Spider Identification And Control – Updated repost

2013 spring and summer will soon bring out all the insects and spiders that managed to survive winter weather. Our mild winter has allowed many more adult spiders to survive this past winter and start breeding earlier than in most years.

If your are bitten by a spider, seek medial treatment as soon as possible, the longer you wait the more tissue damage is caused by the spiders venom. Try to take the spider ‘dead or alive’ to hospital with you. It is important that the medical staff know what kind of spider you were bitten by to provide you with the proper treatment.

Spiders – In U.S. gardens and even to be found in your home, there are at least 12 spiders that are Dangerous and Venomous?. It will be to your benefit to know how to identify and avoid these spiders. Their bits range from simply painful to down right dangerous to your health.

Natural no dangerous chemical spider control: The easiest way to control / eliminate spiders in and around your garden and home is to * get rid of their food supply! Spiders do not become established in areas that have no or few insects for them to eat.
* Keep leaf, brush piles and compost piles well away from your home.
* Keep fire wood out of direct contact with the soil and well away from your home.
* Turn on outdoor lighting only when ‘really’ needed and change standard bulbs for the yellow lights that do not attract insects. Lights will attract insects and insects attract spiders!
* Check and if needed replace door sweeps. Almost all spiders gain entry into your home from poorly fitted and sealed doors and windows.

Natural{sort-a} spider controls. Disclaimer Tobacco juice is a poison! It will kill ‘All’ insects that it comes in contact with. Use with Caution.

Spider Control Hints and Tips
A tip from Jerry Baker, a Master Gardener. Get a package of pipe or chewing tobacco, soak it in a gallon of boiling water until it cools. Strain the liquid into a clean container. Put a cup of tobacco juice and 1/2 cup lemon dish soap into a hose end sprayer and spray. I did this at our house two years ago and have been practically spider free since. This works on all kinds of bugs.

Helen said “Spiders have their taste buds on the tips of their legs. They also hate the taste of lemon pledge. Dust your windowsills and door frames with the pledge, both inside and out, and any areas where they accumulate. The spiders will find that they don’t want to live with you.”

Judy said “The fruit from the bois d’arc tree or also known as osage orange tree (the fruit we call horse apples) are a great repellant for spiders. But If you access to them, try quartering the apples and place one quarter in each corner of a room. The spiders just disappear. I used this when we moved into a house that had been unoccupied for a year and the spiders were in total residence. Within a week, they had all left!”

Side note, any effective treatment for spiders is also effective on scorpion’s.

Dangerous and Venomous Spider Identification Chart

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Pig In A Pit? Smoked And Slow Roasted Pig? Update Report

FYI: This year, the first day of Chinese New Year (CNY) will be celebrated on Sunday, 10th February 2013, and lasting as long as 15 days, until Sunday, 24th February 2013 in accordance with the Chinese Lunar Calendar. Having little knowledge of the Chinese calendar cycle, only knowing that 2013 is the year of the Snake.

I found Spring Festival 春节 By bondingtool February 2, 2013. Fun, Interesting and Informative. I hope you can find time to visit and if nothing else enjoy the many high quality photographs.

Wild pig update. The Great Safari or BBQ On A Tiny Farm
My son-n-laws (SNL) BBQ/Smoker is just the right size to hold 1/2 of a 100 pound wild pig. After processing 1/2 of this pig weighed about 22 to 25 pounds.

It was slow (cold) smoked using Mesquite wood for about 6 hours. Temperature never getting above 110 degrees. Then SNL added more dry Mesquite wood and 2 more uncured (green) logs of Mesquite wood to the fire box for more smoke bringing the BBQ temperature up to about 180 to 190 degrees.

This Wild pig was cooked/smoked for another 8 hours skin side up until an internal rear hind quarter temperature of 165 degrees was achieved. Air vents were all closed allowing the pig to cool (rest) for about one hour. Removed from the BBQ cooker, skin removed and served while still warm from the BBQ cooker.

Grin … Don’t tell my son-n-law, but that pig was so tender and juicy it could be cut with a fork having a smoked flavor that would only be diminished by applying any kind of sauce. SNL did good!

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Don’t Shoot Me – I’m Just The Messenger

I lied! This has nothing to do with home gardening. It’s all about e-filing your 2012/2013 taxes free.

1040

Source Do It Yourself – e-file Federal Taxes for Free
IRS said “All most everyone can e-file, Individual tax returns for free.

