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Rocky Mountain Gardening

Sociable Ramble through the Hills and Valleys

digit (ID/WA, border)

6 years ago

ت .

We have had all these lovely warm-season garden harvests. Instead of a few crinkly greens, I'm thinking about steaming pots of winter soups and ...? Ya know, at the end of the trail. Sitting around in the warmth with our feet up. Thinking about next season ... um, next Spring and another garden. Looking out the window ...

What ya up to? I have just had surgery - hernia. Not too tuff. I'm not and neither was the procedure. Wikipedia says 23% of men and 7% of women have this problem. I don't know whether to believe that but someone claims that some go undetected and not all require surgery.

I'll need awhile to mend. No carrying out the heavy benches from their place in the center of the greenhouse to put in one skinny bed to crinkly greens this winter. If I would have done that, it would have been about 3 weeks ago and then I'd have needed to do all that bending to get plants from outdoors in with a little seed sprinkled, here and there. The absolutely amazingly productive pepper plants may as well come out. What a season they had! A friend came over and picked a nice little bucket of peppers while I waved to her from the door. I'm sure she had a struggle getting down the narrow path in there.

I had a question for the nurse in recovery on 11/1 as I woke up and before I shambled out into the parking lot. Where was the St Bernard with the brandy?

Steve

Featured Answer

ZachS. z5 Platteville, Colorado

6 years ago

I'll be social!

I too am sitting around in the warmth, though luckily the days of being greeted by my thermostat saying 99º inside my house when I get home from work seem to be behind us for now. It was only 80º outside today, and cloudy. I haven't turned my A/C on all week. Its cool enough at night (high 50's to low 60's) that I can just open a window and turn on the fan.

Im learning a lot about the international boundary, with our office being only 4 miles from "the wall" and the border crossing at Lukeville/Sonoyita.

Apparently however, chile verde is NOT a thing in Arizona however, since when I asked I was told "chile is red, dude. If its green you should probably throw it out and make a new batch." And also they call burritos "burros."

The scenery is pretty spectacular however so I guess that somewhat soothes my misery of not having a big bowl of pork chile verde on these cold, 70º evenings ;).

We also had a tarantula in our break room the other day and I found this guy under a pile of old bricks

Well thats all the news I've really got.

I hope you recover from your surgery soon Steve. Tuff or not, its got to be a pretty unpleasant experience!

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Comments (15)

digit (ID/WA, border)
Original Author
6 years ago
We are very lucky to have you and your camera down there, Zach.

The moon is full but I can't see it because of the clouds and snow falling from them. It's 28°f and that's 4° warmer than the WS predicted, so I guess I'm happy with that. I actually made it out to the backsteps to run the broom and put some salt down without DW catching me. One step at a time ...

There is just a skiff of snow but it fell outta the tree in clumps and even brought some yellow leaves down with it. Added slip-potential!!

Dang. I just caught sight of myself in the mirror. I look like a train wreck! Should have been to the barbershop before this procedure ...

So, Amazon is cutting back on grocery deliveries? Should venture out to the market, today. Don't suppose wearing 2 bathrobes at the same time with sweatpants will be proper. No longer need both canes unless the parking lot is icy ...

Steve

just need to get myself up to face the day!
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ZachS. z5 Platteville, Colorado
6 years ago
Those were all cell phone shots Steve. I have the camera but no computer to upload the images. That hasn't prevented me from taking them, I just can't do anything with them at the present time, haha.

Well, here, I can upload them this way! Heres the full moon your missing with all that yucky snow.

Okay, probably we should just wait for the computer huh?

Be careful. The old lady might not catch you, but we (I?) Can't have you laid up, either. Heck, if you fall out I'll be here at RMG all by myself! So watch out for snow skiffs, clumps, and leaves, you hear!

You can't look too bad, I haven't been to a barber shop in nearly a full year. Talk about a shaggy mane! And no, bathrobes are probably not "proper" but hey, I'm sure your neighbors know you well enough by now to anticipate, and accept, this kind of behavior from you ;).
digit (ID/WA, border)
Original Author
6 years ago
Skybird - z5, Denver, Colorado
6 years ago
Get well soon, Digit!

It's been a couple days, and hope by now you're starting to feel better again! Hunkerin' down with some seed catalogs sounds like a great thing to be doing right now! And, knowing you, I'm bettin' you have lots of root veggies stashed around there to make some of your great "winter" soups--which should speed your recovery even more!

