Watching the farmers work the fields

Today will be a stay-at-home day with a few errands worked in.

Mrs ERJ has appointments in both the morning and afternoon. Consequently, Quicksilver and I will be spending a lot of quality time together.

Farming 

The farmers are racing to take advantage of our current dry-spell. They are in the fields doing all of the mysterious things farmers do. Many of them are three-weeks behind.

My friend who is a Nebraska farmer told me that one of the reasons for the astronomical growth in corn yields is that the seed goes into the ground to a very tight time-table. The seeds are treated with fungicides so they can go into cold, wet soil but the fungicide is not magic, it has limits.

By planting early, the emerging corn plant will have "canopied over" before the longest day of the year. More sun captured by the leaves, the more carbohydrates it can pack into the seeds. Planting late means that your corn will be trying to pack those seeds during the shortening days of August and September...and then you end up getting docked at the elevator because your corn is low-weight or high moisture...or both.

Video of a John Deere 72 row planter 

Seeder technology has come a long way. The individual heads can float with the soil contour so each seed is planted at an optimal depth, i.e. where there is enough moisture to start germination. The new planters can accurately place 48 rows of seeds at 5.5 mph rather than grandpa's four-row planter that started chattering if you went faster than walking-speed. 

Hummingbirds

 

Hummingbird Central interactive map. Some of the local sightings were from April 23. Time to put out the feeders

This and that

Another three hours time-on-task at The Property, four-hours-by-the-clock.

Filling the trench involves skiving the edges and putting the shavings into the trench (foreground), then adding fill sand to bring it up to grade (background). Then after rain settles it, add topsoil and grass-seed.

Spraying weeds. Filling trenches. Toting fertilizer.

As I was getting ready to leave, one of the neighbors walked across the street to check his mail. He wanted to talk.

He doesn't have a lot of time left on the clock. His doctor strongly suggested that it was time for him to check into hospice/palliative care. He refused.

We shot-the-shit about the dangers of speaking poorly of others. I suggested that if nothing else, you can always admire the other fellow's dog. That got a wheezy chuckle out of him.

Last week, he got his Buick stuck and called me over. He REALLY wanted to get the car unstuck before his wife came home and gave him holy-hell for leaving the house. Between the two of us and six buckets of dry gravel, we got him unstuck although he left some outrageous ruts in his yard. As I got about the tasks I had on MY list, I looked across the road and saw him attempting to repair the damage to the grass.

The next time I was at The Property, the old-geezer's wife quizzed me. I denied all knowledge of said-geezer getting stuck (which I will have to confess). She knew I was lying but didn't seem too mad about it.

Quicksilver

Quicksilver accompanied me this morning as I prepared for today's work.

We had to buy donuts to fortify ourself for the strenuous activity. Quicksilver is fond of donuts with chocolate frosting and sprinkles. A gentleman always makes it his business to learn the lady's preferences.

Then we went to the landscape supply emporium to buy a half-yard (1200 pounds) of fill sand. Of course, she dazzled them with her charm but they still charged me full price.

Seeds

It is common knowledge that "root vegetables" do not respond well to being transplanted. The only exception(s) to this are beets and (maybe) daikon. The root of the beet is, apparently, as much a swollen stem as it is a root. So it doesn't matter if the tap-root is all folded up, it still forms a round ball of sweet goodness.

Another weird thing about beets is that each seed is usually multiple seeds, like string of firecrackers. You might think you planted one seed but five or eight plants pop up and you need to thin-out the surplus, otherwise they will all be stunted.

I have to admit that thinning the surplus seedlings from a seedling tray while sitting at a table is much more attractive than doing it while kneeling and bending over in the garden. I only planted 25 seeds (cv. "Merlin") but intend to plant another 25 in a couple of weeks.

Compared to the subsistence gardeners farming the Ukrainian dachas, I am a bumbling newbie. But maybe an old dog can learn some new tricks.

Muskellunge

Muskellunge or "Muskie" are apex predator, freshwater fish very similar to the south's Alligator Gar or the saltwater Barracuda.

