Mushrooms, Tomatoes, Olives, Motorcycles & Dogs

"You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on" - Dean Martin

Have you ever seen one of these?

I have a few times, but not in this good of a condition. Its called Chicken of The Woods. Here’s some info, for those who are interested. The boy found it on the property yesterday. The good news is that it comes back year after year. I will probably fry it up later today for the family.

We found these too. I’m still working to ID.

As promised, here are some pictures of the garden.

The tomatoes are really starting to come into season right now. The San Marzano’s and the Roma’s are getting really big. Those will be sauce one day when they grow up. The Cherokee Purples are huge. Like almost softball huge.

Ever heard of boxwood basil? Me either. I picked one up in the “sick gonna die any day” section of Walmart a few months ago and it’s quite happy.

The cucumber plants are starting to produce a shit-ton of blossoms. I blasted them with some fruit set hormone so they should be prolific in a week or two. That’s for cucumber salad and pickles.

This is an olive tree. We have two. These are a black olive variety that is commonly grown in California. We are right on the USDA zone line for these, so I will greenhouse these in place this winter. Hopefully they make it. There is a Spanish variety that we want to put in also, but I have to drop a few more trees this winter to make some room.

We went up to Caney Mountain on Sunday and had a picnic. I don’t care what anybody tells you, the Ozarks are not mountains. They are a collection of tall hills. This isn’t to take away from them at all. They are beautiful and quite rugged, but not exactly “mountains”. I mean the tallest spot in the state is 1772 ft. I suppose it sounds better to call it “Ozark Mountains” than “Ozark Hills”.

It was hot and humid as usual this time of year, but the view was nice and every once in a while the breeze came through and at least tried to make it a bit cooler. Luckily we decided to grill on top of a tiny little bee nest. The little bastards stung me three times.

I know he understands. You either get it, or you don’t.

The wife and I went exploring on the bikes this past week. I have started shooting video for my companies’ social media stuff, so I have a few clips of the ride. IF you care to see, I am including a couple of them. I’m not exactly Federico Fellini, so take it easy on me.

Gentle as a fairy across the forest…

Not quite as gentle….maybe more like an ogre, ya know what I mean. I assure you, its way steeper than it looks.

This was kinda pretty though.

Here is an obligatory picture of FarmDog©. I know that’s why you are actually here. You know what…. make it two, I’m feeling a bit magnanimous today.

Well, that’s all I got. Until next week,

Here’s your spicy meme of the week.