Air Layering
I have not had great success with air layering. The few successes I had is where I used rooting hormones, had very large balls of media (sphagnum moss) and a covering that totally excluded light. I also used a couple of tight wraps of wire BELOW the bundle to reduce the flow of carbs downward to the roots.
Antisemitism
It occurred to me after I published one of my posts that the antisemitism that is rampant on US campuses might very well be due to the large representation of Jewish people in tenured positions. According to one source, 24% of the tenured positions in the Ivy League are occupied by professors who are Jewish while approximately 2.2% of the over-all US population is Jewish.
Perhaps base emotions like envy and jealousy are responsible for all of those grad students who are SURE they are the smartest person in the room promoting violence against Jewish students (and staff).
Busy, busy, busy
35 Arborvitae "Green Giant" went into the ground yesterday over at Southern Belle's.
She wants a privacy screen and "Green Giant" met the specifications.
The rooted "liners" are 8" tall and the root ball is approximately 3" in every direction. She will have to stay on top of watering them for the first summer.
Source of plants. I think she got good value for her money.
Cutting more rabbit cages
I need at least another 24 and the count keeps climbing.
Armoring against deer
The plan is to put a cage around every tree. The cages are 12" in diameter and 5' tall. THey are made from 2" by 4" welded wire fencing.
They get a 6' Tee post to hold them in place.
Some of them will get a wrap of "chicken wire" fence to deter the deer from reaching through the 2X4 mesh and chewing on the new growth.
Almost all of the deer damage stops at 66" of height. I just have to protect them to that height, give-or-take a little bit.
Deer are very oral. They are like 9 month old babies who put everything into their mouths. I had success last growing season by "spicing up" the shoots growing out of their 48" tall cages with very thorny rose canes I had pruned out of the upper orchard. I suspect the deer lipped the rose canes and decided that no matter how yummy it smelled, it wasn't worth the effort. One pertinent detail is that much feeding happens at night when vision is not very effective.
Regarding antler rubbing, they seem to prefer soft, springy trees like willow, white pine or aspen. They also like the trees they rub to be widely spaced. A newly planted fruit tree in an orchard meets most of those specifications. Running a Tee-post into the ground and tying the tree to the Tee-post or (in my case) using the Tee-post to secure the 5' welded wire cage makes it "hard" and "not springy'. So, knock-on-wood, they will find better sparring partners out in the woods or over at the neighbors.
Top-working trees
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The reason the pear tree with the four grafts in it was so "butchered" is that all of the fruiting wood will be above from the grafts. The more wood I leave, the higher the pears will be, they harder they will be to pick, the more likely windfalls will go "SPLAT!".
One minor detail that doesn't get talked about much is the number of buds to use per scion when topworking. More buds means more shoots which means "bushier" regrowth and quicker return to fruiting. I think all of the scion I put on this tree had at least four buds.
Bathtubs
Mrs ERJ said she is fine if we switch one of our combination bath-showers to shower-only.
January 6
I was taken to task in the comments for suggesting that the crimes of the vast majority of the people sucked up in the January 6 (2021) Capital trespassing "was little more than a panty-raid).
Viewed through the lens of cui bono (who benefits) with no consideration for the speculation and hyperbolic reporting that occurred when it happened, the most defensible hypothesis is that the Deep State already knew that Donald J. Trump was toast and that they were putting a stake in the heart of Nancy Pelosi.
We know that approximately 30 FBI agents were "embedded" in the lead elements of the contingent that breached the Capital.
We know that the only item of worth that was taken and never recovered was Nancy Pelosi's laptop.
We know that Nancy Pelosi withdrew her name from consideration for leadership positions in the next election cycle.
We know that huge amounts of (potentially exculpatory) evidence was destroyed in early 2023 which poisoned all previous convictions.
We know that the most progressive elements of the Democratic Party are running amok and threatening senior, Democratic lawmakers like Chuck Schumer in the primaries.
Occam's Razor suggests that Nancy had a lot of "dirt" on her laptop and the people who stole it are not shy about using it. The cleanest working-hypothesis is that her laptop was the goal of the entire venture and that all of the J-6ers who were prosecuted were unwitting decoys.
Who is in and who is out?
I was thinking through the list of people who I would invite into my "life boat" when it occurred to me that I had camped, hiked or been on extended canoe trips with most of them.
You learn a lot about a guy when he wakes up for the fourth morning and finds his only pair of under-shorts was knocked off the line by a nighttime rainstorm and infused with grit and pine-needles...again.
The magic of sharing austere, physical endurance events isn't (just) that it identifies the weaklings and back-stabbers and contentious. It is that it highlights each individual's strengths and shortcomings.
The people I would be comfortable inviting aboard my lifeboat, guys like Timmy, Tom, Joe, Phil, Jimmi and so on, would be invited because I would know how to team them up in complimentary ways.
