Pictures from the projects

 

64 square-feet of shelving space.

The shelves are level. The stringers in the pole barn are not. They slope about 2" in 8 feet.

The platform without decking.

With decking it weighs 140 pounds. That might drop a bit as the treated lumber dries out. Removing 12 bolts breaks it into the top, two side panels and four diagonal braces to make it easier to move around. You know, for when I get old.

This is a fairly typical tree in the orchard. The circled area of the branch is about 9' above ground. The circled area is also 8' away from the center of the tree. Everything extending past that (another 8' or so)  is outside the tree's allotted space.

In a nutshell, deer eat tender, young shoots that are less than 6' above the ground. If the highest apples that can be hand picked are (8' (step ladder) +7' (reach) - 2' (not standing on two top steps)) then all of the apples must be carried between 6' and 13' of height. Since horizontal limbs generally slope upward as they grow away from the trunk, it is hard to create a "cone" shaped tree that ensures even light distribution throughout the tree's crown. More typically, one ends up with a mushroom shaped tree or a "flat-topped" tree.

It isn't just the deer pushing the growth higher. If the orchard floor is maintained by mowing, then any limbs that extend beyond the mulched-or-herbicide rows must be high enough to not injure people operating mowing equipment.

Commercial orchards are mostly tall-spindles. Basically, a wall or a comb with the teeth pointing upward. That comes at a price of 1000 trees per acre vs. 115 for trees planted 15' by 25'. At $20 a tree, that is a very stiff toll. Additionally, small trees have smaller roots and cannot access moisture stored in the subsoil nearly as efficiently as larger trees. Those tall-spindle hedges require irrigation.

Another "typical" tree. Too much wood carried too far away from the trunk and too high in the air.

The "plan" is to ATTEMPT squatty cones (modified, central-leaders or Christmas-tree shape) with a maximum height of 10' on the central leader and a maximum crown diameter of 16'. Why 10'? because apples will be carried on the new growth that will be ABOVE the 10' heading cut to the central-leader.

A secondary factor pushing me into aggressive pruning is the young trees that will be plugged into the holes left by culled or dead trees. Those young trees will fail if they do not get sunshine. That means that the survivors must be pruned back into their allotted space.

Fine Art Tuesday

 

There are at least four artists who go by the name Heinrick Hoffmann (or some variant of it). This Heinrick Hoffmann was born in 1859 in Kassel and died in 1933.

His paintings are mostly of the post-card type...bucolic and peaceful. I saw one of his pieces (or a reproduction) at an estate sale. Unfortunately, I was not able to find that same piece to add to the collection.

The unkind would dismiss him as an "illustrator" rather than as an artist.

 Bonus image (Schenk, not Hoffmann)

Good stories start with bad judgement

So there I was, doing a bit of back-yard carpentry work.

I decided that I needed some scaffolding to prune the apple trees at The Property. Careful measurements determined that I only needed four additional feet of elevation to do a dandy job trimming the lowest "whorls" of branches.

For those who haven't done this kind of thing. It would seem that an eight-foot tall step-ladder would be the cat's meow for this kind of thing, but you would be wrong.

Operating a chainsaw from a step-ladder has certain limitations. Among other things, you run out of arms and hands to hold onto the ladder, the branches you are trimming and the chainsaw, you don't have a bail-out option AND if a branch drops down and jumps back at you, it will knock you, the running saw and the ladder ass-over-teakettle before you can think, blink or fart.

A short platform offers more options. I can work from one end and remove most of the overhanging mass. Then I can shorten the horizontal to the length my pruning plan and the tree's natural branching dictate.

Fast-forward

My plan is to have a platform 4' square, 4' above the ground.

Unlike some of my other projects, I decided to cut the ends of the studs defining the perimeter of the platform's deck on 45 degree angles (i.e. picture-frame cuts). And therein lies the story. (At this point Roger is chuckling. He already knows what is going to happen)

Placing the 8' long 2-by-4 upon yon picnic table and carefully marking out my cuts, I proceeded to produce two, 4' long sticks with 45s on the ends. I then repeated the exercise with a second, 8' long 2-by-4.

Legs were cut. Diagonal bracing was added. Sub-assemblies were joined together. Another trip was made to the local lumber yard and 5/4" treated lumber was purchased in 8' lengths. The treating not only changes the color to gold but apparently adds to its value such that it IS gold.

Now for whatever reason, the picture in my head was that the exterior dimension was a skoosh less than 4'. Having seen decking that was nailed along the extreme, cut end and seen it splitting-out, I decided it would be extra-special-spiffy if I cut my planking 1.5" longer than the length they were spanning so the deck-screws would have some meat behind them rather than their gripping the ends of the planks by the fingernails, so to speak.

I pulled out the first 8' 5/4 treated and used the top of the platform and a scrap length of 2-by to measure the "length + 1-1/2"" and penciled my mark. I did not use my measuring tape because, like a ninny, I had laid it down instead of putting it into my pocket or clipping it to my belt. (Roger is cackling with glee. "Get the danged yo-yo" he is shouting at the computer.)