While reading the Michigan DNR fishing guide, I learned that the Michigan DNR believes that monster Muskie inhabit one of the creeks near The Property. In fact, anglers are not allowed to keep Muskie from that creek that are shorter than 50 inches (1.27e+10 angstrom in metric). How close does that creek run to the property? According to Google, it comes within 729 feet of The Property.

Unfortunately, Michigan regulations do not allow "unattended lines" which means I am not legally able to set a rig and then go work on The Property and then check the line when I am done for the day. 

God is great, beer is good and people are crazy

 

Another day of phoning-in my performance.

Maybe something more profound than this song will come to my attention, but I doubt it. 

The outrage and victimhood is fake, too. They just want to get their rocks-off by inflicting pain.

 

Music, Fashion, Pictures and Murder...Who needs tabloids?

 

 Watching in full-screen mode is highly recommended

Just for fun. "Someone told me long ago, there's a calm before the storm..."

Fashion is a form of ugly so hideous it must be changed every six months

In the past, the US Forest agency fined timber companies that did not cut closely enough to the ground. The companies claimed that they had to leave higher stumps on the trees growing on steep slopes but the USF agents pointed at the specifications in the contracts and accused the companies of "wasting" wood.

The timber companies groused about all of the trees that were drowned in reservoirs when they filled. Anglers were divided on the issue. Some cover is good. Too much cover means you lose a lot of lures.

Now the pendulum is swinging back the other way. This research out of Europe proposes that the "crappy trees" that are not economical to mill into lumber be topped out at 6'-to-13' and the tall-stumps be left in place to rot and provide nesting habitat. The plan for very-high latitude sites is to leave between 2 and 4 of these stubs per-acre.

Hat-tip to Tireless. 

Random pictures

Another wheelbarrow back "on-line".

Asparagus planted April 22 starting to pop up.

They look so peaceful when you can sneak up on them while they are sleeping. This one was inside the duck/garden enclosure. The "tell" were the fresh crumbles of soil at the mouth of the den.

Technologies that were not available to consumers 20 years ago. I am still shocked when a "kid" scans a QR code, pushes a button and a service is paid for. Hat-tip to Tireless

Slow response times

I am embarrassed to report that I appear to be ghosting people due to my slow response time. Please give me the benefit of the doubt when I am slow to respond. Maybe things will slow down by June 10ish. Maybe.

One of my friends (who reads this blog) offered me some incredible batteries. They are industrial-quality lead-acid batteries that are used for critical infrastructure support and they are regularly changed out while they are well above 80% life-remaining.

I regretfully declined the offer because the assorted demands on my time (several of which I don't share on the blog) mean that I don't have time to integrate systems and dial them in. I need pre-engineered systems that are plug-and-play.

The opportunity cost of tinker-toying together a system with various parts means that I will not be controlling weeds in my orchard(s) and garden(s).

Murdersicles

I have a brother who loves motorcycles. Well, OK, I have two brothers who love motorcycles.

Link

But one of them is trying to get me excited about a Chinesium Enduro (street-legal) Commuter bike. I have to admit that the ability to commute to The Property and back (70 mile round trip) on a gallon of gas is enticing.

Given the specific power of the engine and a frame designed for dirt-biking, the bike should be able to run for 50 years as long as the cam-shaft was properly hardened and the owner changes the oil. 

Bonus video I

Bonus video eleven 

The ride that he picked out for me is a Honda clone with a 230cc, 4-stroke engine that makes 14hp and has a top speed of 65 mph. MSRP of about $1700 but cheaper if you shop around.

He candidly stated that his wife is not very keen on him buying another motorcycle, otherwise he would buy one...but she is fine if I buy one. My problem is that Mrs ERJ might not be too keen on me buying any motorcycle given my age and the slower reaction times and healing that goes with that.

As my dad once told me "There is no such thing as 'soft gravel'. There is loose gravel and there is packed gravel, but it is never soft gravel." 

Fine Art Tuesday

 

Charles Marion Russell was born in Missouri in 1864 and died in 1926. He produced an astounding 2000 cataloged works during his lifetime.

