A Special Day!

Happy Memorial Day!
First things first I would like to thank all of our fellow countrymen and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice in our pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.  Without you there would be no us.

Today marks a special day in my blogging career.  Post #500 is right here on this very page.
My very first post was in September of 2009.  It doesn't seem that long ago.  Of course the first post was about hunting and my daughter.  Two very special things to me.  You can read it here if you want.  It was a very brief post but it was the start of something much larger.
She was 13 years old in that post.  She is just a few day from 18 now.  She has finished her last day of high school and will be graduating with all A's this Friday night.  I am so proud of her.  She will be off to college in August and I smile (as a tear slips down my cheek) as I watch my little curly haired, pumpkin head turn into a beautiful, strong woman.
As I look back on the time I spent with her I wish I could do some things different, I wish I could have spent more time and shared more things.  You just never realize how little time you have with them before they pack up and skip town.  I hope I have at least given her a few things to take with her on her new journey although I know she already has everything she needs packed right into her warm heart.

My blog has never been about just one thing.  It is not themed, has no structure and changes sometimes on a weekly basis.  You just never know what your going to read about from day to day.  I think that is what makes it enjoyable for me.  I know that, on any given day, whatever is in my head, begging to come out, can be thrown into these pages and it will be accepted as the norm.

When I first encountered the word "blog" I had no idea what it was.  I had never heard of it.  I was simply looking for something on a search and came across a blog.  This one actually Cowgirl's Country Life and I thought that was a neat idea.  I actually thought it was something she had made up on her own.  I didn't realize that blogging was an entire realm.  Huh!  Who would have thunk!
I still follow Cowgirl to this very day.

I have met some very special friends along the way.  Even thousands of miles apart they feel like close friends right next door.  A big thanks to the following who have kept me blogging with their continued dedication to my site:
Jenny Pearson from Pearson's Report (currently on blog hiatus)
Al from Penwasser Place
Brandon and Bryan from A Beer for the Shower

So before I ramble on any more and you get bored with this post I'll get to the actual post itself.
What better way to celebrate post # 500 of a written blog than with a video!  Ironic huh?
Life is like a box of choco....oh wait that one has been done before!

This shaky, almost unbearable video is of my garden.  Just planted these past few days.
I hope you enjoy!

Here is a video from last year.  Shot in July.  Big difference a couple weeks makes.

Magic in the Garden

"I reckon it'll have to do", he said dejectedly.
The figure in the red pants and yellow checkered shirt stared at him blankly.  For two years he had stood by his side.  Coaxing him on towards his final glory and now, when things were looking up, he wanted to call it quits?  To settle for less than perfection?  This would not do, this would not do at all.

"I think I'll call it a day, it's getting hot", the man said again with a sigh.  He kicked a clod of dirt with the toe of his grass stained sneaker and looked skyward.  A crow floated high above in the warm air currents flying in lazy, looping circles.  Watching and waiting.  Taunting him, begging him to step away for just one minute.

He brought his gaze back to earth and swiveled his head eyeing his companion, eyes squinted almost shut, blocking out the glaring sunlight, "you know he ain't afraid of you, don't you?".
The figure in the red pants stared politely back at him.  His straw hat pulled down tightly, shielding his face from the sun's rays.  A never ending smile perched upon his lips.  Oh the things he wanted to say to the man who stood before him.  The stories he could tell, the things he had seen while the man was away.  Yet he remained steadfast and silent.  No words would flow from him, not today.  Maybe not ever.  The magic was not strong enough to pull him into the realm where the man lived.  So he just smiled.

The man shook his head,"I don't know why I even talk to you.  You just stand there with that silly grin."

The man bent back over his hoe and began to work the garden soil again.  Sweat beaded on his brow and an occasional grunt slipped from his pursed lips as he encountered lumps of hard clay that needed to be broke up into manageable bits.  The sound of the hoe slicing through the soil mixed with the lightest of pings when it made contact with a stone was enchanting, the rhythm was soothing and it made its own music. Music which strengthened the magic.
The figure in the red pants smiled on as he watched his friend work the garden over.  He was glad it was spring.  Too many months had gone by without any contact.  The cold biting winds of winter had been hard to bear.  Yet he stood his ground waiting for just this moment when the world would right itself and the magic would begin to grow again.

He hoped one day the magic of the garden would be strong enough to bring him full life.  He wanted to run and play with the little yellow dog that lived here.  To laugh and to have conversations with the man when he came out in the morning to sit in the garden and have his coffee.  To whisper aloud to the moon as she watched over him from high in the night sky. One day, he kept reminding himself, one day the magic would be strong enough.

The man with the hoe continued to work the soil, attuned to the task at hand he did not notice the tear that slipped down the wooden cheek of his garden companion.

The magic was building.

.

Fast Freddie Frequents Florida!

Happy Memorial Day weekend to you all!

