The View From the Fender of a 4020

I've always been of average height - not too short, but definitely not tall.  When in crowds or at parades I always have to stand on tip-toes to see anything.  I do remember, when just a kid, when my perspective was a little different.  I had the perfect vantage point to see the whole world from a bird's eye view.  It happened to be when sitting on the fender of a John Deere 4020 tractor.

The old 4020 was a workhorse on the farm.  It was old, but dependable.  The paint was a little faded, but it didn't matter.  I remember the yellow seat on it was comfortable and it had lots of spring in it with armrests and a back support.  It had screens on either side that were held in place with springs.  The screens would fill up with Vaseygrass seeds, so you'd have to run your fingers down the screen to remove the seeds to allow air flow.  It was easy to work on, unlike the new computer driven tractors with circuitry and fuses.  Although I remember driving it, I mostly remember sitting on the fender riding on farm roads.

Although this is not our 4020, I found this photo on the Internet of one that looked kinda like it

When riding on the 4020 with my Dad, I sat on the fender.  My legs would dangle off the front and my rubber boots would hit against the rubber grips on the tire that passed underfoot.  The fender was wide, smooth, and comfortable to sit on - unless it was summer.  Then it was as hot as a blast furnace.  There was no air condition on the 4020.  I take that back.  You could control the speed of the "air condition" by how fast you drove.  Believe it or not, the old 4020 could move pretty doggone fast!  There was a rubber-lined hand-hold on the fender, like you see in the photo below, and that is what you'd hold onto while riding on the fender, with your hair blowing in the breeze.  Sometimes my cap would even fly off!

Sometimes after harvesting rice, we'd burn the field's stubble with a forestry drip torch.  It had diesel mixed with gas.  While the driver drove, the fender sitter held the torch and dripped burning fuel down into the rice stubble all around the perimeter of the field and along the levees.  You could see rabbits and rats running and the smoke rising high into the sky.  As the day turned to evening, you could see pillars of fire coming from fence posts that had caught fire.  If the fire got out of hand, the 4020 had a ditching blade on it that you could drop and make a ditch to break the path of the fire and put it out.

As you rode on the backroads around the farm sitting on the fender, the diesel from the exhaust would blow back and envelope you, but I learned to love that smell.  It seemed that you could see everything from that fender.  You could spot the cow that had just calved and had her baby hidden in the tall grass.  You could see down into the gully and watch the striped head turtles jump off of logs or nutria swimming with their noses sticking up above the water or bullfrogs in the cat tails in the irrigation canal.  You could see the steam rising from puddles on the asphalt road after a thunderstorm blew through and then the sun came back out.  You could watch red-tailed hawks circling in the sky above, then swooping down to snatch a rat from the fence row.

Today's tractors are nice (and expensive) and big.  They dwarf old tractors like the 4020.  In today's monstrous tractors, you ride in comfort in a hermetically-sealed environment in air-conditioned comfort, listening to country music in ergonomic chairs.  Computers and GPS control everything.  We unfortunately sold the old 4020.  I haven't forgotten the magic, though, of riding on its fender, seeing the world from the eyes of a ten-year old with my hat on backwards so it wouldn't blow off, while singing Conway Twitty, Crystal Gayle, and Don Williams songs to the top of my lungs while holding on to the rubber handle on the fender for dear life.

Chickens Coming Home To Roost

I like the cool of the evening.  Things seem quieter.  People are heading home.  Supper is in the oven and life is good.  In the late afternoon when the sun starts sinking below the horizon, the hens are on a mission.  They all go back to the very same spot to roost every single night.  Like people in church pews, they have 'their spot' and no one's gonna take it from them.  Come to think of it, people have 'their spot' in bed, too.  I don't know if I've ever slept on the right-hand side of our bed.

Many of the chickens roost on the roosting bars in the henhouse.  It is a safe spot away from predators.  It is, however, cramped and the air smells strongly of chicken poop.  It is this chicken poop, however, that falls to the ground while they sleep, that is used to fertilized the garden once it has composted for a year.

We have an Aracauna or two that enjoy roosting in the rafters of the barn.  We don't like chickens inside the barn and have tried with limited success to keep them out of the barn.  Others roost on the woodpile.   My favorite two are these Barred Rocks that hop up on the woodpile and then awkwardly flap their wings until they've positioned themselves on a low-lying limb of a pecan tree.

From where they perch, they have the pecan limb worn as smooth as a river stone.  And it is here that they will sit, and sleep, and poop until the roosters begin crowing in the morning.  Then they'll hop down, eat some breakfast, lay some eggs, and spend a day of adventure doing chicken things until it is time to roost again.

