ITS TIME FOR the BEST CHRISTMAS LIGHTS EVER:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgrQdxzFAtM

Fireproof movie is a “must see”.  It is much more than a story about love lost and found between a husband and wife.  A real hanky soaker but worth every minute.

 http://us.imdb.com/find?q=Fireproof;s=tt

This week:

Life is a jest, and all things show it, / I thought so once, and now I know it.

-John Gay, poet and dramatist (1685-1732)

That quote pretty much sums up the closing of my campaign for Alderman. I learned a lot, and had fun, and met a lot of nice encouraging people, but my opponent got 12,701 votes to my 5,681, for which I am so grateful, He spent more than $10,000 and I spent about $1,500.

This is my first newsletter since Oct 31 and is the Thanksgiving edition. This is a busy time of year with multiple holidays and lots of family birthdays including mine between Christmas and New Years. I wont reveal my age since Mimi is one year younger, but I am eligible to start drawing social security. But I’ll wait a few more years, Lord willing.

Uncle WT as 80 on the 16^th. He can still outrun most of us, though recently he has been having sharp back pains. His great love for his whole extended family is a shining example to the rest of us. He and his wife Aunt Hellon are the last of Momma’s generation, descendents of Taylor and Mary Nolen. He is the glue that keeps us all together.

We picked 136 pounds of fresh greens and turnips and cabbages from the Victory Garden and delivered to the local Food Pantry Thursday morning. Our year-to-date total is 2,139 pounds for the needy. We have a few more cabbages and turnips and greens and rutabagas we will pick in two weeks.

We will have Mimi’s extended family Thanksgiving at her parents’ home between Hurricane and Thaxton MS. We always have a lot of love and way too much food. They are 83 and 79 and still cooking and hosting. They’re amazing people. Their love for the Lord and family is boundless and unshakeable.

My deceased sister’s husband Dave and niece Beth will be visiting with us next Friday evening and Saturday, He and I are going to try our first time to fry a turkey. We may smoke a small one at the same time as Plan B. We’ll do it, since he’s a grill master!

Happy THANKSGIVING!   Remember our troops!!!!!!!!
Column / Short Story:

Post-election Thanks and Thoughts November 5, 2008

“Some of gods greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.” ~Garth Brooks

Wednesday, the day after election day, I woke up knowing my opponent garnered more votes than I did. But I woke up in peace. Like Momma said: It’s like beating your head against a wall; it feels so good when you quit.”

I am thankful for many blessings, not the least of which is now having an appreciation for the enormous amount of organization, effort, and money it takes to win an election. 

I am thankful for my whole extended family getting involved and working hard. It was so good to see my four granddarlings witness and participate in the democratic process. All my efforts were worth those blessings alone.

I am thankful the election was conducted fairly and cleanly, which is rare nowadays.

I am thankful for Michael Green and Fran Persechini of the Chamber of Commerce who made all candidates feel welcome and important. The introductory luncheon, televised interviews, and televised debate, and todays followup calls were professionally and warmly done.

Mickey Hutson and his CHS students deserve praise for handling the TV taping and broadcasts. Do not underestimate the value of those broadcasts. They provided a common playing ground for all candidates at no cost to us. This was a true democratic process, not unlike old time town hall meetings.

I am humbled by the 5,681 people who voted for me, most of whom I don’t know personally. I am convinced the same issues that are important to me are important to most of them.

I am thankful for the advice and encouragement from several longtime town leaders.  

The long days we candidates greeted voters outside the early polling station gave each of us a chance to know each other better and appreciate each other more. We even shared refreshments.

I am thankful for the nice weather most days, and especially for the large turnout of voters in today’s uncertain national environment. 

Those who know me well know I have a bulldog personality. Losing the election is just a minor inconvenience in my efforts to get a public Farmer’s Market. Someday soon we will have available locally grown, nutritious, heirloom veggies in multiple varieties, unlike those bought in grocery stores. Don’t be fooled by a product labeled organic. It may be a tasteless, low nutrition, hybrid shipped thousands of miles to the grocery store.

My curiosity has been satisfied. The people have spoken. I accept God’s will in my life, knowing he has a better plan for me.

And my campaign signs are available for free to recycle into yard sale signs.

Ain’t God good!

Carl Wayne, Master Gardener

mymaters@yahoo.com

An old newsletter Nov 15, 2003

======================================================

     FAMILY & FRIENDS Newsletter

     by Carl Wayne & Ann Hardeman  Nov 15, 2003

======================================================

We were supposed to have the first frost of the year Thurs night, but it didn’t happen, to my surprise and joy as I can enjoy the few remaining blooming flowers and the colors of the trees, which have made their splendificent display just this week. The cypress, Bradford pears, gingkos, and maples are intense. Man is without excuse (Romans 1:19-20) in such a display of beauty.

I need to be working in the yard laying it by for the winter but the cool and dark mornings almost demand a duvet day. My avian friends are enjoying their special treats of suet cakes and chopped corn which helps them keep theyselves warm more so than the blackoil sunflower seeds, at least it does in my imagination.

My  home sparrows who live in Thornton have denuded him of all his cerise bounty. There’s plenty more on Hailey and Hannah, the American hollies, but they must have to be hungrier than they are now to eat them. Momma, the mockingbird, will sate herself this winter with those berries.

The downside of the lack of a frost is having to continue mowing and edging and trimming – the sweat of our brows just as He said.

Saturday we had for supper collard greens and mustard greens from my backyard with Tommy Emmons’ special sauce. Also had baked sweet taters, fried pork steak (I only ate one), homemade biscuits and gravy, and peach pie. Deelicious and it kept me from eating

anything until halftime when watching the Grizzlies on TV.

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving, not just for the good food but for being with family and friends which is too seldom nowadays.

We had the annual sumptuous Thanksgiving Wednesday night meal before services Wed the 12th. I ate a pile of turkey and gravy and dressing and sweetpotato casserole and pumpkin pie with great draughts of sweet tea. These folks fix a cheap meal for everyone

every Wednesday evening. They have such good servants’ hearts.

We will have a big meal here with my folks and at her parents’ with her folks and both will feature groaning tables followed shortly thereafter by groaning bellies. I may make my main New Year’s resolution be to go on the Atkins’ diet. It should be easy since I am a frankophile, especially the all beef ballpark ones.

Uncle Aubrey of Laws Hill MS wonders why  since everyone has a camcorder or cell phone with a camera, nobody sees UFO’s anymore.

According to the editor of the London Daily Telegraph, a boiled egg will be perfectly done if you sing all 5 verses and the chorus to Onward Christian Soldiers.

The tersely yclept J Lo, when asked what she got on her SAT exam, replied: “Nail polish!”

We enjoyed a nice two day ride thru the countryside in Arkansas last weekend. Drove I40 to Brinkley then on US70 to Little Rock then back on I40 to Conway then US64 in the Dardanelles and AR River valley and over Petit Jean, past Mt Nebo, over Mt Magazine which was completely clouded in, then on to Ft Smith to spend the night. Left EARLY Sat morning and went high atop Rich Mtn near Mena. The AYCE breakfast and view from Queen Wilhelmina Lodge are both worth the trip.

Then we took the scenic US270 east across Mt Ida to Hot Springs then scenic AR 7 south to Eldorado then back northeast thru Pinebluff, Stuttgart, and Marianna to Forrest City then I40 back home. Long trip. Saw lots of beautiful scenery and many wild animals but very little fall foliage color. We saw several deer, many hawks, and even a fox carrying a squirrel. We saw a lot of redtail hawks on telephone lines and  one on a low fence post. She wondered why. I told her that it probably was nearsighted.

There were a lot of dead armadillos or hillbilly roadbumps as they are known in Arkansas or possum on the halfshell around here. One thing that really made my trip was the great skeins of geese in the evening sky near Stuttgart – surely there were thousands.

Maybe next summer we can take the grandkids to the butterfly festival on Mt Magazine

http://www.butterflyfestival.com/html/photocontest.html

or http://www.booneville.com/Mt.Mag-Cal.htm .

and the big waterpark in Conway http://www.wildrivercountry.com/

and Hot Springs http://www.magicsprings.com/ .

I also want to visit the new River Museum in Tunica MS and the wildlife refuge at Wapanocca:

http://library.fws.gov/refuges/Wapanocca02.pdf .

