the sky is falling- no Californian has lately said

It Should Have Been Chicken Big

some eye candy from city of canton monument parks in the lower end. mom says they are weeping cherries but i dont think so. way too big and bark isnt right. what they are are pretty though. exit tusc. st. ramp and head straight ahead through light on left. 

       I think I have most of the supplies I need for the new chicken house and I am still planning on getting on to this project as quick as I can this morning. The chicken big vs. chicken little has to do with yesterday’s post and of course my size as I doubt I could walk on chicken feet let alone scratch with them. But I can try to warn you of possible impending problems I see as a threat to the average person. It won’t make much difference to the poor as they receive food stamps to provide their poultry needs, or the rich who can afford all the luxuries like grass watering in southern California, while they bask in the sun drenched region eating three egg omelets and bragging about what a fine living they have.  But to the rest of us we have to eat those high prices, much the same as we had to do with gasoline at 4dollars per gallon, while again the rich and affluent sported Humvees chauffeured town cars and had little sympathy for the average Joe.

    It is not that I am against being rich and someday I still hold hope that may happen. Being humble is an art and a state of conscious that requires one to play down what they have to the benefit of others trying to achieve it. It is not to flaunt and somehow become an expert on every new happening that in their opinion requires their input. Actors take up causes like save the little dogs of the world, while they ruthlessly carry their little mutt around in their purse, while the press laughs and gives the celebrity face time on our newscasts. This isn’t being humble. It is being crass, and an ass. Everybody has one and sometimes people have 2 one they sit on and one they speak with, especially on subjects which they have limited or no experience in and are just aligning themselves with the issue, just to be heard and seen by the public.

     I think if I ever achieve that point where I have more than I need to live my life out, I intend to live pretty much the same as I do now. I have intentions of buying up large swaths of land vacant or housed, it makes little difference. As I intend to return it to nature as much as I can, as long as it is connected. This will all be done in the name of a charity and the idea will be that someday with current population trends we may need this space for agriculture.

     Somewhere in the near future, land prices for agricultural land should compete favorably with urban real-estate, making moving to the country an even more expensive adventure. Currently unimproved land prices for real-estate are approaching the 20000 per acre value. While due to energy and decreasing farmland, due to urban expansion has resulted in land prices at around the 10000 per acre value, here in our region. We all eat and somewhere along the line we will need the agricultural land we have raped and pillaged in the name of profits.

 closeup of branch. 

     My idea is to buy up farm land and farms even if it requires a premium and look at its best use and if that is forestry then it will be planted with trees. Some will be organic fields; others will be used for a variety of purposes designed for sustainability. Any profits generated by the research will be used to purchase more land. But like most dreamers I have little chance of any of this happening, and will probably die penniless, but heck don’t need money when I am dead. Somebody else might to buy a can of gasoline and douse my rotting corpse and buy themselves a fifth to celebrate my demise and get rid of the stench as I doubt I will care. Can’t take it with you so I might as spend it while I can.

     I just can’t see us continue to take good farmland and turn it into housing developments, especially here in Ohio where the moisture still drops out of the sky on a regular basis. The people in California are not going to take the high real estate prices and lack of water very easily, as high fines for water wasting and lack of agriculture in an area where water has been used to irrigate for a long period, and help provide food for not only themselves, but for the nation and the world, will be hard for residents to take after living in the lap of luxury for years. I see a mass exodus of people realizing there are bargains in the Midwestern states creating a building boom where again real-estate will compete with agriculture for precious land resources. This in turn will drive prices for land up again.

     In the end I can only see higher prices for food in the long run, include spot shortages due to avian bird flu and there will be a lack of fresh produce from arid regions of the desert southwest, and increased prices for beef and pork. Soon enough, we the average person will hardly be able to afford to eat nothing but GMO corn and wheat products as they will be the cheapest produced. The poor will essentially be in the same boat although they will have assistance in their plight. The rich will bend their silver spoons under the loads of profits at everyone else’s’ expense. Things will not have changed much. But hopefully maybe having a charity off set some land now, will yield a cushion to buffer some of the effects of the new old economy.

      Off my soapbox and back to the project at hand, as I will finish getting materials rounded up , choosing to use what I have here in terms of second hand wood,as opposed to buying new. Recycle repurpose and reuse, when you can. It isn’t always advantageous but when you can you spare a tree‘s life if for an instant in time. It will allow others more time to plant to make up for what is lost. Well need to get moving and tear that soapbox apart and use those materials to get those little big chickies out of the greenhouse.

       

avian bird flu- a few mc nuggets of information for you

All Sealed Up

I can say this in the case of a couple of projects and ready to move on to a pressing project, that shouldn’t take long but will require some effort to make it happen.

     First off I finished water and drain waste line project, have both hooked up tested and now laying under about 4 ft. of soil at a minimum and for all my intents and purposes finished till I begin construction of the addition and at that time will extend them under where the trailer is currently located and into the new addition. As far as the section I just completed, well it should last at least 30 years or more and hopefully by then shouldn’t be a problem for me. Also this completes a transition from old galvanized iron coated pipes to new plastic that seems to resist the iron buildup, or it is reduced as it should be plastic pipe down the well, and as far as I know it is plastic up until the faucet. You may have a slim chance of exposure to chemicals used in the construction of plastic pipe but as long as it isn’t exposed to air then transfer of chemicals to oxidation should be limited to a small amount. This is minor in respect to the choked mineral laden pipes my Grandpa had dug in almost 65 years ago. Damn, they don’t make pipe like they used to.

      Also I finished up the bear I was working on and sealed him and sent him on his way across country. I had deviated from my carving practice and included a kerf cut in the back side of this bear, a little surgery to reduce the internal stresses one may get had your core been made out of a curly wild cherry tree. This saw slice allows the inevitable cracking to be limited to the center of the carving, or is supposed to allow for that. I will have to see as I listen to feedback from anyone who purchases a bear off of me from here on. I am tired of seeing perfectly good carvings kinda shattered by cracks especially in the wild cherry wood, as they go hay wire, and at times splitting a carving almost in half due to the severity of the cracking. Drying of the wood may be complete but it still cracks on a major scale, and although I can do nothing but try and take an alternative route, it is frustrating see this happen. Hopefully this will help.

      So the new project is to get those cute little chicks that have now grown into young birds and weigh almost a full pound or better in less than 8 weeks and will be producing eggs in less than 16 weeks out of the greenhouse and into the new old coop. At this time they should weigh between 3 and 4 lbs. and will produce an egg a day. This doesn’t sound like much when you only have 8 chickens, but this I would say is the combined family usage we would have daily, and some days eggs may be used less or more. In my opinion I like fresh eggs, the fresher the better. And have no intention of stocking eggs for later use. I only need what we will use, an extra dozen or so would be nice to have beyond that I intend to just give away to any who wants the extra. That way I always have fresh eggs.