I went back to the picnic table and made the cut. Then, because I KNEW it was less than 4', I used the shorter piece to mark off the longer piece and I reduced it to the length of the shorter piece.

I repeated the same with the second piece of golden, Ponderosa Pine planking.

Lacking any better place to put them, I carried them over to the scaffolding and laid them on the framework that defined the top of the platform....

...and they were too short.

They weren't just 1.5" too short. They were 2" too short!

When you cut "picture-frame" corners, the outside dimensions grow.

Creating a word-picture of why-that-happens is difficult but I will give it a shot.

If you took two, 8' 2-by-4s and cut them into 4' lengths and them fastened them into a frame, you would create a rectangle with outside dimensions of 48"-by-51" because one dimension would grow by 2X the thickness of the wood (2-by-4s actually being 1.5"-by-3.5")

To make a true 48"-by-48" square frame, you would have to cut two of the sticks to 45", throwing away the equivalent of four, 1.5" SQUARES by 3.5" long prisms of wood.

When you cut "picture-frame" cuts, you end up throwing away 4 TRIANGULAR prisms measuring 1.5"-by-1.5" by 2.25" by 3.5" long. That is, if you aren't thinking ahead (like I wasn't).

It was painful (expensive) to mess-up the two 5/4 decking planks but I will surely find a use for them.

The fix is to scab a 2-by-4 inside of the frame. Buy two more 5/4 decking planks and cut them to 48" lengths and proceed as before. All "shortage" of decking will be chased to the scabbed end of the platform.

Just because I blog doesn't mean I don't make lots of mistakes. One of my reasons for remaining anonymous is because I have more latitude to share my opportunities-to-learn.

Insulin price and availability

President Trump issued an Executive order forcing Big Pharma to match European prices. On Mr Biden's first day in the White House, he issued an executive order cancelling President Trump's Executive Order.

The United States has, by far, the highest prices for insulin in the world. Ironically, the Eli Lilly facility in Indianapolis, Indiana is the single largest producer of insulin in the world.

Insulin is the chemical regulator produced by the pancreas that meters glucose (sugar in the blood) through cell walls into muscles, the brain cells and into the cells lining blood vessels. A lack of insulin (Type I diabetes) results in a very high blood sugar level as the liver keeps pumping it into the blood-stream but the cells that need it are not able to absorb it.

Recently, users of certain brands of insulin were sent notice that there may be a 30-to-60 day lag-time in the delivery of their prescriptions. That is a very big deal for the 2 million people in the US who have Type I diabetes and availability and quality of insulin is a life-or-death issue.

According to Al Jazeera News, equipment that had been used for insulin production has been rescheduled to produce the latest (and much more profitable) weight-loss drugs.

All that on top of (maybe) World War III going hot and cutting off supplies of, or disrupting the production of insulin from other countries.

God must have a mighty high opinion of us because He never gives us more than we can handle and things are getting mighty interesting, in the Chinese curse sort of way.

We didn't know it was the Elite's theme song

 

Quotes from Great Conservationists

I will appreciate the names of any other quotable conservationalists a great deal.

"Land is not merely soil, it is a fountain of energy flowing through a circuit of soils, plants and animals." ~ Aldo Leopold

"A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise." ~ Aldo Leopold

"The oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without spoiling it." ~ Aldo Leopold

"Harmony with land is like harmony with a friend; you cannot cherish his right hand and chop off his left." ~ Aldo Leopold

"There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot." ~ Aldo Leopold

"Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land." ~ Aldo Leopold

"Once you learn to read the land, I have no fear of what you will do to it, or with it. And I know many pleasant things it will do to you." ~ Aldo Leopold

"He who searches for spring with his knees in the mud finds it, in abundance." ~ Aldo Leopold

"Land health is the capacity for self-renewal in the soils, waters, plants, and animals that collectively comprise the land." ~ Aldo Leopold

"Having to squeeze the last drop of utility out of the land has the same desperate finality as having to chop up the furniture to keep warm." ~ Aldo Leopold

"Your woodlot is, in fact, an historical document which faithfully records your personal philosophy." ~ Aldo Leopold

"Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt." ~ John Muir

"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." ~ John Muir

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul." ~ John Muir

"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world." ~ John Muir

"The radiance in some places is so great as to be fairly dazzling... every crystal, every flower a window opening into heaven, a mirror reflecting the Creator." ~ John Muir

"In this silent, serene wilderness the weary can gain a heart-bath in perfect peace." ~ John Muir

"In the eternal youth of Nature, you may renew your own." ~ John Muir

"These beautiful days ... do not exist as mere pictures - maps hung upon the walls of memory to brighten at times when touched by association or will ... They saturate themselves into every part of the body and live always." ~ John Muir