Someone once said as you grow older your ears and nose continue to grow. I looked it up. Actually it’s just the effect of gravity, which means the more time I spend lying down in

a recliner, the younger I will look.

Last week Mrs Polly Clement died after a long life of Christian service. She was my childrens’ Sunday school teacher. I appreciate her very much and regret I never told her that.

======================================================

     Family

======================================================

Not a lot going on with the family and no news is good

news.

Michael preached this Sunday at QR and I was beaming. He’s a natural and very good at it and got lots of compliments. He will be in Ada OK again this week Monday thru Thursday.

Case he was working on in Paris AR won a $3MM verdict.

Scotty is deer hunting when he is not working overtime, or camping with guns, Lisa calls it, when his luck is no better than mine.

======================================================

     Birds & Blooms

======================================================

Not much going on in the garden but plans and looking at seed catalogs and fantasizing about beating Tommy Emmons in gardening next year.

I split Tabitha, the chenille plant, as she was getting rootbound and I now have a new one. I call her Mehitabel.

I dug up several more arums the lady next door said I could have as they took up the border and are mowing and letting grass grow where there was a flower bed. I will keep them in pots for a while.

The goldfinches made a brief appearance last month but have been gone since. I saw juncos this week but haven’t seen any  purple finches for a while either. There is

a good bird catalog for your zip code at  http://www.birdsandblooms.com/

On the right side enter your email address and zip code.

Saturday a cooper’s hawk was sitting on my back fence waiting to pounce on a fat dove when a squirrel came running along the fence top toward him and came to a screeching halt and sat there puzzled for a while. Then it went down the fence, crossed under the hawk which jumped when it went by under it, then reappeared on top of the fence a few feet past the hawk. It was a hoot!!!

======================================================

     Blessings Needed and Received

======================================================

Each of us because we all have joys and fears which need

to be brought before His throne.

WEB GLEANINGS:

……………………………………………..November 21, 2008

Quotes:

“Conscience is the still, small voice which tells a candidate that what he is doing is likely to lose him votes.” –Anonymous

“God got Daniel out the lion’s den; he got Jonah out the belly of that whale; he got Gilligan off that island.”  ~From the movie: Coming To America

Humor:

Smart dog:

http://www.wxpnews.com/8PV6N8/080429-Smart-Border-Collie

Smarter dog:

http://www.postpaper.com/rapples111708.htm

Hilarious:

http://us.mg1.mail.yahoo.com/dc/launch?.rand=6g9mdtrq36rsi

Practice PC games for senior citizens:

http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=32048

Political humor cartoon:

http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/top-6-election-cartoons/article101789-4.html

Science & Ecology & Medicine:

Mini nuclear plants to power 10,000 homes cost $2,500 each:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/09/miniature-nuclear-reactors-los-alamos

Quiet wind turbine could provide 30% of a home’s electricity:

http://www.physorg.com/news144674984.html

Vicks Vapor Rub on soles of feet stops coughing:

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976951957

Big breakthrough in efficiency of solar cells:

http://www.physorg.com/news144940463.html

Carefully designed home gets most energy from the sun:

http://www.physorg.com/news144928659.html

UNC center for solar stuff:

http://www.ncsc.ncsu.edu/information_resources/fact_sheets.cfm

Dietary sport supplement shows strong effects in the elderly:

http://www.physorg.com/news145264056.html

No more stitches, coming soon by laser:

http://www.physorg.com/news145542876.html

Capturing Urban Stormwater Runoff: A Decentralized Market-Based Alternative:

http://newsroom.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/display.cgi?id=1967

More techniques:

http://www.cityofbremerton.com/content/sw_stormwaterrunoff.html

http://www.minnehahacreek.org/bmps_stormwater.php

2010 and after you will be filling up your vehicle with urea as well as gas:

http://www.physorg.com/news145556132.html

Save several miles per gallon with new rear wing on your minivan:

http://www.physorg.com/news145535595.html

Tap free energy from the air or ground to heat and cool your home with this superefficient technology:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Renewable-Energy/2005-04-01/Geothermal-Heat-Pumps.aspx?utm_medium=email&utm_source=iPost

Conservative News:

2008 Presidential election by county map:

http://images.newsmax.com/misc/2008_Election_Map.jpg

12 excellent election quotes:

http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/12-great-election-quotes/article104385.html?trkid=RINL2006

FedEx economist on the global mess:

http://citizenshipblog.fedex.designcdt.com/node/483

FedEx global citizenship report:

http://about.fedex.designcdt.com/corporate_responsibility/

A politically correct poem and a Christmas quiz:

http://www.answering-islam.org/Humor/humor3.html

Gardening & Eating:

Burnt ends BBQ samwich:

http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Overview.aspx?RefID=2640

Prison recycle, grow own food, go green:

http://www.physorg.com/news144769643.html

Amazing stunts:

http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=32302

Mississippi 2008 peanut harvest impressive:

http://deltafarmpress.com/news/peanut-yields-1114/

Miscellaneous:

Our home is the Nolley house in this gallery:

http://www.creative-homescapes.com/gallery.html

Fine spiritual singing and praising snippets:

http://dust-digital.com/goodbye-babylon-audio.htm

Collierville campaign statistics:

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/nov/02/aldermans-fundraising-tops-60500/

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/nov/04/roundup-collierville-mayor-and-alderman-race/

Justice:

http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=32758

…the end…

Civilian Fitness BOOT CAMP! For more details and 2 free workouts, Call Sergeant Les (901) 592-7097

This week:

From the Collierville Victory Garden:

Year-to-date 969.2 + 102 Monday + 78.2 today new YTD total 1149.4 lbs!!!

WE’RE OVER A THOUSAND POUNDS. ONE MORE THOUSAND TO GO!!!

These birds are flying all around town eating dragonflies per John Walko:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Kite

Our precious granddarlings are back in school. It’s good to see them happy and busy.  Soccer and baseball practice are in full swing and roller hockey registration is next week.

I don’t understand the problem with Russia & Georgia. Just get BHO to call Putin and tell him to quit it, or call the UN and tell them to handle it. That’s how he says he’s going to do it when he gets in office.

A friend posted a much appreciated VOTE FOR CARL note online:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FedExLegends/message/377

Corey is number 5 in these team videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5BLp4bPtVg

Mimi and I will be at the Bodock Festival next weekend in Pontotoc MS. Come by our Bodock Post booth on the square on the Post Office lawn.

Column / Short Story:

Tainted Tomatoes                                                       June 17, 2008

“We are usually hit not in the side of the head, but squarely between our eyes.”

~ anonymous

What? No tomatoes on my hamburger? No salsa made from tomatoes? No BLT? What is the world coming to?

You can’t buy a tomato in our town. News channels reported just yesterday a new case of poisoning of a poor unsuspecting soul by salmonella bacteria after eating a tainted tomato.

Apparently even a generous dose of salt or thick slathering of Hellman’s mayonnaise will not kill that potent a bacterium.

We’ll all have to wait, and except for we backyard gardeners, have to do without our favorite veggie, actually a fruit: a berry. We should have seen it coming.

One can hardly imagine the scope being the same as the Asian bird flu where millions of chickens have been killed and disposed of, mostly just to be safe.

And worse, one can imagine the unthinkable. Terrorists may have found a way to poison Americans or at least scare the heebie jeebies out of us.

Well, I better stick with what I know something about and can do something about which is tomatoes. I raise fifteen varieties of mostly old timey heirloom tomatoes in my backyard. Me and Mimi and our granddarlings will not have to suffer for lack of tomatoes.

We as a society need not have this problem either. We choose to eat food produced who knows where by who knows whom and transported thousands of miles to our stores. My how convenient. But how dangerous!

To paraphrase a famous quote: Imagine whirled peas, in a local farmers market. We could buy locally grown produce from known sources. You can know the farmer who grew the fresh produce that will be on your table tonight.

It will be so fresh and at its peak of flavor that children will be tempted to partake and discover they actually like veggies. And raw is better. You can thinly slice a bowl of most veggies and serve chilled along with ranch style dressing or my favorite: bleu cheese.

Locally grown produce will also be in season, will be multiple varieties of each kind of veggie, and will be nutritious heirloom varieties instead of anemic hybrids. It will have ripened naturally instead of being picked green and shipped for days, and in the case of tomatoes, turned red (not ripened) by being gassed with ethylene.

