Grab-bag

There but for the grace of God was ERJ

August 27, 2022 - Meridian Township police were called to the west end of Hamilton Road at Grand River Avenue, where Gonzales – who was on foot – had been hit twice while in the construction zone. The Lansing resident died at the scene from her injuries. Meridian Township police are asking that anyone who saw or heard anything contact them

Sonia Marina Gonzales was the mother of five children. Fortunately for me and my family I was only struck by one vehicle.

I was hit on Grand River Avenue in a construction zone a mile east of where Gonzales was hit.

A picture of my dirty shorts

Well, one of my shorts

 

Fixed! NEC strongly suggests that I trim the tag ends of the zip-ties. You can see the traces (rusty marks to the right of the wire) where the fence arced when it was carrying a full charge.

After action report, Yellow Jacket nest

The yellow-jackets were exiting where the end of the hose is, to the left of the trellis post. After flooding, it was dug up by skunks. The main body of the nest was to the right of the post.

I lashed the hose to a pole, in this case one that is 10' long. I keep the pole near ground level and the yellow-jackets seem to ignore it. The pole allows me to make adjustments and precision-locate the end of the hose without approaching the nest too closely.

Mrs ERJ and I moved firewood and picked tomatoes yesterday.

Mrs ERJ gets a special mention for volunteering to pick the tiny cherry tomatoes. She has amazing, nimble fingers and picks rapidly.

My original plan was to carry them in the bed of the truck but at 150 pounds each (8" diameter) they are a little more than I want to be manhandling on rough ground. I am looking forward to my bone-doc giving me the go-ahead for "impacts" so I can get back to doing stupid stuff. 

As a side-note, I am not superman. One end of a 150 pound pole weighs 75 pounds and an adult man with a good back can flip them end-over-end to move them around.

When I built this buck, I made the horizontals an inch higher than the weight-free height of the box so I could back the truck underneath the cap to re-install the cap. It makes a handy place to store poles out of the rain.

I found I can skid 8', black-locust poles behind the truck with a tow strap if I really choke up the strap (i.e. very short length). Leaving them in 8' lengths gives me the flexibility of splitting them and using them for fence posts. I can always cut them into stove-wood but I cannot make them longer after cutting.

I think I need to pull the trigger and buy a log skidding cone.

I watered the garden overnight, probably for the last time this season. The days are getting shorter and the sun is lower in the sky so the ground stays moist longer. That, and I have tomatoes ripening and I don't want to lose too many to rot.

A few years ago I grew an heirloom variety that was extremely vulnerable to rot. It may have been a combination of very thin, tender skin and chemistry (perhaps a lack of tannins). I swear that fruit two feet above the ground would start rotting after a mosquito landed on the fruit.

Other varieties seem to be able to heal even if the skin splits or ripen while in contact with moist soil without rotting. Obviously, rot-resistant varieties are preferred if you actually want to harvest significant amounts of fruit.