The big muddy

The deer, raccoons, skunks and yours truly have been testing the soil and it is still pretty muddy our there.  I harvested a few heads of lettuce for the Divine Mrs. M this morning and it was a little better than last night when some of the lettuce was actually suffocating from excess water in the root zone.  We have more showers predicted today, so we are not out of the woods yet, but the weekend is looking drier.  I might be able to keep up the planting schedule on Saturday, but it will depend on Mother Nature's whims.  It has been abnormally cool for July, so I'm hoping  for a long, warm fall with less rainfall than we have experienced so far.

Here we go again

The keyboard commandos are out in force once again, complaining the President isn't doing enough saber rattling to suit their idea of what US leadership in world should look and sound like.  Evidently there isn't a situation John McCain thinks couldn't be improved by a little American ordnance raining down on the heads of whoever is the enemy of the week.   If we had followed his advice, we would be arming or actively fighting in Syria, Iran, Iraq and Ukraine and who knows how many other places.   The idea Uncle Sam is the colossus straddling the world and forcing everyone to bend the knee is beyond parody at this point.  Ten years in Iraq and 14 in Afghanistan, not to mention Viet-Nam should surely have shown the limits of the bomb around the clock mentality these chicken hawks possess.   I think the military-industrial complex has truly taken over the foreign policy portfolio of the Repubs.  We can only hope the Dems are not so easily seduced.

Springtime redux

With nearly 31/4 inches of rain in the gauge over a two day period, the garden soil is gasping for air once again.  Fortunately, drainage is better at the end of July than at the beginning of June, but this latest bout of weather will take a toll.  A couple of corn planting have lodged or fallen over.  That means even if the ears develop normally, the usual suspects, i.e. raccoons and skunks will harvest more of the crop than I will.  Standing water at the edge of some beds will take out some of the lettuce plantings and the peppers are once again struggling.  More rain is predicted off and on for the next week, so the vicissitudes of weather will continue.

Harvest, weed, plant, rinse, repeat

That was the mantra this past weekend.   Saturday was a 14 hour blur of harvest for market, plant for fall and harvest garlic ahead of Sat. night showers.  I finished the day with about 80 feet of garlic bed to harvest.  Rain overnight made prospects dim, but a window of four hours and the help of the Tireless Mrs. M provided the impetus to finish the harvest and get the garlic into the barn.  The subsequent inch and a half of rain would have prevented harvest and probably led to the loss of the garlic, so it was a serendipitous Sunday.  Thunderstorms wiped out the latter part of the afternoon, so nothing new was planted and I hope today's rainy forecast does not live up to predictions.  We have more than enough rain to turn the back gardens into the swamps they were earlier this season.  Better weather is forecast later this week, so we may get back on track.

Crisis of Compassion

We are treated almost daily to the spectacle of American citizens blocking busses full of central American immigrant children from potential refuges.   Where is the compassion so often attributed to our country.  I guess the inscription on the Statue of Liberty has reached its expiration date.  What many of the yahoos protesting the influx of minors don't know or don't realize is the conditions they are fleeing were made possible by the policies of previous administrations, most notably St. Ronald Reagan.  Operatives from that White House armed the death squads who made life a precarious commodity in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.  The drug trade which thrives in those nations today is the lineal descendant of those same policies.  Our de facto support of heavy handed dictators in these "banana republics" have made the current flood of refugees inevitable as parents gamble their children will have a better chance of survival in "Del Norte" than in their own countries.  We need to acknowledge this connection and help improve conditions in the countries of Central America.  In the short term, we must help these children, not by shipping them back to deprivation and possible death, but showing them that perhaps we are that "shining city on a hill" that the author of so much of this present day suffering once described.

Dropping like flies

Another commercial airline dropped off the radar between Burkina-Faso and Algiers last night.  Along with the two Malaysian Airlines flights so far this year, that makes 3 large commercial flights downed in various circumstances.  That take the gloss off the oft heard claim it is safer to fly than to drive a car.  It probably still remains true, but the increasing number of brushfire wars around the world and the sophisticated armaments possessed by the combatants are certainly making the choice of routes for airliners a far more difficult decision than in previous years.  I have rarely flown outside US airspace and then only to Canada and Mexico, but if I were to take an international flight near a third world hotspot, I would definitely update my life insurance policies.

