Yesterday, I made it out to The Property. I had three sets of tasks.
ONE: Find and repair fruit trees that had been girdled by rabbits or rodents
Four trees found with that kind of damage. One was too far gone. The other three were wrapped and I hope for the best.
TWO: Treat Black Walnut stumps with herbicide to discourage shoot formation
I drilled 1-1/2" deep, 11/32" diameter holes in the stumps of the Black Walnut trees that I dropped near the orchard and filled the holes with 1:10 glyphosate concentrate:water solution. I spaced the holes about every 6" around the circumference of the trunk and drilled them vertically within a 1/2" of the bark.
Why that size hole? I am glad you asked. The published literature recommends 1.5ml of diluted herbicide per "injection" site and that size of hole is pretty danged close to 1.5ml.
THREE: Start digging holes in the orchard where replacement trees are to be planted.
My goal was to dig 6 holes in two hours. My stretch goal was to dig 12 holes in two hours.
I dug 12 holes in 95 minutes but was completely gassed. Digging dirt is a high calorie-burn activity. I think I need to have a plan for snacking or consuming sweet-tea or something. Sugared drinks are usually a bad idea, but I am not sure that it applies to extended periods when I am burning 350 Calories an hour.
As an aside: I ran a very informal experiment where I substituted a very thin gruel of cornmeal for sugar in my electrolyte on a long walk-about. The ratio was 1:16 cornmeal:water and the usual 1600PPM non-iodized table salt. The other change was to use a little bit of vanilla extract for flavoring rather than lemonade Koolaid mix.
That was a 26 mile day with a heat-index over 90F and it worked just as well as the sugar-based electrolyte but I did have to shake the bottle before drinking to ensure that the electrolyte was well mixed.
The holes are approximately 24" across and 8" deep. They will need to be "freshened up" once I have the trees in hand.
I was banging them out one-every-five-minutes until I hit the stretch where I was planting next to newly removed trees and had to deal with roots that were not rotten. I cheated a little bit and dug the new holes about 3 feet north (but still in the row) of the stumps.
I wasn't just dealing with the roots of apple trees. I was also chopping through mulberry roots (bright yellow), autumn olive and blackberry roots.
One of the weird things about the day is that there was a doe bedded down in the orchard and she did not move anything except her ears the entire time I was working there. I got to within 40 feet of her (easy to calculate when you know the trees are planted 15' apart) and she didn't leave. She was beyond skinny. I might find a dead deer where she is laying the next time I go there. CWD?
By the clock I had 70 minutes travel-time, 45 minutes dealing with the first two tasks and 95 minutes digging the holes.
ERJ Stock Market Forecaster
The stock market will go up on some days. It will go down on other days. Some days the Dow Jones will outperform NASDAQ. Some days it will under-perform NASDAQ. The S&P 500 will sometimes be between the two, other days it will not.
What I cannot tell you is what days it will go up and what days it will go down. Nor can I tell you how much it will go up or how much it will go down.
If that kind of uncertainty is not acceptable to you, then you shouldn't have any more money in the stock market than you can afford to have lose 2/3 of its value.
The whole point of having savings is so you can sleep well at night. If investing too much in the stock market causes you to lose sleep, then move some of those savings into other investments.
Victim Selection Process
In light of yesterday's discussion of Xavier's Thoughts writing about thugs' using intrusions into personal space and violating norms; does Doug Ford's threats to turn off the electricity to New York, Michigan and Minnesota look like testing patsies for their suitability as potential victims?
I know that I have a few readers who will be quick to point out that "testing" is what Trump is doing. Maybe so! But Trump is a professional who has decades of practice doing it. Maybe the dilettantes at "testing" should think a few more plays on-the-board before they move their pieces.
On a tangential note: Wouldn't an emergency EO outlawing electric vehicles and shutting down "Data centers" be a more sustainable, long-term solution to Doug Ford's threat?
Gee, if only there was nuclear solution to that problem?
ReplyDeleteWhy do we get power from Canada?
ReplyDeleteAre we incapable of producing our own?
Do we not have the materials and technology?
Rhetorical of course.
Lots of mothballed coal plants in stand-by.
ReplyDeleteWhen it isn’t bitter cold Canada produces an excess of hydro power that they need to offload to us at a loss. It is more expensive and harder on the equipment to shut it down and start it back up.
ReplyDeletePoliticians make threats they don’t understand.
Certainly, the increase in cost should result in a reduction in use - which, I thought, was what we all were supposed to be doing anyway. There are certain elements of the political spectrum that should be cheering this.
ReplyDeleteRegarding your last paragraph, "On a tangential note:"
ReplyDeleteTouché! But then the South-African would lose his electric car-building enterprise(oh, boo-hoo).
irontomflint
Why not turn off 2/3rds of the street lights? It's way to bright out there at night and just makes it easier for the bad guys to find targets. --ken
ReplyDeleteCWD is a definite possibility up there. It's now pretty much a nationwide issue...sigh
ReplyDeleteIn Scouts we have fun with a weather rock. It is a mostly flat stone with a hole in the middle suspended from a tripod built by lashing poles. If the rock is wet we expect rain. If there is a shadow beneth it it is sunny. If there is no shadow on top it is cloudy. It accurately predicts a 100% chance of weather. My answer to stumps is a 1" ship auger and standard fertilizer. Pepper it with 6 inch deep holes and fill them via funnel with the 13-13-13 fertilizer. Kills the stump and feeds the fungus that eats the stump. You will need a couple bags of sand to start filling that in one is takes hold. Maybe something higher in nitrogen would work faster better but I am also looking at cost. Roger
ReplyDeletePotassium Permanganate aka stump out.
DeleteMORE WINNING! Gas prices DOWN, Egg prices DOWN, Mortgage Rates DOWN six weeks in a row! UPDATED!!
ReplyDeletehttps://commoncts.blogspot.com/2025/03/more-winning-gas-prices-down-egg-prices.html
ps. would you please add CC to your blogroll? thanks!
As far as investing in the stock market, my father in law had a good year and was wondering if he should invest his very small wind fall in one of the first desk top business computer company. He asked a fairly distantly related relative who had been a successful investment banker. He was told that when he could affford to light his cigars with flaming ten dollar bills he could go into the stock market!
ReplyDelete