After backfill

    I intended to let the chickens free range but recent revelations about chicken deaths attributed to avian influenza and wholesale slaughter of 11 million chickens ranging from boilers to egg producing chickens that were euthanized by a foam to prevent spreading of the disease. So far it hasn’t spread to humans and this has undoubtedly affected the U.S. market causing repercussions of cancelled orders for chicken products from foreign countries, and an unsettled domestic market that will have problems if these chickens are not replaced.

 before 

     This could result in higher prices for egg products and chicken, as well turkey products also, virtually eliminating a healthy choice as opposed to other protein sources like beef and hog products. The higher cost associated with dwindling supplies may make dinner with the preacher a little harder to achieve. You may have to feed him a T-bone, any lesser cut may speak ill of you when called to a higher court. With chicken it’s all good or was.

peeps on 3-19-2015 

     This made me pause to think about the situation, as they have yet to explain just how this bird flu is spreading. Theories suggest it started the migration of flocks of wild birds flying north as the first farm that the flu was noticed at was a turkey farm in California and then it went north on up along the coast affecting farms there. Now they say another has started up through the central part of the nation and is centered on some of the largest poultry farms in the United States and it is uncertain that they can prevent it from getting into chicken houses and affecting more.

     Most chicken house today are ultra-modern climate, and  light controlled isolated units that are capable of controlling the birds health through the use of antibiotics placed in the feed or water to control illnesses normally associated with raising huge amounts of chickens in controlled conditions. Sanitation is an absolute necessity to reduce disease. This has been practiced for quite a while in the poultry industry and yet this new disease is capable of jumping those boundaries and killing mass flocks up to 1.5 million birds at just one facility.

     A little cause to worry I guess. Or is it maybe just like us, these birds are offered antibiotics at a rate even more than us, and it may be that they too have built up a harmful tolerance to all the good that an antibiotic may have for an immune system. This also is cause for us to worry. If the available antibiotics don’t work for chickens how in the hell is it going to work for us if we ended up with bird flu? Another reason to monitor your use of antibiotics and make sure you only take what you need, as you never know when you will need it until you are already hurting badly, and expect it to work.

     We pump major amounts of antibiotics and growth hormones into our chickens to get them out of the henhouse and on your table as quick as possible. Controlling all factors of their development from the amount of light they receive to what type of bedding is best for them. And the chicken in the broiler house is a GMO( genetically modified organism) compared to chickens of yesteryear. All aspects of heredity have been thoroughly explored to produce the ultimate cage layer, or the beefiest broiler one could buy. Profits in the poultry business has made this happen.

     Not a whole lot is being made of the major losses and what the long range impact will be. As soon as a flock is fumigated, the barn is sanitized again and maybe allowed to set fallow for a while eventually starving the virus out, and soon new eggs will be hatched and then the barns will be back in production. Still we don’t know the whole effect of what is going to happen. Nobody does.

    I intend to isolate my young flock from the rest of wild bird population but still there are no guarantees it will be any different than any other major poultry operation. Surely if they can’t prevent it in their chicken houses then I doubt if it will happen in mine either. Any way I need a way to protect my flock from predators also and maybe it is best to build with that in mind. As I go along I will let you know more about the new chicken house and how it is coming along as well more from the greenhouse. You need to keep informed about this bird flu and prepare yourselves for higher egg prices. Maybe possibly look into freezing more chicken products to have on hand in the event the situation gets worse. And once if ever it jumps to humans as it has already in china in a previous outbreak then special care should be diverted to this subject alone. I am not trying to be chicken little yelling the sky is falling, instead merely warning you at this point that there should be concern for your health if the situation worsens.

is it monday yet?

Open House Update

cool morning again isn't helping 

      Well I have a little under four weeks till my open house for the Yockey Farm Greenhouse , and Kevscarvings and things are not going exactly as planned . But still all is ok. May 23 is coming up faster than I can get the work done to have the young seedlings I had last year. This will be no problem, I still have plenty of trees and shrubs to sell and a few new projects I would like to share with you. You can only do so much and worry so much about what you can’t get done and the rest you just have to shake off and let it be. It will be ok.

     I have had water problems arising out of a cold ass winter to start with, and part of this has to deal directly with the greenhouse. The well at my house supplies at different times, not only my house but also is an emergency backup water source for mom’s house and also feeds the outside water hydrants and the greenhouse, and most importantly my house as far as I am concerned. I have no desire to hear the pump run all the time and see a precious resource as water and the electric needed to pump it,  literally wash down the hillside and be wasted. This required me to take action especially after I saw the duck convention as they settled themselves into the mud hole developed directly above the leak seeing as they saw an opportunity to make a pond and feed on my wasting of resources. This was extra incentive to finally get after it seeing them out making fun of my misfortune.

     Also my water pressure is drastically dropping in the greenhouse and I have young tender plants that need daily doses of water as well young chicks I have to water daily, who are very soon after water leak is fixed, are being moved to new housing in the barn shed by the ponds. Still until the leaks are fixed I have to keep on with them where they are, as the water leak has priority. My grandpa installed a line to my place somewhere around 1946 and it has lasted this long and for this we can be thankful. Over the last couple of days I have been able to find the leak and the replacement point I need to go to, to fix this leak and replace the line coming into my house. Something I hope I never have to do again in my life. If the first one lasted 69 years hopefully I can get by with 30 years and it will be someone else’s problem. Along with this replacement will also come another new discharge line updating most of the crucial utilities I need to at this point for my new addition I plan on building.

     It all takes time and money and of course infringes on other things I am doing like trying to get planting done. Also I have another leak on the line at the greenhouse I intend to work on directly after this. Then I will head for the new chicken house. In the meantime I will get whatever planting I can get done and not worry too much about the rest. Doubt if I will have much to give away for free on craigslist as I have had for the last couple of years. Oh well, you can only do so much. Well I am off of here and to the hardware to pick up pipe and fittings. It must be Monday. 

they say ohioans cuss more than any one

Arbor Day Sale is Over

I astounded myself with the realism i put into my carvings . The muskrats ate away my pond bank and collapsed my fish carving into the water and guess what he ended belly up floating like a real fish.

      Had a pretty good Arbor Day sale and moved a few trees and I’m sure they will be planted and in turn part of what I made will go back into buying more trees for next year. Also I have plenty of trees yet to plant. All in time as I can. Anyone lacking anything to do and still want to do your part is welcome to stop and I will take you planting. I can’t afford to pay you anything but trees, but even that isn’t all bad. I have some perennials also, and would throw in a few flowering pots if you are seriously interested.

     Well going to jump subjects and touch into a new area of things that one may say WTF to. One is pop trucks and beer trucks. So who in their right mind would think you can take a 40 ft. box semi with a 6 ft. fold down tailgate should be taken into a mini mart and service the beer cooler without affecting the traffic patterns and the irritabilities of the same patrons they are there to serve. It is insane to think that beer or soft drink deliveries should be handled at the front door of the local gas station. Heck nine times out of ten if you thought about robbing one of those places you might make it away from the counter with the money but sure enough, as you are running out the door, you would run smack dab into a pop truck delivering their sticky sweet obesity inducing GMO sugar and chemical soda water. It seems that no matter the time of day I can always run into one these freightliners sporting their decals acting like roadblocks to make me want to just use my debit card at the pump rather than have to do the dance with the pop guy trying to maneuver his wares through the sliding doors.

