Just another Summer Day in Manitoba

Not the greatest weather right now. This morning a severe and intense weather system moved through southern Manitoba. Many streets in Winnipeg were flooded. Last night a funnel cloud touched down somewhere near the Saskatchewan/Manitoba border around the Virden area. It seems the bad weather including tornadoes is moving further up north.

Yesterday was a great day for the beach. Temperature in the low thirties. We went to Grand Beach in the afternoon and it was boiling hot, even under our umbrellas. The water was exceptionally warm but still refreshing enough. We spent most of the time in the water. There were lots of people, but not nearly as many as on the weekends. Weekends in Grand Beach must be murder with all the sun-seekers there.

I am always amazed how many people are either downright stupid, ignorant, lazy, or have the ‘I-don’t-give-a-crap’ attitude. There are garbage and recycling containers everywhere, but I still found empty plastic drink bottles and cans lying in the sand. It always bugs me when we go shopping and I see empty shopping carts all over the parking lots, some of them ten feet away from the cart-return spots. Are people really that lazy? Sometimes I just can’t believe it.

On the home front things are okay. I’m talking mainly about my garden right now. This morning I picked some lettuce and found many of my larger beets partially eaten by some rodent. I already caught one mole and one mouse and I’ve set 4 traps out. Those little bastards drive me nuts. They always find the largest beets. I pulled them, cut off the eaten parts and we’ll make a beet salad tonight from the parts I saved. They are also munching on my beans. Damn critters! This weekend I’m going to buy some rodent-repellent and hope it actually works.

I harvested one red cherry tomato. They are not doing as well as other years. The plants are spindly. This year I planted only three cherry tomato plants. Usually I have at least 4, sometimes even more. My wife loves them. I’m planting them just for her. I don’t get too many to eat, but that’s okay. I’m happy with the large tomatoes.

As I’m looking out of the window I can see dark clouds in the sky and it seems another storm is coming our way. In fact, it is raining already. Every time we have a storm I worry about hail, but so far we’ve been lucky and I hope it stays that way.

#Beans and #Kohlrabi

This is the time of ‘The Garden’. Time to harvest some of the vegetables we seeded and planted in the Spring. This morning I picked two ice-cream pails full of beans. I grow three varieties: The Golden Wax, Pencil Pod (the beans become black when they are ripe), and Purple Beans. Purple Beans are strange; they turn green when you boil them. All of them are bush beans and the beans are string-less.

This is the second time I’ve picked beans. The first time was Wednesday morning, when I picked a couple of ice-cream pails full. I took some along to our friends on Friday. We can’t eat all the beans, even though we try. Wednesday evening we ate them with a dill/cream-sauce. Delicious. Last night we just boiled them and ate them with a pinch of salt and some pepper, and for tonight’s supper my wife made a bean-salad. There are so many ways you can make beans. When I say we ate beans I mean we ate the shoots. The actual beans inside the shoots are tiny and not formed. Once the beans inside begin to ripen and the shoots are bulging out they are not tender anymore. Of course, anyone who grows beans knows that.

A couple of nights ago we had boiled Kohlrabi for supper. I planted a dozen plants in the Spring and they are coming along fine. The ones I harvested where about the size of a medium-sized apple. For the two of us we needed only two Kohlrabi. It is difficult to find Kohlrabi in the stores, and when you do they are expensive. Not everyone likes them. A friend of mine said Kohlrabi are nothing but a turnip that didn’t make it into the ground, because they grow above ground. Somehow I had the feeling he doesn’t like them. We love them and the ones we ate were delicious and tender. Kohlrabi do have the tendency to become woody if they are allowed to grow too large. Sometimes even the small ones can be woody.

A good-looking Kohlrabi just waiting to be harvested

With the Kohlrabi I barbequed a nice Pork tenderloin. It also was tender and scrumptious. We usually also have a bowl of lettuce. I cut it in the morning when it is still fresh and crisp. We’ve been eating our own lettuce for weeks now. Better than the stuff you buy in the store. No chemicals in our lettuce.

When I pick beans I always get a little bit religious. I give thanks for the great bounty I am able to harvest and I count myself lucky. Then my thoughts go to the people who are not so lucky and I feel sorry for them, sorry for the people who go hungry. But then again I have to stop myself and I think my pity may be misplaced. I think about the proverbs: No reward without effort; without pain no gain; Help yourself and God will help you. I’m sure there are plenty of other sayings out there with the same meaning.

