Food plants that tolerate flooding

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

Most resistant

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

Very resistant

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

Resistant

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

9-1-1

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

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

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

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

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

Grab-bag

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

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

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

Economy slowing down? 

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

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

Farmers

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

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

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

The Story of Everything

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bonus images

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

Early for the big, yellow morels.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How that observation might be useful

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

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

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

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

Lessons from the playing field

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was a scam.

Back in the day...

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

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

Some lessons

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Part of the Yale Snowball intramural team

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

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

The playing field rewards teams with plans/plays. 

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

Quicksilver Music Moment

Link 

Busy, busy, busy...

It has been a long day.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Random photo

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

 

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

 

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

Follow-up on the power station

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brains rather than batteries

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

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

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

Practices-and-procedures vs Infrastructure

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

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

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

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

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

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

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