Like Sherman's March through Georgia

 

The Ukrainians you follow in Poltava are now in trouble.  Power, food and fuel in the Oblast have been utterly destroyed.   Every gas station in Poltava has been destroyed.  Stores across the country are devoid of refrigerated and frozen foods.  A lot of dry staples are also no longer available.  The Russians have destroyed 70%+ of Ukraine's cold & dry warehouses in response to the Ukrainian Wildberry and Ozon strikes.  The Russians are also being hurt, but not to the extent that the Ukrainians are getting hurt.   -From a Friend of the Blog

The friend of the blog also provided a link describing the creeping escalation of the Uke-Rus war. 

As logistics crumble, volume often becomes the limiting factor and not weight. A truck that carries packages of potato-chips or breakfast food cereal can usually carry far more weight in terms of flour, rice, beans, cornmeal, lard, sugar, raisins and dried milk than they did of potato-chips.

Those staples are also shelf-stable.

"It can't happen here"

Yeah, well, there are bad actors bending every effort into hacking their way into the information systems that are the brains for the US distribution systems for fuel, food and other merchandise. They don't need to drop bombs. They can either crash the system or to insert random amounts for 5% of the items that are scheduled.

Mrs ERJ will be giving a Millennial a cooking lesson today. He will learn how to turn rice, lentils, onions and celery into a savory main course. It can also be used as a side-dish to stretch out other meals. Basic recipe here. 

Lentils are a good first-thing to teach because they cook quickly.

At the most retro and primitive level, a double-handful of wheat can be put in a 3 quart pot, soaked over-night, drained in the morning, covered and left to soften for 14 hours. Then covered with water and brought to a vigorous boil, pulled off of the heat and nested in a box filled with straw for an hour. All in the same pot. Just wheat, water, time and enough fire to bring it to a boil. 

A lot of fuel is used to rehydrate the grain when using traditional methods. If you separate the rehydration from the cooking, you need less heat. A single slat from a pallet would do if you know how to build a fire.

It is worth noting that one of the Youtube channels I follow is of a family who market-garden to supply vegetables to a "farmers market" in the big city. I think she will be getting very good prices IF she can transport  her vegetables to the market. The war on logistics compresses supply chains.

 

Tip of the hat to anon Friend of the Blog. 

Grab-bag

I used a step counter for two days and then lost interest. I put it down and now I cannot find it.

I had no idea of where I fell with regard to the magical 10,000 steps a day. The first day I wore it I hit 16,000 steps and the second day was a recovery day and I hit 13,000 steps.

What I quickly noticed is that walking a mile is approximately 2200 steps while running the same mile is about 1600 steps. If you are only looking at steps, then walking is more "activity" than running. Furthermore, walking for twenty minutes is about 2000 steps (with most people not hitting 3mph unless working at it) while walking up-and-down a flight of steps might log 640 steps.

Protein

It was suggested that eating more protein might speed my recovery and reduce the discomfort during my off-days. 30 grams of protein thirty minutes after a "heavy" work-out was mentioned.

Looking at my diet, I am ridiculously short of the 140 grams of protein per day a 200 pound "athlete" might consume. 

What do you guys and gals think?  Any favorites for protein-rich, post workout meals?

Giant Foxtail

The sparrows were feasting on the Giant Foxtail seeds in my garden. Alas, that means that the seeds are viable. They would not be bothering with them if the seeds were not filled with carbs, protein and fats.

More paper-wasps and hornets

***AI was consulted during the writing of this section. May contain errors or manufacturers may change inert ingredients***

For a variety of reasons, paper-wasps and hornets frequently build their nests in and around security cameras.

There are many products that can be used to kill the stinging insects from a safe distance. Most, but not all of them, use a highly volatile petroleum distillates as a base. However, some of the most common ones use mineral oil as the inert carrier. 

Even though mineral oil can improve how the insecticide "prints" on the feet of hornets that were not in the nest when you sprayed it, it has several disadvantages. For one thing, it can stain the siding of your house and it can leave a hazy film on the optics of your security camera that attract dust and decreases the "sharpness" of the images.

For instance, Hot Shot Wasp & Hornet Killer advertises a 27' range but it uses mineral oil which can stain siding and leave a hazy film on the lens or lens-cover of your camera.

Raid Wasp & Hornet Killer is another widely available product with an advertised range of 25' and it also has a mineral oil base.

Even organic products are not necessarily free from staining or that hazy film since some of them contain canola oil.  

"Medicare for all"

"Medicare for all" is one of the main talking points for the Progressives this election cycle.

Most people our age worked 45 years and had 2.9% skimmed off as taxes to fund Medicare. Half of that 2.9% was visible and showed up on our pay-stubs. The other half was extracted from the employers and was a cost of labor that was not available to pay as wages to retain productive employees.

There are currently about 70 million people receiving Medicare benefits. The Progressives propose to increase that to 350 million or by a factor of five. Is the plan to increase the payroll tax to 15%? If the median household income in the US is about $60k, then we are talking about dinging the average household for $9k/year. Will that be enough? The unsubsidized cost of Obamacare for a married couple is about $24k/year.

I know that "Boomers" have a reputation for being resentful, but where is the fairness of paying into a system all of your working life and just as you start getting the benefits, those benefits are extended to "...all", even the guy who slipped into the US without documentation? 

