Gardening in a Kilt (Buzz Kidder Canvas)

[Bugbear]

*I tried to post this about five-thousand pages back, but it wouldn't let me. I figured out that a spanish character was messing it up, so that has ben replaced, and it is now on the record. I've also put it in the origenal post that I tried to put it in.*

String, Moosedog, here is some more uninteresting information that you might be interested in.

I work with three main prickly pear cacti as food crops. The Indian Fig or Mission Cactus (Opuntia ficus-indica) is my primary prickly pear because it is fairly spineless, and most of the spines can be easily brushed off with a tool. It is also an aggressive grower when watered weekly with gray water from the washer in the warmer months of the year. They love those phosphates in the soapy water. Also, they, like most prickly pear, can be vegetatively propagated, cloned, by rooting pads, or parts of pads. It is very easy to make many more cacti from cuttings than are needed.

The second prickly pear is the Nopal Cardo'n (Opuntia streptacantha), and it is being studied for use in normalizing blood sugar in diabetes. It has to do with the fiber in the pads, but isn't understood very well yet. I was growing them for some people who had diabetic dogs. The pads are heavily spined and have a second type of spine that almost look like a white curly fur, hints the scientific name (Opuntia streptacantha). Though it is heavily spined, the spines don't come off of the cacti as easily as with most prickly pears.

The third and worst prickly pear I work with is Engelmann's Prickly pear or Calico Cactus (Opuntia engelmanni), and the spines come out of this monster very easily. At this point I only have one because it is so horrible to work with and it grows so quickly that I can't deal with a yard full of them. It would make a nice fence hedge, though... I saved the original plant that I started with because it was so ugly that it almost had bonsai-like qualities, it had developed a trunk like shape, so now it is in a pot by one of my front gates. It isn't as horrible as, for example, the Teddy Bear Cholla (Cylindropuntia bigelovii), which is one of the famed jumping Chollas, but it is bad. It also has a Mickey Mouse ears appearance as one pad sprouts two new pads at the top.

A couple of other desert crops I am looking into and growing are the Road Kill Cactus (Consolea rubescens), and the Banana Yucca or Datil Yucca (Yucca baccata). I'm still exploring these plants, but the yucca roots of a young plant can be used as a shampoo, String. Also, a bug, or cochineal insect (Dactylopius coccus), that can tend to grow on the pads of the prickly pear, can be used as a pretty purple to red dye if they are squished...

Finally, to make this slightly relevant, often when walking past some of the prickly pears, spines end up in my pant legs. This is very bad. The spines seem to be broken up and freed from the cloth when washed, but getting the pants off when they are full of spines is challenging. I don't wear gloves when working with prickly pears for this same reason. It has not happened yet, but I think the kilt will not cause the same problems if it gets cactus spines in it because it is much looser fitting, has more layers of cloth and several other boring reasons. And yes, I do handle cacti barehanded all the time..., then spend hours removing the spines from my hands. It's fun!


* It is good to finally get that thorn out of my paw.

[Bugbear]

I've been thinking about starting a thread in off topic about cookies, but I worry that would cause problems. There's a lot of information in this thread, and I hope it stays ok in case anyone finds any of the information useful in the future.

I guess if anyone posts here, I will respond, and if I somehow get a picture of me gardening in my kilt, I will post it here or add it to that first post. I've made a lot of posts sense I joined three months ago. I think that is partly because I don't have pictures to show. Just those two pictures.

I guess we will see what happens here. It has been enjoyable time sharing all this, and also having a place to post on my daily life. Thanks again for all your posts.

[Bugbear]

Ah shucks, I can't seem to let this thread go... I do have some updates, though.

First, I have put the free standing shelves in place for the cats. I haven't removed the foam plug I keep in that window yet because I have to come up with a way to block the window. That window doesn't crank in all the way, and is always slightly open. In fact, I don't even think all that gear stuff is even on there anymore, and you can just push the windows open. I can't stand those kind of trailer windows. Anyway, if I have to I can attach an old blanket to the top of the window and stretch it down and out over the shelves, then attach the blanket to the shelves. That will make a temperary tent in front of the window. I'm sure the cats will remove that foam plug when they start getting up there. Oh, and the window has to be blocked somehow because the neighbor could see streight into my bedroom if it were not blocked.

I still haven't put anything in that planting bed, but I've picked out some of the trees and plants that I will be moving. Today, I don't seem to be having the allergy issues, and I am feeling a bit better. I'm also feeling better now that I've decided to keep updating this thread.

I have my hair thread, and I'll try to keep the really weird stuff over there. For now, I'm keeping the garden bunny persona going, te he. So just hopping around the garden today.

[Bugbear]

The cats have not gotten on the shelves yet. I guess they're just thinking about it... They'll get up there. It's made a big difference in the room though. I put things on the bottom and second to bottom shelf and it opened up the room. I was also able to move the small computer desk to a better spot. It's working out well. At some point in the morning, I will transplant a couple of trees over to the new growing bed, and I also need to pot up a few grape vines for people.

It's spring!!

[Bugbear]

I need to go into town and get citrus fertilizer today. I hope I can get that done, but I also plan to look at the 2 inch wide belts at Home Depot or Lowes or maybe both whil in town. I know Lowes had a woven black belt that would go well with my BK canvas which is the kilt I will be wearing in to town... If I make it to town today. I feel a bit better about wearing those gray, knee highs with that kilt, it's casual... I saved a little money by using the shelves I already had for the window, so I will get a kilt belt instead.


