The kitties were here all day yesterday (click on pictures to see full view). Sadly, most of the pictures were through the window, so some of the best shots…didn’t make it. They sat right outside the big window and played “catch mom’s tail” but unfortunately, that window has a dark screen on it. At any rate, Junior has made some good progress. He doesn’t run when he sees us in the window. He doesn’t like it when the windows are open and we talk to him. If we open the door, he’s off like a shot, while mom stays back and gives us the evil eye. She even hisses at us if Junior is too close by when we take the food out. That’s still progress–at least she’s talking to us!

We’re thinking about buying a used cat tree to put outside under the porch to give them a bit more shelter. Mom and Junior are going to need some protection if it ever rains here again. Our porch covering is about 20 inches–not enough for a cat to be protected. If they can climb up under the eaves, they might feel protected. We’ve tried dog igloos before, but cats aren’t partial to dens that have only one exit. The noise of the rain on the plastic might bother them too, who knows. All I know is that they have not used anything similar that we’ve offered in the past. If anyone has any ideas on this, let us know. We have always wished the house had a nice covered back porch, but we aren’t going to start building one now!

In the fall, I’m still watering faithfully, waiting for my tomatoes to start producing again. It feels rather wasteful however–all the water running and about all I get is two or three cucumbers a week and some raspberries. Right now I’ve got about 5 tomotoes coming in, but none are close to ripe yet. In the spring I have all kinds of things started–every inch of the garden is planted. It’s so tightly planted, I can barely walk back there.

Since the hose is out there watering, I decided to put in some lettuce in addition to the green onions from last weekend. Lettuce doesn’t do all that well here in the spring. By the time it has formed a small head, it bolts from the heat. I haven’t tried fall before. In the fall, I’m generally trying to get things finished so I can get ready for spring. I don’t even like lettuce much, but around here it runs about 1.79 a head. With the 2 dollar package of seeds, if I get two or three small heads, I guess the lettuce pays for itself. Of course, while I was looking at seeds, I saw some crocus bulbs that I do NOT need. I don’t even have room for them, but I bought them anyway. Since they cost 4 dollars, I guess I actually have to get six heads of lettuce to pay for the trip to get seeds…

I’m trying romaine. It’s done the best of any lettuce I’ve tried and it is my favorite kind. If I wanted to go all out, I could probably try cabbage now too. The Chinese cabbage I did last year did pretty good despite the heat. Two of them bolted early, but three of them made it. Of course, I planted the seeds in January.

We’ll see. We’ve got quite a bit of warm weather left. According to the package, I could have planted the lettuce in August. Given the heat, I might have done it early Sept–but the days are still getting a little too close to 90 for most of these cool weather plants.

I’m hungry. It must be lunch time!

I have recently been asked if tomato plants can produce in the fall. The short answer is “yes.” I generally baby a few plants through the heat of the summer and they produce again in the fall. Juliets are great for spring, summer and fall. Celebrities produce in the spring and then again in the fall. The key is to determine if the plant is “determinate” or “indeterminate.” Determinate plants will produce a healthy, full flush of tomatoes and then diminish–to very few or none no matter how much you water, fertilize or the temperature.

In Texas you can plant fresh transplants in about September and expect a fairly healthy crop into the end of November–or whenever the first freeze is. I generally try to work two methods: Keep a couple of plants alive through the summer so that they begin producing again in September and also plant fresh ones in the ground in September. The fresh ones will usually start producing in October. I only get a few weeks of produce out of them.

In colder climates, obviously the fall crop is going to be restricted. If you live in a colder climate and you plant determinate plants, you’ll want to start a second set of plants by the time the first set is producing.

The other question I have received is about yields. Yields vary dramatically depending on the type of tomato plant. If you are looking for a high-yielder, generally you will want to avoid heirloom* tomato plants. Spend some time researching in a tomato catalog to determine yields. The chart on my website list yields of some types, but it is going to depend on where you are growing your tomatoes. Juliet is one of the highest yielders I’ve grown. Celebrity is a good yielder of larger tomatoes. The Ultimate Opener has been a prolific yielder for me early in the season until the heat slows it down. There are some Roma types that yield a lot, others not so much.

