Family Reunion After-Action-Report

I survived the family reunion

I hung-out with the mature guys on the shady side of the house for the first part of the reunion. 

Ordered by age, it was Howard, Mike, Mike, Joe and Phil. They gave me permission to use their actual names in "that internet thing that I do".

Conversation wandered and was interspersed by thoughtful silences. That was a sharp contrast with the conversation on the other side of the house. From what we could hear of it, those conversations sounded like a bee-hive that had been bumped by a lawnmower, not that our hearing is all that good.

We talked about collectibles like baseball cards. How the price had been low and then spiked. And then it tanked. And now it is climbing back to the sky. We talked about the age of the collectors. The interest in cards seems to have jumped over the kids who were born in the 80s and 90s.

Phil, who was sitting next to me, went with the flow. I know from prior conversations that he has a keen interest in business cycles and it is his belief that speculative excesses are symptoms of old, played-out economic expansions. All of that "money" from the timid investors (or smart ones) has to go somewhere and it floods into tiny, illiquid markets as players cash out of stocks, bonds and real-estate.

It is similar to all of the passengers on a cruise ship trying to pile into too-few life-boats. The bulk of the investors see the outrageous run-up in prices and pile into collectables running from zero-income and chasing the momentum.

Another thread of conversation involved charity work. Howard was mowing the lawn of the 90 year-old Italian widow next door. Then the house on the other side of his was inherited by a family of alcoholics. Howard started mowing their grass too (because they let it grow waist-high). Finally, seeing the light, he gave them one of his older but still serviceable mowers so they could cut their own. The immediately sold it and bought a couple bottles of vodka with the proceeds. Howard no longer mows their grass.

One of the Mikes volunteered at an organized charity. They received a call from a needy family and visited a house. Several of the children were sleeping on the floor. The charity bought the family two mattresses and had them delivered. The next week, another family in the same block called the charity. They had kids sleeping on the floor. Then two more houses called the next week. Then it was three a week calling the charity. The game stopped when an unmarried, cohabitating couple called and ordered a new mattress. The faith-based charity decided that they were not going to subsidize sex outside of matrimony by purchasing mattresses for unwed couples. In fact, they decided that they were not going to buy any more mattresses, ever.

Another riff involved renting nice places on a lake to vacation. The speaker marveled at the size and cost of the houses. According to Zillow, they started at $1.8M. He also marveled that most of them were vacant even during the prime summer vacation time slot. He said the fishing on the lake was spectacular. He said that even though every house had a dock and every dock had multiple boats moored, nobody was on the lake. Nobody else was fishing.

I spent the last part of the reunion sitting with the "Karens". 

I was not the center of attention. I was not a ball of fire. I was still sore from lifting the day before.

I ate too much. I had two glasses of wine over the six hours we were there. I did not water ski or swim or go out on a boat. I didn't talk with the out-of-state relatives but I will get reports from Mrs ERJ.

This may be a weird thing to have noticed but I saw a huge range of maternal instinct in the women. Several were drawn to the infants-through-seven year-olds like moths to a flame. Others were actively repulsed by them...they could not control their facial expressions.

Four of the married ladies were pregnant and one had given birth two weeks ago: K, Kr, L, B & H so there will be no shortage of screaming kids for the next ten years or so.

The cost of eating-out, Peaches and Reunions

Mrs ERJ and I splurged this past week. One day we joined another person and ate at a fast-food establishment. One of us ordered fish. I ordered a fried pork patty. The other person ordered a burger. The bill came to $39.

Another day this past week, we took a small carry-out pizza topped with green peppers and onions and and order of bread-sticks. We dined-in at another person's house. That bill came to $24.

I remember the tab from my first date with Mrs ERJ. Her half of the tab came to $1.47.

No matter how much money you might have saved up, inflation can make that not-enough.

Peaches

One of the amazing success stories in the Upper Orchard are the five, unassuming peach seedlings that a friend in Arizona sent me. He had collected the fruit from a tree and grown them out for a year. I planted them in Michigan, not expecting much in terms of winter-hardiness since their home city is classified as USDA Zone 8b.

