Parker Family Blog

The Grand Tomato Experiment

Steve — Tue, 08 May 2012 18:41:28 +0000

My grandmother grew tomatoes so I grew up loving and eating tomatoes from her farm and backyard. It’s hard describe the taste of a just picked cherry tomato off the vine or a home grown beefy tomato on a BLT. There is just nothing like it for tomato lovers. My wife’s father grows tomatoes too, so we usually wait for his gift of the juicy red fruit vegetable over the summer. My boys love fresh tomatoes like me.

In the past for reasons unknown, I’ve been reluctant to grown tomatoes in the backyard. Recently a guy I coach youth football with told me he was going to start growing tomatoes in his backyard. Now this piqued my interest. I asked him several questions which he answered but I needed more information. Ya, see I am an information geek. More information is always better. At lease for me. So I started my Google research process and came across the book The Texas Tomato Lovers Handbook on Amazon. This is a great book for a newbie Tx tomato grower.

After reading the book cover to cover in one afternoon, I was still unsure if I should start the process, since my tomato growing coaching friend spent close to $200 getting his tomato patch jump started. Would we eat $200 worth of tomatoes? I wasn’t convinced my $200 grand tomato experiment would yield tasty tomatoes like my grandmothers.

Then the stars aligned and my wife”s father was in town for the weekend and my friend also had a small party for the youth football coaches at his house. The coach showed me his tomato patch and peppers and they looked great. Once seeing the patch and how he was able to quickly grow a few bushes, I decided to start asking my wife’s father for his tomato growing secrets. After grilling my father in law, I start making my list of tomato growing supplies.

Tomato Plants that do well in Texas; Celebrity, Champion, Jet Star, German Johnson
20 to 50 Gallon pots
Potting Soil
Tomato Plant Food
Tomato Cages
Sprayer
Coffee Cans / Tin Cans / Terra Cotta pots for watering
Small Pebbles / Rocks
Tomato Plant Bug Spray / Worm Killer
Garden Gloves

So far I’ve spent close to $150 on my tomato growing supplies. I have one plant in a pot and waiting on 3 other plants and supplies I ordered off of the Internet and Amazon. To get one plant growing it cost me about $60. I should receive my other plants in a few days to start growing. For those plants I bought cloth eco friendly smart pots / dirt pots (see pic on the right for Dirt Pot) which are suppose to work like above ground tomato beds. I guess we will see in a few days.

Stay tuned…..

Day 3

The Bobcat Football Family – KYA Spring Football

Steve — Tue, 08 May 2012 18:02:25 +0000

This is a great family pic thanks to Dave Cheever. The Bobcats just won their regular season game 35-6 and everyone is all smiles.

Zane Scores Touchdown against Keller Trojans

Steve — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:23:36 +0000

The KYA Sophomore Bobcats played the Keller Trojans down to the wire on the back of Zane Parker. Here he is scoring the first TD of the game. Bobcats lost 6-13 but played like Champions.

Zane Parker Scores!

Zane earns Offensive MVP against Horns

Steve — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 22:51:11 +0000

Zane earned the KYA Sophomore Bobcat’s Offensive Game MVP award this week with 105 total yards rushing and passing. He also had a great game on defense and special teams.

Happy New Year 2012

Steve — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 23:35:12 +0000

We had a great New Year’s Eve and Day with the Sigman’s in Plano. Great friends and great food!

Esther - Our 2012 New Year Queen

Bear Hillwood Cross Country @ Trinity Meadows

Steve Parker — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:45:06 +0000

Bear running Cross Country for Hillwood at Trinity Meadows

Best HDTV Plasma Flat Panel 60″ Television Top Rated TVs

Steve Parker — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 16:13:02 +0000

I am starting my research for a new HDTV Flat Panel Television for our home theater in our family room. I narrowed my search down to 60″ inch flat panel tvs based on our room size. I also prefer plasma for viewing sports.

I like these three plasma flat panel 3D internet ready HDTV televisions:

The three are all around $1500 and have very similar specs. Plus they are all rated highly in customer reviews and the major consumer reports magazine. The brands are reliable television brands and have a history of HDTV excellence.

We have owned Panasonic TVs in the past and found that they did not last as long as we hoped. I’ve owned several Panasonic VCRs and DVD players with little trouble. We have a two year old Samsung 720 HDTV in our game room and we really love the picture quality even though its 720. We have never owned an LG product but the LG HDTV above is the most interesting of the three brands to me. I still want to review the Sharp and Vizio TVs a little more since we have had very positive experiences with those brands but they were not rating higher in the HDTV ratings than the three HDTVs above.

So if you are like me and looking for the Best HDTV Plasma Flat Panel 60″ Television that is a Top Rated TVs from Panasonic, LG and Samsung 3D TV sets take a look at the models above. As soon as our 4 year old 60 inch Vizio dies, I will be ordering one of the above 3D plasma internet ready HDTV television sets.

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Festivus Cheers

Spring and Fall KYA Super Bowls

Steve Parker — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 14:39:29 +0000

The Falcon Football Family

Steve Parker — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 17:16:30 +0000

Go Falcons

Steve’s Christmas Wish List, a 40 Something Man

Steve Parker — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 17:31:32 +0000

Here is my Christmas Wish List for a 40 something year old man. I am 47 so you could say its a wish list for a 50 something male. I hope this helps with your Christmas Gift shopping.