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We planted a small orchard on our place about ten years ago and were delighted when it started to produce fruit a few years ago. Our delight quickly turned to dismay, however, when–after a year or two–we discovered that much of the fruit was wormy!

We found that most of the damage was the work of the common and infamous codling moth, admittedly a rather attractive moth, but not one that you want to hang around your place. Or befoul and completely ruin your hard-won orchard apples.

The codling moth (Cydia Pomonella) is a pest that is common all over the world, though it was native to Europe originally.  The larva of the moth is the common apple worm or maggot. The little bugger will also attack pears, walnuts, and other tree fruits.

Spraying fruit trees with a chemical spray several times throughout the growing season is generally believed to be the only way to repel the insects that do so much damage to the fruit in our area. I actually bought some spray a few years ago, but I never could bring myself to use it. I try to stay away from chemical sprays whenever possible, and just reading the warnings on the back of the bottle scared me away from using it:

“Hazards to humans and domestic animals! Causes substantial but temporary eye injury. Causes skin irritation. Harmful if inhaled or swallowed. Do not get in eyes, on skin or on clothing. . . Bee caution: May kill honeybees or other bees. This product is very toxic to honeybees!”

Yikes!  That’s not all. The warnings go on for some time, but that was enough for me to put the bottle of spray aside and think hard about whether I wanted to risk it or not. I never did pick it up again(I love our honeybees!).

We spend quite a bit of time and energy trying to keep our honeybees healthy and to attract songbirds to our place: I wouldn’t want to do anything that would harm them or drive them away. And of course my beautiful chickens have the run of our place most of the time. I have oodles of good reasons to avoid using chemical insect controls on our place. Oodles!!

However, it’s not much fun to eat wormy fruit. Happily, a couple of years ago, I discovered a natural way to keep the nasty bugs away from my fruit that is very easy to do.

It’s very simple; it doesn’t cost much; it won’t hurt your songbirds, your children, your dog or your honeybees. And it has been very effective in my own orchard, even last year which was unusually hot and dry and buggy.

Related: How To Plant Your Orchard To Have Fruits All Year Round

If you have fruit trees and are put off by the chemical spray route, and if the codling moth or other insects have made your fruit nearly impossible to enjoy, you may want to try this too.

Here are the things you’ll need, for each tree you have:

And here’s how you do it:

#1. Slice off a third of the top of the gallon jug (leave the handle intact) and punch a few holes along the top edge. Thread a 2′(ish) length of twine through handle and holes.

#2. Mix together the sugar and vinegar, and put into the jug. Add the banana strips.

#3. Add the water to the solution and stir vigorously.

#4. Hang the jug in your fruit tree.

#5. Check the jug every day or two for moths, and replace with new solution when necessary. If you have codling moths in your area (and you probably do), when they are most active your solution will be positively full of dead moths. It’s pretty thrilling, really. If the jugs fill up with moths too quickly, I’ll double the recipe so I don’t have to change the solution so often. I have other things going on too, after all.

Three years ago when I hung these jugs in my orchard for the first time, I must have hit the timing just right, because the next day when I went out to check on the jugs, every single one was so full of dead moths that I couldn’t even see the solution. I delightedly dumped them all into the compost pile and refilled them with new solution. I had to do this a few times during the first week or two, but my apples that year were nearly free of moth damage and worms.

It took just a little bit of time and attention, but the rewards were huge! Having all those lovely apples was even more thrilling than finding all the dead moths in the traps!

If you want to try this for yourself, it’s important to get those jugs full of solution into your fruit trees before they bloom, or at least as the blooms are opening, as that’s when the codling moth seems to begin laying eggs. What happens is that the moth is attracted to the vinegar-sugar solution with the fruit peels, and then drowns in it, thus not laying its eggs on the leaves and blossoms of the fruit tree.

We install the jugs in our orchard trees each spring, and I’m checking them every day or two for moths. My trees are always blossoming beautifully and I’m looking forward to lots of delicious, chemical-free fruit!

So now, Gentle Reader, if you have fruit trees and have been perplexed by the damage of coddling moths or other baffling insects in the past . . . well. . . now you know what to do!

Editor’s note: This article was gladly contributed by Amy and first appeared on vomitingchicken.com.

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Thank you for this! Cant use it yet as I just planted my apple trees so will be a couple years before a harvest. I was wondering what to do when the inevitable issues come up. I have dwarf apple trees at my last place and lost my first harvest to birds? How to deal with that? Thanks again.

We find that aluminum pie pans hanging in the trees keep the birds away also deer as the wind blows they are kept away…. It doesn’t take much of a breeze to get the pans moving… Use string to attach the pans to the trees…..

We tried that with CD discs. Apparently SoCal birds are Hollywood struck because they took selfies of themselves eating the fruit reflected in the CDs.

Seriously, my persimmon trees looked like a Christmas tree with old CDs from the internet company that used to send out CDs about three times a week. How fleeting fame — I can’t even remember their name now and they dominated the e-mail field for several years. Alas, the birds still came and ate the persimmons.

CDs also make good, cheap signaling mirrors for heliogram signaling.

LCC, what species is your persimmon tree?
Is it a Chinese persimmon or American?
I’m in NC and I have the American species which produces smaller fruit about the size of a golf ball.

Aluminum pie pans make noise along with the signaling mirror effect. Maybe the cd’s aren’t noisy enough?

If you have someone to help you, your local nursery sells netting that can be placed over the tree. You can do it by yourself if you are young and spry. If you are old and crotchety like me, you need someone to help you. The one inch squares are easier to put on but allow small birds to get through them. Get the 1/2 inch squares netting. You can harvest under the netting. Leave it on until your great is all gone.

I had a bird get caught in this netting, so will never use it again! It almost lost it’s foot due to twisting of mesh. If you want to use a barrier, use white garden cloth AFTER blossoming has been completed. Just drape a piece over the tree with weights on 4 corners. Same white cloth used to keep lettuce cool works on dwarf fruit trees. They get enough sunlight too. I still found a thin coating of edible Bentonite clay solution AFTER blossoms are complete, to be the best.

a net

Birds can still land on the net and pick holes in fruit. Best bet, everbearing mulberry. We used them along orchards and the birds prefer the mulberries to cherries and grapes. That, or lean to love bird pie 🙂 4 and 20 baked in a pie. niio

Thank you! I’m keeping this info, and I’m going to try it, with my peaches, next spring!

Very informative! Thank you! I just planted some fruit trees, (just starting). I do not wish to use chemicals that will harm anything, especially bees, as you said. A lot of people don’t realize how beneficial bees are. I look forward to trying this method. Thanx again!

I used a solution of edible bentonite clay, thin enough to spray. After fruit fruit began to form I sprayed the tree lightly and the fruit enough to cover. It kept ALL pests away, birds and insects. It also keeps fruit cooler by a few degrees, which helps ward off other issues. Needed to respray after heavy rains, basically every few weeks. Have dwarf peach and plum trees. Worked very well! Leaves don’t get eaten either! This solution lets plenty of sunlight in for proper growth and health.

Will this work on tomatoes also?

This also works to keep wax moths out of your honey bee hives.

Nearly all my tree frhot a are new this year. I have a thicket of wild plums and wild cherries that are older and a beat up apple tree I planted nearly 40 years ago. Neighbors horses to bed browsing on it and kept getting in here to chew on it. Full sized tree is still alive. But it’s more a 6ft tall bush. Its covered in apples this year. Probably 1 of every 5 is wormy. Ill have to try this. Its simple enough.
Thanks

If the moths are being killed by drowning in the vinegar solution, then why do you need the banana strips?

copied from the article, “What happens is that the moth is attracted to the vinegar-sugar solution with the fruit peels, and then drowns in it, thus not laying its eggs on the leaves and blossoms of the fruit tree”. It would seam as if the banana peel helps attract the vermin. They also said they have used other fruit peels with good success, my guess is so would the meat of the fruit, not just the skin

Equal parts molasses and vinegar also works. Many years ago we used this for our peach and apricot trees with great results.

Any suggestions for protecting wild plums from birds?

Ill have to try this. Its simple enough. Thanks

Any suggestions for Citrus and fig tree unwanted insets or other such type pests?

Any ideas about what to do about Japanese beetles on a dwarf peach tree?

What’s gross? Biting into an apple and finding a worm. What’s grosser than gross? Biting into an apple and finding half a worm. Old-timers never left fallen fruit lay long. It was picked and used for cider or thrown to the livestock. This is also true of fallen leaves, which can carry fungal and bacterial disease into a new growing season. Most livestock love the taste of the leaves, even after they fall (and the tree bark, so coat the trees with a lime made for the tree, and kill a lot of borers, as well). Even a small flock of chickens or turkeys will help, but I like the idea of the bait, to stop most of it before it starts. Thank you, very good read! niio

Protecting Wild plums the same as other fruit. Noisy pie pans hung ing the trees or cover it with netting. I prefer the used cheap pie pans. A neighbor is using pull tops from food cans. Hanging from the pull. Lots of them in a tree. That I’ll have to watch and see how it does.

I have a dachshund who thinks every bird is carrying buzz bombs from the Nazis. He patrols constantly for them and evil ground squirrels. At night, Mouser crawls onto the scene. I just wish both of them would quit crapping all over. It’s nasty and smells bad. At least the dog makes fertilizer for the flowers, which make mulch for the garden. Skane? erk. But, I want to get mish net and poles (the netting cannot touch the fruit or the birds will still try to eat it). But, day patrol includes an eagle and hawks, as well, who keep a loving eye on the dachshund. If all else fails, fake bird crap helps. It’s lime and a few other things mixed together and spattered over the fruit. It cleans off easy, and birds do not like the taste of lime.

Right now I’m starting black radishes and late green beans in 6-packs (or the birds eat the seeds). The tatume (calabacita) are growing fast with each rain, and setting squash. Those are the only summer squash I ever ate that I loved. Each patch I’m letting two ripen for the seed. The moringa is growing well, but you can tell when each was planted in the garden. The 1st one is about 5′, the next, planted a week later, 4′, and the last two, planted 2 weeks later are 2′ and 1′. The Merlot amaranth is almost as tall as I am, where the wind doesn’t knock it around. It can get to 12′ under the right conditions.