Last year, nearly 100 million taxpayers opted for the safest, fastest and easiest way to submit their individual tax returns — IRS e-file. Since 1990, taxpayers have e-filed nearly 1 billion Form 1040 series tax returns safely and securely. E-file is the norm. And now, with Free File, everyone can file Form 1040 series tax returns for free!”

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2013 Farm And Ranch – Fresh To Your Table – And Some Fun Stuff

Fun Fact: The Joy of a Slinky Thought of the day: Democrats, Republicans, government bureaucrats and their socialist agenda friends are like a Slinky – They are not ‘really’ good for anything but they bring a big smile to our face when you see them pushed down the stairs!

Potato Harvest

Inspite the skyrocketing cost of fuel, fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides and seed cost the American Farmer still supplies our nation with an abundance of High Quality Safe Foods at a price that is the envy of every country on earth.

Take a look in your refrigerator, freezer and pantry. Think of all the things your would not have without our hard working farmers and ranchers. Yes, I do know what it cost to go to the supermarket and how much it cost to feed a family! Still with all that said, you can feed your family high quality, safe foods for less money than any other county on earth.

Yes farming and ranching is a business. Farmers and ranchers deserve to make a living profit from their business just like walmart or apple does from their business ventures. Unlike farmers walmart is not effected by mother natures wrath. Floods, droughts, insects attacks. Unlike a fresh ripe tomato, an unsold computer does not spoil on a display shelf unsold!
Don’t forget to thank a farmer for the food you put on your table. For Feeding America.

Did you know that it takes a farmer/rancher feeding, watering, caring for a new born calf, 30 to 36 months to reach market weight?
Did you know it requires 4 to 10 acres per cow to free range a cow on grass pasture from birth to market weight?
Did you know that of all the beef produced in the US, less than 2% is USDA certified as Prime. USDA grading system determines the quality rating of beef based upon a very complicated inspection system which essentially measures the amount of marbling (fat specs) in the ribeye muscle (lean) portion and combines the maturity (age) of the beef carcass to arrive at the inspected grade quality.
Did you know, higher the ratio of marbling and the younger the beef, the higher the grade? It is the fat marbling that determines tenderness, juiciness and flavor. The age of the beef determines beef texture and also effects flavor.
Younger beef produces a finer texture and a lighter red color.

prime ribeye steaks

USDA Prime Grade has the highest rating of a combined high ratio of marbling with the youngest maturity of beef. That’s why prime is the most flavorful and most tender with the finest of texture.
Did you know USDA grade Prime beef ribeye steak sells for $20 to $35 dollars a pound and can sell for double that price if it is also Dry Aged?

Did you know that a farmer may have 4 million dollars or sometimes much more, invested in land, tractors, tillage equipment, harvesting equipment to plant, grow and harvest food and fiber(cotton) to feed and cloth your family?

Did you know a farmed gets paid 5 to 8 cents a pound for his wheat crop?
Did you know a farmers/rancher gets paid about $1.00 a pound at livestock markets for his 2 1/2 – 3 years invested in feeding, growing and caring for his cows?

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Tiny Farm And My Tiny Garden 2013

This will be my last blog post for 2012. So, you will need to suffer through my whining about the 2012 weather and my past mostly failed gardens plans.
My Tiny Farm Normal, if there is such a thing as normal weather. Average Annual Rainfall is about 33 inches.
Days With Precipitation: 60 mostly in May and June and again in September and October.
Thunderstorm Days: 50 – Hail storms producing hail 1 inch or larger: 4 per year.
Snow, sleet or Ice storm days 6
Growing Season is about 220 days
Highest temperature recorded this (2012) summer was 118 degrees with another 8 or 10 days exceeding 114 degrees.

I have suffered under Severe, Extreme and Exceptional drought conditions for the past 5 growing seasons. 2013 will likely be my 6th year to see below normal rainfall and above normal temperatures. At this rate we will soon tie the 7 year drought of (1949-1956). However depending on who’s data you look at we are still 8 years away from reaching the 15 years (1922-1937) drought that was at the heart of causing the so called Great American Dust Bowl.

Lakes that provide tap water for cities and towns and many of us that live in the country are drying up. Most areas are under water rationing plans of one sort or another. When summer time daily evaporation rates are 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch daily, using tap water to apply 1/2 – 3/4 inch water daily watering gardens, lawns, shrubs, fruit trees and such is not a viable option.

