Curious Creature

I’ve got something hacking on my corn. I suspect it’s the squirrels as they should be the only thing that can get over the fencing I have around the corn without bringing down the fence. I know its not some kind of bug…the damage looks like its from teeth and everything is shredded.

Today I went out and bought some Bobbex-R to spray on the corn in the hopes that it will keep the critters away. The stuff certainly isn’t cheap so I hope it does work. By the smell I’m sure it will

I just finished taking a look at the Pickens Plan and it has me scratching my head.

It states:

We currently use natural gas to produce 22% of our electricity. Harnessing the power of wind to generate electricity will give us the flexibility to shift natural gas away from electricity generation and put it to use as a transportation fuel — reducing our dependence on foreign oil by more than one-third.

Why would we want to build the infrastructure to support natural gas-powered vehicles? Keep the natural gas as the power station where it belongs. The infrastructure to support electric vehicles has been in places for ages now and electric vehicles would account for the vast majority of driving that people do.

The answer is staring us in the face. Why do we keep ignoring it?

This is unconscionable. Drill for oil anywhere we want and forget the consequences but damn we really need to make sure those solar installations don’t degrade the environment.

On the one hand I can understand this. I’d rather have good studies done for sighting and placement purposes but 2 years??? And in the meantime they don’t want to apply the same standards to say, ANWR. It’s nuts.

I completely forgot to write about the second garden plot I put in. I planted three kinds of corn with seed from Vermont Bean Seed Company. My daughter and I planted:

• Silver King Hybrid white sweet corn
• Incredible Hybrid yellow sweet corn
• Seneca Dancer Hybrid bicolor sweet corn

We also planted three different kinds of beans from Cooks Garden:

• Emerite pole beans
• Royal Burgundy Bush beans
• Filet Nickel bush beans

I also planted the Cook’s Custom carrot blend and yellow sweet spanish hybrid onions from Vermont Bean Seed.

Thats it for the garden this year. I’ve had enough planting fun for one year

We didn’t get Indianapolis-level rains this past weekend but we did end up having about 3 inches fall over the weekend with nary a break for things to dry out a bit. It really had me thinking about how I would cope if I was utterly dependent on those vegetables to make it through the year.

For all the complaining the local foods people (and I consider myself one) do about the industrialized food system and it’s impact on the way people live their lives the rains gave me something to think about. I’ve had great expectations for the garden this year, maybe expectations that are far too large given my greenhorn gardener status. As the water was slowly creeping up on my garden plots I was getting pretty upset and in a proportion far greater than the real importance of that food to my life.

I want to be more responsible for what goes on my table. I want to know the place it comes from. I don’t want it to have lots of mileage on it before it hits my table. I want my kids to know where their food is coming from and have a hand in actually providing it for themselves. The reality though is that these are all the thoughts of someone who can afford to have such ideals because in reality my life, nor the life of my family, is dependent on that food. What if it were though?

If that water would have come up just a bit further the ground where the plants were growing would have been over-saturated. That soil doesn’t drain all that well (one of the things I’m hoping to change over the next several years) and based on my experience with the large amount of rain that fell in the Fall of last year it would have killed the plants. If I were relying on that food to eat soon, as well as to have something to put up for the Winter, I’d be in real trouble. Simply put it would have been devastating.

Maybe I’m not dependent on that food but I do have even more respect now for the people that grow the food that I am dependent on. And I’ve thought a lot the last few days about the people who are dependent on the food they grow and how such times have destroyed people’s live. It was only three inches of rain but it certainly provided a lot of food for thought.

Strawberries, rhubarb in full effect at the market this week and asparagus still around in profusion. Nichol’s Farm had the first sugar snap peas of the season. They also had some salad greens.

Slowly we’re getting there…it’s going to be a great summer.

If my garden survives all of the rain we’ve had this weekend it will be a miracle. Too much standing water and some of it I just planted so those parts haven’t had a chance to take root yet.

Keeping my fingers crossed….

Was a beautiful day to get the first plot done. I know I’m way behind but I’m not sure it makes as much of a difference this year since it has been so cool for so long. In fact we’re due to get back down for a brief dip into the 50s on Tuesday again.

Anyhow I was able to get in the

* Waverex peas
* Lincoln peas
* Onions
* Hot peppers
* Bell peppers
* Carrots
* Cucumbers

The peas and carrots are from seed. The rest was started in my basement. It was time to get them in the ground though and this was a perfect opportunity because we had to clear the stuff out of the basement. We’re having our basement windows replaced on Tuesday so it had to be moved.

Next up is the second plot and hopefully we’ll get some breaks in the planned rain tomorrow so I can start working the ground.

I replanted the cucumbers and most of the peppers into bigger containers (8-1/2 ounce Styrofoam cups to be exact).  They need to get outside but I’m still not happy with the weather we’ve been having.  It has been real cool out and since I’m not too happy with the way the lettuce is looking outside at the moment everything else is staying indoors for at least another week.

Well, the onions can probably go out and I’ll probably take care of that this weekend.

Same as Federal Plaza in that there wasn’t much to be had veggie-wise (no surprise).  Nichols Farm was there again and my friends at Labriola were there with their fantastic bread. I picked up a loaf of marble rye which smells fantastic.   I’ll post some pictures once I get them off of my cell phone.