Utah's Texas Roadhouse Events

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Taylorsville's Texas Roadhouses is celebrating its 15-year anniversary with a rib-eatingcontest between Murray firefighters and Taylorsville police, on Wednesday, June27, 2 p.m. at 5418 S. 1900 West, Taylorsville.
Meanwhile, Lehi's Texas Roadhouse is inviting the public to a lunch fundraiser on June 28, 11-2 p.m., to benefit Freedom's Families, a local not-for-profitorganization that provides recreational therapy services to recently disabledveterans and their families.
For $10, the public can buy a receive a hot pulled pork sandwich, bakedbeans and a Caesar salad. Lehi's Texas Roadhouse is at. 1402 E. Main St. inLehi. 

See's Lollypop Sweepstakes

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July 20 is National Lollypop Day and to celebrate, See’s Candies is hosting a sweepstakes to win  a behind-the-scenes tour of See’s Lollypop Factory in Burlingame, CA. The grand prize includes round-trip airfare for two and three nights at a San Francisco hotel. Ten other lucky entrants will also win $50 See’s Candies gift cards. Consumers can enter the sweepstakes from July 5, 2012 through July 22, 2012 by visiting www.sees.com/lollypopsweepstakes or completing an entry form at any of See’s retail shop locations.

ON July 20, the company will also be giving out free samples of their lollypops at over 200 retail shop locations across the U.S.  See’s Candies has produced lollypops for the past 80 years, and the current range includes the signature Chocolate, Vanilla, Café Latte, and Butterscotch flavors.  A perennial customer favorite, See’s sells over one million pounds of lollypops a year.
See’s Candies will also attempt to break a Guinness World Record by creating the world’s largest lollypop. Weighing in at 7,000 pounds, it will be on display to the public in San Francisco on July 20 in honor of National Lollypop Day.   For the location of the See’s Candy Shop nearest you, call toll-free (800) 347-7337 or log onto www.sees.com.

Wouldn't You Make That Trade?

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Last year, I saved a couple Boston ferns to overwinter (CLICK HERE to see how).  Who wants to pay for new ones every spring?   Just give them a drink every 3 weeks or so and they will survive.  The problem?   They get scraggly.  The old dead fronds turn brown and brittle and need trimming.

The new growth seems determined to grow, like a toddler balancing on their tiptoes, just barely out of reach of the cookie dough spoon.  The problem?  Those old fern fronds are blocking the light and taking up valuable root space in the basket.

The solution?  You've got to shear those ferns.  You've got to go to town on them and cut away all the old, dead growth.  It did its job, it was beautiful, but now it is finished.  Time to move on, time to start anew.  Get those old fronds out of the way and new fronds will grow high and proud, lush fern foliage dripping out of the edges, waving in the wind.


There is an exception to the rule.   When you go to trim the fern and you find this:

Don't cut.  Don't touch that fern.  There are times when the dead fronds can stay.  Their purpose is greater than growth.  They are there to protect and hold 6 tiny little lives, so let them be.  There is a time in life when growth doesn't matter.  There is a time when improvement isn't needed.  When all you really need to do is hold and protect.  There is no need to groom properly.  There is no need to think deeply.  There is no need to move, or work or become a better person.

There is a time just to be that little fern, holding on to those dead fronds, and caring for those little eggs.  It will only be 6 weeks and the birds will be born, the eggs cracked and thrown out by mama bird.  The babies will grow unimaginably fast and then they will be gone.  Poof -- one day in summer and it is all over.  No more watching the mama flit from branch to branch, squawking over her babies.  No more tiny little chirps and tiny little beaks.  There will be time to prune the fern.  It can recover.  ...and if it doesn't?   Well, it is worth it, isn't it?  A fern for 6 tiny birds?  Wouldn't you make that trade?

I know that it is good for me to grow.  I know that it is good for me to think deeply, live lively, run and eat well.  I know that it is good for me to do pilates and have lunch with friends.  I know that I need to grow spiritually and intellectually.  I know that blogging and writing and list making renews my soul and gives me a fresh outlook.  I know it is good for me.  I know what I need and I know how to get it.  That doesn't mean I should.  There are hours, days and sometime years that my only job is to hold still and protect.  My personal growth matters not compared to the protection of my babies.  Protecting their hearts from hurts and protecting their lives from harm.  That is my only job.

