Alligatorob's Diary

I was curious to know the conditions to grow peaches so looked it up. I don't think I am much the wiser, but they do need to be in full sun & a cold winter to set the next season's fruit but need to be protected from frosts. I wondered why we don't grow them here in Tassie. We get lots of frosts.
We grow lots and lots of berries & apples.
Just talking about fruit makes me want some :)
 
Coming soon, Cate! ie with summer. :)
Peaches, apricots etc grow well in the Riverland - I think they might need more warmth than your zone gets.
 
Austria used to not be sunny enough for classic peaches but it's always had vineyard peaches (or at least for well over 100 years), the weirdly flattened version that's easy to eat without getting juice everywhere.
 
Petal, Cate and Amy, I am no expert on where peaches grow, can only report what I have seen. Georgia is famous for their peaches, but they mostly grow in the north where the winters get a little colder. North Florida where I used to live has few or none, I heard rumors of a variety that could be grown, but never actually saw one or a Florida peach. Utah has cold winters, we have at least 3 months with temperatures well below freezing most of the day, lots of snow. However we also have relatively hot summers, many days with highs in the 90s. It seems peaches need some cold and some hot weather. In Florida I had a friend with an apple tree, it was a nice healthy tree, but never produced a single apple, probably the same as peaches, some freezing is required for fruit.

We picked a bunch of peaches and made about 7 gallons of juice. Set it all up to ferment, if all goes well we'll have a bunch of peach wine in a few months. Still have a bunch picked and will juice again tomorrow, that juice will go in the freezer. My wife has also been pitting and freezing some, and we had friends over to pick peaches. Yet there seems no way we can keep up, more and more end up rotting on the ground.

I had a couple of non-weight things this week that made me feel good. When I went on the business trip to California I discovered all of my jackets are just too baggy to look good. My suits are the same. So I went without a coat, not a big deal, but shrinking out of the old ones was. I am not sure what to do about it, I don't wear a coat very often, and almost never a suit so finding something that fits right now may not be for the best. I guess I'll just wait until I need one, hopefully I'll get enough warning.

The other thing today was my yardwork day. I have been hiring a neighbor boy for a few hours on Saturdays to help with the work, I gave him the harder things and I did either what he couldn't or were not so hard. Well he is growing up and found a real job so I am losing him. What I discovered today was I am able to do most of what he's been doing, I could not have before losing this weight. For example one of his duties was spraying, I have a 5 gallon backpack sprayer but he did all the spraying. I did the spraying today and it was not too hard. I thought about the 50 lbs I have lost, more than the 5 gallons sprayer weighed when full.

Saturday

breakfast
3 peaches 147

lunch
crackers 50
cantaloupe 120

snack
cantaloupe 60

dinner - a big salad
lettuce & cucumbers 70
tomato 40
cheese 100

nightcap
beer 156

snack
crackers 70
goat cheese 215

total calories 1,028

In 1028 Cnut the Great, King of England, invaded Norway and defeated King Haraldsson to become King of England, Norway, Denmark and part of Sweden. So far as I can tell Cnut was the first viking lead a successful invasion of the viking homelands from England. The vikings had a lot of influence on England.
 
alligatorob said:
The vikings had a lot of influence on England.
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And the rest of Europe, down as far as Italy, and beyond!

alligatorob said:
I thought about the 50 lbs I have lost, more than the 5 gallons sprayer weighed when full.
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Yes! It's amazing, isn't it? to think we were walking around "wearing" all that, as if we had on lead-lined suits. No wonder climbing hills felt so much effort!
And wonderful for you to have shrunk out of your jackets. :) I hope you find something that looks absolutely fantastic on you, the next time you have the leisure to go shopping.
 
Can you have some of your clothing taken in, Rob? If they are really good quality it may be worthwhile. In Australia most charity stores stock really good quality clothing & you can pick up near new stuff. It's especially good when you are still losing to still be able to buy affordable clothes knowing that you will donate them back later on.
That's great that you are finding chores so much easier. There is a lot more of that to come :)
 
Rob vikings had huge influence here too. We have Viking tours in Dublin . Good fun.
I'm having a similar problem with clothes as you . I agree with Cate could you not get something taken in . On the other hand you are losing weight very fast and I know for a woman 10lb is a dress size. The charity shops are a good idea too.

Great you can do your yard work now.
I saw some nice looking peaches yesterday. Husband said we could play tennis with them :jump:. I not tried them will leave for a day or so to ripen.
 
Wow Rob congratulations on hitting the 50 pound mark. I can only imagine how good that must feel! Growing out of your clothes, and being able to do activities again must feel AMAZING. You deserve it. We know how hard you’ve worked. :beerchug:
 
i'm well aware of the wardrobe change a 50 lb loss can affect. luckily i'm retired so i very rarely have to dress to impress. i can see your situation as a little tougher, though, considering you're still above your goal. the last thing you want to do is to reinvest in some new clothes and then shrink out of those again...!
 
