next Actions. My brain feels significantly lighter now that all that stuff is out of it and I can be more in the moment.

But this system, and I think any system that will work, hinges on doing a regular review. I have scheduled doing my "weekly" review for the past 3 weeks and finally today I sat down with my timer and reviewed all my lists and updated my next actions. It is so good to have a list of things to do at my computer even if I don't have the brainpower to remember it at the moment. Or my list @Home 15 minutes or Less which is full of short things that just need to be done that I usually think of when I am not at home.

Well this has been a bit of a rambling post. I do highly recommend GTD and am adapting one of Flylady's phrases to help me use it well.

GTD done imperfectly still blessed my psyche.

Planted Corn, Pumpkin, Gourds and Assorted Melons

Yesterday we sowed seed for Corn, Pumpkin, Gourds and assorted melons(old melon seed, most probably will do nothing) These are at my father in laws and I hope he enjoys watching them grow.

Tuesday I began mulching my vegetable garden beds with straw. I hope this is not a mistake. I might be weeding out wheat seed before too long.

My tomatoes are now about 3ft tall and full of flowers and young fruit. Peppers are only about 1ft and are growing strong now that the days are hot. The Eggplant is full of holes from flea beetles and I should spray it with liquid kelp to help it recover. Weeds are coming on strong with morning glory trying to take over the world.

I will edit my varieties list to include what I planted today.