I always advise people to start by growing two or three varieties to hone in on what types of tomatoes they enjoy and what types grow best. In general, I like Juliet (a “giant” grape tomato type that does very well in Texas and elsewhere) Celebrity (a nice medium, meaty, wonderful-flavor) and a roma of some type. I haven’t settled on a favorite roma yet. I tried Italia Viva and Opalka in Texas. Their taste was good, but their yields weren’t as high as I’d like. They didn’t deal well with the heat here.

* I should add that the Siberian tomato plant, which is considered an heirloom, has done remarkably well in the heat. It was a good producer also–I wouldn’t say prolific, but certainly high enough, especially in the spring. The tomatoes were excellent, medium to small. The plant lasted through the summer heat, producing one or two small tomatoes here and there. It is now gaining bush size and putting on fruit in the fall season. I plan on planting this one indoors over the winter. One note with this plant, the seeds take about 3 weeks to germinate (regular germination for other plants is closer to 7 to 11 days.)

Well, we are making a little progress, but it is slow. Scamp would like to spend more time in the yard near the food, but Junior is still very skittish–and energetic. Yesterday, we watched mom nudge him into the yard three times. Junior took one look around and promptly scurried back under the fence. We’re not sure if Junior is afraid or if he finds the game delightful. Given that he spends most of his time running, jumping and cavorting, I suspect the latter.

As for eating, he is showing up at the bowl at least once a day now, usually after dark. He was round this morning though. As you can see, (click on photos for larger image) he has finally figured out that if he puts one or two feet in the bowl, it works. When he climbs in the bowl entirely, he can’t get to the food and ends up knocking either himself over, the bowl or both!

He is also very interested in the birds at the feeder. He has not started jumping at them (trust me, he doesn’t stand a chance) but when he sits still long enough, he notices them and is quite fascinated.

As most of you probably know, my husband blogs about finanicial issues over at BearMountainBull.com. It’s a blog for the little guy–we aren’t wall street, we aren’t managing anyone’s money; we talk about issues of the day.

Lately, this bailout of wall street to the tune of 700 billion has been the main topic–go and check it out. You might find it interesting.

The other things we’ve noticed lately is more people are asking–”Are you getting out of the market?”

We’ve been out of the market, almost entirely for months. We started cost averaging out some time ago. We were probably early in thinking we were headed into a bear market. But the bottom line is that if you aren’t comfortable, take some money out. It doesn’t have to be all in or all out. We didn’t know for sure a bear market was coming–no one ever does. So we took a quarter of our stock funds and got out. Then when things got worse, another quarter–and so on. If you’re losing sleep or it’s money you need—never be afraid to take it out. You can always put money back in as long as you still have it. You can’t put money back in if the market took it away.

No one is ever going to guess the timing completely correctly. We thought gold/metals/and related stocks were going to recover a couple of months ago. We put more money into those right before the rug was yanked out. So we took some back out. So yeah–you’ll make mistakes. But again, if you aren’t comfortable, don’t be afraid you won’t make money if you take it out. Be afraid you’ll lose it–and take steps to protect it.

Ah Fall! It’s sort of arrived. I’ve got tomatoes finally growing again and cucumbers. Looks like the cantaloupe succumbed to the heat. There’s one more on the dying plant that will probably ripen. We didn’t eat nearly as much cantaloupe as the plant produced anyway!

And as you can see from the picture, I have raspberries!!! Not a lot. A handful every couple of days. I try to keep the plant from taking over the garden–and it does try. It’s a creeper so even with the edging, that sucker is constantly outside its borders, following any damp earth it finds. The berries are delicious. I had hoped for enough to make a cake with raspberries and cream…but I keep eating them all!!!

I’m a big berry fan, probably because they don’t grow in NM where I grew up. I’ve been looking to put in more blueberry bushes, because the ones I put in last year were so late in the season I fear they won’t grow at all. In Texas, bushes really need to be planted in the fall or very, very early spring–like January. I may have to order them online to get them at the right time of year. The ones that have done best are those that I ordered–Sunshine Blue, I think they are called. A short plant with very good berries. If I could get more than 10 berries, I’d be really happy…

Books:

Book of the weekend was The Dead Girls’ Dance, the second in the Morganville Vampire series by Rachel Caine. Very good YA. I had a bit of issue on how the subject of date rape was handled–I thought its evilness could have been hammered on harder, but it’s a very good read–page turning. Caine portrays teens so realistically–with all the bubbling emotion, fears and drama of that time period of our lives. She also does a good job with the portrayal of college and that time of our lives that are in such change–the funny twilight zone between teen/maturity/adult–a gap that some people never cross and others cross at will–back and forth for years without any trouble. Both books one and two are delightful reads.