The dachy ate so much peach, he crawled in his bed and lay on his back, mouth open, eyes half-open. Looked like he ate himself to death. Then I saw an eye shift. He went out back later to bark at squirrels and hopefully unloaded there. 🙂

I hate to lose the sorghum, but I want corn. The ‘perennial’ sorghum helped the virus winter over, and that killed the sweet corn. No beans yet from the cowpeas, but the terape are blooming like crazy and are loaded. These are small white shell beans. Terape are half-wild, and like it dry. They’d grow better in a corn patch. Next year. Plenty of blooms and fruit on the chimoyo that survived winter. Once the weather gets cold, then it thrives. I need to get the scarlet runners planted. I do not know if they’ll do well. They like cool damp weather, and we haven’t had a lot of that this year. But, the roots should survive the winter to set beans in late winter. I want to get the Navajo variety. They can handle more heat and dryness.

Praying for rain. We’ll get it, but it might come as snow. niio

We’ve been catching some rain. Lol. Nothing like Texas but several inches recently.
The corn from the first planting is ready. Small ears this year but it sure is tender and sweet. The second planting will soon be ripe. I’ll let a few ear make seed.
I haven’t seen mouser around again this year. Once was enough for me. He may not like all the cats. Between dogs and coyote they are taking care of the excess cats. Neighbors have taken in a few of them also.
The yellow squash are really producing a lot. Beans are just enough for a meal about every three days. Zuchinni just a few along. Cucumbers about twice what we are eating so I’ll plans on a half gallon of pickles soon. Plenty of tomatoes for now. Lots of very green ones set. I’ll cover then if it gets any colder. Herbs growing beautifully. I’ll cut more to dry in the next few days. Have Mexican oregano, marjoram, sweet basil and parsley drying. Plenty of yellow hots. Picked a dozen two days ago. Looked mild… Disceptive. Very hot for what that usually are. The amaranth is head high and making the biggest seed heads I’ve ever seen on our wild amaranth. Stems are getting quite red now leaves are still tender so I’m planning to pick a bunch more either today or Monday. I need to check mail and fill gas bottles today.
This coming week I need to sort boxes and set aside what we will be selling next Saturday. I’m also getting tools together to put away. I don’t need but a few things in the home to work on open shelves and to frame for drawers as sliding shelves in the lower kitchen cabinets. That will make things easier to access.
I have a refrigerator sitting outside ready to move in when I can get some help. It sure will be nice to have it in here. I haven’t had a fridge in a couple of years.
Walk blessed.

Filled a 5 gallon bucket of tun pears so ripe, they were falling off the bush. The wound up giving half away to neighbors. It’s a pity, but most folks only go after the nopalitos, not the ‘pears. The pinks are getting ripe, but waiting for cooler, wet weather. Then they drop. There’s so much even the javelina are acting choosy about where they steal them. All I see is tracks and that’s fine with me. Yeah, just a gentle woodlands critter. They eat the cactus pears thorns and all, and only then seem to realize they can’t digest the thorns! Errr, ouch. Well, I guess that would make me bad-tempered, too, the next day.

Keep bragging on those tomatoes, Lady, and I hope Mouser sticks her tongue out at you. You know how she is, no good manners at all. 🙂 I need to get a warming sheet to start seeds this winter, and begora but I want to raise tomatoes next summer. The chilis are taking off, and one plant is sagging its so loaded. They like the cool weather. Give us another few inches of rain, and the tatume/calabacita will rule town. Do you eat them as winter squash, as well? I saved several, but they dried out on me. There are three a nice orange color in the garden now, and need to be picked.

I found this on a NM garden site.
Calabacita Sauté New Mexico
1 lb or more Calabacita squash or any summer squash, cubed
3-4 ears fresh corn cut off the cob or 1 can corn
1 chopped onion
cumin to taste
New Mexico green chili to taste
Sauté the onion, add the squash and corn and sauté till tender.
Add cumin to taste. Add New Mexico green chili to taste.
It sounds good. My sisters will try it, but have only zucchini, which is watery.

Your amaranth sounds like an old domesticated type. Pigweed usually has smaller leaves that get fibrous fast. There’s a lot of Merlot that volunteered and is growing well. Even the plants that came up in caliche looks good. A volunteer sweet potato comes up, dies back, then tries again. Maybe next year, if it survives winter, again. Most of them are vining. One of the growbags hanging under the eves is finally pushing a lot of leaves. I got up on the ladder and checked, and here the top of the soil had rounded off. Water would run down inside of the sides and out. It has a major hollow in it now, and is growing, again. The other one is ‘way longer than those planted in the garden. Last time I did this, it was Hazleton, PA, where 80 F is considered blazing hot 🙂 I planted a Puerto Rican in each bag, hung them so they got warmed up in the morning sun, and they filled the bags. To store, all I did was hang the whole bag in the basement. Some kept all winter before sending up slips.

The chili roasters are supposed to be back in November. This time, I hope, they advertise in the town’s 2-page newspaper. They’ll get a lot more customers. They come in from Deeming starting in July, but you never knew where they’ll be from one day to the next.

I never made it to Apple Annie’s. I wrote and asked about by bushels. No reply. Nor about 2nds for canning. Their loss. I’m not going to blow a buck 70 a pound on apples. Apple sauce costs less in the store. Same with peaches. I can get both for a few bucks a gallon can in Penna at any Grocery Outlet, and will, once I do a run back to visit. I need to rent a truck to finish moving stuff here, and a cooler so I can buy bacon slab ends for a buck 49/lb, and so on. and, good cooking apples for 10 a bushel.

Were I there, we’d move the fridge tomorrow. I went thru that crap, no fridge for a year. I should buy an old one for the garage, for canning season. And, still need cheese cloth to strain out the thorns from the ‘pears 🙂 Right now, I’m looking for a le Conde pear, which is supposed to produce in Zone 10, and is more wind-proof than the one that the wind killed. And, this winter, a truckload of river cane to make wind fencing from. The cane is flimsy, but when soaked, takes shape easily to make fencing. Niio!

Red the recipe reads like it should be good eating.
The amaranth is Our regular wold stuff but where ever I use rabbit dropping anything green growth is incredible. The ones I let take over a part of the garden I didn’t get planted are three times the size of the ones on untouched land. Lots of nitrogen. I’m just amazed how tender the leaves still are. The other wild one has a light almost white pretty pattern. They aren’t as large and the leaves are already getting tough. Its edible but I don’t bother with that kind.
This was my garden back in the 1980s and 90 s. I had never planted amaranth. And it hasn’t been garden before that. I think it’s just the difference in working in the large amount of rabbit droppings. Where I put tomatoes they only get a tiny bit of the dripping to give the plants a good start. They won’t set much fruit with too much put there.
The carrot tops are 8″ tall now. I’ll check the roots in another week or two. I need to cut more of all the herbs for drying and in a few days ill cut the mints and lemon balm again. The recent rains really gave them another growth spurt..
I found a large tarp I can cover the garden with. That’s some protection from light frosts. Sometimes we get some freezinf nights then a last warn spell till close to Thanksgiving. Then it starts acting like winter! I can hope for the break in the weather. In just over two weeks we’ve cooled over 20 degrees in day and night temperatures. Acts like an early winter after a ridiculously late spring.
Hope your healing well and lungs clear.

Hope you like it. I made ‘way too much Gen Tso’s today. It’s a favorite, and I wanted to eat more than a bite here and there. It worked, but now I feel stuffed, and most of it is still there. Well, Chinese makes good leftovers.

When you get the greenhouse running, a bed of red worms would be good. The casting are called the dynamite of fertilizers. The back yard here faces north, so anything there gets blasted in the summer. Out front, it’s better to keep things low-profile. Too many new people in town.

Someone bought a pack of amaranth and birds did the rest. I tried the caudatus, but it’s too hot for it here. Back in the hills, it shines, outproducing all others. A lot of merlot seed wound up scattered all over. Anywhere close to last year’s patches are a lot of it coming up with the rains. The purslane and moringa supply more greens than the amaranth. Might be too antsy about the amaranth maturing before first frost, but that’s not due here till November, as the earliest.

Rain! We’re expecting t-storms for the next few days. Lots of clouds and high humidity, but so far only dust. We’re still 1.5 inches short of average.

Temps are normal here, ranging in the 90s, and down to the lower 70s and upper 60s. Last spring wrecked a lot of the garden. Highs in the upper 90s with lows some nights into the 30s. That probably killed more seeds than anything. As said, I never had a poor showing of tomato seedlings before. Half would come up, then die off. I even tried a little sulfur to kill any fungus.

When do you pick calabacita to save the seeds? Two were orange colored, so I picked them, then had to use a hatchet to open the one. Inside, under the shell it was still green.

Lungs feel better. Just, this humidity isn’t helping. Much thanks. We’re praying for you and the mister. niio

I’d been wishing for a warning pad under my spring seed trays. Yesterday in a shed I came across the heater for our old waterbed. Its large, water safe, and free to me. I’d figured it was thrown out when we got rid of the old waterbed my husband had since before we married. I’m going to try it out next spring.

