Limping along .and. good-faith proposal in the event of a failed-harvest

Imagine my surprise! I got in two hours time-on-task today.

It wasn't pulling weeds, though. It was lugging water (38 minutes) with the remainder being cutting wood, loading it into a wheelbarrow and wheeling it to the pile that goes to the guy whose property adjoins the Upper Orchard and who heats with wood. The orchard floor is still a mess and clearing it will make it easier to maintain.

While some of the chunks were substantial, the dead-lifting I have been doing made the physical handling of the wood not-that-bad.

Drought and the price of food

The price that a farmer gets for the amount of wheat that goes into a loaf of bread is less than the cost of the printed, plastic bag that the baker packages the loaf of bread in. 

And bread is not typically thought of as a highly processed food. What that means from a practical standpoint is that the price of wheat could double and if nobody in the value-chain took advantage of the excuse, the price of a loaf of bread might increase by five or ten cents.

On the other hand, eggs, beef, pork and chicken are very sensitive to the price of grain because grain is a larger percentage of the cost-per-pound.

Hogs are efficient converters of feed. The last 200 pounds of gain for a 240 pound hog is about 650 pounds of "concentrate", i.e. grain, soymeal, brewer's waste and pedophiles. That 650 pounds of concentrate coverts to about 120 pounds of boneless meat.

The retail price of that concentrate at a "farm store" is about $45/100 pounds or about $2.40 per pound of meat.

Of course, the commercial producers don't pay that much per 100 pounds of feed. They don't by the fancy bags with the pretty pictures on them. But as a home producer, you can get a feel for how sensitive the price of meat is to the price of grain.

Yes, I know that somebody is ALWAYS crying out doom-and-gloom regarding food prices. This year is no exception. Some parts of the corn-belt are in drought status right now. That is a big deal because the soil moisture levels shortly after the corn "tassels" determines how many kernels on each ear are pollinated and that sets an upper limit on the amount of corn that will be harvested, even if abundant rains come afterward.

What if Congress could increase the corn crop by 50%?

Sounds like a stupid question, right? Keep an open mind.

Approximately 35% of the United States corn crop is diverted to ethanol production which is used to adulterate gasoline. Federal law allows gasoline to contain up to 10% ethanol. Various reasons have been given for the practice but in real-politiks it is a backdoor price support for corn producers and it increases the profit margins for the gas-wholesalers. The net increase in energy is virtually nill.

In a rational world, Congress (or the POTUS) would be watching the food market-basket like a hawk and have a series of trigger-points. When the cost of the market-basket punched upward through a trigger-point, the amount of ethanol allowed in motor-fuel would be reduced by some amount...perhaps two percent. Then if it punched through the next trigger-point, reduced by another two percent.

If such a plan was devised (and shared with the industry ahead of time), they could make rational plans regarding the economically rational way to moth-ball marginal ethanol plants with minimal collateral damages.

From the standpoint of the corn producer, if prices are extremely high, then the need for price-supports is not a strong argument. 

For the hair-splitters

If 65% of the corn crop is currently used for food, then increasing the amount to 100% is a net increase of 100%/65%. The basis (denominator) should not be the total but the fraction of the total that is currently employed for that purpose.

That is not a 35% increase over current levels. It is a 50% increase. 

...a cup of ambition...

My anatomy is dragging this morning. Pulling weeds is hard work and uses muscles that I don't normally exercise.

The weather-guessers are promising an inch of rain tomorrow. We will see.

This is prime-time to control yellow jacket populations. Their numbers explode through August and September. There are countless videos on streaming platforms regarding various traps that involve bait (fish guts, canned cat-food, ham, hotdogs...) and soapy water. It is easiest to spot the ground nests in the late evening when the light backlights the beasts and they circle in for landings. It is a great excuse for sitting on the east end of your lawn drinking a beverage or savoring a cigar. They generally nest in sandy soils that are slightly elevated above the surrounding lawn.

I should pull some more weeds today and cut some wood but I think I need another cup of coffee first. This is the kind of morning when I would walk the property with Zeus and we would discuss the important things in life.

