Gardening in a Kilt (Buzz Kidder Canvas)

[Bugbear]

The wind is blowing again today. It's sunny out there, but if you go in the shade, it's a little bit cold. Well got to get back to weed picken and scrapen.

[string]

The wind is blowing again today. It's sunny out there, but if you go in the shade, it's a little bit cold. Well got to get back to weed picken and scrapen.

It's really windy here too, but nice and warm. I had to close the window because things were blowing in and it was messing up my papers. Flu is mostly gone, just left behind my athsma and a nasty cough.

[Bugbear]

Well, hope that all gets better. Good luck on your new job, String! As I wrote in the hair thread, I had a strange dream that you were showing someone how to knit... Guess that would make sense.


And I still have one of the two giant oatmeal cookies left from my trip to the grocery store yesterday. I think I'll go eat that now...

[Bugbear]

I found an old post of mine in a tartan thread, and saw that I needed to make things clearer. I'm copying it here for the record. Obviously, I can't go into the whole story and I wouldn't want to if I could. It's a little confusing and strange to me when I read people's post about their long family heritage and so on, but as I say in the following, I think that's great that some people can do that.

My tartans:
I mostly stick to the solid color kilts, but right now I have two tartans.
Weathered Halfset Lamont because the colors aren't bright and are kind of pastel-ish and I can't wear bright colors.
Nightstalker SWK because it is black with gray and that's one of the color combinations I can wear.
I plan on getting Granite tartans in the future for the same reason.
I think I could wear a Hunting Wallace.
I could care less about any of the blood connections to clans because on one side I don't really know them and the other side I don't really care.
That being said, I could probably look ok in the ***** tartan, but can't find it in the price range I'm looking at at this time.
*** Coming back and reading this I can see that it needed some clarification. I was probably feeling down about not feeling the connection to a blood line and clan that others have. My mother does come from ******, but the way I was raised, I don't really feel a connection to that name and clan. The following post responded to my post, and I am copying my response to this post because it has been a while. ***

don't worry, my father doesn't know who his father is, got brought up with his gran, so he's got his mothers maiden name, so my name is from my fathers mother's side of the family

There is a little bit of doubt in that way, but also on my father's side, the family line or history isn't "spoken" of and it's pretty much lost... I do know that I have many, many, many half relatives, most of which I have never met. I thought the half set Lamont tartan had an odd symbolic meaning in my life. I just don't feel that connection to my family line that others do...

It's funny, I lived with my grandmother for a while as a kid too. That was when my parents were working up to and going through their divorce. I don't think she had any Scottish roots though, what ever that means...
* I should add that I think it's great that a lot of the other folks have their family histories and so on worked out and that they are proud of their family connections. Also, I am not meaning to say that I do not care about my family, just that I do not feel the connection to the blood line or name and clan that others seem to feel.

[Bugbear]

Ah, those were some good pig ribs. I used Cavender's Greek Seasoning as a rub and pot rosted them. I thought I posted about that, but I don't see the post anywhere... Anyway, I cooked a couple of the ribs out of that large package I bought on sale yesterday. I cooked a couple and put the other six in the freezer. They're those giant ribs with mostly meat and a little bit of a bone at one end... Living high on the hog.

I finnished weeding for the day out in the front yard. Hopefully I got most of them.

BTW, I did eat the giant oatmeal cookie for lunch. It was good.

[BoldHighlander]

There is a little bit of doubt in that way, but also on my father's side, the family line or history isn't "spoken" of and it's pretty much lost...

I can identify in part with this.

There is one line in my family that isn't very well researched Ted. It's my (maternal) grandfather's line.
The family just didn't talk about it much, would clam up if it was brought up.
In later years some tid-bits have slipped out.
Seems the reason they didn't talk much was "talk" back in the day could get a family member arrested or shot. See from post-Civil War days right up to the 1920's my family back in south Missouri (Ozarks) & western Kentucky were full of outlaws. My recently deceased grandfather (born in 1916) even remembered that as a small child an uncle would always go bout with a "big horse pistol" on his hip & one eye open for the law.
Whenever I asked, my grandmother would chime in that it was best to let sleeping dogs lie.
Unfortunately since most of the older generation chose to forget, the younger generation has forgotten, thus research is difficult at best.
I just got word that the last of that generation (my great-uncle Dooley) passed away late last night at age 99.
So the quest just got a step tougher

[Bugbear]

Condolences on the passing of your great-uncle Dooley, BoldHighlander. Also hope you ar able to get your elephent garlic up and growing.


