May 10, 2008
The Moon Pole
This whiskey barrel will have a Moon Pole.
This “tree” will be placed in the whiskey barrel to create the Moon Pole.
MoonFlowers will be planted in the whiskey barrel. With 10 to 20-foot vines, the deliciously fragrant heirloom MoonFlower (Ipomoea alba) unfurls huge white blossoms at dusk. The plants have large heart-shaped leaves.
It will be glorious.
May 3, 2008
Kentucky Derby 2008
The Kentucky Derby, the 134th run for the roses...
I curse Bob Black Jack!
mint julep
bocce ball
A.H. Hirsch Reserve Straight Bourbon Whiskey distilled in 1974, in the barrel for 16 years. Widely acclaimed by authorities, A.H. Hirsch Reserve is that complete rarity: a whiskey of such uncompromising quality and individual character that words simply cannot do it justice. A thick-textured whiskey, which coats the mouth. Rich, complex flavors, very spicy, with plenty of mint, evergreen, dried apricots, toffee, and vanilla. Long soothing finish.
Vader Cake
The pool...
May 2, 2008
April 29, 2008
April 21, 2008
April 20, 2008
planting
Planted sunflowers and ornamental corn this day.
WORM SIGN!
April 16, 2008
Moritz Embroidery Works
The Moritz Embroidery Works in Pennsylvania have been doing embroidery since 1885. They provided us with our mission patches the past 3 years.
The company was notified today of the mission patch all-weather testing done by Pumpkin Lord James. The images are being passed around the company this instant.
PLJ was asked if they were for space.
Day 291 and counting…
Mission Patch Project Alpha 1 Gallery
April 15, 2008
April 14, 2008
April 13, 2008
Doors Open Denver 2008 and Yuri's Night
It was a pleasant weekend filled with Doors Open Denver and Yuri’s Night celebrations. I was carrying a 40-pound pack! It never hurts to be prepared.
I walk to my own music. Figuratively and literally. I fired up my portable sound system and softly jammed to good tunes all weekend long, usually causing many funny laughter moments in the process.
SS and I had a run in with Daryl at Doors Open Denver. Daryl was a homeless man, a musician. We walked down the 16th St. Mall talking with him, learning his story. We arrived at our destination and in lieu of giving him cash, SS sent him towards Ross, where we would meet him in 30 minutes and she would buy him a new pair of shoes.
Our tour of the D&F Tower complete, we hustled to Ross and watched Daryl from the stairs looking over the shoes, checking the price and trying them on. The shoe purchase complete and Daryl on his way with a new pair of sneakers, we continued our tour of the Denver.
It was the most beautiful thing I had ever witnessed, almost collapsing weak at the knees.
Candyman
Yuri’s Night was spent at Denver’s Chamberlin Observatory wallowing in tektites, transit telescopes, globes and stereo photography of the Aurora Borealis and comets. I mixed with memorizing chronometers and visual measurement tools. I was lost in Universal and sidereal time checking out the telescope, a priceless 114-year-old 20-inch aperture, f/15 Alvan Clark-George Saegmuller refractor! A smile never left my face.
Yuri’s Night finished at Sputnik. A splendid Yuri’s Night!!
Chamberlin Observatory
a 20-inch aperture, f/15 Alvan Clark-George Saegmuller refractor
a 20-inch aperture, f/15 Alvan Clark-George Saegmuller refractor
Transit Telescope
Yuri's Night 2008 at Sputnik
April 8, 2008
True Leaves
The King Arthur green bell pepper plants are 60 days old and starting to grow true leaves! I will care for it until it grows strong and tall and then I will eat it's fruit.
Yuri's Night is April 12, 2008
Yuri's Night is April 12, 2008.
www.yurisnight.net
Yuri's Night is like the St Patricks Day or Cinco de Mayo for space. It is one day when all the world can come together and celebrate the power and beauty of space and what it means for each of us.
Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin embarked on the historic first manned space flight on 12 April 1961. Twenty years later on 12 April 1981, the US launched the first space shuttle flight.