Use it up, wear it out, find a new use for it. I hard things like that long before someone coined the term hippy. It’s amazing how farmers, once considered the best occupation, the best paid, best educated, turned into a welfare state. Old-time agronomists like Carver and others would stand in shock at the idea of the government aggie welfare payments we saw. The dems told us, get big or get out of aggie. Too many trusted them and lost it all in the Carter Depression. You encourage us all to be independent. niio

When I’m ready to save seed you want them to get quite get ripe, and skin hard. Then bring in and let get totally ripe or hope it is and cut it open to get seed and if possible cook some of the flesh with meat and onions.
Save seed. Dry. And store away seeds.
I’m needing to move my desk from the living room to the bedroom. I moved and moved things so I could shampoo the bedroom. The end by a window will be for an office and sewing. I moved the treadle machine in there. Need to move the desk.. Measured the hallway. I have to move a bookcase that’s filled with canned goods and boxes. I’ll move a stack of cases of canned goods too. I’m glad to have that food set back since the garden has done so little but I sure don’t feel like moving all of it out of the then back there again. Lol. I’m so sore from today I can barely move. That means a full day if I can do it tomorrow.
I may need to see if a neighbor can help move the desk. Husband is loosing weight and getting pretty unsteady on his feet. Then I need to finish moving the rest of the the tools out of the livingroom and out to the right shops. Then clean up around the rocket stove/pellet stove, so we can have heat soon. It was 40° last night. Its cold enough in the living room I’m wearing a sweatshirt over my clothes. My husband sat outside for a while earlier and got so chilled he was shivering under 3 blankets for awhile. Then somehow I need to sort out some things to sell Saturday.
I’m going to ask a lady from church if we can stay there Friday and Saturday night. I sure don’t want to drive out 100 miles, sell all day, drive home then drive back Sunday for church and home again. Its too much for us these days.
Lol I’m so sore tonight I can hardly move. Husband went to bed early. I think I’ll throw another blanket on the bed for him.
Watching 10 pm news. Saw 5″ of rain and flooding in Pheonix. We’ve had rain since mid afternion. Close to an inch. Should make a happy garden. I’ll just be happy if I can make it through this week. Way too much to do!
With cooler weather I need to go back to the old doublewide we moved out of. We really didn’t get much moved. I have two long low dressers just two drawers high. They have a lot of our winter clothing in them. One will go under the kitchen window with the metal shelves for plants on top. And the other will go under the bedroom window. That will give us our winter shirts. We did with lout most of them last year because I just couldn’t move them after the injuries. It feels good to be getting noticeably better. But it’s making a lot of work.
Winter hung on Too long in spring then it was close to a record hot summer. Now it’s quickly getting cold but it’s a normal time. But it’s come in 2 1/2 weeks from 90s to 50s in day time temps. That’s fast. Tonight there are freeze warnings a bit north of here. I think the cloud cover will protect us from freezing tonight.
Once I get the extra tools out I’ll clean up around the rocket stove and get ready to bring in some pellets so we can have heat. I need to haul in 2 tons of pellets and get the gas bottles filled to start with. If we weren’t trying to get ready for the sale I’d be looking for pellets this week. Now it will be another week before I can get them.
Yesterday they guys I bought a fridge from asked to meet us on the way home. He gave me a nice train. Bills loves trains an I promised him wed decorates lot this year for Christmas. I figure I’ll set up trains for him. If we can manage it after Christmas I’ll rig up a 4×8 plywood with scenery and the trains. Someday I’d like to run them around the livingroom up high. Let him enjoy them while He can. In just weeks I can tell the difference in him.
I asked one of the men from church about beans. He knows the growers and can get the best prices. I’ll buy atleast 25 lb of new crop pinto beans. I wouldn’t mind 50 lb but not sure I can do that right now. Up where I pastor is close to a lot of bean farms. This weekend will be the Pinto Bean Festival. Most of the crop will be sold this weekend.
I have my rice in for winter now. Quite a bit of pasta in the small barrels.
Winter will give me a chance to work on the treadle machine. Need to upholster a couple of chairs for the livingroom. Good winter project after the kitchen cabinets are finished up. I may build a narrow pullout shelfnext to the fridge. There will be almost 6 inches of lost space. A pullout shelf will be nice there.

How’s Bill’s heart? I was like that for months before the operation. And, I get like that when I get an infection. A fever can go up or down in temp. It’s about 73 F in here, a lot warmer than it was all night, but I’m sweating. I got the flu shot today and that could be the cause, or an allergic reaction. When I don’t eat, I get dizzy spells. I know your cooking gets eaten! Would more carbs help? Excuse me for being nosy, but I’m worried for him and you.

I will follow your instructions. Last year, one out of 3 of the squash saved had grown moldy inside as they dried. Some of the kajari melons have most of the rind chewed off by grasshoppers, but it’s noting like last year. After all those years of drought, ‘hoppers and crickets were a plague. A full bed of Tarahumara amaranth had no seed at all. Funny thing, while they’ll eat holes in the leaves of the Merlot, they mostly leave it alone. The Tarahumara grew well, bloomed like a riot, but no seeds. It got 5 feet tall and while the wind knocked it around, it would straighten back up. Merlot, too much wind and the stems snapped. But, the broken part would hang on and grow back in a U shape. Plenty of grain from it. It’s from the American River, CA, area, found on an abandoned farm. Thanks to all the grasshoppers and crickets, there’s twice as many lizards patrolling this year.

Phoenix is 50+ miles north of us, and t-storms tend to follow a straight line when they can. A thunderstorm woke me up, then lulled me back to sleep. It rained most of the day, but there’s no water in the wash or creek beds. It was so dry, it’s all being absorbed, even the heavy rains. We’re hoping for more for the next tree days. It would be nice to see the pastures green with more than acacia and mesquite. A cockroach was in the bathroom this morning. It’s a garden roach, not a house roach, and came in because they don’t like too much moisture. We have a bunch of different native ones. No silvers, though, but they’re desert mountain bugs. Tucson, the clouds had to roll over the Catalina Mountains. Strange to see, rivers of fog flowing between peaks and covering the sides.

The green beans (Kentucky Wonder bush) are sprouting and the flat can go out tomorrow. There’s kohlrabi seeds in with them. I decided to try it. Cabbages like extra nitrogen and drive roots deep, while bean roots spread out and feed the soil nitrogen. I’m halfway thinking it’ll be nice when winter hits so I can get the rice grass planted, then in January or February, the safflower and chickpeas. They go in at the same time, plant in the frost, harvest in the drought. Safflower has to be cut, but I leave the ‘pea stems to help slow the wind of what goes in after them. Both are major crops today in AZ. I have prairie clover, as well, to plant. That’s another hidden garden thing to plant in January. Leaves, roots, and blooms are all good to eat on most any clover. This is a local native that ants wiped out. The nature nuts can’t claim livestock did it because the mining company never leased out pasture to ranchers. While a lot of the seeds would have passed through the birds, ant shell seeds to use in their gardens.

The neighbor who gave me the peaches has a very old chiltepin bush. The base is thick, and the bush is like wood, it’s that old, has bark and all. The bush is sheltered on 2 sides by his house, and one side by a wall. It’s open to the south. Hot! Wonderful taste to them. Smaller than most, but they have to be local natives. Birds took the last of the goji berries, but it’s in bloom, again. Don’t you make pasta? One egg and enough flour to make dough. If the flour is non-glutinous, 1/3 starch, put the water (or milk) on to boil, roll out the noodles and make stew.

I love toy trains. When my stepdad was alive, we would be worse than kids at Christmas, with tracks all over the living room. Mom would just shake her head and go talk to sane folks 🙂 Ask Smitty what he wanted for Christmas, he would talk about the silver bullet. Thanksgiving Day, there would be a houseful of family and friends. Set the tree up for the kids to decorate and stay out from underfoot, while we did the manly thing and put in wall brackets, and rails, shelving, and towns. Once around the tree, back of the furniture to scare the dogs and make them bark, then eat. Afterwards, test it all and the kids would scream when he tooted the whistle at them. I don’t know who was worse, Smitty and me, or the little kids. You already figured out what Mom thought 🙂 Niio.

At 81 Bills heart isn’t good and hasn’t been in a long time. We were still painting the inside of this mobile home and Bill was helping me put the cabinet doors back up. He’d done one beautifully but was confused about the next one. Said he felt bad. I helped him get to a stool by the wall and sit down.
The FedEx truck was coming in the driveway so I stepped to the open door. Yelled “bring it in here”. Turned back to Bill and he was slumped forward. No breath. No pulse. Eyes wide open and fixed. I tried to pull him off the stool but couldn’t budge him. I started praying. Hit the pacemaker then leaned him up and back against the wall. Hit the pacemaker again. Still praying and started doing one handed CPR against the wall. Everything about that is wrong. I’d just had a bone in my right arm cut and put back together with screws. That hand was useless. I just kept praying and pumping his chest with all the strength I had. When he started coming back then fading out I yelled at him, slapped his face and kept doing compressions till he was staying with me more than fading away. Then I called 911.
He was so weak he couldn’t keep sitting up so I helped him to a mattress on the floor in the bedroom a few feet away. Left the front door standing open. Reservation police were the first responder to arrive. He came in then went to watch for the ambulance crew. Bill was talking some by then but too weak to hold his head up. I rolled up a blanket for a pillow. Then the ambalance crew arrived. They could monitor the heart but couldn’t have restarted it. Next a state policeman came. He had good equipment but quickly had a call and left. Ambulance crew still efficiently monitoring the heart as it settled into a good rhythm. Finally it was decided to transport to the Indian Hospital about a mile away. We were there 7 hours. The head Dr called Bills heart specialists office. She was out of town so they set an appointment for Monday. That was on Friday.
Monday I had him at the specialists office and they checked the history on the pacemaker. It had been stopped two minutes. It’s his second one. There was a broken lead but he is now totally dependant on it. He was kept in the hospital until they could operate on Wednesday. She added the new lead in the same vein as the broken lead. They’d waited because he’s on a blood thinner and it has to get out of his system. When he tested ok they did surgery quickly.
Most days he eats cereal and milk and often a fruit. Then a good meal during the afternoon. Today he refused and ate nothing. I made sandwiches and got out the last of the bread pudding and poured him a glass of milk. He ate one bite of sandwich and set it aside. He was shakeing violently. Said he was cold. Didn’t feel hot or cold. I covered him with two blankets.
When he stopped shivering He drank the milk and ate a bite of the bread pudding. He dropped the next glass of milk. I went to get more but found him trying to go to bed. I finally got him to scoot up so his head was on the pillow. I took off his shoes. He was drenched in sweat and said he was hot. Actually felt cool and was quite wet.
He’s sleeping good now. Still dressed.
He just woke up after a good nights sleep needing to use the bathroom. Still dark so he’ll come back to bed.
Getting old, leaky heart valve problems and a good dose of stubbornness have gotten him to here but the Alzheimer’s has about undone him. The severity comes and goes.
It’s a sad disease but it’s much worse after the 2 minutes with no heart beat. A longer time would have been even worse. Dr At ER spoke it as a joke but wondered why I’d bothered to do CPR. I probably won’t do it again but I’m not sorry for doing it.
Many times he’s aware he can’t remember. He doesn’t understand why. It frustrates him or he tells me over and over how grateful he is I’ve stayed with him. He gets afraid if he’s alone more than a couple of minutes. He will come hunting for me. Many times he sits on the end of the bed talking to me while I go to the bathroom. The one constant through it all is many times a day he tells me “I love you”. I’m glad for his sake he still knows me. It makes living at home possible. It makes life hard but it’s ok.
He wakes up at the crack of dawn ready to head out and go to work. Its been 10 years since his last electrical contract. They were mostly big new construction contracts for hotels and restaurants. Sometimes a whole housing tract. I wasn’t with him then. We met as the last builder he worked with was going belly up on a hotel that would never get built.
I’ll convince him he’s got today off. And so the day starts. Some times he lays back down and sleeps till noon.
Later he’ll grab a chair and watch me work in the garden or whatever I’m doing. My activities are now a spectator sport. Usually he will eat with me. Just not so much the last two days. Whatever happens he trusts me completely. So glad of that.
I watched my mother in law come to distrust everyone, change from a sweetheart to vicious. It was hard watching. Alzheimer’s is different for every individual. I cared for a brilliant man who had Alzheimer’s– was one of my last jobs. He was dangerous and you never knew if he’d be nice or mean. That was a job I was glad to move on from. Each caretaker was just assigned there a short time. I had him from 3 pm to 6 AM 5 days a week. I took him grocery shopping. Helped him care for his roses. Cooked his dinner. Put him to bed and listened for him to be up during the night. His one beer a day was on my a shift. That’s when he’d threaten to get violent. It’s a strange disease.
I’m so glad Bill has gotten gentle and trusting instead of mean. I couldn’t handle that. God is still in control. He hadn’t been in church in 50 years when we met. He went with me every time I was able to go with my work Schedual. He made a real commitment to God and it sure changed his way of handling life. He has played drums most of his life. He still plays every Sunday at church. He’s still good. He enjoys the friends at our little country church. They treat him as a perfectly normal friend.
I’ll be fine. But it’s hard watching him suffer at times. I try to talk to someone at his Dr office tomorrow. Perhaps a UTI? He’s needing a refill too.

