Pictures

 

The walls could use a little work, now.

Do I NEED 39 tomato plants and 11 banana pepper plants? No. But what does "need" have to do with anything?

One of the holes I dug in the Upper Orchard to plant fruit trees. The water table is 4" to 8" down...and that is on top of the hill.

I talked to the owner of The Property about some of the stacks of sheet-metal. He asked if I had a use for them. I am thinking about a chicken coop or a shed for the ducks. Seems a shame to have them just sit there and corrode.

Lucifer and Prometheus

Lucifer

According to Revelations, Lucifer was an Archangel who challenged God out of Envy and Pride and he lost. Lucifer literally means "Light bringer". Lucifer and his minions were cast out of heaven. According to I Peter, they prowl like lions around a campfire, looking for the unwary who stray from the light, the weak and the gullible.

According to Genesis, Lucifer/Satan took the form of the serpent and tempted Adam and Eve, the proto-humans, with fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. He promised that it would make them equal to God. He might have over-promised. God-sized knowledge on human-sized shoulders is an unbearable burden.

Prometheus

Prometheus of Greek mythology was a human Titan who stole fire from Apollo as his chariot (the sun) arched across the sky. Zeus, the Patriarch of the Gods in Greek mythology, was not pleased and condemned Prometheus to be chained to a rock atop a mountain and have his liver pecked away by buzzards every day, only to regrow every night.

Compare and Contrast

The most obvious comparison is that by bringing mankind fire, Prometheus was truly a "light bringer". Lucifer and Prometheus were also comparable in that they challenged the supreme being and lost. Lucifer was an archangel (Not God but not man, either). Prometheus was a Titan (A class of god who lost to the Olympians).

The contrast is that Zeus was a god who was very man-like in that he was flawed and Prometheus's motivations were primarily altruistic. The God of the Old and New Testaments is presented as entirely benign and loving (sometimes tough-love) while Lucifer's motives were self-aggrandizing.

Prometheus brought the Greeks the benefits of "fire": To cook grain and warm the home. To provide light during the long nights of winter. To vanquish enemies and smelt metals.

Lucifer brought the Hebrews and Christians sorrow, sin and death.

While the Greeks ended up with a "light-bringer" who was much more appealing than the Hebrew/Christian version, I much prefer the God of the Hebrew/Christian tradition.

Wet

Things are very wet around here. The local rain-gages show 3.5" since March 28 but it seems like it has been more than that based on the run-off. Of course, the fields being nearly saturated before the 3.5" probably made a difference.

It will be cool enough that I can put the box on the front porch, out of the sun and they will keep until Wednesday

The pear root-stocks showed up yesterday but I will wait until Wednesday to put them in the ground. And while I am waiting, I can graft 12 of them that are going into the Hill Orchard.

Buttoning it back up

Today will be spent painting and then moving furniture and clothing back into the spare bedroom. The goal is to have it done before Quicksilver is back. 

While waiting for the sealer-primer to dry, I intend to move some of the tomato and all of the pepper seedlings into cell-packs.

Jobs in retail

With the stock-market dropping and tariffs kicking in, you have to wonder if some (maybe even most) low-premium, retail brands are doomed.

Lululemon, or Lululemon Athletics, is a brand that creates and sells athletic clothing, accessories, as well as lifestyle apparel. The company has become famous for its yoga pants and leggings, and you be hard-pressed not to see someone wearing a pair in any yoga studio or on the street. Apart from its products’ recognizable design and fit and feel, Lululemon is also known for its premium prices, with its yoga pants easily costing $100 and upwards.

With Emma-Lee's mom watching her 401-k drop, it is hard for me to fathom that she would be eager to shell-out a C-note for a pair of tights when Emma-Lee already has one in every color.

And Luluemon is just one example.

Recent college graduates "dead-ending" before they even start

I was sitting at a table today and two of the other people there were old friends who had not seen each other for several years.

They were talking about people they had known who had recently graduated from college. Many of them are struggling to find jobs in their field and are working in retail.

Two common threads emerged. Many of the people who were not able to find jobs had never worked at a fast-food restaurant or any other for-pay job before they graduated.

