A longshot maybe...

SidecarFlip · 07-01-2009

We don't have a forum classification for this but here goes...

None of us live and breathe motorcycles 24/7 except maybe Shawn.

All of us do other, enjoyable things. My hobby is gardening.

Gardening comes with age. It's about tome spent in solitude out in the garden, weeding and cultivating and the enjoying the fruits (vegetables ) of ones labor of love and being a mosquito's lunch...that's another subject.

Now, let me say that farming and gardening are two distinctly different animals. Farming is about gardening on a grand scale for a profit whereas gardening is farming on a miniature scale for no profit other than enjoying the fruits (vegetables) of your labors.

My gardens have grown in size and variety over the years as my time to garden has grown. I started out with what I term a 'patch'. A couple tomato plants, some cukes a few hills of beans and a strip of lettuce was all I had. I tilled the garden with a shovel and hoe and weeded by hand but not often as the garden looked wild most of the time. Time went on and I got more serious. I bought a tiller. One of those cheap front tine bucking bronco's. I'm a quick learner. Sold that and bought a used Troy Bilt rear tine for 60 bucks. Spent another hundred or so on new parts and a winter rebuilding it. What a lifesaver. This year I bought a bought Ariens Rocket tiller that someone abused. That one will be my winter project this winter. I'm considering a Hatz diesel for that one.

I digress.

My garden has become fairly large and now I plant sweet corn and potatoes in addition to the beans, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, cukes, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, bell peppers and lots of potatoes and cabbage. We have an asparagus patch, a horseradish patch and a rhubarb patch.

I'm a big fan of potatoes, I plant 3 varieties, Katadin, Kennebec and Red Pontiac. We grow enough for all winter. They get stored in the root cellar....(we have one of those, it's an old farmhouse). Carrots get layered in sand down there and onions get dried and bagged as well. Sprouts get frozen as well as corn, both on the cob and creamed. Broccoli is frozen, bell peppers and sweet peppers are frozen and bells are stuffed and frozen. Amy makes cabbage rolls and freezes them too. Tomatoes are frozen in puree and whole cooked. Amy makes bread and butter pickles and the apples from the trees are made into apple sauce and canned.

This year, I'm trying my hand at making sauerkraut and fermenting pickles, corn and beets. I bought a Harsch fermenting crock and we are going to ferment cabbage into kraut first. I've never found a good way (other than pigs in a blanket) to utilize cabbage. Frozen cabbage is horrible. I threw out a bunch last winter....that's why I'm going the fermenting route this year. Amy will hot pack the kraut after it comes from the crock.

I may try pickling meat at some point. I hear that's good too.

Just wanted to let you guys (and gals) know what I do when I'm not farming or riding.

If this forum isn't appropriate, I apologize. Maybe Shawn can park it where it is.

The Prophet · 07-02-2009

Sidecar,

I don't think this is off-base or contrary to the site at all.

Cool stuff.

We all (I hope) have something else in our lives besides motorcycles, and it's fun to hear about these things. Unless Moto-Shawn tells me otherwise, I thought this forum was to be different from the gazillion others out there. "Hey... I'm an expert, and your opinion sucks!"

Anyway, very interesting story. We don't grow any veggies, but my wife and I are big on landscaping our property. We do all the work ourselves, and consider it therapy, exercise, and maybe a touch of sweat equity - if that means anything these days. I enjoy working with stone and masonry - brick pavers, retaining walls, etc. We've done a 30' X 28' patio, a loooong retaining wall across the bottom of the hill, 6 X 6' diameter X 1 foot high tree rings, a raised bed island shaped like a kidney, a "wishing well' with a 4X4 inside, atop of which sits a Marlin house. Actually, 2 of those.

Right now, we are preparing to build another retaining wall on the front of the property, 31 feet long, 2 feet high, with an 8 foot diameter circular island at the end for a flowering plum tree.

I like working with stone and brick, as it gives a feeling of permanence, and character.

My dream is to build a stone and brick bridge with multiple arches over a small - as in about 3 foot wide - stream we have running through the back. Why? Because. I have a design planned out, just need time.