Can do, will do

One of my brothers was grousing about his in-laws.

They were staunch union members and their conversations were as predictable as the tunes you can play on a piano with one unbroken string.

"Everybody in the United States could be in the middle-class if they just joined a union."

Because this particular brother is a peace-maker, he kept his mouth shut.

An interesting thing about keeping your mouth shut is that your brain works twice as fast as when your gums are flopping. The following is what he could have said but chose not to.

Lines of demarcation

One of the hallmarks of unions (and professional associations) are strict lines of demarcation regarding the qualifications required to do any kind of work.

In a union factory, an equipment break-down will require an electrician to address any electrical items. It requires a pipe-fitter to address any issues that arise during the repair that involve tubing or pipe that moves air, gas, water, oil or waste. It requires a tool-maker to address any issues involving bearings or tooling that touches the parts. It requires a millwright for any issues that involve conveyor parts and the portions of the equipment that does not directly touch the parts. It requires a building-repair-general tradesman for any issues that might involve the concrete in the floors or footings. 

The work stops whenever another trade must be called. They stand around until the Fluzenbech Calibrater tradesman shows up if the Fluzenbech got bumped while the building-repair-general was jackhammering a hole in the floor.

My brother's in-laws would greet this information with glee. "Look!!! Five families are now in the ranks of the middle-class" as if this was a good thing.

The reality is that the production line that could be producing hot-dogs or Cameros or other consumer items is silent until all of the tradesmen show up. It could be as simple as splicing a broken hose but under the rigid lines-of-demarcation can only be fixed by a journeyman pipe-fitter. Even though the issue announces itself and any reasonably able-bodied 6th grader (boy or girl) can fix the problem.

My brother's in-laws think that unions magically create wealth when, in fact, they redistribute it and...in the long run...reduce the creation of it.

There are some "union plants" that have a "can-do, will-do" policy. During a breakdown during regular production hours, an electrician or a tool-maker can splice a broken water or air hose BUT...it comes at the cost. The pipe-fitter is scheduled to work over-time (time-and-a-half) to replace the spliced hose(s) during the next non-production day. The line keeps running. The pipe-fitter gets more $$$ in his pocket.

Crack, weeds and lottery tickets

If you look closely at the fourth thread from the end, you will see a crack. When under pressure the crack opened up and the spray flew 6' to 8'.

 

I keep hose repair parts in-stock. I replaced a male 3/4" hose fitting. I firmly believe that the impulse sprinkler was throwing the water an extra 3' in every direction after the repair due to the improved pressure at the business end.

In all honesty, I misdiagnosed the problem at first. I replaced the rubber washer under the assumption that the original had "crept" under the compressive load. 

Work-ticket report

I over-achieved on the weeding at 223 minutes time-on-task but under-achieved on the mowing at 0 minutes. I weeded potatoes and cabbage.

In addition to the hose-repair, I also harvested broccoli, sprayed the cabbage for cabbage loopers and tilled the patch where the spinach trials will be held.

While weeding the cabbage before spraying them, I deduced that deer had jumped into the fenced garden. The leaves were stripped off of the grafted mulberry trees and 3/4 of the broccoli had been eaten. 

I was able to give a half dozen cucumbers to a nephew whose daughter ADORES cucumbers. He has a blended family and I take every opportunity to let the newer members know that "dad" is looking out for them.

There is probably another 5 hours of weeding to do in the gardens to get them presentable but I have a volunteer who offered to help in the Upper Orchard tomorrow, so that is where I will be. I will be lugging water and my volunteer will be trouble-shooting equipment with electrical issues.

Random observations

I picked up some Black Friar plums at the local Walmart. Maybe not nectar-of-the-gods quality, but still very, very nice. I may be looking for scion next winter. Shiro and Methley are the two "toughest" Japanese plums for the northeastern US but the quality is...well, OK at best. Cummins Nursery (run by no BS people) say "Fortune" is the highest quality cultivar of Japanese plum in their part of the world.

Mrs ERJ graciously saves the pits from the plums. She would rather have me planting seeds than buying lottery tickets, even though the are the same thing when you get right down to it. 