The market will have not only local farmers but ordinary backyard gardeners like me who come to sell and swap and chat and renew the old time sense of community.

While we have no such market in my town, the age old concept is coming back and spreading widely across America. The concepts of eating local and living sustainably are catching on. It’s a matter of health and nutrition and national security. We must do it.

Ain’t God good!

Carl Wayne Hardeman, Master Gardener

mymaters@yahoo.com

An OLD column/newsletter:

A Midsummer Stroll In the Sun at the WTC                           Aug. 14, 2007

“Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.”

~Noel Coward & Joe Coker

Maybe because I was born and raised in the hot humid South, I am supposed to say something like “heat don’t bother me” when asked why I am out in today’s 100 degree noon sun . A record high 106 is forecast for Memphis, but we are twenty-two miles in the hinterlands and in a smaller heat island. It was 73 on my patio this morning when the Memphis airport registered 77 degrees.

But today it is not too humid, a light breeze is blowing, and I’m feeling guilty about that Almond Joy I ate to chase the hot plate lunch from the cafeteria. I had been so good at breakfast and ate the fruit and cereal Mimi had for me.

There was a small crowd and an unusually low average IQ at the Table of Knowledge in the cafeteria today, basically just me. So I had time to spare to walk back to building 80 after circumnavigating the lake.

Exiting building 50 to the north I saw a skink. Since they are carnivores like me, there must be enough bugs and worms nearby for them to eat. I imagine it lives in the English ivy, which covers the wall under the windows on the southeast corner of building 20.

One wonders if we could be more colorful and name the buildings. If this were Colorado, the buildings would be named for mountains. I suggest bird names, and may start calling building 80 Kingbird.

It is very dry, but most of the WTC is irrigated. I saw very little wildlife. Besides the skink, I only saw a few dabbling ducks, a cardinal, a juvenile robin with its yellowish breast, an eastern kingbird, a sulphur butterfly, a painted lady butterfly, and a swallowtail butterfly. Wikipedia says dabbling ducks are “…so named because its members feed mainly on vegetable matter by upending on the water surface…”

The lake level is so low the irises are above the water line. I imagine the catfish have ticks on them.

The morningglories are doing well on the bamboo trellis over “the rock.” They could use a drink of water today.

The great swards of monoculture grass are closely cropped. The creek banks in the southeast corner are chemically scoured and eroding badly. One wishes for pleasant meadows and creek banks and biodiversity and more of Nature’s beauty to enjoy.

The fields behind Kingbird (building 50) have been cleared for the extension of Shea Road and the future Porter Farms subdivision. We may never again see the small herd of deer grazing there. But they cleared the land to build my house, so I cannot complain.

On a different subject the sun and rain and soil have yielded a beautiful bountiful harvest in our volunteer garden on South Rowlett next to the railroad tracks in Collierville. We volunteers have raised and donated 1,723 pounds of fresh produce to the Food Pantry and the Page-Robbins Alzheimer’s Adult Day Care Center.

The people who patronize the Food Pantry seldom get fresh produce, and the Food Pantry had never had any to give away before. A lady at the Food Pantry told us about a client who was given one of our watermelons. He broke it open, sat down on a bench, and ate half of it right there. That’s what keeps us going!

We harvest twice a week. The biggest harvest is Thursday mornings when we take it to the Food Pantry. On Monday mornings we take it to Page-Robbins. They take the peas and beans and spread them out on a table. One by one the people who had been sitting alone drift over to the table and begin shelling and snapping and talking.

Herbie Krisle of Page-Robbins says:

“Though none of our clients are physically hungry, they are hungry to be productive and active. And that is where this fresh produce has come in. We have enjoyed shucking corn, cutting it off with plastic knives; shelling peas and snapping beans; making homemade salsa. All while talking and reminiscing about days gone by.” This, too, keeps us going.

We have begun our fall garden, and soon will have more okra, squash, cucumbers, eggplants, tomatoes, and crowder peas. Next we will start greens and cabbages and turnips and rutabagas.

Fresh produce essentially comes from the sun as plants use photosynthesis, water, and soil nutrients to produce sugar to grow the produce. So who am I to complain about the sun?

Carl Wayne Hardeman

rowsofbuttercups@yahoo.com

Web Gleanings:

Humor:

People whisperer:

http://www.postpaper.com/rapples080408.htm

Science & Ecology & Medicine:

Chicago “Green” objectives and specifics:

http://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/webportal/portalEntityHomeAction.do?BV_SessionID=@@@@0932422139.1218464745@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccfadeelhhfgfjcefecelldffhdfhk.0&entityName=Environment&entityNameEnumValue=13

Chicago water management:

http://egov.cityofchicago.org/webportal/COCWebPortal/COC_ATTACH/wateragenda.pdf

New all electric Nissan car:

http://www.physorg.com/news137216197.html

Dutch town trying new air-purifying concrete:

http://www.physorg.com/news137230645.html

Invest in health by budgeting for nutrient-rich food:

http://www.physorg.com/news137233734.html

Broccoli good for reversing diabetes damage:

http://www.physorg.com/news137255750.html

Organic is best: a contrarian view:

http://www.physorg.com/news137324269.html

So maybe Uncle Fred is just weird:

http://www.physorg.com/news137334959.html

A very do-able energy savings technology:

http://www.physorg.com/news137416839.html

Easy way to hack a networked home or office:

http://www.physorg.com/news137469996.html

New book on effects of climate changes on civilizations:

http://www.physorg.com/news137779513.html

Mining pavement:

http://www.physorg.com/news137769988.html

Extreme carbon footprint reduction living:

http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/houses.htm

Nursing Home Ratings: Click on State then County:

http://www.nursing-homes-ratings.com/

Organic insecticide Neem oil shown to reduce nitrogen fixation by legumes:

http://www.agronomy-journal.org/index.php?option=article&access=standard&Itemid=129&url=/articles/agro/abs/2008/02/a7139/a7139.html

Conservative News:

The wreckage BHO will do if elected:

http://bsimmons.wordpress.com/2008/06/11/jerry-molen-on-obama-pass-it-along/

Short video of BHO mocking the Bible:

http://www.youtube.com/v/4FCNKwHRCQM

Gardening & Eating:

Bolivar TN farmer’s market and local Asian farmers:

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/aug/15/local-flavor-demand-strong-for-homegrown/

Tennessee Master Gardeners Handbook:

http://www.utextension.utk.edu/publications/wfiles/W099.pdf

Memphis Area Master Gardeners website and link to monthly newsletters:

http://www.memphisareamastergardeners.org/

Community gardening and best practices:

http://www.communitygarden.org/learn/best.php

Cut energy use by eating better:

http://www.physorg.com/news137776425.html

U of MS Home Gardening Handbook:

http://msucares.com/pubs/publications/p1091.pdf

Miscellaneous:

Strange creatures:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgv6yuhikB8&feature=email

On patternism theology:

http://www.zianet.com/maxey/pattern.htm

Big beautiful a capella sing (Diana):

http://www.dianasinging.com

Awesome work environment:

http://positivesharing.com/2006/10/10-seeeeeriously-cool-workplaces/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7290322.stm

Beware of old tires:

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4826897

Remote controlled Predator plan pilots suffer stress, too:

http://www.military.com/news/article/predator-pilots-suffering-war-stress.html?ESRC=airforce.nl

…the end…

Civilian Fitness BOOT CAMP! For more details and 2 free workouts, Call Sergeant Les (901) 592-7097

This week:

It’s hot but at least we had a nice rain on Thursday. All the plants in our yards and gardens need rain – more than just town water. We are gathering lots of tomatoes, not as many as my in-laws. Mimi went to see them (her parents, not the tomatoes) on Wednesday, and they sent some home by her so we can see what a basket of normal size tomatoes looks like.

Our community victory garden is making loads of tomatoes and peas and squash and peppers and zucchini and butternut squash and a few watermelons. We have big beautiful plants that have never been touched with insecticides. The good bugs and the bug busting birds keep the bad bug population in check. Our total harvest year to date is just short of 900 pounds with worlds more to pick. Our Friday morning purple hull pea bounty will be taken to Page Robbins Adult Day Care Center where the clients will shell them and interact and have a good day.

