Price of fuel in Europe, Inflammatory comments and Fishing

The price of gasoline in Germany is reported to be $9/gallon (converted to units most of my readers can visualize). The price of diesel is $10 a gallon. Source

Eaton Rapids, we have ignition

Watching brush burn counts as light duty

Temperatures near the 20W heating mat

Concerns were raised in the comments of an earlier post about the potential for fires when using heating mats near cardboard.

The mats are 20" long by 10" wide. They are sized to sit beneath standard, nursery seedling trays. Twenty Watts spread over 200 square-inches is not a lot of power density.

The good news is that I have inexpensive ways to get data. That means that I don't have to rely opinions.

 

The temperature at the top of the potting soil.

The temperature of the heating mat directly beneath the pot.

The temperature of the cardboard directly beneath the heating mat where the previous image was measured.

In other, local news

I purchased my 2026 fishing license yesterday.

I went fishing at the mill pond just a few blocks away from where I purchased the license.

Panning from left-to-right across the pond

A little bit to the right of this image there was a goose who was sitting on a nest.

I did not have any bites from either from the fish or the goose.

Fiddly work and some garden pron

Thank-you to all of the readers who suggested ways I can deal with my joint pain. I have been on light-duty, stretching, taking additional Vitamin C and praying/meditating. I seem to be bouncing back.

I got three more hours time-on-task yesterday because the afternoon rains were a no-show.

The light-duty was to drive T-posts and to secure fruit trees to them. Unfortunately, the most productive rootstocks usually have brittle roots and are notorious for leaning over.

I used 1/2", polyester "pull tape" to tie the trees to the posts and was very happy with the material. The ends frayed rapidly, so I had a piezoelectric igniting, propane torch handy. I gently toasted the ends when I cut a piece from the spool.

It was slow, fiddly work. The good news is that it was not physically challenging.

I also moved some bags of cow poop from the truck to the Hill Orchard and I pruned a Northern Spy apple tree.

Bonus pictures

Planted in 2015. 

Stupice tomato seeds, planted Sunday afternoon. Picture taken early Wednesday morning

Crackerjack Marigold seeds planted Sunday afternoon

Happy Rich broccoli seeds planted Sunday afternoon

I was able to increase the soil temperatures by placing four layers of corrugated cardboard underneath the 20W heating mat. If insulation prevents most of the heat from going down, then it will go up.

We have lots of cardboard boxes.

Bonus video footage

 Allegedly recorded at a No Kings rally. One minute run-time.

Fat is a virtue...as long as I am fat...

 

Is it just me, or does it seem odd that all of these icons of "the equitable treatment of fat individuals" and "body positivity" and "fat acceptance" are now taking GLP-1 pharma shots/pills?

Suddenly, being morbidly obese is no longer a virtue. Oh, the miracles of chemistry and being able to afford high-end health insurance! 

Country-girls (sorry, no pictures)

Picture, if you will, your humble scribe driving west on M-50 to the grain elevator to purchase some asparagus crowns.

I was following a truck that had a fork-truck tucked into the rear. I was impressed that the turn signals on the fork-truck were slaved to the signals of the mother-truck. It was indicating that it was going to turn left off of M-50 and into Eaton Greens subdivision.

As it turned, four, 12' long, 6x6 timbers tumbled off of the deck of the mother-truck completely blocking the eastbound lane of M-50.

Well, that was an accident waiting to happen.

I pulled over, flipped on my hazard lights and parked.

I had the second one moved off the road when a truck pulled over and an itty-bitty woman hopped out. "Need help?" she asked. She was wearing a "MOO-ville" tee shirt, jeans and sneakers.

I suggested that she could move the stringers and strapping while I moved the last two big pieces.

I looked up after dumping the third piece on the grass and she was holding up one end of that last piece. "Let's go!" she encouraged me. "I see some traffic coming".

I hustled on over and grabbed the other end and we tossed that piece beside the other three. She dusted off her hands and hopped back into her truck, all 5'-0" of her. Then she drove off.

I, on the other hand, turned around and drove into the subdivision to find the driver of the truck who lost his load.

He was a big, young guy and pretty obviously from-the-city. I explained that he had lost his load and that I had seen a itty-bitty country-girl move the pieces from the center of M-50 and toss them into somebody's yard (which was absolutely true of the stringers and strapping and partially true for the big pieces).

I can only imagine his surprise when he latched a hold of one of the 6x6s to throw it back onto the deck of his truck. Those pieces weigh about 150 pounds each. Those itty-bitty country-girls are strong!

Worms

After learning that the asparagus crowns would not be ordered until mid-April, I drove over to Southern Belle's to dig a trench. The plan was to bury the corrugated drain tile that carried rain from her gutters away from the foundation.

Quicksilver supervised while I dug.

She also collected earthworms. She had quite a handful in short order.

I suggested that if she wanted to use both hands that she could hold the worms in her mouth. She thought that I was a very funny guy.

It turned out that she had a plan. After collecting a bunch of worms, she went over to the chickens and fed them treats. The chickens and Quicksilver were both delighted.

For my part, I was able to get 50' of tile buried in 69 minutes. I did not complete the back-filling but put enough on it so it wouldn't go floating off if we get rain today. Southern Belle and Handsome Hombre can finish filling.

It also looks like I have a fishing-buddy; a country-girl who likes worms. 

Fine Art Tuesday

 

Agony in the Garden I

Carl Bloch was a Danish artist who was born in 1834 and died in 1890.