April 6, 2008
The Smoke
The first smoked BBQ of the season; BBQ chicken quarters with apple wood, zucchini, yellow and red peppers.
April 5, 2008
April 4, 2008
March 29, 2008
Garden Hulks
Construction of the serendipitous beds of Earth for the GX-1134 Urban Garden was done this day. COMPLETE GX-1134 GALLERY HERE
Laborious. How does one muster the troops so early when they’re weakened by the appetite and lack of sleep? They are stricken with a painful twitch that hungers for breakfast. I know breakfast. Nothing feeds the pre-manual labor body like a plate of homemade biscuits and gravy.
Then we worked...
March 27, 2008
March 24, 2008
undocked
It's time for Endeavour and her crew of STS-123 to come home. Landing is scheduled at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., Wednesday.
March 23, 2008
March 21, 2008
Tulips, Reggie the Robin and Seeds
Seed Stash
Reggie the Robin guards the garlic and potato
Tulips
Spring
Now that spring has come, sun tea, radish and wildflower planting are the call of the times.
Icicle Radish, white, long radish.
Pink Beauty Radish, pastel pink, round radish.
Cherriette Radish, smooth, bright red radish.
Multicolor mix Easter Egg Radish, mix of red, purple and white round radishes.
A custom STS-13L Wildflower Gauge was installed in a pot.
by RAD
O’ Spring,
rebirth and renewal
a cog in the hoop of all things
replace the splendor of the winter
bringing color and warmth
thy dirt is mine friend
Das Ende
March 16, 2008
March 15, 2008
March 12, 2008
Meet Hern Mojito
Blueberry Mojito - A very refreshing mix of mint leaves, key limes, blueberries and Nicaraguan rum.
March 11, 2008
there will be ... ...
There will be peppers:
There will be tomatoes:
There will be goodness:
And more. So much more.
March 9, 2008
STS-666 STS13L Weather tests
Mission Patch all-weather testing day 252 side by side comparison. Scan by Pumpkin Lord James.
brakes
I got my hands dirty and learned to do my own brakes. Call me grease monkey!
Today there is a posse coming over and there will be farming done.
March 8, 2008
March 7, 2008
March 5, 2008
March 4, 2008
Possible Config
A possible configuration for the Urban Garden this year. There will be more room for vegetables of the consuming kind.
February 25, 2008
3rd Annual Tank Party
3rd Annual Tank Party
MELT’s homemade sushi!
February 24, 2008
February 22, 2008
February 18, 2008
You repaid his hospitality by trying to steal his ship and murder him!
PLJ's Botany Bay Seedling test Ceti Alpha V
THIS IS CETI ALPHA V!!
February 16, 2008
February 14, 2008
February 13, 2008
techno phone
Finally, after 5 years plus, I have graduated to a new cellular phone. The ENv. Oh yeah.
Mine is designer orange.
February 3, 2008
The Bowl
Today is the Super Bowl. Today is also the awarding of the Droog Gridiron Challenge Fantasy Football trophy to MELT, the rightful winner.
I hope The Giants win the game. Pics to come.
Happy Sunday to all.
January 26, 2008
National Western Stock Show
The 102nd year of the National Western Stock Show in Denver, Colorado.
photo by PLJ
January 24, 2008
more patch pics
More patch pictures coming in:
photo by firemantaco
Lexi the Three-Legged Dog
photo by JH
www.myspace.com/36772345
EATING THE PATCH!!!!!
January 20, 2008
Molly Brown House Museum
Molly Brown House Museum
1340 Pennsylvania Street
Denver, Colorado 80203
303.832.4092
mollybrown.org/
January 17, 2008
January 16, 2008
January 5, 2008
January 4, 2008
patch mission
I send out mission patches with a mission: photograph the patch in unique and interesting ways.
Submissions are coming in for the STS-13L mission mission:
I am late in sending out patches this year. Who wants one? Email me your address radhole (at) gmail.com and I will send you one. Free!
January 1, 2008
Whitney J. Bailey
My great grandfather on my mom's side was Whitney J. Bailey, Birth: 5 Jun 1872 in Jefferson Township, Knox County, Ohio.