     When I see them bring these behemoths into a gas station and block pumps and people and generally causing havoc, it makes me wonder why this is necessary.  I am sure it is due to cost cutting and of course they will blame it on the drivers and the union. It used to be not that long ago, that one truck would take care of maybe ten customers a day and would only carry enough product to service just those clients at a trip, maybe taking time return to restock before going back out again for an afternoon trip. Some bean counter after being prodded by management suggested cutting wages as a means of increasing profit, when the vice president of sales for North America complained about loss of profits from product and complained to the division mangers and wanted answers as to how to resolve the problem. A meeting was called and a memo was written and the end result was to get a bigger truck that could hold more products and instead of making a trip back to the warehouse. He could haul more products and cover more area, and in return they could cut their labor cost in half thus saving the company substantially and increase profit. Nowhere in this scenario was the public or the actual consumer consulted to see how they would feel about marathon trips maneuvering around these mega obstacles to the public, and in particular handicapped people who must dodge traffic and be able to look around blind corners to see if you are going to be run over by a frustrated motorist who just spent 15 minutes trying to back his car out around this vehicle to just get on his way. It is just a recipe for disaster someday.

 Of course when faced with a need to fish my carving out I employed a nearby fishing pole and pretty soon had him snagged safely on shore. Brother in law Mike gladly offered to take a pic of me with my first wood fish of the season. 

      And the worst part is they depend on us to buy their product and we and we don’t bitch, at least I don’t say too much , I just quit drinking pop and beer and still I have little use for these trucks now as I ever did. Just wish everybody else would send these guys a message. Either get a smaller truck or bigger back door to the Hindu palace to drag all that product into. Give us a break. We know what a Coke truck or a Budweiser truck looks like so quit parking the damn thing in front of the front door I am tired of taking my life in my hands just to go inside and buy your damn product if I so wanted to. Sorry you pissed me off and I quit for my own reasons but I would like to think it was for this alone.

    Next up is the Fed up w ex and UPS trucks. You pay for delivery to your house and have no control over who carries the package, this is problem one. If you think that since it is Fed ex and you are paying for door step delivery, then forget it as now I seems that Fed ex and the postal system have an agreement whereas the Fed ex guys deliver to post office, any parcels that need delivered to rural residents, and the post office who are already reluctant to deliver any packages having thought they had  trained all customers years ago that in many cases you need to drive to the post office and pick up your package, as the little pink card will usually have a reason why they can’t drive back your lane or use both feet to try and cram your parcel into an undersized post office post box. Rather than get out of their car or take the time to actually take the mail out of the way other than normal. You paid good money for doorstep delivery and it ends up in a post office where you have to drive 6 miles to get to, to find out that they went to lunch and will be back anytime they feel like and you must wait, or that you arrived 2 minutes after they had closed long before their 8 hour shift was up. So instead of costing you just delivery it now costs two round trips and initial delivery costs to finally recover a package that will be available to pick up as long as it isn’t a government holiday or a weekend.  Wtf.

 A bear similar to this one I carved the other day will be offered as the door prize to my open house of the greenhouse this season on May 23, 2015 beginning at 10 and ending ? this is the third annual open house for Yockey Farms. This will be the only public carving i will do this year. 

      Now if you have a choice as most of the time you don’t, you might choose UPS. They are great for door step delivery but it usually costs you. And if you are lucky to have a concrete driveway you can guarantee that UPS will not take a chance and drive in your driveway, instead they will park in the middle of the road unexpectedly and hit the 4 ways and damn the torpedoes grab the package and start hurriedly running for your front door. Leaving a string of motorists stranded on the roadway trying to negotiate how to avoid that big damn brown box left sitting there in the road with its flashers flashing. If you pass the damn brown bus, and pull across the center line you are responsible for any accident caused. This is wrong. I have seen times where these guys wouldn’t even try to pull on to the berm of the road and just didn’t care about how people were supposed to get around. Usually at this point I just wait till the driver disembarks the comfort of his brown box and salute with an upraised middle finger on one hand, while the other hand lays on the horn. I just want to make sure that he and the neighbors understand my appreciation for his efforts at impeding my ability to roam freely in this capitalistic world where the profits and liability of a company are more important than the safety of the consumers who use their service. Wtf.

      It is my understanding that you cannot impede a public right of way anytime except for an emergency. I doubt if Mrs. Brown’s back brace is a medical emergency and if it was, wouldn’t an ambulance be a better choice to call than a UPS truck. Chances are if her back is bad it happened years ago, and at the least days ago.  After multiple deliveries to the same residence you would think it would give them plenty of time to figure out how to deliver the package the safest way besides putting everyone else’s’ life at stake. Some of these houses are on blind corners or on hills where traffic is congested, and who wants to sit there and wait on Mrs. Brown to answer the door and quiet scruffy the dog who hates the UPS driver almost as much as me, down. Maybe Fed up w ex would have been better for delivery as they would have left it at the post office and Mrs. Brown and Scruffy would have to wait till Monday to fetch her new back brace. Hope she doesn’t have to follow any UPS trucks down the road or stop at the Minit Mart to grab a soda from Hajib the Indian proprietor of the convenience store that isn’t so convenient with the Coke truck sitting in front. She will need to watch her step as she comes out of the door and has to step out with a bottle of Coke in one hand and Scruffy in the other, from the front of the truck to make sure that someone doesn’t run her over in a hurry to get to the post office before noon to pick up their package left their by Fed up w ex. Don’t you just love capitalism. Wtf. 

want something long and hard -plant a tree?

Arbor Day- Save a Life and Plant a Tree

doesn't have to be as elaborate as this, the main thing is to dig a hole bigger than the roots, stick it in the ground,  cover the roots,  and firm the soil leave it alone for 40 or 50 years. 

        Kind of a bold claim to make but currently in South Korea pollution is so bad that people are being warned to stay inside, and avoid going out without a mask. This has also been true for Beijing, China, as they are also grappling with a pollution problem as they modernize their workforce and have very little value in environmental concerns like air pollution.  Let alone places with traditional smog problems like Hong Kong , San Francisco and of course Los Angeles.

       Air pollution alone is killing people off at an alarming rate as smog and dust pollution that arises from dirt roads, farming, construction , and erosion of our soils, as well as smokestack  emissions from factories and power plants, and mix in auto emissions, along with a host of other factors which are causing emphysema, bronchitis, black lung disease, silicosis,  and may be a contributing problem to a host of other air born problems we normally associate with lack of immunity to allergies and so forth. It is easy to see how trees can play a big part in reducing a lot of these factors and a lot of them man made, and some natural, that are fouling the air we breathe from the time we are born till we die. This death we face would undoubtedly be extended in most cases if we had clean air to breathe.

