Homemade Tomato Cages

We had some serious trouble last year with our tomatoes.  Both the cherry tomatoes and heirloom/eating tomatoes got so large and heavy that they quickly wound up dragging on the ground and entangled in a huge mess.  Sure we used tomato cages, but quickly found that the small tomato cages are useless, the large "sturdy" ones are a bit better but they still collapse under the weight of all the delicious fruit by mid summer.

The solution?  Homemade tomato cages, with a large side dish of John overkill.

I read an article about homemade tomato cages using re-mesh (the stuff they use to lay on the ground to pour concrete over).  You can probably have it delivered if you have a Lowe's in your area. So I scampered over to the local hardware store and bought a roll of 5' by 50' 10 gauge re-mesh, some bailing wire, and large pair of bolt cutters to snip it with.  Construction actually went faster than I anticipated and I got two completed in about 45 minutes.  Subsequent ones will go much faster since I have a system now.*
*These are famous last words of mine.  "Having a system" always seems to work theoretically but usually loses some of its efficiency in practice.  I can't remember how many times I've "had a system" only to find that the system isn't as great as I thought.  It may even be that once I declare I "have a system" that I officially jinx myself and the universe must forcefully readjust the size of my britches since they have obviously grown too large for my own good.  Thanks universe. 

Follow Up - Escaped Prisoner Captured

Just to give you some closure on an earlier story I posted on the blog (Prisoner Escape In Cavalier, North Dakota), this story is from todays Grand Forks Herald. It's now safe for me and my people, folk of the red haired persuasion, to freely roam about Cavalier, North Dakota without fear of being mistaken for an escaped convict.

This article has one of the best quotes I've seen from a law enforcement official (I highlighted it below as well): “We weren’t treating him as someone who is a danger to the public, but we still have an obligation to the public that no one walks away from our jail,”. That's the new benchmark for public safety? That no one should be able to walk away from jail? Hmmmm.

Pembina County escapee captured in Fargo

Glenn Troy Stegman, the man who escaped from the Pembina County jail three weeks ago, was captured Wednesday at a home in Fargo.

Stegman, 34, fled from custody in Cavalier, N.D., on May 19 when he was returning to jail after a hearing.

Jeff Osvold, Chief Deputy Sheriff in Pembina County, said that Stegman was entering the jail through a series of doors known as a sally port. Somehow, Stegman was able to open the door that should have locked behind him and ran away, Osvold said.

Stegman was captured in Fargo on Wednesday afternoon by city police and agents from the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Pembina County Sheriff’s Department said Thursday.

Stegman faces no charges in Fargo and will be returned to Pembina County.
There, he faces a felony charge of escape, and he may also face felony charges of burglary and theft. After fleeing the jail, Stegman allegedly entered a building and stole an all-terrain vehicle.

Osvold said the department believes that after escaping, Stegman headed for Fargo, where he had lived before being sent to Cavalier for violating probation.

He is believed to have spent time in a treatment facility in Fargo, but left.

“We weren’t treating him as someone who is a danger to the public, but we still have an obligation to the public that no one walks away from our jail,” Osvold said. “…We’re just very fortunate that we were able to find him again and happy to have him back so he can face the additional charges for the poor decision that he made.”

Great Online Articles

Got a few minutes to read some very good online magazine articles?  These came up recently and I would highly reccomend them:

Just Deserts - From GQ Magazine, the compelling story of a modern day US Army deserter living in Canada. 

Madoff's Curveball - New Yorker article on New York Mets owner David Wilpon and his entanglement with the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. 

Flacking For Big Pharma - American Scholar website article on how Big Pharma has taken over scholarly medical journals. 

Deaf Dog In the Sun

How do you know when you're a spoiled dog?  When someone pulls your fluffy dog bed into the front porch so you can slumber in the sunbeam.  It's a rough life. 

The Adventures of Beaver-Dog

It's entirely possible that the puppy we adopted isn't a puppy after all.  She may well be some kind of puppy-beaver or dog-beaver hybrid.  This can't be proven yet, it's still in the hypothesis stage, somewhere between "existence of Sasquatch" and "climate change" on the continuum of settled science.  