This and that

 

Before

After

14 pounds of tomatoes and a zucchini the size of a baseball bat. I added canned tomato paste, five teaspoons of citric acid and dried "Italian herb" mix. It was pretty watery as I put it into the jars so I added a tablespoon of Augason brand dried vegetables to each pint.

Gardening fail

On Friday, I picked a half dozen eggplant fruit for a family we see at the gym. They didn't show up. I left it on the counter and now it is wilted and now it is not pretty enough to give away. Who knew eggplant fruit dehydrated so quickly?

Rain

We are looking at an all-day rain. So much for running outside.

One of the finest bit of wisdom I encountered came from a Beginners' Book on Running. The author stated "Our bodies lie to us all the time. They tell us how horrible it will feel to run. Run anyway. Start slow. Give it ten minutes. If your body is still screaming after ten minutes then stop running. If you feel better after ten minutes than it did during the first 45 seconds, then you can probably keep running." 

That wisdom applies to more than just running. Our minds hate uncertainty. Doing something new or different than what you are doing right now is a source of uncertainty.

Give yourself permission to push the mower for only ten minutes. Or tell yourself, "I will go out an pull weeds for ten minutes and then I will stop if it hurts. You don't have to work at top speed. Show up. Do what you can as your mind and your body adapt to the new environment.

After ten minutes, your brain and body might decide that switching tasks is undesirable and tell you "Maybe you should go into the house and grab a hat and bottle of water so we can do this a little bit longer."

Following my own advice, I put on a 40 pound ALICE pack and walked the stairs for 15 minutes. I stopped because it is time to shower before heading to church.

Maybe I will knock out another 45 minutes after we return. 

Thoughts on sprinting

Sprinting is a very specific gait. The heels never touch the ground. The center of mass for your trunk does not bob up-and-down but should move through space arrow-straight and not yaw.

Since your legs are attached to your trunk and since you are violently accelerating them 180 degrees out-of-phase, you must compensate by violently throwing your arms to counterbalance your legs to achieve that arrow-straight trajectory.

Good sprinters have massive shoulders

There may be times when I have to accelerate and move like a rocket. That means I will be sprinting. It is something that I can train for.

I asked AI "Who is Eaton Rapids Joe?"

Overview of Eaton Rapids Joe

Eaton Rapids Joe is a pseudonym for a writer known for his contributions to political fiction and short story anthologies. His works often explore themes of secession and dystopian narratives, reflecting a unique perspective on contemporary issues.

Writing and Themes

Key Attributes

• Genre: Political fiction, short stories
• Themes:
  • Secession
  • Dystopian futures
  • Social commentary

Notable Works

Eaton Rapids Joe shares his writings on his blog "Eaton Rapids Joe" where he engages with readers through various musings and book reviews. His stories are typically presented in bite-sized formats, making them accessible for readers who enjoy short narratives.

Community Engagement

Eaton Rapids Joe is part of a broader community of writers and readers who appreciate political and speculative fiction. His work contributes to discussions around important societal themes, making him a notable figure in this literary niche.

What are the main themes of Eaton Rapids Joe's political fiction

Eaton Rapids Joe's political fiction primarily explores themes of individual estrangement from society and the impact of larger political forces on personal lives. It often critiques contemporary political issues while reflecting on historical contexts and societal decline.

How does Eaton Rapids Joe's writing reflect contemporary political issues?

Eaton Rapids Joe's writing reflects contemporary political issues through plays that engage with ideological divides and identity politics in theater, as seen in works like Heroes of the Fourth Turning, which portrays conservative perspectives sympathetically. His work aligns with broader trends in political theater that challenge mainstream narratives and explore moral foundations within societal debates.

********

I have no quibbles with any of the above although I would substitute "empowerment" for "estrangement" and "...notable..." is not as impressive as it used to be, not with dozens of spiders sifting through every keystroke logged on the internet.

The consultation on an educational orchard

The reader who asked for a "consult" on the orchard that was going to be planted as part of a high school's science program communicated with me.

He and his wife are way ahead of the curve. There was very little I could tell them that they had not already considered. One factor that I thought was exceptionally cool is that the school is a combination middle-school and high-school. Kids in 7th grade can start experiments and will be around long enough to see the results.

The only thing that, perhaps, they hadn't given thought to was touching base with the maintenance people responsible for mowing and spraying herbicide near their orchard. I suggested that near the end of the school year to ask them what their favorite beverage is and to give them a case of it. If day-shift like Diet Mountain Dew and night-shift likes Dr Pepper...then buy a case (24 cans) of each and personally present it to them.

That changes the dynamics. It shows that you appreciate that the orchard complicates their jobs. It demonstrates that you know and honor the importance of what they do. You become real people to the under-appreciated people who could either be extremely protective of your efforts or resentful of it. 

The opposite of discipline is not freedom, it is dependence

The opposite of discipline is dependence  -Seth Capehart

The Siamese-twin of dependency is resentment.

Dr Capehart makes the point that medical science is very good at keeping the husk alive but cannot keep it healthy without your cooperation. It is entirely possible to be feeble and miserable for fifteen years before the Grim Reaper comes to harvest you.

I am not talking about people like my readers K and H who had strokes and are heroically battling. I am talking about the person who passively expects technology to fix all of their problems with no contribution from the patient. They swoon and demand that others catch them.

