Joylynn Hardesty

Less than $740 US to make the stretch goal! 53 hours to go. Woohoo!

My kid is awesome. He never whined. Once upon a time, many years ago...

PBS Kids has a show that I thought would be good for him. Cajou? Pronounced Kiyoo. This "cute" little show taught my angel how to whine! And how to beg! Grrrr!!!

PBS viewing was reduced to ONLY Wildcrats.

He learned to stop whining. Begging still shows up.

Dale Hodgins wrote:



They had to sell her horse when she was about 8 or 9, in order to get a carabao, which is a small swamp water buffalo. It produces milk and can pull a cart. Her favorite thing to do with the horse, was to ride along the river or along the upper ridges of those huge hills.

..... long story short. There absolutely must be a horse in my future. :-)

I've certainly gone well beyond the original plan to talk about building a small cob house.

You, sir, are AWESOME!

Michael Moreken wrote:Another I call henbit that has clover like leaves and yellow flowers.  Young henbit has a purple look to the early leaves.

This is what my edible reference books call henbit, and her messy cousin deadnettle. Henbit has an upright growth habit, deadnettle lays on the ground, rooting at the nodes.

picture from http://foragedfoodie.blogspot.com/2017/02/identify-deadnettle-and-henbit.html


If you get adventurous in your eating, I recommend only eating the top 3" or so of either of these plants, and serve them in a spicy recipe. Otherwise they have a musty taste.

Michael Moreken wrote:

Another name for Spurge, Carpet Weed?

While I do use spurge for living mulch, the plant I was refering to as carpet weed is the one pictures below.

On another site, (not the below links!) I have received "Probably Turkeytail" on #1

I must double check the pores, under the fungus to be sure they match turkey tail and not the look alikes. https://www.mushroomexpert.com/spore_print.html

Also, #3 is maybe a Agaricus. https://www.mushroomexpert.com/agaricus.html

Can anyone else chime in?

You did a good job on this video, thank you.

My Hunny does our wine making. No recipe. But it always turns out well. Too scary for me, I just stay out of his way and keep my mouth shut! It’s not like I don’t have enough to do already!

He did an awesome huckleberry meade! But during fermentation, the skins kept trying to block the bubbler. He had to remove the skins several times. I’m thinking blueberry skins may do the same thing. Did you do anything to deal with this problem?

I am looking forward to watching Part 2!

Another word, rather phrase, that may be helpful to know is "open pollinated". These people explain it better than I can.

http://blog.seedsavers.org/blog/open-pollinated-heirloom-and-hybrid-seeds

    Open-pollination is when pollination occurs by insect, bird, wind, humans, or other natural mechanisms.
        Because there are no restrictions on the flow of pollen between individuals, open-pollinated plants are more genetically diverse. This can cause a greater amount of variation within plant populations, which allows plants to slowly adapt to local growing conditions and climate year-to-year. As long as pollen is not shared between different varieties within the same species, then the seed produced will remain true-to-type year after year.

    An heirloom variety is a plant variety that has a history of being passed down within a family or community, similar to the generational sharing of heirloom jewelry or furniture.
        An heirloom variety must be open-pollinated, but not all open-pollinated plants are heirlooms. While some companies create heirloom labels based on dates (such as a variety that is more than 50 years old), Seed Savers Exchange identifies heirlooms by verifying and documenting the generational history of preserving and passing on the seed.

    Hybridization is a controlled method of pollination in which the pollen of two different species or varieties is crossed by human intervention.
        Hybridization can occur naturally through random crosses, but commercially available hybridized seed, often labeled as F1, is deliberately created to breed a desired trait. The first generation of a hybridized plant cross also tends to grow better and produce higher yields than the parent varieties due to a phenomenon called ‘hybrid vigor’. However, any seed produced by F1 plants is genetically unstable and cannot be saved for use in following years. Not only will the plants not be true-to-type, but they will be considerably less vigorous. Gardeners who use hybrid plant varieties must purchase new seed every year. Hybrid seeds can be stabilized, becoming open-pollinated varieties, by growing, selecting, and saving the seed over many years.

There is more info on that page.

These definitions seem to be honored by many seed companies, though to my knowledge there isn't any organization enforcing the definition.

One note of caution...

Make certain your seeds are entirely dry. Seeds like tomato, etc. will snap in half when properly dry. Bean seeds will shatter when hit with a hammer. If you put seeds in the freezer that are not dry, the seeds will develop ice crystals in them that will kill the seeds. Before I found this information, I stored some beans seeds in the freezer that appeared to be dry, and I killed them.