Our precious granddarlings start back to school next week. It’s good to see them happy and busy. The Olympics start Friday. And it’s supposed to be hot and dry all week. But the veggie gardens love the sun and we will water them well. I started teaching another nine week course at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University last week: Advanced MicroSoft Office.

Life is good!

Column / Short Story:

Early Morning In My Garden                                                June 18, 2008

“I come to the garden alone, While the dew is still on the roses;”

~ from the hymn by C. Austin Miles

Early morning is my favorite time to walk about in the modest suburban yard I call my garden. My senses are sharper and my mind clearer from a good night’s rest. Plants are not folded up to avoid the hot sun, and critters are stirring about. And I am without excuse, the Good Book says, as I see His glorious handiwork.

A fat toad leapt from my thongs (the shoe type) kept on the patio for quick access. He lurks by the door to catch mosquitoes poised for the chance to dart inside whence the delicious scents of human heat and carbon dioxide emanate.

One fennel plant, a butterfly host plant, has been largely consumed by a large striped swallowtail butterfly caterpillar, having escaped so far the eyes and beaks of  birds which visit my feeders daily.

The hummingbirds are back, but seldom seen until they finish nesting. My home sparrows are busy at the feeders eating and discussing current events. Mourning doves feed on the ground. They perch on rooftops and coo loudly until I put out feed. The cardinals visit at dusk, knowing I put out more blackoil sunflower seed for them after most birds have gone to roost.

Early morning is when my inlaws, Ralph and Opal Graham, do their heavy garden work. Not only do they avoid the effects of the hot sun, but they can rest for the day.

This morning I savor the delights of new blooms: rudbeckias (brown eyed susans), redhot poker plants, lilies, gladioli (Aunt Cora’s favorite), my new dwarf hollyhock, verbena, zinnias, and my veggie plants.

This mid June morning I picked a zucchini, a Rosa Bianca eggplant, a yellow squash, a bush cucumber, and my 11^th-13^th small but welcome Early Girl tomatoes.

I gave my plants a nice shower of water this early morning to help protect them from the debilitating sun and avoid creating damp places for fungi to thrive in darkness.

As Master Gardener Bill Colvard taught me to do, I shake each tomato cage to augment their gravity pollination. The last 24 hours have been ideal for tomatoes to set fruit, which only happens when daytime temps do not exceed 86 degrees and nighttime temps are below 70 degrees.

All is good! Now I can go to my job in a beautiful campus for one of the best companies in the world.

Ain’t God good!

Carl Wayne Hardeman, Master Gardener, mymaters@yahoo.com

An OLD column/newsletter:

Summer Rewards                                                                        Aug 1, 2007

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”

~Zora Neale Hurston 

We are in the hot and humid days of our beloved South. It’s humid yet dry. Much effort, mostly mental, is needed to get out of the house and into the garden.

“The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Little work is needed in the garden midsummer other than a little weeding, watering, harvesting, and enjoying the reward of the hard work earlier in the year.

The damage from the Easter Sunday freeze is evident. The hydrangeas did not bloom. There are dead ends on some of the branches on Hester, the hawthorn tree. Thornton, the pyracantha, and Finbar, one of the Japanese maples, died.  I don’t know whether from the freeze, or the cumulative effect of the drought and my inattention to watering.

We’re eating tasty heirloom maters from the back yard. The Mortgage Lifter maters lived up to the seed catalog description averaging 1.5 pounds each with two to three per vine. Two late vines have two large fruit each yet to ripen. Just the right size for one of Mimi’s delicious bologna sandwiches with real Hellman’s mayonnaise.

My two tater vines in straw-filled containers yielded two tasty messes for me and Mimi. I just dumped the containers in my yard cart. That’s easier than digging taters.

Our summer flowers are in bloom, including the crape myrtles, black-eyed susans, naked ladies (surprise lilies), dahlia, hollyhocks, parsley, milkweed, hostas, zinnias,

verbena, morning glories, encore azaleas, fennel, batface cupheas, tea rose, daylilies, stock, and wave petunias. One variety of my carnivorous plants has bloom stalks.

The hummingbirds hang around the feeders most of the day with a male guarding the feeders and chasing most of the others away. Mimi keeps the feeders full and clean, just like she does me and our granddarlings.

We’ve seen few butterflies and bees this year. Usually the bee balm is covered with bees, but not this year.  We’ve seen swallowtail butterfly caterpillars on the parsley and fennel, but sadly, so have the birds.

Summer will be over too soon. The granddarlings have completed their summer sports, vacations, and camps. I know I’m old fashioned, but it don’t seem right for

children to start back to school in hot weather. Youth is too short and passes too quickly.

Ain’t God good!

Carl Wayne, Master Gardener

mailto:mymaters@yahoo.com

Web Gleanings:

Humor:

More from my favorite Southern humor columnist:

http://www.postpaper.com/rapples072808.htm

Your patriotic duty:

http://nationalrantpage.blogspot.com/2008/08/patriotic-duty.html

Non frills airline 9:45 video:

http://www.youtube.com/swf/l.swf?video_id=QCz8he36hsk&rel=1&eurl=http%3A//us.mg1.mail.yahoo.com/dc/launch%3F.rand%3Dfuoa1ctc09209&iurl=http%3A//i2.ytimg.com/vi/QCz8he36hsk/default.jpg&t=OEgsToPDskJxlkPFLecfyRNr7TySYYdb&use_get_video_info=1&hl=en

Science & Ecology & Medicine:

Toyota Winglet rivals Segway:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080801/ap_on_hi_te/japan_toyota_robot_2

Add a new “wing” to your home:

http://www.physorg.com/news136967671.html

The latest on ADHD:

http://www.livescience.com/health/healthination-adhd/

Could the earth be cooling?:

http://deltafarmpress.com/news/robinson-column-0807/

Conservative News:

US intelligence: Iran planning nuclear strike on the US:

http://www.newsmax.com/timmerman/iran_nuclear_plan/2008/07/29/117217.html

Hard questions for BHO:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/134316/page/2

Democrats speaking good about John McCain:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSpcxkKlEFA

Gardening & Eating:

I can dream:

http://www.farmersmarketla.com/

Tomato problem pix and links to descriptions:

http://www.hfrr.ksu.edu/DesktopModules/ViewDocument.aspx?DocumentID=2062

Ithaca NY farmers market:

http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Overview.aspx?RefID=3115

Miscellaneous:

Beautiful pix:

http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=26321

Bowell-Hardeman debate on instrumental music:

http://drkenney.blogspot.com/2008/03/boswell-hardeman-discussion.html

also

http://www.network54.com/Forum/187069/thread/1107642712/last-1139965246/”%3BBoswell-Hardeman+Discussion+on+Instrumental+Music+in+the+Worship”%3B

Bogard-Hardeman debate on the Holy Spirit:

http://drkenney.blogspot.com/2008/03/hardeman-bogard-debate.html

Hardeman’s Tabernacle Sermons:

http://drkenney.blogspot.com/search/label/N.%20B.%20Hardeman

Gaither Vocal band et al pix:

http://www.marklowry.com/inside/ramblings/inside_images/2008_images/gvb-reunion/index.htm

Ms Cordell Jackson: Pontotoc/Memphis music pioneer:

http://www.steamiron.com/cgrrl/cordell.html

Free Windows XP tuneup:

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9111531&source=NLT_AM&nlid=1

India is developing a $10 computer:

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=careers&articleId=9110966&taxonomyId=10&intsrc=kc_top

…the end…

This week:

Last Saturday we and Michael and his family visited Mimi’s parents, Ralph and Opal Graham, in Hurricane MS area in northwest Pontotoc County.  I had to swallow my pride and admit they have a large tomato crop and bring a big bag of them home so Mimi will have at least one big ripe tomato to eat this summer. Lisa and her family visited them on Thursday, Raph and Opal, not the tomatoes.

Mimi has been doing her best delicious downhome Southern cooking ever. Recently she made tomato-cucumber-onion-sweet_peppers in oil and vinegar. The tomatoes I grow are perfect size, I am sorry to say, for that dish. She has also fried zucchini, made super delicious sweet tomato soup with elbow macaroni, sautéed squash and zucchini and onions, fried okra, fried taters & onions, cooked fresh purple hull peas and butterbeans, peeled and sliced maters, made frozen fruit salad, and made hot cornbread. Next we are having fresh stuffed baked bellpeppers. I imagine most young people, and lots of Yankees, never had such a blessing and don’t know what they are missing.

