So Much Better than Max's Garden

So, awhile back Max showed you pictures of his garden and because I'm slow and haven't been good about taking pictures, it's taken me awhile and because we're so much farther north, longer for the garden to get going, but here it is. It's mostly controlled by Mrs. Ghost, but I have helped out on occassion and am enjoying the benefits.


We have "successfully" grown and eaten the following this spring / early summer: Lettuce and Spinach (multiple types and the above picture shows the incredible amount of lettuce we still have. We failed on sugar snap peas (5 total pea pods that each member of the family got one each.)

We have currently growing Tomotoes (4 types), Tomatillos, Pole Beans, Bush Beans, Cucumbers, Squash, Zuchini, Watermellon, Jalapeno Peppers, Banana Peppers, and a littany of herbs including basil, thyme, sage, rosemary, dill, marjorum, lemon grass, and I think a few more that I never remember.


It's not a true victory garden, but we're hopeful to reduce our need of many vegetables this summer and try out hand at pickeling, drying, sauces, herb infused cocktails (I'll share those recipes later.)

Hope you appreciate. . ... .. . . and eat dirt Max.

Deflating

So, as you may or many not have read my laid off entries, the is in some ways a continutation of this whole life experience.

Last night, I had the opportunity in the with the new job / in the new role to attend a very high priced cocktail reception where there was a pretty prominent speaker, in a swanky hotel, the whole deal.

Suit freshly pressed - Check
Shoes freshly shined - Check
New business cards in breast pocket - Check
Arrive about 30 minutes early - Check

Walk up to hotel lobby bar as I have a few minutes to kill . . . feeling confident about my new gig and know the facts and figures that seem important . . . get a nice seat at the end of the bar . . . . look the bartender square in the eye. . .. order my cocktail of choice, "Stoli-Tonic, Please". .. .. .

"Sir, May I see your ID?"

just a little deflating of a moment.

Poker Musings, Vol. 5 - Happy Father's Day

Thank you Pokerstars random number generator. Your first Father's Day gift to me was just too kind.

If it weren't for skill, I'd win them all...

Dow at 11,500

I believe the DOW has to climb back to 11,500 for me to feel confident again in the economy. I don't know how it's going to happen in the current atomosphere of borrow and spend, borrow and spend, but overall I have faith in the american people that drive the economy eventually feeling better and taking a risk with their cash and their gold and putting back into good companies, who produce a good product and thus driving the Dow back up.

Going to go out on a limb and predict when. . . .

April, 2011.

Pickle, It's Not Just a Funny Word

Some people have a can do attitude. The Boom clan has a can can attitude. Or something.

For those with victory gardens, spoils are reaped. Mentioned that we have some pickling cucumbers. Time to pickle. Below is a picture of but a small sampling of the many cucumbers the garden has yielded. I decided to take a picture of only a limited number, and frankly of the ones that wouldn't make the photo shoots of less secure gardners.



I assure you-- ASSURE-- that in no way is that the total of all cucumbers grown to date.

The next step was to sterilize jars and prepare the brine.



Skipping ahead, you want to chop all of the cukes into slices if they're of the small sampling like those pictured above, or into spears if they're like the vast majority of the rest of my harvest. You can also prepare the garlic and hot peppers while the brine comes to a boil. Results:



Now comes the fun part. Assembly includes jamming as many cucumbers into the jar as possible. Then you throw the your seed all over it. Get your head out of the gutter!



Repeat as desired...



Hopefully you've sterilized the lids. If so, seal and throw in the boiling bath for 15 minutes or so. My first 3 jars.



Lest you reach cucumber complacency, there are always green beans and asparagus just begging to be pickled.



And if you're feeling very ambitious (a/k/a "boomish"), you can also brine yourself up some custom pepper sauce.





Let sit for 6 weeks, you're good to go.

Bar Fly Banter, Vol. 6 - Training

Presented without comment, except to say "Not mine!"

Max Boom and Gold

We’re currently in deflation, not inflation. House prices, gas prices, car prices, stock prices are all way down. Go to the mall and buy clothes—everything is on sale. These are not inflationary indicators.

The Fed’s printing a ton of money, but it’s not gaining any utility. If the Fed printed $100 trillion and buried it under the White House, it wouldn’t make a lick of difference in the price of anything. That’s what is happening now—the Fed (actually, to be accurate, the Treasury) is printing money like mad but it’s being vaulted and so isn’t leading to the inflation the media is alluded to.

"Hyper-inflation" is also a catchy buzz word among today's talking heads. Not the smart ones, mind you. We also won’t see hyper-inflation for decades if at all. It really only comes about when a nation’s population loses complete faith in its country’s currency. It’s Germany in the 1920’s and Zimbabwe today. It can’t happen here in the short term for one good reason — our military. In the extreme, if Obama is faced with a starving, riotous population demanding leaders’ heads on pikes or invading New Zealand and happily selling wool and mutton to US citizens for US dollars… well, there’s no loss in the faith of a currency if it can buy what you need. At present Uncle Sam has the guns to protect its currency.

But the government does want controlled inflation, which it’s having a tough time getting now. That will change in the future, and if you can time that right you’ll make out like a bandit. In order for the deflation mentioned above to transition to inflation, all of the excess credit has to be sopped out of the system. That’s happening slowly through foreclosures, bankruptcies, inventory dumping, etc. But home values have collectively lost over $10 trillion. That’s $10 trillion that 3 years ago could have been monetized (turned into real cash) and spent by someone, so don’t discount those credit dollars’ effect on the total “money pool” any less than the $1.6 trillion being printed. Both are sort of imaginary dollars to a guy growing and selling corn, but he sells his corn for it anyway. Additionally, the stock market has lost well over $10 trillion, which is a very real amount to subtract from the “money pool.” At present, the Fed can’t print money (and/or sell via Treasuries) as fast as the credit bubble is contracting. Declining prices are a result.

I am a recently converted gold bug and have made some purchases in the last 6 months. My reasoning is that gold is money. Drop me off in just about any country in the world and I can go to their version of a bank and convert it into local currency for some exchange rate. I’m not making a gold-as-a-commodity play to protect against inflation just yet. I’m making a gold-as-money play. Every country in the world is printing money like mad in a race to devalue their currencies and make their exports cheaper. That’s good for gold, which no country can unilaterally devalue and all hoard.

So if you’re investing in gold and watch the price go up in the short term, it doesn’t necessarily mean that inflation is setting in just yet. It could just mean that gold is being more highly valued than a dollar as a place holder for money. But the same doesn’t necessarily hold true for other traditional inflation hedges like land, which still might be contracting in price due to deflation.

Beer, however, is where I'm most levereged tonight.