I am happily embedded in my couch with a cup of coffee.  My body is having a hard time waking up lately.  Seems to take longer than usual and today I even slept in until 6:30.  The joys of aging I suppose.

I have a long weekend of yard work planned.  Sounds fun huh?  No one will be around all weekend as Momma volunteered to work Sat and Sun so it's just me and the dogs..again!  If I could just teach them how to use a shovel and a wheelbarrow!

We had a quick trip to Florida last weekend for my cousin Paul's wedding and his sister's (my other cousin) Graduation Open House.  A lot of travel but it was worth it to be able to see so many family members that I haven't seen in years.  It has been 4 years since we last visited the sunshine state.  I miss my family dearly.

We left Michigan around 5:30 Friday evening and arrived in Tampa around 8.  Dad and Mom picked us up at the curb and we headed directly to Orlando to check into our hotel.  Arriving around 9:30 ish we snagged a few beers from the poolside tiki lounge, had some pizza and by midnight...sleeping.

The next morning it was continental breakfast at the hotel, dressed and headed to the wedding about 40 minutes away.  After the wedding it was about 40 minutes back to the reception and after that it was back to the hotel for poolside drinks, a cigar and back to bed.

Sunday morning we left the hotel around 11am and headed to the east coast of Florida.  A town called Edgewater which is only a few miles from Daytona.  We hung out with the family at the open house and by 4:30 we were back in the car for the drive across the state to the gulf coast.
Arriving back into Sarasota around 8 ish we hit the Oyster bar for dinner and then back to Longboat Key for another night of rest.

Monday morning I awoke and headed down the street to the little store for coffee (Dad was still sleeping) and then headed for the beach to enjoy the serenity and my coffee.  Dad awoke shortly thereafter and we walked around and had coffee together enjoying our little time together as well as the beauty of the beach and all the flora and fauna that thrives on this little island.  Then it was time's up!  Headed for breakfast and back on the road to the Tampa airport where we boarded and landed back in Michigan around 5pm.

It was pretty hard saying goodbye to all the family.  It was pretty hard leaving that island.
So here I sit, a little forlorn, depressed and sad.  I struggle to jump back into the things that I thought were so important before I left.  Which is why I'm still on the couch at 8:30 in the morning!  LOL
Oh well!

Here are some of the pics I took on our trip.

Some of the Bushman's that were at the wedding
Left to right and front to back are Grandma and Grandpa, my wife Angel, my stepmother Chris, my father, Bill Sr, me, my brother Bill jr.

Left to right, Aunt Peggy, Aunt Joanie, Aunt Patty, Dad and Aunt Chris.

All by age left to right as well.

Grandpa and I

The squirrel I had coffee with in Orlando

Back at the beach on Longboat Key

I love the wildflowers that grow on these beaches.

On my way for coffee that morning I walked by this tree.  What a great tree for a tree fort!

Also on my walk was this guy holding a mailbox!

Again on my walk the sidewalk was covered in the these beautiful flowers that were falling from the trees

Some flowers from one of the trees that Dad has growing.  I love that gentle fade from white to yellow.  Plumeria is the tree.  Smells great too

Dinner!

Our breakfast retreat on Monday morning.  Blinding white sands and a speck of a sailboat in the distance.  All open air.  Great place to eat!

A sidewalk I installed about 8 years ago at Sea Club.  Has not changed a bit.

While I was there I got a new hat.  Old and new!

I was hoping to snag a bunch of pictures off my cousins and brother of the wedding off Facebook but I haven't gotten around to it yet...or they haven't!

Later,

Bushman

.

Happy Gardening!

I don't know where I get my passion for growing things.  Dad had a few gardens when I was growing up but was usually too busy to entertain such endeavors.  His ex-wife, which was a step mother to me and my brother for 18  years, loved to plant flowers but I was never a part of that.

I remember them having a garden one year when we lived out to Uncle Danny's house. I think Jr. and I got in trouble and our punishment was to weed the garden.  It's funny how most of my childhood memories are absent but I remember that garden and the way the weeds sprouted from every available square inch of soil.  I should have acquired a distaste for gardening back then.

Perhaps my many years spent in the professional landscape industry lent a hand to my botanical love affair. One would think it would have the opposite effect.  A plumber's house has leaky pipes and a roofer's house always needs new shingles.  Well my house should have always needed plants and mulch but it never worked out that way.  Maybe it was times I spent with pops pushing a wheelbarrow around while he raked the lawn or helping him put in the occasional flower bed.  There must be a synapse in my brain that triggers a shot of dopamine when I pick up a shovel or rake.  It relates to most childhood memories of time spent with my pops.  Luckily that weed ravaged garden doesn't trigger any chemical induced psychotic episodes in my brain (or does it).

Whatever it is, why it is that way and what good is it for doesn't really mean much to me.  All I care is that I like it.  I love sitting back with a cold beer, after having my hands in the dirt all day, and enjoying my handiwork!