This week we picked from the Victory Garden and delivered to the Collierville Food Pantry 45 lbs of zucchini, yellow squash, butternut squash, acorn squash, banana peppers, jalapeno peppers, bell peppers, purple hull peas, and tomatoes.  Total year-to-date is 770.1 lbs. This includes 35 lbs we picked Sunday, which was taken to Page Robbins on Monday.

Pontotoc County MS has an annual Bodock Festival, since bodock (bois d’arc) trees are common there. Three of us Pontotoc writers have begun a Bodock Post free bimonthly email newsletter for us and others in that area or from that area to write stories in.

Wayne Carter and Ralph Jones and I will have a booth at the Bodock Festival. We are calling ourselves Bodockers. Subscribe to the Bodock Post at: http://www.bodockpost.com/ or send me an email.

The editor of the Collierville Independent has asked me to move to the Collierville Herald with her. I have agreed. I don’t know how that affects the other newspapers the Independent was associated with. I still am in the Pontotoc Progress most weeks. God is blessing me richly.

Column / Short Story:

Tomato Questions                                            June 10, 2008

“It’s difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.”

~Lewis Grizzard

One reason a Master Gardener sounds wise is we get the same questions over and over. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy sounding wise for a change.

One question has nothing to do with tomatoes but is asked in May and June. Where are the hummingbirds? Usually the asker doesn’t remember the same question last year and the year before since he/she remembers them gathering around the feeders in April and from mid June until late in the year. The answer is they are nesting, and when they nest, they eat mostly tree sap and gnats to get the nutrients and protein they need.

The most common questions I am asked about tomato problems are:

What are those ugly brown spots on the end of my tomatoes? That’s blossom end rot caused by overwatering or under watering which causes too little calcium to be available to the plants. We senior citizens have that problem sometimes, too.

Why have my tomatoes stopped setting fruit? Tomatoes are self pollinated by gravity, which is effective only when nighttime temps are below 70 degrees and daytime temps are below 87 degrees. That’s a narrow range, but days like that occur at least once most weeks.

Why are the bottom leaves turning brown or yellow and have spots on them? We Master Gardeners are trained to look at the calendar and if it’s before July 1, say it’s the early blight, else we are to say it’s the late blight. Not much you can do but remove the diseased plants. Don’t touch another plant until you have sanitized your hands and any tools you used. Next year plant in a different place and use a fungicide the first month after they start growing.

Why are the bottom leaves turning yellow? There are several possibilities:

-         Too little or too much water. Heavy mulch can prevent moisture from getting to the roots. Too much water can leach away nutrients, and too little water can prevent nutrients from being soluble so the roots can uptake them.

-         Too little nutrients such as iron etc can be caused by too little fertilizer.

 -     Nitrogen deficiency.  Heavy mulch uses up available nitrogen as it composts.

 -     Too much nitrogen causes the canopy to outgrow the root system, thus the plant quits sending sugar to the older leaves.

I imagine many of you have these questions, and I hope this helps. Email me anytime with your questions and tell me about your gardening problems and successes,

Aint God good!  Carl Wayne Hardeman, Master Gardener mymaters@yahoo.com

An OLD column/newsletter:

Veggies Eating Challenge               July 20, 2007

“…children who grow up eating fresh-from-the-garden produce also prefer the taste of fruits and vegetables to other foods…”

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070418163652.htm

Children all too often do not get to enjoy and learn to appreciate a wide variety of fresh vegetables. Poorer children have little or no access to fresh veggies. Other children have little access to locally grown, fresh, tasty veggies.

Most of the fresh produce in stores was grown elsewhere and shipped here. They are mostly hybrids grown to ship, stack, and for long shelf life, not for taste or smell. See if they have a delicious fresh smell. It’s difficult enough to get children to eat their veggies, particularly almost bland mushy overcooked ones.

Walk through a garden, or farmer’s market, with a child and savor a fresh pea, bean, carrot, cucumber. Pick one up and smell it to compare with ones you find in the grocery  store. Smell the veggie, not the child. Veggies almost always smell better than a child.

It’s important for both taste and nutrition to eat produce picked in the last 24 hours, grown in local soil and air, and with a wide variety of veggies and of each veggie.

Gather or buy from a farmers’ market. Prepare a dish of sliced fresh tomatoes, squash, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, and cucumbers, with ranch dressing or Rotel on the side.

Lightly saute or steam some of those veggies with onions, new potatoes, and peas. Season and dab on a little butter.

Make a salad of cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, and as many varieties of lettuce as you can find. Serve the dressing on the side. You may like salad veggies

without it.

Make your own delicious homemade soup. Use as many veggies as you have, except cucumbers and greens, add tomato juice and water for liquid, lightly season, and simmer

until your desired level of tenderness. Aunt Cora’s soup had many different veggies including okra, corn, and several kinds of peas and beans. A real cornucopia. Mimi makes it with lots of ingredients, too.

Last night for supper Mimi prepared sliced tomatoes, cantaloupe, real mashed potatoes, English peas for me to make a nest in the mashed taters, okra fried crisp in a skillet, and four salmon patties. We only ate two salmon patties because of all the other fresh tasty goodies. That says it all.

Ain’t God good! Carl Wayne, Master Gardener, mailto:mymaters@yahoo.com

Web Gleanings:

Humor:

How to tell if your feet stink:

http://www.thecutereport.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/catfeet.jpg

Science & Ecology & Medicine:

Gov’t says 90 billions barrels of oil offshore from Arctic:

http://www.physorg.com/news136127696.html

Material makes electricity from automobile engine heat:

http://www.physorg.com/news136127265.html

Latest statistics on software engineering success factors:

http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/crosstalk/2008/08/0808Cockburn.html

from

http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/crosstalk/2008/08/index.html

Green roof could reduce a building’s AC bills about 21 percent:

http://www.physorg.com/news136478486.html

Yeti, man, or ape: the DNA will tell:

http://www.physorg.com/news136468651.html

Cheaper gas from grass:

http://www.physorg.com/news136471253.html

Potential treatment for Alzheimers:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080729/ap_on_he_me/med_alzheimer_s_drugs_2

Roundup resistant pigweed boom:

http://deltafarmpress.com/cotton/resistant-pigweed-0730/

Conservative News:

Buying yet another pig in a poke:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080728/ap_on_el_pr/obama_social_security_3

BHO’s stealth socialism:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ibd/20080728/bs_ibd_ibd/20080728issues

Gardening & Eating:

No- till plus winter cover crop solves tropical nutrient leaching problem:

http://www.physorg.com/news136478232.html

Getting rich growing and selling Japanese seedlings:

http://www.freeplants.com/Japanese-Maple-Collection.htm

Miscellaneous:

I want to start going to these sings:

http://www.christianchronicle.org/article2158409~%92Tis_midnight%2C_and_in_Diana%2C_Tennessee_…

Short heart warming video:

http://www.heraldleaderphoto.com/2008/05/31/adam-bender/

…the end…

This week:

Wishing you a very happy day eCard:

http://cardfountain.com/ecards/snggrndhg01/index.php?pid=21348&enm=1&aid

I’m having second worst year ever for tomatoes in my back yard. What’s worse is we are going to visit her parents in the country Saturday and he will have baskets of them to give us.  J  Oh well, he won fair and square and Mimi says she would like to eat at least one big red tasty tomato this year.

We picked from the Collierville Victory Garden and delivered to the Collierville Food Pantry on Thursday and Page Robbins Center on Monday zucchini, yellow squash, butternut squash, watermelons, banana peppers, jalapeno peppers, bell peppers, and tomatoes.  Total year-to-date is 690.1 lbs. We (that being an editorial we) dug water line and installed three spigots so we now have glorious water at the garden. Previously we had to drag five hoses to reach the garden and were losing water pressure. Sure has been hot and dry. I saw a pair of accipiters of some kind Monday morning. They had a falcon silhouette but were not kestrels. They were not any of the hawks I usually see and were not Mississippi kites. I wonder what they were.

We three Pontotoc County writers have a new free country email ‘zine which will begin bimonthly in September. Subscribe to the Bodock Post at: http://www.bodockpost.com/ or send me an email.