Even reverting to a few containers to grow vegetables I sometimes have a failed effort. With the heat and evaporation rates, I must be home to water container plants at least 1 time and some days 2 times a day or the hot dry winds kill my plants.
Grin .. it’s not easy being an Okie on a Tiny Farm in Southwest Oklahoma.

After all my whining about the weather, I will still till my garden plot and plant my garden hoping my long running hot, dry spell will soon come to an end.

Cool weather root crops like radish, beet, Turnips and onions will get planted in mid-March and sweet corn first week of April. Warmer weather crops like Zucchini, Yellow Summer Squash and Cucumbers will get planted the first or second week of May followed by Okra, Peppers and Tomato’s last week of May. I plan on planting 2 or 3 Tomato’s and Cucumbers in containers in mid-May as well.
Spring planted cole crops like Cabbage and Brussels sprouts and Broccoli tend to bolt to make seed before I can harvest a spring, summer crop, so cole crops will be planted mid to late July for a fall crop weather permitting.

I lost my entire herb garden the past 2 summers to the dry hot weather followed up by cold dry winters, but, I will try again in large container that will reside on my back porch.

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Town and Country Gardening – 2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

About 55,000 tourists visit Liechtenstein every year. This blog was viewed about 230,000 times in 2012. If it were Liechtenstein, it would take about 4 years for that many people to see it. Your blog had more visits than a small country in Europe!

Click here to see the complete report.

Testosterone Season – A Natural Cure Fresh From Your Garden

Testosterone Treatment: American potato salad
Man cave potato salad
Serve with Football, Buffalo Hot Wings and Cold Beer
2 pounds potatoes, cut into bite size cubes, boiled until fork tender – Cool to stop cooking with running ..cold water
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 1/2 tablespoon yellow mustard
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 small or medium size sweet white or red onion, diced
1 large de-seeded dill pickle, diced
Optional – 2 or 3 sweet pickles diced -replace dill pickle with sweet pickles
Optional – 1/4 to 1/2 cup Red and or Green sweet bell pepper
4 hard boiled eggs, diced
1 rib celery finely sliced
salt & pepper to taste
Garnish with a sprinkle of fine ground sweet red Paprika
Carefully Mix potato salad in large bowl, cover, chill and serve cold.

Re-post News Years Day! Buffalo Wings
Basic Buffalo-wings recipe
Serves 4 (normal people) you may need more, much more!
Ingredients
12 whole chicken wings
3 ounces unsalted butter or(BBQ sauce)
1 small clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup hot sauce (Your choice, mild, hot or smoking hot)
1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions
Place a 6-quart saucepan with a steamer basket and 1-inch of water in the bottom, over high heat, cover and bring to a boil.

Remove the tips of the wings. Using kitchen shears, or a knife, separate the wings at the joint. Place the wings into the steamer basket, cover, reduce the heat to medium and steam for 10 minutes. Remove the wings from the basket and carefully pat dry. It’s important to do this step, Lay the wings out on a cooling rack set in a half sheet pan lined with paper towels and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Replace the paper towels with parchment paper. Roast on the middle rack of the oven for 20 minutes. Turn the wings over and cook another 20 minutes or until meat is cooked through and the skin is golden brown.

While the chicken is roasting, melt the butter(BBQ sauce) in a bowl along with the garlic. Pour this along with hot sauce and salt into a bowl large enough to hold all of the chicken and stir to combine.

Remove the wings from the oven and transfer to the bowl and toss with the sauce. Serve warm.

Wimpy city boys choose Louisiana hot sauce 9 out of 10 times.
Serve Buffalo wings with a large bottle of Louisiana hot sauce on the side.
Be sure to provide ice cold beverages of your choice.
Louisiana hot sauce has a wonderful taste but is rather mild tasting, but, hot enough for most wimpy city boys.

Tough guys may choose Tabasco hot sauce Tabasco sauce has a wide assortment of hot sauce styles and flavors. It’s a bit hotter than Louisiana hot sauce. If you are unfamiliar with using Tabasco sauce, taste a ‘small’ amount ‘Before’ dousing your Buffalo wings with this hot sauce.

