Whise money?

  The wife is a stay at home Mom or a woman with a lower paying job than the husband but he don't dare want to make financial decisions because it's our money.  it would be all over if he ever claimed "it's my money".  So why does this lady think her attitude is acceptable because she is a woman?  In a article entitled "What would you say to the much younger woman your husband is dating this woman said "  "I got hosed in our divorce since I didn't do a pre-nup and I make a good salary. So I hope she knows that all those fun shopping trips? Yeah, I'm the one who has been footing the bill." -- F.R.

AMD

  The doctor had to change the medication for my AMD as the type I have been taking has lost its effectiveness.  I may have to continue the injections for up to 8 years.  I thought 3 was bad enough.

Last of the Iris

 The first Iris (yellow orange) is the fourth and last  of the 10 new Iris to bloom.  I'll have to wait another year for the other six..  All the Iris I have posted pictures of are bearded Iris except for the 2nd and 3rd Iris in this post which are Louisiana Iris which grow in my water garden.   

Ever wonder why my blog is called Southgate News?

  Southgate was a motel on what was then High Point Road in Greensboro, NC.    By the time I became acquainted with it  the motel wad fallen into a state of disrepair and served as a place of refuge of the chronic homeless and as a place of business for drug dealers and prostitutes. 
  Many years earlier I had attended a funeral in Raford, NC and read a copy of a local newspaper telling about the death of a young boy in a house fire and  that story not only was upsetting because an innocent child lost his life but also because the circumstances surrounding the fire as described in the paper didn't seem normal to me.  I really wanted to know more about how a mother could let her child die in a house fire and not suffer any ill effects herself so I started doing research which eventually let me to the Southgate Motel.  Because of this story I met many of the city's prostitutes and learned some of their stories. 
   It is true that many of these women are mentally ill but many were abused children.  Some were raped, constantly molested and some started on drugs when encouraged by a parent.  Common denominators are growing up in poor neighborhoods and having a strong rebellious personality.  A girl can be quiet and sweet as she can be but about the age of 12 or 13 their personality changes and they become more strong willed. 
  The truth is they only do sex to get money for drugs and hate the :johns" for taking advantage of them.  Between 1 and 2 percent of all high school girls will become involved in the sex trade at some point in their lives.  One such woman was the subject of my book and after much effort I finally got the truth of what happened that night the young boy died.  She referred to herself as the "Queen of Southgate"  and much of my effort to get to the truth centered around that motel.  I just adopted the name "Southgate News' as my blog title.

another asine article

5 Ways You're Drinking Water Wrong

By Grant Stoddard

A bird in the bush

A bird in the bush

  A bright red cardinal keeps hopping around on my front porch as if guarding his family from potential predators.  Momma bird is hard to see especially among the rose bushes but there she is setting on her nest bringing the next generation of cardinals into this world.  Who knows, one of those cardinals may one day be the pope. 

vegetable gardens

  I'm interested in what you are planting, if anything, for the 2017 growing season, especially vegetables   I've grown watermelons and cantaloupes successfully as well as the regularly grown vegetables but year to year success has been spotty.  One year everything drowned because of too much rain and several years I got very little because of the lack of rain.  Another year I had to replant because of a much later than  normal frost and  I have had crop failures due to it getting to hot to soon. 
  Last year I had a bountiful peach crop but all my peaches disappeared one night.  The cause remains a mystery.  I have some peaches this year but not abundantly like last years crop.  I netted my blueberries this year.  I had plenty in 2015 but last year they disappeared just like my peaches did. 
  But of everything I plant, tomatoes are my favorite/  I have not really had a good crop since I've lived here.  When I resided on Davis Country Road the land was old farm land with deep dark rich top soil and I harvested so much stuff from a 14 x 14 foot garden and I had it all from cucumbers to watermelons.  But things just don't grow in hard red clay. 
  Last year I tried beating the odds by planting in buckets but I don't think I did it right.  Just putting plants in buckets will cause the plants to get too much water the first good rain and drilling holes in the bottom of the bucket causes the water to drain out too fast.  I put plates underneath the buckets but that really didn't help all that much.  Still, I had a descent crop of tomatoes and peppers.
  I'm trying something different this year.  I fixed a place on the side of the house for a raised garden and filled it with garden soil four inches deep.  The space gets morning and evening sun but is shady
for a few hours in the afternoon.  So far the tomatoes and pepper plant seem to be growing well .  A few years back I did have success in a section near my present location.  The plants were tall with plenty of crop but the tomatoes had no flavor. The tomatoes seemed like they would never ripen but that seemed to be a common complaint among gardeners that year.     At least where I have the tomatoes this year makes watering them much easier plus weed control is much better. 
   I'm looking forward to that first tomato sandwich.  Except for one bell pepper plant, tomatoes is all I planted.  This hard red clay was hard on garden tillers and after the last one broke I decided that with the hard clay and the lousy weather, I would scale back my vegetable gardens a great deal.  As long as I get some tomatoes I'm happy.