"It may not be easy, life isn't easy, but dreams keep you alive." ~ John Muir

"Small is not beautiful unless small is skilled and dedicated." ~ Gene Logsdon

"The ultimate goal of gardening is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings." ~ Masanobu Fukuoka

"We must find our way back to true nature. We must set ourselves to the task of revitalizing the earth. Regreening the earth, sowing seeds in the desert--that is the path society must follow." ~ Masanobu Fukuoka

"Giving up your ego is the shortest way to unification with nature." ~ Masanobu Fukuoka

"The irony is that science has served only to show how small human knowledge is." ~ Masanobu Fukuoka

"A farmer does not grow something in the sense that he or she creates it. That human is only a small part of the whole process by which nature expresses its being." ~ Masanobu Fukuoka

"If you do not try to make food delicious, you will find that nature has made it so." ~ Masanobu Fukuoka

"The greening of the desert means sowing seeds in people's hearts and creating a green paradise of peace on earth." ~ Masanobu Fukuoka

"Ignorance, hatred and greed are killing nature." ~ Masanobu Fukuoka

"The only sensible approach to disease and insect control, I think, is to grow sturdy crops in a healthy environment." ~ Masanobu Fukuoka

"Gradually I came to realize that the process of saving the desert of the human heart and revegetating the actual desert is actually the same thing." ~ Masanobu Fukuoka

"Farming is not just for growing crops, it is for the cultivation...o f human beings!" ~ Masanobu Fukuoka

"Though the problems of the world are increasingly complex, the solutions remain embarrassingly simple." ~ Bill Mollison

"You don’t have an insect problem, you have a bird deficiency." ~ Bill Mollison

"The only ethical decision is to take responsibility for our own existence and that of our children." ~ Bill Mollison

"Stupidity is an attempt to iron out all differences, and not to use them or value them creatively." ~ Bill Mollison 

"I confess to a rare problem - gynekinetophobia, or the fear of women falling on me - but this is a rather mild illness compared with many affluent suburbanites, who have developed an almost total zoophobia, or fear of anything that moves. It is, as any traveller can confirm, a complaint best developed in the affluent North American, and it seems to be part of blue toilet dyes, air fresheners, lots of paper tissues, and two showers a day." ~ Bill Mollison

“I fish because I love to. Because I love the environs where trout are found, which are invariably beautiful, and hate the environs where crowds of people are found, which are invariably ugly. Because of all the television commercials, cocktail parties, and assorted social posturing I thus escape. Because in a world where most men seem to spend their lives doing what they hate, my fishing is at once an endless source of delight and an act of small rebellion. Because trout do not lie or cheat and cannot be bought or bribed, or impressed by power, but respond only to quietude and humility, and endless patience." ~ Robert Traver 

"There is but one kind of love; God is love, and all his creatures derive theirs from his; only it is modified by the different degrees of intelligence in different beings and creatures." ~ John James Audubon

"Great men show politeness in a particular way; a smile suffices to assure you that you are welcome, and keep about their avocations as if you were a member of the family." ~ John James Audubon

"The nature of the place...whether high or low, moist or dry, whether sloping north or south, or bearing tall trees or low shrubs...generally gives hint as to its inhabitants." ~ John James Audubon

"The fact is I am growing old too fast, alas! I feel it, and yet work I will, and may God grant me life to see the last plate of my mammoth work finished." ~ John James Audubon

"Knowing what's right doesn't mean much unless you do what's right." ~ Theodore Roosevelt

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." ~ Theodore Roosevelt

"Nothing worth having was ever achieved without effort." ~ Theodore Roosevelt

"Do Something Now. If not you, who? If not here, where? If not now, when?" ~ Theodore Roosevelt

"Show me a man who makes no mistakes, and I will show you a man who doesn't do things." ~ Theodore Roosevelt

"He who makes no mistakes makes no progress." ~ Theodore Roosevelt

A conversation overheard

While waiting for our order in the restaurant (the one that smelled like cat-piss) I happened to eves-drop on a job interview.

The pudgy young woman who was interviewing had multi-colored hair and her current position was as the manager of a national pizza chain. The outlet she managed was a town ten miles north of Potterville. The person doing the interviewing was a man of about 30 who looked uncomfortable wearing a suit-jacket.

The interviewer asked the job applicant to give him thumbnail-sketches of the people who worked for her.

She started out "Jennifer is my favorite. She does everything I tell her to do..."

"I don't like Brad. He doesn't like to wash pans."

"I don't like Krylon. He doesn't know how to answer the phone or write up an order."

Every person she ticked-off she led with her personal, emotive reaction to that person as if that were the most important thing.

And if you are the manager and being "able to answer the phone and take an order" is a job requirement, then it is YOUR job to train people who do not know how to do that. YOU ARE FAILING.

In my opinion, if the job interview involved a promotion, it was over after her first three thumbnail-sketches. Those people don't work for you. They work for the customer. They work for the company. You are there to orchestrate the music.

I could have saved that young man in the uncomfortable suit a lot of time.

My children say I am too quick to judge.