Georgeburgers!

(c) 2011 by Tom King

This recipe is the long kept, secret recipe that made Mrs. George the top vege-burger maker for some 50 years in my hometown. Keene, Texas is an Adventist College Town and everybody there was either a vegetarian or semi-vegetarian. Vegeburgers were to Adventist kids, what Big Macs were to everybody else. I used to save up two or three days' paper route money to buy one of these imminently delicious things at the grill at Blair's Store across from the college. Mrs. George made them by hand and, man, those things were good. When Blair's closed, Mrs. George went on to work at the Railhead and other cafes and burger joints around Keene. She never gave away her recipe, till she told it to Melba Bruce, March 09, 2004 as she sat in Mrs. George's living room. Thanks to Stanley Bruce who collected a copy of the recipe and shared it on Facebook, bless him. - Tom King

At last - the secret is revealed:

Ingredients

1.One 16 oz can Loma Linda Vegeburger
2.Three eggs
3.Two medium sized onions finely grated
4.One tablespoon garlic powder
5.One teaspoon sage
6.Salt to taste
7.½ cup quick oats
8.Flour
9.Oil

Instructions:

1.Open vegeburger, add to mixing bowl with grated onion, eggs, garlic powder, sage and salt and stir.
2.Add half cup of oats
3.If the mixture is still too thin, add a little flour. The vegeburger mix should not be runny nor should it be too dry and thick.
4. Fry the patties in a small anount of oil. Never bake them.

Making the Actual Burger:

1. Heat the buns in the oven or on the grill
2. Add still sizzling patty and pile on the fixings.
3. Eat while making soft sounds like “Ooooooh” and “Aaaaaah” and “Mmmmmmmmm”

Turf Grasses for Your Play Areas

(c) 2011 by Tom King

Introduction

Kids are tough on lawns. They tend to beat down paths, compact the earth and generally make it difficult for grass to maintain healthy growth. A variety of grass species lend themselves to children's play areas. Properly cared for, these deep rooting grass types provide a soft impact surface that reduces fall impacts. Watered, fertilized and mowed as recommended for the species, these grasses resist damage and bounce back after wear and tear. Periodic overseeding also helps thicken playground grass.

Bahiagrass
Bahiagrass is a dark green turfgrass that prefers moist acidic soils. It prefers full sun or light shade and lots of warm weather. It turns brown in cold weather. One disadvantage is it's three to four week germination period.

Bermudagrass
Bermudagrass grows quickly, sprouting in just four to twelve days. It's blades are fine and thick and grow best in moist, acidic soils. Bermudagrass prefers full sun and doesn't do well in shade. It's often use for ball fields in warm southern climates.

Bluegrass
Blue grass has fine blades and grows as a thick turf. It prefers well-drained dry and acidic soil. Bluegrass grows better in cool northern climates in full sun and isn't suitable for hot climates or shady playgrounds. It can take from six to 30 days to germinate after planted.

Common Kentucky Bluegrass
New plantings of common Kentucky bluegrass take two to four weeks to sprout. Dark green with fine blades that grow thickly. Kentucky bluegrass prefers cooler climates, good soil drainage and acidic soil. While useful for open play areas, this variety doesn't do well in shade.

Improved Kentucky Bluegrass
Like common Kentucky bluegrass, the improved variety germinates in two to four weeks and prefers well drained, but moist acidic soil. This variety grows in full sun or light shade in the cool climates preferred by the bluegrasses.

Blue Gammagrass
A gray-green color, blue gammagrass has hairy characteristics like bahiagrass, but prefers dry alkaline soils, full sun and cool weather like bluegrass varieties. Best used for ball fields and open sunny play spaces. Blue gammagrass takes 15 to 30 days to sprout after planted.

Buffalograss
Buffalograss is another cool weather, temperate climate variety turfgrass. Gray-green fine and hairy, buffalo grass turns brown in hot weather. Again, this variety works for open play areas, but not in shady spots. Buffalograss takes longer to germinate, not sprouting for 25 to 35 days from planting.

Improved Bermudagrass
Fine and thick like regular varieties of bermudagrass, improved bermudagrass germinates in 10 to 20 days. It has a medium green color and prefers dry, acidic soil. Like all bermudagrass, it requires full sun and a warm climate and doesn't work well for shady play areas.

Creeping Bentgrass
Creeping bentgrass sprouts in just 7 to 14 days in well-drained, acidic soil. Bentgrass can handle either full sun or light shade, but grows best in cooler climates.