Garlic time

The garlic crop is ready to harvest.  It's a pity I'm not able to devote full time to said harvest for the next couple of days, but at least I have pulled about half the bulbs.  The Redoubtable Mrs. M is helping the effort by bunching the bulbs and hanging them to dry.  I'm a little disappointed in the sizing, but the constant rain this spring probably leached much of the fertilizer I had put on early.  Such is the agricultural life.  I hope to get at least one of the beds in shape for replanting this weekend.  The first spinach and other fall crops are on the agenda.

Cooperation, not cooption

The pundit class in D.C. and New York are whining about the "nadir of the west" in the wake of the latest Malaysia airlines crash.  The plane, probably brought down by a missile directed by Russian-Ukrainian separatists who were in turn guided by Moscow, is exhibit A in the indictment of Euro-American wimps.   In some neverland of macho American presidential leadership, something like this could never have happened.  As a matter of fact, from the Berlin airlift, to the French debacle in Viet-Nam to America's ignominious retreat from that country, the West has continually shown the limits of gunboat diplomacy.  By pulling the teeth of the U.N. with the Security Council veto, the US decided to eschew international cooperation and look where it has gotten us over the past 70 years.  We cannot be the world's policeman.  However, with the help of like minded world citizens, we can lead a coalition to make a better planet.  President Obama has made some tentative steps in that direction, but these policies will only work if America can get over itself and its ludicrous  claim to an exceptionalism which exists in the minds of people who should know better.

Summer wears on

From begging for sunshine to dragging hoses hither and yon.  It only  takes a week of dry weather in July to dry out the top several inches of soil.  So getting transplants to take and new seedings to germinate requires repeated watering.  As the season progresses, making seedings and transplanting on time becomes more and more important, as the days are getting shorter and growth slows down.  I have stopped seeding most of the cole crops.  Only kohlrabi, kale, bok choy and nappa cabbage are on the list.  I transplanted a large bed of cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli over the weekend and there will be more to do when space becomes available.  Ah, the joys of summer.

The Big Dry Out

It has been a long time coming, but the heavy clay soils in the back gardens are finally drying out.  As June ended the area was a veritable swamp and anything planted out there struggled (even the weeds) to stay alive.  Of course working soil in wet conditions leads to other problems when they dry out.  Even with the organic matter I have worked into the garden over the years, it will turn to an imitation of concrete over the next week or so.   Then it will be a race to see if the roots can reach down to moisture of will they be blocked by the hardening soils.  At least the fall crops I am planting now will be on well worked ground which will hold moisture if we have a dry August and Sept.  The other big bonus of drier weather is there will be less grass to mow and that less often.

Sympathy for the devil

Like America after 9/11, Israel received an outpouring of world sympathy after 3 Israeli teens were kidnapped and murdered by a Palestinian group probably allied with Hamas.  Also, like the US, they have squandered the world's goodwill by pulverizing the Gaza strip and killing more than 100 civilians as they respond to rocket attacks from idiots who obviously don't care about their own casualties.  While I understand the ethos which drives these draconian responses, I think the country has taken the wrong response to terror.  America did the same thing after the WTC attacks.  Instead of lashing out like a wounded animal, a magnanimous response, coupled with police and detective work to bring the actual killers to justice would have increased the reservoir of good will and kept Israel on the moral high ground.  Instead, we have images of dead children who were playing on a beach. 

Up and Down Summer

Every time I think the weather has settled in to one regime or the other; cool and wet, warm and dry, hot and wet, it reverses and starts anew.  The prediction for the next week is ideal for mid summer.  Warm and dry with plenty of sunshine.  There is plenty of moisture in the soil and many summer crops have been waiting for this kind of weather to finally take off.  The peppers and eggplant especially need heat units to produce a crop before late August heralds the shorter days and cooler mornings of autumn.  Even the cole crops will thrive with a little more heat, and the corn is tasseling and starting to form ears.  This is the nitty gritty time of the season.  It is tempting to walk away from the weeds and the seeding and transplant schedules, but it will be a cruel September if I do. 