Okay, some people have no means to grow their own food, but there are many who can. Anyone who owns or rents a house has a backyard, which means they can have a garden. It doesn’t have to be large like mine. Maybe twenty bean plants, a row of lettuce, six tomato plants, a few pepper plants, and a few beets. A couple of cucumber plants will round it out. These vegetables don’t require much room; in fact, they can be grown as a multi-vegetable plot. Sure, having a garden requires some work, like turning the soil in the Spring, seeding and planting, watering and picking the ripe vegetables. The time needs to be spent. Once in a while weeds need to be pulled. It is fun and very rewarding. Nothing can top fresh vegetables from the garden and there is the satisfaction of having accomplished something.

Some people just don’t want the trouble and that is okay if they can afford to buy their food and if they are happy with the not-so-fresh stuff you buy in the grocery store. However, those who cannot afford to buy food and have the means to grow their own but don’t want to be bothered should not whine about not having anything good to eat. I guess it is easier to go to the soup kitchen and have it given to them. This way they don’t even have to cook it.

Perhaps I am too harsh, but when I drive by these soup kitchens and I see able-bodied men and women standing there waiting for handouts I have no pity with them. There is a segment of people out there who think it is the government’s job to look after them. They expect to get everything for free but they give nothing of themselves. If they don’t get what they want they complain and whine about their lot in life. Like I said: No reward without effort.

It seems some people wait for a miracle to happen to get them out of their misfortune. Again: Help yourself and God will help you. Those words don’t seem to make much sense, but at closer look they do. I don’t want to sound like some kind of religious fanatic here or some mystic, but what it means is that in order for something to happen we have to start the ball rolling ourselves. We have to take the initiative. Anyone with a sound mind has to admit that there is some kind of super-intelligent force controlling everything. It is inside all of us and we are part of it. It is that force that gives us and every living thing life. Some may call this force God, Divinity, Allah, Great Spirit, and other names. Scientists may call it ‘the Universe’ or just ‘The Force’. It doesn’t matter what we call it, that force exists.

This force will not put that bean into the ground for us; that is our job, but once the bean is in the soil, the force will take over. That bean will sprout and break through the soil. The tiny seedling is alive. Then it is our job to water it and take care of it. The tiny plant will grow into a large plant, and finally it will bear fruit, in this case beans. And lots of them, but they don’t pick themselves. Again, that is our job. We eat the beans, but we also let some ripen and we save them for next year when the cycle begins again. A miracle did indeed happen here, but we were part of it. We made it happen with the help of the spirit that resides everywhere.

Growing that bean plant may not be an easy ride. Lots can go wrong. It may never sprout. When it does some animal might pull the little seedling out of the ground and eat it or the sun might burn it. Should it make to maturity we may get hail that destroys it or it may just shrivel up and die for no apparent reason. Much can happen, but that is the way things are. Nothing ever comes easy. There are pitfalls along the way, even for a tiny bean plant. But when it does grow beans it was worth all the trouble and all the hard work to keep it alive.

Aah, I should have become a preacher or a philosopher. This whole thing boils down to this: I enjoy my garden and I don’t mind the hard work that goes with it. I’m looking forward to picking my first tomato and the first pepper. All being well my potatoes will be plentiful. The plants are healthy looking and green and they are full of flowers. I hilled them a while ago to keep the potatoes that are hopefully growing in the ground from turning green. I sprayed the tomato and the potato plants today with Bordo, which supplies the plants with copper, to keep them from getting the Blight. That’s when the leaves turn yellow and the plant dies

Something I want to add. Before I had a garden I knew nothing about gardening, but I read books, talked to people, and after twenty years I am still learning. I am constantly studying how to grow better plants. Even that is exciting and has its own rewards. Having a garden keeps my mind sharp and my body in shape, not to mention the satisfaction it gives me to put great vegetables on the table.

Happy Gardening to everyone who has a garden. Enjoy your rewards and don’t be afraid to feel a little bit smug about it.

My interview on #Whohub

I just updated my interview on Whohub. Interested? Please check it out here: http://www.whohub.com/hegro/

Headcheese

It has been hot for a few days; what better way to eat some headcheese. My wife makes it from pork hocks and pork feet. Topped with raw onions, a little vinegar dribbled over it and eaten with fried potatoes makes it a delicious meal. It has to be cold, of course. After all, it is summertime. It eats so easy, but she made enough for a second meal.