Even though many of his paintings seem "starved" for detail it is part of his technique for producing the dusty, barren feel of the desert in his paintings, that is, a thin (fast drying) wash of paint. The nubbly texture of the canvas adds a washed-out coarseness that simulates the cobble of the wind-scoured ground.

For example, from the picture above we have

Russell was also notable for his sympathetic but not overly romantic portrayal of Native Americans.

In his spare time, he also did sculpture.

Russell was blessed to live in a time that adored his work. Cowboy novels sold for a nickel or a dime each, Wild West Circus shows toured the east, and Teddy Roosevelt, the icon of a sickly eastern dude who had gone west and returned as a virile man, had done much to bring "The West" into the awareness of the average American.

A tip of the hat to the erudite 10x25mm for suggesting this artist. 

Can you see me now?

 

Can you see him. I didn't at first

I mowed the lawn. I secured the garden to keep the ducks in and to discourage rabbits, woodchucks and deer from entering. I did a few smaller, fiddly things like tilling half of the potato patch and planting some cucumber seeds inside. Four hours time-on-task.

Can you see him now? The cameras on phones are outstanding but still cannot compete with the human eye

Mrs ERJ made scrambled duck eggs with fresh asparagus and assorted vegetables from the refrigerator.

Can you see him now? Tree frogs are fairly active even when it is cold outside.

Today's work-tickets include watching Quicksilver, filling trenches, throwing around some fertilizer and planting some tree seeds. The trench filling should go fast since I will be able to shovel directly from the back of the truck.

This time of year I am a gardener who blogs rather than a blogger who gardens. 

First Rule of Flying: Fly the D@mned Plane, everything else can wait

 

2:30 run-time. Bird-strike at 1:11/1:12 mark. Underpants soiled. Propeller imbalanced.

I am curious as to why he picked THAT field. It looked like there were plenty of other candidates. Was he landing into the wind to reduce forward velocity? He landed in a puddle...is that good? 

Life goes on

I am working around the house today. Consequently, I am in-and-out of the house and you get more, shorter posts.

Two teenagers make a day-trip to the-big-city. They spend time at an amusement park. It is a very pleasant day. The park is not crowded. The Japanese Cherry trees are blooming. They play games, eat pizza, walk through a market. The link ports you into the video as they step off of the bus and they get back on the bus for the return trip at the 31 minute mark. It all seems very ordinary.

The amusement park is a scant 75 miles from "the front" in the current Urkaine/Russian war. Women outnumber men by about 4:1 and there are virtually no men walking around who don't have gray hair.

A big tip of the hat to Anon who was able to deduce the location of the amusement park. Many thanks! 

Perverse incentives

The papers are full of stories of judges refusing to sentence convicted felons to sentences that are consistent with guidelines because they believe that the convicted felon has a low IQ and is therefore not responsible for their crimes.

In other news:

So, let me get this straight...if a black student or immigrant proves that they can master middle-school math then they face prison sentences if convicted of a felony (whether rightly convicted or not). Meanwhile, if they fail 5th-grade math the judge parks them in a cushy half-way house for six months and then they are released back into society.

So who are the idiots? The students or the judges and school administrators? 

A few pictures

 

Mixed tray of Freedom primocane bearing blackberries and Tagetes minuta

Top trays left-to-right: Tomatoes, Lovage, Tobacco, African Marigolds.

Bottom Trays: Tomatoes, Tagetes lucida, more tomatoes

Bottom-right tray is my problem-child.

 

Deterring theft from community garden plots

 

Signage is important. It sets the tone.

Selection of varieties can help. There are heirloom tomato varieties that are extremely wrinkled.

Bitter melon or dragon gourds can be grown up the trellis and mis-labeled "Cucumbers"

I observed recent immigrants from Nepal planting extremely thorny varieties of eggplant in their garden plots.

Quicksilver music moment

Hoe down 

Food plants that tolerate flooding

I find myself besieged by questions about food-plants that can withstand flooding and soils with high water-tables. It probably has to do with the exceptional, but not unprecedented, rainfall we had this spring in Michigan.

