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Post by steev on Dec 7, 2016 21:08:46 GMT -5
I may need to move to Kansas; I want to rest on the farm, but I don't think it's legal in Cali; I may have to be cremated (not my first choice due to cost of energy and pollution from amalgam fillings) and quietly poured into a hole there. My kin know my inclinations, though I'll not be concerned despues, whatever.
All things considered, I want to be the most ecologically re-cycled possible, as I think we were designed to be, in the wisdom of our Great Mother. I really don't think legislative BS trumps Her design. As the leaves fall and return to the use of the biome, why should I not?
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Post by walt on Dec 8, 2016 17:42:50 GMT -5
A bit of a shock for someone a couple of decades on deciding to put a garden in there. You mean finding out the new garden has already been double dug? |
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Post by steev on Dec 8, 2016 18:21:07 GMT -5
Since I intend to be pushing up an olive tree, unless they rip it out, it could be 1000 years before anyone finds my remains or the hoard of gold artifacts I'll be taking with me.
Anyone interested in the gold, don't read this!; (That should get my 20 acres double-dug).
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Post by prairiegardens on Dec 13, 2016 13:37:07 GMT -5
That's like the guy in prison who wrote to his dad not to plant potatoes in the garden that year as that's where he buried the bodies... the police went and dug up the whole garden and found nothing. When his dad asked what that was all about, he said it was the only way he could think of to help get the garden ready for planting, being as how he wasn't able to get there to do it.. I could only wish that any of the people I've hired would show such initiative!
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Post by reed on Dec 24, 2016 6:40:36 GMT -5
Not sure what thread it was in but while back I wrote about a great junk store find, a Red Chief iron corn grinder made in Louisville KY in like 1899. I haven't painted it yet but got it all cleaned up and working. I think I paid $15.00 for it which is $100s less than a nicely restored on on Ebay. It works fine but has a couple damaged parts and the original wood handle is missing.
Yesterday I was in another junk store and found another one! This one also has broken parts but they are different parts and the burrs on it look like new! Now I can make a perfect one and another one to resell for decoration. I talked them down to $20 on this one so my total cost is now $35. I'm gonna try to resell the decoration one for $50, might as well make a profit to boot!
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Post by steev on Dec 24, 2016 12:47:49 GMT -5
There ya go; Frankengrinder!
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Post by steev on Dec 29, 2016 22:01:49 GMT -5
That's like the guy in prison who wrote to his dad not to plant potatoes in the garden that year as that's where he buried the bodies... the police went and dug up the whole garden and found nothing. When his dad asked what that was all about, he said it was the only way he could think of to help get the garden ready for planting, being as how he wasn't able to get there to do it.. I could only wish that any of the people I've hired would show such initiative! Your helpers aren't gummint-funded, so they have no reason to be so motivated; that's why I've been burying gold, instead of bodies; well, perhaps as well as; I'm all about the public/private co-operation thing. In any event, I think I've found a source of pine sawdust, already bagged, so no need to unload a 600# bag of redwood sawdust; less grunt-work is good; yay! Easier to unload/store. I expect it's of much the same utility. Getting any organic matter into my depleted soil is the issue. I think it was impoverished before the chaparral was stripped in the 40's, but seventy years of no "put-back" hasn't helped at all. It"s kind of weird to think of "constructing" soil, but I guess that's largely what I'm doing, building my farm from the ground up, as it were. Pretty much "Mars", except that I have OM closer to hand, for the hauling; at least the climate is less rigorous, so far. It's possible I'm a tad too concerned with making difficult land productive, but it's in Cali, which is ever so productive, and it's what I could afford, so I'll make it productive; what else am I to do; learn to play golf? OMG! If I'm gonna waste my time, I'll waste it trying to grow stuff. |
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Post by prairiegardens on Jan 2, 2017 0:30:09 GMT -5
Have you taken any photos over the years, Steev? From all the stuff you are hauling back all the time it's difficult to imagine there's not a world of difference between now and when you started.
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Post by steev on Jan 2, 2017 21:07:22 GMT -5
I've never tended to photograph things, rarely having a camera in reach; I suppose I should, but it's so much easier to photo-shop my memories; actually, I'd be happy to just have some good binoculars close. If I always carried all the stuff it would be good to occasionally have, I'd barely be able to walk.
Bear in mind that I'm dealing with 20 acres of very depleted silty soil; when I bought it, there was literally not a tree, nor a bush, on it, just annual weeds and not much of that, very heavily grazed. There were efforts to raise alfalfa and wheat on it in the 40's, quickly abandoned.
I've concentrated my efforts mostly on the 3 acres I've fenced from the critters; it's fair to say that it has indeed improved; it certainly grows more luxuriant weeds with little attention.
