Winter? Is It Here Yet?

Well, down here in the Central Florida area, it's raining...and raining and raining. Grass is still green, not a good sign that winter is here, but it does feel a little cooler out, around 60 degrees. I know its been a while since I have written. I've taken on more work related responsibilities. I have just completed a new site where I am designing original art and selling hats, t-shirts, banners and magnetic signs. I know it sounds a little hokey for me. I haven't even finished writing that mystery murder novel I have been working on for the past two years. Almost there, but stuck on one detail that will send that final 'surprise ending' to the readers eyes. The new business website is http://snappeas.deco-apparel.com/ . The funny thing is, the first week up, I sold three customized magnetic signs for a furniture repair business and have an order for a banner, not related to the work I am showcasing on the site. Along with this, I have also been designing over twenty brochures for a commercial printer who had been looking for a designer, but not enough work to hire one for inhouse, as of yet. That's the update on what has been happening around me, but about life on this land....

About three weeks ago, one of my younger cats, I have four now, brought me a present. The tiniest baby rabbit, about two inches long. I followed all the proper ways to raise it, by feeding it with an eye dropper and a formula of whipping cream, condensed milk and Kayo corn syrup, but the poor baby was too young and injured to make it. I have raised to maturity, at least 24 baby squirrels during hurricane season successfully, but this was my first try with a baby rabbit. 

My garden is in winter mode, mostly. The squash is done for and has been removed. I waited on removing the tomatoes. I am still getting ripe tomatoes off these plants. Leaves are starting to turn, but the tomatoes keep forming and no pests to bother them. They are Roma tomatoes and I still have to find time to make sauce from them. I have been using them mostly in salads and in dishes with chicken and noodles and cream sauce, yum! We have a lot of Kale coming out strong now and I recommend planting these leafy greens. Both are delicious in either salads or cook them up like spinach. Collards, Mustard Greens and Kale are great for your heart and is a great fighter to ward off cancer. The Oranges and Grapefruit are very strong and juicy now. Great timing in defense against the flu and cold season. The variegated tangerine-tangelos are not quite ripe yet. They are due around late December to early February. I'm looking forward, believe it or not, for one cold snap to sweeten the fruit on the trees. Not too cold, 50 degrees will do. It has gotten there a couple of times, but some of the fruit is still a little too tart. My favorite will always be the Ruby Red Grapefruit and the Naval Oranges. This brings to mind another story.

My parents moved to the Winter Park area back in 1957 when the great Temple Orange grove covered most of the area near Genius Drive. When the houses in their development were being built, the developer left about six trees from the original grove per homestead. Something that does not happen nowadays. I live out in the Clermont area where there is a sea of houses with no trees planted in the yards at all, all developed close to the Citrus Tower. Very sad that the total orange groves of the 1950s-1970s, were destroyed completely out here. But, at my parents house, there is still one orange tree left in the back yard, producing fruit. The tree is over 93 years old. It has a hollow opening in the main trunk, but no sour root stock. Oranges are still sweet, but smaller and mostly seeds. My Mom wanted to cut it down to save it from falling. I convinced her to let it stay and die naturally. It deserved that much. That was five years ago. I believe it will make 100 and maybe get listed in some Winter Park paper for it. We'll see.

What is Happening Here?

The world is a mess. That's an understatement. It always has been. Another understatement, I'm sure, but what has happened in just the last two days is incomprehensible. Why when the economy is in such a shambles, unemployment so low, that people feel a need to attack others without cause? How does barging in and killing employees in an office building who have no relation to you being laid off or a killing spree at a military base of soldiers that are facing the same deployment conditions you are, justify your act of violence? Is this the future for us? When things get tough, we attack others around us? The man who walked in and shot at employees yesterday in Orlando, which just turned out to be 25 miles from me, smiled as he strolled out of the building. Yes, smiled! Of course, later on the news stated he had mental issues, but why when we need to support each other are we attacking each other? I blame some of this on the news channels and crazy reporters, if you can call them that on some of the radical right stations, pushing for the public to threaten the Congressmen, White House, the gays, the Democrats, and whoever does not look or think exactly like they do. If you listen to your local news, do you notice how many bad reports they air compared to the good reports? Maybe its true about 2012. Maybe its irreversible. Instead of a meteor, an ice age, or atomic war, or disease, it will be random acts of violence like we have witnessed in the last two days. 