Which brings me to this post.  Yesterday was the best outdoor day of the year so far.  After publishing the previous post I headed to the landscape yard for some supplies.  Of course, just my luck, they do not carry the supplies that I need.  The same stuff I bought there last year.  Dang!  This place is only a few miles from my house too.  So off to another yard which is 20 minutes away.  Oh well.  They have better stuff anyways.

I had them load me up with a truck full of finished compost.  Very rich and very black.  Some of the best stuff I've seen around.  At $18 a truck full I consider it a bargain.  This is the real deal stuff though.  You don't want to plant in this alone.  It needs to be turned into the existing soil first.  Otherwise it will "burn" the plants.  It is just too rich all by itself.

When I returned home it was around noon and I wanted to get the lawn cut before I got into the garden.  I knew once I was in the garden I wasn't coming out. (and I didn't until 8:30 pm)
I trimmed out the lawn first with my weed whacker AKA string trimmer and was on my second outline pass with the mower when my bee keeper friends showed up.  I stopped the mower and went to check the hives with them.  I am fascinated by these little creatures.  In one weeks time these little bees have freed their queen from her little prison and she is now laying eggs and building her forces, they have begun filling the combs with honey and building new combs.  The new combs they build are scraped off by the beekeeper.  Apparently they are supposed to work on the combs in between the frames, not connect them together.  So he carefully cut away the excess comb, which was starting to fill with honey.  After careful inspection to make sure their were no honey bee eggs in it he handed it to me and I jammed the sticky morsel into my watering mouth and experienced one of the highlights of the day.  Fresh honey right from the comb.  It does not get any fresher than that.  Just moments before it had bees crawling all over it!

In this pic you can see the excess comb on the side of the frame.  This is what he cut off.

See the honey filled cells?

Once the bee business was taken care of it was back to the mower.

When the mowing was finished I headed for the garden.

Last season I had added topsoil to each planting box, covered it with weed fabric and planted the vegetable plant through the weed fabric and then covered with mulch.  It worked great.  No weeding and the mulch really held the moisture in the soil.

Here is a pic of last years tomatoes.

It worked great but this year I want to try something new.  Companion planting.  See all that space under the plant?  I'm going to fill it with different vegetables and flowers.  I will grow carrots, lettuce, chives, basil, cilantro and such under the tomatoes.  Some boxes I will fill with annuals like marigolds, borage and sunflowers which are considered beneficials in the garden.  

In order to do this I have to remove the mulch from the box and also the weed fabric.

So I used a flat shovel to scrape the mulch off the fabric, removed the fabric and moved aside the irrigation line.  Then I took my shovel and dug deep and turned the soil over, sprinkled with a 12-12-12 granular fertilizer and then added a generous portion of the black gold (compost) from my truck.  Then I turned the soil over again and raked smooth.  I did this for every box.  It took awhile but it will be worth it.

If you're wondering about the weeds this year?  Yes there will be weeds but I hope to plant enough of the right plants in all the boxes to sufficiently "drown" out the weeds.  There will be some picking here and there especially until the plants are established but in the end it should be well worth it and beautiful.

The open area you see here is my corn patch.  I have turned that over and raked somewhat smooth.  I hope to plant corn seed today.

This is year two for my asparagus.  It needs to be left alone for one more season.  Next year I will harvest and eat it.  Of course this year I have snapped off a few spears and eaten them right there on the spot.  So tasty!

I capped off the night with a little campfire, a cigar and a few cold beers.  I didn't last too long as I was kinda tired.  By 10 pm I was showered and sleeping.  I even slept in this morning until almost 7!

Until next time,

Happy Gardening

-Bushman

April Showers bring May Work?????

Here we are again.  The month of May is upon us.  All the work that was supposed to be finished in April is now piled on to the heap that needs to be done in May.  Throw in a weekend away from home and I am down to 3 weekends remaining.
Today the sun will shine and I will work.  I hope to have my corn planted today, all the garden boxes topped off with compost and worked in and I think tomorrow will be the day I plant my tomatoes and peppers.
I know it's a bit early but temperatures appear to be stable for the remainder of the month and my plants are getting too big for their little grow house to hold them anymore.

The bees arrived last weekend and I have a video for you if it ever finishes uploading.  It was very windy that day so the audio is pretty bad.

I have cut down about 6 of the dead trees on the back property line so far.  Still a bunch to go.
The lawn has greened up nicely and I have mowed twice already.
I have some lawn repair to do after the awful winter.  It killed off a big patch of lawn right behind the house.  It is pretty unsightly.  The dogs do not help much.

Here are a few pics of my vegetable plants grown from seed.

6 weeks ago

Last blog April 26th

This morning

Peppers

Well I better get to it.  The landscape yard opens up in an hour.

Now for the bee video

Each hive currently consists of two levels.  Today a third level will be added.  

I love having honey bees in the yard.  They are going to love my garden and all my flowers.  Not to mention all of the flowers in the alfalfa field behind the house!