Lagniappe Seeds

"The best things in life are free.  The second best things are very, very expensive." -Coco Chanel

Lagniappe.  That means, "a little something extra or a bonus."  Who doesn't like getting free stuff?  I know I do.  Except the other day I got an email from Tractor Supply Company telling me that I could go by the store and get a free suet cake for Mother's Day.  I didn't go get my free suet cake to give to my mom or wife.  I think that is something for the birds.  It was a nice thought, but it didn't really pull me into the store.  I would have been there with the quickness if they had free feed.

In past years we would purchase our baby chicks from Murray McMurray Hatchery.  They would throw in a free "mystery breed" chick.  You wouldn't know what it was until it grew up.  It was always fun to try to figure out what it was.  We purchase many of our heirloom seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company.  With an order, they typically will throw in a packet or two of free seeds.  It is a great opportunity to try growing something that you would have never, ever grown before.  More on that in a minute...

Each afternoon I've been going out to pick fresh tomatoes.  We have been picking so many and have been eating a bunch.  Today Tricia put up 10 pints of stewed tomatoes.  We'll be doing that a lot.  I have noticed an increasing amount of stink bugs, however.  We'll see how the tomatoes fare against this formidable foe.

Back to the free seeds.  Last year I got a free packet of tomato seeds.  The label said "Black Vernissage Tomato."  Vernissage is a French word that originally meant 'varnishing,' but became known as a preview of an art exhibition or a private showing before it is opened to the general public.

So here is our "private showing" of just seven of the MANY Black Vernissage tomatoes we've been picking:

The Black Vernissage tomato is about the size of a golf ball.  Although the photo above that I took in the fluorescent light betrays its true color, it is a dark tomato with deep green stripes.  It is an indeterminate tomato and is a prolific producer.  It seems to thrive in the hot, humid weather and is not as susceptible to blossom end rot as my Amish Paste tomatoes are.  They are meaty and supposedly very good in sauces. 

For a free seed, this has turned out to be a very good deal.  This is an open-pollinated variety, so I'll be saving some of the seed for next year.  Maybe next year, I'll get a new free seed to try.

What to do With Grapes Before They're Ripe

While we have muscadines, our neighbors have Concord Grapes.  They grow on a big trellis that borders our property and theirs.  The vines have been there for a long time and are as big around as your arm.  The grapes aren't near ripe yet, but we were looking at something else - the grape leaves.  Tricia called the neighbor and asked if we might harvest a few leaves. 

I remember growing up we would go over to a friend's house and his mom and grandma would make grape leaf rolls, kibbie, and tabouleh.  We found a recipe for them and like to make a lebanese recipe for grape leaf rolls that calls for using fresh grape leaves.  The leaves are shaped like hearts.  We wash them up real good first.

We mix up meat with mint and rice and other seasonings.

We place a bit of the mixture of meat and rice on the grape leaf and roll it up almost as you would an egg roll.

In no time at all we have a full casserole dish filled with grape leaf rolls ready to put in the oven.

With a side of chicken and rice and some fresh squash and onions from the garden, the grape leaf rolls were delicious with a lemon sauce spooned over the top.

You don't have to wait for the grapes to be ready to enjoy the bounty of the grape vines.

I Am A Pie Guy

I leave the house each morning about 5:30 am and drive approximately 42 minutes to work.  While driving, I enjoy a thermos of coffee, sweetened slightly by a half teaspoon of local honey with pour of heavy cream from our cows.  I was about 20 minutes into my trip and had finished about half of the coffee.  I reached over and took a sip of coffee, but something was odd.  There was something solid in my mouth.  Coffee is supposed to be liquid.  I spit the solid substance into my hand and turned on the light.  It looked like a raisin.  Who put a raisin in my coffee? 

Wait a minute!  That's not a raisin.  It's a FLY!!!  I spit it out and sat there driving.  Should I pour the rest of the coffee out?  The coffee that has been marinating in fly juice?  Nah, I just finished it and tried real hard not to think about it.  It took every bit of concentration I could muster.  Let's think about more pleasant thoughts, shall we?

Since the land has been purchased across the road and plowed, our dewberry patch is gone.  We found some growing in the back and picked three quarts, and that's not bad.  It's just not the 3 gallons we used to pick.  Our thornless blackberries are growing nicely, but with two bushes, we primarily pick them just to eat one by one. 

One evening a friend dropped by with a bucket of berries he had picked from his blackberry patch and wanted to give them to us!  What a blessing!!  Big, plump, sweet blackberries...

You'll never see my turn down dessert.  I have a sweet tooth, so I like all types of sweets.  I think my favorite, though, is homemade pie.  Coconut cream with a tall meringue, pecan, apple, peach, chocolate.  I've not found a pie that I didn't like, although I heard in England they serve a kidney pie.  I don't think that sounds good.

Anyway, Tricia decided to make a blackberry pie with our bucket of berries.  She made up a homemade crust, added flour, berries, and butter...

