Chicken Scratches

According to the Old Farmers Almanac, frost danger is past as of today. I will endeavor to set out my three Park's Whopper tomato plants later this evening. Think I'll wait a bit on the peppers and pole beans -- well, I'm going to read some more about the pole beans and make my decision based on info I gather. Definitely am waiting on the peppers. More later today...

Here are the 28 snap pea seeds I attempted to start on wet paper toweling under Saran wrap. Six sprouted, vs. the four expected to sprout if I'd sewn them directly in the ground. Not much advantage, huh? Or looking at it in a positive way, it's actually 50% more than I could've expected had I sewn them directly in the ground! That sounds better...

7 p.m. I planted 22 of the pea seeds around a central post and four points around it. I attached four strings to the post at two different heights, and ran them to the ground and attached them to twigs which I stuck in the ground at the four "corners" of the container. Four seeds for each point of the strings, and 12 seeds around the center post.

The soil is too cool for my other crops, but I will be planting tomatoes, bell peppers, and pole beans as soon as it seems they will be successful. I'll likely plant the second crop of sugar snap peas late this summer for a fall crop.

Take two minutes and 55 seconds and enjoy Anita Renfroe's amazing "Mom Song":


Lyrics:

"The Mom Song"

Get up now
Get up now
Get up out of bed
Wash your face
Brush your teeth
Comb your sleepyhead
Here's your clothes and your shoes
Hear the words I said
Get up now! Get up and make your bed
Are you hot? Are you cold?
Are you wearing that?
Where's your books and your lunch and your homework at?
Grab your coat and gloves and your scarf and hat
Don't forget! You gotta feed the cat
Eat your breakfast, the experts tell us it's the most important meal of all
Take your vitamins so you will grow up one day to be big and tall
Please remember the orthodontist will be seeing you at 3 today
Don't forget your piano lesson is this afternoon so you must play
Don't shovel
Chew slowly
But hurry
The bus is here
Be careful
Come back here
Did you wash behind your ears?
Play outside, don't play rough, will you just play fair?
Be polite, make a friend, don't forget to share
Work it out, wait your turn, never take a dare
Get along! Don't make me come down there
Clean your room, fold your clothes, put your stuff away
Make your bed, do it now, do we have all day?
Were you born in a barn? Would you like some hay?
Can you even hear a word I say?
Answer the phone! Get off the phone!
Don't sit so close, turn it down, no texting at the table
No more computer time tonight!
Your iPod's my iPod if you don't listen up
Where are you going and with whom and what time do you think you're coming home?
Saying thank you, please, excuse me makes you welcome everywhere you roam
You'll appreciate my wisdom someday when you're older and you're grown
Can't wait till you have a couple little children of your own
You'll thank me for the counsel I gave you so willingly
But right now I thank you not to roll your eyes at me
Close your mouth when you chew, would appreciate
Take a bite maybe two of the stuff you hate
Use your fork, do not burp or I'll set you straight
Eat the food I put upon your plate
Get an A, get the door, don't get smart with me
Get a grip, get in here, I'll count to three
Get a job, get a life, get a PHD
Get a dose of,
"I don't care who started it!
You're grounded until you're 36"
Get your story straight and tell the truth for once, for heaven's sake
And if all your friends jumped off a cliff would you jump, too?
If I've said it once, I've said at least a thousand times before
That you're too old to act this way
It must be your father's DNA
Look at me when I am talking
Stand up straighter when you walk
A place for everything and everything must be in place
Stop crying or I'll give you something real to cry about
Oh!
Brush your teeth, wash your face, put your PJs on
Get in bed, get up here, say a prayer with mom
Don't forget, I love you
And tomorrow we will do this all again because a mom's work never ends
You don't need the reason why
Because, because, because, because
I said so, I said so, I said so, I said so
I'm the mom, the mom, the mom, the mom, the mom!!
Ta DA!!!

I'm "Stoked"! Matt Staggs even mentions my introduction "Blood" by name! ~~Clara Chandler/Ginger

www.skullring.org: An Anthology Worthy of a Stoker Nomination

I've made noise about turning fifty for the past nine months. Even put a counter on my blog to nudge me into doing...something, not sure what. It just seemed important that I accomplish some magical "thing" before I turned fifty.

Now I'm fifty and no magical "thing" has been accomplished. I feel just like I did when I was twenty, so that's good. The worst part of turning fifty is that it came and went without acknowlegement from my online friends and associates (if you don't count MySpace, who sends out notifications).