King of the trees? The little kitten played very hard all over the yard the other day. He comes and goes under the fence via a bit of dug out area. Mom follows him, pounces on him, directs him in the fine art of lizard catching, scolds him when he runs too far and generally shows him the ropes. We’re pretty sure the kitten is male, but probably won’t know 100 percent until we catch him. If we catch him. Boy he moves around an awful lot. He blends in perfectly with fallen leaves. He scoots back and forth under the fence. His favorite game appears to be “catch mom’s tail.”

It’s pretty amazing to watch the little guy climb a tree. He’s so small, he doesn’t seem strong enough, but he hops right up like he’s sauntering in the park.

I’ll try to get some better pictures, but the little guy is still pretty wary. Even talking to him through the open window causes him to scamper off or climb higher in a tree. He’s a bouncing ball of fur, looking a lot like a fuzzy chick.

We know better than to get too attached–it’s a dangerous world out there for kittens this age and this particular kitten seems to know no fear! Mom is keeping a good eye on him, but there are other critters around that could cause him some problems. We’ll keep them fed and try to get them to trust us so that they can get some shots and get fixed. I’m not looking forward to that particular phase of project cat.

Bittersweet: Recipes and Tales from a Life in Chocolate: Alice Medrich, Deborah Jones (Photographer)

Ciao Y’All by Damian Mandola and Johnny Carrabba

Traveling Jamaica with Knife, Fork and Spoon by Robb Walsh and Jay McCarthy

Around the Bend has been recorded as a podcast story at Dunesteef.com. Rish and Big found a female reader for the story. The podcast itself has some very good spooky music and the gruff old man voices were done exceptionally well. After every podcast Rish and Big blather about something or other, in this case, they talk for a while and then they have a selection from an album. “The Code Monkey” by Jonathan Coulton –it’s pretty good–from what Rish and Big were chatting about, it’s been released under Creative Commons. The recording is good; very professional sounding. If you’ve already read my story, feel free to skip to the song–it’s kind of interesting to listen to what artists are doing and how they go about getting their work listened to (or read for that matter.) Towards the end, there’s another song– “Skull Crusher Mountain.” It’s another well-done performance, a kind of…love song told from a horror point of view. It’s a “story” inside a song. Must admit I haven’t heard anything quite like it.

There’s another final song selection at the very end–again a story told to music. I missed the name of it–if anyone listens and catches the name, let me know and I’ll post it!

Initially, Scamp had a setback this month. She disappeared for a few days. We knew one of the neighbors had spotted her and he told us she was living in his yard. We let him know we were trying to take care of her…but obviously Scamp was disturbed at being spotted.

She did show back up, but her timing was different, making it hard to feed her. We can’t leave food out in the daytime because the birds eat it. At night…there are things in the night like opossums and raccoons.

After over a week, she finally started settling down, but always ate and run. I knew she had kittens, but my husband said I was guessing. Yeah, well.

Over the last two days, when Scamp was eating, she was easily distracted, running over to the fence or otherwise stopping and running off to check something.

Last night, she showed up at dusk as usual. Lo and behold, there was a tiny shadow. We didn’t get to see what color it was because it was too dark. And small. Very small.

This morning, Scamp brought out her little one in the daylight (well barely, it was pretty early.) We were worried the little one wouldn’t be able to get to the bowl of food, so we disturbed them and put out some soft food. After running off, eventually they both came back. They both ate the soft food and then the went back to the dry food. The little one couldn’t reach into the bowl, but silly us. It just climbed on into the bowl and ate!

 

 

Kirsch’s Guide to the Book Contract by Jonathan Kirsch. This should be required reading for any author. Even if you have an agent, this book will really help you understand how contracts work, how much you can expect to be paid and how “rights” work. A must read.

