Could Ya TRY Not to Get Creeped Out By These Very NICE Banana Spiders?

When we see the first banana spider we know Fall can't be far behind. (These are not to be confused with the Wandering Banana spider indigenous to Brazil, which is poisonous) Another name for these huge 'ladies' is the Golden Orb Weaver.
  This one took up residence under the patio underhang, not far from where the doves had raised their small family last month. What an intricate and fancy web she's got going for her this year. Looks like she's got it on zigzag.

She's apparently camera shy, and scurried to hide, but I caught this nice shot of her, below, as she hurried away.

She usually stays parked in the middle of the web unless we scare her by walking too close to her setup. She seems to be making a good living up there. 

She's rather small by comparison to our other banana spider standards. She looks to only be about the size of the palm of my hand.  As Fall approaches, there will probably be several of them setting up shop in various spots around our yard.  We try not to bother them unless they block a path.  They are great at catching skeeters and we appreciate that, as well as their beauty.  (It took Peg awhile to be able to look at them as one of God's creatures, and it helped that they ate a ton of mosquitoes.)

   As more show up, I will try to get some pictures of their webs covered with morning dew shining like glittering strands of tiny jewels sparkling in the morning sun.  

Sadly, these wonderful creatures have become the bane of Fall hunters as they walk through the woods, hunting.  Imagine creeping through the woods, concentrating on the tops of trees for elusive squirrels, or looking down, eyes darting behind bushes or shrubs for prey and walking face first into one of these huge spiders, whose web is exactly nose high.

Here, below, is a link to a couple of stories where Peg thought one 'got her', and only because of these dreaded South Louisiana mosquitoes, has she finally come to terms with the realization that, a lot of the bigger bugs are really on her side (NOT Literally!!) after all. 

http://cappyandpegody.blogspot.com/search?q=spider

Our Book got a 5 Star Review!!

After a year and a half of researching and writing, we finally got our book, "Space Freighter First Dock: Neo-Eden" published, for now, as an online ebook. This was a little more than two weeks ago. We have since, been anxiously awaiting any kind of feedback for all the hard work we'd put into the venture. We have been in the dark, wondering if any of the twenty or so buyers actually like what we had written.
   It's a long book, (nearly five hundred pages) with rich characters and a lot of, what we feel, are fun and interesting stories wound around the main story line. We were hoping and praying others would agree. That being said, we should have known it would take anyone some time to get through it, and comforted ourselves with that thought.
 (Peggy here: it's not what I'd call the usual sci-fi, but more read as though it were a fun tale taking place, even today. No vulgarity or bad swearing. Plus, despite, in today's world, it being politically incorrect, we honor God.) 
  So, two weeks went by and still no sign of anyone letting us know their thoughts on the matter. 
  Finally, we woke up the other morning and found this review accompanied by 5 stars on Amazon:  
Sci-Fi Fans take notice and buckle your seatbelts! Ray and Peggy Robin (Cappy and Pegody) authors of Space Freighter First Dock: Neo Eden, have written an exciting new book.
Original story line from Earths future filled with page turning delight. Well-developed characters, fast paced, outstanding descriptions of old and new earth, their ship the Intrepid, and other worlds.
Delicious mystery, thought provoking intrigue and brilliant dialog.
Space Freighter First Dock: Neo Eden is truly a page turner that catches the imagination and won’t let go. This is the best new Science Fiction story I’ve read in years and I’m sure it will become a fan favorite with the promise of many more installments.
Look for Cappy and Pegody to be 2016 Hugo or Nebula Award winners, if not both!
Truly a must read for Sci-Fi fans everywhere.

Just in case you think we made it up it is here on the Amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013L4T020?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

Don't forget you can get a free sample and distributor discount at smashwords:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/566680

If you decide to read our book, please do like the angel who wrote this review on Amazon and give us the review you think we deserve and/or drop us a note and let us know what ya think.
  It must be noted: the man who wrote the review above, is a noted author, himself, J.D.Ludwig, who wrote Overreach: Blood of Patriots, also available online and in bookstores.
  Whaa Hoo! It's getting to be a fun ride now!

The Mad Experiment Continues

Last Spring, as an experiment, we planted some yard-long beans in our little square foot garden.  We were told they were good hot weather plants that could withstand our South Louisiana Summers.  If you look a little ways back into our blog archives, you will see how we were thrilled when we planted them and they practically jumped out of the ground! Now, with them growing, we've harvested plenty and cooked them several different ways.  Well, here it is the middle of an almost record dry, extremely hot August, and we are happy to report that the beans have survived without us even watering them. Not wanting to venture out into the miserably oppressive heat, ourselves, we had given up, but they didn't. They are still producing aplenty, so here's a picture of yesterday's harvest:

These, along with a few okra and some small peppers are all the garden is producing in the summer heat. Peg used up the peppers already, or they'd be smilin' at ya, here along with the beans and okra.  