       Nature had in mind a balance to the program of living and it involves humans and other vertebrates in nature that use oxygen on one side of the spectrum and expel carbon dioxide on the other side of the spectrum. Plants flourish in a rich carbon dioxide or greenhouse atmosphere utilizing and storing the excess carbon in their trunks or stems, and then further decaying over a long period of time locking up the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This helps moderate the effects of our climate and yielding oxygen which animals can use as a means of our own survival.

      Ebbs and flows of carbon dioxide levels have been seen throughout history in terms of the ice age when glaciers swept over North America, as evidenced by geology. This could have been preceded by volcanic activity as the earth crusts was settling or rising in spots creating more volcanoes that spew among other things carbon dioxide as part of its activity of erupting as it also no doubt expelled huge volumes of dust and ash while decimating  forests in its path. And as well the earth itself, plants and animals are constantly evolving to meet the rigors of our environment. As the planet heats up and the polar ice caps melt, global patterns of weather also change and cause problems like snow where you have never saw it before or a massive die off of a species due to poor weather conditions.  

     Trees and vegetation , all of it in general , and as well the oceans lock up a lot of that carbon dioxide and cool a planet down as growth of all vegetation increases due to higher carbon dioxide. Trees and woody sediments washing down rivers and streams, as well as algae, seaweed, and plankton all serve to help the oceans also reduce the carbon dioxide, and this is  effectively cooling the planet. We have interrupted the normal process of natural means of controlling our planets temperatures due to our use of fossil fuels. It has been since the beginning of the industrial revolution and the use of coal primarily to heat our homes and fuel our factories, and then later with oil and gas being a major contributor of releasing carbon dioxide into our atmosphere, that we have seen a gradual spike, or a change in our weather patterns since we have been taking weather recordings or have seen through ice samples or tree rings evidence of major environmental changes that are in correlation to our recordings.

planting chestnut trees in Wayne National Forest 

      A byproduct of both forms of burning or altering the form of the oil and gas results in the same emission and that is carbon dioxide. What Mother Nature worked so hard at, thousands and millions of years ago is undone in an instant the moment you turn your car on, or turn up the thermostat. This is a proven effect of technology and an effort to increase the efficiency of our vehicles has little to do with the amount of carbon dioxide in a ton of coal, or a gallon of gas. As long as we use either, or as far as that goes, using natural gas, diesel or any fossil fuel base , we can expect to constantly increase the amount of carbon dioxide in our environment effectively heating up our planet.

      Technology wants to build a machine that effectively scrubs the air, and pumps the carbon dioxide back underground into old mines, effectively locking it up. As well they talk about pumping it into old oil wells which is also being considered. But again there are cost factors and where is the energy going to come from to run the huge machinery it would require to effectively scrub our air. Our air comprises a larger volume proportionately than our oceans which covers two thirds of our planet. That is a lot of hot air to take care of and do we want to be dependent on the same people who destroyed our environment to be in control of the air we breathe. We have only on planet and if they want to experiment I suggest they head to Mars, as I want a proven means of eliminating part of the problem we have created and that is to plant trees and reduce our land use to what we have already tore up.

     I propose that every citizen of earth go out and plant a tree as soon as they are old enough and continue planting a tree a year until they die. 5 billion trees in 100 years would result in 500 billion trees and just may equal what we have taken out in hydrocarbons since we have started utilizing fossil fuels for our convenience. There is now way you are ever going to achieve those numbers, but even if we live to be 80 a tree a year hardly represents what we have used currently in our personal needs as well represent the hydrocarbons we have spent to keep us warm or wipe our nose or other things. There again we have to have 100 percent of the people doing the same thing.

fancy smancy tree hauler wasn't necessary, as we had enough help that day to more than carry the trees to the location we were planting. government at work-if it isnt a huge project to start with it will be when they are done. 

      Trees will propagate themselves and make up the difference if left alone. They are a major influence on removing carbon dioxide from our air as their branches sweep the sky trapping the carbon dioxide and dust that lands on its leaves. The morning dew washes that dust off and it lands on the ground and encases a seed pod and generates another tree. This is how it is supposed to be. It won’t happen in a Walmart parking lot or even in your living room. But we need to make space for it to happen. Part of the difference in what we plant versus what we use can be made up from utilization of natural resources , solar, geo thermal, water , and other technologies not dependent on fossil fuels.

      We need to return a balance to nature and it is going to be hard to justify feeding another 2 billion people by 2050 as well, reduce our use of hydrocarbons and fossil fuels without some impending shortages of food and famine as we are going along. 35 years from now it is going to be someone else’s problem and not mine , but I am just trying to do my part now as well we all need to get in the mindset to make amends for our abuse of nature and to try and set the record straight by planting just one tree per year per person. If you live in a family and they don’t feel your views, plant for them and hopefully somewhere down the road they may understand what you were trying to do. Especially when they see after you are gone, all that you have accomplished. Plant them in your yard, along the interstates, in a park somewhere, ask if you can, and if you can’t find an answer then just go ahead and plant anyhow. Your effort will be your knowledge that you have tried to make a difference. The satisfaction of returning to a location where you planted years later and seeing the trees growing will be just as good as any other reward you can have in life. Plant a tree today. 

bearly able to keep up

Limited Interest in Trees

     I was planning a comprehensive guide to planting trees but life got in the way. Lousy day to begin with and yes I remember that rain is necessary and especially the spring rains. So instead of planting or finding the leak in my water line as I have 2 Ieaks, instead turned to carving as I like to carve when it is cooler and haven’t done enough of that lately and worked on a bear. The water line leaks will be there as  I doubt if the Amish elves will be in to fix it unless I spend my fair share of the green so the leak can wait. I just shut the pump off.

    I do a minimum of this and that, watering and weeding and try to plant a little to keep up on things for the open house. I also wrote in my blog and did my usual Facebook thing and posted my blog there along with a lot of other stuff I share. I could have passed on all this as it isn’t really necessary , but then again it is something I like to do , just as my writing in my blog somehow helps me understand a little about myself when I write regularly. It kind of puts things in perspective. What is important to me and what isn’t? Apparently writing and reading is important and takes a fair amount of time daily in my work regimen.

     I read far more than I post daily, and a lot of junk I peruse to see if there is something worthy in what I am reading to share with others. It seems as if I post a lot, but it is only a fraction of what I scour through as fast as I can daily to avoid wasting my time and yours. Then it is on to other projects I have planned. Like plan A and plan B. trying to accomplish one or the other depending on how I feel or what else is going on for the day. Much like anyone else would do. I feel anxious from the time I wake up till I fall asleep in bed as there never seems to be enough time to do everything. Instead I end up doing a little of everything hoping down the road I will achieve the same results.