I don’t know what to say, but like the pastor, God’s will be done because God is perfect in His will. I have almost no experience in alzheimer’s. No one in the family has had it. A cousin, a sacred person, had it, developing on the heels or a surgery. Most there was him faking it, I think, because he’d say something outrageous to his rattlesnake-worshiping son (my stepson’s father), and then wink at me. He adamantly refused to do a pipe ceremony with him, and when we did it, he was shaky, but still Old-Man, still strong. His prophecies are coming to pass. to me, be prepared for the Lord to use you, when you get over being a Bear. He did 2 years in Carlisle Indian School as a preteen, after his father was caught and tried in Penna for doing a ceremony for an elderly parishioner (Methodist minister). He spoke about that, and to my dying day I’ll never forget it. After he passed on, over a thousand people came to his grave. A few here, a few there. In Penna, it’s never safe for us to gather in crowds. You are in my prayers, and know that the pastor in Penna is praying, as well. Peace to you. You walk in beauty

To everything there is a season.
Bill loves two things, trains and Christmas. I’m planning to decorate the whole little place with Christmas decorations and train sets. Hope he enjoys it. Might just leave the trains all around. He could have months or years. That’s in God’s control.
My last co- pastor died a few months ago. She fought breast cancer for over twenty years. Died at 62. Another lady in the church was gone in a few months. Left 6 kids and a good husband. Horrible stuff.
I’ve been going through boxes looking for things to sell. Didn’t find much worth selling. I may donate the 4 boxes of stuff. Most of what I’ll sell is in the old church here. My furniture doesn’t fit this smaller home. That furniture and a lot of stuff is there. I can’t get to most of it. Right now There will be a lot to get rid of as things get settled in and excess furniture goes away.
I’ll drive up there tomorrow afternoon to help set up the sale. We will stays at a friends home Friday and Saturday nights. Have to come home Sunday. Bill has a Dr appointment Monday. Need to get ready for that appointment. I really wish we weren’t expected to be there. It’s getting hard.
I’ve been calling his regular nurse practitioner to get his blood thinner prescription refilled. Two weeks now they haven’t answered my calls. That worries me. I’ll go by her office when were in town Monday.
I’m hoping to get the fridge moved in tomorrow. Friends unloaded it from the truck. Set it by the new porch. I have it plugged up so I could keep a bit of meat and milk in it. Now to get help back to move it in the house.

God’s will be done, niio.

Cancer is another ting that doesn’t run in the family, tho my father’s generation used a lot of farm chems. Some skin cancer, but that was on Mom’s side with all those blonds.

My sister’s sister-in-law and hubby built their house as they had the time and money. They had the cellar excavated, and put in walls and insulation, and roofed it for almost two years while they set up the frame, and so on. She said she missed the old place, the cellar. Very quiet, cozy, and warm all winter, cool,all summer. Her cast iron range is still down there, for a summer kitchen and to heat in the winter.

Keep in the nurse. I know they’re overworked these days, but this is asinine. Penna has been getting bad about this. They want anyone and everyone in a home so they can ‘care’ for them like a herd of animals.

I hope the sale goes well, and it all comes to a grand finale in town 🙂 Peace.

I’m going to push the nurse. If something happens a I’ll sue. I’m not usually in favor of that. But neglecting a patient is just plain wrong.
From Mom or Dad’s family there is only one person who had a cancer. She got, you can imagine what, cought in a washing machine wringer. 20 years later she was dying of cancer there. She blamed that injury. Might have been right.
I took care of my late husband at home with my younger sons help. He couldn’t walk the last two years.
Took care of my Mom at home. She lived with us her last eleven years. Her last three were the hardest. Paralyzed on the left side, almost completely blind and nearly totally deaf. Mind clear.
As long as I’m able I’ll take care of Bill. He’s is frustratingly slow doing anything or getting around to go anywhere. It helps if I lay out his clothes. I have to remind him of anything he needs to do. Every step to do it. But we’re doing ok.
I raised our 6 kids in a yours, mine and ours family plus 12 Navajo kids that lived in our home to go to the school I started. Plus 2 mothers with 4 kids each that lived with us for years at a time. After I was widowed it was a year till I had a vehicle and found a job. I worked awhile for a Hospice as death and grief counselor for the patients and their families and for my co-workers. Then 5 years caring for violent men that weren’t mentally competent to stand trial. Then around three years caring for adults that needed help in their homes.
I get tired but I’m 72 now. But I’m still able to do what needs done and I certainly have gotten the experience.
Bill is still stronger than I am since the injury and surgery on my right arm. If I walk with him there are things he can do to help. He’s willing. That makes life doable for us.
My son who has a home here on my property is waiting for the final papers and saving up travel money to bring his wife and daughter home from the Philippines. He will help a lot.
To HELL with a resthome.
My son and his wife want to come here to help me. He worked hard repairing and remodeling the little home we’d built for my parents. He boarded it up planning to bring his family home. After more than two years the papers are all in order. Just waiting for them to be sent and saving up travel money.
I’ll sure be glad to see them.
I agree there is a big push to move seniors into homes. Most are over priced. We don’t have that kind of money and not sure about assistance. Want no part of it!
I bet that cellar was nice. That’s what I’m wanting here. A root cellar room to keep food cool in.
Walk blessed.

Agreed about rest homes, but the neolibs love them. They never use them, of course. Best movie ever on them was She Devil. They’re all run by dictatorships.

I don’t know if under the BO/Hitler health care act you can sue a nurse, but you can the facility. There are too many quacks today posing as nurses and doctors. I don’t care when they have nailed to the wall, it should read hypocrite’s oath, not Hippocratic.

Good for Bill, helping. He sounds like a good man to know.

Get your daughter-in-law and kids to Mexico, have them walk over the border and accept all invitations to sign up with the DNC. 🙂 I’ll be on it tonight. Be she blessed and your son, as well, for their love. If I may, how much does he need? A round figure.

She said she misses living in the cellar. they had to call it an earth-sheltered house to make Child Services back off. Those places have been popular since at least the days of the Hohokam. In any event, the greenhouse can be roofed with logs and dirt and you have a shelter to rival a hogan.

Tomorrow, I have to go pick up some logs for the arbor and brush. Hope I can handle it. the arbor needs cross members, and a few more poles. I might buy a muscadine. Right now, trying to find strawberry plants that will produce here.

I found a christian publisher of SF, and it looks good. I might just get back into it. Dust off a few stories and edit. my love in Christ to you and bill, and your son and his fam. Niio!

Sunday afternoon I’ll be hunting heating pellets. Not many places have them right now. Odd. Tractor supply in a town 62 miles from home has pellets. I’m still looking at price but hhope fore something closer. By Sunday pm I’m tired and its 100 miles back home.

You be careful. Do you use folic acid? It’s B vitamin, and while it might make you sleepy, you wake up revitalized. Men, it energizes. I use it in the morning, along with a magnesium, which is power for me.

Were you close, I could haul in a few cords of wood. It’s starting to stack up because I can’t dig a new trench. I was to go to a neighbor for 2 logs and brush, but did too much yesterday. Peace.

My daughter in law messaged me today. She is excited. It has taken over two years and all the money they had and all I could send but my granddaughter’s passport and foreign born citizenship papers have arrived. My daughter in laws visa is now approved. She waits for that to come then one last thing and they can travel. Each form costs several hundred dollars to file it.
It has become quite an expensive process. It took a lawyer there to know how to file each step.
But it has given my son a time to know her family well. He lives in Manila but he’s visted on the scattered islands and has seen Many of the WWII war memorials. Few seem to know that the same day Japan attacked our Naval Base in Hawaii they invaded the Philippines.
My daughter in law has used this time working to finish paying off a debt she had and to improve her English. Her hope is citizenship, not just a visa. That takes time. Unlike so many that come she intends to be a part of this nation. Her family is all working hard and each has gotten the best education then were able to get. They treat my son as one of their family. When my son got blood poisoning in his leg they all pooled their money to help pay 2/3 of his hospital bill. I sent $800 to pay if off. They all spoke a little English but have worked to do better so they could include my son more. He has also picked up the language there some.
If the approval for her visa had never come he would have stayed but he really wants to come back and help me. His visa has to be renewed and pay to file the extensions. I don’t know if it’s twice a year or once a year.
He said the part of the family out on the smaller islands in scattered fishing villages needs clean drinking water. They get lots of rain. But no one knows about gutters and rain barrels. He suggested split bamboo to catch the rain. Perhaps someone will try it.
They don’t know the price to travel yet. They were told to start watching prices closer to when they can travel. I will ask them to check again so we have an idea of the amount.
He was injured a little over four years ago. We almost lost him to a brain bleed. He has disabily income now. When he’s here he can get Medicare for just over $200 a month. It doesn’t cover him out of country so he’s dropped it until he comes back.

