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rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
Twitter account I manage for local Sierra Club: https://twitter.com/CherokeeGroupSC Facebook page I manage for them: https://www.facebook.com/groups/65310596576/ Come and find me and lots of great information, inspiration
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DoubleDogFarm
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 6113
- Joined: Sun Mar 28, 2010 11:43 pm
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Green Mantis
- Greener Thumb
- Posts: 931
- Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2010 6:52 pm
- Location: Alberta, Canada zone 1a
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prettygurl
- Senior Member
- Posts: 189
- Joined: Thu Sep 20, 2012 8:52 am
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Francis Barnswallow
- Green Thumb
- Posts: 696
- Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2010 7:28 pm
- Location: Orlando
I have a JD and one like the gray one. I have different blades on the two of them, on the JD I have bagging blades for where the grass does not have lots of sticks in it and on the gray one I have heavey blades for getting the areas that have sticks and such. I think the photo would be better if they were pulling a tractor. 
You can tell a red neck as he has 5 cars with out wheels but his house has wheels on it.gumbo2176 wrote:Only a redneck would have that many lawn tractors lying around. All you need now is the trailer up on blocks in the background and the kid from "Deliverance" picking out "Dueling Banjos" on a porch swing.
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prettygurl
- Senior Member
- Posts: 189
- Joined: Thu Sep 20, 2012 8:52 am
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ElizabethB
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 2105
- Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 12:53 am
- Location: Lafayette, LA
Merry Christmas one and all
I worked for Lowe's for several years and for 2 years they mimicked WalMart with the "Happy Holidays" policy. I told my store manager that he better fire me because there was no way I was not going to say "Merry Christmas". I got written up for policy violation. Did not care
Said Merry Christmas anyway.The first year when the signage came in for Christmas trees it read Holiday Trees. Corporate got so many complaints that 2 weeks latter we received new signage reading Christmas Trees.
Last year I was in WalMart and the cashier said "Merry Christmas". I thanked her, commended her and told her good it made me feel. The 7 or 8 folks in line behind me all chimed in with thanks and commendtions. Made our day and made her day.
When I had my landscaping business I had clients of all faiths 2 Jewish clients, 1 Muslim, and several African American clients who celebrated Quanza. Every year I ordered cards that read "Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays" My only concession to PC. Every year - without fail - I received a Christmas card from each and every one of my clients (often with "a little something extra").
The older I get the more nostalgic I get. I am the eldest of 7 children. I remember Mom and Dad getting together with some of their friends and their children and going around town singing Christmas carols. In elementary school and high school, school groups would visit hospitals and nursing homes to sing carols. Earlier in the week there was a news clip about the ULL (our local university) football team visiting area hospitals to sing carols. I was really touched. I had begun to think that it was a lost practice. I still look forward to watching old Christmas movies every year.
Once again - Merry Christmas one and all.
Elizabeth - or Your Majesty
Living and growing in Lafayette, La.
When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant. ~Author Unknown
Living and growing in Lafayette, La.
When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant. ~Author Unknown
But there are just a few days left to wish people a Happy Solstice, so don't leave that one in the dust! 
Then...let's see..."Gode Jül!" or whichever language you choose for the ancient practice of the Yule log: as long as the Yule log burned--and it could be several days, as the Yule log was "supported" by many other pieces of wood and was itself quite grand--there was to be no fighting, no feuding. Knives and bladed weapons only used at the table, not even for games (sorry, men, bones and dice will have to do). It was a holiday from spinning (for women, this was a Big Deal) but, obviously, not from cooking or cleaning up! As in many traditions, the "real" heart of Yule was to see who could outdo whom in terms of hospitality offered (cf. Potlatch). Bits of this information are available here; the rest is from my own independent reading over many years.
Christmas as celebrated in the United States contains strands from these traditions as well as from the better-known Christian faith.
But let's not forget that the earliest Christians, due to the threat of persecution and martyrdom from Imperial Rome, most likely moved their great feast day to late December so that their comings and goings would be masked by the greater commotion of the Saturnalia, a multi-day festival of games and revelry from approx. December 17 to December 23 of the Julian calendar.
In later Imperial Rome (when to be an emperor one needed to be a general, more or less), the cult of Sol Invictus, the "Unconquered Sun," whose day of birth was December 25, was quite strong and even officially endorsed by multiple emperors.
Our Christmas tree descends from a combination of the Germanic Yule log and the tradition of bringing greens indoors in the dead of winter to "deck the halls with boughs of holly," an evergreen in the northerly climates. It was given a more Christian, and thus respectable, reputation during the Reformation, as briefly described here, but considered primarily a Germanic custom until the late 18th and mid-19th centuries.
But, in the Northern Hemisphere, millennia of evidence show that people have carefully observed the position of the Sun as the days grow shorter this time of the year, whether they watch with knowledge or foreboding about such short days and long nights and such cold (traditionally). The gradual warming after the Solstice and the gradual lengthening of the days "proved" that life would continue for another year. This joy spilled over into festivals whose vestiges are now remembered (if at all) during Carnival and May Day/Beltaine, with some underlying layers at Easter.
