Farm Boy at Heart

This little piece of ground is what serves as a vegetable garden for me. It is small, about 7'x15'. I can't do much with it. I guess that is good, since I don't have much time to spend with a garden. I usually plant a few tomatoes and peppers. I always have a tomatillo plant or two. Not much work in keeping these going. I don't use much fertilizer and no pesticides unless there is a major problem.

Last Sunday (March 22), I cleaned and dug the little garden. I need to add some soil amendment - compost this year before I plant. I probably will not actually plant before May 10 as I wait for the soil temperature to rise a bit. The soil is not very good, since I started with the fill clay around the house and have added soil amendments to create a more acceptable soil.

I keep this location and small plot for several reasons: it is located on the south side of our house and get very good sunlight. It warms up quickly. Probably more important is that it is a bit protected from the deer that roam our neighborhood. They occasionally find the garden and do some damage, but I am amazed that they do not eat more of the plants.

We have a much larger yard with some very nice plants including about 50 azaelias. I'll add some photo as they come into bloom. I would put in a much larger vegetable garden, but the deer would take most of the produce and it would be a lot of work to upgrade the soil.

Next week we will begin to get the spring flowering trees including the cherry trees.

The little vegetable plot fills this the farm boy's spring urges.

Wind Energy in Texas

T. Boone Pickens has a plan. West Texas is a big player in wind energy.


In Roscoe, Texas, wind has become a big deal. This article is about Cliff Etheredge. Cliff and I went to high school together in Roscoe.

A Life in a Box

A box was delivered to me when I visited with my family in Texas. A simple cardboard box, overflowing with dingy paper and old photographs, some yearbooks and postcards and a faded silk scarf. It is a bit difficult to think that the contents of the box was the summation of a life, all there really was to show. The box contained the worldly positions of my uncle Carl.

Carl was one of those men that went to war in 1943 and never returned. The box was what he left with is mother and dad when he left for the South Pacific or perhaps some of the items were sent to them by others after he left. At any rate the box was mostly unopened for the past 65 years. It fell upon me to determine what to do with these small remaining items of his life.

Carl was the oldest of 2 sons and 6 daughters. He was the one who went to college in the midst of the Depression. He worked his way through. The first member of his family to graduate. He became a teacher and later worked to the Texas Highway Patrol, but in far West Texas. Then came the time to serve. He was going to be drafted or maybe he was. At any rate, he became a radio operator on an Army Air Corps plane that did not return from a mission out of New Guinea over the Sea of Bismarck. The plane never returned and was never found.

His box remained with his parents until their death and was passed to his only brother who also served in the Army Air Corps in New Guinea. When is brother died the box made it to his sister, my mother, and then to me.

Why me? I was born a few months after Carl went missing in the South Pacific. My mother gave me the middle name of Carl. So, Carl lives on beyond the box.