Teacakes in the Afternoon: 2008 Mississippi Gulf Coast Writers Anthology.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?WRD=teacakes+in+the+afternoon   

I have a story in it. While my story is clean and humorous, the language in some of the stories is not for children or your sweet granny. It’s available at Barnes & Noble.

Granddarlings are staying busy. Kristen has soccer practice. Corey has baseball pitching practice. Karli and Kristen stay busy with church youth group. Courtney and her daddy Scotty have gone to the Spring River in AR camping and canoeing yesterday and today.

Column / Short Story:

Zinnias                                                                                           June 6, 2008

“Whats not to like about a zinnia?”

~Carl Wayne

Zinnias are just about the best flower. They are easy to grow and need very little maintenance other than an occasional drink of water. They come in all sizes, heights, and colors, and have both annual and perennial varieties. They love full sun, and you don’t have to weed a thickly sown zinnia bed. Anything that saves me work is a winner.

They grow easily from seed, and will reseed themselves for a nice new crop next year. Or sprinkle seeds on a new patch of ground where they can have good soil contact, cover them with a little dirt or sand, keep them moist until they sprout, and you will be rewarded soon with a gift that keeps on giving. Not only will they reseed for next year, they will reseed this year giving you flowers until frost gets them.

My inlaws, Ralph and Opal Graham, used to have large beds of zinnias, which were the talk of their community. People would drive by and stop and ask about them. Their thickly sown beds would grow a riot of colors and heights, and be covered with butterflies, bluebirds, and goldfinches. A joy to behold. Both them and their zinnias.

Zinnias are grown by organic gardeners, too. Like squash used by the American Indians in a Three Sisters configuration with corn and beans, they shade the ground enough to discourage unwanted plants from growing. This is why thickly sown zinnia flowerbeds don’t need weeding. Neither do gardens with thickly sown zinnia planted in the middles between the rows but not so close to your veggies so as to shade them.

An additional benefit for veggie gardeners is they attract pollinators such as bees. Zinnias and sunflowers in your garden will attract both bees and birds, and the birds will not only eat seeds, but will catch a fat bug or worm they spot fixing to munch on your peas or tomatoes.

I love tall zinnias in a rich assortment of colors, but I find three varieties especially lovely: the lime green “Envy”, any of the multicolored dahlia-like ‘Swizzles”, and the “White Wedding”. Probably because like most gardeners, I enjoy the bragging rights of new and unusual plants.

Aint God good!

Carl Wayne Hardeman, Master Gardener

mymaters@yahoo.com

An OLD column/newsletter:

Eat Local                               July 17, 2007

“It’s difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.

~Lewis Grizzard

Mine and Mimi’s parents in Pontotoc County MS raised much  of what they ate, using natural fertilizers gleaned from  barns and chicken yards and cotton gins.

They raised pigs and chickens and an occasional beef cow.

They had fresh eggs and what are now called free range chickens. They had fresh milk from their cows fed on corn and hay they had raised.

My generation raises much less of its own food. We eat food from cans and packages sold in grocery stores, balanced with eating out.

We don’t get as much nutrition as found in fresh food.

The meat, eggs and milk we buy are produced on farms by animals given growth hormones and fed non-organically produced feed.

The produce we buy is often shipped hundreds, if not thousands, of miles. Thus much of the nutrition is lost.

To make matters worse, the animals and produce are fast  growing hybrids, easy to ship, long shelf life, and are  not as tasty or nutritious as fresh local products.

There are several “green” movements stirring: return to  eating natural products, using sustainable farming and  farming practices, and eating local. Here’s one in TN:

http://www.barefootfarmer.com/lhcf.html

Another growing movement is the opening of many farmer’s markets across the USA. You will support the local economy, get fresher and tastier and more nutritious produce and meats, have a wider variety of products, and save the planet by reducing the vast amount of fuel burned shipping food from far away.

Some of us believe eating local produce grown in local air and dirt and sunshine, in season, will attune our bodies to the rhythms and harmony of earth and improve our nutrition and health.

Good reasons to eat locally grown products:

http://fogcity.blogs.com/jen/2005/08/10_reasons_to_e.html

http://www.shorelinebeacon.com/News/323844.html

Someday government officials will appreciate having a  farmers market so we can eat local is as important a quality of life issue, if not more so, than parks and greenbelts.

Maybe someday Mimi and I will not have to drive 20 miles,  as we did last Saturday morning, to buy fresh local

sweetcorn, squash, okra, purplehull peas, butter beans,

lady peas, sugarbaby watermelons, and cucumbers.

Try it; you’ll like it. Visit a local farmers market and have a meal of all locally grown produce. Eat some of it uncooked. Even the kids will like their veggies.

http://www.eatlocalchallenge.com/

Ain’t God good!

Carl Wayne, Master Gardener

mailto:mymaters@yahoo.com

Web Gleanings:

Humor:

6 minute wedding party dance:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1030697/weding_party_dance/

Hillbilly tank top (G rated):

http://www.pheistyblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/redneck-tanktop-thumb.jpg

Science & Ecology & Medicine:

Abundant cheap fresh water could let us farm deserts and feed the world:

http://www.physorg.com/news135958814.html

How Seattle manages storm water 4 pages:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HTO/is_3_34/ai_n25120965

http://www.djc.com/news/co/11138820.html http://www.greenroofs.org/boston/images/hires/Ballard1.JPG    picture

http://www.djc.com/news/co/11138816.html

http://www.edcmag.com/CDA/Archives/76b0db719c697010VgnVCM100000f932a8c0____

Soil Strategies for Storm Water Management:

http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/green/pubs/asla-soil.pdf

Seattle SEA Street water retention through landscaping:

http://www.werf.org/livablecommunities/studies_sea_wa.htm

Virtual Tour (see link at bottom):

http://www.ci.seattle.wa.us/util/About_SPU/Drainage_&_Sewer_System/Natural_Drainage_Systems/Street_Edge_Alternatives/COS_004467.asp

California adopts green building code for all new construction:

http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/07/18/california-adopts-green-building-code-all-new-construction

Much cheaper and more efficient solar cells within 3 years:

http://www.physorg.com/news134917794.html

No more grassless barn lots and no more concrete driveways and parking lots:

http://www.ecoterr.com/et_start.html

http://www.stable-grid.com/

http://www.paversearch.com/grass-pavers-advantages.htm

Frederick W Smith on clean energy 36 min video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raeNdsAUDkk

Rapid Alzheimer improvement:

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2377/8/27/abstract

http://w02.biomedcentral.com/download/pr/PPA1280.mov

World’s largest helicopter:

http://southbros.blogspot.com/2007/07/largest-helicopter.html

Having to rewrite the history books, again:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080701193203.htm

Eat less and save the planet:

http://www.physorg.com/news136028669.html

Conservative News:

Need for H1B visas debunked (AMEN!!!!):

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9110379&source=NLT_AM&nlid=1

Socialist country Bulgaria adopts 10% falt personal income tax rate:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=69667

Andrea Mitchell on fake Obama interviews in Iraq etc:

http://newsbusters.org/node/22753?q=blogs/mark-finkelstein/2008/07/21/andrea-obama-trip-what-some-would-call-fake-interviews

Collierville Mayor web sites:

http://tomallenformayor.com/

http://brannonhowse.com/

Poll shows majority of economists see McCain better for stock market:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080723/ts_nm/economy_usa_politics_poll_dc_7

Gardening & Eating:

Vigorous pruning discourages early blight in tomatoes:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Grow-It/Organic-Gardening/Preventive-Pruning-for-Tomato-Early-Blight-Control.aspx?blogid=1502&utm_source=iPost&utm_medium=email

Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain, D.V.M. is challenging Louisiana to eat local for one week.:

http://www.ldaf.state.la.us/portal/Offices/MarketingAgriculturalEconomicDevelopment/FarmersMarketProgram/EatLocalLouisianaChallenge/tabid/480/Default.aspx

http://www.ldaf.state.la.us/portal/Offices/MarketingAgriculturalEconomicDevelopment/FarmersMarketProgram/tabid/317/Default.aspx

Beautiful lightning pix:

http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=26185

Miscellaneous:

Tony Snow’s testimony:

http://weblog.xanga.com/NYVogue/630362687/tony-snows-testimony.html

The Book of Common Prayer:

http://www.bcponline.org/

…the end…

This week:

You may have noticed I took the week off last week. We and the kids and the granddarlings enjoyed staying in Phoenix V condos in Orange Beach AL, and eating all the boiled peanuts and friend seafood we wanted. It was hot! The jellyfish were bad. But we had a wonderful time together. Ginger stayed with Nana. Domino stayed at Four Paws Pet Spa with Monica, And Belle had three visits oer day by a loving dog sitter. All did well.