They handled our one night of -25F last winter and took-off like gang-busters this spring.

My friend told me that the tree that he collected the pits from had excellent fruit. Peaches, in general, tend to produce fruit that is kind-of close to their parents in terms of quality due to the degree of in-breeding and self-pollination.

I decided to hedge my bets and I budded three of them to Contender peach, just in case. I only put a bud on one vertical leader. I want to see what kind of fruit the seedlings produce and I also want to have a back-up plan. Putting one bud on one major shoot provides me with that back-up plan.

Budding trees that are actively growing make the grafter look like a genius. Trying to bud on trees that are shutting down due to low soil moisture make the grafter look like a smuck. An inch of rain is predicted for Monday. I might get lucky. 

Family reunions

Our family reunion is this weekend. Some people will show up. Others will not.

My "generation" range in age from 55 to mid-70s. One family has three deceased members, two have a single deceased sibling. The fourth family still has all members who are alive.

Traveling has become increasingly difficult for some of us. Some are still working crazy hours, crazy shifts. Some people are stressed by other people in the family and will opt to stay home. The cast of characters changes year-to-year. 

Fortunately, each branch of the family has one member who LIKES to travel. They show up at the reunion, collect news on the various family shoots and take it back-home to share.

That probably means I need to dust-off my 15 second, elevator sale-pitch.

Something like:

"Not running. Still walking. Still lifting weights. No animals except ducks. Dog died. No health issues. My wife still likes me. Great to be a grandparent. Garden needs weeding. Orchards are shaping-up nicely. Yes, I am going deer hunting." 

On the positive side, a large percentage of the "kids" in my children's generation are in-the-family-way right now. Their children are heavily tilted toward girls...girls who take great joy in shrieking. 

What a difference a few days make!

I felt like an exhibitionist wearing these socks...like the morbidly obese guy in South-Florida wearing a skimpy Speedo swim-suit.

I went to the gym this morning to lift. I wore hospital socks as suggested by some readers.

I felt strong. The weight jumped off of the platform. I went through my maintenance routine with no issues:

6 x 135 pounds (45 pound bar plus a 45 pound plate on each side).

6 x 185 pounds (same as above + a 25 pound plate on each side). 

Four sets of 6 x 205 (same as above + a 10 pound plate on each side), with straps.

The reason I consider 205 to be my maintenance goal because that is what I weigh. It seems like a natural place to stop even though I SHOULD only weigh about 175 pounds but am carrying a little extra fat on me.

I had 5 minute recovery between sets. I lifted slow. Each set was about sixty seconds from the weight first lifting off the floor until I set it back down at the end of the set.

After the last set I still had some gas-in-the-tank. I decided "Why not?"

I added a 10 pound plate to each side of the bar to bring it to 225 pounds and did a set of six after my mandatory five minute recovery.

Three days ago, it was all I could do to lift 220 pounds a single time.

I have no clue what changed. Maybe I had a virus that didn't manifest obvious symptoms. Maybe I needed a rest. Regardless of the reason, I am pretty happy with today's outcome. 

Random photo

Kerr applecrab with a heavy fruit load

 

Storing apples

This short essay touches on the steps that are within the reach of a competent home-orchard grower that will improve storage life.

Pick at the optimal stage of ripeness for STORAGE

They will be under-ripe for eating out-of-hand. Spraying cut apples with diluted tincture of iodine will give you a qualitative look at the ripeness of your apples. You need to test apples from several places in the tree's canopy to get a complete picture of what your crop is doing. Do NOT include apples with visible insect damage in your assessment.

Empire apple. Best time to pick for storage highlighted with red line. Source

Idared

Jonathan

The iodine stains the starch. When the flesh between the core and the skin of half of your samples start to show lightening, then the ripening process is irreversibly started and it is time to pick that variety of apples, speedy-quick.

One alternative to the iodine test is to cut at least four apples open and inspect the seeds. If most of the seeds are brown and a few are at least half-brown, it is time to get cracking and get the apples off of the trees. 

Cool the apples as quickly as possible

The old rule-of-thumb was that biological processes double with every 10 degrees F. Fruit left in the sun can hit 80F or 90F.