Whitney was a wheat farmer in Pratt, Kansas where the family lived. In 1900, they were living in McPherson Township and in the 1920's, in Saratoga Township, Pratt County, where Whitney was a farmer.
Death: 11 January 1947 in Pratt, Kansas. Burial: Greenlawn Cemetery, Pratt Co., Kansas
“Mrs. Rolin Mcguire recalls that one of the big social events of the year was the time of butchering when several families helped each other as they worked first at one farm and then at another. Pioneer settlers had a way of making play out of hard work. In the coldest part of the winter, neighbors came and several hogs were butchered, enough to supply the year’s meat. Many were specialist in some phase of the work but she says that Whit Bailey was one of the best butchers in these parts and much in demand.” PRATT PAPER
Charles Bailey, son of Whit, who was born in 1911, told the following story to the Pratt Paper on November 23, 1990:
“The name ‘combine’ was derived from the combining of the cutting and the threshing machine into one machine, the combine, which soon replaced all headers, header barges, binders and threshing machines.
Combines had only been out a few years when Whit Bailey bought an International Harvester from Burt Dodson in 1924. Charles Bailey says that the combine was assembled on a vacant lot just west of the Courthouse and that his dad, Whit, had Dodson to deliver it to him on the east side of town because he didn’t want to drive his tractor with lugs down the brick streets of Pratt. Whit Bailey rented a farm 2 miles east and 1 ¾ miles north of Pratt. Charles remembers going to town from the farm northeast of Pratt with his dad on a little 1921 Fordson tractor to pick up their new combine. Mr. Dodson delivered it to them on a hill east of town about where Don’s Servateria is located and they hooked it on to it and headed back down the Cannon ball towards the east to home. The Cannon Ball, now Highway 54, was just a dirt and gravel road. Whit Bailey drove the tractor and Charles rode on the combine seat to handle the brake when going down hills.
This combine came from the factory as a horse drawn machine, equipped with two small pony wheels in front and a tongue. It also had a brake on the bull wheel to hold it back when going down a hill. The first year in the harvest fields, Whit hitched 2 head of horses on the combine and put the Fordson tractor ahead of the horses. A log chain ran from the tractor back between the horses and hooked to the combine to catch the wheat. These wagons would hold about 60 bushels of wheat and it took 4 or 5 wagon loads to keep the grain hailed away.
The two horses hitched to the combine with the tractor ahead didn’t work too well. When the tractor turned a corner, the log chain rubbed the horse’s legs and also the horses had to breathe the fumes from the exhaust of the tractor. The two horses that pulled the grain wagon along side the combine didn’t like the noise of the machinery so close to them. The inside horse next to the combine was pretty spooked.
Changes were made before the 1925 harvest in the horse power hook up. The tongue was removed from the combine and a tractor hitch was installed where the tongue had been. The tractor was then hooked directly to the combine and the horses were put in the lead. The combine pulled the grain wagon along side with a special hook up for that purpose which required 6 horses then to help pull the tractor. This worked better but sill the horses were a little spooked with all that noise behind them.
Horses, tractors and this early combine were quite a colorful combination, but not the best operation in getting the wheat cut and threshed so more changes were needed to make this operation better. One of the changes made was a bin that was installed on the top of this combine to hold the grain. This did away with the grain wagon that was pulled alongside. Then a big change was made in 1927 before harvest when Whit bought a new John Deere tractor that completely took over the job of pulling the combine, and also semi-retired the little Fordson and put 6 head of horses out to grass.”
PRATT UNION PAPER, about October of 1907
“Whit Bailey killed a large rattlesnake near his home northeast of Pratt Monday. It had six rattles and a button. Mr. Bailey was lucky to discover his snakeship before he struck.” They were not uncommon during this country’s early existence but in 1907, were becoming rare enough that an encounter with one rated mention in the county papers.