Obama and "Post Racist" America

Despite all the documentation of its success, the ACA, aka Obamacare continues to draw frenzied opposition from the Republican party base.  The number of uninsured Americans is down, rates have not skyrocketed.  Indeed, the growth of medical spending seems to have slowed.  There is no "death spiral" of older, sicker people dragging the whole system down.  So, what's not to like?  The answer is not a pretty one.  The only thing that seems to drive most people to reflexively oppose this President is racism, pure and simple.  For politicians to say that is to play the "race card" and to be dismissed as rabble rousers.  But for those of us down on the street, it is easy to see with the amount of racist jokes and cartoons circulating that fear and anger towards blacks has not dwindled by nearly the amount the pundits would have us believe.  What passes for wisdom on the Georgetown cocktail circuit, namely we are over the Jim Crow south (and North) of the 20th century is dismissed on a regular basis in most areas of the country.  If you don't laugh at racist jokes regarding the president, you are dismissed as a N lover.  We have come a long way, but we have miles to go to get to a post racial America.

Newest arrival

I wrote about the arrival of little Hannah Grace on Monday, but for some reason, blogger failed to publish.   Let me repeat:  She is a beautiful healthy little girl and the whole family (both sides) is totally smitten with her.  Mother an daughter are home and doing well and I'm sure everyone will eventually get tired of frequent updates regarding conditions at the Rock household.  The Divine Mrs. M spent a few minutes with them last night and reported with photographic evidence that Hannah is cuter than ever.  Meanwhile, I was out digging the last of the soft neck garlic.  I had intended to start the main crop of hardneck, but it seems a little green yet, so I'll give it another week or so.  Reading about timing of harvest has made me nervous, because as many years as I have been growing garlic, I have often missed what is a very short window for harvesting optimum quality.  Leave it in the ground for a couple of extra days and the stalks break off, exposing the cloves and shortening the life of the bulb.  Harvest too early and the cloves are prone to decay.  The window to harvest seems to be in the range of 3 to 7 days.  I can only hope for good weather when it arrives.

New Arrival

It is a symbol of confidence in the future whenever new family members appear for the first time.  Hannah Grace Rock arrived in the outside world at 7:02 P.M. on Friday,  7/11.  A beautiful addition to the family.  Mother and daughter are doing well as a non-stop parade of well wishers descend on the household.  I hope both of them adjust to the new situation and make the most of it.  That was Friday.  Saturday was dawn to dusk harvesting, planting and weeding in the garden.  The potatoes are gaining size every day.  Beets and carrots continue and the sugar snap peas have come and are going fast.  The first zucchini are in and broccoli is threatening to fall off the Divine Mrs. M's menu choices due to over familiarity. 

Give me your poor huddled masses...not

The recent spectacle of Americans blocking busses from delivering refugee children to a California town is pretty dispiriting, considering our boast of being the land of opportunity.  Of course the words printed at the base of the Statue of Liberty have been denied by generations of our fellow countrymen whenever the economic tides have been flowing against us.   Still, these are children...

The economy of guns

I don't know if there are any studies indicating a connection between economic distress and gun use, but recent trends seem to show some congruence.  The pictures of flabby white men parading around with assault rifles strapped to their backs is almost a textbook illustration of frustrated inadequacy.  I believe if these jerks had well paying jobs and a feeling of connection to society they would not be spending what little money they have on these displays.  Growing up in the 50s and 60s, I remember guns being treated as tools for hunting, not totems proclaiming our "second amendment rights".  These fools playing as "freedom fighters" would fold like wet cardboard if they had to confront trained soldiers.   The solution to this problem is the same as with many others in our society today.  People got no money and no good jobs. Fix those problems and most other of society's ills will disappear.

apathy and the death of democracy

The title sounds a little pompous and I am certainly not going to publish an opus on the subject, but some recent studies and my own experience seems to show that most of my fellow Americans pay little attention to politics and when they do it is to wish a plague on both parties.  It is unfortunate, especially at this juncture, when one of the parties vying to govern the US has evidently lost its collective mind.  The rump of today's Republican party is composed mostly of gun nuts, religious zealots, racists and know nothings who have driven the party so far to the right it is scary.   To these idiots, science is something to mock, facts are deniable (see climate change) and anything that does not fit the preferred world view is rejected.  Unfortunately, these people vote and if the broader American electorate does not participate in the process, this minority of haters will wield power all out of proportion to their actual numbers.  The really terrifying thing is the far right has no interest in democracy or the practice thereof.  The rise of a charismatic leader to marshal the hate and direct it is a prospect I would hate to see, but the conditions are there and we ignore them at our peril.

