getting dirty: what's in the garden?

[ClifSpliffy]

the ground has been warmer than normal since last fall, so we bumped up planting by two weeks this season (the field brown turkey figs got moving weeks before usual), and the stuff shows it, but we're bringing the water early cuz the rain has not been co-operating. the pickling cukes, hand tomatoes of various colors (no cherries or grape ones this year), and cantelopes are running nicely, and we'll be dropping in the jalapenos today.
ganims in fairdale has a really good potting soil mix, full of lobster shells and such, that he makes up in maine. that stuff seemed to wake up some old seeds that i thought were done. it feels like that 'dirt' could be magic for flowers.
get those seeds started!

 

[ClifSpliffy]

the 'world food index' took a drop becuz some boats have made it out of Ukraine. unfortunately, this drought thing is a world phenomena, and now the Yangtze is at it's lowest ever recorded, with 75% of china's harvest in peril. Danube ain't looking so good, either.
the beefsteaks, having been green forever, dramatically turned on a dime earlier this week, and are now red. the problem is that they're all baseball, and golfball sized, and not softball size. i've also got a lot of softball, and not normal, sized lopes, and they too all started to get that special aromatic scent, yet the taste on the harvested are like 6 out of 10.
oddly, tho undersized, the watermelon are pretty tasty. green peppers have basically quit, after putting out a lame quantity of thin walled crop.
jalapenos pumping it out, but they too are short, but fat.
the tales from across the State are pouring in where folks are shocked! shocked i tell ya, that a lot of their produce are getting wiped out by the animals. they're thirsty, too, and a lot of folks never took seriously the proper fencing thing. good luck stopping a fisher cat whose far from his watering hole.
cannabis are just starting to show their gender, right on time as promised by ol President George.
no bats. of course, there is no water, so that means no flies, and no mosquitos, so no food for them. have to wait till next year to see if their resurgence last year is legit, or just an anomaly. deer started getting mobile, ruining lots of gardens in the process.
trees, specie dependent, are starting to give up on their leaves.
i don't see much rain in sight for the next couple of weeks.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

the 'world food index' took a drop becuz some boats have made it out of Ukraine. unfortunately, this drought thing is a world phenomena, and now the Yangtze is at it's lowest ever recorded, with 75% of china's harvest in peril. Danube ain't looking so good, either.
the beefsteaks, having been green forever, dramatically turned on a dime earlier this week, and are now red. the problem is that they're all baseball, and golfball sized, and not softball size. i've also got a lot of softball, and not normal, sized lopes, and they too all started to get that special aromatic scent, yet the taste on the harvested are like 6 out of 10.
oddly, tho undersized, the watermelon are pretty tasty. green peppers have basically quit, after putting out a lame quantity of thin walled crop.
jalapenos pumping it out, but they too are short, but fat.
the tales from across the State are pouring in where folks are shocked! shocked i tell ya, that a lot of their produce are getting wiped out by the animals. they're thirsty, too, and a lot of folks never took seriously the proper fencing thing. good luck stopping a fisher cat whose far from his watering hole.
cannabis are just starting to show their gender, right on time as promised by ol President George.
no bats. of course, there is no water, so that means no flies, and no mosquitos, so no food for them. have to wait till next year to see if their resurgence last year is legit, or just an anomaly. deer started getting mobile, ruining lots of gardens in the process.
trees, specie dependent, are starting to give up on their leaves.
i don't see much rain in sight for the next couple of weeks.

We noticed that too about the succulents being eaten more often than in the past. Figured the same thing about the animals searching for a less preferred water source.

 

[oldude]

the 'world food index' took a drop becuz some boats have made it out of Ukraine. unfortunately, this drought thing is a world phenomena, and now the Yangtze is at it's lowest ever recorded, with 75% of china's harvest in peril. Danube ain't looking so good, either.
the beefsteaks, having been green forever, dramatically turned on a dime earlier this week, and are now red. the problem is that they're all baseball, and golfball sized, and not softball size. i've also got a lot of softball, and not normal, sized lopes, and they too all started to get that special aromatic scent, yet the taste on the harvested are like 6 out of 10.
oddly, tho undersized, the watermelon are pretty tasty. green peppers have basically quit, after putting out a lame quantity of thin walled crop.
jalapenos pumping it out, but they too are short, but fat.
the tales from across the State are pouring in where folks are shocked! shocked i tell ya, that a lot of their produce are getting wiped out by the animals. they're thirsty, too, and a lot of folks never took seriously the proper fencing thing. good luck stopping a fisher cat whose far from his watering hole.
cannabis are just starting to show their gender, right on time as promised by ol President George.
no bats. of course, there is no water, so that means no flies, and no mosquitos, so no food for them. have to wait till next year to see if their resurgence last year is legit, or just an anomaly. deer started getting mobile, ruining lots of gardens in the process.
trees, specie dependent, are starting to give up on their leaves.
i don't see much rain in sight for the next couple of weeks.

