Gardening in a Kilt (Buzz Kidder Canvas)

[string]

i saw that just now. tis interesting, I dunno if Yeti will let me play with his new fabric however, so the making up of the plaid is up to him.

[Bugbear]

You will have more fabric for more belted plaids in the future, so good luck to both of you. I only suggest you think a little about the drawstring because it won't hurt anything.

That being said, I did go to the store after I handed off the oranges and the sulcata tortoise food. I bought a twenty pound sack of extra long grain rice, and several pounds of meat and chicken... Oh and a plastic bottle of honey that is shaped like a bear.

[Bugbear]

I'm having trouble with my connection I guess, and I can't paste things in from the clip board for some reason. It just won't let me post or save anything after I cut and paste something...

** I've finally figured out that a spanish letter was keeping the artical I wrote from posting. I've posted this way on down there, but I'll stick it in here too.


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!

[Bugbear]

Oh well, it was after all, boring information. I will say that I think the cactus spines won't cause as much trouble if they get in the fabric of the kilt as in pants. Most prickly pear spines will go right through pants into your leg, so it pins your pants to your leg; not fun to take them off then. The kilt kind of floats around you and... well hope you get the point. I don't wear gloves when handeling cacti for this same reason. It's just mor fun to pick the spines out of my hands than to break them off in my hands taking off the gloves. Bla bla bla.

* It's been raining all day, that's probably why the internet connection is so bad, and I haven't been outside much. I washed a couple of blankets yesterday and I've been picking bermuda grass seeds out of them all day. The cats bring them in on their fur and lay on the blankets and leave the..., some people call them fox tails I guess, and the blankets keep them. It just takes time.

The blankets are too nice to throw away, but it's hard to use them when they have some of those in them: scratchy. It will be nice when I get my belted plaids back...

BTW, String, they did have pineapple jelly at Walmart when I went yesterday... Also, tomorrow, I'm going to try putting orange peals in the rice meal that I usually eat. I guess I'll report on how that goes.

Guess that's it.

[Bugbear]

Hmmm, that was pretty good. I put slivers of orange peal in my rice while cooking it and it tasted good. I can see how it would be easy to put too much orange peal in, but it kind of has a squash like texture, and a bitter sweet flavor. I used beef, but I think it would go better with chicken. There is a slight orange zest flavor to the whole dish that's kind of nice, as well.

Basicly, it was one cup of long grain white rice with chopped beef, a dab of butter, and a bit of salt. I cooked this at a boil for five minutes, then ten minutes on simmer: lid on. I always let it sit with the lid on for about half an hour after turning the fire off.

[string]

you're making me hungry

[Bugbear]

you're making me hungry

That is not the first time I have heard that. I usually eat that meal of rice every day and it is nice to know that I have another thing the throw in the pot while cooking. I didn't plant any broccaly this season, so I just have frozen okra to throw in... I'll have to get myself together next fall and so on. Thanks for posting, String.

[Bugbear]

I guess I could put this in here because we were talking about nieces, nephews, and my niecephew in earlier posts. I just found out this weekend that my sister will be having a new niece and/or nephew in about eight and a half months.

She was supposed to be getting married in the first part of june, but they've moved that up suddenly to the beginning of next month... I was going to go to the wedding and probably be kilted, but I don't think I will be able to make it now. She said it was not going to be a full wedding now. Sounded more like get hiched, then have grub...

Guess we'll see what happens...

I should also clarify that she is twenty-two years old.

[string]

That is not the first time I have heard that. I usually eat that meal of rice every day and it is nice to know that I have another thing the throw in the pot while cooking. I didn't plant any broccaly this season, so I just have frozen okra to throw in... I'll have to get myself together next fall and so on. Thanks for posting, String.

As someone who, due to health problems, lived off of pretty much nothing but rice with few alternatives for 4 months, I find it to not be a food I can eat quite as often as I did before.

[Bugbear]

As someone who, due to health problems, lived off of pretty much nothing but rice with few alternatives for 4 months, I find it to not be a food I can eat quite as often as I did before.

Kind of wondering what this illness was, String, but it's ok if you don't want to say...

I think I've been doing the one meal of rice a day for about two or so years now. I seem to require some kind of meat or nuts. I'll also eat handfuls of dry oatmeal all day or different things here and there: like a bird...
Back when I was about fourteen or fifteen, at the blind school, I had a stomach problem and had to live off broth soup for a while. There's a lot of vegetables and other foods that I am allergic too... * To clarify: mildly allergic. A few things cause more problems, but nothing life threatening.*

The nice thing is that I can buy a twenty pound sack of rice and keep it in the freezer, and it lasts, I think, about two months. Or it takes me that amount of time to eat it all at one cup per day. I don't like brown rice, and I use the long grain white rice.

Sometimes, I'll eat a couple of spoonfulls of marmalade or honey, or if I end up with a jar of peanut butter. Guess, right now, I'm eating several oranges and grapefruit every day too.

It's the lifestyle of a garden bunny.