Woodpiles and apple varieties

Woodpile report

The slab the wood is resting on is 12' wide and the stack is a freckle shorter than 48" tall.

We got about 1-1/2 face-cords of firewood split to kindling size* and stacked yesterday.

Quicksilver helped with the restacking. It was getting pretty close to her nap-time and I suggested that we could finish later.

She was adamant. She wanted to keep working until the job was done. So, we finished stacking everything that had been split. If she maintains that stick-to-it attitude then she will go places. 

I am even more impressed with using an old tire to hold the chunks to be split upright. Not only does hold them upright and keep them from scattering, it slows down the head of the maul as it approaches the bottom which reduces the wear-and-tear on the handle when I have to "reach over" other chunks to hit a piece on the interior of the bundle. 

* The fireplace insert we have is unforgiving about the size of the wood we put into it. Mrs ERJ informed me that 16" of length and 4" in the widest dimension is about the limit. It also prefers at least one edge to not be covered with bark.

Fortunately, I still have a fair amount of ash which is a wood that splits very easily. My supply will eventually run out and I will be switching to Black Locust, walnut, poplar and random softwoods.

So far, the insert has not been very fond of running 100% Black Locust. It really wants a bit of gopher-wood to help it to ignite.

"Success" will be claimed by a hundred fathers while you will own 100% of your failures

Perhaps that is why we can learn more from our failures than our successes, the cause-and-effect is not diluted.

That assumes, of course, that you do have some successes. If all you have in your life is an unending string of failures, it is difficult to learn anything.

Photo from ARS GRIN website

Consider the apple variety Reinette Simirenko. According to Grokipedia 

"The Reinette Simirenko apple underwent rapid adoption in Soviet horticulture during the early to mid-20th century, following its official inclusion in the USSR State Register of Breeding Achievements in 1947. Valued for its reliable yields, early ripening, and superior storage capabilities, the variety quickly became a staple in commercial production, with trees capable of producing up to 100 kg of fruit from 10-year-old specimens on vigorous rootstocks."

The variety's cultural prominence was further highlighted by its use in Soviet space missions, where cosmonauts consumed Reinette Simirenko apples during flights, including a notable instance in 1978 that symbolized national pride in domestic horticulture. 

The Soviets proudly claimed that Reinette Simirenko was a native variety that originated in an obscure province in the southern part of the Soviet Union (Ukraine) in 1895. That is what the politicians said, anyway.

The personal notes of the horticulturist who introduced the variety was less specific. He left the possibility open that it might have been a graft that had lost its label. Yes, Virginia, that happens to every fruit grower. I, too, have mystery varieties growing in my orchard(s).

In the west, it is now nearly-universally believed that Reinette Simirenko is identical to Wood's Greening, an apple that was first recorded as being widely grown in northern New Jersey around 1860 which predates the Soviet claim by 35 years. The speculation is that Platon Simirenko may have obtained scion from a fellow fruit growing enthusiast in the U.K. who was trialing varieties that originated in "the colonies". Not to be out-shown by the Soviets, the British also claim it as Wood's Greening say they developed it and the Italians claim it came from Italy and call it Renetta Walder.

A look at DNA is not particularly helpful. Simirenko is slightly more similar to "Alexander" apple (a Ukrainian apple) than to "Winesap" a variety from New Jersey, but neither of them is a very close match to Simirenko sharing 5-of-18 and 4-of-18 SSR data points.

Afanasy's brother Timothy is the pragmatist. If an apple variety is a "dog" in their orchard, or if it does not keep well in their root cellar or if nobody who lives there likes how it tastes, the tree gets grafted over to varieties that work better for them. The name on the tag is almost meaningless.

Bonus images

Excessive use of the word "should" is a verbal cue that somebody lives in a fantasy-world. That person is likely to be perpetually angry because the observed reality rarely conform to their fantasy. 

 

Works for sleep apnea, too. Mrs ERJ informs me that my snoring now sounds like the gentle purr of a small-displacement, two-stroke engine trolling along.