He was commissioned to produce twenty-three paintings for the King's Chapel at Frederiksborg Castle which he painted between 1865 and 1879.

His wife died in 1886 leaving him with eight children to care for. He died four years later of cancer at the age of 55.

Suffer the Children come Unto Me

Agony in the Garden II

The Transfiguration

Peter's denials

The Crucifiction

The Burial of Jesus

Limping along

 

The weather is starting to look like "April"

It looks like today will be a good day to do some outdoor work but then the next week looks like inside jobs or maybe some fishing.

'Tis but a scratch. I am sure that if I pile on just a little more sail I can make it to shore...

I need a break. You guys tried to tell me but I was stubborn. My knees and elbows are complaining. Our kids were in athletics so I am familiar with R.I.C.E.

• Rest
• Ice/Ibuprofen
• Compression
• Elevate 

Cheating on the first element, rest, is counter-productive. The last three bullets control inflammation but our bodies need TIME to heal. But I am dancing in-and-out of small windows of time between weather and family responsibilities. Springtime waits for no man.

Right now, the discomfort on the inside of my left knee is the most debilitating. Torsional motion of my foot causes the most discomfort and it seems to flare up when I am dragging brush. I looked at the anatomy of the knee and it could be a lot of things complaining. The good news is that my body should be able to heal the problem if I give it time to heal. The bad news is that I am stubborn and don't want to rest, yet.

The middle ground is to hire Kubota to drag brush and to restrict myself to "light-duty" for a couple of weeks. 

Seeds started

Sweet peppers, Lovage, Broccoli and African Marigolds. The containers are repurposed empty gallon milk jugs. The caps are used to weight down the repurposed grocery bags until they get some condensate on their bottoms.

Three kinds of tomatoes 

A close-up of one of the tomato trays. The top of the soil measured 72 F this morning. I will check again after the sun rises.

Like every gardener in the history of the universe, I planted too many seeds. My plan is to germinate them in these smaller containers and then transplant to fifty-cell 10"-by-20" trays. Tomato plants make great indicators for the presence of walnut roots.

Today's tasks

Pot up the grape-cuttings that have been sitting in the hot-box for two weeks. The Vitis riparia cuttings are pushing their buds but don't show any sign of callousing or rooting on the bottom. The other cuttings show no signs of growth.

Dig a trench to bury corrugated drain-tile to carry water from a gutter down-spout away from the house. Rains are coming!

Make a trip to the grain elevator in Charlotte to buy more duck feed and to see if they have asparagus crowns in-stock. 

Children's books and Duck Eggs

Five "Children's Books" worth revisiting as adults. Ten minute run time.

• Charlotte's Web
• The Man who planted Trees
• The Wind in the Willows
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
• Peter and Wendy

Honorable Mention

• Stuart Little
• The Giving Tree
• Something From Nothing
• Where the Wild Things Are 

Duck vs Chicken eggs

Alas, I am not well enough informed to have opinions worth sharing.

The fact that I have a few ducks is entirely by accident. I thought Southern Belle wanted some ducks for her homestead, but I was mistaken. She had been rapidly expanding and wisely decided that she needed some time to sort out what was working and what was not-working before adding more complexity.

So, there I was with some ducks.

The person selling them was allergic to chicken eggs*. They got that sorted out after consulting with a doctor who specialized in allergies and no longer needed them. They sold them to me at a VERY attractive price.

The ducks had started molting (losing their feathers) and were not laying eggs. I decided to give them a two month vacation. On March first, I started adding two hours of supplemental light in the morning and I increased it by a half hour every four days until I started seeing eggs.

I don't eat that many eggs BUT last year my garden was hammered by snails.

One of my readers (probably Michael) quoted Bill Mollison. "You don't have a snail problem. You have a duck deficiency."

In my mind, my duck enterprise is justified by their future in controlling pests in the garden and any eggs and down and meat and baby ducklings they produce is a bonus. Chickens can also control pests but they are more likely to peck tomatoes and dig up newly-planted transplants.

Their shelter is a free (thank-you Craigslist) truck cap and a 5'x8' run made from Tee posts and 2"-by-4" welded wire fencing.

*According to the internet, which sometimes tells the truth, most of the allergens in eggs are in the whites. Sometimes, egg allergies can be avoided by only eating the eggs' yolks. The internet cautions that this might only be a temporary fix.

The internet suggests that duck eggs tend to have a higher concentration of the kinds of proteins that are most likely to cause problems but some of them are different proteins than the ones found in chicken eggs. If a person is allergic to the proteins found only in chicken eggs then they will be able to eat duck eggs...for a while. If they are allergic to the proteins shared by both kinds of eggs then they will have violent reactions to duck eggs.

If you are subject to allergies and feel adventurous, then tippy-toe your way along. Try very small portions. Know exactly where your inhaler or epi-pen is and where the bottle of diphenhydramine is. 

So far, egg production has exceeded expectation. I am feeding "Broiler mash" with 90 grams of ground limestone (calcium carbonate) per kg of feed mixed in  per day. That is 15 grams per heaping teaspoon (i.e. six heaping teaspoons per kg). That is for two Khaki Campbell girls, one Rouen girl and one Rouen boy. I am getting three eggs a day.

One surprise has been that duck eggs are slippery! They are significantly smoother and heavier than chicken eggs. You have to be minding your Ps-and-Qs to avoid dropping them. 

Bonus Picture

Shared by a friend of mine in Jackson County, Michigan. Chicken eggs on the left, goose eggs on the right.

Geese make excellent alarms against intruders and have been used to control grass in strawberries and other crops.