    I did have one call for trees after I placed the ad in Craigslist and hope to sell some from that one contact. But the sale on trees goes on till Friday night when I pull the ad. If somebody will call before then, I will honor their purchase and give sale price even on Saturday and Sunday. After that it is back to full price for my trees which this year will be 10 / tree. I might lower the price over the 2 weeks during open house but then again I can just plant the trees here on the farm just as well. I have a lot more in time wrapped up in the trees to let them go for nothing. I will take trades of labor or whatever in exchange for trees if money is a problem for you.

     Well since I write daily, I am burning daylight and have a doctor’s appointment at 3 today so need to get moving. If anyone is interested in trees for Arbor Day, feel free to give me a call or text. And we can talk. Kdavi3051@yahoo.com , or 2345213984. Thanks, and plant a tree for Arbor Day.

1-2 ft. pines potted -5 dollar arbor day special

Earth Day 2015

         How could I let an opportunity like Earth Day just pass me by without saying something about it.  Maybe plant a tree or five, and try to sell some of my stock in trees to others who may be interested in doing something for Earth day and as well Arbor day, which is this Fri. April 24 th.. Well to begin with I guess I need to inform you I have over 300 plus blue spruce in the 1-2 ft. range that are firmly rooted and are growing nice, in fact quite beautiful. As well I have a wide variety of other native Ohio species to sell along with arbor vitae which although a shrub still offers the same cleansing properties of removing carbon dioxide from the air as trees do, but do it in a more compact manner.

        These I will sell to you for 5.00 per /tree up until Arbor Day for anyone that mentions my blog while visiting the farm and picking up the trees. This is cheap and would make a good windbreak as well would make a privacy screen, keeping nosy neighbors at bay. Remember to call 811 for digging location services provided for free by the Ohio PUCO designed to protect and identify underground utility lines as well a quick look over head is needed to prevent placing a tree under a utility line and later see the Asplundh tree butchers under the guidance of AEP or American Electric Power company as they “y” or lop side your favorite tree in the future degrading your curb appeal of your residence. Some pre-planning will go a long way to a successful planting of trees.

      Trees should be removed from the pots and a hole twice the size of the pot at a minimum needs to be dug and the sides of the hole need to be scarfed up. Additional soil should be taken out and the bottom spaded as well. Add some compost or peat in the bottom of the hole to give the tree a chance to have its roots spread easily. Another good thing to do is use the potting soil from last year’s hanging basket and dump that in the hole and this will aid the tree in starting also. The hole should be deep enough to create a well around the tree after it is placed in the hole and soil is added from that taken out, minus the sod to bring it up to the crown of the tree. The sod may be used to help form the well or a recessed area around the tree which especially on hillsides, is needed to contain water you need to properly saturate the roots with.

    I plan on adding step by step approach to planting a tree in tomorrow’s blog depending on how things go with planting today. You need to water at least weekly and add some sort of mulch, and at very least peat moss to the top surface to keep the trees roots moist and conserve water. Peat moss absorbs up to 8 times its weight in water and is considered a great soil additive enhancing root growth while protecting from over drying. Make sure soil is firm around the tree as you are planting and hold with one hand keeping tree straight up and in proper correlation to the top of the hole and the crown of the tree should be equal. While applying dirt with other hand breaking up lumps and occasionally mix peat or compost in generously to the top or crown. The crown is the place where the roots end and the bark begins. Make your well and apply a thin layer of compost or peat to conserve moisture and water thoroughly

.

     There is nothing to it and the satisfaction of seeing trees grow is immense. Although I wasn’t around when i noticed a pine tree planting along a road I used to travel daily years ago. I mentally recorded all events with these trees, even talking to the owner as they grew from seedlings to the trees they are today as they stand almost 25 feet tall in less than 20 years. At one point when they were about 5- 6 ft. tall I understood the owner to say he was selling them for 80-90 dollars for a dug tree. He never dug them as I guess he never was able to get that kind of money. Today he would be hard pressed even with the machinery we have today to even dig them as they are that large. The bottoms would be wrecked anyhow as they were planted to close together. Another consideration if you want to create a privacy fence. You may plant closer together with initial planting but sooner or later you need to figure what the final outcome of your project is going to be when the needles of one tree start to touch the tree beside it. It may be necessary as in the case of pines to take one for a Christmas tree allowing the bottoms to fully develop.

    Anyhow if you are interested in planting a tree or whole privacy fence I have some nice trees available at a great price for a short time only. I will also post on craigslist at the same price. Trees are the cure for excess carbon dioxide created by human consumption of fossil fuel products. Do your part and plant trees to reverse the process of removing CO2 from our environment. We still only have one planet, do your part and plant a tree today. Call 2345213984 ask for kev. Leave a message if busy and I will get back to you. 

rain, rain, isn't such a pain

Be Thankful for What We Have

     So what does Ireland have over Ohio? Well maybe a lot more ginger’s running around with a fancy accent, maybe some ancient folk lore. A potato famine in the past that sent a bunch of its citizens skirting across the pond and ending up in places like Ohio, those damn illegal immigrants, a ginger invasion of proportions we have never seen, all in the past of course, and of course sarcastically speaking. Also they call it the Emerald isle. But the green that is out there in Ohio this morning leads me to believe this area and others could easily match or surpass the green in Ireland anytime. And if the Amish keep inbreeding in Ohio, I don’t doubt that we will have our fair share of tiny people running around here with squeaky voices. Whether or not they will be sitting at the end of a rainbow with a pot of gold is debatable but instead you may see them at flea market or an auction with a fist full of dollars.

    California has a major drought on and it will increase the price of produce, and yes it will affect us here in Ohio. Why, it is because we have become dependent on California to provide produce at cheap prices due to the availability of Latino or migrant labor force  willing to work for cash , making growing produce here in Ohio almost nonexistent when it comes to the fact that what we consume is, and what we actually produce to satisfy our needs, are small in comparison because we have become dependent on the marketing lines that has been set up years ago. This is the still expensive and energy wasting alternative to us producing what we need here in Ohio. We truck lettuce by the head from the San Joaquin valley where it is irrigated and sprayed with insecticide as well as herbicide picked by migrant labor and shipped across the country to market near you when we could have easily produced it here in our state .

    Unfortunately it is hard to produce lettuce for less than the 1.49 / head it costs us at the stores currently, but if the drought continues then expect to pay more and expect shortages in more vegetables besides lettuce if the trend continues. Carrots and other vegetables are also produced in this same area and other drought stricken areas. California may have to import vegetables from other states just to feed their own people.

