A Knock-Out Of A Rose

 

Dig up this post

Growing And Taming Mint

 

Dig Up This Post

Welcome To StoneGable

 

Show And Tell

Sacramento Railroad & Governor's Mansion & Cemetery

 

 

Tue & Wed - Nov. 8th & 9th


Current Governor's Mansion last used by Ron and Nancy Reagan for a short time. Nancy didn't like it as a place to raise little Ronny, so they moved out.

Sitting room or parlor.

Master bedroom, just as the Reagan's left it.

Arnold stays at the Hyatt across the street from the Capitol when he is in town. He has a special tent set up outside his office at the Capitol, so he can smoke his cigars. Smoking is not allowed in the building.

Down at Old Sacramento on the river front, we thought about eating at Joe's Crab Shack. Then we saw this sign and decided to wait until tonorrow.

The California State Railroad Museum is in Old Sacramento which is also a state park. Considered one of the finest museums in the country, it has over 20 restored locomotives and railroad cars.

This dining car was sold by the railroad in 1970 and was briefly a restaurant in Tea, South Dakota.
The passenger trains were quiet luxury on wheels with reclining seats, sleeping cars, private dining rooms, barbershop, showers, radios and phones.

Inside the dining car, each table has two place settings and each place setting is from a different set of china, glassware and silverware showing many of the different sets used on different trains. The kitchen is in the back end of the car.

During the Golden Age of Railroading, 1920s to 1950s, the Pullman cars carried 39 million passengers a year, one third of the U.S. population.

The booth seats folded down into a bed and the overhead compartment pulled down for another bunk. A curtain pulled shut for privacy. Now the Amtrak sleepers have locking doors.

Coordinating time schedules across the country was difficult, so the railroads created Standard Time and time zones. On Nov. 18, 1883 "The Day of Two Noons", railroad time became America's Standard Time.

There were cases and cases of model trains and toy trains and and games.

There were a couple of little boys just fascinated watching several sets of trains running in this display, as was I.

There were over 7,000 Pacific type locomotives built between the 1900s and 1950s. They could go 100 mph, but usually went 50 t0 60, and could pull 15 heavy passenger cars.

This is a Blue Jay Western 1" to scale model passenger train built by Bernard Farmen of Roslyn, SD. He was a clock maker, but his passion was model trains. This one took him 7 years to build.

Pony Express started right here in Old Sacramento at 2:45 AM on April 4,1860, the first lap of a 1,966 mile trip to St. Joseph, Missouri. Each rider carried 20 pounds of mail in four cantinas (pockets) on a light leather mochilla (saddle). They had a dozen riders at a time who made $50 per month. They rode approx. 75 miles in 9 hours each lap, changing horses five times and it took about 10 seconds to change horses. Each trip took ten days. One rider once rode 22 miles in one hour and 5 minutes. The entire Pony Express era lasted only 19 months, had 121 riders, 800 ponies and 35,000 pieces of mail with only one pouch of mail lost.

We walked through the Sacramento Historic City Cemetery started in 1849 with a gift of ten acres from John Sutter, owner of the land where gold was discovered. He is buried there along with senators, governors, generals, 1500 people and 17 doctors who died during the cholera epidemic of 1850 and many anonymous pioneers and gold seekers.

Alexander Hamilton's son is buried here somewhere, but it was getting dark and we couldn't find it.

Between 1848 and 1900 California gold seekers produced 2,300 tons of gold.

This is the highest point in the cemetery (maybe 35') and the highest point in Sacramento (elev. 25'). During the flood of 1861 the cemetery served as a safe haven from high waters. Hundreds of tents were seen on it's hills. The cemetery is at least a mile from the river.

This is just a small monument to Mark Hopkins, one of the "Big Four". Along with Leland Stanford, Collis Huntington and Charles Crocker, they were responsible for getting the transcontinental Central Pacific Railroad built.

Wells Fargo headquarters brought the bulk of California's gold and Nevada's silver to Sacramento and put it on steamers to San Francisco. Henry Wells and William G. Fargo were express and banking pioneers and in 1850 were founders of American Express. Wells built the earliest telegraph lines ending the need for pony express. Fargo's later involvement with the Great Northern Railroad resulted in the town of Fargo bearing his name.

In case we were missing winter, they have an ice skating rink right downtown. 60 degrees, now that's the way to go ice skating!

We will be at John's sister's in Hanford, central California, tomorrow night for the next three weeks. I probably won't be blogging much until about the second week of December.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Tarra
  http://tarrastravels.blogspot.com/2010_11_01_archive.html

Земляника в пирамидках,уход.

В этом году решила серьезно заняться клубникой и земляникой. Решила сделать пирамидку земляничную и клубничную,чтобы прикрыть неприглядные еще пейзажи нашего новенького сада,перечитала много чего.Краткое изложение: 1 У нас,на Урале,точно- вымерзнет,так,что настраиваться нужно как на однолетник. 2 Делать можно какие угодно пирамидки-главное,чтобы хорошо поливалось и освещалось. Если пирамидка высокая,лучше в середину вставлять трубу с отверстиями,через которую идет полив 3 Хорошая, удобренная земля. Пирамидкой можно замаскировать кучу строительного мусора,или компоста. Еще из плюсов - удобно обрабатывать от вредителей,собирать урожай,меньше поражается гнилью. А теперь фото из интернета для воодушевления!!!