Chocolate A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light: Mort Rosenblum

The Man Who Listens to Horses: Monty Roberts

Adventure Capitalist: Jim Rogers

Note: See the BMB website for more recommended reading of non-fiction investment books.

Albert Einstein: Arthur Beckhard

All Creatures Great and Small: James Herriot

Easy Money: Donald Goddard

The Medieval Spains: Bernard F. Reilly This is a dry, dry, dry book, but I still recommend it because it covers so much cultural, geographical and historical aspects of Spain. There may be others that are more exciting, but this book gives a great overview of the religious interactions and the various wars in Spanish history.

Put a Lid on It: Donald Westlake (William Dufris–excellent narrator.)

Christopher Graybill is another excellent narrator–I’d try an audio book just based on this narrator’s talent with voice and pacing. He did a great job with Two-Minute Rule by Robert Crais.

Who’s Your Caddy?: Rick Reilly (Grover Gardner narrator). Warning: Some adult content.

Yes, I still read young adult, and not just Harry Potter! Everything listed, while YA, is very adult-readable. I left out wonderful JF (things like Nancy Drew, Trixie Beldon, etc) and YA that I read when I was younger–things like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C.S. Lewis) and countless others simply because I don’t know if I would enjoy them as an adult. I truly enjoyed them when I was younger and wouldn’t hesistate to recommend them, it’s just a different list!

Fantasy

Rachel Caine - The Morganville Vampires Series- Glass Houses is book one (A total page-turner–spooky!)

Lion Boy: Zizou Corder

Andre Norton’s Witch World Series

Vivian Vande Velde -fantasy–I do not read her horror stuff. Or anyone else’s, at least not on purpose.

Megan Whalen Turner (”The Thief” is a little slow first half, but it’s well worth reading!)

Sci/Fi

Scott Westerfeld - Uglies is the first of a series–make sure you have at least the first two because Uglies ends on a bit of a cliffhanger and you’ll be mad if you can’t get started on the next adventure Right Away.

Steve Hamilton

Richard Crais especially The Watchman–a Joe Pike Novel and Two-Minute Rule.

Frederick Forsyth

Mark Van Name (he write’s sci/fi and is on my list over there also. His characters fit in this category as well.)

Funny
Janet Evonavich– Hysterically funny
J.A. Konrath– Humor; Free e-book on his site! I read “The List” and it was very good.

Police Procedural
Carol O’Connell — New York police procedural. Main character was a street orphan and there’s some fascinating pieces of her past that get explored in a number of the novels. Most excellent! Her stand alone, Judas Child, is a MUST READ.

Linda Fairstein — New York prosecutor police procedural

Kay Mitchell — UK setting; police procedural; great characterization

Detective/Sleuth

Elisabeth Cosin –Zen and the City of Angels –What a writer! I loved this book. I think she only wrote two books, but they are both very good and worth getting your hands on.

Jan Burke– I like that her character solves mysteries–along the thriller line–no cozies here! and does so without constantly re-introducing conflict between the main character and her husband. In the books I’ve read the characters seem to have a realistic flow to their relationship without forced conflict.

Evelyn Coleman– Jouralistic sleuth, but no amateur stuff; thriller; suspense

Off the Beaten Path
Virginia Lanier — Bloodhound tracking; Excellent, better than 10 stars!

Elizabeth Peters — Egyptian historical setting and other works, all excellent. I LOVE the contemporary setting, Vicky Bliss mysteries. She also writes darker, noir suspense as Barbara Michaels.

Historical Mysteries
Elizabeth Peters — Egyptian historical setting and other works, all excellent. I LOVE her Vicky Bliss series and she’ll finally finish this series in August 2008. I know it will be worth the long wait! Well worth getting the early books and reading through.

Indian and Gypsy Lore
Sandra West Prowell– Montana setting; light Indian lore; Absolutely superb stories.

Kirk Mitchell– Excellent American Indian lore without being overdone or stuck on a reservation/reservation concepts. Both a male and female protagonist that play important parts and through the series develop individually and as partners.

I don’t read a lot of romance, so I’m sure there are a lot more good authors out there.

Hollly Lisle– Midnight Rain -excellent romantic suspense with a paranormal element. She avoids the tendency to have characters with long misunderstandings. Focuses more on the plot of solving whatever mystery/paranormal element exists.