Yes, I still have that cold
I am running at about 80% in terms of stamina. I have had worse colds.
It has impacted my sleeping and I slept in the recliner last night. Not my preference but it was doable.
Hasenpfeffer. Roger
ReplyDeleteOr, in a pinch, Possumpfeffer.
DeleteI agree that former camping partners is a big clue to see how an individual will hold up in bad circumstances. Not the time to find out a chronic whining complainer is present.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea of the number of Jewish faith teachers was so prevalent in the tenured staff. That does sound suspiciously high. One might compare the donors and see if their faiths match.
Sorry to hear of your cold being so stubborn. I hope you find relief soon.
Jewish children start Hebrew School at 6/7 and learn Hebrew along with religion. They also go to public schools. Most will go all day on Saturday. For them it's just another school day. They learn to read Hebrew which starts in the back and reads right to left instead of the English way of front and left to right.
DeleteRabbit cages to protect the trees or for breeding rabbits?
ReplyDeleteBTW domestic rabbits have little in common with wild hares. The old saw about starving to death eating rabbits isn't true with caged raised domestic rabbits. Wild hares have little fat, not true with caged domestic rabbits.
To protect the trees.
DeleteHave had great luck using the plastic fake owl prop's garden centers sell. I have an inflatable one that's worked well for the last 5 or 6 years. This year I picked up a hard plastic one (w/ bobble-head on a spring) from a discount grocer (Aldi's). Virtually eliminated the rodent problems in my garden the first time I set up the inflatable. Oddly, there was a owl perched in a nearby tree for 3 days after also. I think he finally figured out its a fake, but the mice haven't!
DeleteHow long has that cold been hanging on?
ReplyDeleteI wasn't paying much attention. I think it is tapering down. I am coughing up junk from my lungs. No temperature. I think it is about day 5, well within the seven days if treated and one week if untreated that is expected.
DeleteDeer love arborvitae, too. In our local cemetery, all the arborvitae are eaten up to that 66" height you mentioned.
ReplyDeleteYou have been super busy ERJ. Glad you are on the mend; standard comment about being kind to yourself.
ReplyDeleteJoe, your analysis is blinded by your biases and you quickly allow yourself to forgo critical thinking.
ReplyDeleteYou started with a wild-speculation claim and used that as the basis of the entire argument following. A conclusion requires way more proof than a fact, but you're asserting the conclusion FIRST with nothing to back it up. In your mind, the conclusion is already true and you're grabbing facts and interpreting them to fit that conclusion. This is critical deduction 101 of things NOT to do.
Is this crackpot theory of the 'deep state' staging Jan 6 to take a laptop impossible? No. But neither are the infinite other possible hallucinations we could come up with. Seriously, what is this—a 90s movie? You need the physical laptop? If you’ve got the resources of the 'deep state', you can access the data remotely. If the security around this laptop is so good that the 'deep state' couldn't swipe it on a normal day, why would it not be just as good or better during a riot - you know, when the chance of it being taken increases?
It is not anywhere near plausible enough to be used as a rebuttal to being called out for downplaying Jan 6 while complaining about BLM riots. The only way to escape hypocrisy is to apply your criticism consistently—regardless of party lines.
This is everything wrong with political discourse. I would imagine you would scoff at someone applying the same logic to, say, the assassination attempt on Trump. Someone could easily do exactly what you did here with Jan 6 to frame certain facts to the wild-speculation claim that Trump had the assassination attempt staged for publicity.
Trump is not the problem, it's the people like you that will run defense for him regardless of what he does. He doesn't even have to try to hide this stuff (like the supposed 'deep state'). He can do it out in the open, because people like you will move the goalposts or twist the narrative to defend it.
I hope someday you’ll recognize how dangerous this kind of argument is, and how it contributes to the erosion of honest discourse.
They may have already known what was on the laptop, but needed to establish "parallel construction", a plausible excuse for how that information made it into the hands of the opposition.
DeleteSimilar thoughts apply to the Hunter Biden laptop, or most recently, Kristi Noem's purse.
So they're not willing to be caught swiping data from a laptop but they are willing to be caught... staging an insurrection? You must be on that good shit.
DeleteWhat are you defining as antisemitism, Joe?
ReplyDelete"River to the Sea" is a start. That is a call for genocide. Allowing the harassment/assault of Jewish students is another without any consequence to the perps is another.
DeleteLOL! Very true (it is a statement about genocide), however, I would argue, you have to KNOW what you're saying to actually imply intent?
DeleteHave you seen the videos (I think it was Charlie Kirk or someone in that format) who asked protestors 'what river, what sea?' and they didn't know, couldn't answer? The few that fumbled a response said things like "The Amazon", yes, not even the same continent - at least The Nile is close by, if they'd said that, I could make an excuse.