Here in upstate NY I had a nice early harvest of various kinds of lettuce along with some radishes this year. But the oppressive summer heat has basically dried up both my crooked neck squash and zucchini plants, even though I watered them daily. This is the first time ever that we didn’t get a single zucchini from the garden.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

the 'world food index' took a drop becuz some boats have made it out of Ukraine. unfortunately, this drought thing is a world phenomena, and now the Yangtze is at it's lowest ever recorded, with 75% of china's harvest in peril. Danube ain't looking so good, either.
the beefsteaks, having been green forever, dramatically turned on a dime earlier this week, and are now red. the problem is that they're all baseball, and golfball sized, and not softball size. i've also got a lot of softball, and not normal, sized lopes, and they too all started to get that special aromatic scent, yet the taste on the harvested are like 6 out of 10.
oddly, tho undersized, the watermelon are pretty tasty. green peppers have basically quit, after putting out a lame quantity of thin walled crop.
jalapenos pumping it out, but they too are short, but fat.
the tales from across the State are pouring in where folks are shocked! shocked i tell ya, that a lot of their produce are getting wiped out by the animals. they're thirsty, too, and a lot of folks never took seriously the proper fencing thing. good luck stopping a fisher cat whose far from his watering hole.
cannabis are just starting to show their gender, right on time as promised by ol President George.
no bats. of course, there is no water, so that means no flies, and no mosquitos, so no food for them. have to wait till next year to see if their resurgence last year is legit, or just an anomaly. deer started getting mobile, ruining lots of gardens in the process.
trees, specie dependent, are starting to give up on their leaves.
i don't see much rain in sight for the next couple of weeks.

'unfortunately, this drought thing is a world phenomena, and now the Yangtze is at it's lowest ever recorded, with 75% of china's harvest in peril.'
if you watch the video in this link, u will see the words 'major water sources that are drying up or shrinking in the northern hemisphere...'
of course, all of the major news outlets are today, after that post was put up here yesterday, rushing to report the story. the funny/sad part was noticing this weeks ago, yet the chinese themselves took forever to note it. one may think it was delayed to avoid panic. not me. they are 1st class morons aboot sooo many truths. even funnier is the 'financial' press, who, ostensibly, are supposed to know stuff early, cuz, you know, giving their readers the 'inside' scoop to inform their 'investments.' yeah, umm no.
Mighty Yangtze river shrinks as China’s drought disrupts industry
Danube and Rhine getting sketchy. hav a pic,

'Yangtze is at it's lowest ever recorded, with 75% of china's harvest in peril.'
gee, 1.4 billion people, i wonder what this reality will do to .... various world markets? let's ask crazy jim cramer! psycochicken, that guy.
i watched the head of Goya products on the tube aboot a month ago, and he explained why they were hard planning for a significant rise in price of their main ingredient -beans. that guys' actually in the business, so i listened intently.
guess what! guess what! he was right, as their price in the super has been steadily rising since then. bottled water too, obviously. why anyone would buy bottled water in the northeast, one of the four 'saudi arabias' of fresh water on the planet, is beyond my comprehension. we have great water - the best stuff on earth!
too many times for coincidence, 'major' news outlets report things after they appear on the Boneyard. i think that they're stealing our stuff, like that current spanos thing.
good thing that our Congress is banning the chinese from buying farmland. if not, they will purchase every square inch of Maine, cuz of the epic amount of freshwater there.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

'The best way to understand the problem is to present the numbers clearly, he suggested.
"The normal consumption in America of tomatoes is about 13 million tons," he said — but farmers this year are going to produce about 10 million tons, he said.'

it's really quite simple. Kali produces something like 25% of the planet's tomato supply, and they're in drought.
i took a few strolls around the planet, climbed the small pyramid at Giza,
heliski'd up in BC, surfed Hawaii, bought chocolate babka at zabars, etc, etc, but nothing, nothing, comes even close to the Central Valley as The Wonder of the World. the most eye-opening thing that i have ever seen.
himalayas? the Danube? ankor wat? serengeddi? glaciers? macchu pichu?
amateur hour. no food, no people.
it's really quite simple.

 

[Hey Adrien!]

Entering our 7th autumn at our current home, our first pumpkin vines have started spreading from our compost pile behind our garage. Hope some pumps grow from our dumps!

