A short trip to the vegetable garden!

     If you have read my profile you will have noticed that I enjoy vegetable gardening. This spring and summer have been particularly difficult in this part of Texas because of a serious lack of rain.
     Since we had a really cold winter I planted early to get a head start on the summer heat, so seeds went in the ground the last week of February and the first week of March, yes I use seeds rather than seedlings. I planted the obligatory cucumber (both burpless and burpies), radishes, carrots, lettuce and salad greens, yellow and red bell pepper, Anaheim peppers, jalapeno's, basil, dill, oregano, rosemary, Italian and regular parsley, cherry, roma and beefsteak tomatoes and for the first time I tried water melon.
    We had a nice heavy rain very early in March and then really no rain at all to speak of until the second week of June (1") so the veggies were struggling with the heat and the lack of water. A water hose was brought out on a regular basis to keep everything alive, but big city water with all its "beneficial" additives is no match for what mother nature brings from above. After a few water bills of near $100.00 and one over $100.00, and not feeling like bringing the City of Houston out of its financial woes by myself the veggies were basically abandoned to fend for themselves.
     The tomatoes acquired a blight and only one tomato plant has survived. What the blight didn't get the Mocking birds did eating the tomatoes in their search for moisture. The blight and fungus spread to the cucumber plants so they had to be pulled. A fungicide was sprayed on everything but I fear too late, but one was trying to save what was left. We did 5 good harvests of radishes, a little bit of lettuce and salad greens. The basil plant seem to be holding its own is as the oregano and the rosemary. The bell pepper plants are not great producers because of the lack of water, the Anaheim peppers are holding their own as are the Jalapenos.
     Today I harvested the first water melon which exibited all the described and required signs of having ripened, (yellow on the bottom and a dry stem). Well, it was a bit of a disappointment to look inside as it is not quite ripe yet, but appears to be almost too ripe in the center.

Looking good but not quite there yet.

It is still mouthwatering to look at, and if you look closely it looks like it is upset

     Since we only planted one watermelon plant there are only two melons left on that plant so they will get one more week of Texas sun, and we hope rain, since today we had a full 2" of rain and now tropical storm "Don" may bring some much needed rain to the Southern part of Texas, but we hope that some of it will fall in this vicinity.

Gone fishing

     In the near future you will find fishing stories on the link at left "Gone Fishing". No, the Andy Griffith show will not begin to show or play.

Saint Joseph River Trip - Berrien Springs to Tiscornia Park - Day Four - The final installment of this journey

