Murder mystery, and watermelons, etc.

Murder mystery first. A gal from Indiana posted an inquiry on www.findagrave.com about a cousin of hers who was, as she noted, convicted and executed in 1946 for a murder he did not commit. Well, Barry and I took that as a challenge to find out what happened. We've been to Frankfort to the state archives, and researched the appeal of the case; we've been to Somerset and copied newspaper accounts of the crime, the trial, and the execution; we've been to Nancy (near Somerset) to photograph the grave stone. End result -- reads like a Perry Mason mystery. The guy and his accomplice both participated in the murder, but conflicting testimony in today's jurisprudence would not have gotten either of the parties executed. Unfortunately, we're working with 1946 standards and rules, and, yes, the man was executed, his partner receiving a life sentence. We're willing to do genealogy and historical research for anything or anyone! Gives us something MORE to do. Interesting case though.

On a brighter note, it seems that Barry's gardening skills and Kentucky's soils will grow about anything. Again this year, the front garden has gotten away, and is growing so fast, the squash vines will soon reach the Tennessee border. The compost we made last fall and winter didn't fully kill all the seeds, so wherever Barry used the compost, we have vegetables sprouting up. In the slash pile behind the carport, we have tomatoes and potatoes. In the herb garden, we have squash and melons. In the window boxes with the petunias we have more tomatoes. And this little gem... Yup, it's a watermelon, growing in the driveway -- crushed rock, and who knows what soil, if any, is underneath it. Right now it's about the size of a softball, but with another couple of weeks of growing time, it'll fully grow and ripen.

Barry has the second crop of broccoli started, and those will go in the ground in another couple of weeks so we'll get a fall crop too. We haven't bought vegetables in a grocery store since April 2008!

The cucumbers were grown as an experiment on 4 foot high fencing. They are free of bugs, and are growing so well we've already canned 6 quart jars each of dill and bread and butter pickles, with more to go. The peppers -- he picked a 5-gallon pail full just to get the weight off the plants -- and we made green pepper relish, another 7 jars.

The onions are doing quite well; we have about a dozen drying now, and will either try to keep them or will freeze them -- YES, we found directions on how to freeze onions and peppers! Slice them the way you want them, arrange them on a tray in the freezer, then when frozen, pop them in freezer bags.

We're gonna have to get a second freezer.