Category Archives: Okra Paradise Farms

Half way between Atlanta and Orlando and all the way to paradise!

Memories of a Brown Dog 2007-2021

It was with much sadness that we said goodbye to the Brown Dog.

A quick moving cancer took her from being her delightful brown dog self to a mere shadow. Her personality, “don’t look at me while I am eating” was true to the end and when she was ready, she told us it was time to go, January 11, 2021.

Arriving as a pup on October 16, 2008, She-Ra consented to keeping the two upstarts. Our veterinarian, Dr. Ruff, said the dogs were about a year old. When asked what were their names we said “Brown Dog and Yellow Dog”. That is how we had been calling them while we decided if they would stay. After a month, they knew their names and so they were, the Brown Dog and the Yellow Dog.

Through adventures of snake bites, gopher tortoise escapades, controlled burns of forest management, gardening, snow, hurricanes, boat rides, and river adventures, Brown Dog lived a full and wonderful life.

Brown Dog is survived by her pack that includes her littermate Yellow Dog, acolytes Nellie and HoneyBun and her humans and predeceased by her mentor She-Ra.

Jupiter, Saturn, Moon, Mars 2020-12-18

Surprisingly clear shortly after dark, with only a phone: three planets and a moon.

[Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars]
Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars

The famous alignment of Jupiter and Saturn, off the starboard bow of Earth’s moon.

[Planets in a row]
Planets in a row

And, towards the east and way up, the red planet, framed in longleaf pine trees.

[Barsoom]
Barsoom

-jsq

Cornbread 2020-12-15

Note to self: oven timer is merely advisory; does not turn off oven.

[Ingredients, Oven, Baked Cornbread]
Ingredients, Oven, Baked Cornbread

Gretchen didn’t mention that in the recipe she gave me. Here are the cornbread ingredients, including our own Okra Paradise Farms blue corn flour. Continue reading

Why my laptop kept overheating 2020-12-03

Mystery solved.

[Fan covered in dust]
Fan covered in dust

Fortunately, Gretchen had some compressed air.

The dogs wondered what I was doing creating a dust storm on the porch.

Also I swapped the laptop’s memory for twice as much, and now it doesn’t hang several times a day like before, even with google-earth-pro, facebook, google drive, wordpress, and about forty other things in tabs.

-jsq

What was I thinking? –Gretchen at the cane bed 2020-11-29

That’s less than half of the sugar cane on the bed when Gretchen wondered, “What was I thinking?”

[Bed, covers, bedded.]
Bed, covers, bedded.

Nervous Nellie thought it was great fun, running up and down the cane bed as I was digging it. The other dogs got bored and went home.

Gretchen cut almost all of the cane with her machete. (She didn’t approve of my axe.) Continue reading

Fire in wood stove 2020-11-17

It’s that time of year.

[Heat and light]
Heat and light

Plenty of dead oaks to cut up for firewood.

That’s good, but also troubling: too many dead trees due to spells of drought and heat.

Here’s a brief video: Continue reading