 

[ClifSpliffy]

3/3/22
'last week, that big low pressure rolling in our direction was fun to track.
typically in olden days late feb, one of those would run off the coast (a noreaster), or slightly west of there. this one was 86skidoo'n north by the time it hit New York state. the hot Atlantic Ocean continues to push the cold line, sw to ne, further nw each passing winter. what would it bring where i live?'
followed by many musings on how dry it is.
8/27/22
Two Connecticut Counties labeled primary natural disaster areas
mmkay.
aboot 10 days or so ago, i was pointing to the sky, to my neighbor fishboy. 'ya see that? that's a Deep River hail cloud pattern. odd, since it's most common in spring. it's why folks around here, when noticing a car pock-marked with hail dings, say 'must be from Deep River.'
unlike many others in Connecticut that day, we had a 1 or 2 inch downpour. then, a few days back, same pattern in the sky. again, unlike many others in Connecticut that day, couple inches crashed down.
awesome, cuz the produce was just hanging on, but clearly showing signs that, if real rain comes, it was ready to explode in round two of production.
it did. irrigation ain't rain. nothing replaces rain. cuke flowers, pepper flowers, baby lopes and melons and flowers, all of it. it didn't change my opinion of, broadly, no rain for at least a few more weeks, but it did remind me that, at times, precip can be a highly localized event in our state. mebbe the pattern, here, at my house, was changing? need to see more.
couple of days ago, the tv was full of 'doom, decay, and destruction!' with their nonsense on the power of the storm coming Friday. massive winds! tornado watches! epic downpours! didn't feel right to me, as neither the humidity nor the northwest wind said anything aboot my Friday or today plans, other than 'no need to cancel anything.'
clouds showed no Deep River hail pattern, either yesterday or today.
no rain.
after the large amount of initial bottom rot on the beefsteaks, they're all coming in lovely now, albeit small. green peppers aren't making it to thick walled this season.
i thought that i was some kind of watermelon genius with the amount (like everything, smaller in size) and taste of them, but it has nothing to do with me, and everything to do with the weather this season, as,
universally, everyone sez 'dang, the watermelon is tasty this year.'
regular, run of the mill store wattys, and peaches, taste outstanding.
everything can't be all bad, except for the prices they're getting for the wattys. expensive. regardless, eat it, it's good for you.
i really really like fresh, in season, local wattys, peaches, and lopes.
oh well, 2 out of three ain't bad.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

noticed that native (? i ain't looking it up), wild, concord grapes exploded in the forest, as i was also noticing that the tulip poplar trees were dropping leaves like a bad habit. unlike like the ash, who are now mostly finito, i don't think that the reason why poplar are acting so weird is sickness, just water. let's hope so.
i promised the grass/lawn kooks, long ago, that zoysia is the choice for the future. pencils down, quiz over. the zoysia have never expanded so much before. solid green the whole time with zero weeds, since their usual start in June.
and, it only took one good rain of an inch or so, to make it back to its usual soft as a pillow nature.
checking on the cannabis, never saw a plant go to sticky buds so fast before. only one, that weird one mentioned earlier. the shape, branching, color, all of it, weirdorama, and now sticky buds. in August. it seems like a recessive gene took over, and is expressing as the most sativa'ish thing that i have ever seen. too much thc is dangerous to neural health, just guessing on that for now, but it is fascinating from a curious perspective. when done, i think that i'll send it to the lab to answer the question,

as firewood production time kicks in, i like to walk around and drop live trees of a variety in species. this season, with the water issue, i wondered if their leaves would act differently in drying. holy cow! birch, soft maple, hickory, poplar, beech, and black cherry leaves turned crispy brown in one day. amazing. they all look like those burnt russet kettle chips (the kind i like!). only the oak leaves have some semblance of dignity and rich green color days later.
no wonder the white oak is our state tree, on the flag, and on the UConn logo. there's usually a reason for most everything.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

'harvesting' trees (in a manner of speaking, they are in the garden, and you do get dirty) always gets me to thinking aboot the pros, as i've watched them over the years.
this years crew.
last fallish, i noticed a mebbe 12 inch white oak stump. it was felled in the signature way -teeth. that's not unusual. what was unusual was where the log was, aboot 200 yards away, in the river as the original crosstimber for a dam, signaling the return of beavers. how on earth did he/she/they lug this thing so far? oak is like 22 pounds per cubic foot.
they started coming decades ago, when the environment for fauna exploded. at first, i was 'no way, i ain't losing turf to them' and so i hired a state rec'd trapper, who answered my question on biggest that he caught with 'mebbe 50 pounds.' whoa. 'what do you think u'll catch here?' he says, the usual, mebbe 25 to 30 pounds.
a month or so later, he bagged a 35, a 50, and a 60 pounder. that was some tail that i kept, until the stink set in.
time passes, and i watch as they come, and go, and come again, and the changes they made make me change my tune. fine by me now.
the whole scene, extra floodlands notwithstanding, is for the better.
this is my favorite documentary on ol bucky beaver, with the, literally, iron teeth. better saw game than huskavarna.


