Gardens, sweet corn and cucumbers

 

I finally got over to Southern Belle's and tilled her garden. I also planted fifteen Happy Rich broccoli.

SB informed me that her husband, Handsome Hombre, was interested in planting sweet corn. For those who aren't "into" gardening, sweet corn can be a space hog and SB's fenced-in garden is only 600 square-feet, give or take a bit.

While pondering this issue, it occurred to me that there is plenty of space that is not "lawn" between the rows of their new orchards. The trees are planted (roughly) 12' apart in rows 20' apart. I proposed that the space be planted to sweet corn and maybe potatoes and melons to SB and she will bounce it off HH. It will be necessary to run a low electric fence around the patch when it tassels to deter raccoons and for some reason HH is not fond of electric fences. I assume there is a story behind that but it has not been shared with me.

Incidentally, while tilling I moved three small pieces of OSB. The pieces were about 10" by 12". They were not-quite-horizontal. When I moved them, there were three garter/ribbon snakes lurking beneath them. I can see the attraction from the standpoint of the snakes. Since they are cold-blooded, the only way they can regulate body temperature is by finding environments where they can efficiently find the optimum temperature even as the air/sun jack around the surface temperature.

If a fellow were interested in maintaining a healthy snake population, he could do far worse than to leave some piles of sheet-metal roofing or OSB scattered about his property. He might even let it be know that he considered his property to be a nature preserve specializing in sneks.

• Texas has 68 native snake species
• Mississippi has 58
• Arizona and Nevada have 52
• Georgia and Louisiana have 48
• Florida has 44 
• Alabama has 43
• North Carolina has 40
• Michigan has 18
• Minnesota has 16
• New Hampshire has 11 
• Montana has 10 

 

Cucumbers 

Some of the cucumber seeds planted May 5 are up. They will be moved to individual pots soon.

Everybody will tell you that there is no point it planting seeds from hybrid plants because they will not come "true" from seed.

Everybody is wrong. It isn't that the second generation will be poison or inedible. The problem from the standpoint of a commercial grower is that the second generation will not be IDENTICAL. The cucumbers on the different plants will ripen at various times. They will not look identical. Some of the plants may lack disease resistance.

But, most of the cucumbers (in this case) will be delicious and most of the plants will have more disease resistance than most heirloom varieties.

One caveat is that some hybrid seeds use male-sterile lines to inexpensively guarantee that the female plant (male sterile line) is 100% certain to be pollinated by the preferred pollen plant. Many of the seeds from those kinds of hybrids are likely to carry seeds that are sterile (bad pollen, no?). However, I planted 9 seeds harvested from a VERY ripe Progress hybrid cucumber and all 9 germinated. So at least I dodged that bullet.

Incidentally, there is a cottage industry where growers plant seeds from hybrid peppers, onions and the like and keep selecting until the line stabilizes. Their thinking is that commercial hybrids have a vast portfolio of genetic disease resistance including genes from wild species/varieties. Why not use those varieties as the springboard for your open-pollinated strains. Dakota Tears onion and Stocky Red Roaster pepper (probably) were developed using this technique.
 

A few pictures

 

We already pulled in a hummingbird. The red plastic lid and the pink surveyor's tape are to make the faded feeder more visible. Hummingbirds are (supposedly) attracted to shades of red. The only species we have in Michigan are the Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds. I heard him before I saw him.

I don't know if the attractor worked, but it made me feel good to think that I had done everything in my power to let them know that the bar was open for the season.

I got a late start working today. I got 300 onion sets into the ground. The ground looks funny because I press a short length of 2X4 into the soft ground to give me a frame-of-reference for spacing.

The last two-hundred feet of potato row. The seed potatoes were "single-drops". That is, small potatoes that don't require cutting. They plant much faster than cut-seed potatoes. They are "position-agnostic" when planted and obviously don't take time to cut.

The early Red Pontiac potatoes that I planted with Quicksilver's help on April 23 are emerging. 

I looked at a boat that was for sale beside the road. 13', rattle-can painted for camo. They want $500 but will probably take $300 if it sits there a couple of weeks.

Watching the farmers work the fields

Today will be a stay-at-home day with a few errands worked in.

Mrs ERJ has appointments in both the morning and afternoon. Consequently, Quicksilver and I will be spending a lot of quality time together.