The other common thread was that some of them had worked "internships" and had been offered a job where they interned. They were SURE they could do much better on the open market and turned down the job. What they hadn't counted on was how prospective employers looked at a worker who had been rejected by the company where he/she interned. They generally assumed that the company had not offer him/her a job and that he/she was damaged goods or a shirt-stirrer. One of the people they discussed had applied to 97 different positions after refusing to work for the company she had interned with and received zero replies.

In the for-what-it-is-worth department, a student who has interned has an enormous leg-up on the learning-curve regarding the software packages and processes used by the firm and the people. She is more valuable to them than she, as a total newbie, will be to some other firm that likely uses different software and processes.

With regards to being able to pay one's rent: The average wages for retail sales and fast-food is about $16.50/hour. The average wages of a production worker in a factory is about $30/hour. The average wages in construction is $35/hr. I don't see any advantages of working in retail over production work in a factory, even if you are a college graduate and looking for a job in your "Field".

I know that I am basing that on a very small sample size, but you guys worry about me if I don't post something every day.

March 2025

March 2025 was a great month for the ERJ clan.

Three of our four kids had HUGE things happen in their lives. I don't have permission to discuss particulars but they were good things.

Mrs ERJ and I have our anniversary in March. She still likes me and I adore and cherish her.

I have a family member who I had not been communicating with since about August of 2024. I had reached out tentatively a few times and got frosty responses. We mended fences in March. My relative accepts that I am a flawed human being and am a bone-head but loves me anyway. 

A beautiful voices

 

Two images

Progress to date.

 

An art composition titled "Primordial Soup"

Addressing a meme about immigration...

 

Harvested over at Wilder, Wealthy and Wise blog

I cannot answer for all immigrants, but in the case of Handsome Hombre*, his country of origin had very limited opportunities to work in his trade unless he was "connected". He was prevented from strengthening the economy of his native country because his identity was used to exclude him from "unions" and companies in cities.

In the United States, at least until very recently, employers did not care if you were black, white, brown, yellow or red. They did not care if you were Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical, Jew, Wican, Democrat, Republican or watched Sponge Bob reruns after work. They did not care if you were man, woman or other. They didn't care if you were tall, short, had six fingers or were legally blind. All they asked was "Can you do the job?**"

OK, it wasn't perfect that way. If you wanted to rise in management it helped if you graduated from the same University as the CEO and were a member of the same fraternity. But as a general rule, America was a meritocracy and that created opportunity that was denied elsewhere.

In American, all men who worked in the coal-mine were black and all men in the military bled red.

In India it MATTERS if you are Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Jainist, Sikh, Bengal or Tamil. Your caste matters and so does your province of origin.

In Syria or Iraq, it matters if you are Sunni, Shia, Druze, Christian or atheist.

In Central America, the city you were born in and your "family" matter.

Even in Ireland, it still matters if you are Catholic or Proddy.

The Tragedy

The tragedy is that powerful forces are working to turn the United States into India by making identity politics pervasive. "Jew", "Redneck", "Trailer park trash", "Bible thumper", "Native American", "Xenophobe", "Islamaphobe", "Trans-phobe", "Cis-male", blah, blah, blah...

Identity first, and then merit if it gets discussed at all.

The Legal System

You can ask "What made America unique?" 

America's legal system evolved from English Common Law while the legal systems in most other countries are either much more corrupt or are unholy hybrids of native systems and English Common Law.

Given the corruptness of the courts in places like Haiti where one parcel of property can have six owners, businesses do not become corporations but remain either family-businesses or have extremely narrow hiring criteria. It is an adaptive response to a partisan, rapacious and corrupt legal system.

*Applause for Handsome Hombre. He was recently sworn-in as a US citizen along with about 200 other legal immigrants. He is very, very proud of his new country.

Among the proudest American citizens you will ever meet are first-generation citizens who actually lived in countries where the game was totally rigged against the common man. And that would be most of the countries in the world.

Incidentally, the Judge who presided over the swearing in was Chief Judge Hala Y. Jarbou, herself a naturalized US citizen who was a member of a persecuted, religious minority in her country of birth. Her speech to the assembly was inspiring. 

**I supervised a quality inspector who was legally blind. He found as many defects as inspectors with "normal" eyesight and inspectors who were down-line of him did not catch any more "leakers" than for other inspectors. Even though he was legally-blind, he was not discriminated against.