Trivia question:

Name the 6 kings of Memphis.

One is symbolic; the others are real people living or dead.

I’ m getting some medium size tomatoes and eggplants from my backyard containers. Mimi fixed Monday night supper fried eggplants, a cucumber-onion-tomato-oil-vinegar salad, boiled new potatoes, niblet corn, and oven BBQ’ed chicken, with my favorite dessert: frozen fruit salad with cherries, nuts, etc. YUM YUM!!!!!

We picked and delivered to the local Food Pantry from the Collierville Victory Garden this week 126.4 lbs  for a year-to-date total of 572.1 lbs.

Pix of this week’s harvest (I snuck in a few pix of my yard):

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=5jpx39n.8yolrfmb&x=0&h=1&y=-32ftx7&localeid=en_US

I have joined the rest of the family on www.facebook.com Carl Wayne Hardeman.

Column / Short Story:

Pocket Knives                                                 June 6, 2008

“A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it.”

~Rabindrath Tagore

Thursday mornings we harvest from the Victory Garden for the local Food Pantry. So far this year we have harvested and donated 124+ pounds of fresh, nutritious produce to those who would otherwise only get boxes and bags and cans of food.

We have harvested this year cabbages, broccoli, bell peppers, and squash. Some lop eared lagomorphs (Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter) “done et” all one hundred cauliflower plants and most of the broccoli plants. I’m not sure what to do except put up an expensive fence, since guns are not allowed to be used in town, and dogs must be on leashes.

Last year Mimi gave me the best knife I have ever had. It’s a Bear brand with blades of Damascus steel. Damascus steel is a several thousand year old process which creates a very high quality blade. Multiple plies of varying hardness are hammered together. The resultant blade combines the best of both hard and soft metals making it strong, flexible, and holds an edge.

It has a distinctive water pattern, water being Damascus in Arabic. Did I mention it’s not cheap? Nice present, ladies, for your favorite man.

This morning while relieving a stalk of broccoli of its delicious head, I demonstrated yet again some people don’t need to let near a sharp knife. Oh well. My finger stopped bleeding after being wrapped tightly with several Bandaids. It should be fine in a few weeks.

I have enjoyed listening to many a knife swappings my daddy-in-law, Ralph Graham, participated in. Seems to have been a fun pastime, and some people, including him, were real good at it.

If I got it right, both of the swapping parties will boast of having gotten the better deal and will have pulled one over on the other party. It took me a while to figure out what “giving boot” meant and what key words were used to indicate you were going to swap and were just arguing the details. There’s an art to all that.

I suppose that art form will fade away and probably has. Even so, I wouldn’t swap my Damascus steel blade Bear knife, though I may need to get a cheaper, duller one to harvest the garden.

Aint God good!

Carl Wayne Hardeman, Master Gardener, mymaters@yahoo.com

An OLD column/newsletter:

Picking Tomatoes                    July 11, 2007

“Of the seven deadly sins, surely it is pride that most  commonly afflicts the gardener.”

~ Michael Pollan

It’s showdown time in the Great Mater Race with Ralph Graham, my daddy-in-law in Pontotoc County MS. I had the earliest mater started indoors. He had the earliest one grown outside. He’s winning the most maters contest. I am winning the biggest mater contest.

Most of the early blossom end rot maters are gone by mid

July. It’s OK to cut off the leathery bottom and eat them.

In hot dry weather you will have some leaves turn brown and some leaf curl. If you don’t see any insect damage or black spots, the vines are probably just adjusting to available moisture and leaf area to total root area.

You can find basic tomato gardening information online:

http://plantanswers.tamu.edu/vegetables/tomato.html

My two Mortgage Lifter vines only have two or three maters  each, but they are huge. I picked the largest. It’s almost two pounds and half as big again as a slice of bologna.

It’s an heirloom variety developed by Radiator Charlie in the 1940′s. He sold 6,000 plants in six years at a dollar each and paid off his mortgage.

I picked one when it began to turn pink to beat the birds to it. It’s uglier than homemade soap, and I don’t know

how it will taste, since it’s not fully ripe.

I’m getting tasty maters from my heirloom varieties:

Arkansas Traveler, Abe Lincoln, Brandywine,

Cherokee Purple, Homestead, and Good Old Fashion Red.

The best way to avoid birds getting to maters is to pick them when they have begun to ripen. Another reason to pick early is to avoid uneven ripening caused by excessive heat.  That’s when they look ripe but have hard yellow insides.

Maters will ripen just fine on the kitchen counter or even

better in a paper sack. I have used bird netting but find  this method just as effective. I don’t begrudge the birds an occasional mater. I cut off the pecked spot and eat

the rest when Mimi isn’t looking.

Someone came up with the idea of frustrating birds with red Christmas tree balls on the vines, but I don’t want my granddarlings excited too early either. Tinfoil pie pans, scarecrows, and computer CD’s will scare them, too.

Ralph may have the best way of keeping birds away. He sits on the porch with Little Bit, his feist terrier, Tom, Opal’s cat, and his trusty 22 caliber rifle. At least one of those will do the trick.

My fennel and parsley were covered in tiny swallowtail

butterfly caterpillars earlier this week. They were cuter

than a basket of new puppies. But they were all gone this

morning. So much for trying to raise caterpillars and feeding the birds in the same backyard.

Ain’t God good!

Carl Wayne, Master Gardener

mymaters@yahoo.com

Web Gleanings:

Quotes:

Carl: Someday your watch or cell phone will be a platform and not just an application.

Carl:  World’s top destroyer of the environment. It is not the car, or the plane; it is the cow:

http://www.ccchina.gov.cn/en/NewsInfo.asp?NewsId=6564

Carl: next big energy savings thang will be geothermal sinks:

          http://www.igshpa.okstate.edu/geothermal/residential.htm

          http://www.heatfromtheearth.com/

and tankless water heaters:

          http://www.gotankless.com/

          and insulated sheets for rooftops and walls:

          http://www.mascoat.com/weatherbloc.php

          http://www.roofingcontractor.com/CDA/Articles/Cool_Roof/47887df78b7ad010VgnVCM100000f932a8c0____

          water runoff prevention (1 inch rain = 17.38 million gallons per square mile):

          http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthrain.html

           My yard = 100 X 165 = 16,500 square feet = just over 1/4^th acre.

          One inch rainfall over one acre = 27,143 / 4 = 6,785 gallons on my yard.

Humor:

Lady and the wasp:

http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=25021

Campaign spoof:

http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2008/07/jibjabs-time-fo.html

Science & Ecology & Medicine:

Germany to build 30 offshore wind farms:

http://www.physorg.com/news134557678.html

Ferrari to slash cars’ carbon emmisions:

http://www.physorg.com/news134531759.html

Biofuels have caused world food prices to increase by 75 percent:

http://us.mg1.mail.yahoo.com/dc/launch?.rand=cs4fo30057j8p

Exploding asteroid over Canada may have caused end of the last Ice Age:

http://www.physorg.com/news134233301.html

Improved treatment for children with ADHD:

http://www.physorg.com/news134617797.html

MLG&W meter intelligence:

http://www.mlgw.com/SubView.php?key=comm_meterintelligence

New Smart Pen records audio and writing:

http://www.livescribe.com/press/releases/release_070530.html

Conservative News:

All the oil we need for 200 years:

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/gull_island_oil.html

Short video about John McCain:

http://www.johnmccain.com/videolanding/love.htm

Apparently winning in Iraq isn’t news:

http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=300324023809577

George W’s War:

http://washingtoncountyrepublicanparty.blogspot.com/2008/07/george-ws-war.html

T. Boone Pickens much need energy plan:

http://www.pickensplan.com/

What I Am ad in Washington Post, by a Republican:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/whatiam.asp

Obama to put Hillary on the Supreme Court???:

http://bsimmons.wordpress.com/2008/06/11/jerry-molen-on-obama-pass-it-along/

Gardening & Eating:

Yes its real lettuce on that McDonald’s billboard sign:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/06/lettuce-billboard.php

Miscellaneous:

IRS Taxpayer Advocacy Office:

http://www.irs.gov/advocate/index.html

40 Ways to Live a Better Life:

http://www.ehow.com/how_2279765_live-better-life.html

Free Online office apps: Google Docs vs. ThinkFree vs Zoho: http://cwflyris.computerworld.com/t/3358002/216481/126148/2/

…the end…

This week:

We enjoyed the concert and fireworks in the park Thursday night July 3. We also enjoyed family cookout with niece Carla Warren on Saturday July 5. We just took it easy on the 4^th.