PRATT UNION PAPER, September 1933
“There were 200 persons in attendance at the Pratt County Old Settlers picnic at the Fish Hatchery. Some who attended and the year that they arrived:
1884 Mrs. A.W. Bailey
1887 Whit Bailey
1887 Wal C. Banbury
1894 Mrs. C.G. Bergner
1892 Samuel Bloxom
Whitney John Bailey Obituary, January 1947, Pratt, Kansas
Whitney John Bailey, son of Wm. R. and Lucy E. Bailey, was born June 5th, 1872 near Danville, Ohio, and departed this life January 10th, 1947 in Pratt, Kansas. On Mat 5th, 1897 he was married to Miss Dora Culbertson. To this union nine children were born, four sons, Charles and Howard of Pratt, and Orace and Leroy of Wichita. Five daughters, Mrs. Lester (Elsie) Bloxom, Mrs. Wythe (Edna) Martin, Mrs. Billie (Bessie) Munch, all of Pratt, Mrs. George (Nellie) Martin of Byers, and Helen of the home. Fourteen grandchildren and one great grandchild also survive. He was a devoted husband, a loving father and grandfather and a sincere friend and neighbor. He will be greatly missed by his family and by the community in which he lived.
Funeral services were conducted by the Reverend E.M. Fly of the Pratt Methodist church assisted by the Reverend Robert Yeagy of Glendale. He was laid to rest in the Greenlawn Cemetery on January 13.
December 27, 2007
December 26, 2007
Droog Christmas 2007
Droog Christmas 2007 has come and gone. This is like the 15th one! A tradition!
December 22, 2007
December 17, 2007
December 15, 2007
The Christmas already?
For me anyways. My immediate family is celebrating Christmas this day. Hooray! Merry Christmas to me.
December 13, 2007
Through the Museum
When was the last time you handled a fossilized saber-toothed tiger skull? What to do on vacation?
How about an all access tour of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science!? Yes, yes, we traversed behind the dioramas, into the old parts of the building, to the roof, the basements, the penthouse, the boiler room, the tunnels, the Big Bone Room, the Titanic exhibit and more! Fossils and pipes and crawlspaces oh my! It was spectacular.
I survived the sinking of Titanic by the way. I was Mr. Edwin Nelson Kimball Jr. of Boston, Massachusetts. My wife and I both survived.
December 12, 2007
Hilltop Bistro in Golden, CO
Hilltop Bistro
1518 Washington Ave
Golden, CO 80401
(303) 279-8151
http://goldenhilltopbistro.com/
It was a snowy day in Golden, Colorado, a quaint town to the west of the Denver where the West lives. It says so right on the sign. It was the perfect winter day to have lunch with an old friend at the Hilltop Bistro. I arrived early and was the only person inside. The staff hooked me up with some spicy sausage soup. Delish!
After what seemed like hours of quasi-silence slurping soup, from the blustery, snowy outsides walked Serena. From across the room I spied her, oh Serena, the brilliant gleam of her smile and her very presence immediately warmed up the room. I was still the only person in the establishment and was jumping and laughing and beckoning her in excitement to dine with me. Serena came looking, so the theatrics were not needed. She and I went to elementary school together. Her very name translated into a forgotten foreign tongue would be “She Walks With Grace, A Beauty to Behold.”
Beverages abound; lunch began. I had penne pasta with sun-dried tomato cream, chopped basil topped with Parmesan cheese. I also tried the Miso grilled salmon and fancy green beans. Yummy. The food was delicious and hot and arrived within no time. The bread was great. An overall excellent dining experience. The Bistro could do so much with the décor and there are plenty of tables to accommodate a lot of people. I noticed a few cracks in the ceiling and the walls. Perhaps the building is slowly sliding off the hilltop?
And the waitress, the faithful Misty Brown, catered to every whim and kept a steady stream of iced tea flowing as if she innately knew my beverage/hydration needs. I was too embarrassed to ask for a pitcher or carafe of tea with a lone straw peeking out from the top and several lemon wedges in a porcelain bowl. I consume beverage like a madman.
Besides the goodly foodstuffs, it really is all about good company and good conversation. One could be in the worst pit of a dive restaurant but with the right person, the dive restaurant would be transformed into a palace dining room.
