Sitting At The Kitchen Table

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: billybob
Date: 12 Sep 07 - 11:56 AM

Hi Jerry
hope you and Ruth have a good trip, we have been away to the Cotswolds for a few lazy days, also our son Christopher and Jane had a new baby boy on September 6th so we have been celebrating.I did wonder where you all were, think I will stroll out to the porch and take a look.
Wendy

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 09:10 PM

Coffee's on...

Jerry

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: maeve
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 09:15 PM

Hello there, Jerry. I'm happy to see you here.

maeve

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 09:19 PM

Hey, maeve:

I'm in the chat room right now, so I don't want to step away to make a longer post. Good to be back.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Amos
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 09:29 PM

Jerry, man!! How nice to see you around!!

Come back often!! Catch us up--you have been missed.


A

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 09:37 PM

Good to see you too, Bill. Sorry we can't make the getaway again. Our daughter's daughter is getting married in Virginia Beach in September, and then we're heading down to South Carolina to visit my oldest son and his family. That will shoot our gas budget for a couple of months.

I was talking with maeve in the Chat Room about gardening. I always loved gardening, but don't have the space for it where we live now.
I was thinking that what we need, Bill, is a little mind-altering. You being so wise, and all, could figure out how to do it. If only we could convince ourselves and everyone else that grass is weeds, and a lawn composed only of weeds is a thing of beauty to behold. I spend more time on my knees pulling up crab grass than I do praying.
I bet that it could grow on the moon.

But, then it's outdoor activity, which I hear is good for you.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: KT
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 10:58 PM

Hi Jerry! Great to see you here again! Thanks for puttin' the coffee on. We've all got some catching up to do.....

For now, I think i'll put my feet up and sink into Friday....ahhhh.....

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Alice
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 11:17 PM

Hi, Jerry! Good to see you again. Congrats on the wedding coming up for the grand daughter!

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: open mike
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 11:05 AM

welcome back--perhaps iced coffee would be best on this august day.
haven't heard from you, jerry for a while. also wonder what ever happened to jimmy t?

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 12:44 PM

Hey, Open Mike!

I'm glad to see that most of the old gang is still around. I have no idea what happened with jimmy t. I never hear from him, anymore.
Maybe his life just shifted into high gear. It can happen to any of us.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 01:22 PM

Coffee....Mmmmm smells good....white no sugar please!

Kitchen tables are great places. When I was a kid our table had an enamel top and you could write notes on it in pencil! Saved a heck of a lot of paper!

Good to have you back, Jerry!

Best wishes,

Peter

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 02:07 PM

When I was a kid, Pete, we had oilcloth on our kitchen table. Whatever became of oilcloth? Truth is, I hardly miss it at all.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 03:59 PM

Oh, you can still get oilcloth...should you need any! I hear it especially good for covering up the table when there is going to be messy sticking or painting going on!

The other thing about the kitchen table was the little ledge where you could hide your toast crusts. We kids thought we'd got away with this, until the day some-one moved the table and out they all fell! We scattered quicker than chickens at plucking time!

Best wishes,

Peter

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Tootler
Date: 10 Aug 08 - 11:51 AM

Coffee? White, no sugar for me please.

"perhaps iced coffee would be best on this august day" Not here in the UK. August has been wet and not too warm so far. Ahhh! The delights of the British weather. Always gives you something to talk about.

Spent the day at Saltburn Folk Festival yesterday. Two good tune sessions in the day and an excellent singaround in the evening. Great day!

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Leadfingers
Date: 11 Aug 08 - 09:14 AM

No sugar in my coffee thanks Jerry ! And Jimmyt turned up in chat the other evening - He is threatening to be at The Getaway in October ! Seems he is almost farming as well as being the local Tooth Fairy !

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 11 Aug 08 - 11:28 AM

Peter - we used our ledge to dispose of Mum's badly cooked vegetables! Crusts are yummy.

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 11 Aug 08 - 01:04 PM

And speaking of coffee, I finally got my hands on my coffee grinder. It once was lost, but now is found. It's been a long time since I fresh-ground coffee beans. Since I lost my coffee grinder.
I must say, it does make a difference. Now I'm experimenting with different whole beans.