Here's a picture of Bernard and Miss Bianca (I guess she's in that picture...) for you to look at. It's from the 1977 cartoon movie "The Rescuers."





And if anyone can ID the tartan of the cap Bernard is wearing, if it is tartan, I would be thankful.

[starbkjrus]

As I see it in this particular picture rather than tartan the cap and jacket Bernard is wearing seems to be more of a burnt orange tweed. (Or I've seen in some iterations that color called saffron.) My idea of saffron is more mustard colored but I've seen this one too. Either way if I had a tweed cap and jacket in that color I'd wear it without a second thought.

Cheers!



Strangely I'm glad this thread keeps getting updated. Judging by the number of thread views for it I'm obviously not alone.

[Bugbear]

As I see it in this particular picture rather than tartan the cap and jacket Bernard is wearing seems to be more of a burnt orange tweed. (Or I've seen in some iterations that color called saffron.) My idea of saffron is more mustard colored but I've seen this one too. Either way if I had a tweed cap and jacket in that color I'd wear it without a second thought.

Cheers!



Strangely I'm glad this thread keeps getting updated. Judging by the number of thread views for it I'm obviously not alone.

Thank you, starbkjrus!
The story here is that I fell in love with the look of that tweed after seeing the movie as a child. That was when I started wearing driving caps. I even had a little stuffed doll of Bernard. The animaters were wise to pick the complementry red-ish orange to go with the gray mouse color. Anyway, guess I'm sticking with tweed. I almost plopped this picture down in the tartan forum.

And this gardening thread kind of... grows on you.

[Bugbear]

Here are two more pics. that are a little closer.





Hope they help ye.

So here we go. I would tend to wear a more brown-ish tweed. Orange and brown are in the same color range, that is, if I were going to make orange with a pigment, I would combine red and yellow. To make brown colors, you start with the red and yellow and ad more red, then other colors to get the darkness or value you are aiming for. Or you just get brown pigment, and add yellow or red to change its values and so on. In pictures and negatives, it's a whole different system, though. All that to say, I would try to wear a darker, more brown-ish tweed because I don't look so good in orange... It's a pretty color though. It goes well with gray, and I like orange and blue together.

[Bugbear]

Went in to town and got the citrus fertilizer. I also went to the grocery store... I'm well stocked on food and stuff. At the grocery store, I also got a couple of giant oatmeal cookies and ate one of them. The rest of this is copied from a post in my gardening hose thread.

*****

Ok, I went to Lowes, but not Home Depot. I found a black belt with leather on the ends, and woven polyester for the middle part. I think this will end up as my casual belt. It came with a thic padding for back support and so on. I think that part of the belt will be fine for a gardening belt. It has velcro and can be taken off the belt and made into a belt on it's own. A little hard to explain that well. Anyway, the leather/polyester belt is a bit long because it had to go around the padding. I haven't decided what to do if anything about that. That was twenty dollars.

I then found a large tool pouch on sale for about fifteen dollars. It is ment to go on a 2" wide work belt, and it is made of black canvas. This will be very good to take the place of a sporran for garden work. I wouldn't wear it for casual dress of course. It looks just like a standard tool pouch, but it is canvas and not leather... It does have the metal loops on the front for hanging things like hammers and so on.

I have a review of the walmart knee highs I bought last week because I wore them into town today. I am going to keep these as my gardening socks because I noticed they are slightly shorter than the JC Penny knee highs with the red stripe at the top edge. They would be fine as scrunchy socks, but I would rather have the slightly higher socks for casual wear, and this will allow me to keep those in better shape. Still, the Walmart knee highs are exactly what I needed for working in the garden.
* I need to clarify something here. I am talking about the very bottom end of casual here, and as I have said in other posts, I would not wear these socks with a tartan kilt, only the canvas BK, or something like that.

****

I guess I could add in what I wore. I went with my BK kakhi canvas, black sporran, black and grey thin sweater (inside kilt), and the grey flat cap. I wore the zebra kilt pin and black hiking boots, also. I noticed my hiking boots felt a tiny bit tight, perhaps from the thick socks, and it was a little uncomfortable after walking around the stores. I think it will be time to go shoe shopping some time this year. ;)

* I picked up a large package of pig ribs at the grocery stor today. I almost always take a look at the meat section of the store I go to. They have good quality meat there, and sometimes they put things on sale. I'll buy a big roast or something like that and cut it into steaks. I can usually keep my freezer full of things like that by looking for deals. I usually buy a sack of chicken breasts too. That costs more than buying the whole chicken I guess, but I don't like chicken boans.

[Bugbear]

I just noticed that I need to clarify something about that tool pouch in the last post. I bought that for use with or without the kilt. It may have sounded like I got it just for wearing with my kilt while gardening, but I've needed one of those for several years now.

I guess I have a bit of weeding to do in my front yard this week. It's not too bad though. I usually take a paint scraper and... I guess shave the ground.

In the hair thread I commented how it was nice to listen to the nightime when it is quiet. I thought back on when they were running those machines day and night because of that gas leak. Guess it's in the record back there. I do think about how the internet and this forum will probably be going on for a very long time... People could be reading this thread years and years from now. Perhaps after it has gone quiet, it will be rediscovered and reviewed as a part of who we are here and now... Historians of the future combing over and conjecturing about the great gas leak of 2008. I guess we leave a bit of a footprint behind. The interesting part is that what we write here is only a part of our lives. It's almost like creating a little world and going to it from time to time... It's probably more inportant than we know or understand right now too.

Hmmm, every time I go into town, I end up having soda in the evening, I only drink soda when I go into town, and I have trouble getting to sleep.