There will be hours, and days and years that they won't need me anymore.  I can cut off the old and the used up bits of me and grow with renewed energy.  I will have time to grow later.  ...and if I don't?  Well, isn't it worth it?  Myself for 3 tiny little souls?  Wouldn't you make that trade?

Poop & Mulch Tires

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Hey y'all! today we are talking POOP! Not human poop, but chicken poop. Don't have any chicken poop? No worries, you can plant beans or add blood meal or borrow some chicken poop from a friend. Doesn't today's topic sound just delightful??

Here's the experiment. This year I am trying my hand at growing potatoes in tires. We had the tires, I researched the chemical leaching and feel secure that we aren't going to eat toxic potatoes and it required very little extra work compared to my normal potato planting routine.  SO I grabbed the tires, filled them with compost and garden soil, planted my potatoes and then covered them in fresh mulch.

Screeeeeeeeeeeeeech -- wait aren't you supposed to let  mulch age before you use it?  Doesn't fresh mulch leach nitrogen from the soil and turn your plants yellow?
Yes and yes kinda.
...but the fresh mulch is only $50 for a driveway full and the aged mulch costs over $100 for a kinda dinky truckload.   So the choice was easy, but I had to make some adjustments.
Enter the poop -- see it?
Mulch doesn't leach nitrogen from the soil, but rather the mulch USES the nitrogen in the soil to decompose where the mulch touches the soil.  Therefore, that potato planted way down deep in the tire is not affected.  However, when that potato reached the top, I don't want it to be hungry.  The solution?  Well, if the fresh mulch is taking away nitrogen, then I need to add a bit.  What has a bunch of nitrogen in it?  Chicken poop!

Think of it this way.  The tire holds soil.  Then a tree falls (and magically shreds itself) on the forest floor.  Then an animal comes along and poos on it.  Such is the cycle of nature.  We're just joining the party a little more quickly than nature proceeds.

One thing to note...fresh poo will "burn" the stems and foliage of plants, so I put the poop aside from the actual plants and when it rains the poo slowly moves down through the mulch to the soil and composts and then makes the potatoes grow big and strong and delicious.

Note:  If you don't have chicken poop available, and want to use fresh mulch, try planting a bean (any bean!) right next to every plant in the veggie garden or add alternate sources of nitrogen, such as blood meal.  They will both negate the nitrogen use of the fresh mulch.  You know you need to feed your plants a little more if the leaves start yellowing.  If they grow big and strong then you are good to go!

SO, if you visit me for a meal later in the summer, I might feed you poopy potatoes.  You'll like them ;)

I'm rich! I'm rich! I'm rich!

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“Food, a French man told me once, is the first wealth. Grow it right, and you feel insanely rich, no matter what you own.” -Kristin Kimball

We have plenty of money.  We have what we need.  We are so filthy rich that there are people that want to kill us simply because we are filthy rich Americans.
...but sometimes I don't feel rich.  especially when I spend too much time on pinterest, or on Houzz, or flipping through the inspiration pages of House Beautiful.   I feel poor.  I can't afford that rug, or that table, or even that lamp.  It is all out of my reach.  ...and perhaps I could save up the money and scrimp on groceries and eventually buy one of those beautiful hooks from Restoration Hardware, but do I really want to?  No, probably not, but it would be nice...

I hear some amens out there -- go ahead let it out!  Admit you want MORE!
I want more and more and more and more until it starts wearing away at my soul.   I've got to quit this wanting or it is going to eat me alive.  
Where to go?  Shopping?   Nah.  The garden.
Oh C'MON Amy, the garden isn't going to get me that new handbag!  There is no way a little walk through the garden will make me forget about that beautiful carpet and the 3 INCH THICK padding that I want but can't afford!  A garden will do nothing!


 Well maybe not...it depends on whether your garden is growing food, or just flowers.  If you only have flowers you might have a problem.  As nice as they are, you can't eat them.  They smell nice, and look nice, and I am ALL for a lovely walk through the garden at dusk, but they aren't going to help your consumerism problem the way a good batch of lettuce and giant stand of onions will.

