Black and White Lining Up

Black and white baby calves with their Mom-mas.
Three day weekend for projects.
Cross off the accomplishments on your list.

Weeded hillside and planted five pounds of sunflowers.
Italian White, Lemon Queen and Red Sun reach up to
touch the Wolf Moon the other night.
Rain helped in the work, making the soil let go tap root filagree,
bristly mallow and bermuda buttercups. My hands ache. I like the
cheerful yellow buttercups but they are toxic to livestock. This
reminds me of outlet covers, baby proof dishwasher and cutting grapes
in halves. Caring is habit, makes me happy.

One of the Polish chickens, Red McRib recovered from "self poisoning."
She persists in eating succulents until drunk. I removed the plants; but,
she obsess on other dangers. Naughty teenager.
Update: tried a tiny pony tail on her to test if lack of eyesight is the
source of her crazy behavior.
Here's a video of her behavior:

Last weekend her party endeavors left
her shaking and blurred vision. Red black and gold
feathers scattering everywhere in a dervish.
She spent the week in the screened porch.
Isolation is hard on chickens.
I set up a soft box inside a huge plastic bin, and forced her to drink water and eat every two hours. Red's back with the crew, but not back to normal.
More skiddish and crazy yelling than before, sigh.

Below is a Kiger Mustang stallion. He visited a neighbor and is on his way
to Utah. These majestic horses are amazing.  He nods his head, yes.

I asked Dave Malone to edit the Climate Change novel, I'm still playing
with titles. Okay leave me a comment: Vote - 1. Climate Change
2. The Great Drought 3. you make it up the story is about a woman
prepper in the future when water is drastically scarce.

Began the next long form novel, and booked a studio for
the Audio book. The year ahead I have my plans written down. News
media has distracted us all. I'm reading everything, mis-trusting main
stream media- frankly all print propaganda. Stay positive. Keep your
eyes open. Be extra kind to others. Big hugs to you all.

Intercontinental Hotel Friday night I will be sipping a Rob Roy
meet me there




Copyright 1/15/2017 Caroline Gerardo

Sustainable Gardening ~ Cherry Tomatoes

      My Gardening Theories

        
     Grow Valuable Fruits and Vegetables—choose your favorites that are expensive. Don't pay high prices for food you can bring in to the dinner table right from the garden

 Heirloom varieties can be traded for free that aren’t available at    garden stores. 
     There are many sites here are a few I use
      http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/the-seed-exchange
      http://www.davesgarden.com/community/ 
      https://www.facebook.com/groups/gassp/ 
      http://www.plantswap.net/
        
Local gardening societies are a great place to start. Allow a percentage of your heirlooms to go to seed and trade dried seeds at online seed banks for free. 

 Sustainable gardening is about the big picture without buying lots of equipment. Year over year my garden production varies. One season a glut of zucchini pops up. Then you bake zucchini bread and share, find new recipes for the bundle crop, give them away, add to spaghetti sauce and save the seeds that are desirable to someone else.

 Create a long growing season. Build recycled cold frames. 
     Be creative with plastic liter bottles in a sunny window to start your seeds while it is still cold outside. 
     Build tunnels, cloches and other devices to stretch the season and grow food. That goalie net the team is throwing away plus some plastic make a free plant shelter. With a little recycled materials get a head start on spring salads by at least two months.  Note: be careful using wood that is treated or painted prior to 1978 which may have lead or chemicals that will leach into the soil.
     Extend your fall crops by using row covers to protect them from frost and deer. Old windows tossed by a contractor are useful lean-to shelters.
     Grow crops in the temperature and season they prefer. 
     Cold-tolerant greens and root crops for food production can start indoors in late winter and Fall.
     Find some early-bearing fruit and berries—Grow June-bearing strawberries and early raspberries. 
     Don’t be stuck planting only one type or breed. Ask other gardeners in your area questions about the varieties that are successful. Ask for cuttings.
     There is nothing sweeter than fresh berries picked, rinsed and eaten right away. 
     Berries are God's antioxidant. My family eats them so fast I never have any left to freeze or make jam. 
     Freeze in simple ice cube trays to add to drinks or tea. 
     In the fall, there are late-ripening raspberries that fruit.  
     I’m fond of trading or gifting fresh fruits and vegetables. 
     Once you begin, friends and family reciprocate with things that surprise you.
         