Contractors A-A-R, work-tickets and Farmer's Carry

The contractors came-and-went yesterday.

One of the members of the crew lives north of Sparta, Michigan and commutes every working day to the south side of Brighton, Michigan. It is 140 miles, one-way and an honest two hours time when the weather is good and there are no accidents or construction.

Today's first job (mine) took him half-way back toward home. The next job will take him into the city of Detroit. From there he had to return to the south side of Brighton to drop off his equipment and then drive back home. He has ten grandchildren and likes to play golf. He carries a 9mm handgun.

Another member of the crew has a young child of about 6 months. His child is colicky and not eating well. The doctor finally sorted out the issues and surgery is required. That member of the crew is sleep-deprived.

A third member of the crew only works for "the boss" three days a week. He has his own business. Most bosses would not put up with that situation but this guy is an absolute artist with heavy equipment and they schedule jobs around his availability.

MOSTLY, I didn't try to help them. MOSTLY, I was successful.

The boss sets the tone. He was still in-transit when the first two guys showed up. I went out and greeted them. The first guy who I described was on the phone with the boss.

They started the job (i.e. working) before he showed up, which I considered pretty amazing. That is evidence of a level of trust that can develop when the same people work together over a period of time.

Other than NOT HELPING, I didn't do anything productive all day.

Today's work-tickets

I am not going to lift at the gym today. I am woefully behind in pulling weeds.

I intend to get in three hours pulling/cutting weeds.

I intend to cut the grass and move brush for an additional hour.

Core Strength

This video is long and boring and mentions a number of exercises that I never heard of. 

The link should pop you into the video at their #1 choice for improving core strength and it was something I understood.

Farmer's Carry is their #1 choice. Also known as "Lugging buckets of water in the orchard".  

 

A little bit of older music

Whether you liked the music or not, there were certain songs and movies that were iconic and captured some of the zaniness of the age. Contrary to what today's SJW kill-joys would have you believe, we were supported body-positivity even back then.

We could even poke a little bit of fun at ourselves. 

 The Bertha Butt Boogie (long)

Fat Bottomed Girls (make the rocking world go round)

And we celebrated other cultures

King Tut
 

Walk like an Egyptian

Construction update

Contractors will be on the property today. We might have to drop the power for an extended period. If so, posting will be light.

The main item on today's work-tickets is to stay out of their way while remaining available. 

Chainsaws, UPS, lost knives and arcane hardware (pop-quiz)

Somebody wanted to borrow my chainsaw

I asked "Why?" 

They replied "My friend had a couple of trees come down in his yard during the recent storms."

I told him "If I loan you my chainsaw I come with it."

Handing a random person a tool that can whack off an arm in less than one second is not prudent.

Consequently, part of my morning was spent cutting up a downed Wild Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) and Box Elder (Acer negundo). Both of those species are considered "invasive aliens" in Europe. Of the two, P. serotina is the more attractive tree.

Shipping something via UPS

A person in another state wanted a few pieces of bud-wood from one of my trees.

He shipped me a box, an expanded, polystyrene cooler and two ice-packs. He also included a return label to put on the box for the return trip.

About an hour-and-a-half of my morning was spent preparing the bud-wood, boxing it up and transporting it to a UPS Store.

Time-on-task/Clock-time

According to my stop-watch, I spent 4:38 on the two separate tasks. By my reckoning, maybe 90 minutes of it was actual time-on-task.

That is not a great ratio, only about 30% of the time was actually spent running the chainsaw or cutting scion. Time in the truck doesn't put food in the pantry.

Pop-quiz

This story start with a lost paring knife.

Mrs ERJ is quite fond of our Old Hickory paring knife. We have had it for decades. And then, earlier this week, it disappeared.

While looking through my inventory of cutting tools for a replacement, I happened across two items made of steel that I had been looking for because of other reasons. 

On two different occasions I had a need to add a degree-of-separation between these artifacts and their "mothers" thereby rendering their mother inop whilst still being able to restore their capability in a timely manner.

Timely, that is, if I had remembered the "safe place" I had stored these items. 

Bonus points for any readers who can identify the mothers of these artifacts. More photos can be provided if needed.