This is cool. Your boy is stuck, but uses the time wisely. I remember when the son-in-law was running rings trying to get papers in order to apply for citizenship. Before that, he could have signed the papers and been done, but the imams insisted it was a trick and he’d be kicked out (he works p/t for the UN as a translator, and speaks 5 languages). Since he realized they had lied, and that I was right, he’s been reporting strange behavior in mosques. He has a lot of fam scattered over NYC and they like to gossip. but, now, it’s costing him hundreds still to file and so on. Jewish friends are working had for him, and he realized that there, the imams lied again, that the Jews aren’t anti-anything, just want to be left in peace. So far, he’s taken up whiskey sodas to relax. One a night. He told the kids to stop worrying about eating pork or shellfish, at that. 🙂 I told him if this keeps up he’ll have a beef belly and move to Texas to march against the dems. He thought about it, then shook his head. He already has the beer belly. When he’s sworn in as a citizen, then he can march against the liberals in Manhattan and call them a bunch of weak bigots. I wish American born were as American as so many immigrants are. niio

Their guesstimate for travel is $2200 air plus $500 miscelanious for travel to airport, snacks et. With a probably 3 year old by then. Coming from there they can bring 1 carry on and 2 checked luggage up to 23kg. Per person.
That will be everything they own. Must leave everything else. Atleast the home is furnished and ready to live in here.
The publisher sounds interesting. You write?
Her papers with one final thing to do are all going through. Even visa is approved just it take weeks to months to be delivered. He complains the government is very slow. 🙂
She is excited to come here. It will be very didferent than she is used to. We have four seasons. She’s lived with hot and humid, then warm and raining. My son has been raising his daughter mostly while she works as a living in nanny for a wealthy political connected family. He was the Ambasador to the US for years. He married a lady from Albuquerque. They live in a roof top home in Manila. Now he is the Ambasador to China but he chooses to stay in Manila and travel to China as needed. He’s helped her with finding a good lawyer and good refences and they both have helped her with writing in English. That is a blessing.

Wow, costs have gone up. Can we help? I know, it may be spring before you can see them. And when they get to NM, folks won’t understand their English 🙂 Your boy will be a translator!

I wish we could talk my niece into emigrating, but she loves Germany and plans to stay.

A cousin was offered a chance to become a citizen of Germany. The government is still seeking out Americans who’s families came from Germany. Our cousin there is old, but has a beautiful estate in Bavaria. Like Nietzsche predicted, as atheism takes over, pleasure takes precedent over everything. He had a sister, who died childless. He married when the family returned to Germany at the end of WWII (his father was a pilot for the RAF), and he had only one child, a son, who married an only child, and they’re in their 60s now, and no children. He wanted to adopt the cousin’s son but the parents would live on the estate and raise him while still in the US Army. they thought about it, but turned him down. She and her husband have a lot of family here, and their parents are all elderly. they chose to come home when their enlistments were up. I’m glad of that. Europe feels like it’s on its last legs. niio

In many ways the world is in trouble. Probably Europe more in trouble after being over run by middle eastern refugees.

Yes I wish more born Americans were more for our nation.

Travel is crazy expensive. That is the cost for the three together.

Still no matter what we are blessed.

Any help would be appreciated. If I have to cut more corners I’m doing what I can to help them get here.

My fridge is in the kitchen. I’ve been gone since early yesterday am. Left a key with my neighbors to feed cats. They moved it in and plugged it up. 🙂

Have to get up early tomorrow. Still have some things in the truck to unload then be on the road between 10 and 10:30 AM. Bill’s appointment with a neurologist is at noon.

Hauled home 4 free boxes of mixed nails, screws, plumbing and electrical supplies. They will go in the big shop building.

Also was given a hugh heavy grease gun. I’ve never seen one like it. Probably for a big rig. It was with 4 1/2 jugs of oil for diesel engines.

Watching news then heading to bed. Long two days!

I gave away about 20 lbs of yellow squash yesterday. Also a dozen hot peppers and a dozen 3″ tomatoes. The first time in three years I’ve had enough t to give away like that. Just grew a very tiny 6’x6′ garden last two years. Before moving I was giving away almost 100 lbs a week for most of the summer. Also was giving 3-5 dozen eggs each week. Maybe we’ll have eggs extra in another year again. That 100 lbs a week was after canning and freezing some each week. We lived off of that for nearly 2 years. I’ve retired the freezers. Not much to can this year but I’m aiming for a half gallon jar of hot pickles this week. I do have about 12 lbs of Thompson seedless grades on a screen drying to make raisins. We ate what we wanted, birds got some , shared some with the neighbor. Bill and I love rasins. My favorite is in my morning oatmeal. Bills favorite would have to be in cinnamon buns with lots of gooey frosting.

We ate lunch with a couple from church. We talked about being winter travel prepared. They are appreciating food preps. Having a very hard time financially and living off stored food he’s been putting back for a couple of years. It’s keeping them going right now. He’s going to take my inexpensive ideas for things to keep in the car because of our snows and ice. They both want to learn more about wild foods and medicines. I’ll teach as time permits. Glad they want to learn. If I can get the 2 tons of pellets we need going into winter they will drive out Friday to help get the pellets stacked and move a desk.

To answer an overlooked question: Folic acid, magnesium, krill oil, D3, and more are a part of my routine.

I have a good hunch the little church I’m co-pastoring is heading toward closing unless something really changes. Since the last head co pastor died a while back the newly appointed head has been offending folks. Not a bad guy but He isn’t a leader. Don’t know I want to be anymore either. I’ve been doing this for 46 years. It’s getting harder and harder with Bill. I doubt there will be enough to keep the little church open much longer. For all I’m not in it for the money, I know it takes money to keep a church open. Several who have left the church stay in contact. That’s nice but sort of sad too. I’ll probably end up with a home Bible study group here where I live. It’s ok I guess. Life is full of change. Church treasurer wants to hang on till after the new year. We’ll see. That would mean the bill money is going to come out of her pocket. I can’t pay the bills there and drive 200 miles and buy lunch every Sunday.

I’m wanting to do more working on things here. I have a couple of books kicking around in my head. My 12×24 shed needs insulated I have a 10×12 enclosed trailer full of Styrofoam sheets 2″ thick. That should about get the walls. Need to be doing it. The story’s in my head need to be told. I don’t know a thing about getting a book into print but if it’s just a manuscript family could still read it. My lower kitchen cabinets don’t have shelves inside. Strange. Another bad weather project. Frame insides in 2×2 and put a pickup load of cabinet drawers and drawer glides to work. Drawers on glides are easier to get to things than fixed shelves. I have a gas line that needs to be installed. Need a trench dug for that. Need to do lots of things….I think I’m too tired to think straight.

The prophecy for Europe is a slag heap. That’s been said for a century, now. At one time, I might have laughed off Washington’s Dark Clouds prophecy, but with the ease of crossing the borders, I changed. Given the situation how Muslims hate Europe for it’s callousness and atheism, Europe is waiting for the grave. A prophecy came up from people I trust that Hillary Clinton will be our last president. She’s bows to nazism. Like Hitler, she’s a chaneller, FDR the spirit calls itself. Like him, she favors Islam, the dark ages sort of Islam that has total control, and hates anything Jewish, especially Christianity. The weird health care system was in part designed by her, and developed by like-minded people. She’s everything the power brokers love, obedient, a talking head, brain damaged. The perfect DNC candidate, if they can weasel her into power.

If the costs are for 3 people, then it’s cheaper than friends from Peru have. I think it costs 1,200 each to come to the US to visit family, one way. But, they can afford it. Pinoche might have been not too swift in many ways, but he privatized Social Security (ours was to be privatized in 1968, but the dnc dragged it into the general fund to rob it). Today, they’re minor-wealthy though they were lower middle-class when working. Can we help?

Good! I need to move my fridge and washer to the back porch. Get a bunch of injuns together with a pot of coffee, miracles can happen 🙂

I’m up, got to start my meditation and study, and will be praying for Bill. I wish you all could just go to the rez hospital.

Now that cool weather is here, the garden is booming. If we don’t get frost till early December, possible, the neighbors will be throwing rocks at me for showing up with produce. The garden is one giant experiment. Do and learn what does best and why something fails. If it can’t make it in our weather, then find a variety that will. I want to try the Mexican/Spanish perennial garlic and onion beds next season. A few of the Treska strawberry seeds are up. Quinault plants can go on the east side of the house. If the Treska develop into plants, they’ll go there, as well. Quinault are supposed to be good for fall gardens, but die in the summer. Treska are supposed to be more heat tolerant, but may not bloom till a year old, depending on who you listen to. Now, finally, I’m finding people with plants for sale, Camarosa and so on. Always, let’s see. It’s how I got into organics, and how I write.

The mesquite down back is loaded with a second crop. Why? Why not all of them, hundreds of them? We got rain in April, 2-18, and most bloomed a second time. It was dry this spring and summer. Why is this one the only one to repeat bloom? If genetics, then I want to plant its seeds along the fence. When I say loaded, as much pods as it gave in the summer, and it was thick then. When the Spanish arrived, Salido and Tohono were avidly domesticating mesquite. More pods, sweeter taste, bigger beans, and so on. Given mesquite can be centuries old only a twig or small bush above ground, this might be one of them. The Snure family was rooting out small trees and finding roots a yard across. Mine is probably no more than 20 years old, and has been hacked back by former owners. Right now, it’s getting mulched, cardboard and coffee grounds, and dead Santa Rita nopales (as fast as I can cut them off). It made a lot more pods, and a cup of pelletized sulfur seems to have helped it put roots a little deeper into the soil, not just close to the surface. The compost barrel is near it, and no doubt it’s enjoying that, as well 🙂 But, why did it not have a full bloom this year? It did push a few, but not many.

