Let me start off this morning by letting you guys know that our good friend Bob passed away Friday morning about 5:00 am. It’s a hard loss, but we both know that Bob is in a much better place. What a great guy he was, and we’ll all miss him.

God Bless you Bob, we sure enjoyed your company buddy!

Also, Deb and I would like to thank you all for your prayers in Bob and Linda’s behalf, and please keep Linda in your prayers.

Okay, ya’ll know we’d put in a new grow area around our greenhouse. We planted cucumbers and Beefsteak tomatoes, and dern if I haven’t gone and killed our cucumbers, and I’m doin a pretty good job of killin the maters too!

I’m one of those people that when I get an idea, then I hit it “wide open.” It doesn’t matter what it is. I’m the same way with this little endeavor. “Wide open!” Wide open has worked very well for me most times through this life of mine, but there have been times that wide open bites me slap dab in my rear-end too. This just happens to be one of em! LOL!

We brought in all the new compost to grow in, but I hit a snag, and actually a couple of them. The first being our compost is still, “hot,” so the heat generated through our compost is keeping the soil temperatures a little too hot and this is burning the roots on these young plants. Lesson #1…slow down, Dub!

Secondly, we’ve never grown off plants in a greenhouse before. Shoot, I didn’t know you were supposed to “harden” them up some prior to stickin those little fellers out in the full sun??

Shoot, ever since I was just a young pup, I’ve either started my seeds out in the garden, or bought plant sets from the feed-store or wherever, and stuck them straight into the garden as well. FULL SUN, right off the bat! Suck it up, and get tough guys…I’m waitin on you guys to produce me some groceries, let’s get with it!

Well, this is not so when first bringin them out of the greenhouse…no, no! I’ve had some very good gardeners contact me and advise me of my mistakes. They’ve all been very positive on my behalf, and they caution me on this, help me to understand that, all in simple terms.

They’ve all been very supportive and very polite. They’ll say, “you’ll learn,” or “It’s just a bump in the road,” or, “you’ll laugh at this down the road aways.” WHAT they’re really saying to themselves is… “That dern Dub’s a nut!” LOL! I can’t say what Deb calls it!

This is pretty simple to understand if you’ll stop and think it out. An example of this is our greenhouse has a white poly roof. Why? Well, it’s to knock down some of this hot Florida sun. I believe it is a 50% knockdown factor.

Well, DUH Dub…might make sense to harden those little fellers up some before you go to digging holes and droppin plants in, wouldn’t a think? Well, after killin off about 50 new sets, that hardening up some is certainly startin to make a little sense to me! How’d a thunk??

Deb says I’m…a MASS MURDERER! LOL! Deb says a lot of things though, most of which I try to let go in one ear, and right back out the other!

So, lesson # 2 today is, slow down Dub!

“Hardening” the plants, for those that don’t already know, is simply setting them out in the sun a few hours a day to let them adjust to their new environment…or hardening them up some.

Now I don’t mind them hardening up some if that’s what needs to happen, shoot, I’m all for it. I DO know though, them muthas better start hardening up pretty dern quick, cause we got a BUNCH of those little fellers comin on!

So if they don’t harden up fast, then they’re going to have another problem…they’ll be root-bound next, and that’ll be a whole nother post!! LOL!

So, I just figured out there is even a lesson #3 in today’s post…SLOW DOWN DUB, SLOW DOWN some man!! LOL!

I will say this though…I must be of man of good character. Why? Cause it doesn’t matter if I screw up, using today as an example of this, why shoot, I’m laughin about it! What a fine quality this “character thing” must be!

Trouble is, I’m beginning to wonder if it truly is “character,” or the beginning of insanity, cause I do have a tendency to screw up every once in a while! I know one thing for sure…I won’t be askin Deb’s opinion of which SHE thinks it is! I already know the answer to that one! LOL!

So, I’ll be addin a little soil to our compost, hardening up our plants prior to settin em out in the full sun, and I just might give that slowin down some a fair shake…if I can find it in me to do it!
On that note, we’ll share our latest video with you guys, discussing some of all the above!

Well, it is obvious…I did it again!

Since I’ve been poking fun at myself this morning, let’s finish up with a couple jokes…

These come to us today from our good friend Diane. She’s tiltled them, “Holy Humor.”

During these serious and troubled times, people of all faiths should remember these four great religious truths:

1. Muslims do not recognize Jews as God’s Chosen People.

2. Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah.

3. Protestants do not recognize the Pope as the leader of the Christian world.

4. Baptists do not recognize each other at the liquor store.

DID NOAH FISH?

A Sunday school teacher asked, “Johnny, do you think Noah did a lot of fishing when he was on the Ark?”

“No,” replied Johnny. “How could he, with just two worms.”