Closure on the paring knife

I ordered another paring knife. It now costs $23 rather than the $5 they cost in 2010. By my calculus, it is a bargain if you can make your wife happy for the cost of three cups of foo-foo coffee.

Fine Art Tuesday

 

Roman Kochanowski was born in Krakow, Poland in 1857 and died in 1945. He spent most of his professional life in Munich.

 

Weight-lifting slippers, Big Two-Hearted River and random pictures

 

Shamelessly stolen borrowed from Midwest Chick.

I recently learned that elite weight-lifters like TB wear special weight-lifter slippers while working out.

Say no more. I was on it like a duck-on-a-Junebug or like flies-on-'tater-salad. 

I was undoubtedly the envy of every other weight-lifter at the gym.

It was a LOT faster to get changed into my gym-togs. I slipped out of my sandals and slid my feet into these fox-fur (faux-fur) lined bad-boys. Camo shorts and a torn tee-shirt completed my redneck-chic ensemble...which coincidentally is the same redneck chic I sport outside of the gym.

I may have a future as a fashion "influencer". 

Sadly, I was unable to find the Tahini at the local grocery store so I had to make do without it.

Count me as a skeptic regarding most "ethnic" cooking. Folks made-do with what was in-season and what was abundant. It was an ever-shifting kaleidoscope of flavors that changed week-by-week...sometimes day-by-day.

I have to confess that I really like the way even a few plants of dill make the garden smell. 

A fun video

It amazes some people that places like this still exist in the United States east of the Mississippi River. The Big Two-Hearted River was the title of an Ernest Hemingway short-story. It is a real river in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It is not big.

This is reader CoyoteKen's stomping grounds. 

Bonus images

Chinese Cabbage seedlings cv. "Citrus". Surprisingly, unmolested by the ducks.

A cucumber in a wheelbarrow. I ran out of hands and parked the cuke in the wheelbarrow. Then, I realized it was photogenic, returned and snapped the photo. 

The tomatoes on the right side of the frame were sold to me as Rose de Bern. RdB is an 80 day tomato that is very large, round an pink. I was deceived! That cannot be RdB.

On the other hand, the seeds I saved from a winter squash I purchased last fall is over-performing.

Speaking of over-performing...

It is an article of faith in the prepper community that "you never want to become a refugee".

The backstory is that this man, a software engineer from San Francisco, Ca, convinced himself that he was in mortal danger in "Trump's America". Because emigrating in the ordinary fashion requires paperwork and takes many months to execute, he opted to emigrate to the Netherlands (a bastion of Progressive ideals) as a political refugee because it was expedient.

He was distressed to find himself interred with hundreds of other undocumented refugees who had also chosen the most expeditious path. Many of his fellow refugees were from Islamic countries where the norm is to stone LGBT+ people, throw them off of buildings or to glue random body orifices shut with super-glue.

The fine Progressive of the Netherlands understand this and he is safe as long as he stays within his room but he cannot safely venture outside of the building to buy groceries or travel to the US embassy. 

In retrospect, he determined that he was poorly calibrated when he decided that he was oppressed when he lived in San Francisco, California (a notoriously conservative metro region) making +$150k per year and he wants to come back to the United States.

Preview of the day

Today's work-tickets

• Pick up the yard. We have contractors scheduled to come over on Wednesday
• Run impulse sprinkler on west end of potato patch until 1:30
• Tidy up front porch
• Pick tomatoes
• Pick cucumbers 
• Pick broccoli 
• Tie up tomato vines
• Go to the gym
• Walk with Mrs ERJ 
• Buy whole-wheat pita bread, hummas, tahini and a bottle of red wine
• Sharpen the chain on the chainsaw (small job tomorrow) 
• Pull some weeds
• Throw bottles of water into freezer to make ice
• Cut bud-wood from a pear tree 

Last night, the weather-guessers were saying 0.8" of rain today. Now they are down to 0.5" 

A warning to my readers in the mid-West, be sure to lock your vehicle doors when you leave it unattended. It is zucchini season.