funny, too.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

this business of knowledge that can be gained by observing animal behavior is fascinating. mentioned a few times in the past, the best time to catch a view of bobcats is the immediate time before a deep freeze sets in. regardless of what the tv says aboot a cold spell, if you're out there aforehand, and see them, u know to load up on firewood, cuz it's going to be cold. last licks before snooze patrol for them.
this season, no skeeters, no bats, and, no water, so epic amounts of animal attacks on a garden. word up to the astute observer -build them fences right.
the beavers, like many other animal groups, come and go, come and go.
why did they return last fall, after a few years of absence? did they know
that drought was coming, bringing really bad chow for them as the leaves, and branches, are now crap?
have we ever seen soo many leaves on the ground in August?
have i ever seen the leaves on fresh cut timber turn to crap in just a day or so? no.
right now, the squirrels are working overtime to harvest, and break, the smallish chestnuts. nut mess all over the place. in August. in a heatwave, in a drought, which means this effort will require more water for them than they usually require at this time of year, when they usually just head for the Cape, lounging by the pool, with a frosty bev in their mitts.
what's it mean? i don't know. minimal historic data, an all that. i do know that they are thin, spindly, and weak looking where i live.
and, i do know that a lot of fish are really happy that bucky kept the water close to home. a lot.

 

[UCSouth]

Have any Boneyarders dabbled in hydroponic gardens?

 

[ClifSpliffy]

Have any Boneyarders dabbled in hydroponic gardens?

i have a cousin who, long ago, did a lot of hydroponic stuff at his companies hq (a house with some fields) in Weston, next to betty davis' spread. he ended up in some tech mags for it, as he did with a bunch of other stuff that would be considered 'edge' tech. only a few people in that outfit, started by some former nasa guy, the others were there for making a buck, while superficially he was there for that, but not really. a buck wouldn't stick to him even covered in gorilla glue. he was truly there for the research and science stuff.
he was the source for almost any bucks they made, which weren't much.
he was deeply vested in things like jojoba, pioneering microwave oven dishes, all kinds of 'futuristic' things, including hydro for commercial farming. the theory is sound, and works for some things like small scale farming (the Japonese use it in their grocery stores to make lettuce and such) but it has a built in system weakness in being highly dependent upon 24/7 management. screw up on even one input, and your crop can be toast. no 'bounceback' ability like in nature.
i call two of my cannbis plants 'hydro' cuz they're both 6 to 7 feet tall, but living in 12 inch diameter pots. not really true hydro, but sort of. aboot 2 months back, i had to be away for a long week, and the person who was supposed to feed them forgot. almost complete disaster with no rain, but they were outdoors, so any dew or whatever floating around apparently kept the spark of life in them, and after 10 days or so, they were on the mend, and now fully back in business.
learning from my cuz, who told me over and over that total and complete management is required for it to work, i did some indoor hydro grows of veggies, with every possible tool (timers, lights, perfect food, the whole thing). didn't matter, just one system screwup in the course of 3 days away, turned that effort to dust as a bug or mold shredded the whole thing.
if you have the time and attention span to try it, check out the Japonese or Israelis on the subject.
they need it, we don't. at least, not me. imma big fan of the natural way, which is highly resistant to screwups. iffn im counting, measuring, checking, etc all the time when growing something, count me out. too much work for something sooo easily and mindlessly done naturally.

back to the now. i could tell a few weeks back that the produce was just hanging on, but it also looked like second yields would bounce back if any kind of rain would show up. irrigation ain't rain. when last weeks rain did appear, the dang thing exploded, relatively. i got cuke flowers and cukes all over, wattys putting out bigtime, some lopes but lots of flowers, jalapenos and flowers charging on, no green pepper action but some new flowers, that ridiculously large output of small beefsteaks turning red, and not tasting weird Septemberish, quite sweet actually.
the chestnuts, like everything else, are smaller, but not as small as i would expect. few acorns, so forget them this year, unless some rain makes them jump. idk. the only thing i know aboot the acorns, other than sometimes here, sometimes not, is that only the white oak ones are edible. lots of grapes and cherries (not the good kinds) wild in the forest tho. dragonflies, fireflys, cruising around like the end is far, far away. no/minimal flies, but the skeeters have picked up a tad with the rain. almost a stinging bastid no show this year, but for that brief moment a month ago when humidity was in the air. certainly enuf for me to set a new record for stings in one day -seven. epic year for walking into spider webs in the forest. annoying.
the cannabis doing particularly well in size and yield. the weird plant is particularly weird in shape, and stickier than a glue factory. i think that i should wear asbestos gloves going near that thing. lol.
on the udder hand, as a grower of my own created seed, and completely different from any year that i can recall, this season the males were almost non-existent. the main difference this season was the lack of rain, and so i wonder if drought makes them focus harder on being female for reproductive reasons. i have always said to any new grower that cannabis hates 'wet feet,' so there's that.

and oh, as promised, even the pro farmers will now tell you that they've never seen the amount of crop loss to hungry/thirsty varmints
like this year.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Rosh Ashana soon means wild mushroom picking season too. My grandfather, an amateur mycologist taught me when where and what. It's going to end with me. No one in the rest of the family gives a... had a good apple season this year..