J.D. Robb — futuristic romantic mysteries

Amanda Quick (aka Jane Ann Krentz) –I haven’t read Quick/Krentz in years, so the recommendation actually applies to her early works.

For a long time I didn’t even have this catagory because I don’t read a lot of science fiction. Mostly I don’t like the intricate details, the overly analytical suppositions about other life forms and just the too-obvious “what ifs.” I have finally found an author or two who write wonderful characters and tell wonderful stories.

Mark Van Name - One Jump Ahead - A great sci/fi with a talking space ship with strong character development. Mark’s blog is often an interesting read.

John Scalzi - Old Man’s War –A very good space story. There are, of course, discussions of jumping through space, but it is, after all, science fiction.

A. Lee Martinez - The Automatic Detective It’s pulp-fiction. It’s hard core, tough detective. But he’s a robot. In a futuristic, strangely morphed earth. Fantastic!

John Levitt - Dog Days; Urbran fantasy/mystery. Mason, the hero, has a dog as a familiar and this caper is just a lot of fun! The follow-up, New Tricks, is awesome!

Ilona Andrews - Magic Bites–Urban Fantasy (This is the only book by this author I’ve read).

Lisa Shearin Magic Lost, Trouble Found This is her debut novel. (This is the only book by this author I’ve read.)

Mercedes Lackey - Diana Tregarde series–Urban Fantasy before anyone called it that–female investigator with paranormal elements; just an excellent series. I enjoy many of Merecedes Lackey’s other works.

Ellen Guon - Fabulous urban elves series

Patricia Briggs (especially When Demons Walk and Steal the Dragon) I read a lot of this author.

Katherine Kurtz

Elizabeth H. Boyer

Holly Lisle - just about every kind of fantasy from romantic to adventure to touches of urban fantasy.

Charlaine Harris (mysteries too!– Her Lilly Bard books are probably her most exceptional work.) The early books in the Sookie Stackhouse (vampire, urban fantasy type) are very good.

Laura Underwood - The Hounds of Ardagh

Jim C. Hines Goblin Quest series A Goblin that doesn’t want to go on a quest, the true underdog that just might have a bit of hero in him. Very suitable for YA also.

Stephen R. Donaldson (The Wounded Land, Lord Foul’s Bane, White Gold Wielder)
J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings; The Hobbit)

My main list of favorites is getting out of hand. I’ll leave that post as-is since it is kind of a master list, but I am going to break it down into genre sections over the next few days and do a specific post for mystery, fantasy, sci/fi, non-fiction, etc. If you’ve already looked through my master list, you can just ignore the new posts; they’ll be filed under the favorite reads section as they fade from the front page.

I get asked about my favorite authors a lot because I participate on a number of book forums/book clubs. It’s been handy to keep such a list because it reminds me about certain authors. I can then check on those authors to see if they have new books coming out. I wish I had started the list years ago. There are so many good authors that I have forgotten about or lost track of and will probably never find again. It’s easier now with the internet because I can do searches on character names or partial titles…but there are some gems that are buried too deep. I can still remember a story that I’ve never been able to track down. It’s something about “The Unchosen” but that wasn’t the title. It was a sorry lot of mismatched characters that ended up on a mission (quest). Every character felt they were worth nothing, but every single one grew in that story. I’ve been looking for that book for years. I can’t remember the character names, the title or the author though, so there is little hope.

I know from forums that this happens to all readers–so make note, you youngsters!!! Start lists. Keep them! Lest one day…one day, you’ll be left with fragments of a magic that is gone!

Another really great read–Glass Houses by Rachel Caine is an YA novel, but oh, so readable for us fun-loving, adventure-reading adults (The cover isn’t so great, but ignore that). Although this story has vampires in it, it’s a character-based novel. There’s nice development on the theme of what it is like to be a misfit and trying to fit in, but not quite sure fitting in matters. Claire is off to college in a strange town–she is younger than her peers (16) because she’s got a lot of brain power. She loves school. She doesn’t believe in vampires–they aren’t good, cold science. This is going to be a problem for her because the town just so happens to be run by vampires.