If anyone out there cares, I finally got an ice cream cake (had always wanted one) and four birthday cards. And that beats the hell out of nuttin!

The Murder of Edith Rodriguez by the American Medical System

I live in West Virginia, which basically functions as a colony whose land and mineral rights belong to outside interests and absentee owners. It's an ugly situation, time-honored and unlikely to change any time soon due to ignorance, greed, graft, and despair. The best most West Virginians can hope to accomplish is to leave the state and become true American citizens. (Yes, Virginia, the rest of the country operates much differently than the WV plantation status quo.)

Having experienced life in various states for a total of six or seven years, I can honestly say I prefer the wonderful low humidity, weather, and lifestyle of San Diego, the relative low pollution of the Smokies, and the heart of the West Virginia people. Where else can good, truly good-hearted people continue to exist with horrible healthcare, remnants of decades of chemical industry pollution, and a primarily service industry for an economic base? Oh wait, maybe some other third world nation...

Anyway, enough of that. I received an email from my oldest (LOL!) dearest girlhood friend. The last time I saw her was the week after my mother passed away. I was in the checkout line at the grocery store and Lin rushed past. She was very thin, so painfully thin -- beautiful in a way I'd never seen her. But I worried. And she was gone in a flash. In her email, she teased me about my countdown to fifty, which made me remember how she and another friend and I cycle in age. First Lin "turns," then nine months later, TWK turns. Two weeks before Lin's birthday, I "turn" so for two weeks out of each year, the three of us are the same age. I think I got her a birthday card one year that read "I know what! Let's get older!" and inside it said, "You go first!" Right now, I'm still the youngest. Once I turn fifty, until Lin's mid-October birthday, the three of us will once more be the same age.

I'm not sure what significance turning fifty has, except that I set "50" as a milestone -- you know the kind, where you arbitrarily decide certain things should be accomplished by that time. Like when I thought I should own my own home by the time I was thirty. Still running a little behind on that one, I am. I don't worry about fifty being "old." I recall my father telling me he sent his mother a telegram on her fiftieth birthday that read "Happy Half A Century." She bawled. It's funny; I don't feel mentally any different than I did when I was twenty. I'm still silly and joke around. I find something to laugh about in nearly every situation (which is a good thing because I've had my share of situations through the years).

Lin offered me a priceless gift: She has some of my earliest writings in her special memento box which she's willing to share with me. When the meaning and import of her gesture sank in, I cried. She is literally giving me back treasures I'd thought forever lost. Only two women who were practically sisters can appreciate the depth of emotion such a possibility raises.

I look forward to reading my angsty teenaged writings. They're probably terrible, but they will still be raw and fresh and heartfelt. And at this time in my life, I welcome those scribblings as a sort of time capsule. Stepping back in time, courtesy of Lin. Who'da thunk?

So to make this post come full circle, Lin has been sort of an absentee owner of these precious poems and such. Thankfully she's been a good shepherd and one of the goodhearted, truly kind spirits. I wouldn't have ever thought anything less of her.

~~GHC

I'm entered in a Zazzle Mother's Day contest - top prize is nearly $2000 in cash and prizes. In order to qualify for final judging, I need visits to my product's page; voting (clicking on hopefully the fifth star to give me five stars); and if you're interested, purchasing the card (not a necessity).

PLEASE at least click on the link to visit the product. Just takes a second to do and then you can read the text on the card!

Thanks,
Ginger

I've created a design and entered it in an Earth Day contest on Zazzle.com. The judging criteria includes number of clicks on my page, number of votes and comments received, and the design itself.

I really need my friends' help in order to win the wonderful $1,000 software suite prize! What can you do to help?

1. Click on the link below. Click often!
2. You'll see a group of five stars - click on the fifth star to rate my design as five stars if you like it.
3. Bookmark my design page (Control D) and visit it often between now and April 22nd
4. Share this info with your friends
5. Create a Zazzle username (takes ten seconds) and leave a comment on my page

Thanks in advance for any and all help you can provide. I'd love to hear your comments, but particularly love to see them on my page! LOL! And remember my motto: "Save the world - there's a lot riding on it!"

...but I've been ill for the past several months. A little better now, and hopefully on the upswing.

Here are some St. Patrick's Day goodies that I created. My Zazzle business is doing great -- kinda makes me wonder why I bothered writing at all, except that I love it too. ~~GHC