BEING THANKFUL

A Rabbi said to a precocious six-year-old boy, “So your mother says your prayers for you each night? That’s very commendable. What does she say?” The little boy replied, “Thank God he’s in bed!”

SAY A PRAYER

Little Johnny and his family were having Sunday dinner at his Grandmother’s house. Everyone was seated around the table as the food was being served. When Little Johnny received his plate, he started eating right away. “Johnny! Please wait until we say our prayer,” said his mother.

“I don’t need to,” the boy replied. “Of course, you do “his mother insisted. “We always say a prayer before eating at our house.” “That’s at our house.” Johnny explained. “But this is Grandma’s house and she knows how to cook.

You guys have a great day, and God Bless! Deb says to keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!

Dub and Deb

First off, Deb had another blood test this past Wed. Ya wanna guess the results?? PERFECT, once again! I sure have me a wonderful gal, huh? That little woman has stayed positive throughout this whole ordeal and I’ll say it once again, she is so inspiring to be around, and in the toughness department, I’m running a far distant second place! God is smiling on her! We’re ecstatic over this latest news! April 1st will be our one year anniversary of finding out Deb has this mess.

Secondly, let me apologize to you guys as it’s been a few days since a post…sorry. We’ve been concentrating on finishing this up, the grow space, and by the time the guys leave Deb and I have to work the greenhouse some. Watering mainly, but trying to do a little seedling transplants too.

Been getting in around 6:30 or 7:00, and I’ve been going to bed by 8:30 or 9. Deb calls me…a “titty-baby!” Dern her time! LOL!

Today and tomorrow we’ll be transplanting exclusively. Hopefully we’ll have most everything from our first grow either in the beds or into 4” pots to continue to grow off.

Well, we did complete the grow space around the greenhouse yesterday. Deb gave her thumbs up which to all the rest of us was a sign…we made out okay. The term, “If Mama’s happy, everybody’s happy,” is very true.

We ended up with a 27’x68’ on the eastside, a 16’x68’ on the westside, and an 8’x18’ on the southside. This gives us considerably more gardening space, and it’s all right next to the greenhouse. We hope in the next couple weeks to have the water system in, and the power run to boot. That puts the finish on everything as far as any type of construction.

We put our compost in mostly at about 12 inches in depth, but there are areas it goes down to around 18 and even 24 in spots. I got carried away on the cut out depth, but in the same breath, we had plenty and I didn’t spend much time at all in really getting it precise, obviously. LOL!

We were pushed for time and we just wanted to “git er done!” Now that’s exactly what it is, done…AND Deb’s happy!

I stated earlier we’ll be potting seedlings this weekend, and there’s even some we’ll be putting into our beds. I believe us to be 2-3 weeks off from planting tomato and pepper plants in earnest. Our “volunteer tomatoes” from our compost pile that we set in the greenhouse are doing just great. Got a tomato or two beginning to ripen…yes sir!

We’re really enjoying this and can’t wait to get everything in its place and growin off! This was done once more simply to keep us in plenty of juicing materials year round. The cost of buying them from the marketplace is really beginning to be a burden. Man, food prices keep going up, don’t they?

This will let us continue to do what we’ve been doing, but at a fraction of the cost, and I mean that quite literally! 25-30 tomato seeds for $2.50?? How can you possibly go wrong with no more cost factor than that?

Say you end up with a buck apiece in them…which you won’t nearly spend, but even at that, how many tomatoes will just one plant supply you with? Think about it. This isn’t even touching on the health and nutrition benefits, or the taste benefits of picking them right outside your door and eatin them muthas.

You also have to consider the benefits as well from just being outside working in your garden from a health standpoint, and the pleasure derived from watchin them first break the soil as seedlings. Then on to planting them in the garden, then watching the growth and production of the fresh vegetables they’ll be giving you in return for your love and caring for them. It is a rewarding experience.

We have a few pictures for you guys today of the progress we’ve made. You wanna take a peek? C’mon then, we’ll check it out!

The first is of the grow space on the westside of the G.H. It is the 27’x68’.

The next is of the eastside. It is 16’x68.

This is a shot from across the yard, and shows the area in front of the greenhouse too. Those are strawberries in the containers in front of the G.H.

Here’s our volunteer tomatoes, followed by a shot of some Japanese cucumbers under their cages. Then you can see some peas growing too. These peas we’ll use strictly for our juicing.

Here’s a couple shots of our tomatoes we’d already potted into 4” pots. The first is a rack of Beefsteak, and Mini-Orange which you can’t see.

The second shot is another rack and a half across the greenhouse. It has Green Pineapple, Homestead, Fox Cherry, and Isis Candy.

Each rack is 24 inches wide and 10 feet in length. They’re mounted above our planting benches. Each rack when full can hold 110 4” pots.