The victim of some serious hazing, Clair ends up trying to live off-campus when she’s forced to run for her life–and that was just from the humans. Hunted by vampires, trying to help the roommates that took her in, keep her grades up and try to solve a mystery or two–she has a lot of responsibility on her shoulders. She isn’t always up for the job either, but she’s stubborn, smart and brave (foolish?)

This is a fun romp with a great little plot. Caine does a magnificant job of building tension without overdoing it, and she created a real page-turner here. My only complaint is that she ended the book on a cliffhanger. This never works for me because instead of feeling satisfied, I feel a tad cheated. It’s an effective device for wanting to make me run out and get the next book (very much so) but being me, I won’t do it right away because I get disgruntled. Don’t let that stop you from reading–just have both books one and two on hand before you get started. You won’t be disappointed! Rachel Caine is going straight into my list of favorite authors.

I kill things with my bare hands quite often, but I have got to tell you, there is something…evil about tomato horn worms. For one, they are HUGE. Seriously. These things can get longer than my fingers and strip an entire branch of leaves in one night. Worse, they have these claw appendages that cling to the plant when you try to knock them off. I defy you to just brush them off a plant. It can’t be done. Maybe they have suction cups under their big, fat green bodies. I’m not going to look.

All I know is that when I spot one–and it’s usually because I notice a sudden lack of leaves on a part of the plant–I do NOT want it clinging to my hand or arm if I yank it off with my fingers. Uh-uh, no way. Gloves. And not those cute little cotton gardening gloves with flowers on them either. Leather. Like for roping or branding cattle.

Of course, you can use BT worm killer on these guys, but with as fast as they eat, when I do spot them, I’ve no real choice but to remove them and step on them. With special shoes that do not get worn into the house. I mean, do I want green goo on my carpet?

Ish.

(photo stolen from the K-State website, no direct credit was listed)

One Jump Ahead by Mark Van Name is a wonderful little sci/fi adventure. Funny how I don’t read much sci/fi compared to fantasy and mysteries, but this year, the books I’ve most enjoyed have been in the sci/fi camp. Anyone who likes John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series will love this series by Mark Van Name. I’d say I even liked One Jump Ahead just a bit better because I connected with the main character, Jon Moore, better. The creativity in this book gets extra points–there’s some use of animal characters that I really appreciated. There weren’t many female characters, but those that were in the book were fully developed and not stereotypical.

This is a great adventure with interesting and well-developed characters. The main character has some unusual characteristics, rather than your standard strong he-man. I liked that he didn’t spend time drowning his sorrows in booze, and there were several spots where the character stopped–and noticed the waves on the beach or the strange beauty of unusual woodwork.

For non-sci/fi readers, this book is a lot like Frederick Forsyth’s Avenger. Fans of Forsyth that haven’t ventured into sci/fi would do well to start here. Some excellent reconnaissance setups and “infiltration.”

Full review over at Bookspot.

Fall gardening in Texas is not for the faint of heart, but doing such will quite possibly make you faint. I put in the fall tomatoes today. It’s hard to find a day that isn’t hot and muggy even at 8 in the morning. I’d start earlier, but that is when I exercise and it’s no joy walking a mile an a half most mornings in early September Texas weather either.

I put in some nice green onions–they’ll probably be ready in two to three months depending on the weather. I planted two of the tomato plants that I started–back at the end of July. Believe me, I didn’t feel much like doing starters when it was 100 degrees. They have to be kept indoors, well-watered and babied along.

Don’t ask me why I bother because mostly I don’t have an answer. I love gardening in the spring when everything seems so fresh and new. Mostly in the fall, I dread it–tilling the earth at this time of the year isn’t that easy. The thing of it is…I love getting fall tomatoes. I really, really like a nice batch of snap peas or snow peas. This year I did green onions almost year round and it was very nice to run outside and pick them without having to go to the grocery. Cilantro is only a fall/winter/very early spring crop here, so I put some seeds down for that also. Salsa is just good year round and that citrus taste of cilantro just brings it over the top.

Okay, enough about gardening. This weekend, since all but one tomato plant is in, I’ll be reading. I’ve put off reading for a month now to get some rewrites done and it’s killing me.

On tap:

One Jump Ahead by Mark Van Name.

I would have listed the back book blurb, but Mark doesn’t seem to have one on his website…