Konjac flowers

     I have two Amorphophallus Konjacs flowering right now. The bigger one is the original one I got about ten years ago, the smaller one is a baby from that one. They are amazing plants. They are found mainly throughout Asia. When they are mature enough, they send up a flower. No dirt, water or nutrients needed, amazing. Just stored energy in the corm. The corm is kinda like a bulb, but different. When they are in full bloom, they smell like garbage and rotten flesh for about one day. In their native habitat they are pollinated by flies. Shelly's not too crazy about them in the house, so my two that are flowering are banished to the downstairs this year. The flowers haven't opened all the way like they should have, so light might be a factor at some point. Here are the two in bloom.

Konjac flowers

Ignore the dirt with the mother plant, it's not needed for flowering, notice the "baby" in my hand. That's the corm. Every year the "mother" corm has babies, and I'm now getting babies from the babies. Last year I had over 80 corms, I'll have more this year. When the mature plants do the leaf stalk in the summer, it is really cool. Hard to explain, but the "leaves" on each branch are one continuous leaf.

The summer look

There are hundreds of different varieties of Amorphophallus, I've only had luck with two so far, Konjac and Bulbifer. I've tried quite a few others, with no luck. Did I mention that they go dormant for the winter?  It's a new plant every year. They are one of my favorites. If anyone wants to try them, start with the Konjac. And if you want to, talk to me, I have extras! Lol. Thanks for listening, Kevin

Divorce and Fishin'

    " For better or for worse" and "Till death do us part" don't mean much anymore, I guess. My Friend Jim did a blog about fishing (warriors-bikers-people-places-things) and it got me thinking about my failed marriage. I know, what does fishing and marriage have in common, you'll see. I was married for 13 yrs when I was told that she wanted a divorce, out of the blue, we looked at a car to buy the day before, so it was quite a surprise. All the blame for the divorce was being put on me, which I never claimed to be blameless(I'm not even close to perfect), but I knew there was more to the reasoning than she was giving. So, to find out what was going on, I had to do some things that I can't talk about(not legal), but I found out that she had a boyfriend that she met online. Fine, I guess I'm not as bad as they thought, they were together for a while, and I behaved, Lol. To get back to the fishing part of this, she was making plans to meet him while I was gonna go fishing with her brother. To this day fishing has changed for me. My mindset about it, changed. My divorce worked out for the best, and I'm with the person I always felt a connection with, even 20 something yrs ago. I know I can trust Shelly and I have to change my mindset. Maybe do some fishing this year. Thanks for listening, Kevin



Biggest trout of mine, so far!



Cactus Show

 

     OK, I'm finally writing a new blog. This past weekend was an annual event that I look forward to every year, The Connecticut Cactus and Succulent Society's 29th Annual Show and Sale. This was my 12th year in a row attending. I must be starting to become a blogger, because I brought my camera for the first time. lol. It is a great show and sale. I didn't have my voice of reason with me again, Shelly spent a long weekend of quality time at her son's house, but I stayed in control and didn't buy too many plants. Sometimes in past years I've come home with so many that I have a hard time making room for them. The last two years I try to get more winter hardy cactus so they can stay outside year round, in the cactus and succulent garden I did last year. All my other plants come in for the winter so the living room looks like a jungle for quite awhile. But every year at this show I always find at least a couple of ones that I have to include in the jungle. After going for 12 years there are always familiar faces and always some new ones too. I learn something every year that I go, everyone there shares the same passion and wanna talk about it. Maybe one of these years I'll be set up there selling or have a plant entered in the show. Now for some pics. Thanks for listening, Kevin

  P.S. I gotta get a new camera. This one has a blurry spot, I can't get rid of!



The sale part of the event. So many unique plants!



A very familiar face, Ken Mosher, we have a long chat every year. I've gotten many plants from him over the years. Check out his website for some unique plants, dragocactoid.com

The show part of the event. Some really awesome plants in this room!



A beautifull Euphorbia (red flowers) that won 1st place in this class. I love the ones on each side of it also, can't tell you what they are though.



The one in the center is a Pachypodium Bispinosum. It won 1st place in it's class and best in it's division. Really cool! The one on the right won second place.

Deuterochonia Brevifolia won 1st place in it's class. Only 4 years old. Never saw one before, liked it so much, I bought a very small one. This pic doesn't do it justice.

Two of my new ones. The one one the left is the same plant as the one in the pic above. The other one is anouther that caught my eye, Denterochenia Lorentziana.

Three of the ones I got that stay outside. I planted them today.

My day off and guns

           Had the day off yesterday and decided to take a ride to Hoffman's Gun Center. Great store and I love their motto, "Guns for the good guys".  I went with the intentions of looking around and buying some cleaning supplies. Now I should say, I have a wish list of guns I would like to own (Like every other gun owner) and the top one on the list has been the new Ruger SR1911 .45 Auto, very in demand and hard to find right now. The first place I went to when I got to the store was the display case where the SR1911 would be if they had one, not really expecting to see one but you never know, and there it was, they had one( Hoffman's was named Ruger's retailer of the year, which probably helps with their supply). Now what do I do? Buy this gun, that I might not get my hands on till who knows when, or spend the money more wisely on things I should? With no voice of reason to help me (Shelly stayed home, lol), I bought the gun. The salesman told me that they have been getting calls from all over the country looking to buy these guns. They are only selling in store right now, thankfully.

Isn't she a beauty?

       I have mentioned already in another blog (God and guns) some of my views about gun ownership, I'll try not to repeat myself to much. I have been a legal gun owner for well over 20 years. I enjoy going shooting at the target range and I really hope that I never have to use any of my guns in a self-defense situation. I wish that the 2nd Amendment wasn't under constant fire from politicians and the media. There have been a couple (At least) of gun related stories in the news lately. Always the negative ones getting the most attention, unfortunately. There was one where a person entered a church with a loaded shotgun and a legally armed parishioner of the church difused the situation with no shots fired. A good pro-gun story, but unfortunately, not getting much headlines. There is much speculation that if president Obama is elected again he is gonna be on a big anti-gun crusade. I hope that speculation is wrong if he is re-elected. Guns are not bad by themselves. People can be bad, We need to enforce the laws that already exist, not ban guns, that doesn't work. Guns in the right hands is a good thing. Thanks for listening, Kevin

My blog

        I didn't know what to expect from this blog when I started it, I was just looking for a place to ramble and vent. I had been reading a friend's blog, WARRIORS-BIKERS-PEOPLE-PLACES-THINGS (Great blog, check it out) when I got the idea to do my own. I wasn't expecting much, like I said, I just ramble and vent. I'm very surprised by the outcome so far! In less than two months, I have had 1,100 pageviews from five countries, The U.S., Australia, Russia, Germany and Ukraine. I never would have imagined this, I don't have much to say. And to top it all off, I feel I have made a friend on the other side of the world, Rose. (Rose does a great blog, Rose from Oz is back!, check out that one also) Rose, you have been more compassionate than some family and friends. Thanks! Speaking of friends, Thanks to those of you who took the time to become followers on this blog, it means alot to me! I appreciate it! Thank you Shelly, Jim, Rose, Lannie, Barbara and Patti. And I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to read my blog. I have really been enjoying this blog experience, even when I don't know what to write about. Lol. Once again, Thanks for listening, Kevin