 

Organized Religion

From the comments, Old Grump wrote:

Wish I could be as comfortable with organized religion as most of you here that share Joe's acceptance. I, unfortunately have many bad experiences with the individuals and organizations that purport to serve God. Every thing from demanding people living in abject poverty to give a significant portion of any income to them while living in lavish homes, committing adultery with vulnerable members and just being accepted as Gods messenger a-la Jim Jones and the Bakers. I can't say I am totally comfortable in my stance but that's where the preponderance of evidence leads me.

It is undeniable that many horrible things have been done by people flying the banner of organized religion. Is that a failing of the people who did the horrible things, organized religion or do they share in the culpability?

The first time something happens the perpetrator is the only one who is culpable.

After the first time, or if members of the religion/church learn about the sin while it is happening and don't address it...then the church is also culpable.

God has imperfect tools to work with. He once called Peter "Satan" (literally, stumbling-block). He betrayed by Judas, one of his apostles. He was abandoned and denied by ten others and the only apostle who is recorded to have stuck with him through the crucifixion is John. 

Then, prior to Pentecost, the apostles huddled like scared rabbits trying to figure out what to do next.

I scratch my head at people who reject organized religion solely because of imperfect people when the imperfect apostles were good enough for Jesus. 

The church has always been made of, and for, broken and sinful people. And yes, I consider myself to be in that group.

Only slightly related

The church exists to serve people's needs. Different people have different needs for "connection".

Foxes and leopards hunt alone. Wolves and lions hunt in groups. There is nothing wrong with foxes or leopards or wolves or lions. They are what they are.

Before interrupting a church service in Minnesota, Don Lemon was going to disrupt a church service in the deep south. That was before he learned that every man wearing a suit-coat and every woman carrying a handbag was "packing heat".

Some people are most at peace and can talk-to-Jesus best when they are alone or with just a few like-minded people. Other people feel out-of-place when they are not in a crowd. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with either type of person. The fishers of men take us all.

Fire in the orchard, fire in hell

Typhoid Mary

Yesterday's helper showed up and worked for five hours with 10 minute breaks on-the-hour.

His job was to make the branches that were on the ground in the weeds beneath the trees disappear. They are a slip-trip hazard and make it more difficult to maintain the orchard.

He kept two burn barrels going

 

The yellow barrel was retired. The black barrel has venting cut in the side rather than holes in the bottom and proved superior.

I dragged hose and humped water for the first three hours, coasted the fourth hour doing random chores and then sat in a chair and watched the fires burn down the fifth hour. Then we dowsed the fires with copious amounts of water.

This is the second time I hired this young man to burn orchard trash. We are done for the season until we get some rain and the grass greens up.

Char from the burn we did two weeks ago, dumped out and scattered

There were some branches in a couple of the trees that had died, probably from some form of canker. I cut the dead branches out of the tree and added them to one of the piles he had staged.

Then I asked my helper if had ever heard of "Typhoid Mary".

He had not. I was overjoyed at the chance to enhance his education. He had never even heard of "Typhoid". Public schools do a poor job of teaching public health.

Cutting diseased wood out of the canopy of an apple tree is a concrete lesson in public health. 

Gospel reading cycle

The Catholic Church follows a prescribed cycle of scriptural readings that cycles through three years. The intent is to ensure that the priests don't selectively skip material that they are uncomfortable "preaching". 

July and August are harvest season for wheat in the Northern Hemisphere and we get to hear parables about harvests during those months.

I want to present three concepts from those readings:

• Fidelity of interpreting Sacred Scripture is paramount. Nothing shall be added. Nothing shall be deleted.
• Hell exists. Many souls will go there. 
• And here is the hardest one, some of our beloved family members will go to Hell.

How many people our age have become "comfortable" with LGBT relationships or out-of-marriage babies or abortion because their child(ren) or close friends are fully immersed in those choices?

 

The distorting effect of "Feelz" criteria results in words like "brave" and "heroic" coming out of their mouths when discussing those kids and they become incredibly hostile if you dare to suggest that maybe those choices are sub-optimal. If you think calling somebody's baby "ugly" gets a reaction, wait until you suggest their baby might go to hell!