If you want an editor, I’m here. I’m semi retired, but love the work. Just, no time to do much outside of the house. No problems, I can do it gratis and any research you need, as well. That’s I was trained in by experts. Write! Winter is coming and you’ll have space a-plenty to do it. Write it out, edit, rewrite where needed. Throw away nothing, but save in a separate file because it might come in handy in a different section or a new book. Top line, working title. Try to keep chapters at about 10,000 words to make them easier to read. Each chapter is a new story, a small plot that is part of the larger one. Worry first about getting it all down, then worry about other things. That’s the first step. Then we get into mechanics, sentence length and structure, ease of reading. According to the Society of Journalists, Americans read at a 5th grade level on average. When we were kids, it was closer to 12th. That is something to worry about in later editings. Write! If your first chapter is one massive sentence, so what? That will change later. In winter, then work on it, but start now. When the snow is falling and all is deathly quiet, the heater making it too warm, then it will flow best. But, start now!!! niio

Writing sounds great.
Dr appointment went well. He wrote another prescription to see if it will help.
I went by the Nurse Practitioners office to see why there has been no new blood thinner prescription. She said it was called in a week ago. Hours later when I got to the pharmacy nearest to us it was in but not filled yet. So I waited and took all three prescriptions. Co- pays for the three almost $100. Buy have the co-pays jumped recently.
I have a ton of heating pellets sitting in my truck. I hope to get another ton on Thursday. That should get us through the winter. Hope its enough. By the end of winter you can’t find pellets here.
I appreciate the neighbor driving today. I’m beat anyway.
Bill went to bed before dark. He gets too tired to stay up a long day.

Glad things worked out, so far. Get the neighbors and get the pellets indoors ASAP. A brother-in-law brought a pellet burner (in Penna) and I swear, all it had to do was stay damp for a week and they were no good 🙂

Thank God I have the VA. Tucson VA is a lot different from Wilkes-Barre, PA, VA. Same basics as you get, but better in many ways.

Writing is not for the weak. It’s a loner profession, and takes away a lot of pain from the heart. You need quiet time to think, to plan. Did you do an outline for the book? That’s your guide to write it. Get it written as you have spare moments (yeah, I’m laughing, too 🙂 You don’t have to be a power-writer, sitting down for hours pecking out words. It’ll happen as you enable it. Prayer works! God will guide you, give you new ideas, new insights and sometimes a boost in the rear when you’re not thinking clearly. I do my best, fastest work when there’s a problem. When Mom passed away, I sat down and did two 1st draft manus in one week, 70K each. When fun stuff happens, that works, as well.Physical work helps you to think like a champ. It opens the mind. niio

I’ve put together pertinent information and I made an outline but it was set aside when my husband and mother were both in wheelchairs. Far too busy with last two kids still home and both adults I loved dying. I pastored the church and kept the school going. I did cut back to mostly home schooling awhile answering homework questions and doing the tests here. Somehow I was too busy then when they were gone.
I finished up the last juniors and seniors and took care of the church. Then closed it and went to work so I could pay off my debts.
I dug it out to write and a life or death situation with a son came up. Then we lost our mountain home and moved back here to to the old mission property. I found the box with all the info for that book and read through it again while trying to fix that old doublewide.
Lol, life gets away easy. I do want to write it. I figure I’d better get started and finish it this time. Then I can start of the one my kids want. My life story. Problem is, this story hasn’t an ending yet. 🙂
Thanks for the pointers. And who knows I may need an editor.

Be welcome, always. Like Mom and Dad used to tell visitors, for a night or forever. Trust me. If I need an editor for my work…The wise Scotsman gets his neighbor to thin his turnip patch 🙂 niio

🙂 this wise Scott’s woman can figure out a trade if needed.

Send the addy for the Living Ten Month post. I missed it, somehow, but this computer is aging, fast. Too much data on it. I collect things that interest me if they help in writing a story. Like, posts by that dude who seems to be in love with Raven. Might do a short on the dude, and no Raven involved, Preppers in Drag, or The Tranny Prepper Club. Just havin’ too much fun in the Sonora 🙂 niio

If Mouser does her duty, I might get some turnips this spring. 🙂 I’m glad to help out a sister and fellow writer who encourages me so much. niio

Did you read my article about the 10 months living off the land? Its a sample of my writing style.

Looks like frost may arrive before the end of the second week of October. We had a good day and a half of rain. This week. May have a shower again around midweek. Rain I like to see. Never ready for the first frost.
I love gardening. Yes I grow things indoors and stay busy with what I’m able to do but I miss the garden.
If I can get the metal car garage frame up and covered I’ll do that. If not I’ll use a tarp for a while. I may dig and pot the herbs that are still growing. I love both dried and fresh herbs in the kitchen. I really hope I can get the frame up. I have sheet plastic that should last one season. Not as good as commercial greenhouse plastic but still pretty good.
I need a few more pans that will fit a section of wire shelves for growing micro greens for us and some fodder for the critters. I’ll look at the dollar store to see if they have something that will fit.
I’m trying to figure out where to put Bill’s drums when we pack them up tomorrow. Maybe my craft shop for now. Have to bring them home tomorrow as we close the church. Guess I’ll put my amplifier there too. Feeling sad about the church but I’ll stay busy.
I’ll work on getting ready to use the rocket stove. Too much going on the last few days but needing to have a bit of heat going. I’m thankful for the help of friends but they keep us busy.
I’ve looked back several times for the article. I may ask if Claude can send you a link.

Walk blessed

A frost? Ouch. I’m planting beans. Got most of the scarlet runners in this evening before the skitters and flies drove me inside. No rain, but we’re praying. I ordered Kyoto carrots, a short day, to plant from Baker’s. More black radishes around the beans. When a freeze takes out the beans, the radishes will get fat on the nitrogen. Most will get cut down for a cover, but some will make like horseradish for us.

I know what you mean about never ready for a frost. In Penna, my younger sister said they’re expecting a killing frost. She pulled the tomato plants to hang in the cellar. She’ll pick ripe ones till about thanksgiving. Our older sister already lost hers. Where she lives, it can frost early in September. I used to do like Dad and build frames over the tomatoes, and staple plastic on it. It kept them going till a killing freeze.

The ‘sprouts aren’t up yet, but that’s OK. It’s in the upper 80s every day and they like it cool to cold. The cabbage and kohlrabi is coming up. We would hog out the last of the turnips, then broadcast rye and rape seed. The animals like the greens from rye, but rarely eat the grain. That gave us pasture till up to January, then we broadcast clover. Come late spring, some of the rye would be clipped to kill it, when it’s in bloom. A cutting of hay, then let the cattle have the field.

My niece asked my sister about starch noodles, the glass noodles. I sent her the recipe, starch and water to make a dough, roll them out, use a pancake turned to cut them free, drop in boiling water. Her daughter, who almost died a number of times before and after being born (7 month preemie), got the giggle fits eating invisible noodles for spaghetti. I told her, it’s a lot easier to run to Chinatown, in NYC (she lives near Carlyle, Penna) than make them. A buck a pound in most groceries there, and all you do it drop them in hot water. But, she likes doing things the old way. Smart as a button. When the baby is in 1st grade, she might go back with the DoD, or might try for another child.

Yes, ask Claude. He’s cool. It would be nice if he opened the archives for all of us. niio

Scarlet runners beans were my mothers favorite. Pretty and good eating too.
I’ve pulled tomatoes and I’ve covered tomatoes. Depends on how the year is going. I’ll see if I can’t just cover them and stretch the season a little longer. Same with the yellow squash. They are bearing great right now.
I’ve been drying cuttings of the herbs. I’ll try to keep them going a while longer. Usually it frosts then warms and frosts a while before a hard freeze by the end of October.
If I can manage it I’ll put that garage frame together and cover it with clear plastic for this year. My right hand is healing but still weak and awkward. If not I’ll pick the green tomatoes and wrap them in newspaper to store in a cool place. They will keep, slowly ripening or I’ll cook the green tomatoes.
Closed the church today. Kind of a sad day. We will go back and take down Bill’s drums. I’m leaving the digital piano I bought. I have 4 more pianos. 🙂 I did bring the amplifier home.
Bill was so confused he could decide to take down the drums or not. He is now worried he will loose them. If we go back soon it will be ok.
My well pump stopped working last night. Neighbor pulled it early this morning. There was a hole in the pipe and the motor is out. So need a new pump, new pipe, and waterproof connectors for power. We will be hauling water till it’s replaced. Hope to find something soon.
I’ll ask Claud if the article still exists. I hope he can send a way to connect to it.
It’s getting cold. When 10pm news is over I’m heading to bed.
Friend helped move the desk for me. Now I have piles of papers and stuff all over. What fun…lol.. Have to get it all straightened up. But it’s in a better place to work. Once the area is picked up we can have a fire in the rocket stove/pellet stove to keep warm.
It’s Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque. We watched balloons rising as we went through town. They sure are pretty in a clear blue sky.
News shows 37° tonight.

I finally used my head for more than a battering ram and put in the browser Ask a Prepper How I Survived Alone for 10 Months Living Off the Land. It came right up in Remedies archives.
 https://www.askaprepper.com/how-i-survived-alone-for-10-months-living-off-the-land/
I saved it and will read it. I warn you, I get so involved in editing, it’s hard just to sit back and actually read anything. Goes with the job. If you want, I’ll edit to make points that will help you with mechanics. The subject is good, the plot, as it were, is scary. If you ever write this as a novelization, use 3rd person. Readers prefer it. I went through a few traumas. I saw abuse, and saw what can happen.

By Mary CalderJune 24, 2019 10:31

No water? Begora. I hope the pump can be rebuilt easily. This is bad. We went through that when living in Ohio. One brother, over towards Anna, OH, just had to replace his, but the landlord paid half. That’s a little unusual, but there are a lot of good people in Ohio. One in Penna where we rented, the landlord demanded we buy a new pump. Then a relative of his whispered in my ear, Ask how many of his rental properties are tied into that well. It turned out that more than a few houses were. He bought the pump and paid to have it installed. And we moved out of there faster than lightning. The goof threated to shoot me and I told him he was an idiot. “Oh! You can’t call me that! (Mr. Wealthy 🙂 I said, I just did you airhead. One of these days, I’m going to build a Warka Tower. They draw clean water in from the atmosphere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THJVuinPbc0

It’s into the 90s for a few days and scarlet runners don’t like that. Cool, damp temps, a hint of frost, and they thrive. Did you ever dig the ‘potatoes’ from the roots? It’s a storage root and tastes about like a starchy potato. About the size of Bill’s fist, say, and lumpy or smooth. I was told to dig them (in Penna) and store like dahlias or canna lily roots, then replant in late spring. Never did, but old-timers used to and got beans early on, before green beans were ready to bloom. Then, nothing till fall when it cooled off. One patch, the soil was layers of rotting sod, the vines grew over 20 feet but mites killed some of them. Baker’s has a variety called Barnside that goes even bigger. Of course, with the heat wave, the cowpeas are thriving, and so are the tepary beans. And, the chimayo are dropping buds, again. One thing thrives, the other doesn’t but it always works out in the end.