New Patio

  This is the completion of one of my summer projects.  I originally built this patio when I moved into my house in 2009.  I used the concrete blocks, 12" squares. some red and some grey to make a pattern and filled the area between the blocks with cement.  I had to remove a couple of blocks when I enlarged my back porch and one was broken for some unremembered reason but the two biggest reasons for rebuilding it was first it was just a little too small and the most important reason was the cement grout has become broken and cracked over time and weeds has grown between the blocks.  Last year the weeds were so thick I actually had to mow my concrete patio. 
   Being sold grey the patio isn't as pretty as it was but being a solid slab means the weeds cannot grow.  Just the extra foot around the patio makes it more functional. 
  During the summer months I really need an umbrella or gazebo tent to make the patio comfortable enough to use in the heat of the day but in the evening the sun is blocked by the house so the patio is shaded.  I enlarged the back porch and purchased a patio set and gas grill to go on the back porch since my wife has trouble with stairs and steps so we don't use the patio now as much as we did in the past but I still wanted it to look good. 

Garden Time II

Vietnam era

The mid sixties brought protests to college campuses, integration to high schools,  hippies to the west, Woodstock to New York, and free love and illegal drugs to anyone who wanted it.  There isn't any event that changed America like Vietnam did and while the United States won every battle in fought during that war it lost the war itself and we lost tremendously at home too.  God was kicked out of the schools and drugs became front and center in the hearts and minds of many of the young.  We've been fighting that part of the war ever since and getting our butts kicked in the process. 
  Personally I never took part in the protests, , never partook of any of the drugs,  volunteered for two tours of duty in Vietnam, and got through school with my faith in God stronger than when I went in.  Still, the war had a profound effect on my life, and probably not all in a good way. 

Garden time, vegatable and flower

From top to bottom: White Iris, Black Iris, Orange Iris, Purple Iris, purple/yellow Iris, Purple Heart, Purple Ice, Lily of the Valley, Rock Garden with yellow Iris, Knockout Roses, Grape vines, Fruit trees with Cherry, peach and apple tree. 

Day off to a rough start

First, I awoke at 2 am and knew that I wasn't going back to sleep so I played on the computer and did my glucose test.  At 4 I fixed my breakfast; the usual with oatmeal and eggs and coffee.  I decided to add a few Rote tomatoes to my eggs and that is when things started to go wrong.  I dropped the bowl of tomatoes when putting them back into the fridge and took time to clean them up.  Meanwhile my eggs were overcooked and the oatmeal got dry.  I spilled a little coffee on the counter and had to clean that up too. 
  After I ate I realized I had not turned one of the stove burners off  so I did and since the pan was hot I decided to cool it off with cold water.  The cold water on a hot pan caused some steam which set off the fire alarms.  The security company called the fire department before calling me to cancel the alarm.  My poor wife has been woken up twice and it's only 4:45.  I sure hope the remainder of the day goes better.

Cash back credit cards and other freebies

I have to admit that I own a credit card.  Most folks are owned by their card but I am fortunate in that I have been able to pay mine off in full every month for the past 14 years.  I have a reward card that gives me points for using the card and I can cash those points in for cash.  I recently di that and received $387.00 back.  I know the credit card company has to hate me.
  For the majority of folks offering cash back is not a money making scheme for the consumer but a gimmick to get you to go into debt faster.  After all I can afford to give you 1% back if I charge you 18.9% interest plus late fees.  Some cards charge you just to carry them around.  What kind of deal is that? 

Dave Ramsey

I'm taking a Dave Ramsey financial course at church and he makes a lot of sense.  I remember the first thing I purchased on credit.  It was in the sixties before people had credit cards and I stopped in a men's clothing store in downtown Hickory, NC.  I was in need of a belt and I had a couple of dollars.  I found a really nice one but was shocked at how much it cost.  I didn't have the means to shop around and my pants were falling down.  When I told the clerk I didn't have enough money he asked me who my parents were.  When I told him he said "Just buy it on credit."  So I did.
   I stopped in every week and gave them some money.  It seemed like the payments on that belt lasted about as long as the belt did. 
  I've found that if you can afford to make credit card payments you can afford to pay cash.  You just have to save up first.  I know we really want it now but with patience you will get what you want and remain debt free.  Many credit cards carry 18 to 21 percent interest.  If you want a big screen TV that had been $1000.00 but find it on sale for $800.00 and use your credit card to purchase it you believe you made a good deal and saved yourself $200.00.  Unless you have the cash to pay that credit card off it full then you have made a bad deal.  If you make the minimum payment on that card each moth it will take about 7 years to pay for that TV and you will pay around twice the original cost.  Not such a good deal after all.   
  Dave Ramsey has lots of good ideas and not just about credit cards.  Some are about budgeting, saving, emergency funds, insurance, etc.  If you erver have the change to go through the course it is well worth the cost.