Managing fertilizer shortages

There has been the sudden realization that the current storm of events will impact fertilizer availability and cause shocks in the food supply.

At a very fine granularity, as gardeners and food-growers, we need to pay meticulous attention to the most basic elements of gardening. We need to run a full-court press against weeds. We need to really pay attention to soil-moisture. We need to plant at optimal times and choose varieties that are productive. We need to harvest food so it is not wasted.

As gardeners we need to examine some of our biases. Will it hurt anything if we tinkle in the orchard when nobody is looking? Maybe we don't dump the chicken litter into a pile but look around and find some plants that look a little bit puny and give them a shovel-full at their drip-line.

At a very coarse granularity, vast numbers of people in Bangladesh, East Bengal, rural China, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Nigeria and Mexico will depopulate and move to cities where "services" are offered. The good news is that many jet airplanes will be grounded and the mass migration will be restricted to trains, buses and hoofing-it.

At a granularity between the two extremes, meat will be come exceptionally expensive. Various political entities will come to the conclusion that it makes more sense to send grain to the countries mentioned above than to machine-gun refugees from those countries at their(our) borders in wholesale-lots. Grain that went to chickens, pigs and steers will be diverted to Bombay, Dhaka, Lagos, Mexico City and Cairo.

Seafood will increase in price by an even greater percentage. Seafood has a very high "embedded energy" cost that is masked by fuel subsidies by nation-states. If you like meat, buy a pellet-gun and learn how to shoot it. If you like fish, then learn how to tie an Improved Clinch Knot and thread a worm on a hook.

The good news is that food is about to become much more delicious without the benefit of exotic spices. There is no sauce that makes food more delicious than hunger. 

Bonus tip

Stock-pile enough sugar for a year's worth of canning.

Our biggest year for applesauce was 180 quarts. Given the amount of sweetening that I prefer, that requires 25 pounds of sugar. Even if I don't choose to can such a ridiculous amount of apple sauce, sugar will have trading value.

Characteristics of Money. Money is:

• Infinitely divisible
• Durable
• Universally accepted
• Compact 

Sugar isn't "compact" but it meets the other three criteria. And even if you don't use it for trading, in time you will consume it within your household. 

Presented without comment

 

Back in the saddle again

I am starting to feel like a human again. I was really tired Sunday and Monday. Yesterday Mrs ERJ broomed me out of the house and I was able to get about three hours of work done. 

 I dug and replanted about 15 persimmon seedlings. 

I moved some Rocambole Garlic plants  to the Upper Orchard where I want them to naturalize. 

I pruned two apple trees. 

I poured some concrete to seal off some holes that Red Squirrels were using to get into the pole barn. I also cleaned and rebaited a couple of dog-proof raccoon traps.

I moved 14 bags of composted cow manure from the back of the truck to the persimmon trees in the Hill Orchard. 

I "stuck" another 40 willow cuttings so there are now three rows of willows rimming the west edge of the depression.

Beautiful in every way

 

Win some, lose some

Topping the tray of elderberry cuttings with wood-shavings proved to be a mistake.

The temperature of the potting mix hit 123F which cooked the bottoms of the cuttings.

I unplugged the heating mat, trimmed the cuttings back to green cambium and re-stuck them.

BBB

Big Brown Bat. That is what we had flying laps in our living-room this morning before I took Quicksilver to her play-date. I opened one of the windows and then we departed. Maybe it left. Maybe it did not.

Quicksilver had asked me what was chirping over by our exterior door. Of course, I could not hear anything and thought it was a bird outside. I bet it was the bat.

Wins

Quackerberries

Nicotiana tabacum cv. "TN-90" seedlings

The big day for planting seeds will be April 1. That is when I will be planting the tomato seeds: Stupice, Federle, Rosa de Bern and Ace 55. I will also plant the sweet peppers, Stocky Red Roaster and the Lovage.

Pressure on multiple fronts

One of the things Trump's team has done well has been to flood-the-zone.

Saturating an issue with multiple initiatives tangles up the opponent's ability to file law suites and halt implementation of those initiatives.

An example of this is a voter initiative that parallels the SAVE Act in many ways.

Hat-tip to Esox lucius lover. 

Presented without comment

 

Fine Art Tuesday

 

The Widow's Birthday

Walter Dendly Sadler was born in 1854 in Dorking, Surrey, England and died in 1923. He was a commercial success because his paintings elicited nostalgia and were often humorous. The image shown above shows three older gentlemen with gifts all showing up at the same time to court the wealthy widow. The widow was embroidering at the table on left side of image and presumably decamped as she saw them converging.

Sadler found a great deal of humor in how us humans court our mates. 

His images were also suitable for lithographic reproduction and he was able to capitalize on that.

Netting the catch (a potential groom?)

Thursday night

Friday feast

A love note

Courting a widow (notice the black clothing). Short life-spans during the Industrial Revolution meant many widows and widowers even in the wealthier classes.

The complete angler

Another fishing scene

Another courting scene