We’ll finish up with a shot of our Japanese cucumbers, these are fixing to be planted in our new grow area outside the G.H., and last is of a shot of our watermelons, and two cantelope. The watermelon are Georgia Rattlesnake, Jubilee, and Sugar Baby.

Well guys, that about does it for today! We sure appreciate you stopping back in, and you all have a great weekend, okay? God Bless you and Deb says to keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!

Dub and Deb

The weather is absolutely beautiful, and we had an inch of rain a couple nights back. Good night it had been dry, dry, dry! I’m thankful for every drop, but this year rain is in short supply. But this is our dry season. We normally don’t have any and just catch them out ahead of a front.

In the average season we won’t see much until June, then, the afternoon showers start, many times daily. If it rains early and the sun gets back out, it’s just like a dern sauna. You catch one late in the evenin, sit out on the porch, swingin and that good breeze blowin through…that’s livin!

Well, the greenhouse is still coming along, and boy are we enjoying this. This really is truly a great experience for us both.

We had gotten our beds in as we’d told you guys earlier, and boy did we get a surprise in that we have dern weeds comin up in two of our three beds. Startin to look as if we’d planted a cover crop.

The two beds with this problem were the two beds we had used Miracle Grow garden soil. It’s amazing the amount of weeds, and grass, that are coming up in them! Plus, we’ve not put ANY water on them as there’s nothing growing in them at this time?? I honestly don’t know what this will be once we do start watering in these beds?

But, I’ll contact Miracle Grow today and speak with someone about this problem. I really, or would like to believe they’ll do something on account of this. We’d bought over 300 bags of their soil mix. This cannot be the product they are turning out consistently on a full time basis. If so, then I just imagine their product would not continue to be used period, if, this were the case.

I do know firsthand from being a small business owner that there are times…you’re only as good as the people around you. Someone not paying attention to what he or she is doing, or getting in a “bad batch” of material being used. This has happened before in our business, by simply having a bad mix of asphalt, for example.

So things DO happen from time to time that are what you’d call, out of your hands, or even human error. I want to think that this will be Miracle Grows understanding as well, and honestly I think that will be the case.

I’ll keep you guys updated in this regard.

On the flip side of the coin however, we had bought Lowes out of the Miracle Grow, and had to switch to Jungle Growth out of necessity. In this bed, there is NO weed, or grass germination at all…not one!

So I have to say, from our experience, the difference in the two products has actually been remarkable! No comparison.

But again, we are both of the belief that there are times things do go a little haywire, and until I speak with Miracle Grow, I’m keeping an open mind.

Let’s talk a little about our vegetables that we planted from seed, which we bought from Bakers Creek Seeds by the way. We’re “happy as a pig in slop” so far! For those unfamiliar with that term, it simply means…we’re ecstatic.

The seeds have done well, although our eggplants, and pepper plants had us a little worried. We went out this morning and looked over our seedlings, and lo and behold…little eggplants jumpin up everywhere. Yes!

Also I told Deb that I’d read last night that pepper germination sometimes takes considerably longer to “pop up” than say, tomatoes. Felt better immediately. LOL! I also read where the soil temp needs to be around 72, and honestly we’ve had very little of that.

Daytime temps, yes, but nighttime temps still dropping occasionally into the 50’s. So I’m looking for the peppers to be germinating any moment now.

We didn’t start any indoors on heating mats, or under lights either…straight into the greenhouse, the tray cells filled with soil, and then seeded. But again, we’ll be transferring a lot of seedlings into 4” pots over the next few days.

Ole Deb is already looking at other things now. She wants me down the road a little while, to buy her an umbrella canopy, and sit at our gate where she can sell some vegetable plants, and fresh produce on the weekends.

I told her that would be a little while cause, shoot, we really don’t have any vegetables to speak of even in the beds growing off yet. You know what she told me? She said, “I know that dummy, I’m letting you know in advance…so you can save up to buy my umbrella canopy!”

Dern if she ain’t right……….again!

Well, that’s kinda what’s been goin on here at Dub and Deb’s. As usual, ole Dub’s busy, and ole Deb’s crackin her whip. Nothin ever changes fellows….when they say, “I do,” without a doubt…you’re done!

Here’s our last video of what’s goin on in the greenhouse, and it shows what we’re experiencing in our beds from the weed standpoint. We hope you guys enjoy it.

Well, what ya think?

On a lighter note, we’ll leave you guys with an e-mail we got from our good buddy, AP. You may have seen this before, I had, but felt it worthwhile putting it up today…

Curtis & Leroy

(Don’t underestimate these good-ole boys)

Curtis & Leroy saw an ad in the Starkville Daily News Newspaper in Starkville, MS. and bought a mule for $100

The farmer agreed to deliver the mule the next day…

The next morning the farmer drove up and said, “Sorry, fellows, I have some bad news, the mule died last night.”