At one time it was a practice to soak freshly picked apples in a 1% calcium chloride/water solution to address water-core and bitter-pit issues and to cool them down. Soaking them for twenty minutes in two changes of very cold, well water is not a bad option. You can even add ice to the water if you can get it cheaply.

Sort-out damaged apples or process/can them

Damaged flesh generates ethylene. Ethylene catalyzes the ripening process which, in term, creates more ethylene. The ripening process accelerates from there. DO NOT STORE DAMAGED APPLES with the apples you intend to hold long-term.

Key point: The ripening process wants to accelerate. It is like a drunk dancing at the top of an icy sledding hill. Once it starts, there is no stopping it. The longer you can keep it near the start of the process, the longer they will keep. 

Dry the apples after soaking (if you opt to do that)

You don't have to go crazy over this but get as much of the water off of the exterior as you can.

Put the apples in relatively small containers

Five gallon nursery pots are a decent option. So are the wooden or cardboard trays that grapes are shipped in.

The goal is to promote ventilation so ethylene cannot concentrate locally and to promote drying of residual moisture. It also firewalls-off rot if it starts in one container.

Keep them cool

Remember: Every +10F halves the storage life.

Keep them ventilated

This sort of works at cross-purposes with keeping them cool.

Keep the storage area humid 

Self explanatory 

Final notes

Many of the best storage apples are almost inedible when picked at the proper stage for optimum storage life. GoldRush is a good example. It is acid, tannic and rock-hard.

Six weeks of storage mellows out the acidity, changes the starch to sugar and converts tannins into aromatic molecules.

The most common "mistake" in storing apples is to wait too long to pick them. That is, waiting until the fruit is prime for eating-out-of-hand is to wait much too long for picking storage apples.

So you are thinking..."What is the difference whether it is waiting on the tree or in my cellar?"

Fair question. On a sunny afternoon in late-September, that fruit can get up to 90F. If it is sitting in your cellar after you chilled everything down, it might be 60F or 65F. HUGE difference. 

Curing before storing, melons and general-chaos

 

Nobody told you curing was a step. They just sold you a refrigerator.

For centuries, harvest was only half the job. Before any root or bulb went into storage, it spent days or weeks in controlled heat and moving air. That process is called curing, and it is why cellar food lasted until spring.

POTATOES: 50-60F for two weeks seals skin cuts and stops rot before it starts.

SWEET POTATOES: 80-85F for ten days converts starches and hardens the skin for months of storage.

ONIONS: warm dry airflow for two to four weeks dries the neck completely and locks out mold.

GARLIC: three to eight weeks at 70-80F tightens the wrapper and pushes viability past six months.

WINTER SQUASH: ten days at 80-85F hardens the rind so it holds through midwinter without softening.

This knowledge did not vanish because it stopped working. It vanished because the cold chain made it unnecessary for people selling food at scale. Wholesalers cure before shipping. They just never taught you to do it at home.

What replaced it was the assumption that the refrigerator handles everything. It does not. A sweet potato cured correctly at harvest and stored at 55F will outlast an uncured one in the fridge by three months. The fridge is not a substitute for a process that changes the vegetable at a cellular level.

Cure your harvest this year. One shelf in a warm room, a box fan on low, and ten days of patience will do what no appliance can replicate. Source

 

Information supplied by the Tireless Lucas Machias.

Watermelons

I thought this guy's putting his melons in nursery pots was a good way to slow down damage from rabbits and woodchucks. Throwing a bit of sawdust or wood-shavings in the bottom of the pot will keep it from sitting on a wet-spot after a rain. His video explains that you can make a solid judgment regarding the ripeness of the melon by looking at the tendril that is opposite the fruit. If it is completely brown, the fruit is ripe. If it is still green, give it more time. Four-minute run-time.

Women's greater susceptibility to social pressure

As a population, women appear to be more sensitive to certain types of social pressure than men do.

Whether it is due to DNA or social conditioning is not important. It simply IS.

Most observers of human nature would bet that it was a combination of both nature and nurture.