He would even have been allowed to drive vehicles as long as he had a valid Michigan Driver's License. But since Michigan's S-o-S doesn't issue Driver's Licenses to blind people, that never became an issue.

How low can it go?

How low can it go?

 

The stock market, that is.

 

In general, I consider "Technical Analysis" of the stock market to be akin to looking at chicken entrails to predict the future. Technical Analysis involves looking at past prices and patterns of past prices to predict future prices.

 

The last five years of the S&P 500. From mid-2022 until mid-2023 the S&P 500 meandered between $3500 and $4000. The S&P 500 is currently trading at approximately $5600 or 50% above the lows of three years ago.

How-some-ever, I do believe that there is much value in looking at historic LOWS or "floors" from the previous business cycle.

 

A "floor" suggest that there are robust support mechanisms (mechanisms, plural) that prevent it from going below that value.

 

Unless the price of the S&P 500 penetrates $3500 downward, then the price realignment can be written of to "normal" market fear-greed dynamics and "normal" adjustments within the economy. To quote Forest Gump, "Shit happens". Don't sweat it. Hold your position. It is very likely to oscillate upwards unless several of the robust support mechanisms have been vaporized.

 

Normal oscillations recover more quickly than secular oscillations with the full cycle of a normal business cycle being on the order of four years...not coincidentally the frequency of the US Presidential election.

 

This is a good time to  reminder readers that diversity is your friend. The 50% upward climb from 2022-2023 was powered by relatively few companies. The recovery from the 2025 "adjustment" is likely to be powered by different industries, different companies. Since I claim no ability to read the future, the lowest risk way to benefit from the realignment of the economy is to invest in equity income funds.

 

As always, have some money in easily-accessed funds so you don't find yourself forced to sell when prices are distressed. "Bonds" and Money-market funds are also a cornerstone in diversifying your portfolio, although they function more as a preservation-of-capital element than as a growth element.

 

Everything you need to know about investing

Helpin' a Sistah Out

 

Meghan's to-die-for grape jam

Meghan, my dearest friend in the whole, wide world reached out to me and thousands of other high-powered Mainstream Media personalities and asked us to shill praise promote gush-over her relaunched brand "What Evah".

I am not allowed to print Meghan's last name but it rhymes with "Success", and that is what my gurl Meghan is all about: Success!!!

Oddly enough, there is a county by that name in northern Indiana and it is filled with Amish families.

I am a bit miffed that Meghan demanded that I sign a non-disclosure agreement prohibiting me from identifying where these products are made but that is a small matter. 

I am sure you will agree that these are the finest, freshest products if you should ever chose to destroy their collector's value by opening one and trying the contents.

Help a sistah out and make Meghan's product launch one that she will never forget.

American Kestrels

 

You have probably seen these birds hovering over a hapless field-mouse as the raptor pinpoints its precise location before plunging in to harvest his lunch.

Range map. Green is present year-round. Amber is spring-summer-fall range.

Link

Kestrels, also known as Sparrow Hawks, are North America's smallest falcon. Some experts estimate that populations of the American Kestrel has plummeted by over 90% over the last fifty years.

The very high populations of fifty to one-hundred-fifty years ago were almost certainly a historical anomaly.

Among the probable "players" for the decline are loss of nesting habitat, disease and parasites, and loss of prime, foraging habitat.

Kestrels, along with several species of small owls, are cavity nesters. When there are not enough suitable sites available, continuous use results in a build-up of lice, ticks, nesting material, poor drainage and diseases. There are tons of plans for "Kestrel nesting boxes" on the internet.

The loss of prime foraging habitat is a tougher nut to crack.  Farmers almost always had pasture and that pasture always had a stair-step progression of grass in terms of height. It was heaven for mice and easy for avian foragers to hunt. 

Those small farms also made grain, used to feed livestock, available to English Sparrows. To a kestrel, a colony of English Sparrows is the equivalent of a drive-through window at a KFC.

Finally, those old farms seethed with insect life. The weight of the beetles, grubs and hossgrappers on an acre of pasture could easily outweigh the cow that was grazing it.