Curtis & Leroy replied, “Well, then just give us our money back.”

The farmer said, “Can’t do that. I went and spent it already..”

They said, “OK then, just bring us the dead mule.”

The farmer asked, “What in the world ya’ll gonna do with a dead mule?”

Curtis said, “We gonna raffle him off.”

The farmer said, “You can’t raffle off a dead mule!”

Leroy said, “We shore can! Heck, we don’t hafta tell nobody he’s dead!”

A couple of weeks later, the farmer ran into Curtis & Leroy at the Piggly Wiggly grocery store and asked.

“What’d you fellers ever do with that dead mule?”

They said, “We raffled him off like we said we wuz gonna do.”

Leroy said, “Shucks, we sold 500 tickets fer two dollars apiece and made a profit of $898.”

The farmer said, “My Lord, didn’t anyone complain?”

Curtis said, “Well, the feller who won got upset. So we gave him his two dollars back.”

Curtis and Leroy now work for the government.

They’re overseeing the Bailout Program.

You guys have a great day and God Bless. Deb says to tell you guys to keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!

Dub and Deb

Well…the beds are in the greenhouse! At least I believe they are. As of now this is what we’ve decided on, BUT, you know me…this could change at any minute! For example…

We started out going to have 4 beds…there are now 3?? We were going to have 4 three foot bed widths, with two of them 50 feet long, and two 40 feet long. Not anymore! LOL!

We ended up having one three foot bed width, 50 feet long, one 5 foot width, 44 feet long, and one 4 foot bed width, 30 feet long. What made me change things around? I don’t know, just seemed like the thing to do? PLUS, it just aggravated ole Deb to no end! I love it!! LOL!

No, after getting in the greenhouse, and laying it out, it just made better sense to me, I know, I know, sense not being one of my stronger points… “GOOD sense, anyway!” So, we just fa-naggled things some. Is fanaggled even a word? If not…it is now!

Once I saw the 3 foot width of our first bed I got to thinkin, instead of havin 4 of these, why don’t we make just three beds, with the middle bein 5 foot wide, and the last bein 4 foot wide. You want to know my reasoning? You sure?

Okay then, by havin the middle bed 5 foot wide, we’ll have more room for the vegetables to grow off. Tomatoes come to mind as they are a larger plant. Although this is a wider bed, we do have a walkway on both sides of this particular row.

This bein the case, the walk on both sides allows us to set plants, work the soil, and harvest the veggies… from both sides. Ease of work, and we can reach the area from either side…only a 2-1/2 foot reach either way. So, to me, this made perfectly good sense. The “key words” here…to me. LOL!

But, this middle bed is where we’ll grow most of our tomatoes.

Now, the first bed we put in, the 3’x50’ is going to be used for mostly juice materials for us. Oh sure, we’ll eat them as well, but this will be insurin Deb plenty of juice vegetables. At this point in our lives, this is a priority.

We’ll be growin them ourselves, we’ll KNOW what has been put on them, they’ll be able to ripen on the vine to insure the good taste, and not harvested early to be shipped cross-country. It’ll be much more economical for us versus buying from the store, AND they’ll ALL be FRESH, right from the plant directly into our home!

We’ll still utilize our outdoor garden of course, but the greenhouse will allow us to grow more variety year round. This is JUST what the Doctor ordered…Dr. Deb! As usual, I’m stuck playin…second fiddle!

We also intended upon taking the existing soil down to a depth of 12 inches, then using 2×10’s as our containing wall, then filling this up with another 9-1/2 to 10 inches of good soil. This bein an average “good soil” depth of between 20 to 22 inches, but also utilizing some of the existing soil (maybe a third), along with the garden soil we’d be purchasing. WRONG!

Once more, if I decided to put in a fish farm…they drown! I don’t know what it is with me AND, my projects?? Somehow, someway, they just seem to…go over budget?? Sounds like the government, huh? Oh, BUT there is one BIG difference…it’s my dern money I’m spendin, NOT somebody else’s!!

Well, after digging the trench, removing the existin soil from the 3×50, takin a good look at the existing soil, which had a lot of rocks, blocks, and even glass, I decided to NOT use it. It made a great pad, but for gardening…it was the pits!

Live and learn, that’s my motto. Accordin to Deb though, in regards to my projects, she claims I’m doin an AWFUL lot of livin, but very little LEARNIN! To which I reply, “You know, you just might be on to something here, DEAR…how long we been married now??”

Once I say this I’ve learned to…DUCK!

Regardless of my not bein too bright in my “planning stages” of a project, it still is what it is. Cain’t stop now. So, once I realized I couldn’t, nor shouldn’t utilize ANY of the existing soil, I got to makin some changes pretty rapidly.

