colt

COLT
now if you dont live in texas
or
if you are not a sports fan
or
if you like alcohol

or
if you are a gun person


then colt may mean something else to you
but here in texas if you say the word
colt

it has only one meaning

thats colt mccoy
the opie of college football and now professional football

a feel good story
like watching the show where opie taylor is walking down to
the pond with his dad to go fishing
just makes you feel good it does

colt comes from a small school here in texas a 2a school
thats a small school
there are hundreds of these schools in texas
producing a lot of good students and athletes
but most dont make it to the big schools

but colt did
he got a scholarship to ut and few believed he would make it

because of injury and persistence
hey hes a coaches son
he became the quarterback for the longhorns
running off the most wins ever by a quarterback in ncaa history

then he got drafted to the meat market of quarterbacks at the
cleveland browns

most of us remember a few years ago when he was leveled
in a game and lay motionless for awhile
he was put back in the game despite not remembering
playing the game
thats when the nfl put spotters in the booth for evidence of
undetected injuries like this so the players would be removed
from playing
protecting the player from the system

as we know now these head injuries especially repeated ones
can lead to mental decline and depression and maybe als and
in some cases suicide

he really hasnt played much as a backup in the last 3 years
he left cleveland lucky guy just ask johnny football how much fun
it is to be there
then on to san francisco as a back up there
then
on to washington as the third string quarterback

rg3 was injured this year

the back up played poorly
so
in comes colt at half time
firing on all cylinders to bring the team back to victory

then
next week its
mnf
monday night football against the dallas cowboys
at jerrys world
just 2 hours from the 700 people town he played for in high school
and
the big rivalry for the washington team

you couldnt ask for a better script for colt mccoy

now i am a long time cowboy fan through ups and downs
a lot of downs recently

i never ever root against the cowboys
but
this one  time i did
i wanted romo and group to play well but i didnt want them
to win or get hurt
oops sorry tony

i wanted colts comeback story to be a good one
and
he didnt disappoint us
30-35 passing
a touchdown run
a clutch schoolyard pass to set up the winning field goal
a 20-17 victory

thanks opie for the thrills again

wishing you the best for the future
there needs to be more nfl players like you

the organicgreen doctor

leaves for grass

LEAVES FOR GRASS
by william nash

i am told by several folks that i am a writer
which by the way i dont feel like i am
i just think stuff up like this blog and put what
is in my brain into my fingers and tap it on my
computer

i do a free flow of thoughts
then go back and do corrections
sometimes i follow those autocorrect recommendations
but
they dont quite understand how i like to write

now today i am going to write this blog
will some hesitation
well a lot of hesitation

what i am going to tell you to do
at your house may greatly affect
my ability to garden as i like to garden
and
probably cost me money as i will have to
buy more of this stuff
compost

first i have a confession to make
i have 15 trees on the one acre that is fenced in around
our house
plus even more in my pastures

each year in the fall after the weather turns cold
the leaves all turn brown
then slowly they all are let loose to fall gently
to the ground
so for that many trees thats a lot of leaves

now confession time
i dont ever rake those leaves
i just let nature blow them around all winter long
looks good in my landscape
not really sure where they all go
but i dont see much evidence of them in the spring

                                                        thisoldhouse.com

yesterday in my barn i found my old leaf rake that
is covered with layers and layers of dust
forgotten and shoved into a far corner of our barn

now there are several of you and your friends
who painfully rake your leaves
bag them up
sometimes paying your kids or
sometimes forcing them to do the work for you

then thank goodness
you call me the ogd to come get your bagged up leaves
if im lucky they are in those paper bags
i just chuck them over the fence into my big chicken
run compost pile
nature breaks down the bag
the country n chickens then act as my shredder
and fine shreds them to smithereens
then they dig out the seeds
poop all over it
then
after months of waiting i have the best compost you can use
the one that you make your self
or should i say
the country n hens make themselves

jerry the rooster just seems to stand around
and supervises
like
i guess you do when your kids rake the leaves in the yard


now for the part im hesitant to tell you
you dont have to rake those leaves and bag them
just as you dont have to bag your grass clippings
just mow over the leaves several times
they get shredded to smithereens like the country n chickens
do
and
you now have mulch and eventually compost in your yard

its almost free to do it this way
they tend to be acid which around here is needed in our soil
since its so alkaline
plus
that composted lawnmowered leaves add nitrogen to your
soil
so you almost dont need to add fertilizer each year
especially
if you leave those grass clippings on your yard

now
if you dont want to do all this
its ok with me
cause ill still continue to take your leaves

what nature giveth
dont giveth away
unless
they are headed my way

the end

the organicgreen doctor

it wasnt arbor day

IT WASNT ARBOR DAY
that day is in april
not in october

a friend i worked with in practice had a tree die that
he had planted before he moved into his new house
this one was planted by a landscape company
it was a eastern red cedar
i big one it was