Got to be nosy, but, would exercising with a foam rubber ball help the hand?

It’s after ten here, now, and I should be to bed. Got pork in char siu sauce (Chinese bbq) for tomorrow. And, ran out of soy sauce. I use Chung King because they make it gluten free. Eggplants need to be picked, might go with Gen Tsoi for them. I gave away a lot of those garbage bags from picking up coffee grounds. I turn them inside out to dry them. Gave away a lot of tatume/calabacita squash, and the people asked about seeds. There are a half-dozen that got away from me (you know how fast they grow 🙂 so plenty for pie and plenty of seeds to give away.

When up in Chandler, we used to watch the balloons. Every once in a while, it was so hot, they couldn’t rise. Someone in NYC was going to start a tourist passenger service with zeppelins. I don’t know what happened, but they didn’t. Now that would have been cool. niio

Look at the top of this page. There is a “search something” bar there. Type in “10 months alone” and the article will come up.

16°f last night. It turned cold quickly. Hit 32° then instead of the usual up and down it was 28° the next night. Now a few night hovering near freezing then dropping lower. Last night the coldest. Eastern side and north east side of the state had it first real winter snow storm. Ok I know it’s Fall but a storm the closes roads and brings miserable cold is a winter storm to me.
Come spring I’ll have to try the remedy here and see how the apples come out. Interested to see how well it works. I’ll share it with a friend as well. She has several very productive trees that she has shared apples from.

I think I bruised my chest when my jaw dropped. 16? We’re supposed have cooler than normal temps, but we have been all summer. Cold in the West, warm in the East. Looks like they’ll have more blizzards in the spring than normal. A lot more. One came in one Valentines eve and dropped 5 feet of snow plus ice in Penna.

You have an apple tree on the place? How much mulch does it get? If you have them to spare, hot peppers in water sprayed over it would deter most pests.

I emailed the gas company to see if there are any pipes in the place the new garden trench is going. they’ll let me know in 2 business days 🙂 And, have to email them about exposed pipes where monsoons washed away the soil. We’re at about the end of the line for gas and electric. Shopping, tomorrow. Yeah, got the list and I’m checking it twice… niio

I have one apple tree. I planted three in 1982. The neighbors horses and rodeo bulls kept coming in and eating them down to nothing. Two died that first year. This one is a horses bonzi project. It survived but its just a 6 ‘ bush.
It has never been mulched and the 12 years I was away it wasn’t watered. It’s a survivor of major neglect. It was full of apples this year but a lot were wormy.
The lady where the church group is meeting in a home has several beautiful apple trees. Pretty neglected. She just bought the place this summer. She canned a lot of apples then gave away bags and bags of green apples. Also quite a few were wormy.
I have 1 1/2 gallons of apples bubbling away making vinegar. I canned 10 pints of sweetened spiced apples. I have what looks like 3 times that much apples ready to can when I get back up in a few hours. I’ll boil the trimmings and let that drain. Some we will drink like cider and part will be apple wine. My grandparents raised apples in PA. Left there in 1920. He made apple wine, apple jack, and an apple brandy. Grandma vinegar and grandpas wine were the only two I learned.
The 16° for tonight is cold but back in the 70 s I saw it hit -20° three weeks straight. Tonight you can feel the chill in the air even with a pretty good fire in the pellet stove.

When a sister in Penna complained her apples were bad, I went to her place and cleaned up every apple and leaf, and dumped them back in the woods for the deer and bears. She never had a problem before, but got rid of her chickens the year before. Next year, no wormy apples and no diseased apples. Some had brown heart, so I mixed one teaspoon of borax in a gallon of water for 4 mature trees, and sprinkled it around the drip line. It worked. I used the borax solution on trees at the edge of an overgrown strip mine to chase off rats. The apples on the ground were fine, not even any chewed on the tree by squirrels. That area fed us pretty well for over a year. fiddlehead ferns, apples, crab apples, Japanese knotweed, recyclables (people trashed it along the road), raspberries and so on.

When we do fruit, we reuse the water to cook them till done with that fruit. Water evaporates and leaves behind the juice. niio

We got 1 1/2 gallons of juice from the cooked applecores.
2 gallons of juice draning from the trimmings will be vinegar.
1 1/2 gallons of apples have finished working and bubbling to make initially a wine then vinegar. So I’ll have a lot of cider vinegar when its all done working.
44 pints of canned fruit.
I’m considering adding the home grown rasins from the Thompson seedless grapes to a gallon of juice with some yeast and sugar. That was grandmas wine… If you care to take it through a still it makes apple jack. I’ll probably stop with the lower alcohol wine. Bill will enjoy a bit of that now and then.
15°f predicted for tonight.
We got the old window blindes down from the bedroom windows and have put up new drapes. It sure looks better. Bill was able to get up on a low dresser and take the blindes down. I got up there to hang the drapes. He wanted to help and really did help.
4 dogs came in the last few days and have been hunting down my chickens and killed all but the last 6 of my 23 rabbits. They destroyed some cages. Even drug cages outside. Tore them open and killed the rabbits. In sleeping with my pistol. Hope I can catch them. They’ve been returning. I don’t know who’s dogs they are.
Our podiatrist visit was good yesterday. She checks skin health, circulation, and cut toe nails. Good care since my feet are at danger because of the peripheral neuropathy.
The news the last couple of days about killing the ISIS leader is great. Not rejoycing in the death of a man but the end of a monster. Many don’t understand the death of his 3 children. They should study the belief system. Ones dead children can intercede for a parent and if the parent is alive help the parent. If the parent is dead the child intercede with Allah to accept the parent in a a good afterlife. In Islam it is by works one tries to be accepted by Allah. There is no assurance of being accepted. Death is something of a terror unless you die killing unbelievers. Then there is a guarantee of acceptance.
It’s a harsh belief system.
How are you doing with the pipes? Have you found out where they are located? And what happenes to those exposed by weather?

Good news about any dead terrorist. The belief is, one ‘martyr’ killed in battle can pray into paradise 70 family members, so parents don’t mind selling (yes, selling, Arafat’s Palestinians were busted doing this–with US charity dollars) their children. All in all, most parents have no choice but to sell.

Thank god Bill is able! You, as well.

The wind killed two grapevines this summer. The Thompson was self-rooted, something I’m no overjoyed about, it is a European grape. Good eating, tho, fresh, juice, or raisins.

Had to quit work on the new garden trench. It’s not ‘there’ for me. Sternum starts acting up because I do too much (the pick is getting worn out :on our soil 🙂 But, as god wills, so am I. It’ll happen. The gas company is supposed to send someone out to mark where the lines are.

Dogs or coyotes? The loss is bad, no matter what, and dogs are the reason I don’t have poultry. Idiots, lazy and gross, come up here and drop off dogs. Other people rent a house up here, then when they leave, leave their dogs behind. That’s evil. Most don’t live long, between heat and no water, coyotes, and ranchers.

I had to use steel rods to keep the rabbit cages from being dragged down by strays. Then replaced all wire and fenced them in, letting the chickens work under the cages. I still lost a few each year, but went over to all natural kindling, putting does in a large cage on the ground. the cage was wrecked a few times, but none of the rabbits were lost. And, best of all, the does would attack any dog or possum that tried to get in. If I were to raise rabbits here, that’s how I’d go.

There are some stray NW whites in town, but they live in a woman’s yard, more or less. She livetraps some every year for the table, and feeds them vegie scraps to keep them at home. They burrowed in her yard and she said coyotes might get one or two, but not many, and they learn fast about hawks.

How long will you freeze the apple jack for brandy? The old-timers used to do that. they made wine and then have the men haul the jugs up on the mountaintops to let it freeze for a week, then bring it home and drain out the brandy. some Mescalero out your way still make mescal that way.

I’m praying we don’t get a frost tonight. When I checked wit the weather people, they said below normal temps till at least March. This is usually our best gardening time, till after Thanksgiving. Be nice if they shut up the weirdos claiming global warming/global cooling/climate change. Every time they start to yammer, God starts laughing. They met in LA, and LA got snow. Met in Morocco, and they got snow. Same in the UAE, in Arabia, and they got snow. Met in Europe and Europe had severe heat waves.

Word is, Hillary is going to try to make a run for the WH. the prophecy still stands, that if she gets in, that’s the end of the country, the Cleansing begins. In the end, we win, but a lot of people around the world will die, the ‘coastlines’ as the Bible says. Trump is our best hope to stop her, at least till the election after this. niio

Supposed to be warming up the rest of this week. I’ve had enough cold for a bit. But I sure miss gardening. Maybe next winter I’ll have the pit dug so I can work.
Feeling bad for my co pastor. His home burned at 3:30 AM yesterday. He spent yesterday and this morning in ICU because of smoke inhalation.
Talked to him about noon. He was in pjs and house shoes. Grabbed his phone to call 911. Lost everything except his vehicles.
I’ve lost everything before. Its horrible, but you do survive and go on.
Don’t over do. If the stunum bothers rest. Heart hurts really rest and assess the situation before you hurt yourself.

I’m fine, but feel sorry for our brother. Yes, we all go thru things like that a number of times, but it still hurts to hear of it.

Not the sternum, for me, but the chest cold caught in the hospital. It keeps coming back, and that makes the sternum hurt. Everyone is so excited (that’s the only term I can think of) at how fast I’m recovering. At this rate, I should be back and better by February. I said, February?!? Give me a minute, I’m having a a Charlie Brown moment and need to run screaming in panic around the hospital.