First off, bed number 2 and 3 immediately were excavated to a depth of 8 inches…not 12. Then, the use of 2×10’s became very quickly…2×6’s! LOL! If, I’d of continued with my original plan, we were “poor house” bound, NOW! So, being the “flexible guy” I am, we changed it around, but still used about 500 bags of material!

One reason for so many bags was we’d bought them out of the 2 cubic feet bags, and had to end up using 1 cubic foot bags. We mixed Miracle Grow Garden Soil along with Black Cow, I’m guessing about a 3 to 1 ratio.

We bought them out of the Miracle Grow Garden Soil, so in our last bed, we had to use Jungle Growth with the Black Cow. Honestly though, the store we bought the soil from did work with us pretty well, and worked with us on the price, which we appreciated very much.

I’ve got a video we’ll share with you guys today, that talks about the Jungle Growth Soil some. On the back of their bags is a picture of gorillas, and the need to save them. During the video I tell, and show this, but also add that if you guys buy any of the Jungle Growth for yourselves, you actually WON’T be savin the go-rillers…cause I already did!! LOL!

The last bed we built is a 4 footer in width, and this too allows a little more grow room for the plants, plus will still allow us to work the bed easily. This project is still learnin as we go, and I’m sure we’ll continue to tweak it from time to time. But eventually we’ll end up with a very nice greenhouse set up, that will wind up bein just what we anticipated it to be!

The 4 foot bed width as I mentioned earlier is only 30 feet long. This can allow us to grow some vegetables in front of this bed using bags or containers…just a thought we had. Also, we have to consider a few tables or benches to grow our seedlings off, storage, ect….

Once more, we’re still makin decisions on how best to do this, with the space available to us. Deb considers this on my part to be…dangerous! There she goes again! LOL!

Anyway, here’s the video… “We HAVE…Saved the Go-rillers!”

Well, this will bout wind us down for today, and we thank ya’ll for visitin with us once again! You guys are great! God Bless you and yours, and as Deb says, “Keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!”

Dub and Deb

Man, it’s been windy here the last couple days, and it’s sure dryin things out…in a hurry! We’ve got a 30% chance of rain today, but maybe we’ll catch some. We could use it, but it doesn’t look promising.

Our garden finally got the last bit of cow manure yesterday. While Corey and Elmo were haulin poop (they tell me they sure take a lot of crap off this job), I was grindin oak leaves and getting them in piles to spread over the manure. We’ll then spread 2 to 3 bales of hay over this, and then till it all into the existing soil.

I’ve got until Feb. 8th, to have our broccoli and cabbage set out again, the first sets were JUST beginning to produce and BAM, 24 degrees one night, followed by a 27 the following night. Knocked those suckers for a loop, so we gave em to the cows.

We’ll now replant them, probably a row of each, then we’ll split a row of cauliflower and lettuce. Our rows are hundred footers. We have to have the lettuce and cauliflower in by the 7th. We always plant by the almanac, and these dates are moon favorable.

Then we’ll set potatoes, and our planting slot for them, is between the 10th, and the 20th. We’ll put in a row of onions, and they’re planted the same time as the potatoes. Again, these are the moon favorable dates. That’ll give us a good start in our “kinda spring garden.”

Gonna have to tune-up my weedin and pickin machine. It’s a two-in-one combo, and it’s “set-up” all winter. So I’ll have to get her out and run her some the next week or so…blow the cobwebs out, you know. The dern thing’s about 50 years old, maybe a little older, but I’ve never seen a brand name on it?? It does have the initials, D.E.B., though! LOL!

These first three pictures of the manure we’ve been putting on the garden. The fourth is a pile of oak leaves we ground up with the little mower, and we got piles scattered all over the dern place! We’ll put these in a thin layer over the manure. This will be followed by a thin layer of hay, then as I explained earlier, we’ll till this into the existing soil.

Now our greenhouse is still a work in progress, and we should have the outside all buttoned up by weeks end. We can start the beds anytime, it’s just workin them in, and we have been busy around here the last month or so.

What we’ve kinda got in our minds is to have four, three foot wide beds, with two foot walkways between each bed. The greenhouse is 18 feet wide by 60 feet in length. So this will work out as having 2 of the beds 50 feet long, and 2 beds 40 feet long. You can get a lot of veggies growin in that “mutha!”

Our intent is to dig out, and remove the existing soil of each bed to a depth of 12 to 14 inches. We’ll then fill the beds back in with good potting soil, mixed with peat. We’ll then use fiberglass panels like on the outside walls of the greenhouse, cut in 8-10 inch strips, and use these as the perimeter walls for the raised beds, or trenched beds.

By doin this, we’re HOPING that using rebar as braces for the fiberglass, and stakes every so often that we can screw through the fiberglass and lock them into place onto the stakes will to help strengthen them. We’ll soon see.