I had conversations with "grasshoppers" and heard them tell me "I am going to live-large until I can't and then I will commit suicide. I have my doubts. Why would she, in the eleventh hour of her life, do something so out-of-character?

Like the old thrill seekers are known to say "I would have taken better care of my body if I had known I was going to live this long."

World food status

Not all doom-and-gloom for 2026! Next year might be different. 

USDA forecast 

Stockpile carried over from previous year 

2026 production 

United States, incorporating data from the most recent NASS Crop Production report from results in a reduction of 1.77 million MT for total coarse grains production (from 2025). Note that the corn belt started getting rain in late-July after months of low precipitation.

For Russia, strengthening indicators of plant health—measured using normalized difference vegetation indices (NDVIs)—across a number of coarse grain producing-regions contribute to raised barley and corn yields and an overall larger production outlook. If realized, Russia’s 2026/27 corn harvest will be record large at 17.2 million MT. Favorable conditions for crop development were experienced across much of Russia’s winter grain belt, as well as the Urals and Volga regions of the spring crop production zones.

Partially offsetting production gains for Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, the Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa (Zambia is projected to harvest a record-large corn crop)!!!, coarse grain production for the European Union is cut significantly this month, on extreme hot and dry weather that has further eroded coarse grain yield prospects for a number of countries,
including France. 

On the basis of newly-released official data from Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento (CONAB) and Instituto Mato-grossense de Economia Agropecuária (IMEA), 2025/26 corn production for Brazil is raised 2.0 million MT to 140.0 million. Larger 2025/26 production is attributable to a sizable boost for the second (safrinha) crop corn... 

Today 

I am picking tomatoes and canning them as soup-base. They are going into pint jars. ***Update: 18 pints of soup-base just finished up in the canner with another pint or so for us to enjoy tonight***

My stretch goal is to dig another row of potatoes and to till the patch of ground they were in.

Lifting notes

A screen-grab from the video. Probably my best side.

 

I wore long compression socks. No issues encountered. After my usual warm up I did one set at 205 pounds. Then two sets of 215. Then one set at 225. I attempted to take video but was not successful. 

Exercise notes

I went for a 2 mile run yesterday. I loaded up with technology. I strapped on my $13 wristwatch AND I carried a step counter.

The first half-mile was a struggle. My legs felt like bricks with no spring. i was chugging along. The time was 7 minutes and some-odd-seconds. The mile mark was 13 minutes and some-odd-seconds. The two mile mark was 25 minutes and 11 seconds.

The step-count was 1620ish steps-per-mile or 6.6 feet (2m) per stride.

The last mile of the adventure was the walk-back. I walked the first 1/4 mile to payback some of the oxygen debt. The I sprinted the distance between two utility poles, about 80 yards, and then walked the next 160 yards. I did that three times.

The first sprint was a replay of the first 1/4 mile of the run. It sucked. My left calf was complaining that it COULDN'T do it. It was a liar. 

Tomorrow is a lifting day. Note to self: Remember to wear long compression socks. 

Grocery delivery

The next item on the agenda was to work in the garden with Quicksilver and Mrs ERJ to pick up potatoes and put them in 7 gallon, fabric planting-bags. Then the three of us delivered them to "Brooke" and "Kristin".

By an incredible stroke of good fortune, "Brooke" and Quicksilver's cousins were at home. Not only that, but their pig had given birth to 11 piglets five days earlier. Quicksilver was a hero for delivering the potatoes. She and her three cousins played with the baby pigs for the next hour. 

It took some fancy dancing, but we were able to leave without buying any of the piglets. The main thing that saved us is that they were not Hampshire or Duroc crosses. Small-framed, heritage breeds are not my cup-of-tea. However, if anybody is interested in Kunekune pigs, I know a guy... 

The "Kristin" drop-off was a fly-by affair. I parked, trotted over and left the bag of potatoes on their front porch. Mrs ERJ texted after we left informing Kristin of the gift.

Apples and pears ripening early

The apples look like they are almost two weeks ahead of my expectations. Time waits for no man or woman. 

Cash flow

Unexpected truck repairs and the work done by the contractor both experienced mission-creep. I am dragging my feet sending off a purchase to Amazon, primarily to ensure that it lands on next-month's bill. The order I would have hit the "send" button on two weeks ago is still twiddling its thumbs, waiting.

I am seeing some advantages. I have more time to question "Do I really need that?" and "Do I need that many?". Another advantage is that there are some small items that benefit from the free-shipping option of a larger order. If I only made one purchase a month, then I can think about how I want to solve a problem and give the solution time to evolve.

A simple example: The Ruger SR22 and the Kel-Tec P-17 are very similar in size but not identical. A polymer holster designed for an SR22 might need slight modifications to securely hold a P-17. Those modifications can be made with a laminated mandrel inserted into the holster and the judicious application of heat from an electric heat-gun. Having a month to think it through results in the most elegant (i.e., easiest for a lazy person to make) mandrel. 

Burning brush and eclectia

Burning brush

Early

 

Moon in background behind trees

It is good to have some less aerobic chores for those times when you are not feeling quite 100% or just want some down-time.

Marketing channels

I informed Mrs ERJ that I had contacted my nephews and nieces and asked them if they wanted any potatoes. She asked me how many had responded. I told her "Two."