It wasn't long before it was ready to come out of the oven.

I attempted and failed to get a slice of pie without it falling apart. 

A slice of homemade pie and a cup of coffee (minus the fly).  One of life's simple pleasures.

New Water Trough for the Animals

"Watch the little things.  A small leak will sink a great ship." - Benjamin Franklin

This is my 51st summer.  Although I still feel relatively young, increasingly I'm feeling my limitations.  Things that used to be easy to do, require more effort.  The other day I looked at a photo of a strange guy with gray hair posing for a picture with my wife and kids.  Then I realized it was me!  I'm witnessing the Second Law of Thermodynamics at work.  Things move from a state of order to disorder.  Everything is deteriorating.  Sad!

Our old water trough is not exempt.  We have a 150 gallon water trough that was given to us by a dear friend.  It is quite old, but has served us admirably over the past years.  Oh, it sprang a leak or three, but I patched the cracks with JB Water Weld and the leak sealed up nicely.  You can see the numerous places I've patched it over the years.

We had a hard freeze this winter.  Then as it got warmer, I noticed one day a constant drip, drip drip from the water trough.  It kept the ground muddy around the trough.  As the cows came daily to drink, they would carry off mud in their hooves.  Soon, there was a hole around the trough that collected water and the cycle repeated itself.  This is not good.  Muddy conditions are good spots for bacteria to grow.  I emptied the trough and dried it up and patched it and then refilled with water.  Still leaking!  I drained it again and found two new cracks right at the bottom.

Time for a new trough.  With a water valve on the trough, I figured that I could reduce trough capacity from 150 gallons to 100 gallons and still provide more than enough water for my cows, goats and chickens.  The birds like to fly to the edge and drink.  Sometimes they'll fall in and need rescuing.

I got the new trough at Tractor Supply. It was priced $84.99, but I had a 10% Neighbor's coupon.  Pleased with my savings, I promptly spent a fraction of the savings on an Old Fashioned Coconut Slice Candy bar to enjoy on the way home.  You know the one?  It is pink (strawberry), brown (chocolate), and white (vanilla).

I got the new trough leveled, piped and installed.  I'm hoping to get many years out of it. 

Slowing the Pace Down on Saturday

Saturday afternoon I was ready to slow down the pace.  It has been busy and I just felt like we needed to slow down and do something old-fashioned.  We jumped in the car and headed into town to the Rocket Drive Inn to get Root Beer Frosties.  Russ got a deep fried twinkie.  We enjoyed our snack and then headed due west on old Highway 90, over the overpass, through Roanoke and on to Welsh.  We enjoyed looking at the old live oak trees that lined the highway, planted back when Highway 90 was the "main road."

When we got to Lacassine, we turned due south at the caution light and headed toward Hayes.  Then we turned left on Lorrain Road.  It is a shady two lane country road that slopes downward.  I told the family that before we all got so busy and distracted with cell phones, the Internet and entertainment, people would take weekend drives and take in the sights and sounds.  Well, that's just what we did.  We got out of the car at Lorrain Park and sat on the dock and watched alligators.  There were two or three of them out in the water, swimming back and forth.

This one came pretty close to us.  Almost close enough to become a pair of boots.

Lorrain Park is a beautiful place.  It is a historic site that features a cool, old bridge.  The bridge was built in 1895 and links Calcasieu and Jefferson Davis Parishes.  In 1920 it was reconstructed and used as a wooden draw-bridge.  The wooden bridge was rebuilt in 2004.  Many seniors go to take their senior pictures here as the scenery is spectacular.

On the other side of the bridge - the Jeff Davis Parish side, the road turns into a gravel road.  The road is shrouded by cypress and tupelo gum trees, draped in Spanish Moss.  Palmetto and cypress knees fill the bayou all along the side of the road.

We stood on the bridge and watched the alligators swim and fish splash in the muddy water.  Water bugs swam in the duck salad floating on top of the water.

Lorrain Bridge crosses Lacassine Bayou.  As we've had no rain in a while, the water was low.  We could see by the water mark on the trees that the water level was about 4 feet lower than normal.

Lorrain Bridge is a beautiful sight...

And the slow moving bayou that meanders through the cypress beckoned us to slow down, match its pace and enjoy the scenery.

There's no rat-race at Lorrain Bridge.  We enjoyed our afternoon.

The Early Worm

I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm. - Franklin D. Roosevelt

In the afternoons, I like to walk down the rows of the garden and just observe.  If you aren't watchful, you may miss harvesting a cucumber until it is overripe and yellow.  You may fail to see that your beans need watering.  You have to have a keen eye.  Sometimes things you need to see in order to take action are camouflaged, hidden to the eye.

While walking down the row of Cherokee Purple tomatoes, I noticed that one of the tomato leaves had been clipped off.  It appeared to be done by a very hungry pest.  I had my suspicions as to who did this, but I had to find the culprit to make a positive identification.