Anyone else grind their own?

Jerry

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Amos
Date: 11 Aug 08 - 01:16 PM

We do-- we get a pound or two a month from Barefoot Coffee Roasters in San Jose and grind it in an electric Italian-looking grinder.

We're not too fussy, but we really enjoy the spectrum of flavors and "overtones" that come with different beans.

The real experts in this business make wine-tasters look crude!


A

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Leadfingers
Date: 11 Aug 08 - 01:28 PM

I have several sorts of coffee here - It depends on my mood wether I go for instant Ground or beans - though its Very Often fresh ground if I have company .

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 11 Aug 08 - 01:28 PM

Hey, Amos:

I had a friend of mine who was a great connoisseur of coffee. I used to tell him that I knew he was a coffee connoisseur because he hated 95% of the coffee he tasted. Sometimes it's better to be a member of the unwashed masses.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: MartinRyan
Date: 11 Aug 08 - 03:43 PM

Just coming in at the (very long) tail of this thread... Any advice on grinders for (domestic) expresso machines? I've kinda been putting off facing up to my responsibilities in these matters. I can get resepctable quality expresso from good quality ground beans with my machine but have a feeling I should go the whole hog...

Regards

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 11 Aug 08 - 03:51 PM

Don't know anything about the whole hog, Martin, but there are more sophisticated folks than me who stop by the kitchen table. We talk about whatever we talk about in here, so I imagine the conversation will move on.

Make sure you come back now, you hear?

Jerry

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Amos
Date: 11 Aug 08 - 08:33 PM

Martin:

My daughter is an expert in things cafŽ, and she sent me a lovely grinder called a Bodum, which has a wide-topped plastic bowl at the top which holds a whole pound of beans, and can be set to anything from cowboy percolator down to espresso sized grains.

Here's a writeup on the one we have.


A

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: jimmyt
Date: 11 Aug 08 - 09:10 PM

Jerry and all my old friends in the Kitchen and the cat for that matter. I am back and tickled that anyone even noticed I have been in absentia. Hope you all are hanging in there!   jimmyt

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Amos
Date: 11 Aug 08 - 10:56 PM

Ahhh JimmyT!!! Good to see ya!!

What have you been doing while you were away--do you dare tell?


A

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: KT
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 02:49 AM

Hey, jimmy! Just missed you the other day! Good to see you, and YES, you have been missed!
KT

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Jeanie
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 04:03 AM

Yay ! What a lovely surprise to find that the Kitchen Table is back again - such a long time, I'd nearly forgotten.

Good to find you here - long time, no see, Jerry and Jimmy. How is everyone ?

Jimmy, you will be pleased to know that after many years in hiding, I plucked up the courage to find a dentist when I moved to a new town - and one who takes on patients on the National Health Service (private dentistry in the UK is ridiculously expensive - you still have to pay something on the NHS, but a lot less). A lot of dentists only take on private patients, so I was glad to find him. Anyway...not surprisingly after all that time, I did have a tooth so bad that it had to be taken out, but I'm now among the good and virtuous who take care of their teeth. I wish I'd done it sooner !

I don't post so much on here these days, but still look in nearly every day. Hoping all is going well with you all - looking forward to further kitchen table chats.

- jeanie x

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: MartinRyan
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 04:15 AM

Amos,

Thanks for that - I'll look into it. I'm off to Northern Spain on holidays next week and reckon I'll arrive back with my lust for serious coffee fully revived!

Regards

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 11:11 AM

Jeannie and jimmyt! It doesn't get much better than that. How wonderful to see old friends stopping by for a cuppa.

Ruth and I just got back from a trip out to my home town in Wisconsin. I thought I'd relate a story.

Many years ago, I wrote a song, The Silver Queen, remembering those summer nights when I was a kid, when my mother, my two older sisters and my cousin Jeannine would walk down to the river and out to Riverside Park to catch the Silver Queen. The Silver Queen was an ungainly looking boat, used for moving houses on the River. It had a large, flat deck that rested on oil drums for a float that was large enough to transport a house, or during the War years, a good-sized crowd of dancers. I was a little kid during the second World War, and I'd tag along for the ride (which cost all of ten cents,) a bottle of Squirt and a bag of Okee Dokee cheese covered popcorn. I'd sit on the benches around the perimeter of the floor, which had been converted into a dance floor with genuine japanese lanterns artistically strung from light posts, and watch the young men and women dancing to the latest hits on the jukebox over in the corner.

