Recent content by Mike Stafford

I wish I had been smart enough to do the same when I had a part time job as a driver for a laundry company. There was an old man on my route who insisted that I drop off his laundry on the back porch. He had a couple of hooks on the wall that were for that purpose. His backyard was fenced and...

This is a most interesting project. I have to admit I don't know exactly what they are for. I can guess that a small cup or bowl or mug goes in each recess and is filled with a different beer for the connoisseur to taste. I haven't been in a brewery where tastings were occurring. I don't drink...

It has been a wonderful week here without deluges and temperatures that were perfect. Warm enough to wear shorts to the shop a couple of days. Speaking of the shop I have been turning small footed vases for an article. I used to turn quite a few of these little vases which were good sellers...

In the movie The World's Fastest Indian, Burt Munro, portrayed by Anthony Hopkins, urinates first thing every morning on his lemon tree. He believes that doing so will make the tree thrive and the lemons as good as they can be. When he leaves for America to try out his modified Indian...

To me she is a remarkable woman. She took care of me while I was very sick. She learned how to pack and change the dressings for two fistulas that I had after my surgery. She learned how to change, clean and apply dressings for a wound vacuum which had to be done every other day. She has taken...

Thank you for the suggestion Ryan. She already has it and is friends with one of the authors. She has numerous needlework designs in the works but she had them in the works before she retired. We shall see. I just don't want her bored. She can't do needlework all the time just like we...

My lovely bride retired today. It was her last day after teaching mathematics at a small college (now a university) for 34 years. All totaled she has 51 years teaching mathematics including her short stints early in her career as a high school math teacher. She also taught at ECU just down the...

Just a bump. I wondered about Dave. Missing him....

That's a great idea Jay. I have never heard of that nor have I seen it in any of my gardening books that I recall. I wonder why.... It seems a lot of organic authors call for the addition of alfalfa meal but that is really expensive fertilizer. You learn something everyday. It's a shame I...

The soil around here is a mixture of sand and sand when I first started trying to establish my garden. The first season I added 15 bales of peat moss; one to each row. My garden is 20X60 which happens to be the exact size of the spread from my oscillating sprinkler when mounted on a 24" stand...

We had a terrible fire here :cry:. The Krispy Kreme store caught on fire and has been closed for almost two weeks :cry:. A real tragedy...the police are driving around with a vacant look in their eyes and people in the coffee business have gone on relief.:cry: A world without Krispy Kreme is a...

It has been very windy here for the last couple of days. The trash cans are being blown all over the neighborhood. It is trash pickup day. On a positive note the catkins have been blown from the pine trees which means there will be less pollen. But the road, driveway and decks are all covered...

I would just like to say I resemble that remark so let's don't speak it in a disparaging manner. :p:D

Crawl out through the fallout, baby When they drop that bomb Crawl out through the fallout With the greatest of aplomb When your white count's getting higher Hurry, don't delay I'll hold you close and kiss those Radiation burns away Crawl out through the fallout, baby To my loving arms Through...

Ryan, that is very interesting. I have no idea what kind of fig my grandparents had but they were very sensitive to frost and would brown and drop leaves if much of a frost. The garage that sheltered them was built from corrugated steel siding and caught the morning sun. The steel would get...