Wet and Wild

Meaning the growth in the garden.  The showers keep coming and we get enough heat and sunshine between to encourage everything, including or especially the weeds.  The insect pests are making their annual appearance also.  Cabbage butterflies, flea beetles and cucumber beetles abound, although not doing too much damage yet.  Meanwhile the round of planting, spraying, weeding and fertilizing continues.  This is the absolute apogee of the gardening season and I grudge every rain delay which puts me farther behind. 

Patriotism and the Fourth

It is hard these days to feel patriotic pride in America.  Yes, we still maintain the trappings of democracy.  We vote for national representatives every 2 years and a president every 4.  In the meantime we congratulate ourselves on our exceptionalism.  At the same time, the Supreme Court has virtually assured our votes are meaningless as a tsunami of money flows into the political system.  Even if we figure out who are the good guys and vote for them, there is no guarantee they will stay that way in the face of money that would have tempted Jesus, let alone Judas.  The people we are supposed to trust to do the best thing for the people are hopelessly compromised by either their belief system or the Koch brothers.  So, we enjoy the parades and fireworks and tell ourselves we have the best government in the world.  Good luck with that.

Crops gone wild

Well, not quite, but the warm weather has put a charge into many warm weather veg.  The Divine Mrs. M picked some sugar snap peas for supper last night and they will really produce in the next few days.  The lima beans have sprouted and the peppers and tomatoes have really jumped over the last few days.  I made new plantings of beets, radishes, scallions, rutabagas and fennel ahead of today's predicted showers.  The soil is still a little wet, but it won't get any drier today.  The corn has started to throw up a tassel and is well ahead of the old saw "knee high by the 4th of July".  The only casualty of the warmer weather is the lettuce plantings which are rapidly coming together.  I'll probably lose one this week. 

Comings and goings

America is gone from the World Cup and as usual, the pundits are predicting the country has finally fallen in love with the beautiful game.   Of course it didn't hurt there was no football, basketball or hockey on TV.  Baseball continues to plod along the arc of its season, so there was little or no competition and America fielded a decent team.   However, I doubt Major League Soccer will be SRO anytime soon.  By the time the last goal is scored and a champion is crowned, America's attention will shift to football training camps and the jargon of soccer will be filed away for another four years.  Meanwhile,  with showers last night and today the weeds are responding with mass sproutings.   If there is a respite, the wheel hoe  will get a workout this weekend.  The strawberries continue to produce and the hot weather crops are finally starting to show some life.

Summertime

Having pledged to welcome hot weather and not complain, I won't.   The weeds are certainly not.   Every shower starts a new batch and the plentiful subsoil moisture keeps them going.  The combination of planting, harvesting and weeding is stretching the time resources available.  The Divine Mrs. M and I picked 13 quarts of strawberries last evening and processed them for winter use.  In between I planted another bed of basil, cilantro and dill and weeded bed I planted 2 weeks ago.   Using the last light of day to check the rest of the garden, it looks like the calm before the storm.  As long as I can spend a night or two killing weeds each week I will stay ahead.  Unfortunately, Mother Nature is threatening to turn on the faucet again next week.  Meanwhile, the sugar snap peas will be ready to pick tomorrow and the first iceberg lettuce will make an appearance this weekend.  The asparagus will be allowed to grow out this week so it can produce food for next year's harvest.  The tomatoes are really growing in the heat, but we are still a month away from first harvest, barring any late blight problems.  The succession lettuce plantings are looking robust and the first broccoli is being harvested.  Looking down, things are looking up...