Thinking of you,

Skybird
digit (ID/WA, border)
Original Author
6 years ago
Thank You, Skybird!

Day 1, I was pretty much zoned out. Day 2 was a 2 cane day, with one perennially bad leg and a newly disabled one. Day 3, I could get around in the house without either cane! I thought I was cruising towards recovery! Day 4 and 5, I realized that I'd taken a bruisin' ... This afternoon, I feel and move almost normally. One of the worse things for my recovery at this point is too many hours in this dang lazyboy! Shoot, if the procedure don't cripple me, sitting around will.

Was out and made about a 10 minute drive, this morning. DW got 4" of snow off the car so that I could get it warmed up and out of the driveway. Sunshine! Blue Sky! Oh yeah, we had Beef & Barley Soup with lots of leeks and celery root for lunch.

The last few days, I've been trying to expand my very limited knowledge of shallots. I saved seed a couple years ago and decided to plant that in 2017 before viability was lost. It grew single bulbs that taste like shallots but we're larger and otherwise, different looking. I still don't know how my French Gray through many, many years never flowered in the garden and yet the seed companies sell hybrid shallot seed! Recently, I learned that there is a "banana shallot" (echalion).

Here's something from the food critics, including info on the banana shallot: Knives Out for a Shallot Showdown. I see that we can buy the seed of one of these varieties from just a few US sources. I like shallots!

Steve
Skybird - z5, Denver, Colorado
6 years ago
A few weeks ago I made a pot roast, and when I was "getting near the end" I still had lots of "juice" with onions and what-not-all in it, so I boiled it up with some barley and added some more (canned) tomatoes and other stuff along with the meat I still had left--so I just had beef barley soup too! Didn't have any leeks or celery root to put in it--but, since I didn't have any "real" celery, I did use some of my cutting celery in it for flavor! A year or two ago I did get some celeriac seed--and some day I might even get around to trying to grow it!!!

Glad to hear you're starting to feel better! Take care of yourself!

Skybird
digit (ID/WA, border)
Original Author
6 years ago
Having picked up more than 6 hours of sleep last night (for the first time since i.don't.know.when), I felt that I had the choice between reading

"The Four Ways Falling Back from Daylight Savings Time Can Kill You" or this

https://www.treehugger.com/health/11-ways-find-happiness-every-day.html

Steve
digit (ID/WA, border)
Original Author
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago

I ate Casper the other day ... it's the first pumpkin I have grown that is supposed to be especially good prepared for meals. Casper doesn't quite compare to a good winter squash.

I'm not sure how others would consider the Rock Stars that I usually grow as tablefare but, I think they are okay. It wasn't a very good year for either pumpkins or squash but I'm always happy to have winter squash for dinner and would be seriously unhappy to not have them.

Steve
ZachS. z5 Platteville, Colorado
6 years ago
Death by returning to standard time from DST?! One.more thing to love about Arizona! Sure, every single plant and animal wants to kill you, but at least our clocks are stuck firmly on Mountain Standard 12 out of 12 months a year!

I landed in Denver for the long weekend tonight at about 9:30. A 60º drop in temperature in only and hour and a half was a bit brutal. Im now cozied up underneath about 5 quilts and really wishing I had some beef and barely or pot roast! Highs only in the 50's might relegate me to the lazy boy in front of the fire this whole weekend!
treebarb Z5 Denver
6 years ago
Steve, mend well!

Zach, welcome back for the weekend and dig out the wool socks!
digit (ID/WA, border)
Original Author
6 years ago
Yes! Wool socks ...

We may have reached the time of the Tuscan Italian kale. At least, there are the other 3 types, as well . The snow is being rained off today, we will see what is next.

(I should not have tried to “enhance” that picture. I turned the stems from bright white to yellow. This new iPhone is still a mystery to me!)

Steve
digit (ID/WA, border)
Original Author
6 years ago
Pie

Day

!

Steve
digit (ID/WA, border)
Original Author
6 years ago
Why is it that a right-hand person has 4 measuring cups, of various sizes, ..

. but only the largest one has the cookbook measurements on the "front" side? Is it that I'm too close to the Canadian border? Is it that the US is the only country in the world still using British Colonial measurements?

Should I toss my cookbooks and rewrite home recipes with things converted to metric?

Steve

pies in the oven!
digit (ID/WA, border)
Original Author
6 years ago

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