Most resistant

• Wild rice
• Domesticated rice 
• Watercress
• Cattails
• Cranberries 
• Lotus 
• Water Chestnuts
• Chufa 

Very resistant

• Mint (almost all kinds)
• Currants
• Some species of Gooseberries
• Elderberries
• Aronia
• Some viburnum species 
• Some brambles
• Mayhaws 
• Some "Asian" greens
• Sorrel (Rumex) not including Sheep Sorrel
• Daylily
• Hardy Hibiscus
• Some species of oak; Q. bicolor, Q. palustris, Q. lyrata, Q. nigra, Q. phellos, Q. nuttallii/texana
• Some species of roses; R. palustris, R. multiflora (sometimes used as a rootstock for grafted roses) 

Resistant

• Black Walnut
• Pecans and some other hickory species 
• Some strains of American Hazelnut
• Chives 
• Most non-root garden vegetables when grown on raised-beds
• Soybeans
• Grapes with Vitis riparia in their pedigree
• Highbush Blueberries (raised beds) 

9-1-1

Sometimes I keep my mouth shut and just listen. It is amazing what you can learn.

Today I learned that the Eaton County 9-1-1 system is computerized (no surprise there) and that every address had a pre-defined "record" associated with it. The record has fields for "Where is key for emergency access stored?" "Pets", "Hazards", "Where is meds-list allergy info stored" and so-on. The 9-1-1 dispatcher has encrypted channels they can use to alert the responders as to where you store your outside-key without every yahoo with a scanner learning about it.

As we age and our health begins that downward roller-coaster ride, we become "frequent fliers" and first responders start populating those fields. They are particularly keen on knowing how to get into the building without breaking anything (or straining their backs) and whether there are potentially dangerous animals (Not just dogs, it could be bulls or horses or billy-goats or geese or roosters) or rotten porches they should not walk on.

The main point one of the speakers was attempting to make is that we can contact our 9-1-1 administrator and they will be THRILLED to enter that information into the system before you need the first responders. So even if you are not capable of speaking to the 9-1-1 operator but can press your first-alert button...the dudes and dudettes who show up can safely-and-swiftly get in and render aid.

It was my impression that photos can be included in the records but they currently do not have a way to sending the photo to the first responders. 

Grab-bag

Today's main task was to continue filling a trench that runs up/down a hill. Mrs ERJ was working one of the shovels and she is a delightful companion to work with.

After emptying the back of the truck, we broke apart an old clump of iris and planted them beneath the guy-wire that secures a utility pole. Keeping the grass cut beneath the diagonal wire is a chore. We planted about 30 of the "toes", three rows of them about 15" apart in every direction.

The flowers are nothing special. Compared to modern hybrids they are a half-mouthful of lukewarm spit. But they beat weeds and they are tough enough to fend for themselves for 50 years. In my world, that counts for a lot. Launch-and-forget.

Economy slowing down? 

I noticed an exponential growth in the number of "toys" for sale beside the road. Quads, motorcycles, motor-homes, pontoon boats....all in the five miles immediately west of Potterville, Michigan.

$5.00 a gallon gas is biting Michigan's economy. Maybe I can find a newish, tandem-axle trailer for a reasonable price in the near future. The expansion and contraction of the economy is like the beating of a heart. Resources (like trailers and employees and commercial real estate) are released from enterprises/people who cannot make them pay and are quickly absorbed by enterprises/people who need them and can make them pay.

Farmers

There were at least three commercial farmers at the soccer game I attended Thursday night. Normally, this time of year, they would be in the fields planting from before sun-up to after sun-down. But those fields are too wet to get a tractor on, so they are watching their grand-daughters and great-granddaughters play soccer. The goal keeper for one of the teams was one of those girls.

Normally, storm-tracks spray across the eastern US like a drunk trying to pee on a tree-trunk. Everybody gets about the right amount of rain. This year they storm-tracks are running across Michigan as if LASER guided. We are getting too much rain. People just a hundred miles south of us are begging for it.

If you ain't complaining about the rain, you ain't farming.

The Story of Everything

A friend sent me a link to a documentary titled The Story of Everything. It is a film that defends the theory of "Intelligent (God-guided) Design".

I know I sound like a Richard κεφαλ but these efforts always strike me as efforts to prove that the sound of the color "orange" is exhibited by a soprano saxophone. 