After the War, the Silver Queen was intentionally deep sixed, or maybe deep-twelved, to the bottom of the River just south of the Four Mile Bridge. The little that was of any value was taken off, and the boat was unceremoniously sunk to the bottom of the river.

In the 70's a young couple who lived on the river, Ralph and Nanci Zigler, took advantage of a lowering of the river to see what could be salvaged. They asked the owner of the boat if they could keep whatever they took off the boat, and he gave his permission. They had no diving equipment, and the boat was still under several feet of water, but Ralph, his son and a friend attached a chain to the brass propeller and tried to pull it off, by attaching the other end of the chain to a hoist on a truck, with no luck. They finally had to take turns hack-sawing the propeller off of the shaft, with the person sawing as much as he could, before he ran out of breath, and the others helping to hold him under. They also were able to salvage the steering wheel.

When we were in Janesville, I did a concert, and at the request of Ralph and Nanci, who I met for the first time, I sang The Silver Queen. Afterwards, they invited Ruth and me to their home, so that they could show us the propeller (now made into a glass-topped coffee table, and the steering wheel. We sat on their sun porch, looking down on the River and drank peach iced tea, and looked through their scrap books on early boats that plied the River lazily flowing below us.

"Living on the river was nice and easy
People on the river just take their time"

                      Living on the River

They still do.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 02:56 PM

Hey, jimmy:

My cow has an infected molar. Could I bring her in for an office visit?

Jerry

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: jimmyt
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 03:36 PM

I would be udderly honored to treat her bovine dentition! This is such a nice place, the kitchen table 9so nice that KT actually calls herself KT in honor of the kitchen table.) Jerry, I loved the story about the silver queen! you are a wordsmith of the first waters, my friend. Amos et al, I have been behaving but since we bought a farm I am either working on teeth, playing music or something to do with the farm   I am having a blast but farm work is pretty time consuming. I am making a vow to be here more though, especially if all you nice folks hang around.

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: billybob
Date: 14 Aug 08 - 08:46 AM

Oh it is so lovely to find you all here in the kitchen, I missed you all.I did keep looking but no one was here.Do tell us what you have been doing Gerry, I am sure there are lots of stories waiting to be told, I am in the chair in the corner and the coffee tastes good!
Wendy

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 14 Aug 08 - 11:06 AM

Hey, billybob:

How nice to see you. I hope that folks will stop by a make even a short post from time to time, just to keep this thread alive. I finally stopped posting last year bescuse no one else was, and it had become a vanity thread. I come in hear to listen, more than talk.

A lot of good things have been going on in my life, in the long stretch of time when I wasn't posting. It wasn't because I don't enjoy mudcat, because I still have many friends in here.

Probably the biggest thing that has happened in the last year is that I finally wrote a book. I have Mudcat, at least in part, to thank for that. The book is a collection of short chapters, and gospel songs I've written, titled: The Gate of Beautiful: Stories, Songs, and Reflections on Christian Life. Two of the chapters are stories I posted on here: A Bus Story and A Train Story. I used them as they were posted, with some additional reflections. There are other chapters that relate to folk music, but are not about folk music. One comes from a long letter that I originally wrote to Art Thieme many years ago describing an amazing experience that I had at a concert that I did.   There are 22 chapters in the book, and the last section of the book is composed of lyrics and commentary on 11 gospel songs I've written. The book itself is liberally sprinkled with lines from songs I've written, gospel and otherwise, as well as scriptural quotations. I am hoping to do a CD of the songs, as only two of them have been released on CD.

I keep writing songs, too. They keep coming, and I welcome them when they do. I make no effort to force them to come. These days, they're almost exclusively gospel songs, although one that I wrote sounds more like a country blues.

Writing the book has been a wonderful experience, and now I am exploring possibilities for having it published. Push comes to shove, I'll publish it on my own, but I am nowhere near that point yet.