Some people don’t eat pork for religious and other reasons. Well, they don’t know what they are missing. Yesterday we ate grilled pork rib steaks. I barbeque them with just a hint of pink, which leaves them nice and tender.

Today I spent most of my day weeding and watering the garden. The soil was dry and is cracking in places. We need rain badly. Some parts of Manitoba received heavy rain, some had hail, high winds, thundershowers, but we seem to be in a sort of secluded cone that leaves us dry. Yesterday we had a huge bank of dark clouds over us with thunder and we expected a thunderstorm. I even filled a few containers with water in case of a power failure, but we got just a few drops of rain, and that was all.

The sky did look scary

Mind you, I’m not asking for a huge downpour; just enough to soak the grass and the soil so I don’t have to waste so much of my time watering. Fortunately, we have our own well and don’t have to pay for water—not yet anyway.

Every time we get a thunderstorm I worry about getting hail and high winds. My garden is doing great. Everything is growing. I don’t want anything damaged. We’ve been eating lettuce every day, also a few cucumbers. Today I saw the first yellow zucchini on the plants, lots of them and also plenty of yellow and purple bean shoots. It is only a question of days until we eat our first beans and zucchini. We love fresh beans picked straight from the garden. They are so delicious.

Our Goodland apple tree is laden with apples and promises to deliver a great harvest with plenty of apples. I counted nearly a hundred apples. They can grow to around 3 1/2 inches. Last year the deer ate them all. So far no deer. I hope they stay away. The only time I want to see deer is when I go hunting.

Thumbs up on a Hot Summer Day

It is hot today. 32 C. And the humidity is also quite high. The weather people predicted a possible thunderstorm for tonight and tomorrow. Wonderful! We washed the car yesterday. It never fails.

This morning I picked a big bag full of Swiss Chard. We’ll eat it tonight. Swiss Chard has taken the place of Spinach at our house. We love Spinach, but it doesn’t last long in the garden because of its tendency to bolt when the temperature gets hot. So I’m not growing it anymore. This variety of Swiss Chard I grow is called ‘Bright Lights’. It comes in different colors from yellow to red. My wife strips the leaves from the stems and boils them with onions. We eat it with Soya sauce (actually ‘Maggi’), mashed potatoes, fried eggs, and Wieners. Delicious. Swiss Chard is expensive when you buy it in the store. You need a lot of leaves to make a descent meal. Some people eat Swiss Chard as lettuce, but as far as I'm concerned it tastes awful and the leaves are tough. The way we eat it is the only way for me.

For lunch we had our second cucumber from the garden. It is a new variety I bought this year: Fanfare. The cucumbers are supposed to grow to about 10 inches. This one wasn’t that long. I harvested it to encourage the plant to grow more. I saw other, smaller ones, on the vine. The other variety I have is ‘Sweeter Yet’. Also a producer of large cucumbers. I picked one already a few days ago and it tasted great.

We also had our first serving of lettuce from our garden. There is no comparison with bought lettuce. It can’t get any fresher. I picked some this morning, just enough for lunch. The leaves were so tender and tasty. These last couple of weeks I’ve been adding greens from the red beets for the first time to the salads. I had no idea they tasted so nice. All these years I’ve been throwing them into the composter.

We have quite a few peppers already on the plants, especially the hot Hungarian Peppers. But I like to leave my peppers on the plants until they turn red. I might jus pick some of the banana and gypsy peppers. They grow in abundance and are great stuffed with meat if they grow large.

Garden work can be hard and tedious. Plants need to be watered constantly, fertilized, and pruned. Then there is the monotonous work of pulling the pesky weeds and fighting off the aggressive, hungry mosquitoes, but it is all worthwhile when the harvesting begins. You just can’t beat the fresh lettuce, the tasty cucumbers, the peppers, and the kohlrabi. How can you compare a tomato grown on the wine in your own garden with the tasteless crap you buy in the stores? And then there are the red beets, the carrots and even the potatoes. And everything is grown without the aid of hormones and steroids—I mean pesticides ☺. It can’t get any more organic.

Last week we went fishing for Walleye, but we got skunked. It was too hot and the Walleye didn’t take our offering of night crawlers anymore. We caught perch and Northern Pike, though. It was a beautiful day on the water and that is worth something. It was not a wasted day. We saw quite a few pelicans where we always fish. Perhaps they ate all the fish.