YOU take care. God gave you some time to relax before you roll up your sleeves and take on the world again. Winter for you polar bears is meant to be a little easier than summer. No more wrestling grizzlies into compliance, no more tearing out stubborn weeds like redwoods with your bare hands. And, peanut butter makes near as good a bait for coyote traps as it does for rodents. With all that cold up there, the furs are worth having. You are blessed.

Yes it’s cold enough for good winter furs. The greenies sure fight fur use. In CA wearing fur is now illegal. I wonder if that’s enforced anywhere?
Here they fight against using wood. No one could get permits or haul wood until a judge intervened the week the cold was moving in. Then folks were scrambling to get wood to last the winter for heat and cooking. Many families across the northern mountains only use wood. They were also subsistence hunting till they started throwing the men in jail for hunting out of season. It took them as while to understand the old ways were gone. They had always hunted for food as needed. If SHTF those families still know how to survive.
I planted strawberries and artichokes to add to things that will come back every year. It was really hot this summer ( for here) and only a portion of the strawberries made it. Now I’ll see how they survive the winter. Next season I want to add more everbearing varieties to the mix. The artichokes grew like crazy. Didn’t require much water or care. I keep looking for things that take less care and water and that will and/or come back year after year.
Next spring I’ll have to try the formula given here to keep apples from being wormy.

Yeah, Native Americans are survivors. If we weren’t, the dnc and Mexico would have wiped us out generations ago.

As they say, what ain’t against the law in Kali-fornia. A friend’s landlord there had eucalyptus taking over his forest land. He wanted them down, they’re an invasive from Australia. He had to get a study done and permits to take them out. Another friend rented an apartment sight unseen. He moved down from Michigan to the place. In-ground swimming pool, big, wide area around the pool, beautiful landscaping outside. When he oped the door to the big, nice back porch on his 3rd floor apartment, the first thing that struck him was the stench of guano. Then all the parrots. And the dead trees, all covered with nests and guano/ and his porch, coated with it. He complained to the manager, who said, we clean it up once a month, that’s the law. No one can harm the birds, they’re protected under animal rights laws, even though none are native. New York is getting that bad, but the law states you can encourage hawks to nest in the buildings. Viola, no more pigeons or parakeets near the building. I sent him that and he gave it to the manager. No idea if he used it, because the man moved out ASAP and abandoned his deposit for fresh air. they’re both still in Kali, but away out in the sticks now, and both are preppers. One is up near Chico, the other near the Mexican border.

You live in what folks call the loonie left in the nutty north. I remember Richards was imported from Kali to run for gov. I said he’d win because the wealthy nuts wanted him. They got him and he did his best to wreck the state. Second election, none of the People or Chicanos voted for him because he was only interested in obeying his owners.

About the only good thing about Penna is, if animals are wrecking your fields, you have every right to shoot them. How is it in NM? Maybe a few acres of corn and beans next summer will put meat on the table. One thing I doubt would help, but, most treaty rights have a clause about the right to hunt off-rez.

Strawberries here are an annual. Plant in September, mulch and water, and pick in spring, then they fry in the heat and wind. In the mountains, of course, they’re a perennial. When Dad bought that farm in Penna, there was a strawberry bed, an acre. It was in rough shape, the berries tiny and the field weedy. He went to the library down in Lehighton to find out how to renovate it without killing them all first as the county ag rep said. Organic Gardening had just come out a few years before, and he found and article about strawberries. He went out and bought all the old hay and straw (bales that got rained on and mildewed) and broke them into books, the lay rows down, leaving a narrow row of plants between each book. They took off, big, healthy plants. Next year they filled a lot of berry baskets. That fall, same scenario, but he covered the old plants. It was like magic, you know? I’ve been hooked on organic ever since. niio

Strawberries survive winter best under straw of a deep pile of shredded paper and weed plants thrown on.
Hunting for natives here is the same as everyone else with licenses and hunting seasons regulating it.
Animals after your crops …owners can be sued for losses. Animals killing your pets and other critters can be killed in the act. I’ve shot dogs killing chickens. Bill had an old 38 revolver that I was accurate with. Killed dogs on the run.
My neighbors horses and bills kept eating my apple trees. I once told him one of those young bulls might fall I a hole with a lot of hot coals. I’d invite him for dinner I’d that happened. He kept them out after that. He was never sure if I was joking or serious. 🙂
Honestly I was joking. When he asked me I just said “hmmm you don’t know do you?”
I may just plant a bunch of pintos if we can get them in early enough. They make good green beans then good dry beans. With corn, beans, potatoes, and winter squash added to amaranth for greens I’d be happy.
I still have carrots in the garden under a thick layer of weeds. I’ll check in a few days to see if they are surviving. They were too young to harvest when it turned so cold.

Bull meat, better use a lot of salsa and let it soak overnite 🙂

No, I meant deer and rabbits in the fields. Can you take them or would you have to file a report with the game commission? Here, they issue extra hunting permits.

The dog is still grumbling because I won’t get in bed!

Garbanzo beans can be planted in the frost, and when green, taste like green peas. Animals don’t like the greens, too much tannin. And, they make a good cover. I can plant now, but it’s chancy. If we get too much down in the 20s, half would burn out. I should have planted the tohono green peas 1 Sept, but wasn’t all that good yet.

I hate killing a dog. They’re the family symbol on the female line. I make a lot of friends with the Chichimec in Mexico over that; the People of the Dogs are kin. If you want to see a Meshca mexican cringe, watch a Chichimec staring at him. Like the Hopi and Apaches, they never got over how the Aztec helped the Spanish defeat them. The Chichimec cache grain, water, and meat in hidden places. they learned to do that during the centuries of war with the Aztec, then the Spanish and Mexicans. niio

For deer an in season license or a state appointed hunter. I believe We can kill rabbit anytime but we are told not to take hot weather wild rabbits here because of Bubonic Plague. The fleas carry the plague. Just handling a dead rabbit can Get you flea bitten during the summer. Plague can put you in the hospital or a grave very easily.

Even for a farmer? Wow, that’s bad. I never realized NM had gotten so liberal.

Any rodent can carry the fleas and predators hunting them has carried them home just as they can rabies. With an avid hunter like the dog, I need to be prepared for either, as well as hanta virus, which killed so many Navajo. It used to be common to buy silver baby spoons for the newborn to teethe on. They didn’t know why it worked, but they knew it staved off and even killed sickness. When the plagues hit Europe, the very wealthy died along with the poor. they ate from gold plate and drank from gold cups. The poor off and drank from wood or clay. The small middle class survived; they ate off silver plate and used silver or brass cups. I collect Irish American silver. It’s silver over brass and considered scrap, but it kept many a person healthy all their lives. niio

A special gift for my birth was a small sterling silver baby cup. It was stolen a few years back but I raised all my babies with that cup and my silver baby spoon and half sized silver knife, fork and spoon. We were pretty healthy children. Mom credited the silver for helping me get over the 2 kinds of measles and mumps. I didn’t catch chicken pox or whooping cough when they went around. Dad and I never cought chicken pox even when we were exposed many times.
Silver or God….either way I’ll accept protections.
I got to see Bob this afternoon. His lungs are clearing but it’s still causing a lot of coughing.
He is staying at the older boys home. They don’t get along for very long. He asked prayer that he can find a place soon.
They younger boy bought him some clothes. Then Wednesday a dentist will take impressions for new dentires and make them the same day. Then Friday the younger son is taking him back to Albuquerque and will pay for new glasses.
Bob lost his hearing aids, glasses and false teeth in that fire. He still doesn’t know how he’s going to get more hearing aids.
Walk blessed.

Silver represent Jesus as redemption; so does brass, but as judgement. When I was a kid, the tonsils were taken, now they know that’s stupid. they do a lot of good. The great-grandfather found out and raised holle against it, but too late. He was a healer and said that only caused more problems. a sprig of chew would have healed them fast. It turns out (now I know) it was gluten that caused the infections. Mom loved to bake and her biscuits and pie crusts were about light enough, Dad said, to float away. And on her side of the family, everyone suffered diabetes. On Dad’s, they ate some wheat, but made corn beer and preferred corn bread and corn noodles to wheat. Wheat was a wealthy man’s grain back then and diabetes called the rich man’s disease. I don’t suffer it, but those in the family who think it’s silly to not eat wheat do. Guess who are the silly ones?

When I was given the smallpox vaccine, it never scabbed. same thing in the Army, no scab or scar. I found out that I had cowpox as a little kid from milking and riding around on the cows. Mom always knew where I’d be, more or less, when she told me to get out of the house and play. Cow pasture, and winter or summer, in the afternoon, taking a nap on one of the dairy cows.

I’m not recommending it for Bob, but when the chest cold nails me and I start to cough and can’t stop, it makes the sternum feel like it’s breaking. One sprig of chew and the cough is gone. Will NM pay for new hearing aides? If I lived closer, I’d bring one of the guitars up for him. A friend, Ernesto, has a set of electric drums he’s selling. that, as well. He’d let me have them cheap, knowing it was going to help someone. Un buen hombre. niio

Lol. I hadn’t thought about my small pox vaccine in a while. Big scab and a scar.
Had my tonsils removed at thirteen. That was memorable. I kept waking up during the surgery. Tried to talk to the Dr mid surgery. Woke wide awake again just before they wheeled me out through the doors to go to recovery. Hospital rule. I had to spend the night because I was over twelve. Yuck!
No diabetics in Moms family but a few on dads side. I guess I missed that one. Thank God. No cancers on either side to be concerned about either.
I have no idea how he’s going to get the hearing aids. VA bought them but they fall on a Schedual of new ones every so many years. They were less that a year old. They may bend because of the fire. He’ll have to fight for that.
Bob sent a text this afternoon to thank me for the prayers. The Dr is amazed at how well his lungs are clearing. Glad he’s feeling better.

I tend to stop breathing on an operating table. For some reason that scares the devil out of surgeons. So, to take care of that, they stopped my heart, too 🙂 Before the surgery, a nurse asked about a no-resuscitation clause if the heart stops. Did I want that? I smiled and said, “Maybe not for this surgery.” She looked at me and started to laugh. “No, not this one!” Next time, probably. If they think they can find usable parts, go for it. It’ll save the life of some healthy kid in a reeducation camp in China.

You made me happy. Bob is going strong. Yes, the VA should replace it. It wasn’t lost because of him, but an act of God, as they say. niio

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