 

[ClifSpliffy]

Rosh Ashana soon means wild mushroom picking season too. My grandfather, an amateur mycologist taught me when where and what. It's going to end with me. No one in the rest of the family gives a... had a good apple season this year..

this is an interesting point aboot the New Year holiday, and more broadly, the mostly reliable clock of agriculture highly predictable based on the lunar calendar.
the first hebrew holiday mandated, Passover, was just a recognition of the far older common tradition of celebrating spring (time to plant! we need food!), soon followed by the other two of these big three, Shavuot (holiday of the first fruits), and then Sukkot (harvest time! party on!).
all ag and nothing more, waving chickens over peoples heads nothwithstanding ('waving chickens,' an eastern european New Year custom where the father would literally wave a live chicken over the head of his children while saying a prayer, 'may the good lord deliver unto you nothing but kfc in the new year!' too funny.) when i first learned this as a child, i prolly said sumthing to an elder like 'seriously? u people took a lot of drugs...hey! mushrooms?) i don't even like chicken, so it's prolly guaranteed that im going to hades.
the point being that for a very long time, i look to the date for Sukkot as harvest time for the kanna bosem, and it usually turns out to be accurate. kind of amazingly consistent.
yesterday, after the rains departed (seems like my first real thunder and lightning storm of the year - September 13), i took a walk around and noticed emerging in the grasslands .... mushrooms! holy moly, i haven't seen them in ages! there were a few back at Shavuot time, but they soon were gone like the wind.
i took gg gramms to the fairdale whole paycheck when it opened back when. she was frozen in front of the wall of fresh mushrooms in bins. i asked why and she said it's the first time since childhood back in crapistan that she saw all the shrooms that she spent soooo many hours collecting in the peaks of carpathia. blew her mind and triggered her soul with nostalgia.
mushies are absolutely one of my favorite foods, and our pantry is always well stocked with cans and cans of them. other than white buttons and portos, fresh ones kind of freak me out. over the years, folks are always pointing out the plethora out in the back country. 'look! u've got this one, and that one, and....' to which i always say 'that's nice, help urself, cuz i ain't eating them, no way, no how.'
last year at this time, on an east northeast facing drumlin slope, there were a few acres of that red capped kind, aboot 3 to 5 inches across. never saw that quantity before. wall to wall packed in tightly.

couldn't find the outstanding video aboot that giant mushroom plant in kali that i saw on tv recently, but this one is pretty good.

and now we know why my 75 cents little can is now regularly $1.50 -no pickers and 15% more customers in 2021, tho for some reason unknown to me, Price-Rite still sells them at 69 cents when they're in stock, which is a 50/50 chance.

as time rolls by, and i continue to see that giant (1 to 2 feet across, and usually on the base of a tree stump or dead tree) white mushroom, i wonder if im getting this wrong on not eating them. or, as gg gramms likes to say to me at times, 'hey tough guy! for some things, you act like such a little girl!' that's literally what she says, 'u act like a little girl.'
also too funny. on the udder hand, given the absolute nightmare that she had to deal with as a child back in crapistan, with death and brutality all around (ww2 started in her back yard, literally, 10s of thousands dead or on the move in that world crossroad of hungarian/ukrainian/polish/czech transylvania, in the spring of '39.
for those paying close attention to the now, back when the current war started, that nutjob hunky made noise aboot taking that area back from ukraine when things weren't going ukraines way. they are now.).
pretty rough starting the day high up in the hills picking shrooms, then looking down and noticing a couple dozen folks, including family, getting executed. compared to that, i guess we're all little girls.
she shook all that off the minute she got out, never looked back, and continues to this day making sauteed mushrooms and onions for the holiday table.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