She asked if I had contacted my nephew's wives. I said "No."

Mrs ERJ does not have a dramatic bone in her body. She asked "Do you mind if I call them?" 

"I think that is a great idea" I replied. To my way of thinking, I would be disrespectful if I went over my nephew's heads and contacted their spouses. However, there is nothing wrong with two executives on the same level of the org-chart reaching out and making contact.

Fifteen minutes later...."Brooke and Kristin both want potatoes".

Well, that was easy! 

Empathy without discernment

My mind still boggles when women get shit-on by guys and then they take the same POS back after six months.

In more civilized times, loving family members of the woman could have a discussion with the creep, with pick-handles if warranted, and resolve the matter. Nothing too damaging the first time the discussion was had, just deep muscle bruises. 

Olive burger

Seth Capehart MD channel

Visualize Aesop (the blogger at Raconteur Report), send him to charm school, then to Medical School. Picture him with a very dry sense of humor and add 150 grams of humility.

Three sample videos

The last five exercises I would give up

How to survive a tough day after a bad night of sleep (and how to not repeat the cycle of bad-sleep

Rucking 

A Biblical passage on "prepping"

“The Kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones, when taking their lamps, brought no oil with them,
but the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps. Since the bridegroom was long delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight, there was a cry, ‘Behold, the bridegroom!  Come out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’  But the wise ones replied, ‘No, for there may not be enough for us and you. Go instead to the merchants and buy some for yourselves.’ 

While they went off to buy it, the bridegroom came and those who were ready went into the wedding feast with him. Then the door was locked. Afterwards the other virgins came and said, ‘Lord, Lord, open the door for us!’  But he said in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.’  Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”     -From Matthew 25 

While Jesus is speaking about salvation in the spiritual sense, he is using the reality of being prepared in the physical sense as springboard for this parable. He accepts as a given that people who are prepared for foreseeable events are "wise" and to not be prepared and to trust your fate to the generosity of those who are prepared as "foolish". 

Furthermore, he implies that those who prepared do not have a moral imperative to share with the foolish.

Digging potatoes and visiting a farm-stand and a playground

I dug 100 feet of row in 73 minutes. That is substantially faster than the foot-per-minute I had been averaging. The difference is that I used the electric hedge-trimmer to clear the tall weeds off of the plot before digging.

My rate-of-digging was limited by heat and lots of bending over to move potatoes to the side so the next shovel full of dirt would not cover them up.

My lower back aches this morning but it is the kind of ache that goes away after moving and stretching.

I think I am running a little bit less than a pound of potatoes per foot of row. That is an estimate. When all goes well, I expect to get three times that amount.

Mrs ERJ tells me that we will have more than enough potatoes for our personal use.

Denny's Farm Stand

Yesterday, Quicksilver and I took a field trip to Denny's Farm Stand in Saranac, Michigan. No pictures were taken.

We purchased three pies and some donuts. Denise, the woman behind the counter was charming and gracious.

I had eaten a slice of their mixed-berry pie at a family event and it was awesome.

After visiting the farm stand we went to a playground just south of the Lake Odessa Fairgrounds. The equipment was squeaky-clean and there was a towel draped across the chainlink fence to dry the dew off of the slides and swings! The "gravel" was ground up tires so it was springy.

Quicksilver gave the donuts and the playground two-thumbs-up. 

 

They grow up so fast

Quicksilver marched into our house when she was dropped off this morning. She bee-lined to the book-shelf next to Mrs ERJ's reading chair and grabbed her phone. Then she came over to my recliner and hopped up into my lap.

She immediately started calling friends and having conversations with them, almost totally ignoring me. The conversations were animated and complete with hand and wrist motions. I was only able to understand every fourth word but the other party didn't seem to have any problem understanding what she was saying.

I took a picture of her after she put it into speaker mode. 

Random fungi pictures

Maybe some kind of bolete?

I am an absolute coward when it comes to eating wild mushrooms.

Bottom of the cap. Much wider than the width of my hand.

 

The stem

Mistakes were made

Yesterday, when the mechanic called to tell me that my truck needed two front-wheel bearings, he also mentioned that I needed to think about replacing the pads on the front brakes.

This morning, when I got dropped off to pay for the work and pick up the vehicle I said I wanted to schedule having the front brakes done.

Mike, the other mechanic in the shop said "I got time. I can gitter-done today."

I agreed that it made sense, while thinking it would have made more sense to have told them to do the work while the wheels were off for the bearing change.

I called my ride but didn't get an answer, so I started walking home. I was well hydrated, the temperature was mild, I was wearing trail-running shoes and I walk almost that distance every day.

I was off of M-50 in less than 20 minutes. Ten minutes later I crested a hill and was out-of-sight of houses. Fifteen minutes after that I was stepping off the gravel road to cut across a farm field. That is where things didn't work out as planned.

My memory was that the field I planned to walk across was planted to soybeans. The field I had access to was planted to corn. No problem. I will just follow the edge of the corn field northeast until I hit the soybean field.

Except when I got to the hunting blind in the corner of the field, the next field was also planted to corn. Whatever. I checked the compass on my phone (which is not all that accurate), took a bearing on a tree on the far side of the 1/2 mile long field and plunged into the corn. I immediately lost sight of the tree but at least I knew the rows were running North/South.

