Bragg Creek Revisted: First snowfall

It was a few months ago in June when I visited my cousin at Bragg Creek and captured the video clip of the white tail fawn walking out from the pond. (Bragg Creek Video Clip)  It is now October and it is the first snow fall at Bragg Creek.  The contast between the green foliage of early summer and the white dusting of snow covering the trees surrounding the pond in the middle of fall is interesting .

Vietnamese Sunflowers: Creating a sustainable environment

In our school there are 58 nationalities and 65 different languages spoken which makes for a diverse and interesting cultural mix of students to teach. Whether the students are new immigrants, second generation or older the majority have no experience in gardening. Our project in horticulture is to show the students how to create a sustainable environment. In the courtyard we begin by cutting down the weeds and pruning the bushes. The next step is to show them how to recondition the soil.  The students must dig out the roots of the weeds. Students have to be shown how to use a pitch fork or a shovel to spade the earth to a depth of at least 12 inches. The earth is turned over and the weeds removed.  The students bring in wheelbarrows of sand that is placed in the flower beds. The sand is mixed into the soil with a second digging.  The flower beds are then raked smooth and flat with a rake.  The flower beds are now ready for the spring planting. I would like to locate some fresh loam to dig into the flower beds to add nutrients. We are looking into making some compost bins to recycle the vegetable peelings from the commerial foods classes. The environment club is looking into making a recyclable rain water collection system to water the flower beds. In the spring, we plan to plant vegetable and flower gardens in the courtyard to make a sustainable environment so students will learn how to create sustainable environments.

Pruning The Shrubs

It is the landscaping project for the fall Horticulture class to maintain the courtyard. The project begins with the cutting down of the weeds and the pruning of the shrubs. City kids who have never been exposed to gardening have to be shown how to cut down weeds and how to prune. The students do enjoy working outdoors on a fall day learning how to maintain a garden.

Planking by the Sun Flowers

I was given a Horticulture class to teach in January of 2012. Our school has a  beautiful greenhouse on the second floor. The school has an enclosed  exterior courtyard that due to neglect has become overgrown with weeds and the shrubery needs to be pruned. In the spring, I purchased shovels, rakes, hedge clippers, wheel barrows, and sprinklers with the purpose of maintaining the courtyard. Unfortunately, I ran out of time because the class is busy maintaining the bedding plants that we propagated and sold from the greenhouse. Moreover, I have a commercial flower chiller and a wholesale license to purchase cut flowers, so the students are also preoccupied with flower arrangements. In June , as an experiment, I planted a small garden to see how the garden would keep the weeds in check. I planted potatoes, lettuce, radishes, carrots and sunflowers.  When school recommenced in September, the sunflowers has grown over six feet. The weeds had been kept in check. The remainder of the flower beds were overgrown with weeds that were three to four feet tall. I decided to take a picture of myself planking in front of the sunflowers.

Hope Andrade Texas Secretary of State

I attended a function of the American/Canadian Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) at the Hyatt Regency. The guest speaker was Esperanza (Hope) Andrade, the 106 Secretary of State for the state of Texas. There were a number of business presentations given by businessmen and businesswomen from places like Snyder, Tyler and Austin who were promoting business opportunities to invest in Texas. In talking to the Texans it was remarkable to see the similarities in the culture of Texans and the ranchers, farmers and oil men of Alberta. Texans are real hospitable and friendly people. The Texans loved my 100th anniversary Calgary Stampede commemorative jacket , I wore to the function. And yes, they do love rodeo and they knew and had attended The Greatest Show on Earth, the Calgary Stampede.  I was able to speak with Hope Andrade who is a genuine down to earth lady.
The Secretary of State is named in the Texas Constitution as one of the six officers along with the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Comptroller of Public Accounts, Commissioner of the General Land Office, and Attorney General, who together make up the Executive Department. Of these offices all are elected by the voters in statewide elections, except the Secretary of State who is nominated by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate.
The Secretary of State is charged with administering the Texas Election Code, maintaining public filings and is keeper of the State Seal of Texas.^[6]

Green Tomatoes

Tomatoes consume large amounts of water, direct sunlight and heat. So the best place to grow tomatoes is against the south facing garage wall. The sun rises in the east and hits the south facing wall from the morning until late afternoon. Training the tomatoe vines by twist tying them to a fence lattice allows you to grow vines that are 8 feet tall. Prune off the third leaf and the result are large tomatoes the size of your fist. By the middle of September before the first frost the tomatoes start to ripen on the vine. I currently have 10 kilograms of green tomatoes that I have picked beacuse the frost came but they are slowly ripening in the basement. To make the tomatoes ripen just place an apple with the tomatoes and the ethylene gas created by the ripening apple will help turn the tomatoes turn red.

Apple Picking

It has been one year  since my friends from China have immigrated to Canada. In past blog posts you saw their first Thanksgiving, and their first Christmas Party. Today, both parents have full time jobs and have purchased a house. September is another first as I invite them to pick apples from my apple tree. I have a macintosh apple tree that I created by grafting macintosh branches onto a crab apple tree 10 years ago. This year I harvested 10 boxes of apples.