We’re also hopin that by usin the fiberglass panels as our retaining wall, it’ll last a LONG time too, plus be cost effective. If this works out, we’ll have the really good soil mix to a depth of around 18 to 20 inches. This would be plenty.

I’m goin to share a video of our good friend Bobby. You guys have seen Bobby’s video’s on here before, but this one shows kinda what we’ll be doin, as far as the beds bein built, in our greenhouse. The only difference I see is that our beds will all be 3 feet wide, and 40 to 50 feet long.

This could change though as Deb and I are fixing to be in our, “trial and error stage, but we’ll eventually get it figured out where…”it works for us!”

The first picture below is the inside of our greenhouse. This was taken for you to envision the four three foot beds we’ll have in it. Again, there’ll be a two foot walkway between each bed.

The next two pictures are of the volunteer tomato plants that volunteered out of our compost pile. Deb and I add our daily juice pulp from our juicing to the pile. Well, we were surprised to see that these guys germinated, so we planted them. They’ll be goin in the greenhouse as juice tomatoes…and I might just have to taste sample those boogers!

They are out of hybrid plants, Big Boy’s and Better Boys, so I’m not sure what type of characteristics these will have, how they’ll produce, or taste, BUT…they’re tomatoes!

The last two pictures are of a white eggplant, and a cherry tomato ole Cuz gave us. Cuz bein one in the same that catered our food for Deb’s party a while back.

Take a look at Bobby’s new greenhouse and its setup.

Boy…doesn’t that look nice? Bobby’s a dern “workin Trojan,” and we feel very fortunate to have him as “our friend.” Great guy, great Christian, and great family man…and a great gardener! To me, Bobby is…da man! Thanks for all your input my friend!

Here’s another video from a friend of ours out in Texas, ole Tim. Tim’s just showing everybody an update on his seedlings, his chickens, and what he has in his garden still, plus what he’ll be doin a little later.

Doesn’t Tim sound like a great guy? Deb and I really like watchin Tim’s videos, and you can just tell by his voice that he really enjoys getting outside and workin his garden.

Deb and I got a kick out of his chickens names, especially ole Red. We both looked at each other and declared, “Dern, Tim’s named a chicken after our youngest son… “ole Red!” LOL!!

Anyway guys, for those who don’t garden, or for some reason don’t anymore, shoot, get ya some seeds and put them in the ground. It is a lot of fun, and the rewards of watchin those little guys pop outta the ground, start growin off, and then producing…man, Deb and I just enjoy the fire out of it!

On top of that, good night a livin, the fresh vegetables you’re supplied with are just SOOOO good! You can’t even begin to compare YOUR fresh vegetables with store bought. And for those of you with children still at home, plant NOW while you still have “forced Labor!!” LOL!!

No seriously, you guys might just be amazed at how those little guys and gals take to it! I know Shelby Lynn would rather be out in the garden piddlin around with her Nana and Poppa, than eat! That little girl just loves to be out in the garden, but actually outside doin anything rather than bein cooped up inside jackin with a dern video game!

She’s got ole Deb and I right where she wants us…wrapped around that little finger of hers! The good Lord knew what he was doin when he blessed us all with grandchildren, did he not? Plus, as I’ve said a dozen times before, our grandchildren and us both have the same common enemy…their parents and our children!! LOL!

Now, before we close for the day, let’s hear from our good friend Roger once more. Bein as Deb and I, plus so many other of you guys are from the South, we understand that our Northern, but in reality “Yankee friends,” enjoy pickin at us…bein rednecks.

Many times they feel it is a “cut,” but in reality we enjoy bein hung with the handle, redneck. Here’s one such example…LOL!!

His name was Bubba…He was from Mississippi, and he needed a loan, so…….he walked into a bank in New York City and asked for the loan officer. He told the loan officer that he was going to Paris for an International Redneck festival for two weeks and needed to borrow $5,000 and that he was not a depositor of the bank.

The bank officer told him that the bank would need some form of security for the loan, so the Redneck handed over the keys to a new Ferrari. The car was parked on the street in front of the bank. The Redneck produced the title and everything checked out. The loan officer agreed to hold the car as collateral for the loan and apologized for having to charge 12% interest.

Later, the bank’s president and its officers all enjoyed a good laugh at the Redneck from the south for using a $250,000 Ferrari as collateral for a $5,000 loan. An employee of the bank then drove the Ferrari into the bank’s private underground garage and parked it.

Two weeks later, the Redneck returned, repaid the $5,000 and the interest of $23.07. The loan officer said, “Sir, we are very happy to have had your business, and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are a little puzzled. While you were away, we checked you out on Dunn & Bradstreet and found that you are a Distinguished Alumni from Ole Miss University, a highly sophisticated investor and Multi-Millionaire with real estate and financial interests all over the world. Your investments include a large number of wind turbines around Sweetwater, Texas. What puzzles us is, why would you bother to borrow $5,000?”