   Everyone is up early on day 4, the last one at 6:30 AM. We have 24.5 miles to go to our destination from Shamrock Campground, Berrien Springs to Tiscornia Park in Saint Joseph on Lake Michigan, which will be an easy two day paddle.
   As breakfast is being cooked camp is broken down, tents folded, sleeping bags rolled up, water container filled to maximum capacity because we are not quite sure where we will spend tonight, we will let the river decide our progress.
    I know this is not a "cooking show", but remember that in post one about this trip I did mention that although we might end up looking and smelling like "barbarians" we would not eat like barbarians, at least not as long as I was in charge of cooking. By the way, did I mention that I am the only coffee drinker in the group. I don't know what is the matter with younger people, they just do not flock to the good bean unless it is loaded with hype from a particular coffee chain, ordering coffee with names that most people can't pronounce nor imagine, the end result being something other than coffee itself. Anyway, breakfast was potatoes, onion and sausage.
     The boys then went off to clean the dishes and pans. I give Shamrock Campground an A+ for having not only clean shower and toilet facilities, but actually a indoor dishwashing station for primitive campers (not that the campers may be primitive, although some could be, but they camp in tents, lacking electricity, AC, running water and what is commonly known as indoor plumbing, all the things which people in RV's have to put up with), most campgrounds only have a faucet somewhere close to the "primitive" sites.
     At 8:10 AM the canoes are loaded and we are on the river, which is kicking us really hard in the posterior, a lot of water must just have been released from the Berrien Springs Dam. We hardly have to paddle, but let the current carry us with a paddle needed from time to time steer. Fishing lines are out and we are "trolling" but in all likelyhood moving way too fast.
     We are making such good time that at 10:20 AM we arrive for a break at where we expected to have lunch around 12:30 PM. We break at Jasper Dairy Road boat ramp, river left 42 deg. 00' 32.34 N and 86 deg. 23' 24.59" W. That is a distance of 9 miles in just 2 hours and 10 minutes = almost 4.5 miles an hour.
This progress creates the need for a logistics decision, since we are almost 1/2 of the way to our destination, we will press on and complete the trip today, assuming we can maintain this speed. We drank some water and had a snack or two, and the oldest member of the group, who shall remain nameless, left his canteen behind when we left at 10:40 AM. So to the individual who found the canteen, keep it as a memento of a canoe trip in which you did not participate, but keep in mind the canteen came all the way from Texas.
     At times we can almost feel the change in the elevation or grade of the land by the sound of the river as it picks up speed or slows down on more level areas. We are moving so fast that our "navigator" seem not to be able to keep up with where we are, as he is flipping through the pages of the book with the "charts" / map of the river. He locates us as we enter into Horseshoe Bend. Coming out of this bend we decide on the inner or river left channel around the little island as it appears the water is moving faster there. Good decision, the water is fast, but the river bottom is really close and we scrape a couple times, being heavily loaded. The Old Town being smaller but carrying a similar load hits bottom hard and Jerry gets out to lighten the load and to push. Good thing he didn't push too far because as the narrow channel enters the main channel, the bottom of the river disappears suddenly and he would have walked right into a deep channel with strong water; this is at 42 deg. 01' 15.55 N / 86 deg. 23' 35.78 W.
     At 12:45 PM we pass under the I94 bridge, a truck on the bridge honks and waves to us. A few minutes later we are at the boat ramp on river right where we stop for lunch, a lunch consisting of chuncks of salami sausage, hotdog buns and mustard but, alas, sans beer, some sacrifices must be made. The boys kept saying this lunch is the "wurst".
     We have now covered 17.55 miles in only 4 hours 40 minutes. We can actually take a nap under the shade trees (it is in the constitution of the retired that naps should be taken at every opportunity) as there is only 7 miles to go. A telephone call is made to South Bend to let our wives know that we will be on the beach at Tiscornia Park about 4:30 PM or so, and the alternative take out will be the US Coast Guard Station on the Saint Joe side of the river, should the weather / waves not permit us to go out into Lake Michigan.
We are obviously hoping they will make the trip to pick us up, otherwise we will have to reverse course and paddle upstream back to South Bend.
     A little after 2 PM we are on the way again, this time taking it easy. Paul is fishing from the Pelican and Thomas from the Old Town, they are having great fun, but also learning why it is called fishing rather than catching. We enter the channel in Benton Harbor / Saint Joseph and paddle leisurely through the area. Just after 4 PM my phone rings, I answer and the question posed by the caller is this; "Is that you coming under the RR bridge?". This is in fact good news because it means that our wives did in fact make the trip to pick us up. We go under the RR bridge and we can see all the girls (2 wives, 3 sisters / daugthers), they have the still camera and took all the photos here, remember the camera was not on our check list;

Going under the Railroad Bridge Saint Joseph / Benton Harbor, Michigan

     We then enter the channel between the breakwaters and find a nice gentle swell rolling in, but not so large that we cannot head out into the lake as planned. It is important to stay well off of the breakwater walls as the waves are rough and confused there.

Into the channel between the breakwaters, staying well off of the walls.

     The small swells are only about 2' with small wavelets (This is the Ship Captain speaking now). About 1/2 of the way out the channel we meet a guy on a jetski who comes by and tells us that it is really rough outside and he couldn't make it. Obviously this guy, for all his good intentions, and I have different opinions as to what constitutes rough.

The Jet Ski guy with his dire warning.

     As we move out toward the ends of the breakwaters / jetties the swells get a bit bigger with a shorter period and we have to watch our paddling in order to keep the bow up and pointed out.



Almost out in the lake. No turning around now, we are committed.

      It is 4:35 PM and we round the end of the jetties. The guys in the Old Town have been told to go out a good distance past the jetty, look for a piece of flat water and make a turn toward the beach, taking care not to surf in or to pitch pole (turning stern over bow when bow digs into the water in front).