     Although we don’t have the climate southern California has, we do have water in terms of rainfall and with past snow falls and  our aquifers are full in comparison to California. With advances in greenhouse construction and a little innovation we could easily make up the difference in what it would cost to raise locally if the price goes up any more, it almost has to. The snow pack in California is 10 percent less than last year and water reservoirs are historically low in that region and we are just going into another summer and predictions of impending lack of rainfall make the forecast for that area even more dismal. California won’t have to wait for an earthquake to force people to leave. Being only able to bathe on every other day or use your water on a conservation basis, will make living in that area dismal as well. Sometimes paradise has its drawbacks. When the golf courses turn brown, swimming pools double as water reservoirs, tumbleweeds become new lawn ornaments, and people of that area will reconsider whether the most basic of all commodities is also most important. Then maybe moving somewhere where water is plentiful might be the best move. A brain drain will happen as the Silicon Valley makes a mass exodus for other parts of the country with Ohio being in the forefront of the go to places because of our technology advances and industrial base.

      We have rain and green naturally without watering. Sometimes we have more than enough for ourselves. We may soon become the new area for truck farming as we start to produce more of our vegetables here making us the center for migrant invasion. These in turn will make us less dependent on higher transportation costs associated with trucking vegetables across the country. Our land prices will increase as more westerners move to Ohio seeking properties and finding major deals in comparison to the cost of real-estate in California. A 150000 home in Ohio would be a slum property in L.A. County. Here it is a new home. This in turn will cause new problems for Ohioans.

     Fracking and the loss of real estate as it changes from agriculture to sub developments, and as well the recent fracking or oil well boom will increase the amount of wastewater to be disposed of and will limit how much water can be used for agricultural purposes in the long run if it doesn’t contaminate our supplies of water in some areas, where well water is mostly used as in southern Ohio. This is an area where in the hills around Marietta and other places people are dependent on cisterns as well water is already hard to get. Competing with the oil companies for fresh water will cause harm to those people dependent on water being supplied to them.

       For the most part most of Ohio has ample supplies of water due to rainfall being in excess of 40 inches most years, as compared to California where the rainfall is less than 10 inches in most areas. In California when it does rain most of it runs off as the amount of developed real-estate and loss of shrubs due to wildfires, limits the amount of saturation into the soil causing more mudslides. Water aquifers are constantly going over to saline production, meaning salt water is being introduced due to over pumping of strategic reserves.

     We should be thankful and appreciate the rain when we get it. Changes are coming in this country whether we want them to, just as they have always did when adversity rears its ugly nature, in this case we respond by moving. During the dust bowl era, a lot of Oklahoma and dust bowl residents moved west making Rt. 66 the major thoroughfare to prosperity in California as thousands of people sought relief from the drought that plagued the middle of our country. When Californians begin drinking the water out of their swimming pools they too will be doing the same thing, as many have their heritage in those same vagabond travelers that ended up in California.

      What can we do to prepare? Become more concerned with issues like fracking , and urban development taking over agricultural land. We need to look at our zoning and make changes allowing farmers a reward for keeping their land in production as it stands. In fact the same holds true for any open space as it stands now. Builders should be forced to acquire previously developed properties that have fallen into ruins such as ghettos etc., and improve them as opposed to giving any vacant land over to developers. We could encourage that through incentives as they do now with Brownfield legislation where if a company acquires a site to be developed with environmental issues, then the state and federal government steps in and helps defray the costs of cleanup. This same concept could be also be used to acquire real-estate previously developed with the infrastructure of sewer water and electric already there and develop these areas first.  Also when trees are destroyed we need to have in place legislation that would force developers to replant three trees to every one displaced by new construction. An assessment of the quality and number of trees to be replaced must be submitted prior to acquiring a building permit no matter where the property exists.

      Fracking and wastewater issues of oilfield exploration should be halted till the oil producers provide a complete list of chemicals that are used and conclusive evidence that fracking is not harmful to the environment and that they can control ground water infiltration with their fracking fluids. If not a substantial bond should be required to protect residents in the area that would be affected by the possible infiltration or seismic damage associated with fracking. Wastewater is overburdening our local sanitary services at wastewater treatment plants as they are now transferring drill fluids to those facilities,  as well to local landfills and filling our landfills to the point they will cause premature expansion of landfills . This creates more landfills just to accommodate the drill fluids and waste of fracking. The oilfield companies need to come up with a comprehensive plan to protect the citizens of Ohio. Our Republican representatives will spend our interests in a minute in an effort to accommodate big business. We need to be more responsible in this respect and protect our resources.

      If things play out as I see it, I can see agriculture being more of a business, that will reward us far into the future long after the oilfield companies have left looking for the next big find. Even oilfield workers have to eat, as well as all those affected by the drought as long as it persists. We need to think ahead and not be driven by profits, instead protect our resources and grow in a sound manner as it looks we have no alternative but to increase our population here, whether we want to or not. 

so much to do, so little time

Time is Slipping Away

     A friend I sat beside for years in grade school, jr. high, and then some in high school as teachers much prefer an alphabetical system of seating as they could methodically go through their absentee list, this in turn forced my friend and I together to sit beside each other in classes for years. It was inevitable that we would have conversation and some camaraderie exist between us. She will be missed and only hastens me to try and accomplish more in the time I have left.

    Another Facebook friend said he looked forward to the day when he could sit and do the art that he would like to do. My response is that I have the time but still never seem to get to that point that I am doing exactly what I want to do but instead what needs to be done. I guess it is a matter of making time each day and maybe not doing a lot but instead a little each day. Or maybe devote one day to just doing one thing. A little experiment I have been trying here at home to no success.

     I have wood to clean up before the grass becomes too high and then there is the lawn that needs mowed and it seems as if mother nature is out to get me at times. The greenhouse is getting hotter forcing me to water more and plants need weeded and did I forget to mention chainsaw carving, let alone oil painting or finishing some projects put off to a later date, or better weather. I have a house that needs built. , thank somebody I don’t have a regular job, and I have come to the realization I am getting older and soon I too will be an obit. Not that I want to, but it is reality.

     Many my age have come and gone and I can’t count on two hands how many people I know who have passed that were my age or younger. Nature had her way with them and somehow they didn’t make it, which is the way it goes. Death is one thing we can’t escape. No matter how many trips we make to the health spa, or pass on the greasy food in favor of vegetables, we may post pone but we will never get out of this life alive.

     Kind of depressing way to look at things and you may wonder why it is important to keep trying, because you just have to is the simplest explanation. If you give up and try to take an easy way out it may never work and instead old mother nature will be there the next morning , wondering why you even try.  An empty handful of pills and headache may be all you have to show for it. You still have the same problems and solutions only became harder. I say embrace your life as it is , whether it is being confined to a wheelchair , then go for a ride, if its breast cancer then wear pink, no matter the hardship , you always have two solutions, do something or sit and bitch about it. I would rather think I would try and make the most out of it. I know I am going to die and that is ok, so making peace with that fact should help me prepare for it. Part of that preparation is to make amends and to also live each day as if it is your last as you never know when that may be.

    Make time for those things that make you smile, spend time in nature as it teaches you lessons you will never find in a computer or a cell phone. It will make you smile when you see a bloom or a bee pollinating a flower as these are beautiful things. You need to make peace with yourself, first and foremost and forgive that one person who is most important to you for their shortcomings. You know them well and are constantly reminded by them daily as you set the standards by raising the bar a little higher, and why?  You still end up in the same place as everyone else. Forgive yourself and have some fun even if it is by you alone. Do something only you like to do and don’t feel guilty. It may be your last chance.