For those who aren't from farm country, corn is planted in rows that usually run the long dimension of the field with the exception of the ends which have rows that run parallel to the short dimension. It is much easier to walk in the direction of the rows which are typically 30 inches apart than it is to push across the rows which have corn plants every six-to-eight inches.

Palmer Amaranth and Waterhemp are very similar and they hybridize. Both of them are showing resistance to glyphosate herbicide.

This corn field was infested with Palmer Amaranth or Water-Hemp (a similar species of amaranth). And it was five-to-seven feet tall and it was pollinating. Batting a stem of it left a cloud of pollen at the same level as my face.

Side note here: If the weed is pollinating then it doesn't have seeds. Late August, future infestation  of some kinds of weeds can be controlled by cutting the stalks of some species of weeds even this late in the season.

I didn't have my eye-drops (Opcon-A) or any antihistamines on my person. I didn't have tissues or a handkerchief. I looked around and saw that the rows a scant 20' from me had corn that was much taller and far fewer weeds. I moved over seven rows and struck out for the far side.

In one way, the pollen that I am allergic to creates a quick reaction in my body. Primarily my eyes swelling and secondarily skin dermatitis. Even though I had been walking through that crap for a few minutes, I had no signs of an issue.

I looked at my watch. A half-mile is 10 minutes if I hustle. When I encountered a flowering head of amaranth, I didn't bat it out of the way, I gently moved it with my forearm.

After about eight minutes of walking in the corn, the corners of my eyes started getting itch. Close to the 10 minute mark, the direction of the rows changed 90 degrees. Then 40 seconds later I was out of the field.

Another aside: The soybean field was only fifty feet to the side of where I was walking. It turns out that the soybean field does not extend the entire distance.

Overhead image of the location. Green area is planted to corn. Yellow area planted to soybeans. Black spot that is circled is the deer-stand where I made the decision to strike cross-country

From there, the rest of the walk was uncomfortable. My eyes were both itchy and sensitive to light.

I had nothing clean to wipe my eyes. My shirt had also been bathed in amaranth pollen. I had been carrying Quick Silver's toy giraffe and blanket from the truck. Those were also both contaminated.

No issues with throat closing up. No hives. Just eye discomfort and my nose starting to run. I was about 3/4 mile from home.

Upon entering the house I grabbed the bottle of diphenhydramine and the Op-con A eye-drops and headed to the shower.

Lessons from the story

If you are subject to allergies then always carry meds with you that work well in YOUR body. Even when it is not "allergy season". For instance, I am very allergic to Orchard Grass pollen and for about one week at the end of May or early June, I have to be very careful. I got lazy and stopped carrying meds by mid-summer.

Your body changes and can become sensitized to different kinds of pollen or fungi after enough exposure. Challenges that were not a problem in the past can become a big problem in the future.

You might THINK you know the intimate details of your neighborhood but things change. Lots can get sold-off, blocking access to shortcuts. Farm fields can be resurveyed and the shape of it changes.

Compasses, even the crappy one on your smartphone are useful.

It is good to know how farmers plant fields. There are cases of children who became lost in fields and walked to the end of the row and then changed direction (within feet of a road) because the direction of the row changed. They were lost in those fields for MUCH longer than they needed to be.

Even if you have an X and a Y gene, it is possible to back-track and change your planned route. You don't have to tell anybody. Nobody is going to steal your man-card.

I did some things right (footwear, clothing, being hydrated, carrying a smartphone, choosing a low-traffic route). I also had the situational awareness to realize that the Palmer Amaranth infestation was more severe where the corn was not growing as well and shifted my path to the less-infested rows.

I did some things wrong...wandering into a field infested with Palmer Amaranth that is pollinating, being unaware of the subtle wrap-around nature of the corn field. I expect to be taken to task by Michael and Dan in comments for not turning around when I realized the P.A. was throwing clouds of pollen into the air when I vigorously batted them out of my way.

One point of discussion is that I had already been exposed to significant amounts of pollen before the fact clicked into place. If I had an anaphylactic reaction to it I would be toast without an epi-pen, even if I dialed 9-1-1. Walking back to the road would have just made it easier for the undertaker to collect my remains.

Human bodies are resilient. There was ot drama, no good-guy, no bad-guy. It was just "Shit happens and adults deal with it". I share the store for entertainment purposes and maybe you can be smarter than I am. I made the trip in about eighty minutes. Of course, after taking 50mg of diphenhydramine I had no ambition to do any work this afternoon.

Olive burgers: A mid-Michigan culinary treasure?

I was watching a video of a couple of guys from the United Kingdom who heard about Michigan and lake-effect snow and they called "BS".

Then they came here in the winter and toured the state.

Then they came back in the summer.

Near the middle of the video they mentioned iconic, Michigan cuisine. One of the items they mentioned was "Olive burgers", that is, hamburgers smothered with olives and then topped with melted Swiss cheese, and they pinned that culinary treasure to Lansing, Michigan.

Granted, many of our Greek and Balkan immigrants started restaurants, especially near the auto facories. 

I thought "Doesn't every place serve those?" I never saw what the fuss was about. I am more of a Club Sandwich kind of guy. If a restaurant can ruin a Club Sandwich then it is not worth eating there.