Farming 

The farmers are racing to take advantage of our current dry-spell. They are in the fields doing all of the mysterious things farmers do. Many of them are three-weeks behind.

My friend who is a Nebraska farmer told me that one of the reasons for the astronomical growth in corn yields is that the seed goes into the ground to a very tight time-table. The seeds are treated with fungicides so they can go into cold, wet soil but the fungicide is not magic, it has limits.

By planting early, the emerging corn plant will have "canopied over" before the longest day of the year. More sun captured by the leaves, the more carbohydrates it can pack into the seeds. Planting late means that your corn will be trying to pack those seeds during the shortening days of August and September...and then you end up getting docked at the elevator because your corn is low-weight or high moisture...or both.

Video of a John Deere 72 row planter 

Seeder technology has come a long way. The individual heads can float with the soil contour so each seed is planted at an optimal depth, i.e. where there is enough moisture to start germination. The new planters can accurately place 48 rows of seeds at 5.5 mph rather than grandpa's four-row planter that started chattering if you went faster than walking-speed. 

Hummingbirds

 

Hummingbird Central interactive map. Some of the local sightings were from April 23. Time to put out the feeders

This and that

Another three hours time-on-task at The Property, four-hours-by-the-clock.

Filling the trench involves skiving the edges and putting the shavings into the trench (foreground), then adding fill sand to bring it up to grade (background). Then after rain settles it, add topsoil and grass-seed.

Spraying weeds. Filling trenches. Toting fertilizer.

As I was getting ready to leave, one of the neighbors walked across the street to check his mail. He wanted to talk.

He doesn't have a lot of time left on the clock. His doctor strongly suggested that it was time for him to check into hospice/palliative care. He refused.

We shot-the-shit about the dangers of speaking poorly of others. I suggested that if nothing else, you can always admire the other fellow's dog. That got a wheezy chuckle out of him.

Last week, he got his Buick stuck and called me over. He REALLY wanted to get the car unstuck before his wife came home and gave him holy-hell for leaving the house. Between the two of us and six buckets of dry gravel, we got him unstuck although he left some outrageous ruts in his yard. As I got about the tasks I had on MY list, I looked across the road and saw him attempting to repair the damage to the grass.

The next time I was at The Property, the old-geezer's wife quizzed me. I denied all knowledge of said-geezer getting stuck (which I will have to confess). She knew I was lying but didn't seem too mad about it.

Quicksilver

Quicksilver accompanied me this morning as I prepared for today's work.

We had to buy donuts to fortify ourself for the strenuous activity. Quicksilver is fond of donuts with chocolate frosting and sprinkles. A gentleman always makes it his business to learn the lady's preferences.

Then we went to the landscape supply emporium to buy a half-yard (1200 pounds) of fill sand. Of course, she dazzled them with her charm but they still charged me full price.

Seeds

It is common knowledge that "root vegetables" do not respond well to being transplanted. The only exception(s) to this are beets and (maybe) daikon. The root of the beet is, apparently, as much a swollen stem as it is a root. So it doesn't matter if the tap-root is all folded up, it still forms a round ball of sweet goodness.

Another weird thing about beets is that each seed is usually multiple seeds, like string of firecrackers. You might think you planted one seed but five or eight plants pop up and you need to thin-out the surplus, otherwise they will all be stunted.

I have to admit that thinning the surplus seedlings from a seedling tray while sitting at a table is much more attractive than doing it while kneeling and bending over in the garden. I only planted 25 seeds (cv. "Merlin") but intend to plant another 25 in a couple of weeks.

Compared to the subsistence gardeners farming the Ukrainian dachas, I am a bumbling newbie. But maybe an old dog can learn some new tricks.

Muskellunge

Muskellunge or "Muskie" are apex predator, freshwater fish very similar to the south's Alligator Gar or the saltwater Barracuda.

While reading the Michigan DNR fishing guide, I learned that the Michigan DNR believes that monster Muskie inhabit one of the creeks near The Property. In fact, anglers are not allowed to keep Muskie from that creek that are shorter than 50 inches (1.27e+10 angstrom in metric). How close does that creek run to the property? According to Google, it comes within 729 feet of The Property.

Unfortunately, Michigan regulations do not allow "unattended lines" which means I am not legally able to set a rig and then go work on The Property and then check the line when I am done for the day. 