   A bucket list is nice but most people don’t have enough good health or money to do all they would ever want to. Instead do what you can and enjoy it while you can, even if it is just sitting in the sun. Most of all disconnect from the TV, and cell phone and get out and enjoy life doing whatever makes you happy at least once a week it will make your life a lot more worthwhile. Pick things you can do without money and see how rewarding it is to get back at nature, to be able to enjoy your environment and not cost you anything. There are lessons to be learned relaxing in nature sitting alongside a creek lazily watching the end of a fishing pole awaiting a dance with destiny. Just look around and nature will teach you. Watch the ebb and flow of waves lapping the shore as they bring bits of flotsam and jetsam here and there as bugs skirt the surface of the water as if magically suspended. Why is that, and have you ever wondered, get back to nature and see what I am talking about. Time is wasting. Besides that is where you will end up no matter what you think. The rest is all small stuff.

all in a day

This Place is going to the Dogs

Buddy and Biscuit in background

     Well maybe also to the ducks, chickens and a few other animals as it should be. It is the four B’s or what they stand for as Babe, Biscuit, Buddy and Bowser, in terms of largest to the smallest dog that I will be talking about today and in particular the first two, Babe and Biscuit and the rivalry I have noticed of late that is somewhat humorous, but at other times can be a pain in the ass as we go along.

     Babe my German Shepherd had this place to herself for quite a long time and I figured she would embrace company , I guess that is what I get for thinking, as I should have known babe better. Her and my last dog Zoey had some knock down drag out fights over sticks or just about anything like a breeze blowing through would be good enough to get them to tangle.  The fact they were both alpha females who squat to pee with a stick in their mouth wasn’t enough as they both would kick up a leg like a male does, doing a three legged squat, and scent everything in their path. I had Babe and Zoey fixed but I guess I should have had their balls cut also at the same time to make them a little better off socially. Both of them at times defined the word bitch, so much so that their male counterparts would have nothing to do with them. Strange how dogs mimic humans at times, except in certain areas as they have never been able to get that door opening , feeding, and crap cleanup thing, down pat . I guess they are still working on it or kinda like the arrangement they have it now, as us superior humans would have it. Sometimes I wonder who is really superior if we are taking care of them

Bowser or trouble maker

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      Zoey passed a little early from something that overtook her quickly, and I miss her spirit. Then Babe spent maybe three or four years alone here on the farm before again having another dog around. I would take her for rides in the pickup and would have to grab her as we would pass other dogs for fear she would try and start something with them as we were driving down the road. I was afraid her barking and growling would in turn would drag the dog out into the road, as the tone of her voice must have been liken to an ass kicking. I would hold her down in the seat till we passed. I would park in the back row at the shopping center and she would quietly stay in the truck till old Grandma Wheezer would pull in with her poodle, Fluffy and park right beside me. Get out her walker and shuffle inside hoping Fluffy will find comfort in the company of Babe in the next vehicle beside here with the windows up.

     Babe would wait till ole Grandma Wheezer would get out of hearing aid range and then she would let loose on old Fluffy within the confines of my pickup cab with the windows up , sometimes doing a dance as little fluffy would sit in her car scared shitless or also putting up a fight from inside the old lady’s car. There are times I came out of the store to be greeted by babe with an arm rest dangling out of her mouth as she tried to show little fluffy what she was going to do to her if she could get out of my truck.

Babe on Biscuit watch about quitting time.as the sun sets on another day at the farm 

      Normally Babe is a loving dog at least to me and selected UPS men, well maybe a few other individuals, but to some people she can put them on edge. But then she is here for security and what good is a dog that licks you all the time. Babe has never bit any person and I doubt she ever would unless they threatened her or me, or anyone here at the farm. She is great with most animals except one old retired chicken she likes to play a little too hard with.

      Biscuit is pretty much the same as Babe, an alpha female and a constant irritant to Babe who constantly reminds Biscuit just who the boss is, and of course Biscuit knows it is her. Buddy and Bowser could care less who the boss is as all they want to do is run. Run to the neighbors, or down the road anywhere except here at times, again at times mimicking men in that regard, as the women want to make a home and protect it, while the men want to roam.

      Biscuit and Babe though have this ongoing silent feud going on and there is no way to stop this kind rivalry as it impossible to keep up with them at times. Biscuit comes up to my house and craps in the yard and takes a leak scenting the around my house while Babe is inside looking out usually whining. Then when I think Babe want to go to the bathroom and I let her out well she goes around and over scents all Biscuits work and then heads to Mom’s house to do the same to her house. Before Biscuit I would observe Babe doing her business in the bushes or at the edge of the yard but now it is a war of crap between them as they point – counterpoint each other in a silent struggle to be a master Dom.

      Last night I observed what I thought was a humorous situation between the two of them as my brother in law came up to my house and thereby granting access to Biscuit to also tag along and sometime after we stood there talking Biscuit snuck past me and cleaned out the cat dish and started on Babes dog food but gave that up real quick , in the meantime my brother in law and I headed out to find some tools and and as I walked out of the house, I closed the door behind me and unknown to me , Biscuit was locked in my house, while Babe was outside with me.

    In fact she was in there for a while as it took me some time to get back to the house and at one point I looked up at my place and in place of Babe staring at me from the window it was Biscuit. I almost bent over laughing at her as she looked at me so pitiful from the same vantage point as babe would if she would have been locked in. it was as if Biscuit had achieved the ultimate Babe showdown and yet she was still not happy as Babe was out there running around and she was locked  inside.

     I headed back to the house at one point and let Biscuit out whereupon she immediately took turns scenting those places where Babe had been.  Since we were working in the basement of mom’s house it was dogs under feet as Babe and then Biscuit would be underfoot as we tried to maneuver ourselves around. Work was constantly interrupted to tell one or the other to get the heck out of our road. Babe was only trying to give Biscuit back the same as Biscuit was giving her.

       Most of the time things are quiet when the two share the outside and no one is around. Babe will sit up here in my yard and stare down at Biscuit who seems to be content to stay on the porch. Just recently Babe and Biscuit did something totally unexpected and took off together following my sister down the lane. I came out of the house only to find Babe missing and I yelled for her. Here is a dog that never leaves my side and she is suddenly missing and a cause of alarm for me, so much so that I grabbed the tractor and headed down the lane as that seems to be a common theme of dogs to see what is down there, when they have a need to roam. My hunch was right as I yelled across the vast expanse of open ground and it must have fell upon their ears as at first I sighted Babe coming back then Biscuit. I couldn’t believe Babe was running around with her. Babe knew I was mad at her and busted her butt heading home while Biscuit took a wide birth of me and just avoided the ugly tongue lashing Babe was receiving

    I think it was Biscuits way of taking care of the Babe situation as she hopefully leads her off to maybe get Babe lost or it could have been vice a versa as Babe might have been doing the same to Biscuit also. Friends for a minute they were but it didn’t last long as soon they were back at it. I doubt if the situation will ever get any better as that is a dog’s way. But then that Is not that much different than some humans at times.  

