Weeding, the basic blocking-and-tackling of gardening

Three days of dry weather after a rain is the Goldilock's time before tilling, at least with the kinds of soil I am dealing with.

A woodchuck got in and had her way with the green beans and cucumbers and lettuce.

I tilled Southern Belle's garden today. It looks a lot better after running the tiller between the rows and touching up with the hoe.

This apple tree was buried in the hawthorn and honeysuckle. The gentleman who Southern Belle hired to clear out the brush agreed to leave this tree.

I am curious to test the apples after they ripen. Even if they are terrible, I can always graft over it.

And about that pear tree I grafted...

Everything about that tree screamed "PEAR!". The twigs. The tree form. How it suckered. Everything.

So I grafted Concorde and an early pear on to it.

Something seemed off...so I looked at it more closely. It is an apple tree. The Concorde pear is doing very well on it while the early pear is not thriving. Yes, I make mistakes just like everybody else.

I am not holding my breath. Incompatibility is often delayed. It will probably reject the Concorde grafts, too.

After finishing up at Southern Belle's, I tilled the home garden but I didn't pull weeds or touch-up with the hoe. I will do that tomorrow.

If any of you have suggestions for plants I can "plug in the holes" where several plants died then I am all ears. For example, I have some very spotty rows of field corn. Maybe black oiler sunflowers? I am racing against the clock. 

Red Pop

The Shekel has a post up about Faygo Red Pop. 

Growing up in Michigan, Faygo commercials were a regular feature of local TV programming. They really pushed Red Pop, maybe because the national producers didn't occupy that niche.

Fine Art Tuesday

Fridolin Leiber born 1843 in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. He died in 1912.

He specialized in lithographs which was an early form of color printing with limitations regarding detail and colors.

There was a large market for religious and moral images with book-marker sized and post-card sized images being big sellers.

Snobs would likely turn up their noses at his work, scoffing that they were "commercial illustrations, not art", but in modern language, Leiber' work was guided by "crowd-sourced knowledge" and was very well executed within the limitations of the technology. 

 

Hat-tip to nameless in unnamed, fly-over state

Whoupi Goldbricker beclowns herself, again

Whoupi Goldbricker is a clown who knows how to work a crowd. Like P.T. Barnum, she knows the value of creating controversy and getting into the headlines...as long as they spell her name correctly.

Goldbricker recently claimed that Blacks in the United States are even more repressed and economically disadvantaged than even the most disadvantaged person in Iran.

Even if Goldbricker's hypothesis isn't directly testable, we can look at some proxies for rural Iranians and make some comparisons.

This family is in the highlands of Nepal. For the first 45 seconds we watch one of the women picking nettle greens using a hooked knife, a basket and chop-sticks. Why the chop-sticks? Because nettles will sting you before they are cooked. Yes, that is what is for dinner.

The next 10 minutes shows the woman parching corn and then preparing the family meal in a fly-infested hut. She cooks about three gallons of corn-grits, a pan of dried-fish and pot-liqour (stewed greens) and cooks some greens. Each member of the family is given a massive wad of stiff grits with some of the cooked fish and greens ladled over it for flavoring.

The video shows the family tucking into the feast as if it were something special. 

The next five minutes shows the family cooking frogs. Not just the legs...entire frogs (although they may have been gutted). 

At one level, it is inspiring to see the extreme conditions humans can survive, even thrive under.

At another level, it is sobering to realize that hundreds-of-millions of people living on the edge could be pushed into extinction with the most insignificant of changes in economics; say something as simple as the doubling of the price of vegetable oils.

At a third level, it is beyond obscene for 300 pound, Whoupi Goldbricker to claim that she is more oppressed than people like those depicted in this video. It seems improbable that Goldbricker would be able to climb up the hill to the dwelling once, much less put in a full day's work of physical labor and then be able to prepare a meal using the resources within the dwelling. 

As a side-note

I had been wondering about the functionality of the wasp-waisted cooking vessels in that part of the world.

At the 7:50 mark in the video the woman demonstrates the functionality.

And at the 6:09 mark she shows us the utility of the riveted handles on her wok.

Writing by hand (vs typing) likely to be good for long-term, cognitive health

(Writing by hand has)...profound impact on cognitive processes (and) continues to be a topic of intense scientific scrutiny. Methods: This paper investigates the neural mechanisms underlying handwriting and typing, exploring the distinct cognitive and neurological benefits associated with each. By synthesizing findings from neuroimaging studies, we explore how handwriting and typing differentially activate brain regions associated with motor control, sensory perception, and higher-order cognitive functions. Results: Handwriting activates a broader network of brain regions involved in motor, sensory, and cognitive processing (while) typing engages fewer neural circuits, resulting in more passive cognitive engagement. Despite the advantages of typing in terms of speed and convenience, handwriting remains an important tool for learning and memory retention, particularly in educational contexts.     Source

Healthy brain in the middle. Patient with Alzheimer's Disease on the right. ERJ's brain on the left.

"...broader network(s) of brain regions..." is associated with recovering more quickly from strokes and other brain trauma. It is probably desirable from the standpoint of staving off dementia in all forms. If one neighborhood is not accepting through-traffic, then having frequently traveled, alternate routes is good.

My plan is to write out my daily To Do list long-hand, in cursive (why not?). Gotta tickle those neurons to keep them on their toes. 

Good Fortune dogs me

Good News!

One of Southern Belle's pets ran off a few days ago and had been on-the-lam.

An anonymous neighbor brought it back and put it back in its pen. We don't know who it was but based on the tracks in the driveway they rode a dirt-bike.

More good news

SB was in the market for a treadmill. I saw one beside the road and it said "Free. It works". Into the back of the pickup it went. It is now over at SBs.

