Fishing, cherries and squirrels

 

My fishing-buddy Shotgun on the left, the Thornapple River on the right

My set-up.

We were fishing behind the Good Times Pizza place. There was lots of evidence of fishing pressure. We didn't catch any fish. A bad day fishing is better than a good day at work.

For the record, Good Times Pizza does not sell pizza-by-the-slice in the evening but they do sell ice cream cones if you need a bite to eat on the way home.

Cherries

Some of the releases from the U-of-S breeding program

I am struggling to get excited about planting cherry trees or bushes.

The University of Saskatchewan cherry breeding program has been in motion for about seventy years and they released almost a dozen "bush" sour or "pie" cherries in the last decade. Every release seeming to be an improvement on the last. It is notable that the bushes stay shorter than 10' tall and that the cherries are highly pigmented.

Northstar sour cherry. Northstar is a naturally small tree. Released by University of Minnesota

All of these varieties are extremely cold-hardy and you would think that I would be excited about them.

However, most of the U-of-S releases are small, i.e. 4 grams or 110 to the pound. "Cupid" and "Wowza!" are exceptions at 70 to the pound. Sweet cherries like "Bing" run 45 to the pound. That size means that mechanical cherry-pitters will struggle to handle them. The small size and red color also makes them highly attractive to starling-sized birds.

Another downside, for me, is the lateness of their ripening season. I seem the "Dacha" folks growing lots of cherries and it fills a hole in the fruit ripening season. That is, late-June and early-July. Cupid and Wowza! ripen in late-August so they are competing, labor-wise, with peaches, plums and early pears.

Looking at the labor required to prepare late-ripening pie-cherries for the table vs other fruits, peach cobbler is far less labor than a cherry pie and will feed more people.

So...I am going to leave my wallet in my pocket and not plant any of these. Sometimes and in some places "No" is the correct answer.

The war against squirrels

I got one with the shotgun yesterday. He knew I was there and was hiding. I played a You-tube short of a juvenile red squirrel chattering and he couldn't stand it. 20 gauge, cylinder choke, 7-1/2 shot, 30 yards. The lesson is that losing your temper can get you killed.

Suddenly, I want a WIFI speaker for my phone. I visualize placing it about ten paces away from me and playing this video. My thinking is that they will not be focusing on me, plus, the speaker will be louder than my phone.

On-the-other-hand, I was working in the garden with Mrs ERJ when I heard a 110 body-grip trap go off. I went to investigate and saw that I had captured a red squirrel by his left-rear quarter and he was dangling in the air. Since I didn't want to disturb Mrs ERJ by euthanizing the catch I waited a few minutes for her to go into the house. In that short time, the swinging squirrel had managed to grab some clutter on the ground and twist himself out of the trap.

Lesson learned: Mount the traps so the lowest point on the trap is at least 15" from anything on the ground when it is hanging by its chain. 2' is even better.

The bad news is that I now have a trap-wise squirrel in the barn. 

Today's work-tickets

Go to a funeral.

Go to a family event.

Plant a row of radishes.