    We sometimes develop grudges against others that we will go to the grave with. We can be the friendliest, forgiving people, but at times some people just grate on us. Nothing they can say or do will make a difference in how we feel about them even if they were the last person on earth. You would rather die than ask their help, or allow them to commiserate with you. Such is life. in the case of these two dogs , I  can’t beat them into conformity, instead we just have to relish in the thought that as a dog they are letting each other know their true feeling for one another. You can’t expect them to do something we wouldn’t do. 

vertical wall plantings.

Still Didn’t Crank Over

This bamboo screen will eventually support lace vine currently in pots as it climbs all over, eventually creating a wall of flowers, With no wind the petals and seeds should fall to the floor , I have already proved that the lace vine will overtake most anything in my previous planting of it in the greenhouse. 

    No, I didn’t mean the dump truck but apparently it has issues also, as I tried to start it last night and nearly melted the positive wire from the battery to the solenoid and will have to check and see if the engine is turning over manually by trying to turn the fan belt before reinstalling the battery. No big cause for worry yet. This is a truck that started on the coldest day of last year when nothing else would start; I have faith in the old Ford and will get it going no matter what I have to do to make it happen. This is part of what makes a farmer, and that is don’t sweat the little stuff, when it becomes something bigger then start to worry.

      I am currently working on a couple of extracurricular activities that have had my interest and I want to see fulfilled. One is working on vertical gardens where they take up less space and can be used to grow household plants and provide a visual block that has eye appeal to otherwise dismal looking areas. The other project is a wind powered generator on a simple basis to offset some of my current electrical needs and this will be supplemented by solar offering the advantage of a hybrid power arrangement with storage capabilities. I hope yto in some way supplement my power needs if not eventually eliminating any outside power needs for the farm and eve3ntually try to sell to the power company.

     First the reason for getting the dump truck moving is that I need to bring a bunch of topsoil from the top of the hill down to our yard area.  I plan on constructing berms and adding topsoil to areas needed and increase our yard plantings, this in order to create habitat and eliminate some of the yard mowing. My plan is to eliminate 50 percent of the space I mow currently by increasing the number of yard plantings which will result in a savings of gasoline and time to mow and maintain a homestead yard. These acres of mowing with a small mower are pointless and are a major gas guzzler.

 The vine you see here is the lace vine due to its white color though quite beautiful and has a pleasant aroma, Bees have no use for it as it yields insignificant nectar, It is also quite hardy covering and excluding all other vegetation, strangling plants to some degree and excluding light, while being nothing but pretty. I would advise not buying the vine unless you intend to watch it closely and keep it trimmed. 

One major problem with the vast expanses of grass is the weekly mowing’s, and more often as it grows heavily. Areas left unattended quickly look ragged requiring you to do the complete lawn as it is connected. Disconnecting these areas and making visual blocks or plantings increase the visual appeal, enhances wildlife habitat and breaks into areas, the lawn expanses where one may do one area one day, and leave the other to another day then mowing only as needed. This will make mowing the lawn less of a chore. But then you say there will be added expense when it comes to maintaining these islands of plantings.

    Not necessarily if you choose the right combination of plants. First some large trees, and then add some bushes at the base of these trees like forsythia , then an even lower planting of azalea and a small strip of perennial flowers would be nice. Also don’t square out the planting as there should be no corners instead bend your flower bed to meet the focal point of the yard. I know I need drawings and photo pics of what I am trying to represent to you, but hopefully I made it clear there are no corners in nature and if the look you want is something easy to care for and natural , then eliminate the corners , have patches of yard small enough to mow with a hand lawn mower if needed, or even a weed whacker is acceptable. The birds, bees and other natural foragers will be camping at your doorstep as you transform your yard into an environmentally acceptable alternative to mass green lawns.

      If you have an unsightly wall or other non-feature then maybe a vertical garden may be the way to go , allowing you to hide or focus one’s eye to another feature of your yard, or just to provide some easy to care for eye candy as you plant flowers or even vegetables in a vertical arrangement on a faux wall. Planting of pampas grass also breaks up the drudgery of a vast lawn and requires very little and is drought resistant in our part of the state of Ohio. For me, maintenance amounts to clipping with clippers, or using the weed eater to cut the old tall bleached grass leftover from the year before , using a leaf rake and piling the spent grass around the base of the pampas planting adds needed mulch to protect the roots and also retain moisture . This in turn increases the health of the pampas plantings.

      I have built a vertical wall in the greenhouse and plan on trailing the lace vine up over the trellis and creating a wall of green and white to separate the pool from the rest of the greenhouse. My recent quest into purchasing a bunch of the lace vine to sell at the greenhouse yielded information that the lace vine if introduced outside in the open environment has the potential to become a noxious weed and is not recommended for the state of Ohio with characteristics similar to Japanese knot weed.  I have seen infestations of this vine or bush that takes repeated doses of herbicides similar to Roundup, and you know how I feel about herbicides, to eventually kill the noxious intruder leaving the soil in a less than sterile condition. So I refuse to sell the lace vine, due to similar characteristics I have seen in it.  Instead I can provide you with information. You just search lace vine in your browser, doing this I am sure you will come up with a lot less reputable, or care less, and make a sale, companies more than glad to sell you the lace vine.

   Mine will be confined to the greenhouse and now I have them in large planters and seem to be doing fine. I will make extra time to try and train the vines to do what I want and be able to show you how easy it is to build a vertical blind. My success with bamboo has been limited to just buying the plants and watch them die , not sure what I am doing wrong , too much sun , not enough , it is hard to tell but I have found  use for the cane left behind and find they are fairly strong and offer flexibility to create items like vertical walls quite easily and should support the weight of the lace vine as it proceeds to cover the wall. Pockets will be created allowing me to intersperse hanging flower baskets adding a touch of varied color to the wall or creating an overall design. I am still in the creative portion and haven’t finished detailing the wall to achieve an overall theme. I do have pictures of this.

      The time spent converting your yard from labor intensive, and eco-unfriendly, to eco-friendly and natural will yield you much more satisfaction in years to come from financial standpoint to time saved while trying to maintain the green behemoth you have created, and reduced maintenance due to less mowing. . Add to that some straw bale vegetable plantings that will yield s you some savings from the vegetables raised. Tomorrow I will go into more detail about straw bale plantings, and work I am doing with a small windmill I plan on building or converting from its present use.

     In conclusion, you may wonder how, “Still Didn’t Crank Over,” has anything to do with my blog today and it is the fact that although I celebrated reaching the 30000 mark I was still a little bit shy but had confidence I can easily slide over that mark shortly. When I reach I will let you know without much more fanfare, but it hasn’t cranked over that mark yet.