.AND.

I found my garden netting next to the chainsaw

.AND.

I found the tomato clips in the breezeway

.AND. 

Mrs ERJ and I were getting ready to mow yesterday when she discovered a yellow-jacket nest while moving Quicksilver's toy house. I was able to neutralize it and neither one of us sustained any stings.

Still too damp to till

The weather-guessers estimate that we will get less than a quarter-inch of rain today. If so, then I should be able to till late Wednesday evening. If we get no rain at all, then I can till this afternoon.

Rainwater Catchment and Cisterns for MY applications

From the comments:

Why do you not have rainwater catchment and cisterns?

The return on investment isn't there

It may sound like heresy to use economic terms when talking about growing things and biological systems, but it makes all the sense in the world from my standpoint. The resources I spend on one project are not available to be spent on other projects.

If the contour of the land you are working with is not favorable to the concept (flat or no funneling-features) and if the soil and rainfall regime rarely generate run-off, it feels like pushing a rope.

This is such a great graphic that I had to shoe-horn it in. Bank the moisture in the soil! Bonus Link (Warning, long...likely to cure insomnia). Many thanks to the benefactor-who-must-remain-unnamed for the links and images.

If the contour of the land IS favorable but the favorable contour is 1000 feet away from your point-of use or the favorable contour is closer but isn't on your property then you pretty much out-of-luck...you will be transporting water one way or another.

The Upper Orchard is in the middle of the image and the Hill Orchard is on the right. The screen grab is 400' from east-to-west and half that north-south. The contours are 2' in elevation. There is NO funneling.

 

This screen grab is 200' east-west and is of my Eaton Rapids orchard/gardens. It is on top of a hill and there isn't a lot of slope.

This screen grab is 200' and contains Southern Belle's orchard and garden. Up is in the lower-right corner. The property line is 25' east of the orchard so there isn't much opportunity to terra-form contour to direct run-off her way.

And, for what it is worth: 

• The normal water-table beneath the Upper Orchard is about 25' down.
• The normal water-table beneath the Eaton Rapids orchard is 45' down. 
• The normal water-table beneath Southern Belle's orchard is about 6' down but varies significantly by time-of-year.

Right now, the orchards are wide, grassy aisle-ways with the trees planted in strips that have been treated with herbicide. There is white clover and at least four species of grass* growing in the aisle-ways. If I were to install some kind of catchment system, wouldn't I have to cover the grassy aisle-ways with plastic or bentonite?

If I did that, I would lose the benefits of increasing organic matter in the soil, beneficial insects and nitrogen fixation from the clover. The grassy aisle-ways are also pleasant to walk on regardless of the weather. It is hard to say that about bentonite.

Finally, the few local attempts at catchment systems I have personally seen were mosquito breeding nightmares. The cisterns were much too small and the provisions for filling them were...childish. For example: I would need 1500 gallons (about 200 cubic-feet) to water the 70 fruit and nut trees I planted this year over a five-week dry spell. An above-ground swimming pool 3' high and 10' in diameter would be large enough to hold that but I would need a collection surface above that cistern to gravity feed into it.

If my goal was to be able to totally recharge my 1500 gallon cistern with an inch of rain, then I need 2400 square-feet of collection surface. All of that capital expense and time involved in swimming pools and laying down plastic and weighting the edges so it doesn't blow away...for a couple years of utility. You see, historically, established semi-dwarf fruit trees planted in Eaton County in loam haven't needed supplemental irrigation. The HUGE benefit is the first year while they are establishing and the second year when I am trying to rapidly expand their canopies. 

*Kentucky Bluegrass, Tall Fescue, Red Fescue and Orchard Grass 

Last week was a rainy week

 

Rain gauge at The Property. I am off-the-hook for lugging water this week

Rain gauge in Eaton Rapids.

Just as our greatest weakness is often using our greatest strength when it is inappropriate, it is possible that our greatest weakness can become a strength.

For example, I have a weakness for putting things in "...a very safe spot..." and I am sure I will remember where that is when I need that item. Yesterday, I intended to hang the netting I purchased for the cucumbers. To tell the truth, that task has been on my To Do list every day for the past week.

I looked high-and-low for the netting. I found the left-over netting from Mrs ERJ's garden (I purchased two, 24' lengths) but I could not find mine.

Mrs ERJ didn't mind if I used hers but it only spanned 18 of the 32 feet.

And then I saw the bamboo!

Netting in the foreground. Bamboo in the background.

 

Bamboo supports on the left, a little bit of netting on the right

Bamboo has some advantages. I produce it on the farm and it doesn't require working infrastructure (or fossil fuels) to have it show up in my garden. A single clump of bamboo will produce for many, many years and provide scores of poles for a multitude of uses.

Bamboo has disadvantages. It has branches in inconvenient places. The stubs of those branches are a hazard to eyes if you are not paying attention to how you trim them off. 

The way my habit of misplacing things means that I get lots of practice improvising and sometimes the improve has major advantages over the purchased product.

June 28, 2025. Yes I have weeds. It is too wet to till.

June 28, different angle

June 21

June 11

Other odds-and-ends from yesterday involved putting cages around the pear trees at The Property and burning brush.

This pear tree is growing out of its rabbit cage and is now vulnerable to deer.

More rain is expected Monday afternoon. God willing, I will be able to get some tilling done Monday morning.

 

Random fact(s)

The default dose of carbs for a diabetic whose blood-sugar is crashing is 15 grams.

 

A ketchup packet from McDonald's has 2 grams of sugar. So in an emergency, 8 packets of ketchup would be about the right amount.

 

Image from HERE