Tomato leaves clipped off

Sometimes you have to pause and do your best job at being a detective.  The tomato leaves directly below the leaf that had been eaten had a tell tale sign.  Look at the poop on the leaves.  We are gathering evidence at a good pace now.

I followed the eaten leaves, moving slowly with my eyes, knowing at this point, that I was looking for a perpetrator that was green, colored this way in order to blend in to the foliage on the tomato plant.  Aha!  Found this big, fat dude, and it was just as I expected...

A tomato hornworm!  Can you see in the photo below why he is called a "horn" worm?  This guy is the larvae of a hawkmoth.

He looks frightening, but he doesn't scare me much.  I picked him up with my thumb and forefinger and tossed him over the garden fence.  The big, fat, green worm made a nice meal for a Barred Rock Hen that came across it.  The hen grabbed it quickly and took off running, wishing to go to a quiet place and enjoy this delectable meal.

I continued to look through the tomato leaves and found two more tomato worms that quickly became tasty morsels for the chickens to snack on.

The early bird got the early worm.

You Say To-May-Toe, I Say To-Mah-Toe

We haven't picked the first tomato yet, but will probably do so tomorrow.  We planted the tomatoes from seed in early January like we always do.  This year's tomatoes seem bigger, healthier than in previous years.  I'll tell you why.  Lime.  I limed the soil this year.  Getting the soil pH right enabled the plants to use all the nutrients in the soil that were previously locked up. 

We grow indeterminate heirloom tomatoes and this year, the plants are over 6 feet tall and still growing!  Absolutely covered in blooms.  Can you see them?

Here is a tomato that will be ready to pick pretty soon.  It is always nice to get early tomatoes.  As it warms up, all the pests like stink bugs show up and scar up the fruit.

Indeterminate tomatoes vine, whereas determinate tomatoes make a bush.  We have 62 tomato plants planted on a number of 15 foot long rows.

Here's the crazy thing.  It has been very dry this spring.  We haven't had much rain at all.  I have not watered the tomatoes since I put them in the ground.  How can that be?  Mulch!  I laid a thick layer of hay in the walkways and around the tomatoes and it has served as a barrier to keep moisture in the soil.  It also keeps weed pressure down.

Check these tomatoes out.  The seeds for these were given to me by a lady from church who saved them from some tomatoes she bought at Wal Mart.  Perhaps you've seen these?  They sell them on the vine, sort of like a cluster of grapes.

Here is the key to keeping indeterminate tomatoes tamed.  If you don't control them, they vine all over the place and your garden becomes unkempt and unruly.  The taming mechanism?  The Florida Weave trellising system.  All it requires are some t-posts and some baling twine.  As the tomatoes grow, every five inches we tie a new piece of twine and zig zag back and forth all the way down the row in and around the vines.  Then wrap tightly on the other t-post and come back on the opposite side of the vines and tie securely on the t-post you started on.

You can see a better illustration below of how the twine criss-crossed supports the vine.

I pull the twine very tight.  Sometimes too tight, and it scars up the vines.  But that's okay as long as the plant keeps thriving and putting on blooms and fruit.

Won't be much longer now...

Hopefully we'll be able to translate all these green tomatoes into red ripe ones we can enjoy.

We'll eat them raw, make pico de gallo, dry some, and can some. 

A Stroll in the Garden in Early May (Part II)

As I walk a little farther in the garden, white blossoms covered with bees catch my eye.  It's the cilantro plant and the heat has made it bolt and go to seed.  I'll let the seeds fall and next year in this location, cilantro will spring up.  For now the bees are enjoying it.

In the side yard garden, the sweet corn is thick.  This variety is called "Gotta Have it" and I hope it lives up to its name.

The corn is tasseled out and that means before long we'll be able to see little ears of corn.

The pollen from the corn tassels falls to the silk above the corn cobs.  Each strand of silk, if fertilized, will create a kernel of corn.  In past years we had ears that weren't fully filled out.  This year I intentionally planted the corn closer together to ensure fertilization takes place.

On the far right of the sweet corn you will find several more varieties of beans.  First black beans.  These look really healthy and they are loaded up with pods.  I'll let them ripen on the plant and pick them when they are dried.

Next to them are Red Kidney Beans.  However, the germination on these wasn't as good as I'd hoped.  Some made it, but I think if we want to make red beans and rice, we'll have to buy he beans.

In the gaps where the red kidneys didn't come up, I planted some Dragon Tongue Beans.  They popped up quickly, bloomed and now had tiny pods.

On the other side of the corn patch is our muscadine vines.  They are trellising on a cattle panel.

You can already spot the tiny grapes on the vine.

Tomorrow there's one more thing to show you - the tomatoes.