 

So, this is the freezer's haul for one day. Not a bad deal. Not shabby at all. (shade garden notwithstanding)

Even though the volunteer squash has retreated, because the heat has beaten them back,

taking another look this morning, it looks like they've gotten their second wind.

Maybe they plan to take over Peg's shade garden and the yard again this Fall. A few of her flowers survived the onslaught of Summer drought and squashes taking over their bed. If those viney beans and viney squash ever crawl across the yard and meet in the middle, head to head, who knows what kind of plant versus plant entertainment we'd find ourselves watching for the next few months or so. I guess this proves what simple folks we are. It's the little things in life that tickle our fancy that we find "Madcap" fun. Muah ha ha, anyone? (anyone?)

An Update On Our Nesting Doves

The pair of doves that nested on our patio hatched a pair of little ones and cared for them 'til one morning we woke and discovered that they had all flown away. There was no sign of struggle or anything sinister; they had just packed their little birdies up and flew the coop, so to (conveniently) say. 
 We miss seeing them every morning and hope they all survive wherever they went. We hear their coo on occasions in different parts of our yard, so know that they are still around, just not on the patio anymore.  If we locate them, you can be sure we will take more photos, but for now, here is a short video...'baby pictures', if you will.  

They grew so fast that before we could remember to film them again, they were gone.  They were a joy while they were here, though, and we wish them well. Sighhh...so here we are, empty nesters...they did leave us that to remember them by.

Asparagus Beans in a pot __?___ Yards Long

When life hands you a bunch of yard long beans what's a poor Cajun man to do?

Drag out da ol' black iron pot, whack them up into little pieces and smother them down to the point ya can barely tell they are beans, das what.  First ya grab some bacon pieces and whatever smoked sausage ya have on hand and throw that in the pot.

Once that renders down some, toss in a couple chopped up onion and some Cajun seasoning.

  As I have mentioned before ,the salt from the seasoning draws moisture out of the onions and speeds up the cooking process.

Once the onions have cooked down a little.

 dump in a big pan of yard long beans and a little more seasonings.

Cook them down,

Until  they are totally 'smothered', looking nothing like beans at all; then they are "done".

Then, dish them up with salad and a steak and call them supper.

They were very good; slightly different from our normal snap beans, and in our opinion a wonderful addition to our back yard garden.  This was our first dish with them and we plan to try them several other (maybe less cooked down) ways, and we will let yall know what we think, but so far we are thrilled to at how productive they are, and live up to our friend, Todd's endorsement.  I have noticed that several of yall are commenting that they look thinner than regular beans, but I can't help but wonder if they just seem that way because they are so long.  Once "whacked" up and sitting in the pot they look pretty normal to me. ( 'Course I 'm not sure I'm the right spokesperson for "normal".)

Yes!! We Have Some Bananas!

  As I have oft said before, the problem with living in a semi-tropical environment is the 'semi' part.  Two winters ago, we had one of our rare hard freezes, which (temporarily) killed all the banana fronds.  If you look back  in our blog, (somewhere) you will see that I had to whack our dried brown banana palms down to the ground, in hopes they would start over.  Well, they came right up again, growing vigorously, like they do, and grew all year with most of them managing to survive all the way through last winter.  Here, in sunny South Louisiana, it takes the bananas two years to mature, because our growing season is not quite long enough for them to complete their cycle of bringing bananas to 'fruition'. 
  The other day, Peggy excitedly called me to come look out the back door, where she was pointing out a huge banana flower we had somehow overlooked.  
   To me, they look for all the world like a big purple ice cream cone hanging from a stem, and, right now, I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture right then.  That was July 3rd, and I never got around to taking a picture of the flower 'til yesterday, the 6th. A lot has happened in just those three days.

As you can see, the flower already started opening, exposing the first of the tiny little green baby bananas. See 'em? They have some kind of little yellow bloom on the end of each one.

Yall help Peg and me remember, and I'll try to take a picture a week or so, from now, to show yall how the bananas are progressing. We'll have to go look, now, through all the thicket of banana palms back there, to see if we don't find some more  bananas! For now, though, yes, we got some!

Our Yard Long Beans...Seriously.