For me, the question has always been:
Ewes birth their lambs in early spring, by our calendar anywhere from late March to early May. If "shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks by night," it was lambing season. Sheep were in a fold overnight during cold weather to protect them from predators--wolves primarily. But the shepherds wanted to be right there at hand in case a ewe needed assistance with her lamb(s). Thus: Spring.
Also, the Romans were experienced at running an empire. They had been at it since 753 BCE (but the first couple of centuries under the Etruscan kings don't count) by the time Quirinius's census on behalf of Augustus was undertaken. They knew better than to expect people to travel during the rainy, cold, sleety, mucky winter. Spring was a much better travel season; it would provide a **more accurate** count. (And we know how the Romans valued accuracy.)
So why December 25? Unless, of course, the festival was moved very early on.
Regardless, Yule, Solstice, Christmas, or Hanukkah (Festival of Lights based on a historical event), "Happy Holidays" has a bland feeling about it. So...
Gode Jül!
Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9
Then...let's see..."Gode Jül!" or whichever language you choose for the ancient practice of the Yule log: as long as the Yule log burned--and it could be several days, as the Yule log was "supported" by many other pieces of wood and was itself quite grand--there was to be no fighting, no feuding. Knives and bladed weapons only used at the table, not even for games (sorry, men, bones and dice will have to do). It was a holiday from spinning (for women, this was a Big Deal) but, obviously, not from cooking or cleaning up!
As in many traditions, the "real" heart of Yule was to see who could outdo whom in terms of hospitality offered (cf. Potlatch). Bits of this information are available here; the rest is from my own independent reading over many years.Christmas as celebrated in the United States contains strands from these traditions as well as from the better-known Christian faith.
But let's not forget that the earliest Christians, due to the threat of persecution and martyrdom from Imperial Rome, most likely moved their great feast day to late December so that their comings and goings would be masked by the greater commotion of the Saturnalia, a multi-day festival of games and revelry from approx. December 17 to December 23 of the Julian calendar.
In later Imperial Rome (when to be an emperor one needed to be a general, more or less), the cult of Sol Invictus, the "Unconquered Sun," whose day of birth was December 25, was quite strong and even officially endorsed by multiple emperors.
Our Christmas tree descends from a combination of the Germanic Yule log and the tradition of bringing greens indoors in the dead of winter to "deck the halls with boughs of holly," an evergreen in the northerly climates. It was given a more Christian, and thus respectable, reputation during the Reformation, as briefly described here, but considered primarily a Germanic custom until the late 18th and mid-19th centuries.
But, in the Northern Hemisphere, millennia of evidence show that people have carefully observed the position of the Sun as the days grow shorter this time of the year, whether they watch with knowledge or foreboding about such short days and long nights and such cold (traditionally). The gradual warming after the Solstice and the gradual lengthening of the days "proved" that life would continue for another year. This joy spilled over into festivals whose vestiges are now remembered (if at all) during Carnival and May Day/Beltaine, with some underlying layers at Easter.
For me, the question has always been:
Ewes birth their lambs in early spring, by our calendar anywhere from late March to early May. If "shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks by night," it was lambing season. Sheep were in a fold overnight during cold weather to protect them from predators--wolves primarily. But the shepherds wanted to be right there at hand in case a ewe needed assistance with her lamb(s). Thus: Spring.
Also, the Romans were experienced at running an empire. They had been at it since 753 BCE (but the first couple of centuries under the Etruscan kings don't count) by the time Quirinius's census on behalf of Augustus was undertaken. They knew better than to expect people to travel during the rainy, cold, sleety, mucky winter. Spring was a much better travel season; it would provide a **more accurate** count. (And we know how the Romans valued accuracy.)
So why December 25? Unless, of course, the festival was moved very early on.
Regardless, Yule, Solstice, Christmas, or Hanukkah (Festival of Lights based on a historical event), "Happy Holidays" has a bland feeling about it. So...
Gode Jül!
Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9
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DoubleDogFarm
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 6113
- Joined: Sun Mar 28, 2010 11:43 pm
I wish you joy and happiness and wonder experienced with family and friends in whatever celebrations you have during this time of the year.
Cynthia's post prompted me to look this up
https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/dec ... stice.html
Cynthia's post prompted me to look this up
https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/dec ... stice.html
No Cynthia, I think that what you have shown us in your post is that our holy day traditions are anything but bland! (now, if my post shows up at the top of a 3rd page with everything you have written being replaced by 3 dots! I'm going to come right back here and re-post Cynthia's Gode Jül in total!)cynthia_h wrote:. . . "Happy Holidays" has a bland feeling about it. So...
Gode Jül!
So, Happy Holidays - Cynthia, Tom and Every, Everyone!
