bugnut's Blog
bugnut's Blog
Last Post 12 days, 11 hours Ago
May 2, 2008 | 9:09 AM PST
I just received a call from my grandaughter, The one that is a member here, she informed me that my oldest grandson and his wife just had my first great-grandson. Just born this morning at 9:37.AM. The Army let my grandson come home from Iraq for two weeks so he could be here for the birth, boy how the military has changed, she will post pics tonight. Now she is so anxious to have her baby but will have to wait a few months. I can hardly wait to be able to hold the new one. While I was typing this I just thought I didn't even ask what they named him. more to come.
John
Apr 26, 2008 | 1:54 PM PST
I planted my Malanga out on Sunday and I hoped for some rain, well Wed, night we got 5 inches of rain plus a lot of hail. This is what my Malanga looks like today. There is a new leaf growing so maybe it will survive.
John
Apr 23, 2008 | 10:42 AM PST
I have accomplished so much in the last five days that was above my dreams. We planted our veggie garden, 80ft x 80ft. I was even able to till one row at a time, then rest for a few minutes. We planted tomatoes, sweet potatoes, okra, sweet corn, bell peppers, watermelon and cantelope. We also planted all the plants and seedlings that I started inside and the plants and seeds that my dear friends here on GG has sent to me. I also planted my Malanga outside. This was the first vegetable garden that I have planted without stretching a string for the rows, but maybe the veggies will forgive me. We are so tired that I have been unable to take any photos. I will do that in a couple of days. I still have a few seeds that I want sow in my flower beds, but they will have to wait. More to come.
John
Mar 13, 2008 | 12:12 PM PST
I am going to enter this in my blog because there is not enough room in my profile. At the early age of 16 and 18, my wife and I ran off and was married much against our parents wishes. I graduated after we were married and landed a good job. We had 4 kids one daughter and three sons.In the mid 6o's I contracted a deadly flu, HONG KONG Flu, and transferred it to my family. We lost our oldest son and our youngest son, ages 31/2 and 6 months. We were devastated we did not have the support of our families. I just went off the deep end and having no regard for my wife and two kids I joind the draft. I felt like I just needed get away and get sent to Viet Nam. As it turned out I was chosen for speacial schools and advanced very quick.I was then stationed at Corpus Christi Texas. My wife and kids and I had made a trip back to Oklahoma and had a severe auto accident, my wife was injured so bad, my daughter just sufferd broken bones and cuts, my son lost his right eye and half the right side of his head, I hade a broken neck in three places and multiple other injuries. The took us all to the same hospital in Tulsa. They seperated us to different places in intensive care. They patched my daughter up and my wifes brother agreed to take her home withem , luckily my wife had his number in her purse. After being there fo a day the Army sent a helicopter and picked me up and took me to Ft Sill, 300 miles away. I did not have a clue as to how my family was doing. I was gone for 2 months with very limited information about my family. I was finally able to go on medical leave and went to my wifes mothers house she had finally felt she needed to help. My wife and I recuperated there and when my son was able to come home about 4 months, we went back to Corpus Christi. I was then sent off to Viet Nam, which I was involved in so many situations that I still cannot talk about. I then was stationed at Ft Lewis, Washington. While we were there I had a country western band, I played lead guitar, (beleive that?) While we were playing at an Elks Club on Woodbe Island(sp), we had some friends tell us about two little girls that were abandoned and abused. We imediatly left the club they took us to the house and we picked the two little girls up and took them home. One was 17 months the other 6 months. The next morning I went to JAG and started the paper work, whithin 6 months we had birth certificates with our last name. Have you ever thought that things happen for a reason? I do. By that time I was suffering pretty bad with PTSD, and decided to end my Army career. Moved to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, bought a house got a job found that I could not work for someone else. I started my own steel fabrication company. Then in 1990 our house burned down, we lost everything. I had a good insurance and they rebuilt the house. By that time we were tired of city life so I bought the 20 acres we now live on. But then on Nov 1st 1999 I dropped a 600lb steel beam on my left hand after that my company went down and i had to disolve it. After 9 surguries the first year my hand is somewhat re-attached, not too functional no use in the thumb. That retired me for good. I had already had a drinking problem due to the night mares and sleepless nights, this just added to it. I started going to the VA for help and they have me on meds that help a lot. I have since stopped the hard alcohol and have had pulmanary failure put on oxy 24/7 and have had a couple of heart attacks. Now you can understand why I hold my wife (Mary) so next to my heart. She has stuck by me when I ran everyone else off.
