Gardening in my Roots, mid-April edition

 First cucumber is up!  (Amid a lot of weeds)

 

And first pepper has arrived

 

I have no idea what this is, so I'm going to cook it and eat it

Review: A Beginner's Handbook for Rural Texas Landowners

 A Beginner's Handbook for Rural Texas Landowners: How to Live in the Country Without Spoiling It

by Jim Stanley

There is a lot of great information here! A good bit of it I already knew, but it was still good to review and learn some new stuff, too.

My only complaint is that during the second half of the book, he started to emphasize every point with the lessons from and legacy of Aldo Leopold. Not that the guy didn’t have interesting stuff to say and not that he didn’t say the stuff quite well, but it just surprised me. It made the book more of a “feel good” rather than a “how to” manual.

I was also surprised that his list of evil invasive plants didn’t include my personal nemesis, Chinese Privet. And I was surprised, and pleased, that his take on feeding wildlife and birds seems to be pretty sensible – feeding wildlife encourages overpopulation; feeding birds is mostly harmless since they still eat a normal diet outside of the feeder. (I think I got that right)

Good information on brush encroachment and methods of controlling Johnson grass. I hope it works for me.

Review: I Want to Go Where They Went

 I Want to Go Where They Went: Stories from My Life as a Small Animal Vet 

by Jeff Schmidt DVM

Really good. I’ve read a lot of these veterinarian memoirs and this is right up at the top of them. He had some crazy clients, some weird dogs (like the one who was brought in for eating strange things), and some nutcase cats. Including one that savaged the vet repeatedly. How did he stand it?

 

 

 

Gardening in my Roots, early? Spring

 The trip posting is all done and it's time to get back to gardening!  I'm just having a little garden this year, but it's going to keep me busy.

A few tomatoes are in the ground, 

I  notice some of the lower leaves are turning yellow, which could mean overwatering (maybe), lack of nitrogen (possibly), or various diseases. The weeds are growing  excessively well. so I can't imagine there is anything wrong withi my soil.

Beans are up. Growing slowly but that's okay.

And on a non-food note, one of my wildflowers from last year is beginning to bloom.

Peppers got planted today except I had to give a couple of nests of fire ants time to relocate.  So tomorrow for that.

Georgia on my…Magnus? Day 24, return trip

Friday, March 5

I got up at 6:30 from a weird dream about planning to take my mom to Joann to get Christmas present craft kits for Bob’s kids because she wanted to get out of the house away from Ed’s mom who was also visiting. Following on a weird dream about DJ and a phone upgrade guy
I’m beginning to wonder about my brain.

The one thing that has threatened to ruin this trip (but didn't!) Is that damn television. It’s loud and it’s constant. Ed doesn't even suggest that he might use headphones. I guess I'm going to have to ask.

Short drive home. Only three hours.

All said, it was a great trip. Although the things I thought were going to be so cool (aquarium & space center) weren't, and the things that I'd taken for granted (wildlife refuge & boardwalk) were awesome. But it evened out pretty well.

Molly and I had some really nice walks. I ate way too much candy. The meals were mostly not great with one huge exception—the oatmeal. The spinach and precooked veg for breakfast was good but the oatmeal was great. I had too many fish days. Maybe when Ed fixes me fish I need to give half to Molly instead of saving half and eating it another day. We MUST find a better source for red snapper.

Lesson learned:

 1.     State Parks are always worth the aggravation. They may be hard to find and hard to get into sometimes--although usually not--and they don’t often have FHU--although two of them did--but they usually have trails and quiet and scenic vistas. I love them.

 2.     When planning a walking visit to a city, make sure you have a paper copy of an enlarged map in hand, so you don’t get lost and waste a lot of time going by google maps routes.

 3.     Next time in Florida, check out camping at Manatee Springs SP.

 4.     When you go on a morning bird watching trip and expect to see stuff, put in contact lenses first.

 5.     More oatmeal!

 

Georgia on my…Magnus? Day 23

Thursday, March 5
Add to trip lessons learned: on multi-night stays, always empty the coffeepot while doing dishes. Put it in Ed's cup if needed. I forgot and it overflowed, but only a little.

Goodbye, lovely campsite by the lake!

 

 

 

Our last stop for the trip was the Shreveport/Bossier City KOA. It was okay, for a KOA. A little litter cleanup would have helped.  The dog parks were okay; there was a very nice playground.

It wasn’t crowded at all, on a Thursday of course.  There was a small section of what appeared to be seasonal or permanent resident sites. But we had site 34, a nice, big pull-thru site with a patio. I’m sure I paid through the nose for it. Starlink reception was good. The sites were very close together, as usual.

 

Are those people in the window? 

  Zooming in... 

  

They had a little pond (mosquito breeding facility) in the back with promise of some good birding in season. At the time, it was mostly robins and a thrasher. There were lots of big pines back there, too.

They had a double dog park—big and small with a connecting gate. Molly was not in mood for ball at first. We took a walk, then she had to check out the small dog section, so I opened the connecting gate and let her through.  Then she played ball. Good girl!

If I ever plan on stopping here on the way out, remember to check on charcoal grill fires. They don’t allow campfires, at all, but we didn’t ask about our charcoal grill.

I did notice that Bossier City’s Murrell’s restaurant closed about 7 years ago. Sad.

 Georgia on my…Magnus? Day 22

Wednesday, March 4

One of my favorite places to be--sitting at a picnic table beside a lake on a spring morning.  Coolish air blowing but the promise of warming up later. If only the summer birds were here!

After pancakes and my breaking the kitchen drawer slide, we went in search of the Natchez Trace Parkway and the Cypress Swamp walk. The drive down Natchez Trace Parkway was glorious with wide curves and huge trees lining the broad roadway. I'd love to do the whole thing, end to end, someday. Or walk it!

 

The Swamp Walk wasn't where Google said it was but not far off from that, either. People should have warned us that it wasn't a swamp but rather a former swamp, slowly filling itself in after the Pearl River diverted and left it behind.  It wasn’t very large nor very interesting. Oh, well.

 

Later, back at camp, Molly and I took a deliciously long walk along the something-or-other trail and then the Beaver Dam trail (named creatively—nowhere near any water) and then the little Persimmon trail. I heard something cool I never dreamed existed. A couple of Bald Eagles were circling overhead and talking to each other, in gentle tones. Kind of like a soft version of the Greater Yellowlegs call. Not something you'd expect from a big, fierce predator.

It was a great walk although it did take us close to the edge of the park and the back fields of some farm houses. I was worried that some territorial farm dogs might hear us. None did, and we finished the walk back at the lovely lake.

And so the sun went down on our last real day of camping this trip. (We have one more night but that's at a KOA--not a real campground. They try, but there's only so much nature they can provide and still cater to the 45' monstrosity motorhomes.)

But this is a very nice place. Geese honking like lost baby seals. Kingfisher having his final say. We will have a peaceful night.