If all goes well, I will be dining with my siblings at Harry's Place on Lansing's west-side some time in the next week. I guess I will have to order an olive-burger. My sense of taste evolved over time. As a kid I found cantaloupe repulsive. Now I enjoy them.

Fine Art Tuesday

Berndt Lindholm was born in Finland in 1841. He died in 1914.

His painting depict scenes where life is spread very thinly: Stony beaches, rocks covered with moss, cows foraging in forests devoid of grass, clear water.

It is a world of hard-scrabble living and a society that does not tolerate slackers or conmen. 

Wheel-bearings and potatoes

The good news is that I turned around before I got on the freeway.

The great news is that when I called the mechanic and told him "My truck is howling. The right-front hub is warm" he said "Bring it in. I can fit it in."

I got a call a little bit later and my mechanic said "Both front wheel bearings are shot. We are waiting for parts. It will be ready by mid-morning tomorrow." And then he quoted a price.

I had the chance to talk over various scenarios with him when I dropped it off. I had already pre-approved replacing the bearings on both sides if one of them was trashed, operating on the assumption that both left and right side had traveled the same number of miles. 

Work tickets

I spent a half-hour cleaning off a concrete pad beneath an overhang.

I spent an hour pushing a lawn mower.

I tasted a seedling apple that I had grafted onto a tree in the Eaton Rapids orchard. It will be culled as will all of the seedling's sisters.

I delivered "samples" of Lehigh potatoes to two of my nephews who expressed an interest in them. If they enjoy them, then I shall supply them with more than a sample. If they say "Not my favorite", I will not supply them with Lehigh potatoes.

One of the nephews who expressed an interest in the potatoes is also a home-brewer. I might have some hops for him. Harvest season is accelerating. 

"Seven cities that will run out of food first"

There's another layer to New York that doesn't get enough attention. The city's restaurant infrastructure, which feeds a massive percentage of the population on any given day. Millions of New Yorkers don't cook. Their food supply is the Thai place downstairs, the deli on the corner, the pizza shop across the street. When those businesses lose power, those people don't just lose a convenience, they lose their primary food source. They may not even own a working set of pots and pans. The assumption that everyone has a functioning kitchen stocked with raw ingredients is a suburban assumption that has almost no bearing on how a huge chunk of New York (City) actually eats.  Source

 

Imagine somebody giving you 12 Ramen noodle packages or three boxes of "minute rice" or five pounds of potatoes and you have no way to cook them.

 

There are some efficiencies to cooking multiple meals in the same oven because the cost of heating it up is spread over more meals. But there are some fragilities when people lose the ability to prepare their own food. 

Harley Smith, Plant Researcher

About a year ago I noticed a gentleman who worked out at the same gym where Mrs ERJ and I walk and where I lift weights.

He would use some of the machines and then walk as a cool-down.

One day he was wearing a nerdy, chemistry tee-shirt and I made some kind of nerdy, off-the-wall comment about it.

It turns out that he is a semi-retired research scientist who specializes in formulating fertilizers for niche markets. Suppose you want to market potted mums that are more vividly red than any of your competitors or grow the most massive pumpkins imaginable. Harley is the man.

The last time we crossed paths he shared that he was even more specialized than I thought. He is a whiz-bang at hydroponics. Some of the reasons that is tricky is because soil automatically buffers pH and resident bacteria and fungi can make insoluble nutrients available to roots. You can't just mix random sources of various nutrients and expect them to stay soluble in the water. Some of them will want to combine into insoluble molecules and drop out of the water as sludge.

Furthermore, it turns out that he is a neighbor AND he produces a podcast. He was chuckling because his partner in many of the productions is an organic grower in Idaho while he is a wing-of-bat, eye-of-newt guy. And they both bring valuable insights to the party and both respect what the other can do.

With no further ado, here are Harley Smith's Youtube videos. There may be one-or-two random videos that leak into the mix because "Smith" is a common name...but most of them are his. If I was to recommend one video that is most likely to appeal to the broadest range of my readers, it is Microbial Inoculants and Compost Tea.

A quick case-study in siting a project orchard

A question came up in the comments asking about planting apple trees near a school.

Lacking any details except sort-of remembering that this reader might live in New England, I choose to address the project by selecting a random, un-named high school in New England and applying the rule-sets:

1. Sun
2. Soil
3. Access to water 

Sun

There is nothing but pavement on the north side of this school complex. Planting on the north side is a moot issue.

In the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere the north sides of buildings are heavily shaded. Since fruit trees are "edge-species" in terms of succession, they need at least a half-day of good sunlight.

This is the south half of the complex

 

This is the south half with shaded areas purpled-out. The shade is mostly from trees.

If you can choose between morning sunlight and afternoon sunlight, pick morning sunlight because it burns off the dew more quickly. Wet leaves and fruit often have disease issues. Also, prevailing winds tend to be from the west and structures/trees that block winds are a plus for several reasons.

Soil

Soil types in the Area of Interest

Low pH, very fast draining, low water retention, low-to-moderate native fertility due to low cation retention capacity.

Access to water

Description of the surrounding area

There is a ridge that runs north-south 1/4 mile to the west. There is probably ground-water fairly close to the surface but still deeper than young fruit trees can reach.