From an evolutionary biology standpoint, women had much more to lose then men when being pushed to the edges of the herd. They are slower than men. And, when they are carrying children or caring for them, they are much, much slower than men who were rarely encumbered with family duties before the Industrial Revolution.

Reformers who obstinately attempt to over-write DNA and deep social conditioning with patterns that conform to their ideology are idiots. 

Taleb in his book Antifragile discusses how a "dumb-bell" investment strategy can exploit chaos. The benefits of asset rebalancing are totally dependent on different asset classes having surges that are off-set in time and/or having different volatility characteristics.

Men are responsible for most technical innovation because the greatest risk-seekers are men. Orville and Wilbur would have never invented heavier-than-air flight if they craved social approval through conformity. Many Most Nearly all innovations were created by men who didn't give a rat's ass about the approval of the mean-girl's club.

Women foraged for most of the day-to-day food. Men brought home "windfalls" of protein and fat. The two modes of food production were complimentary. 

Ukraine-26

My source of information about what is happening in the Black Sea region informed me that the escalation of targeting continues on both sides. Ukraine is almost completely sealed off in terms of bulk-shipping. Their major ports on the Black Sea are shredded. Since July 23, 2026 there is only one rail-line that still connects Ukraine to the west and it remains vulnerable to Russian attack. Vessels carrying Russian wheat and other agricultural commodities are being attacked by Ukrainian drones on the high seas.

The fact that foreign markets for wheat and barley is being denied to Russian and Ukraine means that the local prices for those grains will quickly be driven down below the cost of production, according to my expert. 

Historic wheat prices. Circled region marks start of Uke-Rus war

Both Ukraine and Russia are trying to strangle each other's access to currency and arms. Both countries get hard-currency by shipping food via the Suez Canal (which has its own issues) to Africa which is paid for by Western aid money. They also get hard-currency from India and Pakistan, both big consumers of wheat products. The bottom line is that a real shit-storm is brewing in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. It is unlikely that the African chaos will interest western journalists but the South Asia tension will get lots of press because it could go nuclear.

There is also the likelihood of Indian and Pakistani ex-pats going at it in places like London and Toronto and Vancouver and San Jose as calories back-home get scarce, so watch your six.

I get the sense that the same targeting escalation is happening in the Iran war. 

Who knew that Universe-25 was code for Ukraine 2026? They only missed by a year. 

Anxiety, Mike Tyson and Work-ticket report

Anxiety is an emotion that God (or evolution, take your pick) put into us for reasons. In isolation, "anxiety" is a morally neutral quality.

It has been published that women between the ages of 18 and 30 have unprecedented levels of mental illness with women who identify as "Progressive" having levels that are higher (at statistically significant rates) than women who do not identify as Progressive.

What function does anxiety serve?

For herd-animals, anxiety serves to keep them in the safety of the herd. If a lamb or a calf starts to get left behind, their anxiety kicks-in and the burst of adrenaline turbo-charges their pursuit of the herd.

I think the anxiety and depression seen in young women is at least partially fueled by the internal contradiction between wanting to stay with the herd and recognizing that the herd is recklessly hurtling toward a cliff. The trend is exacerbated by the need to gain in-group status; low status animals trail the herd and gain little protective benefit from being members while high-status members get to eat grass that has not been trampled or soiled with urine or feces.

The less-Progressive women have the same instincts but are content to "attach" to a smaller group of other women. Some of it is purely by accident...who their parents are, who they roomed with in college...who they married. Some of it is intelligence and intentional. Those women exercised their ability to play the chess-pieces out a few moves and see where identity politics and the Karpman Drama Triangle pivot (to mention two things) inevitably ends up.

For me, anxiety pushes me to plant a garden in the spring, water the garden, sort-of keep it weeded. It pushes me to pick the apples. Doing those things calms my anxiety back to a very-low simmer level.

Other people deal with anxiety in less appropriate ways. They lash-out at other people. They drink or smoke weed. They binge-eat or watch Netflix or buy crap they cannot afford and do not need. This may be a manifestation of B.F. Skinner's "Superstitious Pigeons".

Mike Tyson

I was watching some boxing clips. One of his strengths was his ability to pull one hand out of a clinch and pop his opponent when he wasn't expecting it.

He was able to generate a huge amount of power even when throwing some unorthodox punches. Several of his opponents were much taller than he was. From a position of his forehead planted in the center of his opponent's chest, he was able to punch the side of his opponent's head (which was above-and-behind Tyson's head) with enough force to stagger his opponent.

It made me think of Doolittle's raid on Japan. The punch is completely unexpected and seemingly comes out of nowhere.

Work-ticket report

Three hours time-on-task.

The first hour was on a fun project and I almost didn't count it in the total.

I labeled this "planting tool". The distance between the vertical lines is NOT 1-1/2 inches.

Picture in your head a grumpy, old man who is finding less and less joy in stooping down to plant tiny seeds at ridiculously close intervals.

The divots on the board are 1-1/2" apart.

 

I made the divots with a 1/4" diameter drill just barely sunk until the fully diameter is slightly buried.

Now picture a 2-by-2 with shallow divots planted at those same close intervals.

I was dubious about these shallow divots being aggressive enough to hold round seeds. I loaded seven spinach seeds (Red Tabby hybrid) and then carried the tool the length of the driveway and back and then around our lumpy lawn for a total of 200 paces. Then I left it on our trash dumpster for a couple of hours to expose it to the breeze. All seven seeds were still there after the test. Conclusion: The divots are aggressive enough for spinach seeds.

Cable spools can be decorated if that is your inclination

I picture using this by loading it at a small table in the garden and then carrying it over to the furrow and rolling the 2-by-2 to plant up to 8' of row at a time. I have seen large wire spools used for that kind of table. They have the advantage of being sturdy and transportable.

Another hour was spent lugging water. The third hour was spent cutting and loading spruce into the truck and a few random chores. 

Lots of little pieces

Yesterday's work-tickets

At the gym

I went to the gym twice. Once to walk with Mrs ERJ. The other time to lift. The walking went fine. The lifting...well, it just wasn't my day.

My maintenance routine is to warm-up with six reps of 135 (no straps), six reps of 185 (no straps), then four sets of six reps of 205 (with straps).

Even at the first rep of 135 I thought "This feels heavy!" By the second rep I was pretty sure that I was not going to be able to do my full routine.

When I got to the 205 set I compressed the rest of the work-out to 1 X 205, 1 x 210, 1 X 215 and then 1 X 220. I simple kept adding five pounds to each lift until I was pretty sure that I would not be able to do the next.

Then I bailed out. Better to show up, have a shortened session and go home unhurt than to try to push-through and end up injured.

I voted in the primary

I suspect that the legacy Democrats are in a panic. The more radical Senate candidate won the primary even though the legacy Dems endorsed the slightly less crazy candidate. Their creation is eating them.

I picked tomatoes (2.5 kg or about 5.5 pounds. That makes about 2.7kg for the season)

I culled tomato vines and tied up shoots.

I ran water to the trickle irrigation in the Eaton Rapids orchard

I finished cutting, splitting and stacking the Honey Locust.

I started disassembling pallets for their lumber. 

I ran errands with Mrs ERJ. It isn't that she NEEDS me to run those errands, but it is a good time to connect. For one thing, I cannot be playing on my laptop or running a chainsaw while driving. She is jolly good company.

What did not happen

I did not drive out to the Upper and Hill Orchards and do any maintenance.

I did not bring back any spruce firewood (great for getting fires going)

I did not scatter any turnip seeds. 

Wildlife

I am astonished by how quickly the local wildlife figured out that Zeus is no longer on duty. Our yard is flooded with woodchucks and deer. I never realized how intimidating the look, smell and sound of a dog was.

It is difficult to overstate how attractive tall zinnias like California Giant are to butterflies. They appear to favor the red ones but that might be my imagination.

Today's work-tickets

Finish breaking down the last pallet for wood. Remove nails.

Split some ash and start replenishing the woodpile in the breezeway.

Locally, ground-chuck is selling for about $6 a pound

Empty and reset woodchuck traps as required.

Weed garden 

Declutter horizontal surfaces