Alice White Chardonnay

I was impressed by a 2006 Alice White Chardonnay I tried at a restaurant. Although my experience with Austrailian wine has been limited to the $10 and under bottles, and I am not a fan of Yellow Tail, this Aussie delivered. This Chardonnay is very smooth and easy drinking. It's very simple, not too heavily oaked and just dry enough. The fruit is mild and not overpowering. It lacks the wierd tanginess I get in Yellow Tail. For $6.50 a bottle how can you go wrong. I have no doubt there are higher quality Aussie Chardonnays, but I can't imagine a better one for under $10. I noticed on the company website that they've recently overhauled the image and marketing of their wines. It will probably be showing up in more restaurants as a result. This will definately be my everyday white wine of the summer. Salute!

Man In the Moon

Without a doubt, one of the best movies I've seen in a while is Man In the Moon (1991) with Reese Witherspoon, Jason Landon, and Sam Waterston. I didn't know the movie existed and only watched it because my wife picked it out. I learned that it was filmed not far from here in Natchitoches, LA. It appears to be the first major motion picture for Reese Witherspoon who, I also just learned, was born in New Orleans. This was not the typical cheesy southern movie. It is a heartwarming and heartbreaking drama delivered by a stellar cast. Witherspoon was destined for a great career after this debut. She had to be about 15 years old at the time of filming, which made her nude scene shocking, although very innocent. The feel, quality, and setting of the movie is similar to The Notebook, although it is a coming-of-age film. I highly encourage you to see this great movie from Louisiana.

My Garden

This is the best garden I've had so far. This is the second year that I've planted in this part of the yard with more sun and better drainage. As someone relatively new to gardening, I have a lot of questions. I've found a lot of answers online and at the local library. Maybe some of you out there would like to know the same things as me. I'll try to post updates on my progress and trial by error.

This year I have four rows over 20' long each. My rows are spaced good (except for the giant zucchini plants that are shading my bell peppers), but I planted the plants a little too closely. My plants consist of: twelve tomatoes, twelve cherry tomatoes, twelve green bell peppers, six jalapeno peppers, six zucchini, six yellow crook neck squash, and twelve straight eight cucumbers.

In years past I always waited till Good Friday to plant my garden, but then I had to contend with heat of the summer and watering needs even more. I planted early this year before Easter once soil temps were up but days were pleasant in early March. I gambled against a late freeze, but we got one around Easter with a touch of snow flurries. I was out of town and hadn't covered my plants, but they seemed only mildly affected by the freeze.

Couple days after the freeze my tomato leaves started turning yellow and shriveling up. I thought it was from the freeze, but it kept getting worse and spreading. Not knowing what it could be, I thought maybe it was rust. I still don't know for sure but pulled off every leaf with any hint of yellowing. I may have overpruned them, but a week later they were greener than ever and growing like crazy again.

Two weeks after planting my garden my Burpless cucumbers were turning yellow and dying quickly. It happened too fast to do anything about it. I thought maybe the cool days had an effect on them, but I'm not sure. I replanted the entire row with Straight Eight cucumbers instead, leaving only the last two or three Burpless survivors. I also planted Marigolds throughout my cucumbrit rows. I learned that they are a natural repellent for bugs that love squash, zucchini, and cucumbers. So far, no bugs, and the garden looks nice with the color.


I tilled 13-13-13 fertilizer into the soil when I tilled up the garden. Last year I put a small handful in each hole covered by a little dirt with the plant on top, but this year just let it slide. I have been regularly spraying the plants with Miracle Gro, especially early on then again once vegetables began appearing. I also mulched the garden this year for the first time to help with disease and drought prevention. I have soaker hose on each row set on a water timer. Since I'm out of town a lot, it doesn't get watered consistently otherwise. The timer works great. I generally water for 30 minutes every other day or every 3rd day when it hasn't rained, trying to water deep to stimulate root growth. I also didn't make raised rows this year. I know. I know. I'm lazy, but I also thought in this new spot the plants would have less of a struggle for water in the heat of the summer. I just have to make sure not to over water for now.

The only possible result of not planting in raised rows that I've been able to notice is that my zucchini and squash have developed wet rot on the blossom end. After the flower fell off the end nearest the flower turned a dark wet brown. After talking to the folks at our Cooperative Extension office, they recommended a fungicide to stem the problem. I just applied a product yesterday for wet rot. Before I applied it, I noticed that it wasn't a fugicide after all but actually an aid for calcium deficiency that can cause wet rot. It is recommended for tomatoes and cucumbrits, so I thought it couldn't hurt. I'm going to watch to see if it corrects the problem. If not I'm going to find a fungicide to try also.

I'm having fun watching it grow. I've always had good luck with cherry tomatoes and bell peppers, but my tomatoes and squash are doing better than ever this year. I've never seen zucchini plants so big ever. We'll have plenty to eat if I can stay on top of everything. If you have tips or ideas to share, please post a comment. I hope you find something helpful when you stop by. Good luck!

Financial Biz Buzz

For some reason I was fascinated by the financial buzz yesterday over Rubert Murdoch's proposal to buy Dow Jones/The Wall Street Journal for $5 Billion. Moments after his interview with Neil Cavuto on Your World the Bankroft family, which owns DJ/WSJ, rejected his bid outright. The way I see it, a lot of people made a lot of money on the speculation of what could be, given that the DJ stock price went from $32 to $54 on the news. If Murdoch bought Dow Jones, he could have sold off the financial management side of the company and recooped a large part of the purchase price and integrated the Journal with his upcoming Fox Biz Channel. Although his bid was rejected, News Corp received a tremendous amount of free publicity for its new cable network and made a statement that its serious about being a player in the financial market.

I've had an interest in financial happenings for a long time. As a history nut, I was always impressed with the tycoon's of yesteryear, such as William Randolph Hearst, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, as well as modern moguls like Jack Welch, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Murdoch himself. I thoroughly enjoyed economics courses I took in college, but really took more interest once I played the stock market online for a year. The first day I sat down with $300 to buy shares, I bought Books a Million (BAMM). They were set to release earnings reports that day and speculation was that it would be better than expected. Sure enough I sat down that morning and watched the stock steadily climb from $4 a share until it peaked out at $47 a share before noon. I got out just before it peaked somewhere around $38. I had made $2,500 in about an hour and a half. That will spoil you, as it doesn't happen often. I haven't played the market since that year, but I definately enjoyed learning more about it. News like this just makes me want to get back into it even more.