Gardening attempts

Or, if you throw enough crap at the wall, some is bound to stick.

I have a bit of a dark brown thumb. Gardening is not my thing. I basically stick stuff in the ground, threaten it,  and if it dies, I rip it out and may or may not try again. But this year I finally succumbed to Sweet Daughter’s request for a bigger garden plot. Her current space is about 24” x 24” -- small enough to weed and water while waiting for the school bus. But she wanted more.

It started with the sunflowers. And that meant finding a place to put them (how about in the corner of the yard by the 6’ tall section of fence?). Which meant digging up the blasted Bermuda grass and the Virginia Creeper, and putting down some real dirt, and a landscaping timber or two. The discounted tulips that were past their best at Easter? Why not? They were cheap. Then there were the extra annuals for the containers in the front of the house. And then a Black-Eyed Susan was strategically placed in front of the great gaping hole in the boxwood. And, holy cow, those Crape Myrtles sure do grow quickly. These came up from a long forgotten network of roots, popping up during a dry spell one summer when the grass wasn’t growing. Violets were transplanted from my sister’s farm so we’ll always have part of it at our house. A $1 pack of “wildflower” seeds meant knocking together something resembling a raised bed so they could contained. Luckily there’s a pile of old timbers from the previous owners, or that would have ended up being a $20 pack of seeds.

And we can't forget the marigold that SD coveted and earned by helping the "Plant Lady" at our last reenactment.

Then there are the redbuds. I love redbud trees, and I seem to find a volunteer each year that gets painstaking transplanted, and invariably mowed over. (Call it aggressive pruning.) Well, I’ve moved two so far this spring, found a third, and the one that got mowed flat last year is coming back. So far, so good.
And then I discovered the “scratch and dent” section in the nursery at Lowes. Why not? I’d rather kill a $5 blueberry bush than a $10 one (and after killing 4 in the past few years, these are both are doing very well, thank-you-very-much). And that’s when SD saw the raspberries. “Momma! Look! Raspberries! You love raspberries! Think of the money you’ll save!” I grabbed one, liked the price and put it on the cart. Then the nice gentleman with the mullet and muscle shirt came running over with two more. (No, I have no idea what that was about.)  I managed to resurrect the Catawba grape that got mowed last year. I planted a Carolina Jasmine to cover the chain-link fence. I started some morning glories from seed. I put in some more herbs. I put an azalea in under an oak tree where it’s hard to mow. I pruned back and Shorter Half moved about 20 Barberry bushes to the other side of the fence, closer to the road.
SD got a larger section of flower garden, and plants were procured. Seeing Breda’s tomatoes shamed me into planting a couple of my own. Roma? Safe. Then I picked a variety at random … a Jet Star. Low acid, good for eating and cooking, it said. I got it home and read the fine print. Grows four to six feet tall. Really? Any suggestions on what to use for a tomato cage or should I just ask what what caliber? Attack of the killer tomatoes is right.

O/C Marketing Fail

I try to be a good ambassador when I O/C. I make an effort to not look like a slob, or to act like I’m anything but a safe, sane, typical person. Last Sunday, I failed in that endeavor.

I’d been working in the yard all day, digging holes, pruning, weeding, sowing, transplanting, hauling water, you name it. I had to run to Wally World to pick up some mulch and some groceries, so I took a break and headed out. I did not change clothes, or even apply lip gloss. My pants were dirty, and my arms were so scratched from cutting back the barberry bushes, I looked like I’d been cutting myself. I got home, unloaded the car and got back to work only to realize I’d worn this shirt,

At least this part was on the back.

 and this hat.

Yeah. I'll try really hard not to do that again.

Kid Shoot

As in kids shooting, not shooting kids.

At the NoVA get-together in Stafford at the end of April, the topic of “Take your Daughter to the Range Day” came up. To sum up a long, convoluted conversation, the following were observed …

Some ranges have an age limit due to insurance regulations, and so young kids can’t shoot.

Getting kids started with a pellet gun means you don’t have to wear hearing protection, and so instruction is easier.

An adult can grab the barrel of a pellet gun (or pellet pistol) to maintain muzzle control without worrying about injury.

Targets can be hung at a more appropriate height and distance, and they can be reactive.

Pellet guns, with a proper backstop can be shot in the backyard.

There was more, but you get the idea ...