Do It Your Self Hot Pepper sauce for the Mans – Man!
*Makes about 1 1/2 cups of hot sauce.
** Caution: Wear rubber/latex gloves when handling hot peppers.
1 teaspoon salt
4-6 cloves garlic
1/4 – 1/2 medium size onion
20 habanero or scotch bonnet peppers (use any hot pepper you like and can tolerate)
3/4 cup vinegar
1 cup roughly chopped cilantro
4 mild peppers (Banana, Cubanelle, Hungarian Yellow, Biscayne Sweet.. etc. Do Not Use Green or Red Bell Pepper in this recipe…)

DIY Hot Pepper Sauce

Wash and remove the stems from the peppers and chop roughly (wearing gloves is recommended)
Then do the same with the garlic, onion and cilantro so it’s easy to work with in the food processor.
Add everything to a blender or food processor and process for a couple minutes. Try to get a smooth consistency but try not to overwork it, you don’t want to add too much air and risk it getting foamy.
**Using caution, taste for salt (if you’re getting a sort of raw taste with no flavour except the heat of the pepper, add a little more salt)
*Fresh squeezed lime juice also add another level of flavor to this sauce.

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Holiday Baking, Soups And Stews – Use More Whole Grains For Better Health

Whole Grain Breads

Source: The Truth About Whole Grains High in fiber, vitamins, and minerals, whole grains are nutritional to be sure. They can help reduce the risk of some illness, including type two diabetes, heart disease, and they can be helpful in lowering cholesterol and whole grains taste great served all kinds of ways.

The truth is, most foods made with whole grain are hearty and delicious, and choosing these over refined grains makes it easy to meet your daily whole grains quota. For a grain to qualify as a “whole” it must contain all three parts of the kernel: the endosperm, germ, and bran. Grains that are not 100 percent whole grain typically have the bran and the germ removed during the refining process, leaving only the endosperm intact. The problem is, when the bran and germ are missing, about 25 percent of the grain’s protein is lost, along with at least 17 key nutrients.

Just because a product says it contains grains does not mean it contains whole grains. There is a big difference between whole grain and whole wheat, and so too multigrain, bran, and organic wheat. One way to tell whether they are truly whole grain is to look for the Whole Grains Council stamp that assures the authentic use of whole grains.

However, not all whole grain products carry the seal, so you can also check the ingredients list and look for the words “100% whole wheat”, whole grain (including the name of the grain), whole wheat, oats, brown rice, or wheat berries. Keep in mind that products that list wheat, organic flour, multigrain, stoneground, or durum wheat on the label may be missing parts of the grain. Products that list enriched, bran or wheat germ are not considered whole grain products.

Hint: If the word “whole” is included in the first ingredient you can be confident that you are getting a whole grain product. If “whole” appears as or after the second ingredient then the product may only contain anywhere from one percent to 49 percent whole grains.

High fiber may not mean whole grain. High fiber products can be a very healthy choice, but the term “fiber” does not necessarily mean that a product contains whole grain. Different grains vary in their fiber content and many high fiber products contain bran or other fiber rich ingredients that are not whole grain.

Pearl Barley over Brown Rice Both are whole grains, however pearl barley contains more fiber, iron, potassium, and folate per serving. The switch to barley may only save you 10 calories per serving, but you also get an extra 4 grams of belly-filling fiber!
Steel Cut Oats over Rolled Oats The difference between these popular whole grain breakfast options is in the processing. Rolled oats end up as thin flakes after processing, whereas steel cut oats form thick chopped pieces, which digest more slowly therefore leaving feeling more full for a longer period.
100% Whole Grain Bread over Whole Wheat Bread You are comparing two bread products: one contains“100% whole grain” and the other has “100% whole wheat.” Go with the one that lists whole grain as its first ingredient. Settle for “whole wheat” and you might miss out on the benefits whole grains provide, such as protein, healthy fiber, vitamins and minerals.

Eating more fiber and whole grains can do wonders for weight loss and weight control.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

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An Oklahoma Christmas

My Weather Guy Said: “ Christmas forecast: As of this morning, here’s what we’re thinking. This will change many times over the next several days. (White Christmas?)
TIMING Anytime from the evening of Dec 24th through Dec 26th. Fairly high confidence, but impossible to be more specific at this point
POSSIBLE IMPACTS Snow and blowing/drifting snow, enough to cause significant travel problems. Some potential for sleet/freezing rain as precipitation begins.
AREAS IMPACTED We have fairly high confidence that wintry precipitation could affect much of Oklahoma and north Texas, depending on the exact track of the storm system. We cannot be any more specific at this point. NOAA Weather Forecast Office

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

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Christmas Season – Happy Holiday’s

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year