No, the people 'protesting' against jews on campuses, are useful rubes. They're not genuinely anti-semetic nor pro-palestine. They're just kids, caught up in their first taste of adulthood, and unable to recognize that they're being manipulated.
You certainly KNOW a lot.
ReplyDelete1.You THINK that approximately 30 FBI agents were "embedded" in the lead elements of the contingent that breached the Capital.
This sounds like a slam dunk, doesn’t it? Well, the real story is much less interesting. It IS interesting you aren’t concerned about the thousands of people who were on camera committing crimes (that were not hypothetical FBI agents). That doesn’t matter because they were supposedly under mind-control from 30 FBI agents that forced them to storm the Capitol.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn850jj44mjo
2.You THINK that the only item of worth that was taken and never recovered was Nancy Pelosi's laptop.
You don’t know that her laptop was the only item never recovered. You also don’t know it’s worth. I would imagine the federal government has a way to brick/wipe government devices in situations like this. Here’s some information I found that proves that. I also provided a source showing that the average recovery rate of a stolen laptop in is 2-3%. The average recovery rate for any stolen item is 27%. It does not surprise me this was not found and it does not surprise me that they aren't putting a ton of resources into finding a bricked computer.
https://mpdc.dc.gov/page/tips-preventing-theft-laptops-and-personal-electronics
https://services.pitt.edu/TDClient/33/Portal/KB/ArticleDet?ID=48#:~:text=A%20laptop%20computer%20has%20a,stolen%20laptops%20are%20never%20recovered.
3.You KNOW that Nancy Pelosi withdrew her name from consideration for leadership positions in the next election cycle.
I agree with you on this one. We do know this fact. However, that doesn’t prove anything. Your commentary infers that she was stepping down because of incriminating evidence against her. So, why would she stay in Congress? She doesn’t have any power in her party and Trump controls the intelligence agencies that supposedly/possibly have this incriminating information. You seem to leave out that she was 83 years old. Not necessarily a shock for someone to step down from being a leader in their 80s. I’m glad she did.
4.You THINK that huge amounts of (potentially exculpatory) evidence was destroyed in early 2023 which poisoned all previous convictions.
This is an easy thing to state without any support. Was all data handled perfectly? Just based on the amount of data we’re talking about, I would say no. Not every piece of data was handled 100% perfectly. Is that abnormal? Not at all. But let’s talk about your point of potentially exculpatory evidence. Could there be? Sure. Could there be absolutely nothing exculpatory – sure, same odds. Even if a small fraction of those people could be “potentially” innocent if this hypothetical evidence was destroyed, that doesn’t negate the 99% of other cases. The right cheers Trump as he pardons them all.
https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/politifact/2025/01/30/donald-trump-falsely-claimed-jan-6-committee-deleted-all-evidence/77977748007/
5.You THINK that the most progressive elements of the Democratic Party are running amok and threatening senior, Democratic lawmakers like Chuck Schumer in the primaries.
Big Schumer fan? Are they coming after Chuck or is he just losing touch with the party? He’s in his 70s and the party is over the octogenarians after Biden. His approval rating is at a 20-year low. Typically, that is a normal time to be challenged. I seem to remember Donald Trump challenging unpopular politicians in the Republican party. I don’t hear any complaints about the MAGA movement taking over the Republican party.
https://www.newsweek.com/chuck-schumer-favorability-20-year-lo
I like your blog, but it is much more enjoyable when you are not throwing unsupported politically charged statements out as facts. If you want me to agree with you, you need to provide context and resources. This is pure conjecture.
If what I write causes you heart-burn, the easiest solution (and one that is totally under your control) is to stop reading it.
DeleteI thought you wanted civil dialogue? Why are you not responding to what I said?
DeleteAh, the "Source" Soul has arrived.
DeleteYou're not civil, you were politely told to wander off and here you are.
"Best Jedi Voiceover" This isn't the blog for you, move along.
How was that not civil, Michael? Do you know how to have an intellectual disagreement? I addressed his points and he cowardly ignored addressing mine. As did you. I think I’ll stick around.
Delete*Best Yoda Voice*: not so brave you are
Be so brave dear keyboard hero.
DeleteThe antisemitism that is rampant on US campuses might very well be due to incoming college students for whom Jewish professors/TAs are their first significant encounter with obviously-Jewish people in a position of power?
ReplyDeleteIt's a lot easier to gin yourself up to hate a group of people when you have exemplars right there in front of you to focus your hate.
That is a well posed question.
DeleteThere are two things to consider:
(1) Why are the rules NOT being enforced by the administration when Jews are targeted but are enforced for "hate crimes" against Nigerians, Haitians, Fundamental Islamists who believe that the Koran mandates that they beat uppity women.
