Bee Balm (Monarda) - Finally!!!

I planted a couple of different bee balms three years ago.  I didn't plant them the first year until mid summer, so I wasn't really expecting anything from them that first year other than pushing out a few leaves and surviving the winter.  They happily obliged.

Last year I anxiously awaited the proliferation of iridescent blooms that I expect from bee balm.  And I got....nothing.  All they did last year was grow to a height of 12-18 inches, their growth seeming to stagnate  by mid-summer.  Summer ended and I hung my head in shame at what I perceived to be yet another gardening mishap/failure/miscalculation/bad idea.  But this year I've got blooms, modest blooms, but blooms none the less.

 Bee Balm (Monarda)* - Coral Reef

Bee Balm (Monarda)* - Purple Rooster

* Please note that all plant identifications are a "I'm pretty sure that's what this is" and may not stand up to the scientific rigor of the blogosphere.

These aren't really all that impressive, I've seen much more incredible looking bee balm specimens.  But considering I've been waiting 2 plus years for this, I'm quite proud of this modest showing.  And next year should be even better.

I'm sharing my pictures with Tootsie for Fertilizer Friday - you should check out her amazing blog.  Along with her blog, there are some great gardening blogs every Friday, chock full of pictures of great blooming things. 

Dispute Over Vomit Cleanup Spurs Hammer Attack at Fair

Some breaking local news for you. Here's the article from the Grand Forks Herald.

FARGO – A carnival worker arrested last week for hitting a fellow employee at the Red River Valley Fair in the head with a hammer allegedly did so after the victim insisted he clean up a pile of vomit left on a ride by a fair-goer.

Richard “Old Man Richard” Wareham, 49, of Houston, Texas, was charged last week in Cass County District Court with one count of aggravated assault, a C felony.

According to court documents filed in the case, Cass County Deputy Jeff Arth was dispatched at 9:47 p.m. July 9 to a report of an assault with a hammer at the Red River Valley Fairgrounds in West Fargo.

Arth interviewed the man hit with the hammer, Jesus Geronimo Avila, 39, who said he was working on a ride he doesn’t normally work on, alongside a man nicknamed “Old Man Richard.”

Avila told the deputy that he confronted Wareham about not wanting to help clean up some vomit on the ride. The ride isn’t identified in court records.

According to Avila, he was putting away a broom when Wareham came after him with the hammer, hitting him in the head with it five times and leaving four lacerations, authorities allege in reports filed with the complaint.

Avila was taken to Sanford Medical Center after the alleged assault.
Wareham was taken to the Cass County Jail. His bail was set at $10,000 cash.

His next court appearance is set for Aug. 7.

You can read the full article at the Grand Forks Herald.  

Awesome Nephew Pictures

My little nephew was on vacation with the family outside Yosemite National Park, California and I received some photos of his various exploits.  He is an active member of the FFA (Future Firefighters of America) and was testing some of the towns equipment.

It's crazy to think that he's not even three years old yet, what a large little dude. 

Fighting imaginary fires can make you hungry, nothing better than a cool ice cream cone to stifle that hunger.

Homemade Tomato Cages on Yahoo

My blogging series on building homemade tomato cages with concrete remesh has culminated in getting published on (now defunct website ) Full of Knowledge.

DIY Heavy Duty Tomato Cages.

In case you missed the series of posts about these tomato cages over the years, you can read the First Post, the Second Post, and the Third Post in chronological order.  These posts offer the full story along with details on how to make some of your own. Along with these posts, my Cost Benefit Analysis and Final Thoughts completes the series.

If you don't want to make your own tomato cages, that's OK.  If you have a few bucks to spend, you can get some pretty sweet tomato cages, like the tomato towers or these sturdy and long lasting ones from Gardener's Supply Company or on Amazon.  

Deaf Dog Checklist

It was a banner day for Shadowfax the puppy the other day, 

Play fetch in the back yard? Check
Splish-splash through the pool? Check
Visit from Grandma and Grandpa? Done
Tug-of-War time and playing with toys? Completed
Patrol the house and yard and bark at everything/everyone? Accomplished
Shoot a beam of sunlight out of my nose? Check

Actually she collapsed on the carpet after a full day of romping puppy fun and antics.  The last few rays of evening sunshine were coming through the window and I snapped this photo.  It makes it seem as though she can shoot a ray of sunlight from her nose, when in fact this is not one of her super powers.

The Muppet Show - The Cat Came Back

I was out in the garden the other day, spending several hours planting and weeding and digging.  It was early afternoon and already pretty hot and humid, I was soaked through with sweat.  Perhaps it was the first sign of heat exhaustion, or that my internal cranial temperature reached some unknown threshhold required to connect some long lost neurons.  Or maybe it was just a sign of how my brain works.  Anyways, the following song popped into my head.

I haven't heard or even thought of this song in 20? 25? years, but there it was clear as day playing in my brain-jukebox as I whistled along.  It's on days like this that I feel kind of bad for Alycia.  It's strange/weird/difficult enough for me to live in my own head, I wonder how she feels sometimes having to interact with me and my inherent craziness on a daily basis.

And I know that you'll probably just go looking around on You Tube for your other favorite Muppet Show skits, so you should start off on the right foot with the Mahna Mahna Song.

Pembina County Fair

Alycia and I loaded the fur-kids in the car and drove up to visit her parents in Cavalier, North Dakota for the Fourth of July.  After spending some time visiting with them and wandering around their garden with the dogs, we left the dogs with them and headed over to nearby Hamilton, North Dakota (Pop. 61) for the Pembina County Fair.  It was nearing 7 pm on a warm, breezy, picture perfect summer evening. 

The Pembina County Fair is the oldest county fair in North Dakota.  It's exactly what I thought county fairs were supposed to be.  I grew up in San Diego and went to the San Diego County Fair every few years.  It's a huge month-long exhibition that attracts over a million people during its run.  It was fun (and HOT), but short on animals and "fair stuff" and seemed more concerned with separating you from your money.  At the Pembina County Fair? 

The 4-H folks were out in force and well represented.  There were cows...

...pigs...

...and a handful of sheep.  This fair was big on animals and agriculture, and also held on the hallowed ground and in the sacred halls where Alycia displayed her award winning guinea pig, Mokey, back in the day.  That's right, while other kids were wrangling cows and horses, Alycia was taming one of the most fearsome beasts ever domesticated by humans - the guinea pig.  Alycia claimed that there was a gold plaque somewhere that commemorated her local dominance in showing guinea pigs, but no such plaque was to be found. 

Tito's Summer Plucking

Tito is proudly part Corgi and often demonstrates typical Corgi characteristics, herding, nipping, being generally OCD.  He also has the Corgi power to shed, in fact for a dog his size, Tito is a champion shedder.

In late Spring or early summer Alycia tries her best to help get some of the hair/fur off Tito.  Since he hates (I can't emphasize enough how much he hates it) being brushed, the best that Alycia can do is to pluck out as much of his thick undercoat as possible. 

Alycia plucks Tito as he looks particularly pathetic.  You can see the pile of fur or "mini-Tito" that is forming to his left.  Again, for a dog as small as he is, Tito sheds like a champ.

Avast ye mini-Tito, ye shall rise up and be powerful.