 

The most pernicious effect of the "Feelz" criteria is that it results in our replacing God and God's word with our own, fleeting emotional reactions to a "narrative". And may I be so bold as to point out that when we do that we are violating the very FIRST Commandment "Thou shall have no other gods before me".

 

The great falling-away

It is no secret that people have been leaving formal Christianity in large numbers for decades. 

I think that is largely because most people figure "I don't need God because I can handle whatever the future will throw my way."

 

This argument is sensitive to the question "Can you write down a list everything the future might hold?"

 

Of course, they have to answer "No" if only because they cannot live long enough to compile such a list.

 

But then they will weasel and say, "I can handle the things that are likely to happen."

 

The counterpoint is "How can you have any confidence that your sketchy knowledge of history is a solid basis for calculating future probabilities?"

 

The kill-shot is to ask them about "combinations" like "You decided that the risk of flash-floods or wild-fires is zero but have you considered the possibility that business or pleasure might take you to Texas, Utah, California, Greece or Spain?"

 

The goal is not to paralyze them with anxiety but to help them see that they need a little bit of room for God in their life so He can carry part of their load. 

Another tangent

"I will get religion when I really need it." 

 

That statement is the equivalent of saying "I will only buy gas after my call stalls out while driving somewhere" or "I will only buy new tires after I have to pay a wrecker to come and pull my car out of a ditch".

 

Why subject yourself to the pain of having to hit "rock bottom" when you know how to avoid that pain? Is the pain of having to admit that you, personally, are not all-powerful and not all-knowing (facts that are readily apparent to everybody around you) more painful than the pain of hitting rock-bottom?

Presented without comment

 

Moving forward, sometimes slowly but moving nevertheless

I underperformed on work-tickets yesterday

The trip to the gym went well but left me wrung out. When I was in PT after an auto accident, the PT people informed me that the number of repetitions is less important than the time-under-tension.

Taking that into the weight room, I slowly float the weight off the floor, hold it for two or three breaths at lock-out and then I slowly float it down to gently kiss the floor before floating it back up. I figure about ten seconds per rep.

I was rushing a little bit through my last set because I could feel myself running out of gas.

Then we had a visitor who, it turned out, was camping at our house waiting for somebody to call them back.

I got the cabbage planted.

I got one hour of weeding done. And then I nicked my finger. I went into the house and scrubbed the cut and stopped the bleeding. By then, my behind had grown roots and I could not pull myself out of the recliner.

End result: Only half the goal for weeding and no wood cut and split.

Some days are like that.

Today's work-tickets

I have a volunteer to work in the Upper Orchard burning brush. That means I will be doing other things there.

I will lug water to the baby trees, move bigger wood to the side of the orchard where a neighbor will collect it for firewood. I might even get to mulching some of the trees and broadcasting turnip seeds beneath the trees.

If I am feeling peppy when I get home I will do some more weeding in the potato patch. 

Thigh Circumference and Overall Mortality

 

The relationship between thigh circumference and mortality of interest. The association of thigh circumference with all-cause mortality...shown after controlling for age, gender, body mass index, waist circumference, moderate activity, total cholesterol, anti-diabetic drugs, estimated glomerular filtration rate, smoking status, race, baseline cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases. The solid lines represented the hazard ratios of thigh circumference and the shadowed area represented the corresponding 95% confidence intervals  Source

The average thigh circumference was 52 cm or approximately 20.4". Increasing the thigh circumference by 10% (2") reduced the all-causes Hazard Ratio by approximately 15%.

Correlation does not prove causality but this is interesting. Increased muscle-mass is proven to smooth out blood-sugar spikes. In general, physical fitness is related to better cardio-vascular health and reduced risk of falling.

Ernest T. Bass

Yesterday's work-tickets

I humped water to the twelve newest trees in the Hill and Upper Orchard. I also watered an additional 17 trees that were planted last year. The grass on the orchard floor is turning brown in places.

I tore off one wall of a raised deer-blind and took measurements to prefab a stud-wall and cut some sheet metal.

Ernest T. Bass

Ernest T. Bass was a character in Mayberry RFD who was famous for throwing rocks.