The good ‘ole boy replied, “Where else in New York City can I park my car for two weeks for only $23.07 and expect it to be there when I return?”

You guys have a great day, and God Bless! Deb’s a hollerin for me to be sure and tell you guys to keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!

Dub and Deb

Well, we worked on the greenhouse again yesterday, and little by little we keep inching closer to getting the outside buttoned up.

We got the two layers of plastic pulled on the roof, and the fan installed to keep the two layers blown up…basically the roof is like a big balloon. This is to help in insulating the building. We used a clear plastic underneath and then used a white plastic on top. This is to help knock down the sun’s rays, and keep it from getting so hot.

The white plastic cuts down the sun by 50%. We also are installing shade cloth on the inside of the side curtains as well. This too will knock down the sunlight too, plus it’ll help keep out bugs when the curtains are rolled up. Also it will help to knock the breeze down some when heavy winds are blowing. It doesn’t stop it, but it will help to.

We have a good friend, Bobby, who has some greenhouses in Virginia, and his statement to me was simply that we won’t have to worry about keeping it heated down here as much as we’ll need help with…the heat of the summer.

Billy, our buddy who found, and is helping us put this up agrees wholeheartedly, and this is the reasoning for the shade cloth and white plastic roofing.

We added an extra run of lock strips below the lock strip for the roof. They claim you can get three layers of plastic locked into each run of lock strip, but since we had plenty, we just ran another run. This enables us to lock our two roof plastics into a lock strip, then we can lock our curtains into their own locks.

We still lack one side of curtain. We were shorted one side, and the man Billy got the greenhouse from forgot to order the other side. So, he ordered them yesterday and we’ll have them next week. We still need to hang our doors, which we’ll have to cut down height wise, but this is no problem. We’ve reached the point we’re redneck engineering! LOL!!

We can now though go ahead and hang the shade cloth on the remaining side, possibly start some of the beds, start running irrigation, and running electric to the building. Then sometime next week we’ll be able to button her up.

I tell you guys, this is going to really be fun for Deb and I. We both love piddlin around in a garden, and this will take it to another level for us. The main reason though is keeping us in fresh juicing material year round. This is the REAL reason for the greenhouse.

I’ve also told Billy to go ahead and find us another one, hopefully a 30’x100’. This is the size we were hoping to find, but he was having a little trouble locating one, and me being so dern antsy, I told him to get us this one. Actually though, this 18’x60’ is going to work out real nice for us, especially since it’s just right across from the house.

Keeping it so close to the house will help Deb out immensely…it’s close, and once I tell her to get her butt out there and weed the dern thing, she won’t have far to walk! LOL!

Boy, can you guys believe how good I try to look after her?? She’s sure got a good one in me, huh? I just couldn’t see her having to walk no dern half a mile to go and weed the dern beds! I’m tryin to make it just as easy on her as I can! LOL! Plus, she’s asleep at the moment, so she doesn’t know what I’m telling you guys!! THAT’S how I get away with it!

Seriously though, this is going to be so much fun, and a learning as we go process. It’ll gain us much knowledge in the workings of this, plus supply us with good information for you guys as well. It should be kinda fun for us all…

Well, I’ve got a meeting at 7:30 this morning so I better start wrappin this up. We’ll share a video with ya’ll this morning, plus put up a few pictures as well.
But first…a couple jokes…

Two young businessmen in Florida were sitting down for a break in their soon-to-be new store in the shopping mall. As yet, the store wasn’t ready, with only a few shelves and display racks set up.

One said to the other, “I’ll bet that any minute now some old person is going to walk by, put his face to the window, and ask what we’re selling.”

Sure enough, just a moment later, a curious senior gentleman walked up to the window, looked around intensely and rapped on the glass. Then in a loud voice asked, “What are you sellin’ here?”

One of the men replied sarcastically, “We’re selling a$$-holes.”

Without skipping a beat, the old timer said, “You must be doing well. Only two left.”

I just love that one…cause I’m getting old!

That was from our ole buddy Roger. Now a couple from Diane, another good friend of ours. I believe both are from Virginia…ya reckon it’s the water?? LOL!
Diane’s are on the topic of aging too.

“Sometimes I laugh SO hard…the tears run down my leg!!
Wife asks husband, “So, how many women have you slept with?”
Husband: “Only you darling…with all the others I was awake!”

And one more…

TEENAGERS…
Are you tired of being continually harassed by your stupid parents??

ACT NOW!!!

Move out. Get a job. Pay your bills while you still know everything!!

You guys have a great day, and God Bless! Deb says to keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!

Dub and Deb

Well, Deb and I had a little surprise about a week ago. We had a greenhouse delivered to our place, and man are we looking forward to having it set up! This will really be used a lot, especially in regards to keeping a few vegetables going year round and supplying us with fresh juice even during winter.