 You see, food is the first wealth.  Battles were fought over food sources, rivers and salt mines.  We need food to survive, and we need good food to feel rich.  I can grow both in my backyard.  I have soil, I have sun, I have seeds and I have water.  Thus, I am rich.

This is the way it works...you feel bitter that you couldn't get that faucet that you really wanted for the kitchen because it was too gosh darn expensive.  Nevermind the hot tub you wanted for the back porch...so you go walking in the garden.  You get out the scissors and start snipping.  A little spinach here, a few mustard greens, ooo!  Are those strawberries hiding under those leaves?  Perfect -- I just picked myself a smoothie.  Brilliant!

Of course I can't grow ice, but wait!  I have a big 'ol refrigerator and in the freezer is a giant tub of automatically made, precut ice.  Brilliant!

Of course I can't break up the ice...I'll just have no make a salad and ice water.  But wait!  I've got a big, powerful blender sitting on the counter...smoothie here I come!

This is all in your head of course...you still have work to do...  

You lay down your bounty of smoothie supplies and you check out the rest of the garden.  Oh my heavens, that onion is up to my NECK!  I am not even kidding -- how DID that thing grow so high?!  ...and oh my heavens there are 49 of them...all growing tall and huge and we are not going to need to buy onions ever again.

Holy crap -- I'm rich.

I'm rich in onions and potatoes and tomatoes and strawberries and rhubarb and asparagus and spinach and mustard and leeks and garlic and swiss chard and radishes and oh look!  The plum tree is starting to grow -- I can almost feel those little plums, plump and squat in my hands ripe for a big BITE.  Oh and the chestnuts are growing!!  Look at the hazelnuts!  I am rich!  I am rich!  I am rich!

Hang my head in shame.  Look around.  Did anyone see that?  Surely they must think I am crazy.  No?  No one saw me twirling in the middle of the garden and yelling about my riches like a happy fool?  Well then...

"I'm rich!  I'm rich!  I'm rich!"
...and I ain't thinking about that handbag.

Pinching Plants Hurts but is GOOD for them!

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Pinching plants almost seems kind of mean doesn't it?  I mean, that poor plant has been working and working to produce buds with beautiful flowers within, and you are just going to pinch them off?  Really?  It's not natural!

For years, I rebelled against pinching.  I especially rebelled when my (highly experienced and up in years) neighbor kindly advised me to pinch my tomatoes for better yields.  I couldn't do it.  In fact, when he started pinching my tomatoes, I kinda gasped a little and was mad for a while (just a tiny bit).  Turns out he was right.  It is good to pinch your peonies (or tomatoes or mums or asters or zinnias).

Here is why; some plants produce one main flower and several smaller flowers on the same stem.  Leave them all there and they will all produce flowers, but the little guys will be wimpy.  Pinch them off and the plant devotes all its energy into the one main flower, making it bigger, badder and more peonylicious than ever.

To pinch peonies, simply pop the top off the stems.  You can clearly tell which flower is going t provide the biggest bang for your buck, yes?


Here she is, all pinched.  You should see her a week later when she pops into bloom.  Just stunning and worth a little pinching now and then...


What else should I pinch?  Try this technique on other plants that bud several smaller flowers next to a main stem, such as roses, apples and various other fruits.  Tomatoes, zinnias, and other multi-branching flowering plants also benefit from the treatment.

Don't you pinch before the 4th of July only?  Pinching directs energy, so in this case you are directing energy to one singular flower.  The rule about the 4th of July applies to fall blooming plants like mums and asters.  You want to pinch their foliage now through July 4th so that the plant's energy is redirected into making more stems.  This will result in a later fall bloom date and a bushier plant.  Pinch these plants after July 4th and you run the risk of them not blooming before frost hits hard.
Questions?  Just ask!
PS -- Don't forget to sign up to WIN 3 free gallons of Flood OneCoat HERE! 
...and make sure you don't miss the deal on Organic Gardening Magazine - 2 YEARS for 5 BUCKS HERE!