Proximity to a spigot on the building or a door can be highly advantageous. So is being out of the normal pedestrian traffic patterns because ripe fruit attracts vandals and fallen fruit attracts stinging insects.

There is a tear-drop of open area in the southeast corner of the property

 

In round numbers it is 80 feet in the N/S direction and 16 feet in the E/W direction.

Hand-drawing in 8', mulch-filled basins for maximum water retention, it looks like it can hold five trees on a 12'-to-15' spacing. Placing them in a straight line makes it easier for the grounds-keeper to mow around them.

 

Application of limestone is warranted. Supplemental fertilizer, over and above mulch, is probably warranted because the mulch with the lowest maintenance, stones, wood chips, sawdust, bark chips, contribute very little in terms of nutrients.

Prepare to suffer

The middle of August until the end of October is my favorite weather in Michigan. Then comes firearm deer season. Then wood-cutting season.

August offers local sweet corn, peaches, tomatoes, melons, cucumbers. Living is easy.

Exercise update

After soiling-the-bed in terms of not exercising last week, I got back on the horse this morning (shamelessly mixing metaphors).

Seven in the morning, out for a one mile run. This picture was taken on the walk back to the house.

The sun peeking up over the woods

I felt surprisingly strong at the start of the run. I leaned into the discomfort for the last 1/4 mile. A 12:05 mile is slightly better than expected.

After Mass, Mrs ERJ and I went to the gym. She walked. I did an abbreviated lifting session. I only lifted my usual warm-up and one set of six repetitions of my body-weight.

My PT goal wasn't to take up where I left off two Fridays ago but to inform my body that the vacation was over.

Homilies and sermons

I was informed that a "Homily" is a sermon that covers the Bible readings that are presented at the church service. A sermon is an assembly of moral teachings that are not necessarily directly tied to the readings.

I am still getting used to Father Bob, our new priest. Overall, the length of the Mass is a wee-bit shorter than Father Dwight, our previous priest.

Father Bob is Johnny-Onnit through the service. He scoots right along.

His homilies, on the other hand, are complex and multi-layered. They run about 50% longer than Father Dwight's...let's say 15 minutes vs 10 minutes...not that I put a stopwatch on them. He stays on-topic and makes connections between the Old (Jewish) Testament reading, the middle reading which is typically from the Letters and the final reading which is always from Matthew, Mark, Luke or John.

He also makes it personal which I think is powerful. The Bible challenges us. If properly read it SHOULD cause us discomfort because we are imperfect. It is very easy and very comfortable to make the messages in the Bible academic or intellectual. It is very easy to apply them to the person sitting three pews behind you. But when Jesus was writing in the dirt when the crowd wanted to stone the woman, it is a pretty good bet that he wasn't writing Newton's Three Laws of Motion.

From a personality standpoint, Father Bob projects as a little edgier and more-driven than Father Dwight. That is likely to seem "ordinary" after a few months. He also gravitates to families with young children. He radiates joy when he sees them and makes a point of personally greeting them. I think he knows how hard it is to get everybody presentable and get the to church before the starting bell. A preacher who is thrilled to have children in church, even if they make noise during a long homily, is a very good thing.

The scuttlebutt is that our congregation is "friendly". Some other congregations are rife with stress and conflict. I suspect that the bishop uses our congregation (actually, two congregations because we have two locations) as a Rest-and-Recovery assignment for priests who left it all on the field and need a breather to recover. Sort of like tag-team-wrestling.

Discomfort

I have a friend who shares some of my alarm regarding current trends. He talked to his priest and asked for "wise counsel". The priest responded "Prepare to suffer".

My friend, if he trusts you, will occasionally use that phrase. It is not a threat. It is a reminder that God engineered into us not only the ability to endure "suffering" or "discomfort", but to actually NEED suffering, just like an internal combustion engine needs heat to vaporize the fuel and cook the water out of the lubricating oil.

Eight minute run-time.

The presenter is an Emergency Room doctor and former military.

Context and perspective are recommended. I scoff at the newbies who are a 1/2 mile from the trail-head and clutching two, one-liter water bottles and starting to panic. They are in a county park on well marked trails and the temperature is in the upper-60F range. Obviously, they can lean a little more into "discomfort" with very little risk.

On the other hand, there are people who do genuinely stupid things like going on walk-abouts when the wind-chill is -40 or who fire-up the chainsaw in +90F heat after a hurricane without a plan to rehydrate, on-board calories and avoid the mid-day sun.

What is foreign to me and thus difficult to write about, are the seemingly vast number of people who are totally freaked out by normal physiological responses like perspiration. Sixty years of marketing imbued people with a horror of sweating. They panic. They would almost prefer a case of fulminating gangrene to the sheen of extreme perspiration.

That revulsion of perspiration spills over to all other forms of discomfort. Great, thundering herds of people are resistant to meeting new people because "it makes me uncomfortable". They don't try new things. They eat the same foods at the same times and eat in ample amounts. They sedate themselves with drugs and digital distractions. 

If your Youtube feeds are like mine, they are saturated with ads for on-line gambling. I suspect that they get plenty of "takers". Anything to avoid personal responsibility. Anything to avoid "stress".

"Prepare to suffer" is not an ominous threat. It is wise advice, like "A hurricane is coming. Fill the tanks of your vehicles, sharpen your chainsaw and bake a peanut butter sheet cake before it hits."