John
Mar 8, 2008 | 10:34 AM PST
I would like to begin this entry with a huge thanks from the bottom of my heart to all my friends on GG for all their prayers and support.It just don't get any better than this! My sleep study is over and I don't want to see the inside of another hospital room, never. I feel great getting better each day. My wife told me I could spend all day on here if I wanted to. YEA! I went out to my sunroom yesterday and started a few hibiscus seeds. Last fall before I had all my health issues, I had bought a dumptruck load of mushroom compost. Does anyone know if I can use it as potting soil? Thanks again for everything. John
Mar 5, 2008 | 11:59 AM PST
Today I am on my way to spend another night in a medical institution. While I was in the hospital they hooked me up to all kinds of $%^#@, and said that I stopped breathing 90 times in one hour. Now they are going to hook me up and run a sleep study, so I can have another piece of equipment to help me breath at night. All I want is to be able to grow some seeds and watch them grow and flower. I dont enjoy at all just to report on sad and bad things in my life. My goal is to accept my friends offer and accept plant starts because my wife said she would help me this year to enjoy what I love to do and that is growing flowers and taking pictures. I have always been one to take care of anything that came up, but, here I am feeling like I am begging for support. More later.
John
Mar 3, 2008 | 5:03 PM PST
You know sometimes we really don't know what is in store for us everytime we wake up to a beautiful day, rain or shine. But there is one thing that I do know is that the power of friends and their prayers. They did get the old thing ticking again and I just fulfilled the one thing I have wanted to do for days--Logging on to Garden guides
Jan 24, 2008 | 6:59 AM PST
I have set a special goal for this year, and I really beleive it will happen. If I can grow a colosia (Elephant Ear), to 9ft tall with 4 and1/2 foot leaves then I think I can grow my Malanga which is naturally much larger, to 10 or 12 ft tall.
I have been running a almost daily photo ledger of my start on the Bulb and Tubular forum.
Check it out and if anyone else has grown this plant or has any info on it please let me know.
Now it's back to making my newspaper seed pots. John
Jan 22, 2008 | 2:18 PM PST
My wife just came into my computer room and caught me on the games forum. She wanted to know if I had regressed to playing games. What could I say except that I was bored. She asked if I had my garden planned, I said, no, she asked if I had started all the seeds that I told her about, I said no. She then left the room, but then she came back with a dolly loaded with boxes. She said if I was bored then I could look through these 25+ years of video tapes and seperate by years . Something came up will be later.
Jan 18, 2008 | 12:04 PM PST
As you all know I have been toying with different seeds, esp mimosa. I have looked high and low for a good picture of a mimosa bonsia. well I finally found one. It was done by William N. Valavanis. I just somehow knew that a mimosa would make a good bonsia. I just cant nail anyone down as to the technic of starting. I get alot of you use copper wire and certain bonsia tools. I even read that if you take a flat strip of copper you can speed up growing the trunk. But it came with no instructions. It is as if some wants me to believe that they have done this but are not willing to share. Any way I have found this fantastic pic of a mimosa bonsia that I had to share. I didn't know we could not add pics to the blogs so I have no idea where to share the pic.
Jan 12, 2008 | 9:31 AM PST
I am sitting at my pc and looking out the window at what is in store for this spring. What I see is a jumbled mess of tree branches, even some tree trunks 12in or so, I have a chipper/shredder but not the strength to do it. I have lost so many huge limbs around the flower beds that the sun and shade is going to be different. So I will take my wife's advice and take everything one day at a time.
Nov 24, 2007 | 11:39 AM PST
and the big one to go. This time of year has always meant a lot to me because it meant forcing myself to take a little time to spend with my family. I seem to appreciate that more and more. I always ran my own business and let my children grow up around me, but not with me. all of a sudden I have grandchildren that are getting ready to have their own children. I have to ask myself what is wrong with this picture . But hind sight is always20-20.
John
Nov 22, 2007 | 9:25 AM PST
I woke up this morning to the smell of what will be a fantastic turkey dinner. I had to suffer through all the pie baking smells yesterday and now this. And what tops it all is I woke up feeling great. Even added a couple more butterfly pics. My grandson had the electric company that was trimming the trees, to dump a load of mulch here to put on my flower beds and garden.
Nov 5, 2007 | 4:41 PM PST
It is so sad that we can't always do what we want to do. When it gets to the point that we have to rely on someone else to do the things that always seemed so simple. Please don't get me wrong , because I greatly appreciate all the help that is given. I got so involved in moving the plants that I forgot to take the photos in progress. I did take a few.