Steve
We are each other's harvest; we are each other's business; we are each other's magnitude and bond. ~ Gwendolyn Brooks
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ElizabethB
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 2105
- Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 12:53 am
- Location: Lafayette, LA
You guys and gals crack me up I love this forum. As I laugh over the pictures I have to reflect - I actually know people who "decorate" like that. OMG Talk about "Red Neck".
We visited some friends yesterday. In their front yard they had a blow up. A boat with "hooked on Christmas" on the side. The boat full of packages and Santa with a fishing pole and fish on the hook. I told G that it was perfect - D in a boat full of hot air! Wish I had taken pictures.
I love this forum. As I laugh over the pictures I have to reflect - I actually know people who "decorate" like that. OMG Talk about "Red Neck".We visited some friends yesterday. In their front yard they had a blow up. A boat with "hooked on Christmas" on the side. The boat full of packages and Santa with a fishing pole and fish on the hook. I told G that it was perfect - D in a boat full of hot air! Wish I had taken pictures.
Elizabeth - or Your Majesty
Living and growing in Lafayette, La.
When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant. ~Author Unknown
Living and growing in Lafayette, La.
When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant. ~Author Unknown
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rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
As long as we are talking about winter holiday traditions, don't forget Diwali. It is the Hindu winter festival in India, shortened from Deepavali, Sanskrit for "a row of lamps." It is a five day celebration for which people clean and decorate their houses, sing special songs, have special food treats and sweets, light lots of little clay lamps every night that burn through the night, give gifts, and gamble with dice or cards. The date of it varies year to year, but usually in November.
I think every culture that lives with cold winters and short dark winter days has had some kind of winter festival with lights and food and cheering people up!
I love to celebrate the Winter Solstice, the return of the light!
Merry Christmas AND Happy Holidays, everyone!
I think every culture that lives with cold winters and short dark winter days has had some kind of winter festival with lights and food and cheering people up!
I love to celebrate the Winter Solstice, the return of the light!
Merry Christmas AND Happy Holidays, everyone!
Twitter account I manage for local Sierra Club: https://twitter.com/CherokeeGroupSC Facebook page I manage for them: https://www.facebook.com/groups/65310596576/ Come and find me and lots of great information, inspiration
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Charlie MV
- Greener Thumb
- Posts: 1544
- Joined: Thu May 08, 2008 11:48 pm
You Might be a Christmas Redneck if:
-Your grandma's beard is more impressive than Santa's.
-You have a deer stand in your Christmas tree.
-You use the cobwebs in the corners of your house as tinsel for the Christmas tree.
-You really do ask Santa for your two front teeth.
-All your plastic Pink Flamingos yard ornaments have on Santa hats.
-You decorate your tree with fishing lures.
-You leave beer and nuts for Santa, instead of milk and cookies.
-You got more lights on your dually pickup than on your Christmas tree.
-Your outdoor lights are bug zappers.
-You use your Rudolph lawn ornament for bow & arrow practice.
-You have enough cars in the front yard to dress up and name for every reindeer
-If you think The Nutcracker is something you did off the high dive.
-If squirrels still live in your Christmas tree.
-If you have to put an electric fence around your Christmas tree to keep your dog from peeing on it.
-The gift exchange at school pretty much involves you and your cousins.
-Your husband backs his welding truck up to the front yard and runs his cutting torch through the living room window to light the Christmas fire (true story).
-You use Whiteout on the card you get from your mama to give to your girlfriend.
-You have more lights working on the outside of your trailer than you do on the inside.
-You have a tree stand in your yard and a salt lick on your roof.
-Grandma finally gave you her moon shine recipe as a gift for Christmas.
-The cops stake out in front of your house on Christmas morning so they can arrest most of your family in one trip.
-Your grandma's beard is more impressive than Santa's.
-You have a deer stand in your Christmas tree.
-You use the cobwebs in the corners of your house as tinsel for the Christmas tree.
-You really do ask Santa for your two front teeth.
-All your plastic Pink Flamingos yard ornaments have on Santa hats.
-You decorate your tree with fishing lures.
-You leave beer and nuts for Santa, instead of milk and cookies.
-You got more lights on your dually pickup than on your Christmas tree.
-Your outdoor lights are bug zappers.
-You use your Rudolph lawn ornament for bow & arrow practice.
-You have enough cars in the front yard to dress up and name for every reindeer
-If you think The Nutcracker is something you did off the high dive.
-If squirrels still live in your Christmas tree.
-If you have to put an electric fence around your Christmas tree to keep your dog from peeing on it.
-The gift exchange at school pretty much involves you and your cousins.
-Your husband backs his welding truck up to the front yard and runs his cutting torch through the living room window to light the Christmas fire (true story).
-You use Whiteout on the card you get from your mama to give to your girlfriend.
-You have more lights working on the outside of your trailer than you do on the inside.
-You have a tree stand in your yard and a salt lick on your roof.
-Grandma finally gave you her moon shine recipe as a gift for Christmas.
-The cops stake out in front of your house on Christmas morning so they can arrest most of your family in one trip.