  Our good friend, Todd, mentioned to us, last year, that he had grown some 'yard long green beans' aka "asparagus beans", and that he and his family loved them.  He told me that they grew all summer and were easily maintained.  Well, even tho' we'd never heard of 'em, we are always looking for stuff that withstands our hot, humid summer heat, so this sounded to us, like something that we needed to try. 
   With this in mind, we ordered them online. To make room for  these "yard long beans",  in mid-June, when all of our pitiful, paltry producing pea vines had dried up, we unceremoniously dragged them off the trellises on either ends of our main garden box, where they were clinging tenaciously by their dried tendrils, with their few inch long offerings, that they were trying to pass off as peas in a pod. Promises, promises. 
  Now, carefully, with one eye on the birds, who were sitting above our heads on the electric wires, closely observing our endeavors, and who had sneakily feasted on every cucumber seed (and new little cucumber seedling) that we had planted in the Spring, (in the same spot we had planted those lying peas) we  planted 12 of these beans along each end of our 4 ft wide raised bed garden. 
   What to our wondering eyes should appear, only a few scant days later...these beans jumped up outa the ground, looked around and began vining and crawling to the top of our eight foot tall trellis, then began reaching out long 'feelers', as if to say, "Is this all ya got?" in the way of things for them to climb on. "That's it," we said, "That's all the room we've got for you...go for it." So they did. Before long, we noticed lots of double flowers. 

Hmm, that was curious. We wondered what they were planning to do with two flowers. From these 2 flowers sprouted 2 beans.

Which grew,

and grew 'til the trellises were full of green "icicles", hanging from top to bottom. Green beans. Some actually are about a yard long; no kiddin'.

Well, me and my sidekick,  Beaux went to picking them and this is the rough video Peggy made of my silly self doing it.

Once we got them picked ,we decided to clean and cut them into lengths that fit in a ziplock bag and we managed to get 4 fat bags full. (no, we didn't blanch 'em...just stuck 'em in the bags and froze 'em...never had a problem with doing it this way before.)

We will see what the Summer brings. The only other thing we've seen take off like this, were those volunteer butternut squashes.  Now, we see that, since these beans have run out of trellis, they are grabbing onto the okra stalks, which are trying to grow tall. When they are about eight feet tall, they will display a beautiful flower,  which then will be replaced by a light green okra.  Since the okra aren't growing fast enough for these eager beans to climb onto, they have wound themselves around the fence, as well...anything they can get their ...tendrils onto. If they start eyeing one of the trees, and decide to make a run for it across the lawn, they will learn a very hard lesson, the same way Peg and I learned our lesson with the squash. We're really not complaining, tho', cuz it appears that we will have no shortage of these 'cool', hot weather beans. 
  Now, I wonder what recipes our good buddy, Todd, came up with for all these yards and yards and yards of asparagus beans and how he easily controlled 'em from taking over the garden.  The okras are impatiently waiting to hear.

UPDATE on the Squashy Garden

This is an update to the "squashy" post about Peggy's "Shade" garden, and The Invader from the Compost Pile, who took over 'the world'! (Cappy and Pegody's World, anyhow) 
 Those of you, who read our ramblings, surely remember our recent post about the "volunteer" Butternut squash that took over Peggy's new garden bed, as well as a chunk of our back yard play area.

We deliberately planted all kinds of things in our regular raised bed gardens, then worried and prayed and sweated and toiled over all of them, and for all of that, they did manage to give us a few measily bits of produce. We didn't complain. Now, meantime, here comes this interloper, uninvited, who not only pranced all over Peg's 'shade' garden, but then hogged the whole thing, and meanwhile, while we kept a jaded eye on it, as to its intent, it started making tons of squash.  This was last month; it's still producing big luscious beauties!  These volunteer invaders are, far and above, the best producers in our whole yard. Now, we are casting a jaded eye on our regular raised garden beds, wondering their intent. We have some bell peppers, who are...well, I suppose, doing the best they can. We got no cucumbers outa da deal this year at all...not one, for all our efforts. We got a few green beans.

    Now as far as July, one of the hottest months down here in the south, we are not sure about the squash. The heat does seem to be hurting their lush leaves and stems, so they are slowing down a little bit in their zeal, and maybe a little disturbed that I had to take back some of my lawn with the mower. 

    They do have a little competition from the far raised bed, too.  The yard long ('asparagus') beans are starting to produce, (they are a new item for us) and the longhorn okra stalks are slowly working their way up to the sky, where, from there, they will (should) put out some beautiful flowers, followed by the long, pale green okra. Getting a little ahead of myself there, and that will all be for another update, later on. 

So, getting back to the point, here is a "squash picking video" from our THIRD picking.

 

This was our first picking:

 And this our second.

By the time we took this picture it became obvious that my ol' digital camera had finally had it, so we retired it and went with a new video/still camera for future stories.  It made the video and the following pictures of the last picking,

and one of the many meals we got from some of these, now, Wonderful volunteers.

As the Summer starts and, sadly, the squashes begins to retreat, we are happy to report that this invader didn't "squash" every thing in the garden. A few things survived the onslaught, like this lavender chiffon hibiscus, that Peggy has been daily uncovering from the shady squash leaves, and has just bloomed next to the croton, which has increased it's size four-fold. I didn't think this was possible, but our Rosemary, didn't make it this time. Next time we'll have to be more diligent with another 'her'.