After a nice long ride on a Sunday morning / afternoon, there's not a much better thing to do than to sit on the patio, sip a lemonade, watch the sun go down, and secretly admire your own handiwork!

More stories like this please.

Ride safe!

Bob

motowebmaster · 07-03-2009

This is a great thread!

I'm no gardener. We bought our house from a couple who spent 3-4 nights per week in the yard. Took me two years to kill off everything they did

My Hobbies:

Motorcycling - Hey, still got to say it.
Linux - I know more about setting up a Linux Server than a Windows Desktop. I've never owned a Mac-OSX machine, but can walk up to one and be inside it's operating kernel in seconds because it too is a Unix-based system. My secondary system is several years old, but faithfully runs some Linux Distribution, for the last couple years it has been Unbuntu Linux. Previous Linux Desktops have been SuSE, RedHat, Gentoo (from stage 1), and several small distros. My favorite CDROM-based distro is DSL (Damn Small Linux). From a server standpoint, I've been using primarily 32-bit RPM-based distros since the late 90's. I've been reluctant to move to 64-bit distros in production enviroments, but that is about to change.
Web Development - It's like making love, you never forget how
Working with Children - These days it's limited to just children that no one wants. My wife is the president of the Northwest Arkansas Adoption Coalition, and I help maintain our fledging Heart Gallery Website. Regardless of where you live, there is a group trying to find permanent homes for children that are available for adoption now. What is ironic is that there would be practically little or no costs involved in adopting these kids. A family merely needs to fullfill their respective state's requirements necessary for foster parents, and after the initial period they can become legal parents.
Dispensing Free Security, Technical, and Advertising Advice - After I gave up Rat.Net, I've been spending a small bit of time on a few sites sharing my expertise with those who need it. For a while I was a published author of an electronic document detailing ad server custom configuration and how one properly formats code. In addition I focus on topics regarding Web Server optimization and Security Strategies. I won't do it forever, but it's fun for now.

SidecarFlip · 07-04-2009

Things are looking up. I finally rented my property next door. I didn't get everything I nneded for rent, I've covered the mortgage payment but I'm eating the taxes. Better something than nothing. Times are bad here.

I have a good tennant. It's a girl who left her hubby a year ago, I've known her for 20 years, heck, I know her husband too. He's got a drinking problem. I understand here anguish. She's got a 17 year old son who I like alot. She actually has a good job, at Fords. She works at the same plant my brother-in-law is plant manager so I checked her work habits, shes a good employee.

I reallywanted to go to the local tea party today, but the property demands me getting it ready, which Amy and I have done.

All isn't too awful bad, at least I don't have to take a large portion ofmy pension to cover the mortgage payment every month. That was getting old.

My 'kraut crock showed up along with the sauerkraut book. Tomorow, I'm going to slice cabbage and get it going. I bought Kosher salt (Amy got a kick out of that in as much as she's Jewish). I've stuffed the crisper with brocoli already. I'll be freezing it tomorow as well.

I also finalized a deal to sell round bales to my old boss (at the place where I retired from). He's taking 10 at a time from now on at 40 bucks a round. At last count we had about 500 rounds in the barns and more coming. One thing we never run out of is hay.

My Flipmeisters business is extremely flat, I suspect it's a direct result of the economy or lack of it. I'm not going to get excited. At least our fearless leader is patient with me (most times). I look at it this way, it's a hobby. I'm retired and it keeps me out of Amy's hair.

One thing I'm thankful for and that is (I don't know 100% for sure) N. Korea didn't do anything thermonuclear. I've been extremely cognizant of the fact that all our lives could have changed in a minute if N. Korea would have detonated a thermonuclear device in the atmosphere over Hawaii or Japan. There are way too many radical people who have control of our destiny. I'd like to see total dismantling of thermonuclear devices worldwide. It's got to be the most diabolical weapon ever devised.

Other than working my butt off (Amy too), our 4th has passed uneventfully. I think we'll go to Bob Evans for dinner tonight.

Everybody enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend.

Shawn...Thinking out loud, maybe you could initiate a non motorcycle forum like the Final Drive on the other site. That's a good place for off topic discussions. Just a thought.