The other connection is that the primary encouragement to do the book has come from none other than Elmer Fudd.

And the-the-the-the-thaaats all folks!

Jerry

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Amos
Date: 14 Aug 08 - 11:37 AM

The other connection is that the primary encouragement to do the book has come from none other than Elmer Fudd.


Awwight, you wascally witer, you gotta 'splain this!!

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 14 Aug 08 - 12:26 PM

Hello Jerry,

Good to hear that you are still writing and look forward to the book...put me down for a copy!

I loved the story about the Silver Queen. I also love the song. It is short, simple and gets a powerful message across in a very effective manner. Would that other songwriters had that gift!

Hey...who pinched the last cookie?

Best wishes,

Peter

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 14 Aug 08 - 12:51 PM

There's a very simple principle here, Amos. Elmer was very positive about my writing ability, as were several others on here, including jimmyt. Ya never know how much good you do, just letting someone else know that you appreciate what they're doing. My brother-in-law
Everett is probably my greatest appreciator, but he's not a Mudcatter. He called me yesterday and said, "I need some more reading material!" Bro Everett lives in a retirement complex, and he has a whole group of people who are reading what I send to him. When he gets mail from me, he usually knows it because someone else saw that he had an envelope. Some come knocking on his door at eleven o'clock at night, when they hear he's received a new envelope. None of them are members of Mudcat, either.

Interestingly, several people who have been very supportive and encouraging about my writing are not Christians. Some are Atheists.
It takes a big man to understand how small we all are.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Amos
Date: 14 Aug 08 - 01:29 PM

JErry:

Oh, for goodness' sake!! When you wrote "Elmer Fudd" I was thinking of the little cartoon character who perpetually hunts Bugs Bunny, not the mudcatter, so of course it didn't make sense!

No question about your writing ability, none at all.


A

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 14 Aug 08 - 02:17 PM

Hey, Amos:

That's not to minimize how much I learned from the Warner Brothers Elmer Fudd. He taught me patience and determination.:-)

Jerry

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: GUEST,Paul Williams
Date: 14 Aug 08 - 11:09 PM

My uncle, Elmer Ullius, owned the Silver Queen. My dad did most of the work to the boat. I never knew there was a song about the boat. Where can I get a copy of the song? I, too, would love tp hear more of the "story" of the Silver Queen.

Thanks.


Paul Williams
Janesville, WI

[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 08:20 AM

Hey, Paul:

What a wonderful surprise to see your posting! I'll e-mail some more information to you.

Man, you never know! A few years ago, I did as song that I wrote about the Chicago/Northwestern, Milwaukee/St. Paul line that ran through my home town with the verse:

   Fishing off the edge of the railroad bridge
   You can feel those steel rails humming
   Better put your bait and your bucket down
   For the train will soon be coming

I sang it at a folk festival a thousand miles from my home town, but someone came up to me afterward and said, "I've fished off that bridge." I was all excited, and asked, "Did you grow up in Janesville?" and he answered, "No, I grew up in Colorado, but it was the same bridge."

And he was right.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: GUEST,Singer's Knight
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 03:09 PM

I don't think I've dropped by here before. Nice place you have. Love the decor. Coffee, black would be lovely thanks. Where did you get that great picture on the wall?

Can I also say how much I enjoyed the song Silver Queen?

Very emotive.

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Art Thieme
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 08:16 PM

Jerry, If the info on the Silver Queen from Mr. Williams is as cool as it might be, be sure to let us who lurk in this good thread know a bit of it. Remember that I spent a lot of time picking and singing on Blackhawk Island just a bit north of Janesville---about a dozen years. That was as close to a paid vacation that Chris and Carol and I ever got. Wisconsin will always be hugely important to me---and the songs I unearthed there are a part of me forever. "The Shanty Boy On The Big Eau Claire" for one -- "The Pinery Boy." --"The Pokegama Bear" -- "Lost Jimmy Whalen" -- many more...

Love to you and Ruth,

Art

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 10:25 PM

Hey, Art:

One of the things I regret about this site is that we can't post photographs in our comments. Maybe I'll e-mail a couple to you... one of the brass propellor and the other of the wheel of the Silver Queen. You can still pick up a bag of Okee Doke cheese covered popcorn in the Midwest. Every time I come home, it's one of the first things I look for.