this is an interesting point aboot the New Year holiday, and more broadly, the mostly reliable clock of agriculture highly predictable based on the lunar calendar.
the first hebrew holiday mandated, Passover, was just a recognition of the far older common tradition of celebrating spring (time to plant! we need food!), soon followed by the other two of these big three, Shavuot (holiday of the first fruits), and then Sukkot (harvest time! party on!).
all ag and nothing more, waving chickens over peoples heads nothwithstanding ('waving chickens,' an eastern european New Year custom where the father would literally wave a live chicken over the head of his children while saying a prayer, 'may the good lord deliver unto you nothing but kfc in the new year!' too funny.) when i first learned this as a child, i prolly said sumthing to an elder like 'seriously? u people took a lot of drugs...hey! mushrooms?) i don't even like chicken, so it's prolly guaranteed that im going to hades.
the point being that for a very long time, i look to the date for Sukkot as harvest time for the kanna bosem, and it usually turns out to be accurate. kind of amazingly consistent.
yesterday, after the rains departed (seems like my first real thunder and lightning storm of the year - September 13), i took a walk around and noticed emerging in the grasslands .... mushrooms! holy moly, i haven't seen them in ages! there were a few back at Shavuot time, but they soon were gone like the wind.
i took gg gramms to the fairdale whole paycheck when it opened back when. she was frozen in front of the wall of fresh mushrooms in bins. i asked why and she said it's the first time since childhood back in crapistan that she saw all the shrooms that she spent soooo many hours collecting in the peaks of carpathia. blew her mind and triggered her soul with nostalgia.
mushies are absolutely one of my favorite foods, and our pantry is always well stocked with cans and cans of them. other than white buttons and portos, fresh ones kind of freak me out. over the years, folks are always pointing out the plethora out in the back country. 'look! u've got this one, and that one, and....' to which i always say 'that's nice, help urself, cuz i ain't eating them, no way, no how.'
last year at this time, on an east northeast facing drumlin slope, there were a few acres of that red capped kind, aboot 3 to 5 inches across. never saw that quantity before. wall to wall packed in tightly.

couldn't find the outstanding video aboot that giant mushroom plant in kali that i saw on tv recently, but this one is pretty good.

and now we know why my 75 cents little can is now regularly $1.50 -no pickers and 15% more customers in 2021, tho for some reason unknown to me, Price-Rite still sells them at 69 cents when they're in stock, which is a 50/50 chance.

as time rolls by, and i continue to see that giant (1 to 2 feet across, and usually on the base of a tree stump or dead tree) white mushroom, i wonder if im getting this wrong on not eating them. or, as gg gramms likes to say to me at times, 'hey tough guy! for some things, you act like such a little girl!' that's literally what she says, 'u act like a little girl.'
also too funny. on the udder hand, given the absolute nightmare that she had to deal with as a child back in crapistan, with death and brutality all around (ww2 started in her back yard, literally, 10s of thousands dead or on the move in that world crossroad of hungarian/ukrainian/polish/czech transylvania, in the spring of '39.
for those paying close attention to the now, back when the current war started, that nutjob hunky made noise aboot taking that area back from ukraine when things weren't going ukraines way. they are now.).
pretty rough starting the day high up in the hills picking shrooms, then looking down and noticing a couple dozen folks, including family, getting executed. compared to that, i guess we're all little girls.
she shook all that off the minute she got out, never looked back, and continues to this day making sauteed mushrooms and onions for the holiday table.

I have found a few of those giant mushrooms at the base of old oak tree stumps...just to make sure they are Hen of the Woods; I bring them to a nearby nature center for verification.

 

[UCSouth]

@ClifSpliffy DM if you will. I have something to ask you, but not on here. Thanks

 

[ClifSpliffy]

@ClifSpliffy DM if you will. I have something to ask you, but not on here. Thanks

nothing personal, friend, but i don't do that, ever, even if you posted a pic and ur actually zendaya.
context:
i only participate in one social media at a time, and this one is like the third or fourth one in decades, as the previous one either lost it's attraction, or they kicked me out. quora kicked me to the curb, after years of posts, when those so-called 'smartest people on earth' finally figgured out that they had no idea as to my identity, the number one requirement there. it bubbled for a while, particularly prompted by a pantload of chinese who became ballistic after a long series of my posts stating what will be, and not what they think will be for their nonsense. the best one was on that 'one belt, one road' stuff, which is now called "bri" and the minute it came out, i called it a ponzi scheme, which today, seven years or so later, it became. lots of other crankies there too. there was a pretty formidable gang of beagles in on that, and that 538 guy lost his marbles yelling at me, cuz a lot of his 2016 junk turned out, as expected, to be flat out wrong. i was getting regularly hacked for a while, until for whatever reasons, and not requested by me, Microsoft amped up their protection game for my ip address. i don't use any security software. don't need to. when that hacking hokum used to happen, it only took/takes me a small bit of time to right the ship. to this day, msft has frozen my link to the first reported death on earth from covid (posted here) on my address bar. i don't care. this one China reports first death in new pneumonia outbreak
i've never sent a text, ever. my very fancy big screen cellular telephone is net disabled. periodically they come, but i wouldn't know what was said, as i've never read any of them. of course, when the emergency alert system goes wacky and takes over the phone screen with all that noise and a message, i have no choice but to see it and then x it out, if i want to see my screen again, like to make a call.
never been on facebook, twitter, all that stuff.
any bill, statement, etc. that i get, whether business or personal, is always hard copy printed on paper, and then i write a check and put a stamp on it, like my father, grandfather, and great grandfather did. ezpz. lately, they've been offering more and more cash to get me to switch to online. ain't happening. sometimes in business, a customer or vendor adamantly demands a digital relationship. they immediately get filed into the 'later for you. im out.' i'll find something to eat, regardless. imma yuge fan of the 'handshake' method of business. it works fine the overwhelmingly amount of times. once in a great while, it doesn't.
i always explain to new situations that if you want to connect, call me, that's what a telephone is for. when they ask aboot emails and such, i always explain that i look at them irregularly. i go weeks at times not checking.
again, absolutely nothing personal. im just working on my cortisol game, as ur best post ever here at the BY, in the migraine thread, with your highly exemplary discussion of how to beat them by de-stressing,
so brilliantly valuable, explained.