now its not entirely native to central texas but is a
native texas tree
it does well here much like the juniper or cedar
we all know about

the one that turns rust color in the winter and blows
all that pollen around
and if you are unlucky to be allergic to it
gives you cedar fever
red itchy eyes runny nose sneezing wheezing
it comes in waves all during cedar season
torture is what it is

now back to my story
this tree should not have died
heck i stuck 16 of them in my pasture as small twigs
just took a shooter shovel made a small hole
and
shoved it in
packed the dirt around it
never watered or cared for it
all have done well except the ones the bucks took
a liking too

now its was a full grown one he paid good money for
and good money to plant it
and it died




seems when he dug it up it may have been a product
of circling or girdling  roots

thats where when a plant is in a pot for a long time
the roots grow around and around in a circle
when you plant it if you dont do something about it
the roots just keep growing around and around in the
hole you plant it in
eventually choking the plant

think of it as strangling itself

so on this tree he decided to plant himself
with the help of 4 high school kids
and
the ogd thats me
as the director of operations

first when i said yes
i had no idea he had bought such a big tree
i have one i planted 10 years ago that i bought
for about $15
a small twig in a small pot
but i put it in a $50 hole
now my tree with no care is the size of the one he
bought for us to plant
it was about 20 ft+ tall and big around
we couldnt lift the tree and its pot up off the ground

so i listen to garden shows on klbj 590 am
and have for years
on there they have this guy who is the guru of arborist
in this area named don gardiner
ive heard him tell how to plant a tree over and over again
plus ive heard the dirt doctor from dallas do the same
they all tell the same story on how to do its

so the tree is a monterey white oak or mexican white oak
it does well in this area
its resistant to that ban of live oaks and red oaks in
this area
the dreaded oak wilt disease which can wipe out groves of
oaks
and
its semi evergreen which means it keeps most of its leaves
all year around

now i have planted seven of these on my property
all are doing well
i dont ever water or care for them anymore
i did some initial watering the first 2 years
they have survived our severe drought despite my
benign neglect

so a good choice for a tree here in central texas


dirtdoctor.com photo

first the tree was planted too deep in the pot
i dug out the root flare
it was 3-4 inches too deep


dirtdoctor.com photo

the tree should not look like a pencil but should
have a flare at the bottom even to where roots could
be seen
if you dont leave this flare visible
the tree wont grow as well
that part of the tree is not made to be underground
walk around a forest and look at how nature has planted
trees
thats how it should be done

then
we used my 2 x 12 x 10 ft ramps laid end on end to
move it the 30 ft to the hole
it took seven of us to push this thing to the edge of the
hole

the hole was dug the depth of the tree in the pot
from the ground to the bottom of the root flare
the hole was dug as a square hole 2 ft+ wider than
the pot
with the sides all roughed up
to let the roots grow not in a circle but into the
corners so that the circling roots wouldnt happen

also the bottom of the hole is not dug up any
so the tree when its set in will not settle down
on loose soil

then the plastic container a big one the size of a
number 2 washtub
i know what that is some of you may not

the sides were cut up and down and laid back
then i did a real hack job on all those circling roots
slicing down the side from top to bottom in
1/8 quadrants
no circling roots will happen to this tree

now my friend had a real worried look on his face
when i was doing that
but he trusted me i guess never saying a thing

then with great effort we managed to shove the tree
into the hole

we checked to be sure the tree was above the ground
leveled using a rock bar now you could use a shovel
laid across the hole
dont know what a rock bar is then may friends dont
learn but if is needed you will need one

we then back filled the hole with the original dirt
to about 3/4 full
we then watered the dirt well
used our shovels in a perpendicular manner
up and down
which worked the soil well down under the root ball
then
we filled the rest of the hole to the ground level
we did add two bags of compost to the top layer
although its not necessary to do that

then we watered in 10 gallons of seaweed solution
this will help stimulate the roots to grow

the we added 3-4 inches of good native hardwood
mulch in a circle around the tree making a
ridge about 4 inches high
a berm
this helps keep water from running away from the tree


dont pile mulch up against the tree trunk
it will damage the bark

we didnt put any mulch on the root ball of the tree
so it looked like a big doughnut

he chose to stake his with metal stakes
i usualy dont stake mine
be sure and remove these after a year
as they can damage the tree

now all he has to do is water it once a week the first
year or two

this tree wont make if its watered too much or not enough
use the finger test
stick the pointy finger in the soil
if its wet dont
if its dry do

after we finished i went home and picked up saturdays
austin american statesman 
there in the life section was a good article on how
to plant a tree and the names of the recommended trees
for this area

i realized that i could have written that article myself
followed the directions to a t
is what i did
except i hadnt read it before the tree was planted

so no it was arbor day
but we did it anyway
and
we did it correctly

the organicgreen doctor