We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
I have tried any number of times and man, are they picky. I place them on the list of plants that only thrive where they feel like it. If they aren't happy, there ain't nothin you can do about it.
You just have to admit defeat.
Even if you have some modest success, without netting I would lose all of the berries to the Robins and Catbirds.
On the farm where I spent my weekends growing up, wild blueberries grew all along the hayfield edges, reaching out from the woods over the barbed-wire fences. They grew up to 8' high, so every age had his own level to pick. They were so productive that it was no problem sharing with the birds. My Mom took coffee cans, made two holes with a nail and strung a string through them to hang around your neck, and painted our names on them with blue paint spots to indicate "berry can." Those cans hung in the barn for years.
I have seen similar wonderful areas of wild highbush blueberries on Cape Cod, but was never there much during blueberry season. Despite what is said about growing them, the wild bushes seem to like boggy edges, or at least lowlands. There is no doubt that they need acidic soil. Not being a Maine guy except during grouse season, I have no experience with the Lowbush Blueberry.
After a picking, my Mom would always make a Blueberry flat cake with hard sauce. Wow. Such memories. It's too bad there are no wild Blueberries on Maggie's Farm, but there are none.
The Blueberry is not a true fruit. Furthermore, it's in the Rhodadendron family. It's in the (marketing) category of "superfruits" because they are supposed to be "good for you," whatever the heck that means (nothing).
With some new full-sun garden space, I was considering trying again with a row of around 6 Blueberry bushes. Problem is, I want the small dark wild ones that look more black than blue with the intense wild tang, and not the fancy, fat, overly-sweet hybrids that you can get at the store anyway. Plus I don't want to bother with netting.
Also, in the NYT, a little story about a family of Scarlet Tanagers - a splendid bird - getting caught under bird netting. The netting has to be very well-secured to the ground unless you want to build a bird trap.
These Tanagers are not rare in Eastern deciduous woodlands, but they aren't seen often because they tend to forage high and quiet. Here's the CLO bit on them.
Do you know where these typical American garden plants originated in their wild forms before being genetically-engineered over millennia by clever humans into the international things we know and grow today?
Cucumber Eggplant Potato Tomato Onion Zucchini (and all other squash and gourds) Beans and Peas Lettuce Spinach Strawberry Radish Peppers Chard (including Swiss Chard) - chard is in the beet family - the beet was first grown for its greens, not the root Corn (maize) Asperagus Rhubarb
"Try" is one of those tricky words, isn't it? "Just try harder." "Try to study harder and you'll get it." Or my favorite: "Try to relax." What do those sorts of things mean?
My most meaningful encounters with "try" are with physical exertion, mainly exercise. When you hit the wall with an exercise the overwhelming inclination is to stop. However, when somebody says "Give me two more" or "Drive it through" you engage your inner "try." Then mind, nerves, and muscle fully engage together to do something you can't do.
10:38 Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.
10:39 She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying.
10:40 But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me."
10:41 But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things;
10:42 there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."
I spent 4 hours in dental chairs yesterday, three with oral surgeon and one with the prosthodontist in the adjacent office.This was not a pleasant experience despite the fact that my oral surgeon and his young gal assistants are like stand-up comics and as anti-PC as can be imagined. Highly-entertaining repartee which would get anyone fired in three minutes in a corporate setting.
I just wish they would quit asking me questions with a mouth full of steel tools. Doc tells me they teach them to to ask questions when you can't answer, when they are in dental school. Says he'd like those sorts of one-sided chats with his wife.
They give me a valium first so I do not jump up and run out of there because dental torture is just not my thing. I tell the doc that what he is doing is against the Geneva Convention and that I intend to report him to the UN.
My teeth have sucked since I was young, despite not being a sweets addict. Also lost a couple playing hockey in high school. Now the fun is about some extractions, implants, bridges. This is needed to be able to eat steak and lobster, and so as not to look like I am from England or West Virginia. It's just a shame that Oxycodone does not make me feel good because I have lots of it.
My dental work is insanely expensive, requires a payment plan. If Obama really cared, he'd pay the bill for me. Sharks have it good. They keep growing new ones.
What are your worst and most expensive dental experiences?
Pic: Right on the fish dock in Wellfleet. It used to be Harbor Freeze, now it's Macs. It's unusual not to run into somebody you know in the ice cream line at night
The old Appalachian tunes borrowed lines from each other. That's how both Old Joe Clark and Cotton-Eyed Joe happened to die from a toothache in the heel.
Cotton-eye used to be more common. It's usually a blindness in one eye caused by a retinal detachment.
...what makes helicopter money so positively insidious is that it relieves elected politicians entirely from their vestigial fears of the public debt and from accountability for the burdens it imposes on future generations. And that’s especially true owing to the Bernanke fillip.
Folks, the Bernank is no hero whatsoever—–notwithstanding his self-conferred glorification for the courage to print. He is a demented paint-by-the-numbers Keynesian who has a worse grasp on the real world than the typical astrologer.
The argument for a public option now amounts to a back-door opening for the single-payer system that Democrats wanted all along. Unlike the co-ops, which didn’t have direct access to general-fund spending, public-option plans would allow the executive branch to direct funds on a nearly unlimited basis as an entitlement program, removing the barriers to a sea of red ink. All it does is rearrange the deck chairs on a sinking ship – and like the Titanic, there won’t be nearly enough lifeboats for the rescue needed from the coming disaster.
“The French must die by the thousands…. Towards paradise, that is the path….Come, brother, let’s go to paradise, our women are waiting for us there, with angels as servants. You will have a palace, a winged horse of gold and rubies….With a little rocket-launcher, you can easily get one of them… you do something like that in the name of Dawla (Islamic State), and France will be traumatised for a century.”