Rocks are a weapon of last resort. They have more range than a stick but are less accurate.

A baseball is almost 3" in diameter weighs about five ounces. A typical rock that is 2-1/4" in diameter will weigh about 8 ounces while one that is 2-1/2" in diameter weighs about 12 ounces and one that is 2-3/4" weighs about 15 ounces.

A trained 12 year-old can throw a baseball at 50mph and a distance of 140 feet (Source) and reliably hit a man-sized target at 60 feet.

As a kid, I never played baseball. 

One of the items on yesterday's work-ticket list was to watch some Youtube videos and start throwing rocks. Speed is hard to measure but distance is not. 

I chucked about twenty rocks. They were all more than five ounces. Size-of-rock is one of the variables I need to sort out.

I have a long way to go to get to the skill level of a 12 year-old. I will never get as good as the rioters who were shattering hospital windows three-stories up during the "peaceful" Black Lives Matter demonstration.

There are always new skills to master. 

Today's work-tickets

Go to the gym and dead-lift.

Pull-or-cut weeds for two hours.

Put Chinese Cabbage seedlings outside in partial shade to harden off. Transplant into garden this evening.  

Tidy up the front porch.

Trim some of the branches hanging down and obscuring the view out of the living room window.

Cut and split wood for a half hour. 

Tree roots

 

In mid-November, 2025 I hired a gentleman to run a trenching tool between the walnut trees that were east and down-slope of the Hill Orchard.

Most of the roots he cut were not very big, between the thickness of 14-2 Romex and garden hose. I expected them to be thicker. The trench was 35 feet from the closest tree trunks.

A few of them were a bit thicker than that.

This picture was taken today. The walnut trees (and a swamp) are to the left of the image. The trench is the slightly lighter green strip diagonally through the center of the frame (top-to-bottom), Upslope of the trench, where you would expect it to be drier, is GREEN.

The walnut roots are still leaching toxins into the soil but they are not sucking moisture and nutrients out of the topsoil.

Frankly, I am surprised by how brown and stressed the grass on the left side of the image is compared to the left right side. Bottom-line, tree roots are devastatingly effective at extracting moisture and nutrients from the soil.

You can see this in farm country. Corn growing within 2X of the tree's height will be stunted and runty during dry summers. 

Note for TB: It isn't just the shade. You might consider raised beds with a barrier beneath them to prevent the tree roots from infiltrating the beds. Or, if they community garden managers allow it, trench around your plot...as an experiments...to see if it makes a difference. 

Good work is a gift to the worker

Some days were made for working.

God made yesterday to be exactly that kind of day.

Temperatures started out in the mid-50s and topped out in the mid-70s (Fahrenheit).

I got to everything on the list of work-tickets except weeding the potato patch and I have it on good authority that they are still patiently waiting for me. 

Good work. The right kind. The right amount.

I started at 7:00 and tapped-out at 3:00. The last two hours were spent cutting and splitting Honey Locust. I don't cut much wood during the growing season and was surprised by how sappy and sticky the wood felt as I carried the raw pieces to the wood pile.

Beets after deer ate their leaves.

Radish seeds popping up

Root suckers from a St Julien plum. I have a collar filled with potting soil around them in hopes of them throwing roots.

Yesterday's harvest of tomatoes. Total for the year is 177 grams. Still pretty rough looking. These fruit came from the bottom of the plants. They are still within range of slugs and duck bills.

Comic relief

 

The weeds of summer are outrunning me

Yesterday turned into a recovery day. I only did two things of note after the Paul the tree-guy left. 

I went to the gym and asked the trainer about options when the dead-lift platform was occupied. There have been a few times when other lifters are using it and I am not willing to wait. Darius suggested that I lower the bars on the squat-rack to the lowest position and use that. While I was fiddle-frogging with that Darius and Vlad volunteered to critique my form. Apparently, I am using too much of my knees and not hinging enough at the waist. Who knew?

The other productive thing I did was I tied and dropped lengths of twine between the bamboo poles that extend the height cattle panels I am using to support my tomato vines. That effectively results in a vertical support every 12 inches for 24 feet.