As the uninvited volunteer withdraws, as quietly as 'he' came, who knows what else may be hiding under his large squashy leaves?  The giant Invader from the Compost Pile had his day in the sun. And to this we say, "Well done...you are welcome back for dinner anytime."

A Pair Of Doves Come Home To Roost

We were thrilled to see a pair of Doves (Peg calls them 'morning doves') build a nest on our patio.  There are a lot of them in our neighborhood. We've always enjoyed hearing them 'coo' and seeing them here and there, and occasionally visiting our yard. We have often seen them perched on the high lines, in pairs.  We were surprised, and frankly, quite honored to see them building a nest in our patio. They are not bothered  by our noisy comings and goings and even sat through one of our smokey BBQ's. 
   Our kittens have all flown the coop, so to speak, hopefully to nice homes in the neighborhood. They just, one by one, 'up' and disappeared. Heartbreaking, but it's the life of yard cats in our town. If cats do have nine lives, they are living it up somewhere else; we just hope they are happy. Their "Mama" disappeared along with them for about five days, then came back injured, so now, she's a house cat. ($ getting her and her kids "fixed", and now more $ getting her repaired...surgery...yow! The look on our wallet's face? Priceless.) She's had a rough life and she's a serene, sweet good girl, so...we shrug and say, "Whatcha gonna do?"
  It's with this thought in mind, the doves, who apparently trust us, might have a nice life on our patio. A few weeks ago, with Mama and her brood lurking about and bringing us birds, frogs and mice, we're pretty sure these doves wouldn't have had a chance of survival.
   It's the ebb and flow of life in our yard. Not that long ago, we could say our yard was "wholly cats", then our garden got "squashed", now things have "dovetailed" into another dimension that we will enjoy, until this adventure evolves into who knows what. Leastwise, to us, it's always interesting.
    We just got a new video camera, so, in an effort to get used to it, we thought we'd make you this little video: 

We will let yall know when they hatch.

Some Shady Dealings in Peggy's New Garden

It all started innocently enough last February with Peg des- cribing to me what she planned to be her "shade garden".  She wanted a long, kinda narrow bed that would run from our yum-yum tree out into the yard. She envisioned a 'hedgey', 'ferny',  free-growing mass of subtropical plants, with tall shrubs and maybe a dense shade tree in the middle, and the whole thing would act as a border for the "courtyard" area that we are slowly, slowly, year by year putting together. Peg's the one calling it a courtyard; I'm callin' it our fire-pit area. 
   I hustled up some cinderblocks from a neighbor, and roughly lined them up, outlining where she wanted her beloved shade garden to grow.  After hauling a few wheelbarrows of soil from our compost/worm bed, I spread the dark rich compost loam and filled the cinderblock rectangle I had created, then to help keep weeds out of it 'til she'd get around to planting what she wanted in there, we covered it with dead, dried out banana fronds.  As an afterthought, I stuck a gift Rosemary in the corner and planted a dwarf olive tree in the middle that had been living unhappily in a pot for over a year.  I had recently pruned our crape myrtle, so I also stuck in a few branches that Peg dipped in rooting hormone, thinking they might root.  (they never did.)

Since my gardening assistant, BeauxBear seemed to approve, we agreed it was a good start, so now Peg could go ahead with whatever larger plans she had to put in it. 

Some time later I pointed out to her that there was small patch of mysterious "green" growing in there that I knew neither of us had planted and asked her if she wanted me to pull it all out, but she said, "No, it's some kind of volunteer, and I'm just nosy enough to let it grow to see what it is."

 The leaves looked like maybe squash or melon or cucumbers, so we just left them there. We stuck in a line of onions along the way, as well, for good measure.

We kind of turned our back on 'em for awhile, while we took care of the main gardens.  As Spring sprang, the shade garden began to look kinda "gardenish".  Peggy continued sticking ferns and seeds and stuff in it and the "volunteer" continued growing.

and growing!

It escaped over the brick garden wall and took off across the yard!

This made mowing very difficult and right when I got aggravated enough to pull the whole mess up anyhow while Peg was out shopping, I noticed something.

If you look close, you can see little green butternut squashes growing amongst the big shady leaves here and there.  Well ,in that case, to heck with it, I figured...let 'em grow!

Grow they did!  Getting big and beginning to ripen.

By then we knew they were butternut volunteers, for sure that had once been tossed away, fit for nothin' but the ol' compost pile.  I began to watch them and check them and anticipate several wonderful dishes we could make with them.

It wasn't long before I was able to bring in a mess of them.

Well, as often happens plans go awry, and we wind up doing something else.  

Peggy's nice shade garden is on hold for the Summer on accounta once more our plans got squashed...but that's a good thing.