 

[UCSouth]

nothing personal, friend, but i don't do that, ever, even if you posted a pic and ur actually zendaya.
context:
i only participate in one social media at a time, and this one is like the third or fourth one in decades, as the previous one either lost it's attraction, or they kicked me out. quora kicked me to the curb, after years of posts, when those so-called 'smartest people on earth' finally figgured out that they had no idea as to my identity, the number one requirement there. it bubbled for a while, particularly prompted by a pantload of chinese who became ballistic after a long series of my posts stating what will be, and not what they think will be for their nonsense. the best one was on that 'one belt, one road' stuff, which is now called "bri" and the minute it came out, i called it a ponzi scheme, which today, seven years or so later, it became. lots of other crankies there too. there was a pretty formidable gang of beagles in on that, and that 538 guy lost his marbles yelling at me, cuz a lot of his 2016 junk turned out, as expected, to be flat out wrong. i was getting regularly hacked for a while, until for whatever reasons, and not requested by me, Microsoft amped up their protection game for my ip address. i don't use any security software. don't need to. when that hacking hokum used to happen, it only took/takes me a small bit of time to right the ship. to this day, msft has frozen my link to the first reported death on earth from covid (posted here) on my address bar. i don't care. this one China reports first death in new pneumonia outbreak
i've never sent a text, ever. my very fancy big screen cellular telephone is net disabled. periodically they come, but i wouldn't know what was said, as i've never read any of them. of course, when the emergency alert system goes wacky and takes over the phone screen with all that noise and a message, i have no choice but to see it and then x it out, if i want to see my screen again, like to make a call.
never been on facebook, twitter, all that stuff.
any bill, statement, etc. that i get, whether business or personal, is always hard copy printed on paper, and then i write a check and put a stamp on it, like my father, grandfather, and great grandfather did. ezpz. lately, they've been offering more and more cash to get me to switch to online. ain't happening. sometimes in business, a customer or vendor adamantly demands a digital relationship. they immediately get filed into the 'later for you. im out.' i'll find something to eat, regardless.
i always explain to new situations that if you want to connect, call me, that's what a telephone is for. when they ask aboot emails and such, i always explain that i look at them irregularly. i go weeks at times not checking.
again, absolutely nothing personal. im just working on my cortisol game, as ur best post ever here at the BY, in the migraine thread, with your highly exemplary discussion of how to beat them by de-stressing,
so brilliantly valuable, explained.

I am going to be in CT between 10/12-10/19 for my Son's wedding. I was hoping to get some gardening ideas from you. But, I 100% understand where you are coming from.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

still getting regular jalapenos, turning purpleish yet far longer in size. rain will do that for you. tasty.
i had a good run going in the highest solar plot until aboot two weeks back, wattys and tomatos mostly, but a raccoon cut a perfect opening, pounded it over two days, and left the biggest, nastiest, greasy racoon poop at the entrance. prolly was struttin and pimpin around before he dropped that bomb. jala's wern't touched. i guess mr toughguy has a weak stomach.
cannabis also finished strong with the rains, and got clipped ten days ago. one plant, removed from a five gal container and then stuck in the ground aboot six weeks back, doubled in height and moreso in weight. i don't think it was anything more than timing with the rains, and a change in footspace.

and now, a word on why i eat only mushrooms that come in a can or jar from the very clean and nice supermarket, or fresh ones coming from that clean and very nice supermarket. forget bodegas, or asian markets, or eastern european kitchy joints, or all of them. not happening, only at clean, nice, big supermarkets with the bright lights and not stinking like cookie monster with a case of the runs. nope, i ain't going out like that.
Ohio foragers are accidentally poisoning themselves with lethal mushrooms

 

[ClifSpliffy]

I am going to be in CT between 10/12-10/19 for my Son's wedding. I was hoping to get some gardening ideas from you. But, I 100% understand where you are coming from.

i have no gardening ideas. i just, like that oliver guy on green acres, read the USDA stuff on 'how to,' sometimes ringing up or visiting the ag extension folks, and try to follow their rec's. they seem to know stuff.