It is difficult to work without a thumb. No, don’t panic, I still have mine. My last injury on my right finger just finished healing. It was a bit of a pain while fishing, because you have to put your hands into the water constantly. This morning I worked on some small unimportant project and managed to cut open my thumb on a piece of sharp metal. It bled quite a bit, but I have good bandages. I hope it will have healed up for my next fishing trip. I need that thumb.

Thumbs up

A Sad Day

They picked him up this morning. I didn’t even wave good-buy, but I was sorry to see him go. His time had come. He was getting old; not good for much anymore, and he was becoming unreliable. We had good times together; I remember them fondly. I took him hunting and fishing, but the last couple of years I only took him fishing. It was getting too dangerous to take him out into the field, especially in the cold of November. He was still in pretty good shape but getting rusty around the edges. Being always out in the cold will do that to anyone.

When he was younger, he was a great performer and pulled his weight. I took him to work every day and to the cottage on the weekends. He was dependable and wasn’t that expensive to keep. Strong too for the job he was doing. But now he was showing his age. Once he got going, though, he was okay; in fact, sometimes he was hard to stop.

I didn’t watch him leave. It might have brought a lump to my throat seeing him in that condition, not moving on his own anymore but depending on someone else. Even though it had been difficult, I had to make a decision to let him go. I don’t think he would have lasted much longer and I didn’t want it to happen at home when that day came. This way he’ll be useful. Parts of him might give others an extension of their lifespan. There is always somebody looking for new parts and he had still a few good parts inside him.

The one I had before him didn’t last as long. I had to let him go in 1997 when I got this one. He was young then, not new, but whoever had him before me took good care of him. Even though he wasn’t old in numbers, I wonder how old he was in human years. They say one year in a dog’s life is equivalent to seven human years. Would that be the same in the case of my old friend? It would make him 140 years old. Not bad for a 1995 GMC Van.

The #Greeks

The Greeks hate the Germans. They blame them for the predicament their country is in. Why is it that nobody ever takes responsibility for their actions? The Germans didn’t have anything to do with the lifestyle of the Greeks. They only lend them money so they could better themselves. If they wasted that money it is only the fault of the Greeks themselves, and maybe their government for not spending the money wisely.

Some time ago I read somewhere that everybody, that includes the Greeks, wants to live like the Germans but they don’t want to live like the Germans. It means they want to live the good life but they don’t want to work like the Germans. You see, German people work hard, they save, they want to own their home, and they retire with 67 (That’s the official retirement age in Germany).

The Greeks on the other hand want to retire at 55 with a full government pension. Who doesn't? Difficult to do they way things are in Greece. Apparently, many government officials are corrupt; there is a huge underground economy going on and many people don’t pay their share of taxes. You can’t take money out of the till and put nothing in. If a large number of citizens don’t hold up their end, a country will finally collapse. It is happening now.

In Canada, we have a segment of people that don’t pay taxes, but they take full advantage of the social programs and our health care system. If their numbers increase it will eventually be too much for the government coffers and the tax-paying citizens will get fed up with paying out but not getting anything in return. The payments and other perks will have to stop. It is only a question of time when that will happen, and happen it will.

You can’t always blame the government for not doing enough. There are times when one has to grab a hammer, some plywood and some nails and fix that hole in the floor instead of waiting for someone to come and do it. There are always people who will milk the system, looking for loopholes and taking advantage of every freebie that comes along. There will always be corrupt people, even in the government. We have them in ours. Take our Senate for example. The Senators do little work, get exuberant salaries, high pensions, and have other benefits, but they still cheat and screw the taxpayers and the taxpayers are getting tired of it. It is human nature for people to try and get away with not doing their part and to get something for free.

I don’t know how the Greeks got themselves into the bind they are in now; it is complicated, but they can’t blame the Germans or anyone else. They alone are responsible and they need to sacrifice whatever is needed to climb out of the hole they dug. Perhaps leaving the European Union is the answer for that. But they will never be able to pay back the 350 trillion Euros they own. Nobody will ever give them credit. If their currency is worth little on the world market, they will be able to sell their goods to other countries and make money. It will create jobs, but they will also have to work hard. They won’t be able to travel outside the country or buy merchandise from other countries, because Greek money won’t buy them much.