All of those components; rodents, birds and bugs are key elements of the American Kestrel's diet and suburban America with its manicured lawns, prodigious use of pesticides and poverty of grain-eating livestock contribute to that. Even commonplace technologies like power garage-doors contribute to the decline by trapping kestrels. The high-strung birds are likely to injure themselves in their frenzy to escape by smashing through windows.

None of the conditions listed above were common in most of pre-Columbian America. 

Hat-tip to Lucas Machias for the idea for this post.

Not my best work, but not my worst, either

 

The three open spaces are approximately 48" by 29-1/4"

No, I did not choose the color of the walls. Tomorrow will see me filling in the rectangular open spaces and "mudding" the long seams.

Peach tree

I was at Menards today and this tree called my name. It is a "Contender" peach and was almost 6' tall and the price seemed reasonable. Contender is on the list for what I was going to plant in Southern Belle's orchard. Not having to graft it might save a year or two in terms of the tree starting to produce fruit.
 

The Atlantic Magazine and Walt Disney Company

The Atlantic Magazine is owned by Laurene Powell Jobs. She also owns 4% of Disney's stock and has an estimated net-worth of about $10B.

Since March 1, Walt Disney stock lost about $20B in market cap. That impacts a lot of 401-k and IRAs and insurance company portfolios and public sector pension balances.

Since March 1, she lost $800M, on paper, on her Disney stock. Since 2021 Walt Disney stock lost 45% of its value. Extended over Laurene Powell Jobs' 4% ownership, that amounts to a $5.7B haircut. Total market cap for Disney company fell by about $142B. All of the same comments about 401-k apply.

So, The Atlantic Magazine doesn't have to be profitable. It is an avocation or a hobby for Mz Jobs. Sort of like breeding Carrier Pigeons or French Bulldogs. It doesn't have to be practical.

The reason a movie that was expected to make money but loses a projected $110M can have a $20B impact on the market cap is twofold. 

The first is that there is a multiplier involved. If you were buying an apartment building, for instance, you might pay 15X the projected earnings (revenue-costs). For a company with proven growth prospects, you might have to pay 40X earnings.

The second factor is that Disney makes a lot of money licensing the images of its various characters. It is still generating very large sums of money for Mickey Mouse's image, for instance. Those licenses are perpetual, money-printing machines that operate at almost zero expense to Disney. Unless something drastic happens, the latest incarnation of Snow White will not generate anything like the licensing revenues of Lion King or Frozen.

The second factor plays into the first. As long as Disney kept churning out movies that were successes in the theater, its earnings kept accelerating and it commanded a higher multiplier in the stock market. As soon as it falters, i.e. proves it is not infallible, then the multiplier wilts. Two major duds in-a-row totally guts the glittery image of an unstoppable growth company and the Price/Earnings ratio falls off of a cliff.

Fine Art Tuesday

Sir George Clawson born 1852 in London (England) and died in 1944 in the village of Cold Ash, West Berkshire.

Celebrated for capturing images from the end of the peasant/agricultural era in Europe.

A working sketch of a character in a field.

Shepherdess in an orchard watching sheep. Sheep: the original zero-turn mower

Details of an ancient barn showing construction and use of un-milled timber. Thatch roof. Probably at "Deers Farm".

Harvesting "Swedes" or rutabagas in December in the snow.

Gleaners

Gleaners coming home. She looks tired.

Hay harvesters walking out to their fields

Young child. Sitting on a basket used to hold potatoes. Cabbage field in background.

Planting a tree. Cabbage fields in background.

Mowing hay

Plowing a field.

A detailed painting of the boy in the plowing scene. Not wearing designer labels.

A tip of the hat to Coyote Ken for suggesting this artist.

Drywalling, Beating the Buzzer and Recreational Plumbing...all in one day

The drywall work proceeds apace. The pressed-paper tiles were removed and I added a 1-1/4" long crown staple to the 1"-by-3" furring strips every place it touched the bottom of a truss. Drywall is heavier than paper.

I need to purchase the correct junction box for the ceiling fan before I go much farther.

My shoulders and neck are sore. I anticipate headaches in my future. Still, life goes on.

