The Hobbit Hole III - Journey to the Cross-roads!

[HairOfTheDog]

Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!

Journey to the Cross-roads
The Two Towers Edition

Come on! Come in! -if you would like to have some seedcakes and a pint and relax a while. (If it is a special occasion, we still have a few bottles of the old wineyards left!)

Our first thread ( New Zealander builds Hobbit hole ) reached 4,100 posts, and we thought that was big. Our second thread (The New Hobbit Hole ) held us for over 48,000 posts, and we loved it dearly. We talked about moving to a new thread for the last 38,000 posts, but we are really slow to muster! Finally, the time has come. Tomorrow (at 12:01 am, to be precise!) The Two Towers comes out, and we start a new chapter.

[Corin Stormhands]

This is not spam. ;-)

[Overtaxed]

Ate black eyed peas for good luck, and collard greens for money today

You put the penny under the plate, right?

[Corin Stormhands]

I am so embarrassed...

Would I have gotten it if I'd had collards and peas?

[Overtaxed]

Yes!

[Alkhin]

Happy New Year to you and yours, Scott!!

Am a bit jealous that everyone is watching their SE DVD...lent mine to the neighbor who says he is a fan, but they have only watched half of it yet, and I feel it calling...we waaaantsss it, yes, my preciousssss!!!

He is a fireman, though, which is something I have a tremendous respect for. Still...

Bless us and crush us! Do I say 'nice hobbit' or asks it for the precious back????

[Corin Stormhands]

Do I say 'nice hobbit' or asks it for the precious back????

I think you say "nasty fat hobbit, gives us backs our preciousssssssssss......."

[HairOfTheDog]

Would I have gotten it if I'd had collards and peas?

Have some collards...

[HairOfTheDog]

OK - I am on my way out shortly, to visit my friend and endure Harry Potter! - Perhaps tonight or tomorrow?

You could post it, you know! - If you don't want to waits for me!

[Alkhin]

You put the penny under the plate, right?

NO! Omigosh...did I jinx myself??? That's a NEW one...I am only Texan, you see...

For those who hate collard greens, I did too, until my mother made them with bacon and some onions and garlic. Now I have a garden full of collard greens and look forward to having enough to make another potfull. Only thing is, the leaves are now full of aphids...the praying mantis I put out there a couple of weeks ago 'bugged out' (HA HA HA!) and now I am faced with a problem of ridding the garden of these pests without extreme chemicals. Anyone have any ideas?

Anyway, what I did was sautee onions, red bell pepper and some garlic in bacon grease, and when the time was right, put in the leaves with a bit of water. When the greens were cooked, I crumbled the crunchy bacon over it. Oh, but the thing you MUST have to complete the greens is hot sauce, either cayenne, Tabasco, or any other favorite brand. T'ain't the same without it.

And the black eyed peas have been Texa-fied: I make mine real soupy and use Rotel tomatoes.

[Alkhin]

Would do, but don't have all the requisite keywords and contacts...am still woefully ignorant of navigating my way around Free Republic, posting-wise...

I can waits for it, my precious!

[HairOfTheDog]

I will post it a bit later then, when I get home, or tomorrow.

The collard greens on the picture above look really gross!

[Overtaxed]

now I am faced with a problem of ridding the garden of these pests without extreme chemicals. Anyone have any ideas?

Lady bugs or Sevin dust. By the time the collards come of age here, the bugs are already gone.

[Alkhin]

Thanks Overtaxed...not too sure about using Sevindust...am not a hard core organic gardener, as I tend to believe technology *does* produce good things, so I am guessing that Sevin dust does not become part of the plant??? Here on the Gulf Coast I think the bugs bargain that they will not have to leave for too long and tend to ride out any Blue Northers we get with tenacity, so this makes for a rather frustrating situation. Aphids thrive, but ladybugs don't stay...and apparently neither do praying manti...either that, or his belly is so full, he cant keep up.

Am going into to town tomorrow to see what I can find...

Overtaxed, checked into your personal page...noticed you have me on your list of elf bashers???? I LIKE Legolas! He's the ONLY elf I really like...well, Elrond is really cool too... :D :D :D!!

[Alkhin]

Thanks Overtaxed...not too sure about using Sevindust...am not a hard core organic gardener, as I tend to believe technology *does* produce good things, so I am guessing that Sevin dust does not become part of the plant??? Here on the Gulf Coast I think the bugs bargain that they will not have to leave for too long and tend to ride out any Blue Northers we get with tenacity, so this makes for a rather frustrating situation. Aphids thrive, but ladybugs don't stay...and apparently neither do praying manti...either that, or his belly is so full, he cant keep up.

Am going into to town tomorrow to see what I can find...

Overtaxed, checked into your personal page...noticed you have me on your list of elf bashers???? I LIKE Legolas! He's the ONLY elf I really like...well, Elrond is really cool too... :D :D :D!!

[SuziQ]

With Dad and Mom:

Well in this picture, we realize where she gets her propensity to partially bare her chest! LOL!

[SuziQ]

But you have to eat collards and black-eyed peas on New Year's Day or you'll have bad luck

I thought it was 'Hoppin John', blackeyed peas with rice, that brought you the 'jingle in your pocket' or wealth in the New Year. I sent our #2 son out earlier for the blackeyed peas, so we'll have some with rice, and our steak and baked potatoes for our New Year's dinner. Gonna have to get it going because it is gonna be snowing soon, and I don't want SSQ to be stuck in the snow grilling the red meat off the bone!!

[SuziQ]

Something that was recommended in some organic gardening book once, was to make a solution with water, a little liquid dish soap and some cayenne pepper. The dish soap with the glycerin keeps the pepper in a suspension in the water, I think. Then you spray it onto the plants. Nothing harmful to you; you just rinse off the veggies before you cook or eat them. Anyway, it is supposed to run the bugs off. You probably have all that anyway, so give it a try. If you don't have any ground red pepper, use some of that Tabasco sauce!

[Alkhin]

I'd always heard the money thing came with eating dark leafy green vegetables like collard or mustard greens. An African holdover of associating characteristics of one thing with the characteristics of another. Black eyed peas were simply for good luck. Not sure where the connection with that is, other than black eyed peas were staple for the Southerners during the hard years of the War of Northern Aggression :D

[Overtaxed]

Overtaxed, checked into your personal page...noticed you have me on your list of elf bashers???? I LIKE Legolas! He's the ONLY elf I really like...well, Elrond is really cool too... :D :D :D!!

Sigh....I can take you off the list.

You know, I've been listening to people griping about what PJ did to Faramir's character in TTT. Well what PJ did to Elrond's character is worse than what he did to Faramir's. He took a cool, wise Elf and turned him into a constipated, snooty, defeatist sourpuss.

I don't have a Sevin label in front of me but I think you can use it up to harvest. Just wash your produce real well! I usually wait a few days though. It's best to apply early in the morning or at dusk when the winds are low and to avoid killing bees and other pollinators. The active ingredient is carbaryl which is also in flea powder.

[Overtaxed]

I thought it was 'Hoppin John', blackeyed peas with rice, that brought you the 'jingle in your pocket' or wealth in the New Year.

The blackeyed peas is for the "jingle" in your pocket and the collards are for a wad of bills. :)

It's been so warm for the past two days that I've been able to wear my LOTR T-shirt.