The problem with that genre of movies is that it allows the unbelievers to frame the argument. 

Unbelievers state "Religion is proven false by science, therefore religion is garbage". That statement makes some believers lose their minds.

The appropriate response is "Judeo-Christian beliefs are still highly functional after 4000/2000 years. The half-life of scientific "knowledge" is much, much shorter. For instance, the half-life of "Truth" in Psychology is about five years*. Only a moron would trade eternal-truth for "truth" that changes more more frequently than the grad students bathe." 

If you want to keep hammering those who claim all religion is bunk, try: "Science is ALWAYS proven false by future science. By your argument, that makes all current science "garbage"."

Ironically, even high-end scientists recognize that theories that have been proven false are often the most effective way grapple with reality. For example, scientists in the field of Public Health will quickly concede that "The Theory of Spontaneous Generation", while technically wrong, is the most effect way to eliminate rats and ticks and mosquitoes. Get rid of the garbage, the tall grass and the standing water and those pests disappear.

The compulsion to "prove" the Bible with science seems backasswards. Does that mean that the Bible can be disproven? Isn't faith throwing oneself into the unknown and believing (and letting that belief guide your actions) when absolute proof is lacking. Believing that a set of car keys will fall downward out of your hand and hit the floor is not "faith". It is experience.

So even if the Bible is wrong (a point I am not willing to concede but am entertaining for the sake of argument), modern science continues to fail to offer a better, more durable, simpler way put handles on the wheelbarrow that is life, pick it up and move forward. Occam's Razor chooses the Bible.

Your mileage may vary. I know one person who is certain that the way to succeed in life is to prove that you (he) is the biggest asshole first. Objectively, that isn't working so well for him but he will defend his beliefs to his last breath.

Bonus images

"Quicksilver was here" Modern girls use a lot more words than Kilroy ever did.

Early for the big, yellow morels.

*Specific to the number of genders, the half-life is measured in days. 

Every tree tells a story. Some people can hear it.

Planting "Carpathian" Walnuts (i.e. hardy strains of Persian aka "California" Walnuts) was fashionable about fifty years ago.

Consequently, fifty-to-thirty year-old walnut trees of this species are not rare. I probably pass one-hundred of them on the 35 mile drive out to the property.

There is one tree that was notable last year due to its heavy production*. Unfortunately, it is a cluster of three trees sitting in the yard in front of a farm house. I thought I had which of the three trees it was marked in my memory but I want to be sure because it is sad when you get scion from the wrong tree and nurse it along for five years only to find out that it is a dud.

Yesterday, as I was driving by, I realized that the tree I suspected of being the over-achiever had a different form or structure than the other two trees. I held that thought in my mind as I drove the rest of the way to my day's work and as I drove I looked at the other trees (when traffic permitted, of course) to see if any others shared that structure. They didn't.

The over-achiever had side branches that subtly arched downward.

I know from pruning apple trees that wood is "plastic" and it deforms under loads. Over time, the weight of the fruit causes branches that once angled upward at 45 degrees to bend horizontal and then, if not pruned, downward toward the tips.

Let me repeat for emphasis "...the weight of the fruit..."

Let me emphasize that I am not claiming that this form causes higher production. I am claiming that this form is evidence of a prior history of high production.

How that observation might be useful

If a fellow were to be surveying a very large number of seedling walnut trees he could either rely on the fallible memory of the owner regarding productivity or he could let the tree's form tell him its history.

Owners might be able to tell you which tree is the best of his collection but that is not a good basis on an absolute sense. There is also the problem that the owner might not admit that he never really paid attention, or more likely, that his wife could tell you but he cannot. Finally, sometime folks don't want to share that kind of information with nosy people who could be working for the tax collectors.

The only caveat that I want to share is that this feature is age dependent. Older trees will develop some arching to their oldest, horizontal limbs because of gravity and the weight of the wood. You really have something, though, if you see a 15' to 20' tall "Carpathian" Walnut with any kind of bowing to their non-vertical limbs.

*No photos available. It is almost impossible to take a picture of the trees without including the farm-house. I am not going to intrude on the owner's privacy. I COULD ask, but it is planting season and it is a working farm. 

