Storms again!

Rain, thunder, lightning. Wind. More lightning and thunder, more rain. It's really getting strange. All the rain has put the kibosh on my (and everyone else's) strawberries and cherries too. Green Brothers normally has a 7-10 day picking season, but they were done in six hours this year! My plants look great, sending out runners all over the place, but what few berries showed up rotted before they ripened. Same with the two cherry trees -- turned brown and dropped, and the few ripening ones have  big brown spot on them. Too much rain.

The peas are filling out, may pick some early next week! Yum! Still have more peas to plant, and more beans, potatoes, corn, cukes, beets, and squash. The tomatoes are coming along nicely, as are the peppers. I planted several varieties, ranging from mild to temporary insanity. Hoping they do well.

Going to try Tattler reusable canning jar lids this year. I ordered some, and they look good. They're supposed to be good for at least 20 cycles, so if they work well it will cut down considerably on our canning costs. Check http://www.reusablecanninglids.com/ for more info and to purchase them.

Still getting good responses on my book! See www.howardtuckey.com for more on that.

Hoping it will be dry enough to get out into the garden tomorrow!

World Without End

Almost forgot -- was going to say a few words about Ken Follett's new book World Without End -- the sequel to The Pillars Of The Earth. Excellent book! I enjoyed it very much, even through some of the slower-paced spots. Set 200 years after Pillars (14th century) it give a great picture of life uder the thumb of feudal lords, the church, and the guilds. I saw much of today's New York State in it  I'd recommend it to anyone interested in that period!

Ain't technology wonderful!

Sitting here in the Kia dealer's shop, waiting for some service on my Sedona, and still bemoaning the loss of my coffee-soaked Kindle. I've had it sitting in rice (took the back off it first) but I think it's DOA. Bummer! Was in the middle of several books too -- currently reading a collection of Flannery O'connor short stories, as well as Midsummer Night's Dream, editing my new book, and reviewing a copy of a new book written by my son-in-law'a pastor. Now all I need is a new Kindle!
:-(

So I had to bring my laptop with me (they have a hotspot here) and might as well catch up on some writing while I wait. I've been tweaking the web page my son-in-law Aaron set up for me at www.howardtuckey.com, and it's looking good! Thanks, Aaron! Now looking at setting up an RSS feed on it. Looks fairly straightforward to do with Joomla -- that's what he used to set up the page, and they make it look easy to include some other bells and whistles too. I'm increasingly impressed with Joomla as a webpage builder!

Also working on Mattie's Place Two -- How Bump Really Got His Nickname! So far that's the working title, and folks who read the first one will draw the connection with little effort.

I wish I had started all this a long time ago! I still don't have a sense of time being short, but feel driven to write, to complete a few projects I've started and not finished. The extra $$ from my part time job at the supermarket do help, but the work, as much as I enjoy it, really cuts into my writing time! Not sure how much longer that will last.

Garden is going well -- actually had to water it again! The asparagus is done until next spring, but there are strawberries ripening, blossoms on the peas, even some little tomatoes on the plants! I count time in the garden as writing time too, as I write in my mind while working on weeding, etc, and I've actually sold an article to Backwoods Home Magazine on how I grow garlic. Won't get rich doing that, but it did pay for a month's internet provider service. Now working on another article for them.

On that note, gotta get busy!
'bye!     

This is weather?

Well I guess! This past week the temp has ranged from near 90F to this morning's low of 40F, with wind, rain, and thunder, and I actually had to go out and water the tomatoes a few nights ago. I almost went out and covered the garden last night, but decided to go ahead and take a chance. No frost, but the cold does slow the tomatoes and peppers a bit.

I've got three dozen tomato plants (mostly Roma for canning and sauce), two dozen assorted peppers -- sweet, hot, hotter, hottest, and Masochist's Delights, plus cukes, peas (up about 8 inches) , strawberries, asparacus, garlic, and some posies. More of those, plus the usual suspects left to plant. Wasn't going to do beets this year, as I got a good crop last year and canned a whole bunch, but I forgot to do the pickled beets. Not a good lapse there -- we love those things, so I'll plant them again.

There are lots of little green sweet cherries on the trees, and if I can save them from the birds, we might have a pie or two.

Speaking of the birds, had lots of  finches, grosbeaks, woodpeckers, wrens, etc, until last week's storm. Now very few. A big crow has been stopping once in a while, but the little guys are scarce. Hummingbirds are back, and they'll fly right up close to me, but the rest are noticeably absent.


No bees either, and that's still scary. 

Guess what -- it's raining!

Shoulda got my garden in last week, but was afraid of the frost. We have a tub of water on the back porch that I've been using to water the plants, and it had ice in it a couple of mornings. I haven't had to bring them in for the past three nights, though, so may be able to set them out into the garden before Christmas. :-)

Forecast now is for rain every day through Friday, with possible flooding in some areas. It doesn't really bother my garden, as this sandy soil drains well, but I would like to get stuff planted soon. The first peas are growing okay, and the end of the week will be just about right for the second planting of those.

The second book is going well, and should be ready to submit to the publisher in a couple of months or so. I'm planning, along with a couple of other local authors, to do a booth at the county fair this summer, and I'd like to include the second Mattie's Place book.

Back to the grindstone ....

My web site is open!

My website, www.howardtuckey.com, is now open for business! I think it looks great! Thank you Aaron! I appreciate it.

Way too busy!

One of my chief complaints about blogs I've followed is that the blogger would go without posting for weeks at a time. Ooops! It's been a whole month since I've posted, and I can see how it can happen.

Been busy doing Other Things, and suddenly it's Now, and I can see all the empty pages I've left since Then.

Did lots of things over the past month, mostly accompanied by shivering. It's been cold, and Spring has come later than usual.

Sold a few books so far, but have seen no reviews on any of the book store sites. Perhaps that's a kindness. But folks seem to be enjoying it. I gave a copy to our local library, and the librarian told me the other day that it's on a waiting list, and I now have a second book signing scheduled for there, a week after the one at Barnes and Noble.

Someone told me they saw posters advertising the B&N signing already, and they are planning to come. Should be fun!

I got my early peas planted finally, a few weeks after I wanted to plant them. While tilling for them I noticed a few aparagus spears coming up, and couldn't wait -- I picked and ate one right there. Yum! The garlic is up 8 or 10 inches, and is growing nicely. I just got a check in the mail yesterday from the magazine that accepted the article  I wrote about planting it, last fall. Gotta get busy and write some more! I write that not to brag, but to tell you that it's never too late to start doing the things you've been putting off.

If you have an article or a story that you would like to tell, find the magazine that prints similar stuff, and look on their website for "Guidelines for Submission." Follow them, and send it in! Worst case, they say no. Best case, you get a check in the mail a while later, and maybe an invitation to write something more for them!

That's what I have to do now -- finish another garden article and send it in!

cheers,
hjt