A couple weeks ago, I filled four small rows in my garden with sweet peas left over from a bag of Wetzel seeds I had stored in the shed. They may have been two years old. I was foolish to have risked planting them, but I couldn’t just toss them out. A week passed by and no peas. A few days later I saw the most incredible sight – several little pea sprouts peeking through the soil. To me, this is … [Read more...]
Sam’s Scores Again
Almost every time I go to Sam’s Club, I run across something new and exciting and always great values. A few weeks back, I wrote that Sam’s now has Wagyu beef, similar to the famous Kobe Beef of Japan. I bought some, made a half-pound cheeseburger and gained 2 pounds the next morning. The reason the beef is so tender and so tasty is because it is loaded with fat. But it was an … [Read more...]
(Almost) Gold Finches
After being a drab olive for six months, my male goldfinches are beginning to put on the Ritz, molting into a new suit of bright gold feathers. I always thought the birds’ feathers changed colors, but they don’t. The birds grow new and entirely differently colored feathers. The goldfinch is the only one in its family to undergo a complete, not a partial molt. Even the females get a … [Read more...]
More Gov’mint BS
Went to the liquor store near Harris Teeter last Thursday after work and they were closed. Hmmm? Must have had a computer go down or something. No problem. I went to the ABC store in Rio Hills and it was also closed. Certain, that the stores would be up and running the next day, I once again stopped at the Harris Teeter ABC. “Closed”, said the sign as was the one in Rio Hills. Another … [Read more...]
Bottom Round Beef Roast
I have never had much luck with beef roasts, other than standing ribs. When I try the bottom or top round varieties, they are either tough or dry, chewy or bland. But. I recently found a very simple way to cook a bottom round roast that is fool proof. And you can slow cook it. It starts with a 3 or 4 pound bottom round roast. This cut has excellent flavor, but can be tough, unless you … [Read more...]
“Smooth Criminal” Squash
They call it Smooth Criminal Squash because it will “steal your heart.” Really. Fellow gardener, Sherman Shifflett, said a friend of his from Valdese, NC grew this hybrid squash with excellent luck. He sent Sherman a few seeds, and Sherman shared some with me. I have since started them in indoor pots. Yellow squash is a favorite among backyard and small plot gardeners because it … [Read more...]
How To Measure A Fish
Measuring fish is not a science. It’s an art form. Establishing the length of a trout, for example, should never be confined to a one-dimensional instrument such as an ordinary ruler. Rulers, after all, are made and designed by mortals and are thus subject to error. I caught a brook trout on the Moorman’s river one day, removed the hook and gently released him back into the pool. A … [Read more...]
What a Walleye!
Tim Walts of Crozet caught and released this 29-inch walleye on the Rivanna River on Valentine’s Day. It was a sweetheart of a fish, that’s for sure. The Rivanna is an excellent but underutilized walleye fishery. Darrell Kennedy at Lake Orange says the walleye are putting on the feed bag there, as well. Smallmouth Bass The smallmouth bass are starting to feed on the North and South Fork … [Read more...]
Remembering 45 Records
Music played an important part in the life of most every Boomer, and 45 records made up the chapters of our lives. For my 10th birthday, I asked for and got a portable 45 record player. It was a Sylvania, as I recall, and my first record was Dean Martin’s “Memories are Made of This”. I suppose I played it a thousand times before I bought my second record, “Sixteen Tons” by Tennessee … [Read more...]
Gov’mint
Government – or gov-mint as Ronald Reagan used to pronounce it – does one thing really well. Blow things up. We have a spectacular military. Ask bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. As for the rest of the stuff – not so much. The Post Office – a government sponsored monopoly that can’t make money – comes to mind. Most anything the Gov’mint runs is inefficient. Like Covid vaccine scheduling, … [Read more...]
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