God is great, beer is good and people are crazy

 

Another day of phoning-in my performance.

Maybe something more profound than this song will come to my attention, but I doubt it. 

The outrage and victimhood is fake, too. They just want to get their rocks-off by inflicting pain.

 

Music, Fashion, Pictures and Murder...Who needs tabloids?

 

 Watching in full-screen mode is highly recommended

Just for fun. "Someone told me long ago, there's a calm before the storm..."

Fashion is a form of ugly so hideous it must be changed every six months

In the past, the US Forest agency fined timber companies that did not cut closely enough to the ground. The companies claimed that they had to leave higher stumps on the trees growing on steep slopes but the USF agents pointed at the specifications in the contracts and accused the companies of "wasting" wood.

The timber companies groused about all of the trees that were drowned in reservoirs when they filled. Anglers were divided on the issue. Some cover is good. Too much cover means you lose a lot of lures.

Now the pendulum is swinging back the other way. This research out of Europe proposes that the "crappy trees" that are not economical to mill into lumber be topped out at 6'-to-13' and the tall-stumps be left in place to rot and provide nesting habitat. The plan for very-high latitude sites is to leave between 2 and 4 of these stubs per-acre.

Hat-tip to Tireless. 

Random pictures

Another wheelbarrow back "on-line".

Asparagus planted April 22 starting to pop up.

They look so peaceful when you can sneak up on them while they are sleeping. This one was inside the duck/garden enclosure. The "tell" were the fresh crumbles of soil at the mouth of the den.

Technologies that were not available to consumers 20 years ago. I am still shocked when a "kid" scans a QR code, pushes a button and a service is paid for. Hat-tip to Tireless

Slow response times

I am embarrassed to report that I appear to be ghosting people due to my slow response time. Please give me the benefit of the doubt when I am slow to respond. Maybe things will slow down by June 10ish. Maybe.

One of my friends (who reads this blog) offered me some incredible batteries. They are industrial-quality lead-acid batteries that are used for critical infrastructure support and they are regularly changed out while they are well above 80% life-remaining.

I regretfully declined the offer because the assorted demands on my time (several of which I don't share on the blog) mean that I don't have time to integrate systems and dial them in. I need pre-engineered systems that are plug-and-play.

The opportunity cost of tinker-toying together a system with various parts means that I will not be controlling weeds in my orchard(s) and garden(s).

Murdersicles

I have a brother who loves motorcycles. Well, OK, I have two brothers who love motorcycles.

Link

But one of them is trying to get me excited about a Chinesium Enduro (street-legal) Commuter bike. I have to admit that the ability to commute to The Property and back (70 mile round trip) on a gallon of gas is enticing.

Given the specific power of the engine and a frame designed for dirt-biking, the bike should be able to run for 50 years as long as the cam-shaft was properly hardened and the owner changes the oil. 

Bonus video I

Bonus video eleven 

The ride that he picked out for me is a Honda clone with a 230cc, 4-stroke engine that makes 14hp and has a top speed of 65 mph. MSRP of about $1700 but cheaper if you shop around.

He candidly stated that his wife is not very keen on him buying another motorcycle, otherwise he would buy one...but she is fine if I buy one. My problem is that Mrs ERJ might not be too keen on me buying any motorcycle given my age and the slower reaction times and healing that goes with that.

As my dad once told me "There is no such thing as 'soft gravel'. There is loose gravel and there is packed gravel, but it is never soft gravel." 

Fine Art Tuesday

 

Charles Marion Russell was born in Missouri in 1864 and died in 1926. He produced an astounding 2000 cataloged works during his lifetime.

Even though many of his paintings seem "starved" for detail it is part of his technique for producing the dusty, barren feel of the desert in his paintings, that is, a thin (fast drying) wash of paint. The nubbly texture of the canvas adds a washed-out coarseness that simulates the cobble of the wind-scoured ground.

For example, from the picture above we have

Russell was also notable for his sympathetic but not overly romantic portrayal of Native Americans.

In his spare time, he also did sculpture.

Russell was blessed to live in a time that adored his work. Cowboy novels sold for a nickel or a dime each, Wild West Circus shows toured the east, and Teddy Roosevelt, the icon of a sickly eastern dude who had gone west and returned as a virile man, had done much to bring "The West" into the awareness of the average American.

A tip of the hat to the erudite 10x25mm for suggesting this artist.