We have a buddy, Billy, who has worked around the nursery business here in Central Florida for many, many years. He’s built them, maintained them, shoot, there ain’t too much of anything Billy can’t do period!

So, he’s been looking for us a GOOD, used greenhouse, and the scoundrel came up with one for us. I originally wanted a 24’x60’ or so, and Bill said go ahead and get a 30’x100’, if he could get one run down. I thought this might be a little overkill for our needs, but as Billy says, “You’ll ALWAYS use the space, SO, if I can find one you ought to go ahead and take the extra space…you will use it.”

Well, I got to thinking that if a greenhouse is anything like a barn, you can’t ever have too much space, so I told him to go ahead on!

He couldn’t find one that size, so I told him just to see what he could find pretty quick, because we need to get it up. A couple days later he calls and says, “I have a 16’x60’, ya want it?” I asked him why it wasn’t here yet, he laughed and said I’ll have her to you just directly…and he sure did! My ole buddy, Billy…what a guy he is!

Deb and I both are ecstatic over this, and the 16×60 is much more what we had in mind originally, so the size made no difference to us in the least. We are just happy to have it here on the place, and we’re kinda “bitin at the bit” to get it completed and producing!

We’ll probably put it up sometime between the 11th or 12th of December and Christmas. Deb and I are leaving next week for 10-14 days, then once we’re back, she and our two boys and their families go to N. Florida for her families “early Christmas.” THEN, we’ll try and put it up.

Also from about mid-November until about the second week of Jan. is our slowest time of the year in regards to our paving business. So, this will supply a little work for the guys on the crew as well.

We’ve also got a friend in Virginia, Bobby, and he’s just built his second, or will soon be completing it. That dern guy has some of the prettiest tomatoes growing I’ve ever seen…RIGHT NOW! Bobby is a great gardener and very knowledgeable in this.

He’s a good Christian, and shares his produce with any and all. In these tough times he realizes there are some not quite as fortunate as he is, so if need be, he’ll pass out what not needed by his own family. This is a good example of friend helping friend, and neighbor helping out neighbor. All throughout my lifetime I’ve always felt this as… “THE American Way!”

Sadly, our government has decided it’s THEY who should take care of us, instead of OUR taking care of us! I’m no scholar, but it’s quite evident that they SURE ARE making a mess of things, and have NO concern whatsoever in regards to what they’re doing to our Country.

If we’re not real careful, we’ll soon be known as “we the peasants,” instead of “we the people.” Total control is where we’re headed, and if we don’t pay close attention, they’ll legislate our freedoms and Constitutional rights right on out the door. At that point I can only imagine the number of people saying…”What happened?”

Anyway…

You guys know that Deb and I can most of the vegetables that come from our garden. We love the convenience of poppin open jars of peas, or greens, or tomatoes for example during the months when we can’t get them, BUT, our biggest reasoning, far and away for gardening as much as we do, and putting up what we can was simply…the economy!

We have never for one minute considered being a burden on anyone. With this being said, once we saw the economy headed South, we went into a much more self-resilient mode, and went right into doing whatever we could possibly do to insure if times got really, really bad, we could at least put some food on the table for family and friends.

This comes from the goodness of our hearts, just like I stated earlier, friend helping friend…True Americans don’t have to be made to help, we do it because…we want to! Always have, if you take a look back in history.

So, as you’ve heard me state on our site numerous times… today, food is literally an investment, and a dern good one at that! Deb and I both feel that in these times, there is no investment better than…FOOD!

Food prices are increasing daily, and I wouldn’t look for that to be changing any time soon. All we’ve done down here at ole Dub and Deb’s is simply made our family and friends aware that if times get tougher, we’ll at least be able to lay down at night…with something in their belly!

As I’ve also stated several times in the past, if our economy takes off for the good again, we’ll just eat the food we’ve put back anyway! On top of this, what we’ll be eating will be considerably cheaper than we could replace it at today’s inflated pricing! So, with this being the case, how could this not be a win-win situation? Honestly, I don’t see any possible way it wouldn’t be, how bout you?

So once more, if at all possible, buy a little extra each week. As a good friend of ours likes to say, “The sun don’t shine EVERYDAY!”

In closing today, I’d like to show you guys a video of our greenhouse. It’s not put up, and is literally stacked in our barn for now, BUT, it IS here, and it’s ours!

You guys take care, and God Bless you and yours. As my wife Deb likes to say, “Keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!”

I gotta tell you too, that in regards to her statement about smiling…she practices what she preaches! I rarely see ole Deb anymore without a big ole smile on that pretty face of hers! There’s no question that I indeed did marry “above me!” Some of us just have all the luck, huh? LOL!

Dub and Deb