As for the Silver Queen, Roy Harris did a marvelous recording of the song on one of his early albums. Unfortunately, the track skips on my record, and I've never been able to get a replacement. He does it with a concertina and a very English, almost music hall arrangement with some twittery chickies singing along on the chorus.
It is very evocative of the second World War as felt by those who experienced it in Britain. I marvel at music. Someone can take a song that is specific to a small town in southern Wisconsin, and transform it into a song that evokes a completely different landscape and culture.

One of the verses in the song refers to a flag hanging in a front room window. Some folks that drop by here can remember when the living room was called the front room, because it was almost always at the front of the house. During the Second World War, there were three differently colored stars. They were small, mounted on a wooden stick with tassles on the bottom. Or, at least that's how I remember them. A blue star meant that your son or daughter was in the service, a silver star that they'd been wounded in action, and a Gold Star that they had been killed in the line of duty.

I was born in 1935, not knowing at the time that my home town of Janesville celebrated it's 100th anniversary in that year. I came home to visit in 1985, and they had a big parade down Milwaukee Street, celebrating Janesville's 150th anniversary. It was all small town stuff, but when I saw a flat bed truck coming down the street, I was overwhelmed with emotion. Sitting proudly erect in folding chairs on the truck bed, waving small American flags were several elderly women. The banners on the truck said it all: Gold Star Mothers. Forty years had passed since the end of the second World War, but the pain and loss was still fresh in the faces of the women. Unlike the other floats that were greeted with huzzaws and jokes, there was only scattered applause, with many people like myself too overcome by the poignancy of the moment to do anything but stand there in silence.

Thanks for dropping by, Singer's Knight... don't make a stranger of yourself.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 17 Aug 08 - 03:11 PM

It's Sunday afternoon, and Ruth and I are taking it easy after a very busy, but enjoyable weekend. (Technically, I guess this is still part of it..) The Gospel concert Friday night went very well, although they didn't get the sell-out that they needed. The main group was Lee Williams and the Spiritual QC's. I'd never heard them, and I have a pretty extensive collection of black gospel. The concert was a microcosm of black gospel. The Men's Chorus that I sing in opened the evening, doing three songs, with just a piano accompaniment. As we often do, we did part of one song a capella. That was the end of a reasonable level of sound. Every other group played from too loud to too Damned Loud! I had to leave the sanctuary while one group was playing because it hurt my ears too much, and my hearing isn't as good as it used to be. There was the usual, "Everybody clap your hands now!" exhortation, trying to whip the congregation into a frenzy, and several of the lead singers walked out into the congregation and into the aisles. A group of women singers even imitated flying by flapping their arms with their elbows stuck out. It looked more like they were imitating chickens.

When Lee Williams and the Spiritual QC's came out, it was a different story. They came up from Tupelo, Mississippi, and they let their music get people moving. None of this "Everybody clap your hands, now" stuff. Lee Williams stands bolt upright when he sings. When he gets into the Spirit, he taps his foot. They shook the place, completely on the strength of their singing. They weren't the loudest group, but they had everyone up dancing.
When the Spirit is moving you don't have to do nuthin'. Just step back and let him work.

Last night, we had a birthday celebration for my son Pasha. He's my wife Ruth's oldest son. And mine, too. Who ever dreamt up the term Son-in-law? Love has nothing to do with the law, and I love him as if he was my biological son. "Son" is a loving relationship, not a legal matter. I gave him a large book on jazz and blues. He hasn't heard much country blues, but I'll take care of that. He loves all kinds of music from James Brown to classical, so I know he'll be excited hearing Skip James, Leadbelly, Mississippi John and the rest.

This morning we went to a large Baptist Church in New Haven, right next door to us. I love that chruch. They must have had 500 people there this morning, and the sermon was titled "Never Again." Every year, they set aside a Sunday to reflect upon the heritage of slavery that still effects their lives. It was a powerful, positive message, with music to match.