Buzzers on GE dryers (offered for entertainment purposes only)

The dryer at Southern Belle's house is directly below Quicksilver's bedroom. The end-of-cycle buzzer is identical to the buzzer at a basketball game. Of course, the most convenient times for Southern Belle and Handsome Hombre to do laundry is when Quicksilver is down for her nap or in bed for the night.

First review on this model at Lowes:

Great dryer but horrendous end of cycle signal. Simple dryer that works great. Dried towels in 30 mins!...Now to the end of cycle signal, it is just horrible and unbearable! It alerts you two times for about 13 seconds long. With all windows and doors closed, you could still hear it outside. It doesn't have an option to turn it off....

Buzzer for that model of GE dryer according to V&V Appliance Parts

The piezoelectric buzzer unit is a black "ice cube" with two, 1/4", male, spade connectors on top.

OH! GEE GOLLY! Look. A black ice cube!

Theoretically, after unplugging the unit one might remove the back panel to the back-splash that holds the controls and find the black ice cube with the two, 1/4", male, spade connectors on top.

And, hypothetically speaking, a fellow might remove one of the wires to the black ice cube and generously wrap the exposed metal end  with electrical tape. If he were extra-special careful, he could also zip-tie the wire to another wire so the end was suspended in space distant from any of the metal panels. He could then plug the unit back in and verify that the buzzer was disabled.

Of course, leaving it in this condition probably violates the warranty, so if a person were so foolish as to do this, he should IMMEDIATELY return it to its as-delivered-from-the-factory perfection. And after returning it to factory condition, to re-install the back panel to prevent curious engineers from messing with its innards.

Recreational Plumbing

The other "little favor" Southern Belle requested was to replace the valve that feeds cold water to the washing machine. The old one had fractured where the threaded inlet screwed into the Tee, leaving a portion of the "nipple" stuck in the Tee.

I would say "No sweat" but removing the old Tee at the solder joints and replacing it was the order-of-the-day. It is what folks in the turd-herding business call "A sweated joint". It was not my prettiest work but it didn't leak and Southern Belle was cheerfully whittling down a pile of laundry when I left. 

Paul Anka cover

One of my Dad's favorite songs.

They did a great job capturing the feel of the old-time recording studio's reverb.

Did Goldberg just Torch the Brand?

Link

BREAKING: "The Atlantic's" Jeffrey Goldberg now reveals Mike Waltz had him in his phone contacts b/c they've spoken previously. "He's telling everyone he's never met me or spoken to me. That's simply not true," Goldberg told NBC's Meet the Press. "I understand why he's doing it."

If Jeffrey Mark Goldberg, Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic actually said that, then he just made "burning" confidential sources Editorial policy at The Atlantic.

The value of journalism involves collecting many seemingly-disconnected slivers of information and knitting them into a rational narrative. Think of the fable of the Three Blind Men and the Elephant.

Goldberg's throwing Mike Waltz under-the-bus for short-term, tactical, political gain will have a "What the hell am I risking?" effect on the armies of "sources" who feed information to The Atlantic's journalists. Not having access to confidential sources will hamstring The Atlantic's ability to perform that function and will murder the value of its output.

Pictures

 

Tomato seeds, germinating.

Ace 55 are on the top-half as viewed in the photo. Stupice are on the bottom half. The Stupice are germinating much more quickly than the Ace 55. The seeds were planted March 27th and the the tray was placed in Walmart, disposable, (translucent) plastic grocery bag. It was placed on a 20 Watt warming mat and kept at about 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

More wardrobe observed on-campus

Looked like a heat-transfer equation to me.

Deuce Anna Quattah (not a girl's name)

I grew up in Lansing, Michigan. People in Lansing built Oldsmobiles. People in Lansing drove Oldsmobiles. Except Black people. They drove Buicks and sometimes Cadillacs.

 

Curb feelers. Not a Buick

1972 Buick 225 2-door. No curb-feelers. Locally, the cool, young guys who wanted to impress the ladies drove two-doors.

Look. At. That. Trunk!

Specifically, most well-to-do Black men drove Deuce Anna Quattahs. With curb-feelers.

I think it was because the Oldsmobile dealerships did not extend credit to Black customers while the Buick dealership did.

Never discount how availability of credit can shape culture.