Even now, they won’t get any more money unless they give in to the demands of the European Banks. How they will ever be able to pay back the money they already owe is beyond me. A couple of years ago I saw an interview on TV. This Greek woman said, “Well, we’ll take their money but we just won’t pay them back!”

Wonderful attitude. I’d like to go to a bank and say, “I want to borrow a million dollars, but I have no intentions of paying anything back. I just want to live the good life. I might even be back in a couple of years and ask for another million, which I won’t pay back, either.” It doesn’t take much imagination what the loan officer will tell me.

I feel sorry for the Greek people, but they will have to do much contemplating, hard work, changing of lifestyles, and tightening of belts to come out of this. It will take years, and they will have to forget about retiring at the age of 55. They will have to save money, pay taxes and pay into a pension fund. Perhaps then they can finally live like the Germans.

I would have liked to retire with 55 and a full pension. I didn’t have that luxury. I retired from a demanding job at 67 without a huge government-job pension or a private pension, because I had my own business. Whatever I have now I worked and saved for. No handouts. No perks. So maybe I don’t feel so sorry for the Greeks after all.

Just finished watching the news. Well, the Greeks voted NO to the offer. It seems that most of the voters had no idea what they were actually voting for. I don't understand why they were dancing and celebrating. Do they seriously believe everything is magically going to be better from now on? They have no money. The taxpayers in the other EU countries are tired of bailing them out. There will be no other offer. One guy said that they want to be free. Who kept them in bondage? They were always free. But they need to blame someone for their problems. They picked the Germans, who only wanted to help them.

There is going to be some turmoil in the stock market but it will die down and things will be back to normal, or sort of normal. Most countries expected this to happen and they are prepared for it. The Euro will take a dip, but it will be short-lived. The Greeks will be the only ones who will suffer in the long run.

Time will tell.

The Fourth of July

The Fourth of July, #Independence Day in the USA. A day to celebrate. Unfortunately, there are forces out there who are desperately trying to take all the festivities out of the celebrations. Measures are taken to insure the safety of the people celebrating. Police will be everywhere. It will cost millions of dollars to implement all this security. Everything because of a bunch of lunatics who have nothing better to do than to create chaos. I’m talking about the Islamic fashions that have been terrorizing the whole world now for years. Islam is a danger to world peace. There is no doubt about it. Has been for centuries, but only now it has flourished to this extreme. The Pope apologized for reading an old article that stated the same thing. He only spoke the truth. He should never have apologized.

The Christian Church has done its share of committing atrocities over the centuries, but they don’t accuse people anymore of being witches and they don’t burn anyone on the stake; neither do they torture people for criticising the Church, the Pope, and the religious leaders. The Church has evolved, adapted, became more peaceful and tolerant. Islam needs to do the same thing or there will never be peace on Earth.

We celebrated #Canada Day on July 1st. It is also an important day in our country. We went to the fireworks in Selkirk like we do every year. Before we go, we eat hot dogs and fries. It’s already a tradition with my wife and me. We used to go to Skinners in Lockport, known for the ‘Worlds best Footlong hotdog’, but the last time we went we paid $24.00 for 2 hotdogs, fries and drinks. The ‘famous’ hotdog tasted terrible. It was smothered with Mustard. And the fries were soggy. That’s when we decided to make our own.

The fireworks were spectacular as usual. There were quite a few more people there this year. Many are coming from Winnipeg now. My son and his kids are coming, too. They used to go to the Forks, but it is such a zoo there. Parking is terrible and getting worse with every year. Speaking of a zoo. City Park and the Zoo were free on Canada Day, but the same thing applies there: Lack of parking. We went one year, but after wasting nearly an hour to get into the park, we made a u-turn and drove to the entrance on Portage Ave. We parked on a side street and walked into the park. How parking is there now, I have no idea. Probably terrible.

Canada Day in Winnipeg was not peaceful, either. There was a Machete-wielding guy at the Forks where one guy got injured. A number of stabbings in other parts of the city, probably near downtown where are the undesirables hang out. Who the Hell carries a machete or a knife? Which normal person does that?

A couple of days ago a bomb exploded in a lawyer’s office. The woman has lost one hand and will probably lose the other one also. What is wrong with people? Is the whole world going crazy?

Happy 4th of July to all the Americans. I mean that.