Never in the history of world has a human being been so completely buried under a mountain of no evidence. Hillary Clinton can say there’s no evidence she sent classified emails until the evidence shows up, at which point there is no evidence she knew they were classified, until evidence of that shows up, at which point there is no evidence anyone got hold of it, until 400 people are willing to stake their lives that it was certainly compromised by sophisticated bad actors, at which point there is no evidence that it mattered.
Mrs. BD and I are 14 months into our program, so we are now officially past the Beginner phase of weights and calisthenics. Novices, now.
Trainers say that it takes two years with 1 hr. 5-6 days/wk (approx 2 hrs of weights, 2 of calis, 1+ of cardio not counting fast walks) for middle-aged people with the right work-out diet to reach a good level of conditioning for a given age and build. Not for bulging muscles, but for full fitness for life and a fairly tight, firm, beachable, streetable, athletic bod.
Athleticism is a good goal for the middle-aged because almost everybody in America has a sport or two which they love.
Based on my dedication to this, I think that the time frame must be right because, for example, I still can not do a deep barbell squat of my body weight. Bench press? Almost there, a few more weeks to press my weight for one or two reps. Those are normal, modest and realistic strength goals for the average middle-aged guy. We up the heavy weight exercises by 5 lbs/wk and I practice holds with much heavier weight.
Anyway, Mrs. BD and I have decided that we can now do our calis without trainer supervision, so we do them together. Good fun, terribly fatiguing. For example, I'll do a plank while she does wall slams, I'll jump rope while she does the burpee/ mtn climber/ j jack routine. etc. We can group them up as supersets or triplets, and switch off.
One day/week we'll do three sets of almost each pair or triplet on our list (our cali list below the fold) for about 40 mins, and finish with 20 min. cardio intervals. Two days/wk we'll do 20 min of additional calis and 20 min cardio intervals. Saves money this way, and we can push each other and correct each other. Married couples are very good and experienced at that... fun.
We'll keep our trainer for two individual hours of weights per week for now. It is difficult to advance in strength training without a pro watching you like a hawk and pushing you further like a sadist.
Mrs. BD also does Yoga, but I do not. Interestingly, the weight work has done wonders for her ex-dancer joint pains. She is now doing deadlifts, weighted squats, bench press, leg press, rows, overhead presses, curls, etc - all the things I do. Pain-free at last thanks to our genius trainer. Muscle and stronger tendons can help compensate for half-rotten joints.
Black Lives Matter activists and their propagandists have waged a very effective War On Honesty. Black Lives Matter leaders employ vicious charges of racism to silence political opponents, or, failing that, deter media criticism of their radical tactics, which include violent language and occasional violent incidents. The goal is political provocation and divisiveness. Yes, Black Lives Matter benefits as an organization from divisiveness. It serves their political goals.
Simple, juicy, and crunchy on the surface:Sauteed Parmesan Chicken Breast
Slice the chicken breasts horizontally in half for thinner filets. Season with s&p, and dip filets in egg, mayo, or sour cream. Then cover with a mix of plain bread crumbs and grated parmesan and sautee in a mix of butter and olive oil until toasty brown.
Amazing the way it stays juicy and tender. It is obviously served with mashed taters, or preferably garlic mashed taters.
Fried Squash Blossoms are a wonderful summertime traditional Italian treat. I harvested this platterful of them last night and we fried 'em up. When served hot, and lightly browned and salted, they leave French Fries in the dust.
On summer squash like Zucchini and Yellow Squash, the blossoms on the long stalks are the males, and thus expendable. However, I use both because there's always too much squash anyway. In fact, the blossoms are tastier than the squash. (I am fond of yellow summer squash steamed with salt, pepper, and butter, not so fond of zucchini except in soup.)
Almost forgot to mention that squash blossoms prevent arthritis, dementia, laziness, neurasthenia, depression, obesity, heart disease, and cancer - and most other sorts of death and disease. Guaranteed. For a few minutes, anyway.
This site explains how simple this is, using Marcella's method. Do not wash them at all because they need to be dry - just check them for bugs inside but a few tiny bugs just adds a little protein to the mix. Brown them lightly, drain, and eat sizzling hot. Photo below from Marcella's site -
10:25 Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
10:26 He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?"
10:27 He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."
10:28 And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live."
10:29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
10:30 Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.
10:31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
10:32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
10:33 But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.
10:34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
10:35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, 'Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.'
10:36 Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?"
10:37 He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."
Canadian officials are also interpreting the results to mean an increase in Islamophobia. “There is an epidemic of Islamophobia in Ontario. Only a third of Ontarians have a positive impression of the religion and more than half feel its mainstream doctrines promote violence (an anomaly compared to other religions),” the survey said.
How George Soros Singlehandedly Created The European Refugee Crisis - And Why
Ever tried growing Blueberries?
Why Turtles Evolved Shells:
Do you know where these typical American garden plants originated in their wild forms before being genetically-engineered over millennia by clever humans into the international things we know and grow today? 
It's a Prohibition-era summer cocktail from the 21 Club.
I spent 4 hours in dental chairs yesterday, three with oral surgeon and one with the prosthodontist in the adjacent office.This was not a pleasant experience despite the fact that my oral surgeon and his young gal assistants are like stand-up comics and as anti-PC as can be imagined. Highly-entertaining repartee which would get anyone fired in three minutes in a corporate setting.
Mrs. BD and I are 14 months into our program, so we are now officially past the Beginner phase of weights and calisthenics. Novices, now. 
Dam Good! 
Japan's 
Around here the hydrangeas come into bloom now, just after the roses' first blooms have faded.
1930s New York