Thanks all. Today was a good day. When I added up the calories it was the most I have eaten in a while, but still reasonable. It was the cheese, when I was eating it I didn't realize how many cheese calories were in the casserole. I probably should have, it tasted real good. None the less I am happy.

Juiced peaches today, 6 1/2 gallons more in the freezer. I think we will shift to freezing some halves for a while. A real peachy day.

Sunday

breakfast
3 peaches 147

snack
cantaloupe 60

lunch - an eggplant/tomato casserole and salad
lettuce & cucumbers 50
eggplant 40
tomatoes & tomato sauce 60
cheese 342

an afternoon beer 156

snack peach 49

dinner - leftover casserole
eggplant 40
tomatoes & tomato sauce 60
cheese 342

total calories 1,346

1346 was a particularly bad year for the black plague. An outbreak began in the Crimea, it stopped the Golden Horde's advance on Europe. The returning European armies carried the plague back home where it wreaked havoc. In the siege of Kaffa the Tartars sent bodies of the plague victims over the walls by catapult. Some historians believe this to be one of the earliest and most deadly uses of biological warfare, though in the end both sides lost that one.
 
alligatorob said:
I didn't realize how many cheese calories were in the casserole. I probably should have, it tasted real good. None the less I am happy.
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Oh, cheese! Tastes so good, can be calorifically so deadly. But you do well to be happy - and are right to be happy! Everything sounds like it's going swimmingly. :hurray:
(That was a savage stunt the Tartars pulled. It'd be great to think that humanity has changed for the better since then, but alas... )
 
alligatorob said:
1346 was a particularly bad year for the black plague. An outbreak began in the Crimea, it stopped the Golden Horde's advance on Europe. The returning European armies carried the plague back home where it wreaked havoc. In the siege of Kaffa the Tartars sent bodies of the plague victims over the walls by catapult. Some historians believe this to be one of the earliest and most deadly uses of biological warfare, though in the end both sides lost that one.
Click to expand...

I usually finish my lunch at 13.45. I'll remember that when I start the second half of my working day.
 
Hi Rob, I’m just catching up on your diary now. Excellent work getting to the 50lb loss mark and being able to do the yard work again! It’s incredible when we think back to what we used to carry around.

Pretty soon you’ll be back to building houses ...
 
DietAccountability101 said:
I usually finish my lunch at 13.45. I'll remember that when I start the second half of my working day.
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Hopefully you don't have any bubonic plague ridden corpses catapulted into your office. When things get tough at work, just remember things could be worse!

It was a good day, my birthday, turned 67 today. For my birthday I bought a bike, it should be ready by the weekend and I'll start figuring out how to use it for exercise, I am excited about that. A few months ago I don't think I would have had the courage to even try cycling, now I do. I know it may be a slow process, but I am going to give it a try. We don't live in an ideal place for cycling, but I know I can find a way and place to make it work. It will probably be easier than I think. I am sure I will never be in or even close to TM's class, but that's not my expectation, I just want an exercise plan that I can stick to and hopefully enjoy. Have been trying to talk my wife into joining me, but she says to go ahead and get the bike, then if she sees me using it she'll consider joining me. That sounds reasonable.

I knew my wife was planning a birthday dinner tonight, so I tried to reduce my calorie intake and save room for a bigger dinner. She did have plans, but they were not as caloric and I feared. We started with half a dozen raw oysters, its very hard to find good ones in Utah, but she did. Growing up in Florida and Louisiana I ate a lot of oysters. When I was a kid oysters were always my choice of birthday dinners, and she knew that. I looked up the calories for the first time and was very pleasantly surprised to see how few raw oysters have. That was followed by a lean but high quality steak, another good diet choice. Coupled with some greens and veggies it left enough calories for Whiskey, I got a gift of some Wemyss The Hive, a Scotch blend I was not familiar with. It was quite good, maybe not in the same class as a good Tulemore DEW or Laphroaig, but close enough, and a whole lot better than my usual bourbons.

Monday
breakfast
cantaloupe 60

snack
crackers 90

lunch
yogurt 80
cereal - grapenuts 110

dinner
raw oysters 57
steak 329
steamed broccoli 45
assorted greens, lettuce, green peppers and cucumbers 40

nightcap
whiskey 250

total calories 1,061

1,061 is a prime number which when turned upside down is 1,901, also a prime number. The first 2 digits of 1901 (19) and the last 2 digits of 1,061 (61) are also prime numbers. Even more amazingly 1,061 can be rearranged to make 6,011 or 6,101 which are also prime numbers, as is 601. That's about all the unimportant trivia I can find for the number.
 
That's fantastic trivia I love it . And a huge belated happy birthday to you . :party::party::party::party:

You wife sounds like an amazing lady to cook and plan a lovely low cal meal for you . What inspiration you give us all. And I hope you enjoy your cycling . Really happy for you . :grouphug:
 
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