 

Because I goofed off yesterday, I have a very long list for today. To slightly paraphrase a farmer saying: One advantage of having an enormous pile of fertilizer to shovel is that you get to choose the side you shovel from.

• Run the hose to the drip irrigation in the (Eaton Rapids) orchard and turn it on.
• Mow the orchard
• Dig one hill of potatoes for the kitchen, pick peppers and eggplant 
• Pick Yamhill hazelnuts before the squirrels get all of them 
• Mow the weeds in the fenced garden and till*
• Pull or cut weeds in potato patch, 200 feet of row
• Start cutting, splitting and stacking the Honey Locust logs littering the yard
• Move the impulse sprinkler head for watering a different portion of the garden tonight. The MSU IPM site shows 12.3 inches of evaporation potential since May 1, 2026 versus 6.8 inches of rain for a deficit of 5.5". Very little rain is predicted for the next ten days.

*My plan is to have a horse-race between three varieties of spinach: Space, Flamingo Improved and Red Tabby. Mrs ERJ enjoys eating spinach.

The internet suggests that for my area, the prime time to plant spinach is between August 10 and August 20. It also informs me that keeping the soil moist is critical, probably because the seeds don't germinate well when they are warmer than 75 degrees F. I have twenty days to prepare the seed-bed for the 2026, Eaton Rapids spinach trials.

Guardian Angels

I recently learned that Matthew 18 is the basis for our concept of Guardian Angels. Matt 18:1-6, 10

At that time the disciples approached Jesus and said, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.  

See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.

When the train jumps off the tracks...

Yesterday's work-tickets dropped like flies. Well, at least the first two did.

I elongated the holes in the frame of the Troy-Bilt tiller. It turned out that I only needed about 3mm to get the belt squared away. I guess that when the shafts are very close together, it doesn't take much misalignment to make them look horrible.

I added the gear lube and let it sit nose-up for 20 minutes to ensure that the lube flowed all the way back to the tiller/tines. Yes, it says to do that in the manual.

I got the cabbage sprayed for cabbage-loopers.

And then...and then....

Mrs ERJ pointed out a branch from our Honey Locust that shades the south half of the garage. The branch extends 35 feet from the tree trunk to the west end of the garage

Yep, that is a problem.

She called my attention to the split.

I started trimming branches from the far end but quickly ran out of length to my pole saw.

I suggested that I should purchase a fall-harness, lanyard and rope and work from the roof of the garage.

She "suggested" that there are some jobs that are best handled by professionals with truck-mounted cherry-pickers.

It was not an argument I was willing to pursue.

She worked her magic with the phone.

Paul pulled into our driveway at 8:52 a.m.

I was a little slow to start taking pictures. He is almost done.

The last chunk he removed

Width

A good view of the split

He was gone by 9:55 a.m.

I am very proud of myself. I didn't give him any advice at all.

Highly recommended for tree work. 

Fine Art Tuesday

Trees, probably willow, that were repeatedly harvested for poles is in the center of the frame. That style of tree is called "pollard".

Ole Ring was born in 1902 in Denmark and he died in 1972. He was the son of a notable painter, L.A. Ring. It is truly a pity that he had not been christened "Young" Ring.

His work interests me because he is painting everyday scenes from almost exactly 100 years ago. Horses were still common. Fuel was expensive and poles (probably for gardening and rough carpentry in the barn) were harvested from trees. 

A willow beside a ditch recovering from a severe hair-cut. The wood was probably harvested when the ground was frozen. A couple of years of regrowth showing on that tree.

Probably not yachts but working boats. Small cabin near stern for sailing during bad weather.

Thatched roofs in the background. The driver is sitting on a hank of straw, perhaps the seat had been wet from the dew.

Windmill in the background.

Horses pulling a freight wagon. Lights mounted on building on the left.

Pollard willow beside pond. Rock rip-rap on left bank implies it might be an artificial pond. Windmill in the background.

Sycamore tree on left, background. Maybe oaks on the right. Hip-roofs are a common choice in areas where high winds can lift simple, gable roofs.

I assume the water is a canal.