     Grow natives and foods suitable to your climate zone. 
     Some crops will be easy to grow in your area while others can be a challenge. 
     Soil type also determines what will grow where you live. I have two compost piles. They are upright wire cages that I dump all garden waste that doesn't have disease, and any plant material that is not oily or meat kitchen waste. 
     After two years of adding compost I changed my soil to rich earth that doesn't need to be watered as often. 
     I don't add fertilizers. This saves money. My local coffee shop saves grounds to amend my soil.
     Acidic coffee grounds transforms my soil that tends to be alkaline and clay. 
     After two years of digging in compost and rotating, my soil sustains a huge variety of fruits and vegetables with no fertilizer and no chemicals.
         
     Grow beverages—Mints, sage, raspberry leaf and nettles make delicious and healthy teas.  
     Mint is hardy in my climate I have to be careful not to let it take over. Keep mint in pots.
     In Southern California it is easy to have fresh lemons – I have Meyer, Lisbon, Ferminello St Teresa 
     St. Teresa is my favorite for the smell of the fruit and flowers. 
     Picking a lemon off one of my trees and squeezing into salad dressing, a sauce or drink gives me joy. 
     The fruit is never touched by pesticides. Yes sometimes they get bugs but I wash them off with water or squish. Lemons stay fresh on the tree longer than in the refrigerator.
        
     I wish I could grow apples and cherries. I planted them at two different homes with meager success. 
     We just don’t get enough cold. Right now I’m experimenting with avocados because we enjoy them so much. 
     Unfortunately it will take my seedlings seven or eight years to bear fruit. Patience is part of the fun.
        
     Perennials such as asparagus, rhubarb, and bunching onions are easy. These keep paying you back every year.
     Cherry tomatoes in yellow, lemon and red are the easiest fruit producing plants. 
     The seeds of fallen fruit and that which birds nabbed will spread. Cherry tomatoes could save us in a disaster. 
        
     Culinary herbs maybe started from cuttings or gather seeds from friends. Cut off the bottom leaves and put in
     a mild window (not full sun) in sand and cover with a used plastic milk bottle inverted. Keep moist and in weeks you will have new plants. Transplant gently and don't shock the life out of them - move to a bit more sun.
     Thyme (my favorite) dill, basil, rosemary, sage, parsley and mint grow in most any summer garden.
     I cultivate a couple types of thyme and sage. Bees love them. 
     When brushing past herbs in my garden the perfume is heavenly.
     In the summer months I grow enough for my family to have fresh vegetables daily. 
     My kids try anything. They grew up pulling weeds and napping under peach trees. 
    They have the love of gardening. 
    One of life's special things is the taste of a tomato warmed by the sun, rinsed off in the yard and popped into your mouth.

I wish you every happiness. Eat healthy, enjoy fresh.

 Concord and Albarosso grapes above
below some photographs of my children

Follow Caroline's board Organic Gardening on Pinterest.

Thanksgiving Mourning Wing Sounds Poem

It is Thanksgiving in Canada,

there is an opposite season in the world.

October sunflowers return on the hillside in random rows.

Seedlings from my colossal variegated propped up blooms.

A cherry tomato gone wild is more elegant than Monsanto’s.

I was honest last Thanksgiving,
but he holds his own version story.

How long will the healing process take?

How should I know?

My life has an egg timer, there are three mouths to feed.

After years of caring, the heart does not want

 to let loose the guide rope so easy.

A hot air balloon unattached to the basket

mid-air mid-life wanting to stay connected.

Missing the sound of the girlies wings.

Pruning of my hybrid teas does not change

ramblings of climbers & stray hummingbirds.
I am happy in my soul.

I stopped filling the feeders,

 I gave up the trail with old haunts,

until my fingers bleed at the cuticles,

but still that sprout gets into my dreams.

Working on my Next Novel - Location rural Georgia

Reasons Why I Love the South:

Plastic Chicken Used as Scarecrow in The Vegetable Patch. Or is she just welcoming all those weaver finches on the fence to come down and play with her polymer pullets?