More sweat now means less (of your) blood on the ground later. It isn't just "Prepare to suffer", it is "Prepare by suffering".

New wine, new wineskins

National Socialist German Workers' Party

The warm embrace of Communism by Gen Z is entirely baffling to those of us in the Boomer Generation. "How can they be so naive?" we ask.

Some of that is because as Boomers we saw movies like The Killing Fields and Sophie's Choice. We saw reenactments of recent events; 1975 for The Killing Fields and 1941(ish) for Sophie's Choice. People were murdered because they wore eye-glasses or because their hands were soft. We saw mothers having to choose which children might live and which were sent to concentration camps.

We have no illusions about what happens when totalitarians consolidate their control over the government. They murder on an industrial scale. They eliminate everybody who is invested in the old regime, much like a male lion kills every male lion in the pride when he takes over. Only his genes will survive.

Even Jesus observed "No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse.

People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”  -Matt 9:16,17 NAB

 

The Gen Z point to Scandinavian Socialism and claim "It will be like that!"

 

My beef with that argument is that the Scandinavian countries had very strong, national identity and pride as they implemented socialism. Gen Z has been taught to hate the United States and to repudiate our history. They are fully primed to liquidate ties to the past. Many people under 40 are very angry and very envious of "rich people" who are statistically quite likely to also be "old people".

 

The twist in Sophie's Choice is that her family were ardent supporters of the new regime but were liquidated nonetheless. They were perceived as a threat and as "compromised" and were destroyed. They were "snowflakes" and it was incomprehensible to them that they would be killed with no more thought than a camper slapping a mosquito. 

 

It is very unfortunate that a movie like TKF or SC has not been made in the life-time of Gen Z and the Millennials.

Grab-bag

The spinach cultivar trial is not going well. The tiny seedlings are being trampled by ducks. Maybe some will make it. Maybe not. The stand will be so sketchy that any conclusions will be garbage.

On the positive side, I trapped a woodchuck INSIDE of the fenced-in area last night. 

Rain

Digging potatoes is postponed until late Wednesday. It takes three, full days for my dirt to dry out enough to be workable. Trying to rush things is like picking at a zit, it only makes things worse.

Growth of new fruit trees in the Upper Orchard

This spring I planted 12 fruit trees in the Hill and Upper Orchard. If you had asked me before I pulled out the tape measure and took data, I would have told you that most of them were woefully short of the 24" growth target.

I adjust my fertilizer applications so that I get more than 24" of shoot extension* while I am growing-the-tree to fill its place in the canopy. After mostly fills its space, I reduce the Nitrogen to get 12"-to-8" of shoot extension because I want it to grow mostly fruit and not as much wood. 

The poultry-netting was added after the deer figured out how to reach through the welded wire mesh.

Of the eight trees planted in the Upper Orchard, all but one of them will hit the 24" of growth target. The one that will not only shows 12" of growth. It was molested by deer that reached through the 2"-by-4" welded wire mesh cage around it.

This was an over-achieving apple tree. I have the tape locked at 24" and I hook the end on the wire-mesh cage where last year's growth ended. There are multiple shoots that are 24" and one that is probably 29".

The soil in the Upper Orchard continues to impress me. If I only looked at the trees in the Upper Orchard I would be insufferably smug. If I only looked at the results in the Hill Orchard, which is right next to the Upper Orchard, I would look like a total boob.

Of the trees planted in the Hill Orchard, only the Cresthaven peach will hit the 24" target. The three apple trees struggled with poor soil and deer pressure. 

The 2026 growing season is not over. Most of the trees will put on a few more inches before they set their terminal bud.

Salmon patties

Kubota has a friend who likes to fish for salmon on Lake Michigan. The friend gave Kubota about three pounds of frozen salmon fillets.

Kubota, like many young men, isn't very interested in cooking. He, in turn, re-gifted the fillets to us.

I cooked one of the bags of fillets and saved out the nicest looking one. I turned the others into salmon patties.

Roger Miller, one of my mentors, used to really push his young trees. I recall seeing him get 8' of growth on more than one sweet cherry tree in its first year. He used heavy mulch to ensure good soil moisture and liberal application of nitrogen. His soil was relatively heavy-clay and was not subject to drought.

Is there an upper limit to the "calorie burn" that humans are capable of?

World-class, men, distance swimmers are likely to be the most aerobic athletes over-all. Being heat-limited is not usually an issue. Being a little bit tubby is not necessarily a bad thing.

Conditioning for competition usually involves changing duration and intensity of the work-out. At peak intensity, a male, world-class distance swimmer needs 10,000 Calories a day to not lose weight. During days when they are doing "recovery" and are not in the most grueling exercises, they need 4000 Calories a day.

Now, shift your attention over to the Emergency Survival Energy Bars section of Amazon or Walmart. They would have you believe that you will do just fine on 1200 Calories per day. That might be so for a few days but will not cut-it if you need to be physically active.

One "tell" on the ESE bars is that they have almost no sodium (salt) in them. They will not sustain you if you work hard enough to sweat.

I think that most people whose prepping is centered on manipulating spread-sheets woefully underestimate the number of calories it takes to be physically active for most of the daylight hours.

Side note: A Calorie is one-thousand calories. Food values are typically denominated in Calories to eliminate a bunch of zeros.