Gardening in a Kilt (Buzz Kidder Canvas)

[Bugbear]

Ok, I got a lot of weeding done today. I wear overalls to do that because I have to crawl around on my hands and knees with a paint scraper thingy to find most of the weeds. Pants don't work for weeding either because of constantly-pull-them-up issues... I also wear a straw hat to go with the overalls; it's my farmer outfit...
I ate part of the turky I bought yesterday and a snicker doodle for lunch, so no rice dish today. I'll get back to working on the kilt accessory dresser in a bit.

I'm trying to work out some way that Mrs. Marmalade will come over and take some pictures of me in my BK acting like I'm gardening. She could then email me the pictures, then I could find one of you all to let me Email you the pictures, then one of you all could post them. I haven't seen TheKiltedWonder on the forum for a while, so I might have to find someone else to help me post them. I would then respond to the post with my picture in it with a quote and steal the address from the quote and use it for other posts. Guess you all would also get to see my grizzle beard in the pictures too... I'll try to get a picture with the scarecrow.

[Bugbear]

The work on the dresser is finnished. Like I said, it has a lot of scratches and some dings on it, and doesn't look so nice, but it is very sterdy. I just need to clear a way to get it into the bedroom from the workshop. My cottage is tiny, so that takes a lot of moving things around. Even before that, I have to clear out a spot for it. I think it will be a very good dresser for all my kilt accessories. Perhaps one day I will refinnish it, but it will work for now... Also, my name isn't "Norm Abram" and I don't have the "New Yankee Workshop" arsenal.

It has two rows of three drawers, and is about hip high. One of the drawers even has dividers for jewlery boxes and stuff. I'm sure that there is more than enough room for all my kilt accessories, and the top will make a good ironing surface for pressing my kilts if I put the ironing pad down. This thing is very, very sturdy, and I have stood on it, so pressing kilts will be easier. I'm not looking forward to clearing out a space for it though... I ate the last of the snicker doodle cookies.

[Bugbear]

The dresser is in the bedroom and all my kilt accessories are in it; a cat blanket is over the top; I am tired. It's funney, all my kilt accessories fit into two drawers with a little space to spare. That's good though because I can put a bunch of my other clothes in the other drawers.

I'm not completely done because I have to find places for the stuff I moved out to make room for the dresser. The situation was that I had a bunch of plastic storrage boxes stacked up along one wall. This was what the cats liked to lay around on. I moved all that into the other end of the cottage. I have to find places to stick those boxes now, but I think I know of a few spots that would be out of the way and kind of hidden.

At the same time, I am clearing a space for the little computer desk that is becoming extra kitchen counter space, so I have all this stuff sitting in the middle of the kitchen area which is the other end of the cottage from the bedroom.

I tried posting out there in the real forum again today... I think I should try to stay in here more. I do read a lot of the threads, but I've learned to not read some of them. I think I will open up the oatmeal cookies and try them. I have honey or marmalade to put on them. There aren't very many, but that's ok. There wern't very many snicker doodle cookies either. Just enough to add a little sweet spice to life.

I went and ate an oatmeal cookie. I put marmalade on it. It was good. That was a nice way to finnish off the day.

I have noticed that it is a little weird laying my face against a pillow with the grizzle beard..., But I don't know how to explain it. Perhaps bristles that get scrunched, or biting down on a toothbrush... kind of. I've posted a little about over in the hair thread. I think I'm going to stick with the full, short beard, but I have thought of a mutten chop/chin pach/mustache combo. I kind of like having the full fur though. Who knows, I might just let it all grow and go moutin man... Or not. Or all that might change if someone bothers to tell me that I should get rid of it...

I am kind of giving up the young school boy look, but I'm not sure that matters. I'm not sure why it would matter. That being said, the california poppies haven't started blooming. I moved several of the frost tender cacti back out to the yard; they were under a patio. Now they are under my short, fat california palm tree.

[Bugbear]

The garlic is growing well. I've got regular garlic and elephent garlic out there. I've always got a good patch of chives going too. It's a big change from what I used to grow... I used to have strawberries in hanging baskets, and all kinds of interesting things like that. Now, prickly pears and banana yuccas, mesquite pods, and desert plants. I used to grow these things called thorn mellons, and they were basically a pear shaped q cumber with spikes all over it. I don't know what the scientific name for them is, but they had a slight lemon taste to them. Maybe at some point I will look it up and post the name of them. I still grow long handle gourds. They're usually called birdhouse gourds.

Welp, that just about covers it all.

[BoldHighlander]

The garlic is growing well. I've got regular garlic and elephent garlic out there.

My grandfather always grew the largest elephant garlic I ever saw. He always sent some to me via family members. He passed away this past September....this spring will be the first in that I can remember that there won't be any elephant garlic coming up from him

[Barry]

The garlic is growing well. I've got regular garlic and elephent garlic out there. I've always got a good patch of chives going too.

I grow garlic too and it usually does well, as do onions. I'm not familiar with elephant garlic. Is this native to USA? My chive patch ebbs and flows depending on the weather. For me it is essential for potato salad.
Its too cold here for olives otherwise I would grow that wonderful trio: garlic, olives & tomatoes. I just have to pick up olives from the deli along with Mozzarella.

[Bugbear]

Elephant garlic looks like a giant bulb of garlic made of giant cloves. The bulb can get up to the size of a softball or grapefruit, but not always that big. The plant looks like a large garlic, but partway through it's growth, it sends up a stock from the center that grows a very weird cluster of flowers. The flowers can be used in cooking too. It's not directly related to garlic, I think more to the leeks, but close. It has a slightly milder bite to it than regular garlic. And now that I think about it that flower cluster, which looks like a pom-pom, begins in a papery sheath like is around the bulb, and it looks a bit like the bulb. Could be confusing if you've never grown it or don't know about the plant.

And I had a cookie with marmalade on it for breakfast.

[Bugbear]

My grandfather always grew the largest elephant garlic I ever saw. He always sent some to me via family members. He passed away this past September....this spring will be the first in that I can remember that there won't be any elephant garlic coming up from him

Well... It's not so big at the store usually. Too bad you aren't going to grow your own now.

I like to grow mine in a bed with lots and lots of compost and some sand. In fact, I like to grow it in a raised bed with just compost, like forest mulch, and sand. This year though, I have them in the regular old dirt because i've removed all my raised beds. We'll see how they do.

[Bugbear]

Mrs. Marmalade says in her Email today that she is feeling a bit better now. She caught the flu, and had a bad time with it.

I might do a little more weeding today. It always agrovates my allergies, but I at least have to deal with the weeds in the frontyard to keep things looking alright.

[Bugbear]

Instead of weeding, I pruned some of the grape vines. I also took several cuttings to start more grape vines because I have been giving several of them away this year. Usually I just let them grow all over the place because I'm only growing them for the leaves. They were starting to climb up into the citrus trees, so I lopped them back. I have too many aloe plants too, but everyone here has too many aloes, and I can't seem to give those away. I also have several elephant food plants, but not so many that I need to get rid of any. They do good in the rock gardens... Not to be confused with the elephant garlic.

As I said, I found a package of botem round beef on sale at the store on Monday. It was a vary large package, and I cut the slabs into manageable sized steaks, baged them and put them in the freezer. I kept a large stake in the fridge, though, and I had that for dinner today. It was good. I didn't do anything interesting to it while cooking it, just cooked it like a pot roast with salt and a little seasoning. Then I had an oatmeal cookie with honey on it. I guess I could have put a little honey on the steak, but I was feeling bland at the time... I still am.