Times were a lot tougher during the Depression and yes, I'm sure there was violence, but still people helped people. (Check out 3rd paragraph of my listing below in Mama Bess and her Garden.) People need to get back to the land, simple life. More electronic gadgets and credit cards and fancy cars will not save us. We lose our job and instantly are dumped into a Depression. We can't handle it, we're spoiled. Theres too much violence in the world. Maybe its a sign of the times and a sign of the future to come or maybe, its just a very strong full moon. I vote for the moon.

Finally!

Available now! The 60 page 'Old & Forgotten' calendar/planner with information on old wisdom garden techniques and rural living that I have learned from my grandmother and from my own experience of  living off the land. $15 donation payable through Paypal only please, which includes shipping and handling. For more information or when you are ready to order, email stormhillstudio@earthlink.net with your address and quantity. Allow up to 2-3 weeks shipping. Order yours today! 

Help is Needed

I know it’s been a while since my last writing, but my internet has been down until now. Donations on this blog pays my internet service, so if you don’t hear from me for a while, then I am down. Hopefully you will find this information on my blog useful and will donate to save it. Only $5. a donation by way of Paypal is needed. I am hoping to put out a calendar planner with more gardening and saving tips before the end of the year. If that sounds interesting to you, leave a comment on my blog. I would like to get a reading on how many of my readers out there will be interested. It’s all set up and ready to go to press as a spiral bound 60 pager, size 5 x 7 to fit neatly in anyone’s carrying bag. I hope to sell them at a reasonable price, but still haven’t decided if $15. which includes postage in the US territory, will be too much or not. Again, I am trying to squeeze the money pouch for spare change to afford the printing. I plan to advertise on Facebook and Amazon. It will be top quality of course. If it goes well, by next year I may offer my services for custom family photo, calendar planners as well. Feel free to leave me a comment about this and any subject you are interested in as it relates to gardening, ways to save, bartering experiences you may have had and Depression era or the, what I call for people out there like me, ‘the new era Depression’ experiences.

Back to my garden...
For some reason, even though tomatoes are out of season in my area of the state of Florida, I have more tomatoes than leaves on my plants. Also what surprises me is the amount of okra and squash. Hate to say, my kale and collards are true to form in the month of September and are not gaining any growth at all. I finished fertilizing the citrus trees and pruning back the sour root stock. I am the lone caretaker of the grove and it takes me a while to get through it all, only 3 acres worth. But, this is not my workload. This is playtime. My workload is on the computer. I am a graphic designer by trade and have completed my second catalog for a major bus parts company, a national seminar brochure and various logos for different businesses who need my help. This is the work that pays my electric bill, rent and provides the food I don’t grow, on the table. Please donate and keep this blog alive and if interested in a 2010 calendar with more tidbits of living off the land, please leave a comment. Thank you.

Propagating a Wood Plant

A term commonly known as budding. Usually done between late summer to early autumn, budding is a great method when you wish to variegate a new species of woody plant. To achieve this, follow the steps below:

1- Make a T-shape slit in the bark of the plant you will be adding the bud to.

2- Cut a bud from the plant you will be propagating.

3-Insert the bud under the loosened bark.

4- Tie the bud in place with raffia

5-After the bud has taken and you see sufficient growth, say abut 2-4 laves, tie it in place a little higher. After a year in place (a) cut off the branch above the shoot.

You can bud anywhere on the main trunk of the plant, about 2-3 inches above ground level to mid-trunk. I normally add root tone to the cutting before inserting to give it a boost in growth.

Four Steps in Air-Layering a Plant

1. Knock most of the bottom out of  2 1/2 or 3 inch pot.

2. Fold up the leaves of the tall “leggy” plant after notching the stem (see arrow) where roots are desired.

3. Place pot at that point, fill it with sphagnum or peat moss and tie it in place – a stake will help support it.

4. When roots fill the pot, break and remove it, cut the new plant from the old stem and pot it in a new pot with more sphagnum or peat moss.

This technique and the old drawings above, came from an old book my Mama Bess used, The Wise Garden Encyclopedia, but I have added a more up-to-date version. I find it easier to use peat planting pots and also rub Root Tone on the notches as mentioned in step 2. 