Heading to the pink bathroom was an experience. A woman, a mannequin woman, laid sprawled in the tub, beckoning one to jump in and join the frolic. But then you realize how foolish that would be, because after all, she is a mannequin woman. That never stopped me before…
The Hilltop Bistro does indeed reside on a hill; a hill overlooking mountain beauty and invites people to take to new heights.
December 11, 2007
December 9, 2007
December 8, 2007
December 6, 2007
December 5, 2007
Merry Christmas From the Dale's
Merry Christmas From the Dale's
December 4, 2007
December 2, 2007
famous queso
My famous chili con queso is set to slow cookin'!
Holidays and Things
Twas fun last night. Pics here.
Guinness Treat
November 28, 2007
Me in the dark
Crying at the camera in the dark, deep in the throws of depression. Like this but darker.
That is all.
November 25, 2007
November 21, 2007
the Hunger
I bet ya this makes you hungry:
Doh, that's Christmas! Happy Thanksgiving. Think of me as I am working per usual.
November 19, 2007
November 17, 2007
November 3, 2007
Pumpkin Rot Weather Test Day 2
Pumpkin Rot Weather Test Day 2
October 31, 2007
October 28, 2007
October 27, 2007
October 24, 2007
October 22, 2007
paper towel dispenser
Who installs a paper towel dispenser in this awkward place? Only the people I work with. Not that it is in the way or anything…
Home from Florida
Home. Fun. Some pictures here. More always coming. Write-up soon. Must sleep.
October 18, 2007
World Series
I will be representing Colorado whilst in Florida with my new hat! World Series! Go Rockies!
October 15, 2007
October 10, 2007
October 6, 2007
Danger Monkey
Pablo's Coffee: Danger Monkey Best.Coffee.Ever. Bought at Stella's Coffeehaus.
October 4, 2007
Hungry?
Check out Jamie's Flickr Page. You will be hungry then. I'm hungry.
October 1, 2007
September 30, 2007
Anatomy of Pizzi
Homemade crust. Three meat: Canadian bacon, pepperoni and spicy Italian sausage. Homegrown jalapenos and chill peppers. 4 cheeses: provolone, mozzarella, Romano and Parmesan.
September 29, 2007
2nd annual Great Pumpkin Commonwealth Weighoff Colorado
The 2nd annual Great Pumpkin Commonwealth Weighoff on Saturday September 29, 2007 at Jared’s Nursery in Littleton, Colorado.
The Colorado State Record was achieved by Joe Scherber, 1075 pounds!
Our giant: 80 pounds
September 24, 2007
Pumpkin Weights 2007
212 pounds total, not including the giant!
LAST YEAR'S STS-666 TOTALS
September 23, 2007
Denver Broncos vs. Jacksonville Jaguars
Go Broncos! I will be at the game today! I am taking the lightrail. Check MY FLICKR gallery for updated pics from the game.
Gametime is at 02:05 pm MDT at INVESCO Field at Mile High!
September 22, 2007
September 9, 2007
August 30, 2007
Draft Pictures
Draft participants
Nic Foo won the Droog Gridiron Challenge Fantasy Football 2006 season
August 26, 2007
August 25, 2007
August 21, 2007
August 18, 2007
August 15, 2007
It's like a grocery store but different!
I love the fact that I can go outside and score some veggies! That fruit total keep getting higher! If you can guess the season final total you get a prize.
How much fruit with the Urban Garden produce?
August 14, 2007
I told You I was Geeky
Rangeview High School Science Fiction/Fantasy Club -- 1991
August 12, 2007
Camping Trip August 2007 Pics
Photos from camping in my Flickr Gallery. More soon.
August 9, 2007
They found Chris Farley. He was reincarnated as a 3 year old girl.
August 6, 2007
August 5, 2007
August 3, 2007
July 31, 2007
summer evening
There is nothing more wonderful than a nice summertime evening in the urban garden with a bountiful harvest celebration of BBQ honey mustard chicken, fresh tomatoes, peppers, red onion, white onion, zucchini, basil and radishes. Top it all of with a Buzz Cola, cool breezes, sunset, cold water, and bully, you’ve got yourself a jubilee.