We couldn't have asked for a better weekend.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 18 Aug 08 - 12:15 PM

These alst few weeks, most mornings I go out and pick fresh black raspberries from the bushes in my backyard. The season is almost over now, and I'll miss the berries. There's something great about stepping out the back door and picking something that you can have on cereal. Anyone else have that luxury?

One thing I think I need to do. This year, I didn't cut back on the bushes, and they've grown like crazy, taking over the whole corner of the house. I seem to remember that it's important to prune the branches back so that all the energy of the bush doesn't go into new growth. Prune blackraspberries? That's the bananas, but I'm pretty sure that I should do it. Here's a question for you gardners (Farmer Jimmy.) When should I cut back the new growth? I'm planning on doing it soon, so if this is the wrong time of year, tell me to stop the snippers!

Jerry

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: jimmyt
Date: 18 Aug 08 - 02:24 PM

Jerry, I am going to put in Blueberries, black raspberries and red raspberries in a few weeks when the heat dies down a bit. I love berries and we have a pretty large patch of wild black raspberries in one corner of my farm. They are not Blackberries, much sweeter and different shaped berries and the canes are definately raspberries. I had hoped to put in an acre of wine grapes but I am not sure if my soil will sustain them. Having almost no experience whth this farming, everything I do is a grand adventure! Just built a 16 foot floating boat dock for my lake and so far it holds people walking on it. I appreciate everyone who can do things with their hands much more now that I am trying to do things for myself. I pretty much bow down and worship anyone who can run a back hoe as now that I have one, I can tell you it is a real skill!!!

ps, I also lived in Janesville in 1970. 204 South CHerry St.
jimmyt

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 19 Aug 08 - 09:59 AM

Hello Jerry,

How lucky you are to have fresh raspberries right outside the door! We seem to be overrun by courgettes at the moment...and you can't put them on your museli....well I suppose you could....best in soup!

Here in the UK raspberries etc should be pruned in late summer, once they have finished fruiting. I guess it won't be much different in your part of the world. So you should be fine to go out with the snippers!

Best wishes,

Peter

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 19 Aug 08 - 06:03 PM

Rumanci gave me the same advice, Pete. She said that I could the new growth back about one half, and cut the old, fruit-bearing branches away. Then, the raspberries will come on the cut-back new growths, next year.

I sure hope so. The raspberry bushes are taking over the corner of our house. We moved here six years ago, and I didn't even see the bush the first year or so, it was so small.

I remember one early Cape Cod morning, going out with a friend of my friend's, whom I had just met, to pick wild blueberris which he used to make blueberry pancakes for breakfast. You don't forget stuff like that...

Jerry

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: billybob
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 07:59 AM

Hi Jerry,
how lovely to hear about your weekend, sounds like wonderful music.
We had a very busy weekend, Billy was 60 so I planned a suprise party. Had to keep him out of the house all day on Saturday while we put up a marquee in the garden, he came home to 26 family and a three course dinner. Wow was he speechless! Then on Sunday we had a bar b q for 75, luckily the weather held, we have had a dreadful summer in the UK this year! The whole weekend went off really well considering he told me he did not want a party or any fuss!It is a shame that his sisters are all in New Jersey and do not come to England but I think my large family made up for them not being here.
How I kept the secret I do not know, I had food and wine hidden all over the house and had to cook in the evenings while he was asleep in front of the television.
Pete are you the same Pete that was at the Waddon Folk Club in the 70's? If you are, I am the Wendy that lived in Maidstone and the little boy Christopher that you did a party with Shadow puppets for is now a daddy himself aged 35 and sings" I had a little brother, his name was Tiny Tim" to his little boy Reuben! Happy days!
Wendy

Subject: RE: Sitting At The Kitchen Table
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 10:20 AM

Hello Jerry,

Glad the advice about the raspberries is coming thick and fast! Do you get enough to make jam? The blackberries are ripening in the hedges and it will soon be time to go blackberrying. Guaranteed to get a good haul and purple staining to the hands! Blackberry & apple pie...Mmmmm!

Wendy's post reminded me of the Shadow Puppets!...yes Wendy...it is indeed I. Good to hear from you. The Shadow Puppets were a great venture and we had some good times with them!

Best wishes,

Peter