Mistakes were made

Yesterday, when the mechanic called to tell me that my truck needed two front-wheel bearings, he also mentioned that I needed to think about replacing the pads on the front brakes.

This morning, when I got dropped off to pay for the work and pick up the vehicle I said I wanted to schedule having the front brakes done.

Mike, the other mechanic in the shop said "I got time. I can gitter-done today."

I agreed that it made sense, while thinking it would have made more sense to have told them to do the work while the wheels were off for the bearing change.

I called my ride but didn't get an answer, so I started walking home. I was well hydrated, the temperature was mild, I was wearing trail-running shoes and I walk almost that distance every day.

I was off of M-50 in less than 20 minutes. Ten minutes later I crested a hill and was out-of-sight of houses. Fifteen minutes after that I was stepping off the gravel road to cut across a farm field. That is where things didn't work out as planned.

My memory was that the field I planned to walk across was planted to soybeans. The field I had access to was planted to corn. No problem. I will just follow the edge of the corn field northeast until I hit the soybean field.

Except when I got to the hunting blind in the corner of the field, the next field was also planted to corn. Whatever. I checked the compass on my phone (which is not all that accurate), took a bearing on a tree on the far side of the 1/2 mile long field and plunged into the corn. I immediately lost sight of the tree but at least I knew the rows were running North/South.

For those who aren't from farm country, corn is planted in rows that usually run the long dimension of the field with the exception of the ends which have rows that run parallel to the short dimension. It is much easier to walk in the direction of the rows which are typically 30 inches apart than it is to push across the rows which have corn plants every six-to-eight inches.

Palmer Amaranth and Waterhemp are very similar and they hybridize. Both of them are showing resistance to glyphosate herbicide.

This corn field was infested with Palmer Amaranth or Water-Hemp (a similar species of amaranth). And it was five-to-seven feet tall and it was pollinating. Batting a stem of it left a cloud of pollen at the same level as my face.

Side note here: If the weed is pollinating then it doesn't have seeds. Late August, future infestation  of some kinds of weeds can be controlled by cutting the stalks of some species of weeds even this late in the season.

I didn't have my eye-drops (Opcon-A) or any antihistamines on my person. I didn't have tissues or a handkerchief. I looked around and saw that the rows a scant 20' from me had corn that was much taller and far fewer weeds. I moved over seven rows and struck out for the far side.

In one way, the pollen that I am allergic to creates a quick reaction in my body. Primarily my eyes swelling and secondarily skin dermatitis. Even though I had been walking through that crap for a few minutes, I had no signs of an issue.

I looked at my watch. A half-mile is 10 minutes if I hustle. When I encountered a flowering head of amaranth, I didn't bat it out of the way, I gently moved it with my forearm.

After about eight minutes of walking in the corn, the corners of my eyes started getting itch. Close to the 10 minute mark, the direction of the rows changed 90 degrees. Then 40 seconds later I was out of the field.

Another aside: The soybean field was only fifty feet to the side of where I was walking. It turns out that the soybean field does not extend the entire distance.

Overhead image of the location. Green area is planted to corn. Yellow area planted to soybeans. Black spot that is circled is the deer-stand where I made the decision to strike cross-country

From there, the rest of the walk was uncomfortable. My eyes were both itchy and sensitive to light.

I had nothing clean to wipe my eyes. My shirt had also been bathed in amaranth pollen. I had been carrying Quick Silver's toy giraffe and blanket from the truck. Those were also both contaminated.

No issues with throat closing up. No hives. Just eye discomfort and my nose starting to run. I was about 3/4 mile from home.

Upon entering the house I grabbed the bottle of diphenhydramine and the Op-con A eye-drops and headed to the shower.

Lessons from the story

If you are subject to allergies then always carry meds with you that work well in YOUR body. Even when it is not "allergy season". For instance, I am very allergic to Orchard Grass pollen and for about one week at the end of May or early June, I have to be very careful. I got lazy and stopped carrying meds by mid-summer.

Your body changes and can become sensitized to different kinds of pollen or fungi after enough exposure. Challenges that were not a problem in the past can become a big problem in the future.

You might THINK you know the intimate details of your neighborhood but things change. Lots can get sold-off, blocking access to shortcuts. Farm fields can be resurveyed and the shape of it changes.

Compasses, even the crappy one on your smartphone are useful.