Lessons from the playing field

My host at last night's high school sports event informed me that girl's sports, at least in Michigan, are struggling.

Twenty years ago, most high school sports fielded a Woman's Varsity team, a Junior Varsity team and in some cases a Freshman team for many sports. There were robust programs supplying soccer (futball), basketball and volleyball players as well as runners for track and cross country teams.

Currently, at least in the small(ish) rural districts, coaches have to actively recruit underclassmen to have enough players to field a Varsity team. Watching the teams play last night, it was clear that several of the players (at least on one team) had never really played soccer before.

When I asked my host what had changed, she shrugged her shoulders. "The culture changed. Too many distractions." is what she replied.

Specific to soccer, she pointed to the collapse of the intermediate skill-level leagues that supplied the lion's share of prep players in the past. There are still the "recreation" leagues for kids and there are high-end, competitive "travel leagues", but the step in the middle, the one that did not require parents to pay hotel bills in Fort Wayne or involve four hours of travel time are gone.

I know of one family whose entire plan to get their daughter into college was for her to get a full-ride scholarship. I think they would have been better served to hire a math tutor.

For the record, Belladonna knew several women athletes who received partial-scholarships where she went to college. The "drop-out" rate was mind-boggling. My guess is that 2/3 of the student-athletes did not graduate. Of the ones who did graduate, many of them found themselves holding degrees that did not command respect in the work-place.

It was a scam.

Back in the day...

Schools like West Point used athletics to teach life-lessons. Those life-lessons were forged in high-stress, time-urgent crucibles which meant they automatically became the default when the graduates were faced with other high-stress, time-urgent environments.

Other schools like Harvard and Yale, which used to be considered pretty good schools, copied West Point for the same reasons. Their goal was to generate leaders who performed with grace and skill under pressure.

Some lessons

The playing field repudiates the supremacy of the individual. Teams win. Glory hogs do not.

The playing field proves that physics is immune to flowery language and a deftly delivered speech.

The playing field brutally punishes the player who stoops to the cheap-shot.

The playing field teaches that what you do when you don't have the ball is at least as important as what you do when you do have the ball.

The playing field teaches you to trust your fellow team-mates. Know where they are, communicate...and trust them.

The playing field teaches that skills matter. They matter a great deal. 

The goalkeeper has the best view of the field. Just because she isn't running until she pukes doesn't mean that she can't tell you how to do your job better. 

The playing field teaches that how you practice Monday-through-Thursday is a good predictor of how you will play on Gameday.

The playing field teaches that life choices made off the field impact how your team will play on the field. The playing field teaches that life has consequences.

Part of the Yale Snowball intramural team

The playing field teaches that referees have limits. They don't see everything. They don't call everything they see. Relying on the refs to "call" every infraction is not a robust strategy.

The playing field rewards teams that can learn and adapt after they get schooled by a better team. The playing field brutally punishes teams to refuse to learn.

The playing field rewards teams with plans/plays. 

Please, feel free to add to the list in the comments. 

Quicksilver Music Moment

Link 

Busy, busy, busy...

It has been a long day.

Quicksilver showed up at 6:30 a.m. I handed her off at 9:30 and started cutting fence wire and loading the back of the truck. 2-3/4 hours time-on-task in the Upper and Hill Orchards. I got back home and took an hour long nap. Then off to watch a sporting event with Southern Belle. On the way home I stopped at Walmart for dog food, oatmeal, raisins and whole-wheat tortilla wraps. I got it all unloaded and sat down in the official recliner of the ERJ blog at 8:30 p.m.

At 1000 seeds to the ounce and approximately 60 clay balls, that more than 15 seeds per ball.

One of the tasks was to try out the seed pellets. I used the following mix and am pretty happy with it:

• 1kg damp sand
• 400 grams clumping cat litter (bentonite)
• 100 grams masa (corn flour)
• 100 grams Burpee Organic Fertilizer
• 400 ml of water

The mix was a little bit dry and crumbly but it packed like a snowball. If you try the mix, realize that you will have to make adjustments to the amount of water because "damp sand" is an imprecise term.