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Post by prairiegardens on Jan 3, 2017 17:48:55 GMT -5
Right. I always think I will remember but when people show up with photos it's often a bit of a surprise to see just how much of a change has happened. Sometimes a photo is a boost when it seems that no progress has happened because it's gone through transition so slowly. But I never think to take photos either.
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Post by steev on Mar 25, 2017 1:34:30 GMT -5
Sure not taking photos this year; you have no idea how much weed-seed has been waiting for enough rain to sprout; being well acclimated to the area, those weeds are cranking in overdrive; the brome is already maturing seed; I've been seeing mushroom species I've never seen before, both on the farm and in Oakland.
One day, I'll have nothing else to do, so I'll dig out the photos I took when we surveyed the farm and take some current ones, then try to dope out how to get everything uploaded, if I haven't lost too many neurons to accomplish that task.
It has occasionally occurred to me that were I more inclined to photography, my memories of past girlfriends would be less soft-focused; I've always been short-sighted, rarely seeing beyond the moment. Oh, well; water under the bed, nes'ce pas?
In any event, it seems others have discovered the bunny-beanery; there are rarely more than 2-4 bags these days; it's fine, so long as it's not going to the dump. I will simply, being an experienced freeconomics forager, cast my net wider. These resources get discovered by more people and competition grows; that's good; it leads to less waste. So far, I have the energy and flexibility to stay on the cutting edge of freeconomics. I think perhaps I feel not unlike "my village's star hunter", knowing that my days in the game are numbered, but not yet run out; I don't doubt that there are massive scores yet to be had, ere the fat lady sings.
Freeconomics Rule!
I wonder what happened to the company that was turning coffee grounds into mushroom kits (I got bags of their squeesings, for awhile); guess that idea didn't fly.
Oh, well, perhaps an opportunity for a more agile forager to harvest urban waste; that depleted coffee grounds really wakes up the crops.
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Post by steev on Apr 5, 2017 19:43:21 GMT -5
A client finally decided to rid her yard of some narcissus she'd never liked, due to its fragrance, so she gifted me ~40#/50# of plants; I'll plant them on the farm or let them dry off, whichever comes first; I think they're all Paperwhites, so I also think they stink, but narcissus loves the farm and I'll not plant them too near upwind.
Just occurred to me to scatter-plant them among the spuds; take that, gophers!
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Post by richardw on Apr 6, 2017 2:50:46 GMT -5
Best planted up wind if one loves the stink, bit of a bugger if the wind changes though.
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Post by steev on Apr 8, 2017 0:31:40 GMT -5
The wind's mostly East/West,so I'm not much concerned; that's how the spuds are planted, so I'll grin and bear it, if it comes to that.
I can't complain about free gopher-deterrent, even if it does stink.
BTW, I forget; was I supposed to send you some gophers? If you missed them, I'll send more PDQ.
I never got the tiger snakes T said he'd send; I'm so disappointed; sniff.
Being trained a zoologist, and loving Herpetology especially, I'd enjoy goannas (monitor lizards) of any stripe; did I post my history with a Komodo Dragon?
Apparently not; so to refresh: when I was a kid in Stockton, the local museum had a basement room which had an "Indian burial ground" and a stuffed komodo dragon exhibit; those were the "scariest" things (the most obligatory for kids) to go see. Thirty-some years later, I took my daughter there, but they were both gone (the Indian remains having been re-patriated).
Couple years later, I took my daughter to a Summer program in Tilden Park, Berkeley, and that lizard was in the building! Seems an official from the park had gone to a conference at that museum; all the parking had been full, so she went around back to park and saw this komodo dragon in the dumpster, so she brought it to Tilden Park; damned thing was following me. I think it's now in the Los Angeles area, clearly having lost the trace.
Now, that's some re-cycling junk! I think that puppy had been caught in the Thirties and literally thrown away once.
If I could get it, I'd keep it in my living-room, having a closer relationship than to most of my family.
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Post by steev on Apr 20, 2017 23:59:03 GMT -5
BTW, research has just been published detailing remarkable antibiotic properties of some factors in the blood of Komodo dragons; not going to be widely available soon, there being very few in captivity (maybe only one) for tapping; the free ones being very strong, aggressive, and uncooperative. Maybe it can be analyzed and manufactured, otherwise, it'll be: (Hey! I just want to drain some of your blood; it'll only be a little pinch when I insert the needle. Damn! You bit me, injecting an awful mix of bacteria and venomous saliva; stop jerking me around, so I can try to escape before I die of sepsis, poison, and having pieces of me ripped off!).
We might be better off if we stop escalating the arms race between us and the bacteria by trying to carpet-bomb them for prophylaxis; they seem clearly able to respond faster than ourselves and they do it "old-school" with genetic drift (evolution).
Wow! I wonder whether any religious fundamentalists (aside from Christian Scientists: some of my forebears) regard bactericide-resistant bacteria as a hoax because "evolution is just a theory", not mentioned in (insert favorite "Holy Book", written prior to the discovery of bacteria).
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