More Icha-flogging on a Blog Where I Do Not Post Articles or Comments. WELS Documented

WELS Documented

1. AnonymousJanuary 30, 2015 at 2:48 PM

   "Our first run-in"? Way to go, Rev. Father Spencer. The ink is hardly dry on the obituary and you are already speaking ill of the dead. Shame on you.

   Reply
2. 
   Joel LilloFebruary 2, 2015 at 10:57 AM

   Those who knew Pastor Soukup knew him as a man who loved the message of the gospel so much that he wished everyone knew it and who did everything in his power to get people to hear that message. That, I'm pretty sure, was the driving motivation behind what he said in his "run-in" with "Father" Spencer. As usual, we see "Father" Spencer putting the worst construction on something that someone said.

1. 
   

   
   
   Joe KrohnFebruary 2, 2015 at 5:37 PM
   "This is the ultimate in cowardliness, to make accusations about someone publicly after they have died." --anonymous
   
   Nice job.
   Reply
2. 
   AnonymousFebruary 2, 2015 at 7:44 PM

   Some of us don't want to get our reputations assassinated in your old buddy's blog, Joe, over on Ichabod.

   Reply
3. 
   AnonymousFebruary 2, 2015 at 8:13 PM

   I can't help but get a mental picture when I hear "Ichabod" come up.
   
   It's like a western movie (High Plains Drifter comes to mind). The town is gathered to discuss how to get rid of the gunslinger who has them all scared. Then you hear the jingle of spurs coming down the boardwalk and someone whispers with eyes wide - "Ichabod" as they all turn towards the door, lips a quiver, wiping sweat from their brow (sic).
   
   It makes a funny mental picture wouldn't you agree? Rhetorical question so no need to answer. Of course I am in the crowd, though for vanities (sic) sake I like to think I am whispering "Search Engines" as a general pejorative rather than just singling out "Ichabod".
   
   Eine arme Schaf

   Reply

***

GJ - What started this tirade was Pastor Steve Spencer's comment that he and the late Pastor Paul Soukup had a different opinion about the effects of teaching the truth. That became a chance for the junkyard dogs - anonymously - to start biting and devouring.

I was not even on the page and--snap, bite, drool, snarl--they started on me. Watch them whine about being quoted, as if reading and quoting a blog is opening someone's mail.

"You're not too happy with Ichabod, Anonymous.
Maybe you should saddle up, sit down with him,
and tell him your sins.
I mean - his sins."

Too Cold and Too Bold in Gardening?

Use the Force - of Creation, Luke.

One reader is intrigued with my early planting of peas and sunflowers. Today we woke up to 15 degree temps here in NW Arkansas. Many times in January I was outside in a short-sleeved shirt, and I was used to getting the newspaper for our neighbor without the benefit of shoes. Dressing up means - wear shoes, clean sweats.

That January planting took place when we pulled back mulch from last fall and planted peas, then sunflowers along the back fence. That is easy when the mulch is placed in the fall. The ground stays soft, especially if lawn and weeds have been rotted by the covering. I learned that when I built a pine branch shelter for animals before the Minnesota winter. I did not see any wildlife there, but the area under the branched composted and became very soft for turning over.

The peas will do fine at 15 degrees. They can be planted in the fall, though many resist that because the seed is vulnerable to fungi and animals the whole time.

Spinach is easily started in the fall and continued in very early spring, since it likes cold (like peas) and attracts bugs, which dislike the cold.

This should not shock people, but city folk are often unaware of how much winter wheat is grown. Winter wheat is also planted in the late autumn and very productive from its enjoyment of spring rains.

Vigorous plants may host insects, but they shake off the damage by growing so fast. Seedlings attacked by insects can be seriously weakened, but beneficial insects, birds, and soil health will mitigate that problem.

Forget grocery store carrots, which are pretty good.
Carrots right out of the ground are delicious, sweet, and nutritious,
from baby seedlings - so cute - to full grown and dug up from the snow.
They are two-year plants, so they are not old and useless for eating until the second year.
Then they flower like their cousins - Queen Ann's Lace.

Next on my list is a second planting of peas, because they will grow before anything can. After that, a row of carrots will be planted. Carrots can be planted weeks before the last frost. Carrots can be kept in the ground into the winter, to sweeten them. In Midland I was never tempted to dig for carrots in the snow, but people think that is a great little adventure. I did grow kale and that can be harvested green from under the snow.

Let's think about that. Kale is so tough, it is still green under the snow. The texture has to be close to rubber, maybe tougher - and that is correct. But it is nutritious, like everything in the cabbage or crucifer family (crucifer for the flower - aka cole and brassica plants). The family is cold tolerant, even cold loving. Brussels sprouts, loved by gourmands like me, hated by city slickers, get better with a frost.

The taxonomy of common cruciferous vegetables

common name	genus	specific epithet	Cultivar group
Horseradish	Armoracia	rusticana
Land cress	Barbarea	verna
Ethiopian mustard	Brassica	carinata
Kale	Brassica	oleracea	Acephala group
collard greens	Brassica	oleracea	Acephala Group
Chinese broccoli (gai-lan)	Brassica	oleracea	Alboglabra Group
Cabbage	Brassica	oleracea	Capitata Group
Savoy cabbage	Brassica	oleracea	Savoy Cabbage Group
Brussels sprouts	Brassica	oleracea	Gemmifera Group
Kohlrabi	Brassica	oleracea	Gongylodes Group
Broccoli	Brassica	oleracea	Italica Group
Broccoflower	Brassica	oleracea	Italica Group × Botrytis Group
Broccoli romanesco	Brassica	oleracea	Botrytis Group / Italica Group
Cauliflower	Brassica	oleracea	Botrytis Group
wild broccoli	Brassica	oleracea	Oleracea Group
bok choy	Brassica	rapa	chinensis
Komatsuna	Brassica	rapa	pervidis or komatsuna
Mizuna	Brassica	rapa	nipposinica
Rapini (broccoli rabe)	Brassica	rapa	parachinensis
Flowering cabbage	Brassica	rapa	parachinensis
Chinese cabbage, napa cabbage	Brassica	rapa	pekinensis
Turnip root; greens	Brassica	rapa	rapifera
Rutabaga (swede)	Brassica	napus	napobrassica
Siberian kale	Brassica	napus	pabularia
Canola/rapeseed	Brassica	rapa/napus	oleifera
Wrapped heart mustard cabbage	Brassica	juncea	rugosa
Mustard seeds, brown; greens	Brassica	juncea

Another reader is all set to plant, but her garden is under a foot of snow. We had two inches of snow predicted - accumulation! Oh no! I saw some flakes falling this morning, but not enough to make the car windshield white. Frost on the windshield has been a no-show all winter, with a few exceptions.

I am looking for bulbs to poke through the soil now, but the cold nights of February may slow that down quite a bit. We are usually a month ahead of the flowers in Midland, Michigan, where we once had six inches of snow fall in May.

I believe n God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth.