Blue Hill Wildlife Nursery

An odd thing happened today.

The home improvement project for this summer is slowly coming to the conclusion. The inspector will be showing up next week and hopefully that will be the end of it.

This week, a contractor showed up to perform some trenching and a few other tasks that needed to be done before the inspector shows up.

Mrs ERJ must be feeling under-the weather because she failed to direct me to stay out of the contractor's way. Consequently, I was chattering away while he was working up a sweat. He paused from what he was doing and pointed at the tree behind him and asked, "What kind of tree is that?".

"That is a persimmon tree. Deer love persimmons" I told him.

"I heard of them but I have never seen one" he told me. 

That got him to talking. He is a bow hunter and is managing some property to encourage deer while making it easier to harvest them in an ethical way. He has been drinking from the firehose on managing deer.

And then he started raving about a place he has done business with in Pennsylvania, Blue Hill Wildlife Nursery. They don't just sell plants, they are passionate about teaching guys like me and like him how to move the needle in terms of game animals and non-game animals.

Small world

I had the privilege of meeting Ryan in cyber-space. Ryan is one of the guys who runs the nursery and he is a very focused and results oriented guy. I looked through their catalog and as near as I can tell, they carry proven performers that can thrive in sub-optimal conditions.

Kerr apple-crab. Image from Blue Hill Wildlife Nursery catalog. Apple-crabs have smaller fruit than domestic apples (minimum of 2-1/2" diameter) but are larger than ornamental crabapples (arbitrarily smaller than 3/4" diameter).

For example, they offer Kerr apple-crab. Kerr fruits heavily even after experiencing -40 wintertime temperatures. It tends to biennial bearing but is very heavily loaded during the "on" years and it hangs onto its fruit until mid-winter.

They also offer "homesteader packages" which may be of interest. 

Their prices are about half the cost of what most boutique retail catalogs charge.

Small world! 

It is hard to stay on-task when it is hot outside

Quicksilver is going through a growth-spurt. She is eating everything in sight.

She followed down the stairs when I went to rotate my laundry. She said, "Let's crack some walnuts?"

So, I cracked them and she ate them. The walnuts are three years old but she thought they tasted just fine, and the flavor might have been just a bit sweeter since she had to work to tease the black walnut kernels out of the shells.

More technical oddities

Our attic fan has not been kicking on during the hot weather.

I assumed I had an electrical problem. I switched out the snap-disc switch for a new 110F close-on-rise and I put a few drops of oil into the fan's orifice and hand-spun the blade to ensure it spun freely and the oil was distributed.

It still didn't run during the heat of the day.

Curious, I opened up the access again and used my IR thermometer. Most of the bottom of the roof was +12 over ambient, that is 98F.

We had a white, steel roof installed about five years ago. Wow. What a difference.

Running notes

The first half mile was about 6:30. It was hot and humid.

I got about 2.7 miles before dropping to a walk. The last segment of the run was into the sun and with the wind. That is, it was hotter than the other three segments.

I committed to running a 5k as part of a team in early-October. I don't know if anybody else will be volunteering, but the plan is to pull together a team of five. I think there is a 50% chance that the team will not get four more volunteers.

If I end up running, I will be thrilled to break 40 minutes. It is a possibility if the weather is cooler and the course is flat and I drop five pounds. I have about 12 more runs to prepare.

Mowing

I made 3/4 of a lap around the yard with the lawn-tractor and the belt snapped.

It was too hot to push a mower.

So, to use the last bit of late-afternoon light, I adjusted the height of the mowing deck. I bought this mower from a guy who mowed a perfectly manicured lawn and he had it optimized for putting-greens. 

Random picture

Hot, Hungarian Banana (Wax) peppers

Red netting protects some crops better than other colors

Japanese researchers discover that red netting is more effective at protecting crops from insects than white or black netting.

I wonder if red netting would protect berry bushes against bird better than black netting. Or, if you cannot find red netting, perhaps garnishing the net with bright red, fake "cherries". Say, two 12mm, red beads joined by 50mm of florist wire. Pinch the dingleberries around strands of the net several weeks before the crops ripen and train the birds that the "cherries" on these bushes/trees are not edible.

A tip of the hat to Lucas the Tireless

Bling, dreams and filters

The group play-dates are starting back up for Quicksilver. Being a country-girl and having very few kids her age near-by, this seems like the most efficient way to socialize her.

The boys were in the sand-box using the diggers. The girls, who outnumbered the boys by 5:1, were on the merry-go-round and the castle-themed slides gabbing like a flock of laying hens. Nobody told them. That is where the gravity pulled them.

Then I had an evil thought. Fake jewels and coins can be purchased on Amazon for a pittance. 

I expect those young fellows would get a lot of feminine company if it became known that the sandbox was filled with "drip". If I can't have peace-and-quiet, I don't know why they should.

Nightmare

I dreamed that I had to give a speech in front of hostile people RIGHT NOW. I tried to make an outline and the paper was wet. There were chickens in the car and I was invited to eat breakfast as I walked toward the venue as the paper shredded under the pen.

Technical oddity

The technician replaced the filter on our furnace with a different brand two weeks ago. The unit started whistling and moaning when the A/C kicked on.

We called the firm and he came back. He deduced that it was due to the filter. I suspect that the pleats collapsed due to the absence of the wire mesh that supports the pleats in "normal" filters. When the pleats are not collapsed, the area of the filter-media that the air can flow through is about 4X the width-times-length of the filter for a 2" filter. If the pleats collapse then it is 1X and the fan cannot pull enough air through it to keep the evaporator from icing and it makes horrible sucking sounds.

The failure cascades as inadequate air-flow causes the evaporator heat exchanger to ice up and shuts off flow. 

The tech didn't have filters of any other brand with him. We dismissed him and drove to the hardware store to purchase what we needed.

The "self-supported" filters without the wire mesh might be fine for larger fliters like 20x20" but was a total failure in the 14"x20" model.

I expect that the HVAC company will switch back to the traditional, wire-mesh supported filters. They cannot afford unhappy customers.

Lifting report

Usual warm-up. Two sets of 205. Two sets of 225. It was a chore to finish the last set.

The session was notable because there were seven other lifters who drifted through their routines while I was there and none of them were wearing ear-buds.

I tried the Aloha protein bars and they were more than edible. I will try the Perfect bars next time. 

Fine Art Tuesday

 

Yuan Su is a retired biologist who was born in 1957. To the best of my knowledge, she is still alive.

These are photographs. I usually don't feature them in FAT but her work is so comprehensive and of such consistently high quality that I decided to make an exception. 

Her artwork is for sale HERE. Note that her catalog is many pages long.

Once upon a time, the Democrats' actions may have aligned with the working family

 "...Democrats are the only party fighting for working people like us, fighting to lower the prices of housing, gas, groceries and healthcare."

My phone number was issued to me by a bargain-basement, economy provider. It used to belong to somebody whose cyber-footprint suggests that they are 50 years-old and work as an "an administrative assistant" at a non-profit that exists to employ those with "vision impairment, deaf or hard of hearing, mental health conditions, intellectual disability, acquired brain injury, autism spectrum disorder, physical disability, and specific learning disabilities such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia or have  experienced other barriers to employment". 

Her on-line footprint lists at least three aliases, possibly to dodge being dunned by debt collectors. I know that when I first got the phone that I got LOTS of messages addressing her and demanding that she call back. I did a reverse look-up and they were debt collectors. I continue to get texts intended for her. Some of them offer subsided health insurance. Some offer to pay her auto insurance.

Recently, I started getting political texts that address her by name. The Democratic party is struggling with budget issues and mass SMS messaging is dirt cheap. The quote at the top of this essay is snipped from one of those messages.

Evaluating the talking points one-by-one: 

• And just who do you mean by "...working people like us..."? The writer is almost undoubtedly a slacker, "community activist" and probably lives in her mother's basement.
• Lower the price of housing? Blue cities have the highest housing prices in the nation. The Green Extremists are trying to cram families into sardine cans and the old, Elites squash new construction to protect the value of the houses they own.
• Lower the price of gas? Michigan Governor Whitmer's first official act after taking office was to demand that legislature raise Michigan's tax on gas by 45 cents/gallon. They don't care how much people have to pay for fuel. The Green Extremists hate oil and wish gas cost $100 a gallon.
• Lower the price of food? The Progressives forced farmers to slaughter thousands of cattle and millions of chickens over traces of bird flu. Progressives doubled the price of a dozen eggs via "cage free chicken" mandates. Progressives want to outlaw fertilizer. They want us to eat bugs.
• Lower the price of healthcare? Progressives love regulation. Hospitals and small healthcare practices are drowning in over-regulation. The prescription ointment used to treat the rash caused by Shingles costs $700 after rebates. The same type of 4% Lidocaine OTC lotion costs $10 at Walmart or Amazon. Just another case of the Democrats protecting their donation cash-cows.

Like Sherman's March through Georgia

 

The Ukrainians you follow in Poltava are now in trouble.  Power, food and fuel in the Oblast have been utterly destroyed.   Every gas station in Poltava has been destroyed.  Stores across the country are devoid of refrigerated and frozen foods.  A lot of dry staples are also no longer available.  The Russians have destroyed 70%+ of Ukraine's cold & dry warehouses in response to the Ukrainian Wildberry and Ozon strikes.  The Russians are also being hurt, but not to the extent that the Ukrainians are getting hurt.   -From a Friend of the Blog

The friend of the blog also provided a link describing the creeping escalation of the Uke-Rus war. 

As logistics crumble, volume often becomes the limiting factor and not weight. A truck that carries packages of potato-chips or breakfast food cereal can usually carry far more weight in terms of flour, rice, beans, cornmeal, lard, sugar, raisins and dried milk than they did of potato-chips.

Those staples are also shelf-stable.

"It can't happen here"

Yeah, well, there are bad actors bending every effort into hacking their way into the information systems that are the brains for the US distribution systems for fuel, food and other merchandise. They don't need to drop bombs. They can either crash the system or to insert random amounts for 5% of the items that are scheduled.

Mrs ERJ will be giving a Millennial a cooking lesson today. He will learn how to turn rice, lentils, onions and celery into a savory main course. It can also be used as a side-dish to stretch out other meals. Basic recipe here. 

Lentils are a good first-thing to teach because they cook quickly.

At the most retro and primitive level, a double-handful of wheat can be put in a 3 quart pot, soaked over-night, drained in the morning, covered and left to soften for 14 hours. Then covered with water and brought to a vigorous boil, pulled off of the heat and nested in a box filled with straw for an hour. All in the same pot. Just wheat, water, time and enough fire to bring it to a boil. 

A lot of fuel is used to rehydrate the grain when using traditional methods. If you separate the rehydration from the cooking, you need less heat. A single slat from a pallet would do if you know how to build a fire.

It is worth noting that one of the Youtube channels I follow is of a family who market-garden to supply vegetables to a "farmers market" in the big city. I think she will be getting very good prices IF she can transport  her vegetables to the market. The war on logistics compresses supply chains.

 

Tip of the hat to anon Friend of the Blog.