It is good to know how farmers plant fields. There are cases of children who became lost in fields and walked to the end of the row and then changed direction (within feet of a road) because the direction of the row changed. They were lost in those fields for MUCH longer than they needed to be.

Even if you have an X and a Y gene, it is possible to back-track and change your planned route. You don't have to tell anybody. Nobody is going to steal your man-card.

I did some things right (footwear, clothing, being hydrated, carrying a smartphone, choosing a low-traffic route). I also had the situational awareness to realize that the Palmer Amaranth infestation was more severe where the corn was not growing as well and shifted my path to the less-infested rows.

I did some things wrong...wandering into a field infested with Palmer Amaranth that is pollinating, being unaware of the subtle wrap-around nature of the corn field. I expect to be taken to task by Michael and Dan in comments for not turning around when I realized the P.A. was throwing clouds of pollen into the air when I vigorously batted them out of my way.

One point of discussion is that I had already been exposed to significant amounts of pollen before the fact clicked into place. If I had an anaphylactic reaction to it I would be toast without an epi-pen, even if I dialed 9-1-1. Walking back to the road would have just made it easier for the undertaker to collect my remains.

Human bodies are resilient. There was ot drama, no good-guy, no bad-guy. It was just "Shit happens and adults deal with it". I share the store for entertainment purposes and maybe you can be smarter than I am. I made the trip in about eighty minutes. Of course, after taking 50mg of diphenhydramine I had no ambition to do any work this afternoon.

Olive burgers: A mid-Michigan culinary treasure?

I was watching a video of a couple of guys from the United Kingdom who heard about Michigan and lake-effect snow and they called "BS".

Then they came here in the winter and toured the state.

Then they came back in the summer.

Near the middle of the video they mentioned iconic, Michigan cuisine. One of the items they mentioned was "Olive burgers", that is, hamburgers smothered with olives and then topped with melted Swiss cheese, and they pinned that culinary treasure to Lansing, Michigan.

Granted, many of our Greek and Balkan immigrants started restaurants, especially near the auto facories. 

I thought "Doesn't every place serve those?" I never saw what the fuss was about. I am more of a Club Sandwich kind of guy. If a restaurant can ruin a Club Sandwich then it is not worth eating there.

If all goes well, I will be dining with my siblings at Harry's Place on Lansing's west-side some time in the next week. I guess I will have to order an olive-burger. My sense of taste evolved over time. As a kid I found cantaloupe repulsive. Now I enjoy them.

Fine Art Tuesday

Berndt Lindholm was born in Finland in 1841. He died in 1914.

His painting depict scenes where life is spread very thinly: Stony beaches, rocks covered with moss, cows foraging in forests devoid of grass, clear water.

It is a world of hard-scrabble living and a society that does not tolerate slackers or conmen. 

Wheel-bearings and potatoes

The good news is that I turned around before I got on the freeway.

The great news is that when I called the mechanic and told him "My truck is howling. The right-front hub is warm" he said "Bring it in. I can fit it in."

I got a call a little bit later and my mechanic said "Both front wheel bearings are shot. We are waiting for parts. It will be ready by mid-morning tomorrow." And then he quoted a price.

I had the chance to talk over various scenarios with him when I dropped it off. I had already pre-approved replacing the bearings on both sides if one of them was trashed, operating on the assumption that both left and right side had traveled the same number of miles. 

Work tickets

I spent a half-hour cleaning off a concrete pad beneath an overhang.

I spent an hour pushing a lawn mower.

I tasted a seedling apple that I had grafted onto a tree in the Eaton Rapids orchard. It will be culled as will all of the seedling's sisters.

I delivered "samples" of Lehigh potatoes to two of my nephews who expressed an interest in them. If they enjoy them, then I shall supply them with more than a sample. If they say "Not my favorite", I will not supply them with Lehigh potatoes.

One of the nephews who expressed an interest in the potatoes is also a home-brewer. I might have some hops for him. Harvest season is accelerating. 

"Seven cities that will run out of food first"

There's another layer to New York that doesn't get enough attention. The city's restaurant infrastructure, which feeds a massive percentage of the population on any given day. Millions of New Yorkers don't cook. Their food supply is the Thai place downstairs, the deli on the corner, the pizza shop across the street. When those businesses lose power, those people don't just lose a convenience, they lose their primary food source. They may not even own a working set of pots and pans. The assumption that everyone has a functioning kitchen stocked with raw ingredients is a suburban assumption that has almost no bearing on how a huge chunk of New York (City) actually eats.  Source

 

Imagine somebody giving you 12 Ramen noodle packages or three boxes of "minute rice" or five pounds of potatoes and you have no way to cook them.

 

There are some efficiencies to cooking multiple meals in the same oven because the cost of heating it up is spread over more meals. But there are some fragilities when people lose the ability to prepare their own food. 

Harley Smith, Plant Researcher

About a year ago I noticed a gentleman who worked out at the same gym where Mrs ERJ and I walk and where I lift weights.

He would use some of the machines and then walk as a cool-down.

One day he was wearing a nerdy, chemistry tee-shirt and I made some kind of nerdy, off-the-wall comment about it.

It turns out that he is a semi-retired research scientist who specializes in formulating fertilizers for niche markets. Suppose you want to market potted mums that are more vividly red than any of your competitors or grow the most massive pumpkins imaginable. Harley is the man.

The last time we crossed paths he shared that he was even more specialized than I thought. He is a whiz-bang at hydroponics. Some of the reasons that is tricky is because soil automatically buffers pH and resident bacteria and fungi can make insoluble nutrients available to roots. You can't just mix random sources of various nutrients and expect them to stay soluble in the water. Some of them will want to combine into insoluble molecules and drop out of the water as sludge.

Furthermore, it turns out that he is a neighbor AND he produces a podcast. He was chuckling because his partner in many of the productions is an organic grower in Idaho while he is a wing-of-bat, eye-of-newt guy. And they both bring valuable insights to the party and both respect what the other can do.

With no further ado, here are Harley Smith's Youtube videos. There may be one-or-two random videos that leak into the mix because "Smith" is a common name...but most of them are his. If I was to recommend one video that is most likely to appeal to the broadest range of my readers, it is Microbial Inoculants and Compost Tea.

A quick case-study in siting a project orchard

A question came up in the comments asking about planting apple trees near a school.

Lacking any details except sort-of remembering that this reader might live in New England, I choose to address the project by selecting a random, un-named high school in New England and applying the rule-sets:

1. Sun
2. Soil
3. Access to water 

Sun

There is nothing but pavement on the north side of this school complex. Planting on the north side is a moot issue.

In the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere the north sides of buildings are heavily shaded. Since fruit trees are "edge-species" in terms of succession, they need at least a half-day of good sunlight.

This is the south half of the complex

 

This is the south half with shaded areas purpled-out. The shade is mostly from trees.

If you can choose between morning sunlight and afternoon sunlight, pick morning sunlight because it burns off the dew more quickly. Wet leaves and fruit often have disease issues. Also, prevailing winds tend to be from the west and structures/trees that block winds are a plus for several reasons.

Soil

Soil types in the Area of Interest

Low pH, very fast draining, low water retention, low-to-moderate native fertility due to low cation retention capacity.

Access to water

Description of the surrounding area

There is a ridge that runs north-south 1/4 mile to the west. There is probably ground-water fairly close to the surface but still deeper than young fruit trees can reach.

Proximity to a spigot on the building or a door can be highly advantageous. So is being out of the normal pedestrian traffic patterns because ripe fruit attracts vandals and fallen fruit attracts stinging insects.

There is a tear-drop of open area in the southeast corner of the property

 

In round numbers it is 80 feet in the N/S direction and 16 feet in the E/W direction.

Hand-drawing in 8', mulch-filled basins for maximum water retention, it looks like it can hold five trees on a 12'-to-15' spacing. Placing them in a straight line makes it easier for the grounds-keeper to mow around them.

 

Application of limestone is warranted. Supplemental fertilizer, over and above mulch, is probably warranted because the mulch with the lowest maintenance, stones, wood chips, sawdust, bark chips, contribute very little in terms of nutrients.

Prepare to suffer

The middle of August until the end of October is my favorite weather in Michigan. Then comes firearm deer season. Then wood-cutting season.

August offers local sweet corn, peaches, tomatoes, melons, cucumbers. Living is easy.

Exercise update

After soiling-the-bed in terms of not exercising last week, I got back on the horse this morning (shamelessly mixing metaphors).

Seven in the morning, out for a one mile run. This picture was taken on the walk back to the house.

The sun peeking up over the woods

I felt surprisingly strong at the start of the run. I leaned into the discomfort for the last 1/4 mile. A 12:05 mile is slightly better than expected.

After Mass, Mrs ERJ and I went to the gym. She walked. I did an abbreviated lifting session. I only lifted my usual warm-up and one set of six repetitions of my body-weight.

My PT goal wasn't to take up where I left off two Fridays ago but to inform my body that the vacation was over.

Homilies and sermons

I was informed that a "Homily" is a sermon that covers the Bible readings that are presented at the church service. A sermon is an assembly of moral teachings that are not necessarily directly tied to the readings.

I am still getting used to Father Bob, our new priest. Overall, the length of the Mass is a wee-bit shorter than Father Dwight, our previous priest.

Father Bob is Johnny-Onnit through the service. He scoots right along.

His homilies, on the other hand, are complex and multi-layered. They run about 50% longer than Father Dwight's...let's say 15 minutes vs 10 minutes...not that I put a stopwatch on them. He stays on-topic and makes connections between the Old (Jewish) Testament reading, the middle reading which is typically from the Letters and the final reading which is always from Matthew, Mark, Luke or John.

He also makes it personal which I think is powerful. The Bible challenges us. If properly read it SHOULD cause us discomfort because we are imperfect. It is very easy and very comfortable to make the messages in the Bible academic or intellectual. It is very easy to apply them to the person sitting three pews behind you. But when Jesus was writing in the dirt when the crowd wanted to stone the woman, it is a pretty good bet that he wasn't writing Newton's Three Laws of Motion.

From a personality standpoint, Father Bob projects as a little edgier and more-driven than Father Dwight. That is likely to seem "ordinary" after a few months. He also gravitates to families with young children. He radiates joy when he sees them and makes a point of personally greeting them. I think he knows how hard it is to get everybody presentable and get the to church before the starting bell. A preacher who is thrilled to have children in church, even if they make noise during a long homily, is a very good thing.

The scuttlebutt is that our congregation is "friendly". Some other congregations are rife with stress and conflict. I suspect that the bishop uses our congregation (actually, two congregations because we have two locations) as a Rest-and-Recovery assignment for priests who left it all on the field and need a breather to recover. Sort of like tag-team-wrestling.

Discomfort

I have a friend who shares some of my alarm regarding current trends. He talked to his priest and asked for "wise counsel". The priest responded "Prepare to suffer".

My friend, if he trusts you, will occasionally use that phrase. It is not a threat. It is a reminder that God engineered into us not only the ability to endure "suffering" or "discomfort", but to actually NEED suffering, just like an internal combustion engine needs heat to vaporize the fuel and cook the water out of the lubricating oil.

Eight minute run-time.

The presenter is an Emergency Room doctor and former military.

Context and perspective are recommended. I scoff at the newbies who are a 1/2 mile from the trail-head and clutching two, one-liter water bottles and starting to panic. They are in a county park on well marked trails and the temperature is in the upper-60F range. Obviously, they can lean a little more into "discomfort" with very little risk.

On the other hand, there are people who do genuinely stupid things like going on walk-abouts when the wind-chill is -40 or who fire-up the chainsaw in +90F heat after a hurricane without a plan to rehydrate, on-board calories and avoid the mid-day sun.

What is foreign to me and thus difficult to write about, are the seemingly vast number of people who are totally freaked out by normal physiological responses like perspiration. Sixty years of marketing imbued people with a horror of sweating. They panic. They would almost prefer a case of fulminating gangrene to the sheen of extreme perspiration.

That revulsion of perspiration spills over to all other forms of discomfort. Great, thundering herds of people are resistant to meeting new people because "it makes me uncomfortable". They don't try new things. They eat the same foods at the same times and eat in ample amounts. They sedate themselves with drugs and digital distractions. 

If your Youtube feeds are like mine, they are saturated with ads for on-line gambling. I suspect that they get plenty of "takers". Anything to avoid personal responsibility. Anything to avoid "stress".

"Prepare to suffer" is not an ominous threat. It is wise advice, like "A hurricane is coming. Fill the tanks of your vehicles, sharpen your chainsaw and bake a peanut butter sheet cake before it hits."

More sweat now means less (of your) blood on the ground later. It isn't just "Prepare to suffer", it is "Prepare by suffering".