My mother has a bunch of her side's history and line written down. That's great, and she needs and wants to know and find out all that stuff. She even lived over in Ireland for a time in the nineties, and went all over Scotland looking at all the family name areas and castles and things like that. It's interesting in general, but I don't seem to feel a connection through my family line to Scotland... I do feel a connection, but it's from something else that I don't quite know.

I'm also trying to avoid complaining about some of the posts that say my family has been "such and such" and goes back eight-hundred generations, and that is why I only wear the "such and such" clan tartan. That sounds like it should rub me the wrong way, but I understand they are expressing a strong and proud feeling. I doubt it is ment to be offencive to anyone. Guess I try to laugh a little about that stuff, but more because of my inability to relate to that and the strange feeling it gives me. I'm really quite happy being an outsider to most things.

Another thought came to me. I have felt a connection to a few other cultures and places other than Scotland and Ireland, but I have no relatives from these cultures or places... I don't really know what is going on with that, but it has nothing to do with my families past or blood line. For some weird and strange reason, I feel a connection to north east New Mexico where I was born, and spent the first twelve years of my life.

[Bugbear]

You know String, I think I wasn't feeling to well last week either... looking back on it.
That would be the allergies, you know how they can run you down. Several posts back, I almost let go of the thread and was about to stop posting. Over in my hair thread, I made a joke that it was the last thread, and we were hanging on by a straw.

It's been good to be able to post here. Especially back during that gas leak... well, the whole thing. Even the last post to get those thoughts out here.

Looking back at it now, I can see that I was feeling that I am from where I am from, the Desert Southwest, and not from where my ancestors are from. That's interesting to reread now. It's also been good to be able to post some of the boring gardening information on plants and so on.

[Bugbear]

Just want to make clear on those last few posts, I'm working through all this in my mind and sharing it. There is no intent to stirr up things or offend anyone. Best of wishes to all. Also, I worry a bit that it could sound like I don't care about my family or relatives... Well there's a few that I feel indiferent toward, but that isn't my intent.

[Bugbear]

Just coming in to rest a few minuts. Things are picking up a bit out there in the garden. I'm still weeding, and I fertilized the citrus trees. I'm about to water them, but I will do several loads of laundry before and after that so I can add the gray water in. It's spring!

* I got the first round of laundry going, and I am roasting a chicken breast. Now that there is a bunch of work to do around here, I will be swiching over to less rice and more meat or chicken. It really does seem to make a difference while I'm working. the next few weeks will be a lot of work out there. Not all hard work, but I will be busy, busy, busy. It's nice to be able to come sit down for a while and look at what's going on. I'll give updates too. This is the time of year that my property becomes a micro farm with micro farm work... I'm sure String knows a little about that.

* I got the first load of laundry hung on the drying rack, I don't have a clothes dryer, and the second load is running. The chicken breast is probably done, I was pot rosting it, and I'll eat it in a few. I've been eating a few handfuls of dry oatmeal here and there, Like a horsey. I'm not going to do any more weeding while the sun is shining on me, it was a little bright for my pail skin, but I'll kind of work in the shade of the cottage as it creeps across the yard. I think I should probably find a dust mask too.

Well, guess I'll eat and then it's back to work.

* I guess that was the third load of laundry I hung up a while ago. I decided that was enough laundry for now. BTW, the chicken was good.
It's a quarter after four right now, I'm waiting for the sun to get lower. There's a large crop of weeds on the side of the cottage that I need to pull. They will go in the compost, so it isn't so crazy to let them go a bit and get fattened up.

Even though the "gardening in a kilt" experiment is over, and has been for a good while now, I can post a review of the tool pouch and belt that I bought yesterday. It's working out well, and I'll post a review before long. I also took a pare of old worn out socks, rolled one up and put it in the other one, tied it in a knot with a thin rope attached and tied in, and now I have a toy for the cats to play with. It's hanging from that set of shelves I put up for them. I'll also post the story behind why I have six kitty cats.