Leathernecks

I know it is probably different for your space, but I leave my garden over the winter and see what I get in the spring. By the time I was ready to plant this spring, I had a few spices that were huge. Had a couple other things coming up that I probably could have transplanted if I didn't already have ones growing inside.

What kind of compost bins do you have? I thought about getting one of the outdoor tumbling ones to make turning it over easy.

Between Halloween last weekend, the election on Tuesday, and gatherings after the election, this next week could be rough.

I would recommend to all you gardeners to write down the things you did this year that were good or bad. Sometime soon I'm going to post the thoughts on my garden here so I can look back at it in the spring. Some of the things I planted I never touched, and some things I wish I had more of. Have some other ideas for the spring too.

The 7 day average is over 100,000 per day. Up about 20,000 per day from last Friday. With Halloween and the election in the last week having some extra people out and about, I don't see it slowing down any time soon. My school is pretty much the only one around me that is still in person, but I don’t think that will last much longer. Positives are all around us, including at our school, and it is only a matter of time before we have too many. The early elementary school in my district already closed from having at least 3 or 4 staff members test positive out of like 15 or 20 people working there.

Also, my grandma tested positive a couple weeks ago and is in pretty rough shape. I've never been close with her, and she is 99 and has Alzheimer's, so it's a blessing at this point. She spent a couple weeks in the hospital, and she's so weak right now, she can't really do anything. They're trying to figure out if there's even a chance she'll improve with physical therapy, or if they're just going to put her on hospice and let things run their course.

And I just looked and Illinois had almost 6400 cases today compared to about 5100 last Thursday. Set another record by about 200 cases. Pretty much everywhere I go, I hardly see anybody wearing masks. I'm glad I got our golf season out of the way because things are not trending in the right way right now.

Just be thankful you aren't in Illinois. On Tuesday, the governor said they were putting basketball on hold due to the surge of cases. On Wednesday, the IHSA said they would be moving forward with basketball, basically giving the middle finger to the governor's office. Last night, the state board of education said there could be consequences and liability issues for schools if they decide to play and defy the state's orders. Just crazy around here.

The rural area where I live, people are just being stupid. There's a pretty chance our school will have to go remote soon because of a school near us being dumbasses.

Thanks! You too!

Branden Dawson went to a 1 room schoolhouse?

Cracked open my candied jalapeños this weekend. Amazing. Triscuit, cream cheese, jalapeño. So delicious. The peppers from my garden were a little hot, so I could see finding some milder jalapeños, but they're still incredible. Here's the recipe.

My dad and my oldest brother are carpenters, so there was a lot of pressure to not do stupid stuff haha.

Thanks! The picture is a little darker than what it looks like in person, but it's pretty close. It was just starting to sprinkle when I took the picture, so the lighting wasn't great.

Thanks! The grade will come up a little bit, but I'm eventually going to put some kind of stone veneer on the foundation. The house is only 800 square feet, so I wanted my basement to feel like another floor and not like a basement. I have 9 foot basement ceilings, so I had to have the foundation pretty high to be able to get decent sized windows. Next year will hopefully be landscaping, so I'll get a window well for the egress window when I do the landscaping. The gutters were in pretty rough shape, so they're all going to get replaced. I might be able to transplant some of the trees growing in them! Also going to take a pressure washer to the soffit to try to clean it up. If all else fails, I'll throw a coat of paint on it.

Getting close to having siding finished on one side. Coaching golf will be done this week, so hopefully I'll have more free time coming up.

We were at the Kankakee Elks. Had our girls today, and the weather was great both days. That sounds a lot like my junior year in 2003. I still have nightmares about the weather that day.

Our boys won our first ever regional championship today. In Illinois, we do regionals first. Shot a 357, won by 20 shots, and took top 2 spots individually. Pretty fantastic day!

Getting close to my last haul of the year. Candied jalapeños (last weekend), made sauerkraut from a head of cabbage, and dried and ground my peppers for some cayenne pepper. I can't wait to try the jalapeños. Might have to crack into a jar next weekend even though it should probably go 3-4 weeks. My peppers were picked last weekend, so I can probably get another harvest next weekend. Have another cabbage and a couple red cabbage to pick too. That one will probably be my last harvest even if I have more come in after that. About gardened out for the year.

I've been shaving my head for close to 10 years. One of the best decisions I ever made.

Our boys team will probably finish 21-3 for the regular season. Won the county tournament tonight. Have to go on the radio tomorrow night to talk about the team. Already nervous about it!

We have a couple that could probably play at a small JuCo, but I don't think any of them will end up doing it. Nobody great, but just solid all around. Our lowest 9 hole average is a 41.5, but we just have really good depth.

In more local news (well, local for me), my boys team is 20-3 this year. We have some end of the year tournaments coming up, so it will be interesting to see how we do. Hoping to bring home some hardware this year. I get to go on our local radio station next week to talk about our team, so I'm pretty excited about that.

I feel like Spieth was too mechanical and too in his own head. Even when he was playing well, he had different mannerisms and different things he'd do that would keep himself in check. Things like sometimes looking at the hole on putts. I always thought he seemed like a mental time bomb waiting to go off. I think hitting 2 in the drink at the Masters a couple years ago was the tipping point.

How do you freeze your peppers? Do you just throw them in a bag, or do you do some kind of prep before freezing?