We’re getting ready to head to the redneck Riviera Tuesday-Saturday next week  with Lisa and Michael and their families. We’ll be in 2 beachfront Phoenix condos. We enjoy that time together and watching the granddarlings play, and getting to see brother-in-law Dave Warren who lives in Pensacola.

We picked and delivered to the local Food Pantry from the Collierville Victory Garden this week 103.7 lbs of squash, cucumbers, zucchini, bell peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, purplehull peas, and jalapeno peppers for a year-to-date total of 435.6 lbs.

Then another 9.8 lbs this morning July 7 for Page Robbins Adult Day care for YTD total of 445.4 lbs. We have begun planning the fall garden. The flower beds and flowers in the veggie beds are in full bloom and gorgeous and doing a wonderful job of attracting bees to do the pollination.

Collierville Victory Garden Thursday July 3 2008 harvest:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=5jpx39n.bt7sqihv&Uy=-gguuth&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=571643352619_837809222307&localeid=en_US

I have joined the rest of the family on www.facebook.com as Carl Wayne Hardeman.

Column / Short Story:

Some More Convenient Day                                June 4, 2008

“Some more convenient day….”  ~P.P. Bliss, from the hymn: Almost Persuaded

Have you ever noticed when you have an all volunteer effort, such as our Victory Garden for the needy, most of the work is done by a few people?

It is true that if you want something done, ask a busy person. When I came up with the proposal for the garden, I asked the two busiest gardeners I know, and they immediately agreed not only to work, but to help lead and coordinate the work. I have not been disappointed, and stand amazed at their hard work.

We have raised a garden for the needy both last year and again this year. All the produce is donated to local charities, mainly the local Food Pantry. We are blessed with a long list of people who can work every now and then and even more blessed with a small group who work when it needs done.

A preacher once said something about not doing evangelism, but being an evangelist. Gardening is the same in that you don’t do gardening, you are a gardener.

Garden work, other than the gathering the harvest, is not glamorous. It is working in the dirt and getting dirty and hot and sweaty. It’s pulling or hoeing weeds. It’s dragging hoses and mixing and spraying foliar fertilizer. It’s spreading rotted manure.

And in our style of sustainable gardening, it is grabbing bags of leaves and grass from curbside, hauling them in your trunk or back seat to the garden, grinding them up with a mulching lawn mower, and spreading them on the garden, and saving newspapers to lay in the garden to keep down weeds and conserve moisture.

As any veggie gardener knows, you work a garden when the work needs done. My daddy-in-law says you can lose a crop sleeping till sunup. The work has to be done come rain or shine. It’s a personal sacrifice of not doing other things. And it is honoring a commitment.

There’s about a one or two day difference between weeds starting to appear and a crop lost in weeds. A garden which needs watering can’t wait until next week. Ripe veggies can’t wait until the weekend or next week or the next weekend.

A veggie garden can’t wait for “ some more convenient day” and hungry people at the Food Pantry shouldn’t have to wait.

Aint God good!

Carl Wayne Hardeman, Master Gardener mymaters@yahoo.com

An OLD column/newsletter:

Growing Taters       Carl Wayne   June 29, 2007

“Every problem has a solution; you just have to find it.”

~Janet Stevenson

Every tater vine has at least one tater; you just have to find it. You can go back and redig each row and almost always find one more tater. It’s more fun than finding

Easter eggs, or your chewing gum in the chicken yard.

We dug taters in our garden this week, then tilled it all up and planted crowder peas and more okra. In 110 feet of rows we had carefully dug, I tilled up 7 more nice taters.

Growing good old Pontotoc County MS red russet taters is easy. Ralph Graham, my daddy-in-law, told me about them poking seed taters into a big pile of sweepings at the feed mill where he worked. It seems they grew about as well as those lovingly and carefully placed in deeply worked soil in his garden.

Nowadays he and I do things the easiest way we know. Since he had told me about some folks simply laying seed taters on top of loosely tilled soil and covering them deeply with straw, we decided to fill containers with straw and a little planting mix and lay the seed taters in them.

When we harvest, all we will do is dump them out. It’s not as much fun, but a whole lot less work than digging them, and we hope to get almost as many taters.

Potatoes were an important crop in the “old sod” for those of Scots and Irish heritage, which the Grahams are. They grow deep and tall (the potatoes, not the Grahams) in the cool damp climate of the British Isles.

Taters can be planted early and harvested early. They break the dietary boredom of long winters long before vegetables are ready in the garden.

In the garden we hilled up the rows and planted the seed taters deep and covered them with straw. When the vines began to bloom and the soil cracked, Ralph says they would grabble stemwinders. He had to explain to me this meant they stole new taters from under the vines. I’ve eaten boiled new taters many times. My momma-in-law Opal can cook new taters which will melt in your mouth.

A story I once heard had one farmer asking another about his tater crop. He said it was just fine. He had some the size of a quarter, some the size of a fifty cents piece, and then he had a few small ones.

Ain’t God good!

Carl Wayne, Master Gardener

mymaters@yahoo.com

Web Gleanings:

Quotes:

From http://www.savvygardener.com/:

Although tomatoes are self-pollinating, they need movement to transfer pollen. If it is hot and calm for several days you may need to gently shake your plants to assure that pollen

is properly transferred. Very hot temperatures can also interfere with blossomset. “Gardens, scholars say, are the first sign of commitment to a community. When people plant corn they are saying, let’s stay here. And by their connection to the land, they are connected to one another.”

~ Anne Raver

Thomas Jefferson:

No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden.

Humor:

If elected, I will:

http://www.news3online.com/index.php?code=3N21nM542u85tg10pfma

Creative web site:

http://producten.hema.nl/

The half-wit:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071210155048AAGBAI8

Science & Ecology & Medicine:

10 new facts about birds:

http://www.livescience.com/animals/080626-bird-tree.html

Good discussion with Bjarne Stroustrup on the C++ programming language:

http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;408408016;pp;1;fp;16;fpid;1

Coding rules for Joint Strike Fighter programming (in C++):

http://www.research.att.com/~bs/JSF-AV-rules.pdf

Green roof tops for healthy cities:

http://www.greenroofs.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=26&Itemid=40

Conservative News:

Canadian health care system lies in ruins:

http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1502&status=article&id=299282509335931

Newt Gingrich on fixing the oil problem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOpcPfAarjY

Gardening & Eating:

Growing tomatoes in south Arkansas:

http://deltafarmpress.com/news/Arkansas-tomotoes-0627/

Incredible edible front lawn:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/theincredibleediblefrontlawn

Eight ways to green your garden:

http://www.livescience.com/environment/080628-911-summer-garden.html

Tennessee Urban Forestry Council website:

http://www.tufc.com/pdf/summer2008.pdf

Earth friendly sustainable gardening (list of practices):

http://www.rivercitygardens.com/sustainable-practices.htm

Wal*Mart announces it will sell more locally grown produce:

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN2730901520080701?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

Drought-proof your lawn & garden:

http://homedepotgardenclub.com/gc-server/web/gardenEssentials?#section=gardenBasics&article=/articles/2911&cm_mmc=hd_email-_-0702-GC1-CTA-_-gcs_1_070208-_-Drought-proof+Learn+More

Collierville Victory Garden Thursday July 3 2008 harvest:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=5jpx39n.bt7sqihv&Uy=-gguuth&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=571643352619_837809222307&localeid=en_US

Benefits of Native Plants:

http://homedepotgardenclub.com/gc-server/web/gardenEssentials?#section=gardenBasics&article=/articles/2909&cm_mmc=hd_email-_-0702-GC1-CTA-_-gcs_1_070208-_-Native+Plants+Learn+More

Miscellaneous:

Order a beautiful crochet name doily:

http://www.crochetdoilies.com/filet_crochet_for_sale.html

…the end…