I got to thinking about that as Mrs ERJ and I walked across the Lansing Township floodplains. Formerly a golf-course, the land was now covered with multi-story apartment buildings that house students.

Student loans enable kids to live off-campus in newly-built apartment complexes. There are even condominiums that Pappa can buy and then use for a write-off.

My gut-feel is that these commercial real-estate investments will not age well.

There is little no organic demand other than what is enabled through student loans to attend University. Demand for many college degrees from diploma mills that churn out no-value-added credentials is tepid-at-best. That is, the return-on-investment approaches zero if you look at five years of forgone wages (especially compared to skilled-trades) and deferred retirements.

Historically, technology accelerates and the expertise that a college degree "signals" becomes stale ever more quickly. What once informed employers that a job candidate had job skills that would be useful for fifteen years now inform potential employers that the candidate knows how to look things up on Wikipedia...and most bright, young people without college degrees know how to do that.

Snow White

For the record, the movie Sydney White is a sweet, tastefully done remake of the Snow White story. 

Filed for future reference: Home-brewed, walk-in cooler

It is relatively common in the world of (beer) home-brewing to create "walk-in coolers" where kegs of beverage can be kept cold. But unlike a commercially manufactured, walk-in refrigerator that can cost tens-of-thousands of dollars, these enterprising folks retrofit ice-fishing shanties (Canadians are ardent home-brewers) with common, window-mounted air conditioners with the factory thermostat "jumpered out" and with an alternate thermostat wired in series.

INKBIRD, 1800W plug-in thermostat.

This could be a handy cooler to have if a person needed a cold place to hang some newly killed meat.

I don't know how fast this would pull down the temperature of three, newly killed Whitetail Deer or a 300 pound hog, but if a fellow knew in advance he could pre-chill (or freeze) jugs of water starting 48 hours in advance and they would assist in pulling heat out of the carcasses.

The sacrifices I make for my readers...

 

Mrs ERJ and I went for a walk at a local college campus today.

I noticed that several of the women were wearing "wide" leg jeans. No, not "baggy", these were form fitting in the region of the derriere and then flared very subtly below the pockets.

Totally unlike yoga pants which leave NOTHING to the imagination, the fabric of the wide-leg jeans is flowing and has a wee bit of flutter. Nothing slutty...just a come-hither motion like the feathers of a well-fished marabou jig. 

I totally get that these slacks only work for women with certain kinds of body shapes...but it is heartening that some fashion-conscious, young women are buying slacks that are not ripped to shreds or shrink-wrapped to their forms.

***Full disclosure: I think slit skirts and flamenco dresses are high-fashion.***

Tariff on Automobiles and Automotive Components

 

Maybe a back-door way to subsidize Tesla? Honda is also positioned to benefit compared to their traditional competitors Toyota, Nissan and VW.

Components make up roughly 40% of the cost of an automobile. 40% is "fixed cost" like the cost of the tools and dies and engineering. 20% is direct labor.

A 25% tariff on a vehicle that is 50% imported parts will raise the cost-to-produce by about 5%.

Some of the prices of domestic content will rise as manufacturers start purchasing commodities like nuts-and-bolts and spark-plugs from domestic suppliers.

This and that

Nicotiana seedlings starting to show up.

Romaine Lettuce seedlings.

I am using the bottom half of gallon milk-jugs to germinate my seeds. I found that I can make a much tidier cut with a pair of scissors than I can cutting them with a utility knife. The seeds don't care but the "pots" are a little nicer to work with.

The seedlings will be transplanted to multi-cell planting trays.

I started the tomato and green onion seeds yesterday. If the rain holds off, I will till Mrs ERJ's kitchen garden plot today.  ---Note: Just walk around her garden. The soil is too damp to till.---

A change of pace

We have a few days where we will not be watching Quicksilver.

Mrs ERJ suggested that this will be a good time to do some things inside the house that might otherwise be difficult with a little-one underfoot or napping. 

One of those tasks involves drywall and a ceiling. Oh boy!!! Fun!

Walnut tolerance

A review of Juglone (toxic material exuded from walnut roots and husks) tolerance on scholar.google.com suggests that there is little agreement regarding Juglone tolerance of plant species/genus among  peer-reviewed papers.