Red Fescue
Red or Creeping Red Fescue is a dark green, fine and thick turfgrass. It prefers well-drained dry and acidic soil. It sprouts in 10 days to three weeks. Fescue like cooler climates but does grow in full sun, light or full shade and works well in shaded play areas.

Tall Fescue
Tall fescue grows quickly, germinating in 10 to 14 days. Dark green, the tall variety of fescue grows thick and coarse, preferring well-drained acidic soil. Fescue prefers full sun, but will grow in light shade. Tall fescue is particularly tough due to it's naturally deep root system and resists wear and tear if cut taller when mowed,

Annual Ryegrass
Annual ryegrass is a coarse green rapidly growing grass that works well for winter overseeding. It germinates in just three to seven days. It prefers moist, acidic soils, full sunlight or light shade and cool climates. In cool climates ryegrass can be overseeded in spring and summer.

Turf-Type Perennial Ryegrass
Turf-type perennial ryegrass is a finer thickly growing grass. It prefers moist, but well-drained acidic soils. It also prefers cooler climates and grows well in full sun or light shade and germinates in three to seven days, making it a good species to use for overseeding anemic lawns.

Wheat Grass
Wheat grass is a hairy blue green grass that prefers dry and alkaline soil. It needs full sun and prefers a cool climate. Wheat grass sprouts in 14 to 30 days and makes a good field grass in dry cool climates.

Zoysiagrass
Zoysiagrass is a more recently developed grass species. Dark green to gray green in color, zoysiagrass is tough, resilient and adaptable to full sun, light or full shade and handles warmer climates. It prefers well-drained, acidic soils and is one of the better fine, thick playground turfgrass.

References:

Accurate Building: Lawn Care Guide
Yardener: Choosing Lawngrass Seed
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents: Grass As a Play Area Surface
Ohio State University Extension Fact Sheet: Managing Turfgrass Under Drought Conditions
Utah State University Extension: Basic Turfgrass Care

How to Handicap Archery

Like golf, the handicapping system for archery allows less skilled archers to compete meaningfully with more skilled archers. A handicap, once established for a certain types of bow, the handicap can be used in all types of competitions with that bow type. The handicap number is simply added to shooter's raw score. If you compete with more than one bow type, you'll need to establish a separate handicap for each type.

Acquiring a Handicap

For a bowman to obtain a handicap, he must shoot and score a minimum of three recognized standard archery rounds. Once he provides all three score sheets, signed by a witnessing archer to his archery club or society's recording officer or secretary, the recording officer will calculate a handicap rating for each score with special archery handicapping software or by hand using official handicapping tables. The average handicap value of all three is totaled and averaged and then rounded up to the nearest whole number. This number will be your first handicap.

Improving Your Handicap

Your handicap will change over time as you submit new scores for rounds you have shot. Submit the new signed score sheets to the recording officer of your club and he will calculate your new handicap by adding the new score, if it's better than the old one, to the old handicap and averaging the two. The average of the two is then rounded up to the nearest whole number and that's your new handicap. If the new handicap is worse, your official handicap remains the same. The only way for your handicap to get worse is if your club does an annual review in which the official handicap is recalculated based on the average of your entire year's scores.

Calculating the Score

To actually calculate your handicap, you will need either archery handicapping software or a set of appropriate handicapping tables from your region's or country's archery authority. On the tables, look up your total score. Find your score in the score column of the handicapping tables . If you can't find your exact score, just select the next lower score. The handicap value for that score will be found at the side of the table. Your working handicap will then be the average of the first three scores' handicaps. Your score is reviewed annually by your archery club's recording officer, but you must shoot at least 3 standard rounds that year for your handicap to be changed. The average of those three scores will be averaged with the old handicap to calculate the new handicap.

Keeping Score

There are a variety of on-line score sheet generators available through local and national archery associations like the National Field Archery Association, the National. Archery Association, FITA and the National Crossbowmen of the USA. Each of these has local and state chapters you can join. Every country has its own national association which may or may not be affiliated with the International Archery Federation (FITA), the governing body which regulates Olympic archery competition. It is important to use a compatible score sheet when shooting handicapping rounds and to belong to a club that supports handicapping by maintaining proper records.

References and Resources
Double G Archery: Archery Clubs and Associations Links
Archery Handicap Calculator
Gentlemen and Lady Archers of Darlington: Competitions
Supermarine Bowmen: Information
Fuzilogic: Archery Associations
Frome Valley Archers: Competitions
FITA: International Archery Federation
USA Archery: National Archery Association
The National Crossbowmen of the USA, Inc.: USA Crossbow