Sometimes, you can save money by gathering seeds from a good harvest, and then there are times you may want to try an actual layering of a favorite woody plant such as a favorite rose or gardenia to make multiple plants. Try this technique as mentioned above and in my next writing I will explain how to propagate a woody plant.

Mama Bess and her Garden

Mama Bess said “Everyone and their brother too,” often enough to make me wonder what it actually meant until I realized how crowded this old planet seems. The job market is slim pickings now a days. My state alone is over 10% unemployed and I happen to be one of them. I spend a good 16 hours a day doing whatever odd jobs I can to bring food into this house. My grandmother Mama Bess had to do the same thing during the Great Depression. After Daddy Tank sold the bus company, (see article below, Daddy Tank and his Busline, dated August 19), he found a job lasting a year, with one of his brothers in Winfield, Louisiana pumping gas at a filling station. It wasn’t much, but the job was more than what most people had during that time.  He would send his earnings by Western Union back to his wife, Mama Bess. They had moved out of their home and rented a smaller house on 3 acres, two miles out of Monroe with a white picket fence around the front and a barn with pasture in the back. Rent was a good $5. a month back then. About the time of the worst part of the Depression, the landlord increased it to $10. which sounds like a drop in the bucket compared to now. But comparing now to back then, that was probably equal to $1000. a month.  

Mama Bess, was best known for growing anything under the Sun. She could make a desert bloom and had so many flowers in her garden, that there were stepping stones placed as paths to get through it to the front gate. Word got around and she started making money by selling straight out of her garden to seven different florists; two in Monroe and five others in Charlotte. She even set up a small shop in the front parlor of her house and sold Gladiolus, Poppies (legal back then), Dahlias, Snapdragons, and others. Her yard also produced a massive amount of vegetables and I even had heard that if the vegetables or flowers were not in season, she still would have plenty of healthy plants producing what she needed. To this day, I feel she is helping me out, in spirit with my garden. Here it is, early September and 90 degrees out, I have tomatoes and squash completely out of season. I plant seeds and even though the package says it takes 10 days to germinate, my seeds are an inch tall in less than 2 days. I don’t have magic soil or fertilizer, just my Mama Bess’s hand from heaven.

Back in the Great Depression, there were a lot of hobos getting off the freight trains and passing through town. Mama Bess, raising 4 young children alone, would invite one or two in to shower, shave and stay for supper, if they would do some work for her around the house. Sometimes they would patch the roof, mend the fence or barn out back or paint the house, and repair the plumbing. After the repairs were done, and they ended their stays, they would move on. Word had gotten around about her generosity and one of the receivers of her goodwill, etched a triangle in the left post by her gate. This was a sign to other hobos passing through that a good Christian woman lived there offering shelter and food for a good, honest days work. The funny part about this story is that there was one man who arrived at her house and helped with the heaviest of chores, very polite and well educated. It wasn’t long after he had left, that she found out he was an escape convict from a prison from out of state. No one ever did her any harm, but nowadays, no one would think of inviting strangers into their homes.

With memories of that, I try to raise my kids to be helpful to others less fortunate then themselves. I never thought this would be so embedded into them as when my oldest son at the age of 17 bought an old Caravan with a bad transmission for $300. He purchased a transmission from an auto recycling place, fixed the van and then drove it over to a house of someone he met a few months earlier. The man he had met, was without a job and had an old two passenger car. His family of five consisting of his wife, who had a job, and three small children under the age of 8. My son drove the van over to their house, handed the title and keys to this man and walked away. 

On the receiving side, my youngest son ran out of gas 20 miles from home and found out he had lost his wallet. A stranger drove up and asked if he was okay. When my son told him about being out of gas, no wallet or way to get home, the stranger handed him $10 for gas. Of course my son thanked him, but the man said no thanks needed, just pass the goodwill along to others who need it.

Will we ever get back to the days of helping each other through tough times as well as good times, or are we always going to be ‘every man for themselves’? I don’t know. I like to think so. In today’s economy, I hope we can all group together and offer help to those less fortunate than ourselves. If you have good news about sharing and receiving help from others, please add a comment below. Would love to hear from you.