The "Bat Pole" at the property is installed
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| If you embiggen the photo you might notice the length of scrap chain I included to reinforce the concrete for radial cracking. MUCH easier than bending rebar. |
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| Looks pretty good from this angle |
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| And, believe it or not, it is vertical at 4-1/2' above the ground. It is THAT bowed. |
Wrapping trees
I wrapped the tree that had been gnawed on. Instead of being half-gnawed, the trunk was completely girdled. I am probably going to lose that tree. I wrapped it anyway.
The bait station had been hit and a corner nibbled off...and the critter had then packed the station with dirt. I have never seen that before.
First Lunch
After eating, I set the alarm for an hour for the next break. Lather, rinse, repeat.
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| Piling up the fire-wood/smoker sizes. The brush is dragged out of the orchard and stacked into a windbreak. |
A two-hundred pound guy walking burns in the neighborhood of 300-to-350 Calories in an hour. Dragging brush, using a chainsaw, digging holes, mixing concrete...maybe a bit more than that.
I got in three honest hours of work today. That did not include the time I took for breaks. I estimate I have another 30 hours of work to do to clear the orchard floor.
Comments
I appreciate the restraint that you guys are showing.
For one thing, this is only a blog. It rates right up there with late-night AM sports radio talk-shows in terms of "importance". Somebody blathering away doesn't take a penny out of my pocket. And for that matter, they don't add a penny either.
I appreciate that there are folks left-of-me who are willing to pop-in and read what I write. That seems to be a rarity.
Everybody needs to vent every once in a while. I can understand that they are stressed. We had eight years of Obama and four years of Auto-signer, so BTDT.
The other alternative is that they are bored and are trolling my readers for cheap-entertainment. One "tell" is that trolls use broad, inflammatory statements but don't ask any questions. The preferred response is to politely ignore them. The troll didn't ask a question...there is no profit in answering a question they did not ask.
From the standpoint of entertainment, endless tit-for-tat comments are a bore. If you feel absolutely compelled to respond, take one swing at the pinata and then give it a rest. I am not sure what "tats" are, but I think half of you guys are getting gypped.
Joe, how did you take the slack out of the chain?
ReplyDeleteI laid it in with a little bit of tension. Then after I added the second bag of concrete I "vibrated" the mud hoping to get it to flow into the links of the chain.
DeleteEver consider writing a book on practical Pomology. The knowledge of fruit trees is likely a dying specialty.
ReplyDeleteNo. I never considered it.
DeleteIf you pay attention to your trees they will tell you what they need by how they respond. The people who pay attention will be more successful than the people who demand that the trees conform to what a textbook says should happen.
It is very situational. "Everybody" might know that expensive jewelry is romantic, but your wife might like home-made tapioca pudding more than diamonds.
Stay digital! Make up an alter-ego? LOL!
DeleteSeriously though, if you wanted to put together some Oytube vid's on grafting, etc.? I'd probably watch them, but I won't like and subscribe!
Yes Joe. You are exactly right. I bought my wife an emerald ring, which she wore as her wedding ring for years. So I decided to buy her an emerald necklace to go with it. She made me take it back. Asked me "When have you ever seen me wear any jewelry?" A few more years down the road and I bought her an antique pearl necklace. She wore it once and stuck it in a jewelry box never to be seen again.
DeleteBat Pole looks good ERJ!
ReplyDeleteOne of Bennie Hill's girls once said to him, "I give tit for tat," to which he replied, "In that case, tat..."
ReplyDeleteI just finished the entirety of Home-Field Advantage.
ReplyDeleteThis time around I enjoyed not having to wait for the next episode.
Seriously, Joe, that is fabulous writing. Packed with the small details that one would know only if the lived it. Or, exquisite creative writing with a lot of research.
Again, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks.
You can splice in a piece to bridge the gap on a girdled tree. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7Gx8Whi7vc
ReplyDeleteHere's the follow up showing how the bridge graft worked. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deiySIBWfwg
DeleteTit for tat, I had to look it up.
ReplyDeleteWikipedia had (what I considered) a reasonable explanation.
"Tit for tat is an English saying meaning "equivalent retaliation". It is an alteration of tip for tap "blow for blow",[1] first recorded in 1558."
If I may:
ReplyDeleteHow frequent is radial cracking in post-hole concrete, and if.when it does happen, how serious is it? I'm not aware of it ever happening in any post I've set, and I had a couple 7 ft tall 4X6 gate posts that took quite a beating over the years, including holding up fence that withstood two 100+ mph hurricanes.
A longer post can apply more leverage against the supporting concrete, but without dusting off my slide rule, I don't think the lateral stress(es) - even opposing stress due to oscillation from wind - would exceed the capability of 3200 psi concrete.
And, if it is a problem, and chain can fix it, back to Lowell's question above - tensioning the chain. Without tension a chain is merely a collection of unelated, or barely related, independent links.
If radial support is important, and I recognize that in some instances it is, would a closed loop of steel cable accomplish the same thing?
I do not mix cement for post holes anymore. 'Poured in dry' has worked as well as 'poured in wet' for me.
ReplyDeletesam
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ReplyDeleteDerP!
DeleteI see lots of bats flying so bought one of those plastic pre-made bathouses from one of the pro-bats websites. Had it mounted on a pole in the apple orchard and it never got any love? Left it there 5 years. This year I moved it to a pine tree next to the apple orchard. Still no love, but it's only been a couple weeks. I'm wondering if it's the plastic-fantastic bat-house? Maybe make one out of plywood and see if it gets traction. I would not recommend spending the 80-bucks like I did...
It seems from the comments that I might be the only one who read "Bat Pole" and immediately murmured, "Na, na, na, na, ........... Bat Pole."
ReplyDeleteWe removed our trellised dwarf apple trees out front when people passing by decided that the trees were community property.
Someone at the time suggested that burying a large number of upside down aluminum pie dishes painted olive drab and then putting up signs that said, "DANGER! MINEFIELD!" may have helped. Great idea, but I didn't want to leave our property in handcuffs.
I already know that Philly forbids shock fencing.
Not the only one, John!
Delete(Goes back to find comment that is referenced...)
ReplyDelete(And realizes he hit "publish" too fast...)
DeleteOne of the greatest "superpowers" I have acquired in the last decade is the ability to ignore people and their comments. Yes, it preserves my state of mind, but in our social media driven age, simply denying people attention is a very clear way to send a message.
I might quibble if that is a "superpower" or not TB... But unfortunately ... it is turning into a self defense necessity these days, unfortunately. I am struggling with it right now too though. It takes hard work for guys like me...
DeleteI’m really looking forward to your bat house design, construction and installation. My no longer used hop pole is 14 feet tall and waiting for my bat house construction. There could still be hope for my moth eaten Jonagold tree. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteHere in California, most of the bats are in the belfry of the State Legislature, but we have no need of a bat house where I live either. We see HUNDREDS of the critters here every night during the summer! ...And these guys actually ACCOMPLISH something!!!
ReplyDeleteI've never had issues with radial cracks in a fence post hole. There's really nowhere for the stress to go if the soil surrounding the cement is packed enough.
As for "tit-for-tat" with trolls, I've abandoned trying to reason with houseplants...