So, is anybody interested in a Kid Shoot? The date that was kicked around was the first weekend in June (plan on Saturday, rain date for Sunday). Michael W. (retired LEO and firearms instructor) said he’d come up and lend a hand, and JB Miller has a couple of pellet guns and found a really cool target. Sweet Daugter even volunteered to share her purple pistol.

Sweet Daughter, age 4, first time shooting

I could host it here* -- there’s a place to set up in the shade, a swing-set, and BrokenAndy volunteered to bring an inflatable bouncy thing so the kids have something to do in between turns shooting because I’m not anticipating long attention spans.  Frequent changes in activity, yes-- sort of like squirrels on meth. We could wrap up with the adults taking a turn or two, and throwing stuff on the grill.  I’m sure that if this is successful, there will be other ones planned before the summer is over.

I’m open to suggestions – let me know if you might be interested in coming (with or without kids) at dethosp@gmail.com.

*I’m about a half hour from Fredericksburg, VA, about an hour from the north side of Richmond, and about 45 minutes from Waldorf, MD.

Open Carry Day 2012

Okay, so it's two days this year. Open Carry Weekend. The first weekend in June.

If you can do it where you live, try it. You might find you like it.

I owe you guys for a target!

So Sweet Daughter and I made it up to the Range this morning to meet up with a few of the “locals”. We hung up as the rest of the gang showed up. SD entertained herself (and us to some extent) by playing in a drainage ditch at the edge of the parking lot. She was leaping over a culvert with a steep slope up one side and some wobbly rocks over the opening of the ditch.

Me: "SD - be careful playing on those rocks. All I've got with me is Neosporin and bandaids. No needle and thread to sew you up."

Gunnie 1, offhand: "I've got a trauma kit, but I don't know how to use it."

Gunnie 2, helpfully: "I've got some Quick-Clot."

Gunnies are such helpful people.

So the range opens up and we get in line. And the crew grabs 3 lanes. I knew SD couldn’t shoot until she was seven, but I was hoping I could take her in and let her watch. Nope. Insurance regulations.  Two different people offered to watch SD so I could get some trigger time in, and for that I am extremely grateful, but it wasn’t their job to babysit. Besides, you know how there’s always “That Guy” at the range? That was going to be me, today. I could feel it in my bones. The trip started with me leaving my pistol behind and having to go back and get it, and my gun handling skills did not improve as the morning went on. So, I got to meet a couple of new faces and stiff the group for the price of a target.

You see, SD really wanted to take a target home and so we picked one out. And the guy behind the counter wouldn’t sell it to me because it was too much trouble to ring up just one target. He insisted on adding it to your bill. And he wouldn’t let me leave money to pay for it. I know, I could have just put it back and let SD see this as a lesson in Jagger’s Law but I didn’t because I didn’t want to risk a temper tantrum.  And I’m not talking about SD.

So, in closing, it was great to see familiar faces, and to meet new ones. I hope we can do it again sometime when I’m not “That Guy”. I’m sorry I didn’t get to say goodbye to y’all, and I owe you a target.

Feeble attempt at an update

First, does anyone want to buy a 150 acre farm/estate just outside of Annapolis? The house was completely gutted and redone with new HVAC, kitchen, wiring, plumbing, etc. It’s on the water. It’s got outbuildings. It’s a long story, but if you’re interested, let me know.

The front of the house

The Atheneum

Looking down towards the water. Yes, there is a dock.

A very small section of the shop. Every shop needs a corkscrew, right?

The view down the driveway. Did I mention the current tenant grows turf?

In other news, Sweet Daughter has started field hockey and seems to be loving it. The schedule is kicking my butt.  I know, I know. Get used to it.

The local library is having an American Girl-themed tea party on Saturday. Sweet Daughter is going with her BFF, and they are encouraged to dress for it. Is it wrong that this is the first thing that popped into my head?

A handful are gathering in Stafford, VA, on Saturday to chew the fat and try to get in some range time. Sweet Daughter and I are going to try to make an appearance so that she can at least see how an indoor range functions. She can’t shoot there until she’s 7, but she should be able to at least take a look around.

More later …

In lieu of actual content ...

Stop those annoying abductions!

Discuss.

UPDATE: Just in case you are wondering, no, I've never made one, nor do I have plans to do so.