Puppy is the first puppy I've ever had, as the other dogs we have (Tito and Shaak Ti) were all acquired after the initial spazzy pure puppy phase.  Being that my sister is more experienced with raising puppies, I'll occasionally call and ask her advice, or more often ask her "Uhhh I saw the puppy doing (blank) today, is this normal?"  So it didn't totally cause my sister any alarm when I called the other day to inquire of her "How much wood is it OK for a dog to eat?"

You see, chewing on and then consuming wood is one of the puppy's favorite activities.  Favorite Activities.  I can't highlight or special font this enough, she really, really loves chewing and eating wood.  On occasion there will be little piles of wet mulch where she has just enjoyed chewing the wood, but more often than not, the wood is going all the way through her system.  Trust me, I know, you don't want me to explain how I know, just accept that I know.     

Most days puppy spends hours outside, nosing through the woodpile, gnawing and stripping bark off the bigger pieces of wood, and dragging the manageable ones around the yard to a sunny spot on the grass, and eating them.  Like having a wood picnic.  Since she's not tall enough to reach the top of the woodpile, nor woodpile savvy enough to realize the potential for disaster, she occasionally causes woodpile avalanches.  I'm always afraid that one of her self inflicted woodpile avalanches is going to cause a serious bonk on the noggin and lead to an injury, but oh well, it's a risk we'll take. 

I'm not sure what to attribute this woodpile love too, and since honestly it's 1) a really cheap toy and 2) much better than chewing on furniture/shoes/other household goods/people, I can't complain. Still it is a bit odd.  Maybe it's just a phase...

Happy as a clam, or more accurately, happy as a beaver-dog.

Freeze Warning

It's almost Memorial Day weekend and we have a Freeze Warning tonight in North Dakota.  Ugh.  I went out and tucked in the sensitive peppers, basil, and oregano into a nice cozy blanket for the evening, hopefully they stay warm.  The other cucumbers, pumpkins, squash, and melons are already protected with buckets (to prevent the damn bunnies from chomping them), so they'll be fine.  The verbeena, sweet alyssum, and marigolds that I planted over the weekend will unfortunately have to survive on their own.  We'll see what the morning light brings.

Happy Spring Pictures

Sorry loyal blog readers.  Unfortunately I've had some actual work to do recently and this has seriously impeded my pro bono bogging activities.  Between work, the hustle of Spring gardening and planting, and pooch care, blogging has come in a distant fourth place on the priority list.  Here's a smattering of miscellaneous Spring pictures for y'all.

Our tulips are just finishing up blooming.  These are two really pretty varieties, yellow, and yellow with a striped red center.  The bunny banner was a Christmas gift from Alycia's Mom.  Just so everyone knows I'm not normally a purchaser of bunny banners, though as far as bunny banners go, this one ain't half bad.

My problem with bunny banners is that they're never an accurate depiction of bunnies.  Bunnies don't just stop in your garden and harmlessly sniff the tulips (as this banner depicts).  They maraud through the garden, wreaking havoc, chomping everything in sight and teasing my poor deaf dogs into a barking frenzy. 

Shaak Ti models next to the tulips in full bloom.

These are Cummins tulips (very close to Cummings).  They're really unique looking, purple with white frilly tips.  I've never seen tulips quite like these before, they're pretty cool.  These were purchased thanks to a generous housewarming gift from Alycia's friend Andy in San Diego.  Thanks Andy.

Prisoner Escape In Cavalier, North Dakota

Big news from Cavalier, North Dakota from the Grand Forks Herald. Hopefully I'm not mistaken for this guy just because I have red hair. Maybe we'll wait a while before our next visit.

Prisoner Escapes in Cavalier
Pembina County deputies searching for Glenn Troy Stegman
According to Pembina County’s Chief Deputy Sheriff Jeff Osvold, Stegman, 34, was being led back to jail from a bond-reduction hearing about 10:30 a.m. today when he took off running. Stegman still was at large at 3 p.m.

By: Stephen J. Lee, Grand Forks Herald

A Walhalla, N.D., man escaped from custody this morning in Cavalier, spurring a search by law enforcement and the local school to lock-down.