(2) With regard to the "culture shock' aspect, surely some "students" are encountering these groups for the very first time and there are culture clashes. There are T/As and professors from Nigeria etc. but there are no mass demonstrations or calls for their countries to be destroyed and the inhabitants killed or subjugated.
So it is a good question but the simplest answer for college campuses being virulently anti-Jew is that the younger wannabe academics are resentful of the old-guard who are hanging onto their positions until they are 75 years-old and the administration is betting on the younger (cheaper to employ) horses.
Think the 25% Jewish professor statistic is a back of envelope calculation, and only for the Ivy League schools. Other colleges and universities have much lower percentages. The Ivys used to have 25% Jewish students 30 years ago, but the percentage is onlt about 7% today. The 25% of professors who are Jewish at the Ivys can be thought of as a legacy, since most have been tenured for a very long time.
ReplyDeleteJewish professors are concentrated in medicine and law, fields which also have percentages of Jewish practitioners well beyond their prevalence in the population. Students not in medicine or law programs are unlikely to encounter Jewish professors.
Many colleges, notably the Ivys, depend upon foreign students and campuses for their profits because they pay full bill tuition. At least 25% of foreign students come from Gulf countries, and most of the overseas campuses are in Gulf countries. American colleges receive $ 55 billion per annum in donations from the Gulf countries, over and above tuition payments.
My local garden center has these plastic pods that are split in half... A little bigger than a golf-ball, you pack the void with peat moss, wound the branch and inoculate with rooting hormone, and 'poof', its supposed to grow roots... Like ground layering, but in the air!
ReplyDeleteHasn't worked for me yet, but I see the logic. They are clear plastic, maybe it's the light thing? I'll try painting a couple black...
The Jewish thing is a sticky issue. For me it boiled down to 2 issues.
Name any other group, organization, race, anything... that's been so roundly hated throughout its entire existence? Chinese tried to genocide the japs, and vice-versa, so that all makes sense. No matter where the jews have gone, in their existence, they've been hated. In fact the reason they created the state of israel in 1947, was because no-where else on the planet wanted them! And just recently some other backwater eastern european country declared them personna non-grata, banned from the country.
Is there any other grouping of people, that's been treated so through it's existence on this planet?
... and you blame everyone else, and not them?
Really?!
Through eons of time, societies across all parts of the globe, have found them so distasteful, as to actually go so far as to ban them from setting foot in their territory? 112 times and counting.
But yeah, it's The World+Dog that has the problem, not that one social group of people. M'kay.
The second issue is personal observations. The Jewish people I've met and gotten to know have been wonderful individuals. Kind, generous, friendly, great people would love to have them as a neighbor. The Zionist government in-charge over there however, really should be wiped off the face of the earth. I don't mean to be offensive nor insult anyone... so I won't go into details, but for the 51 laps I've taken around the Sun, they've been nothing but a blight on the planet. I see why 112 countries have banned them.
I cannot definitively state WHY the Jewish people are hated by 112 governments but I can offer a competing hypothesis to yours.
DeleteThe Jews are hated because they refuse(d) to assimilate and because they "hold the mortgage notes".
In the middle-ages, Jews were prohibited from owning land in Europe. There was very little "economy" outside of agriculture in that time-and-place. Those prohibitions forced the Jews into commerce. They became traders and merchants and lawyers and doctors....and money lenders.
The hyper-stimulation of mercantile activity made them much, much more savvy about money and compound interest than the overall population.
Now suppose the local Russian prince is having a run of bad-luck at the gaming table and needs to borrow some money. Law against usury prohibit Christians from making loans to other Christians. Who does he go to?
Our prince already demonstrated that his is more of an optimist than a statistician. He undoubtedly loses more money and continues to borrow until the Jewish "payday lender" says "NO MORE! You must start paying back."
Then our prince...who being Russian might occasionally drink a dram or ten of vodka...decides that the way to clear the note is to murder the note-holder. If the counter-party is dead, then who can demand repayment?
A pogrom is declared and everybody who owes the Jewish moneylender enthusiastically joins on.
Today, Jewish people are still holding "notes" and governments are still borrowing money.
Today, Jewish people are still not "assimilating". Nor are the Roma (Gypsies). Both groups are targeted for shabby treatment although the Jewish man is more likely to be the legal counsel and the Roma more likely to be the client.
Governments still grossly mismanage resources and still need distractions "Pay no attention to 'Sharp-as-a-tack' sending hundreds of billions overseas....Look....Jews...."
Nicely said, however the Rothchilds are Jewish.
DeleteA tad more politically connected and powerful than mere "money lenders".
For a small % of world population (about 2.5% in America, less than 1% across the globe) they sure are busy in history, wars, banking, media and politics (maybe I'm repeating myself here).
“If you want to know who rules over you, just look for who you are not allowed to criticize.”
Voltaire (and many others it seems)