two things i do lately (prolly written aboot by folks way smarter than me),
is incorporate the wood ash i make into the soil, and pay close attention to the solar exposure for a field. years of planting has shown me that 'west (dominant exposure) is the best.'
i did have a few 3rd place finishes years back in the fairs when i did that. they give u a ribbon for that. pretty cool. mebbe i'll try again in the future when they figger out that cannabis is a crop, too.

hearty congrats on ur nuptials. or ur kids' nuptial. somebodies party.
i really like how u capitalized 'Son.' sez it all. u win.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

72 degrees at 7:30 pm, 11/5.
while the spider nests have left the forest, the wasps were out in full force this week, mostly gathering around southern and western exposures as they move in slo motion.
in the past 2 weeks, the tics have exploded. they've been largely diminished in number for years, but for that time mentioned earlier when they were only found in the veg gardens for a short while, aboot 2 weeks in june iirc. of course, today, i saw 9 turkeys together for the first time in a long time, mebbe a few years. turkeys eat ticks (up to a couple hundred a day!), bats eat skeeters. mebbe it is really just that simple.
i still have a few wattys growing sort of healthy, but not for eating, just to see how long they go. i am surprised that the racoon thief(s?) didn't come back for them after totally wrecking them weeks back. and unlike that hitjob then, now all green vegetation and produce in all plots have been chomped, including the green pepper and jalo leaves.

some people are really, really bad at growing things, even when it's fundamental to their lives.
Commentary: Gardening for self-sufficiency? The fruits of my labour have been few
seriously, cherry tomato failure? how is that even possible if you do nothing more than just water them.
'Singapore Facebook groups dedicated to gardening – with the more popular ones counting more than 100,000 members – dispense tips and troubleshoot issues.'

 

[UCSouth]

72 degrees at 7:30 pm, 11/5.
while the spider nests have left the forest, the wasps were out in full force this week, mostly gathering around southern and western exposures as they move in slo motion.
in the past 2 weeks, the tics have exploded. they've been largely diminished in number for years, but for that time mentioned earlier when they were only found in the veg gardens for a short while, aboot 2 weeks in june iirc. of course, today, i saw 9 turkeys together for the first time in a long time, mebbe a few years. turkeys eat ticks (up to a couple hundred a day!), bats eat skeeters. mebbe it is really just that simple.
i still have a few wattys growing sort of healthy, but not for eating, just to see how long they go. i am surprised that the racoon thief(s?) didn't come back for them after totally wrecking them weeks back. and unlike that hitjob then, now all green vegetation and produce in all plots have been chomped, including the green pepper and jalo leaves.

some people are really, really bad at growing things, even when it's fundamental to their lives.
Commentary: Gardening for self-sufficiency? The fruits of my labour have been few
seriously, cherry tomato failure? how is that even possible if you do nothing more than just water them.
'Singapore Facebook groups dedicated to gardening – with the more popular ones counting more than 100,000 members – dispense tips and troubleshoot issues.'

Try guinea fowl for your ticks, I haven't pulled one from myself or an animal in over 5 years, since I got them. Great alarm system as well.

 

[temery]

Try guinea fowl for your ticks, I haven't pulled one from myself or an animal in over 5 years, since I got them. Great alarm system as well.

I have dozens of wild turkeys visit my yard (about an acre). Even with outdoor cats, I haven't seen a tick in years.

 

[temery]

72 degrees at 7:30 pm, 11/5.
while the spider nests have left the forest, the wasps were out in full force this week, mostly gathering around southern and western exposures as they move in slo motion.
in the past 2 weeks, the tics have exploded. they've been largely diminished in number for years, but for that time mentioned earlier when they were only found in the veg gardens for a short while, aboot 2 weeks in june iirc. of course, today, i saw 9 turkeys together for the first time in a long time, mebbe a few years. turkeys eat ticks (up to a couple hundred a day!), bats eat skeeters. mebbe it is really just that simple.
i still have a few wattys growing sort of healthy, but not for eating, just to see how long they go. i am surprised that the racoon thief(s?) didn't come back for them after totally wrecking them weeks back. and unlike that hitjob then, now all green vegetation and produce in all plots have been chomped, including the green pepper and jalo leaves.

some people are really, really bad at growing things, even when it's fundamental to their lives.
Commentary: Gardening for self-sufficiency? The fruits of my labour have been few
seriously, cherry tomato failure? how is that even possible if you do nothing more than just water them.
'Singapore Facebook groups dedicated to gardening – with the more popular ones counting more than 100,000 members – dispense tips and troubleshoot issues.'

I guess I need to look up more often. Found this just outside my backdoor a few weeks ago. Looks like it's flipping me off.

 

[UCSouth]

I have dozens of wild turkeys visit my yard (about an acre). Even with outdoor cats, I haven't seen a tick in years.

I can't recall seeing any wild turkey on my property, or any sign of them. That's why I went with the guinea fowl. Ticks were a definite problem before that.