Archive for July 15th, 2009

I’ve been working on this but didn’t finish my entire blogroll, which is now 29 blogs long. So here’s about the first half …

Local News:

Broadway Baptist Church has been tossed out of the Southern Baptist Convention for being “too lenient” about homosexuals, though what exactly they did to be “too lenient” isn’t made clear anywhere I can find … Because of the issue, the church’s youth group, which had planned to go to Appalachia to do service work for the needy, was uninvited to the project and had to find a different mission project … The U.S.’s Ten fastest growing cities include Fort Worth, according to Nicole’s DFW Real Estate Blog … On the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York, a fight between Fort Worth Police officers and patrons of a gay bar, the Rainbow Room, left one man in intensive care … two weeks later the Dallas Morning News does a wrap up … Kevin at 5kssandcabernets doesn’t think Steve McNair’s death-by-infidelity should negate everything good he ever did …

Culture:

Art and Seek covers the Amon Carter museum’s recent acquisition of a set of rare North American Indian photographs … Eleiva in Notes from Chronotopia reviews “How to Have Style” an inspirational makeover book by designer Isaac Mizrahi… she also contributed a long meditative piece on the phenomenon of the Vanity Licence Plate …

Social, Advertising and other Media

Carol at the Balcom Ad Agency blog begins a quick discussion of advertising’s paradigm shift since the 90’s …

New Blog Notes:

I’m noting a couple new  Fort Worth blogs. Fifty miles to Coffee is the blog of photographer and painter Mark Scantling. He explains what he’s up to … Another local blog: Mist Photography puts up a few shots of a pretty wedding last week which took place at St. Elizabeeth Ann Seton Church and Colonial Country Club

Education:

Eva-Marie at the Extra Credit Education Blog talks of wind-farm projects sponsored by institutions of higher education … Also from Extra Credit, Southwest High School students made a video about repairs needed at the campus, entered in a contest to win money for upgrades, and posted the video on YouTube:

Organic tomato harvest was a good one, despite the plants being attacked by wilt as the tomatoes ripened.

First: the good news. The tomatoes have produced a large crop — probably about ten pounds — of yellow and red organic tomatoes. Also, the chickens, interestingly, have started laying again, despite the daily over-100 heat. I don’t know how long this will last but it’s good as far as it goes.

On the bad side, a type of tomato wilt is taking over the garden. My stepfather David visited the Cowtown Farmer’s Market last weekend, partly to check out the stuff they were selling, and partly to ask for advice since his tomatoes have the wilt as well. The chief advice? Choose wilt resistent varieties. I did notice that the Celebrity tomato seems perkier and stronger against the wilt than the others. The heirloom variety I planted seems to have no green leaves left. We will soon have to tear out the tomatoes. David is, I think, starting some new tomatoes in the Gurney Smart Start so perhaps we can still have a fall crop.

Meanwhile, to try to make an accounting of the current state of “Mom Farm:”

Income:

Organic chicken eggs:  maybe 132 this year at 25 cents each: $33.

And tomatoes: 10 lbs at $3 per pound, $30.

Basil: Ten bundles at $1.75 per bundle: $17.50

Yellow crookneck squaush: 1 at $.75.

Total income: $81.25

Costs?

Chicken food — $24.

Seeds and drip watering supplies, hardware for chicken pen: $30

(Then there is the money that my mother and stepfather put into the drip system, garden boxes, and berry vines, but I don’t know that I can bill against a gift. Also, in fairness anything used over the space of several years has to be depreciated, not charged out total.) So:

total expense: $54

Current “farm” income: $27.25.

Not much, I suppose, when you consider the amount of labor. It’s probably best looked at as a hobby that pays you back. And the year’s not over, so maybe we’ll get more crops.