Now just past the jetties and on Lake Michigan.



Making that all important turn towards the beach, otherwise Wisconsin is about 55 miles away across the lake.
Jerry is digging in really hard to make the turn quick.

Our spot of flat water to make the turn.

We are now headed for the beach with the waves behind us, and occasionally we surf down the face of a wave, it is rather fun, as long as one keeps an eye on the waves and a paddle really close to the water for steering.





The beach is in sight. The journey is almost over, too bad!

     We arrive on the beach, one canoe slightly ahead of the other. The bow oar of the Pelican jumps out and runs up and disappear in the dunes. We later learned that he found the shade of an oak tree to be a most excellent remedy for "mal-de-mer" and he will recommend it to all that ask. We also learned that on a couple of occasions while surfing to the beach the Old Town did ship water over the bow.



In the suftline, startled beachgoers looking on. "Where did they come from", should we perhaps say South Bend or really stretch it and say Wisconsin?"



On the beach, the journey over.



    Our navigator has determined that we have arrived at our destination, using his superior skills in determining position; we are on land, his mother and sisters are there, so we must have arrived at the proper place, which he proudly shows off on the photo below. Google Earth is telling us that we are at 42 deg. 06' 59.30" N and 86 deg. 29' 21.75 W.

We are here, I think I am pretty sure, I think!

     That is the end of the journey folks. We covered 24.25 miles on the last day; eat yer hearts out you good folk that live in areas with slow rivers. A great adventure for all that participated and I hope for those that have followed along on this blog. Here is a link to a short video of day four, which may have some of the photos already shown here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6bpA_TqLFo

Please feel free to enjoy the video and do consider doing a trip on the Saint Joseph River. It is a nice river which can be handled by even the totally inexperienced as long as proper preparations are made and prudent caution is the order of the day.

    The next adventure posting will begin in about two weeks.

The "Old Man" with the Pelican.

Saint Joseph River Trip "Day Three" - Installment Five

     This morning was a bit different than yesterday no sun hitting the tent early and there was a distinct sound of water drops; "Had they released so much water from the Berrien Springs Dam that water was close to the tent(s)?". A head peaks out of the tent flap and the water is not coming from the river, but from above. It is not a hard rain, but a steady rain, which I am sure the farmers will appreciate.
     Since we made good time yesterday and the day before, it is decided there is no need to go on the river today, since we allotted five days total for the trip, and we are only on day three, and we are almost halfway to Saint Joe and Benton Harbor, our destination.
     At 7 AM the stove is fired up for a good breakfast consisting of fried eggs, fried potatoes, sausage patties, sauteed onions and the now ever present tortillas. After breakfast the boys explore the campground and vicinity while the good doctor and I read.
    At about 9:30 AM the sun comes out. Thomas and Paul fish in the river while Joe and Leo swim across the river and back, except back was not where it was when they started, it had moved upstream some since the current is very strong. Good for them the river is not that wide at this point.
     It was decided that we should let someone else cook for lunch, but who? In order not to go hungry it was deemed best to go into Berrien Springs to eat. We ate at TJ's Grill, a classy little joint using cloth napkins, and they offered fantastic burgers as well as other delectable items on the menu. This establishment has good reviews and the address follows; - TJ's Grille & Bar (269) 471-3018 - 113 E Ferry St, Berrien Springs, MI 49103.
     After lunch we did a long two hour walk around Berrien Springs, yes I know that some will say that it is BS that one can spend two hours walking in Berrien Springs since it is not that big, (1 square mile and a population of about 1,850 souls) but we took our time. Among other notable distinctions the township is home to Andrews University, a premier Seventh Day Adventist university. We are wondering if this is the reason we could not buy beer at the grocery store where we stopped to get the required ingredients for dinner?
     After returned to the Shamrock Campground the boys fished some more. One of them went for firewood and made a nice fire. Dinner was stir fried chopped chicken breast served on a bed of rice with carrots, garlic and onion. After dinner the boys cleaned up and by 9 PM everyone was out, resting up for the day tomorrow.
Here is a link to a short video of some of the events of day three.
    

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHazQlZmVho