Little bits and pieces

I had my 6 month (after the accident) appointment with the bone-doc.

He was happy with my progress. He like the range of motion I had.

He lifted all restrictions. I asked him if I could run. He said, "I don't know if you can run. You have my permission to try.'

So I bought a new pair of running shoes (New Balance, 481) and went for a run this evening. I had no idea how it would go.

The ever lovely and wise Mrs ERJ went with me. We walked a half-mile to loosen me up. Then I ran a half-mile. I looked behind me. Mrs ERJ had been following me, walking. She was 150 yards behind me.

I didn't say I ran FAST.

I ran back the half-mile with the same results. Mrs ERJ was only 150 yards behind me.

I chose that stretch because it is a flat, dirt road with little traffic.

I now have a baseline: I can run a mile at a glacial pace. YEAH!!!

Roots and tubers

I pulled a few radishes, a rutabaga and a couple of turnips and buried them in my pile of sawdust. I intend to replant them in the spring and let them go to seed. Most root-crops are biennials. They seed in mid-summer, grow, over-winter and the used the resources stored in the root to put on a magnificent burst of growth and then go to seed.

Cheong Du (Korean) radish was the winner of the horse-race we had for radishes this year.

Casting

I cast about 90 cylindrical shapes out of a dense metal alloy this morning.

I am my own worst enemy. I misplaced the box of commercially-manufactured, 0.430" diameter cylinders. I have about 15 of those that I had moved to a different place and then put the 85 in A Very Safe Place, so safe I cannot remember where it is.

No worries. I will sort the home-cast ones by weight and sight in the smoke-pole with them. Heck, I might even use them hunting. Deer kill easy. A half-ounce of medium-soft lead in the rib-cage at +1400fps makes for a short tracking job.

Daffodils

I planted daffodils and crocus on Herc's grave. Herc is the German Shepherd we lost to cancer earlier this year.

Yes, I know that daffodils are the most common and pedestrian of flowers, but they are common for a reason. They grow well and deer don't eat them.

I have a hare-brained idea to some of them after they bloom next year. I think a gold-fish swimming in a sea of blue-and-white crocus would look pretty cool.

We planted peonies at both ends of his grave.

Orchard

I removed one row of grapes out of the orchard/vineyard. Two rows of grapes remain. The trees to the south of the row I removed were shading the grapes and they (trees and vines) were planted so close together that they were difficult to care for.

I also removed many of my quince trees. Fireblight killed them. Quince bloom very late in the spring which is great for missing the frost but they bloom at temperatures that expose them to much risk to fireblight.

I was in denial about my problem and I did not address it. The trees that were infected were Typhoid Mary and served as a source of infection to nearby, uninfected trees.

This past May was very severe for fireblight due to seventy-degree temps when pears and apples were blooming and eighty-degree day-time temperatures when the quince were blooming.

Fishing

A walleye in the 20-to-22 inch range. Tom caught it Wednesday morning. He said it was delicious.

I ran into Tom, my coffee-drinking buddy yesterday morning. He was fishing in the Grand River. We chatted a little bit. He sent me a couple of pictures of notable fish he caught in the last week.

A brown trout, which is not very common in this part of the Grand River. He caught it in the well aerated waters of a dam spillway. Tom joined the Navy from the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Politics

I "get" that there are many angry conservatives. The election did not turn out how we expected.

I don't see that my marching orders changed. I will keep doing what I do.

I don't see placing blame as being particularly productive. The progressives were able to get many voters hooked on the drug of "free-money". The media and Silicon valley are totally in the tank and are carrying the water for the progressives.

One blogger slammed the Republicans for running unattractive candidates. Well, lemme tell ya, I didn't run because I do not crave the beating I would get as a candidate. I am not perfect, not by a long shot. The Republicans ran unattractive candidates, in part, because very few sane, attractive candidates wanted to run for office as a conservative.

Another issue is that some of the theoretical "more attractive" candidates would be Mitt Romney clones. I would rather have a progressive in office than somebody I thought I could trust but would stab me in the back. At least the math is easy with the progressive in office, and when the shit-hits-the-fan, the progressives will own the blame.

Nor do I think the results would be measurably different if Trump had not been making waves.

Realistically, things will not change until there is a "palace coup" and the spear-carriers for the progressives wake up to the fact that the economy and social-order are being swept over the waterfall...and their loyalty will not save them from that fate.