Most lists on the internet are unreviewed repetitions of prior, field-observation based lists. Attempts to replicate the lists in the lab have been very mixed.

The authors hand-wave the variable results by claiming that there are multiple soil/bacteria/walnut exudate interactions. One class of bacteria convert the exudate to toxic chemical. Other classes of bacteria decompose the toxic chemicals. The toxic chemicals bind to clay particles with initially slows the spread but later may prolong the toxic effect.

The scientists nearly always use sterile potting material to produce seedlings (which are a convenient size for experimentation and cheap enough for multiple replicates) and then use a tea brewed from ground up roots or husks to challenge the seedlings.

Sterile potting material means almost no bacteria and very, very little clay.

This affects me because the orchards at The Property are surrounded by Black Walnut tree. I have permission to cut some of them but there are others that I am not permitted to remove.

The literature, flawed as it is, uniformly claims apples (Malus) are susceptible. The claims are scanty with regards to pears (Pyrus) but they might be less susceptible than Malus. The literature tends to imply that cherries/plums (Prunus) are relatively immune. The literature also gives good grades to Persimmons (Diospyros) and Pawpaws (Asimina).

It was not part of my original plan, but I have some peach rootstock coming this spring. I may plant the "extras" where they will be stressed by Juglone and we will see what happens. Having a surplus of peaches is a bonus and is much better than having a bunch of runty-dying apple trees.

Grab-bag

Dragging brush is hard on my clothing. I am getting many little rips and tears in my trousers.

I am also getting many little rips and tears in my skin of my arms and legs.

QS showing me how to use the stethoscope

Quicksilver is delighted by that development. Mrs ERJ recently purchased Quicksilver a medical kit and it has seen a great deal of use as QS has been doctoring my "boo-boos".

Quicksilver not only puts on bandages, but she gives me an shot, and sometimes two, of antibiotics with each boo-boo.

St Lawrence Nursery

Reader Tim W. called my attention to the fact that St Lawrence Nursery has been opened under new management. St Lawrence Nursery was originally started by Fred Ashworth in 1923 and then passed on to Bill MacKentley (and family). The operation went dormant for a while and is now operated by Conner Hardiman.

I have purchased several trees from St Lawrence Nursery and would not hesitate to do so again. I still have Trailman and Kerr apple-crabs, Nova (named after Bill MacKentley's daughter) pear and Nova (from Nova Scotia) raspberry.

St Lawrence specializes in very hardy fruit and nut trees.  Ironically, some of the apple-crabs that are most winter-hardy, varieties like Centennial and Chestnut, also do very well in the South.

As a matter of disclosure, it is my opinion that the minimum temperatures listed in the catalog are optimistic by about 15 degrees Fahrenheit. If the catalog says a variety can withstand -50F, it is prudent to read that as -35F. The reasons are complex but include length of growing season, how quickly the temperature drops or how heavily the tree bore in the growing season before the cold-snap. A tree in an optimal state of dormancy might survive -50F but perish at -35F if it over-bore or if a very early killing frost hit or if the temperature was above freezing and then dropped 70 degrees in a matter of 24 hours or if the grower made a late-in-season application of high-nitrogen fertilizer.

Tick Borne Diseases

A map of tick-borne diseases in the continental United States

This is a good time of year to "burn" ditches and fence rows if your local government allows it. There are few things that knock back the tick population better than burning. It not only kills the ticks looking for hosts, it deprives rodents of the cover that protects them from predators.

At some point, we have to weigh the health costs of tick-borne diseases against the health costs of smoke from burning grass. 

Chronic Wasting Disease

In North America

In Europe

CWD in Europe is a different strain than what is seen in North America. It is speculated that CWD arose independently in Europe. 

No Comment

I have no comments regarding the latest drama regarding the leaks of the military communications to the Atlantic magazine other than "Don't commit any communication to "electronic" communications that you would not want printed in your local paper or used as evidence in a court-of-law".

I don't possess any unique insights or inside information. I am standing on the sidelines watching it play out.

Suckers

Suckers should be running (locally) this weekend.

Suckers start running/spawning at 50F (10C) water temperatures. Black Creek is the closest stream where the USGS monitors water temperature.