The area where I was planting the Redbud seeds. Two dead Bigtooth Aspen trunks in the foreground. "How has your Aspen?"  "Frankly, dead and decaying."

 Since the Redbud that I have seen growing wild has always been on the slopes above the flood-plains, I surmised that the seeds want to land on mineral dirt and not leaf-litter or duff. So rather than pitching them willy-nilly, I scuffed through the leaf-litter, dropped the clay-ball on the mineral dirt that I exposed and then stepped on the ball to squish it into intimate contact with the dirt.

The Liberty is past full-bloom. Melrose is at full bloom. This picture is from the Upper Orchard.

Mostly I worked the cusp of the slope near the road and overlooking the valley that is east of the Hill Orchard and the Upper Orchard. 

I was very pleased that the ball showed no inclination to stick to the sole of my shoe.

Random photo

A nice looking seedling Sweet Cherry. I saw this on my commute to "the office" today. I am tempted to liberate some scion even though Mrs ERJ (mostly) broke me of that habit.

 

Drought monitor. Moisture in the top 40" of soil (root zone). Displayed as a "percentile" of historically observed values on a tract-by-tract basis.

 

I am pretty sure I have at least three readers in New Hampshire and a few in the Piedmont region. Do they have burn-bans and fire warnings in place?

Follow-up on the power station

Reading the comments helped me clarify my thoughts. Thank-you, all.

I have two sets of needs that have some overlap. So maybe I need two different solutions.

On one hand I have three properties I am working on, two of them "remote". One of them has the Upper and Hill Orchards and a 1200 square-foot pole barn that is not electrified. It would be nice to be able to plug in a 5000 lumen (50 Watt) shop-light so I can clean out the trash and not trip on my feet. 

I also have an aversion to using the battery I count on to start the vehicle for mundane purposes. The Hill and Upper Orchard are approximately 40 miles away from "home" and while I have walked that distance it is not a fast process. I do have a mountain bike squirreled away in the barn, so I could probably knock the trip back in about four or five hours but I would not be a happy guy.

The other set of needs is anchoring-a-basecamp. If the grid is intermittent, then there is much to be said for skimming some power while it is energized to use for the very highest value applications when it is not energized.

• Medical equipment
• Communication
• Security (driveway alarms at a minimum)
• Securing information (internet, news)
• Light for reading, threading needles
• Enough power to run an AM/FM radio
• Run the blower on our fireplace insert

If the grid becomes very unreliable the same "flex" power means you can run the generator in the day when there is more noise-clutter to hide the sound signature for use during the quit hours. Solar is fine but not always sufficient, even in Arizona.

At this point, the very unreliable grid scenario seems unlikely. The powers-that-be understand that things will get VERY sporty in their A-o-O if the power drops out too often for too long. Even the warlords in Shitholistan understand that dynamic. 

Brains rather than batteries

Some of these things can be "managed" around. Can't function without hot coffee in the morning? Before microwaves, folks used to make it the night before and pour it into a thermos.

Need to communicate with neighbors? Bulletin boards work and the American Revolution was coordinated with "Broadsheet essays" tacked to the wall of the communal privy. And there is always the neighborhood gossip.

Dogs are still the best security system. A fish-line and tin-cans still work. 

Practices-and-procedures vs Infrastructure

I worked for a boss named John Pitlanish who explained it this way:

The advantage of changing work-instructions is that they can be rewritten tomorrow. Validate the changes today with your Team Leader. Start training the operators tomorrow on the new way.

If you only work the "infrastructure fixes" then you are looking at a minimum of twelve-months before it hits the factory floor, and more likely it will never get approved.

So even though it is harder to "manage" practices-and-procedures fixes they are the only practical way to fix things in the short-term.

Safety LOVED infrastructure fixes. They had an entire hierarchy of fixes with "Re-instruct the operator" as the least desirable and "Eliminate the hazard" as the most desirable. 

Managers get changed every 18 months. Operators change every 24 months. Grind the concrete flat and it stays flat for 30 years. The fix does not evaporate when it is buried in the infrastructure.