земляника




А вот такие делают уже промышленным способом,которые годятся и для красивых клумб PS Глюк что ли сегодня какой ,не могу нормально фото расположить. Но что есть-то есть((     http://www.liveinternet.ru/users/muter/post157624669/

AN ABUNDANCE OF POTATOES.

 

With a bit of luck I can manage to grow several crops of potatoes each year, planting the first seed potatoes in October with a further planting after Christmas. Potatoes will handle quite rough soil so are a good crop to put into new ground. They are not a deep rooted plant like carrots, which will push down into the soil. Instead, the tubers grow out from the original seed potato. It is necessary to hill them as the plants grow to cover the young tubers. If you keep building up the soil around the stem of the plant they will continue to make fresh tubers in ever increasing layers. This may also be done by creating a support for the soil with rubber tires mounted on rubber tires. This is a great way of cropping for people with limited gardening space. Using this method it is also possible to grow potatoes in the milder winter climates, providing the tops are covered each night against frost.
Potatoes are well suited to growing in furrows which can be flooded with a garden hose and is the way I prefer to grow mine. To get an early start this year I planted two rows of seed potatoes in October amongst the red Flanders poppies in my Remembrance Field at Das Helwig Haus B&B at Glen Aplin on the Granite Belt of southern Queensland.

Potato rows

Three young Koreans came in November to work for me as WWOOFers – Willing Workers on Organic Farms and as the poppies finished flowering they removed them and hilled the potatoes.

Hilled potatoes

Meanwhile I had planted a later patch of potatoes, a different variety, on the opposite corner of the field. My non-organic vegetable farming neighbors when given fresh potatoes in February, asked what chemicals I had used on the crop?
I replied, “None.” One of the secrets to growing good crops of any vegetable is to rotate your crops and never grow potatoes in the same place for at least 3 years. Repetitive growing of the same vegetable in the same ground each year will not only result in depletion of soil nutrients essential to that plant, but also a build up of pests – either leaf feeders or root borers. Potatoes appreciate feeding on rich compost or manures and need plenty of water during the growing season. I prefer to buy fresh seed potatoes each year, rather than use left over shooting potatoes from my pantry to avoid spreading any disease.

A second crop of potatoes.

As the leaves ripen up the plants tend to fall over to the side and it is important at that time to ensure the tubers close to the surface are covered with additional earth or a mulch of hay to prevent sunburn and greening. Any potato exposed to the sunlight will acquire green skin. This green portion of the potato is poisonous and any potato showing green should be peeled deeply, or discarded.

Korean Wwoofers digging potatoes

Here the three Koreans (Ashley, Jack and Jinni) were harvesting Sebago potatoes. Jack is using a brand new stainless steel digging fork, which my father gave me for a Christmas present. The other varieties I grew were Kennebeck and Desiree. Again to avoid possible contamination of my soil, I do not compost my potato greens, but burn them. If it is possible to establish a different place each year where you can burn garden waste and then plant vegetables like melons or pumpkins in the ash, you will be rewarded with excellent crops as the heat destroys the natural pathogens lurking in most soils.

Jack washing the potatoes.

The potatoes were washed, sorted according to size and stored in our cellar room at 8 degrees Celcius.

Stored potatoes

I’m sure you know many ways of serving potatoes, but have you ever made your own potato crisps?

• Choose small to medium potatoes of an even size.
• Wash potatoes, but don’t peel.
• Slice the potatoes as thinly as possible. I have a meat slicer which cuts much thinner and neater slices than I could manage with a sharp knife.
  

  Slicing potatoes.
• Thread the potato slices on to wooden skewers.
• Sprinkle salt or other flavoring over the potato slices.
• Suspend three skewers across a microwave safe bowl.
• Place the bowl in a microwave oven and cook for 7-10 minutes. The time required will depend on the thickness of your slices.
• Remove from the microwave oven, cool and strip off the skewer.
• Store in an airtight container for future use as potato crisps.
  
  

  Raw, salted potato slices.
  
  
  

  Cooked potato crisps.

  http://fayhelwig.com/self-sufficiency/green-garden-12/#more-795

The Best Tomatoes for Sauce: San Marzano Tomatoes

 

Ask any chef and they’ll tell you that San Marzanos are the best tomatoes for sauce.
The flesh of San Marzanos is thicker and meatier than other sauce tomatoes, they have fewer seeds, a bolder flavor, and they’re less acidic. The end result? These tomatoes just melt into sauces.
To prep San Marzanos for sauce, you first have to remove the skin. Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Drop in a few San Marzanos (you may have to work in batches) and boil until they’re skins start to blister (about 1-3 minutes). Remove the tomatoes from the water using tongs, a slotted spoon, or a Chinese skimmer and immerse them in a bowl of ice water. Once the tomatoes are cool enough to handle, use your hands to peel off the skins.
Next, chop off the tops of the tomatoes and slice away any tough flesh, bruises, or rot spots. To remove the seeds, cut the tomato in half lengthwise and gently scrape out the seeds using a small spoon or your finger. At this point, the tomatoes are ready to be frozen or canned.
Removing the skins and seeds from San Marzanos makes for an extra velvety sauce. Try using San Marzanos in this simple Garlic Tomato Sauce for pasta or pizza. They’re also perfect in ratatouille.
Look for fresh San Marzano tomatoes at your local farmers market. You can also find canned San Marzanos in specialty stores or larger grocery chains. http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2010/08/10/san-marzano-tomatoes-the-best-sauce-tomato/