So there is a place for both. The quick bandage and the deep, permanent fix. 

Power Stations

 

I am looking at small power stations and trying to figure out how they might fit into my plans.

Athanasius in Ukraine gets a lot of use out of theirs because they have intermittent power issues due to the ongoing war. He was able to charge up batteries for his cordless chainsaw from one. Without the power station he would have changed his plans and done something else or been cutting wood by hand.

Like many things, the market is organized by various "price points". Currently, $200 will get you a 300 Watt-hour unit with a robust battery technology.

But what will 300 Watt-hours get me?

It can run two LED, 800 Lumen bulbs for 15 hours (overnight in the winter).

It can run a small electric blanket that is used to warm massage tables for 15 hours.

It can run a 6 Joule, low-impedance electric fence energizer for 30 hours. 

It can run a 32" TV for 5 hours so it is not enough juice to run a video-based security system overnight.

From a command-and-control standpoint, it provides enough power to recharge a VERY large number of cellphones or hand-held radios or rechargable AA batteries. 

It can run a 20" box fan for 5 hours. 

It can run a 1/4 horsepower motor for almost 2 hours so you better hope the power comes back on if a storm knocks out your sump-pump. Incidentally, this price-point will not deliver enough wattage to start a conventional sump-pump due to inrush current at start-up.

It can recharge 2, 20V 6.0 amp-hour batteries for my cordless tools. 

It cannot run an air conditioner or the fan on a furnace. It cannot run a microwave or a water heater.

I am on-the-fence about spending the money on something like this. The system seems hellbent on building data centers in excess of our power generation capacity. The spike in petroleum prices is causing a rush toward Electric Vehicles which will drive more demand.

Consequently, I expect more power-outages in the future. It probably makes sense to get something like this before the rush.

Any thoughts from my readers? 

Walnuts, expedition to Lansing, Grizzly Bears and Ducks

There is not a lot to report.

Walnuts 

A fine gentleman mailed me seven scion of Persian Walnuts (Juglans regia) that he just happened to have in his refrigerator. I grafted those onto likely Black Walnut seedlings which pop up around our yard without any input from me.

The four "North Platte" scion were grafted on two seedlings near Mrs ERJ's garden, one just east of the driveway and one seedling north of the wood-pile. I marked them with bright pink surveyor's tape.

The three Combe were grafted west of the collapsed barn, east of the standing barn and south of the drainfield. I marked them with a flag of "natural" colored masking tape.

I don't expect them to show signs of life for at least four weeks. Walnuts are like rattlesnakes, they really like heat. Not warmth: Heat.

A trip to the big-box store

I bit the bullet and drove to Lansing to visit the Menards on the west side of Lansing.

I came back with welded wire fence to make cages to protect newly planted seedlings from deer. I bought two hand-sprayers and some 5" round duct to protect various fruit trees from the predations of woodchucks and raccoons.

While I was there, I checked out their onion sets. They were plump and heavy, unlike the ones at Meijers (a grocery store). On a whim, I picked up three bags and will use them as markers to identify exactly where the rows of potatoes are. Onions come up much more quickly than potatoes do. 

Grizzly Bears are no longer "Ursus horribilis"

They are now lumped in with the Eurasian Brown Bear and since the EBB binomial name Ursus arctos has seniority, it becomes the official, scientific name for the Grizzly Bear as well.

I was faked out for a bit. I looked at Ursus arctos and thought "Polar Bears???".

Definitely a Public Relations win for Yogi Bear.

Ducks

The ducks got a small wading pool for their enclosure.

It is partially submerged and has a ramp made from the dirt I removed to facilitate their getting in.

As stated at the top: Not much to report. Everything is fine except that we have too many ticks.

Name that movie (and studio)

 

Better times...

Bonus points for the year it was first in theaters and the city it was filmed in (big surprise). 

Fine Art Tuesday

 

A hillside orchard

Iosif Evstafevich Krachkovsky was born in 1854 and died in 1914. He is considered a "Russian" painter. Many of his paintings were made in Ukraine.

He certainly knew how to paint an expressive sky. 

A garden

A well

Hat-tip to the usual guy...

...the tireless Lucas Machias