need a rain dance?

        

         in some respects , i must say i have been lax at making an attempt to write and update all following people of what is going on at the farm . part of the reason i have been lax is because i spend long hours as you have to make hay when the sun shines. and it has been shining to much. now we need rain and plenty of it to make up for damage done by lack of water. 

         surprisingly i am seeing raspberries and black berries of good size, but are withering on the vines and little is coming on as everything just needs a good rain. planting and planning has been easy as we take on a california or colorado weather report with day after day sunny and nothing but warm. in some cases records are being set. yet according to some legislators we still have no cause for alarm as this hot weather and extreme storms are just part of the natural scheme of things. i don't buy it. 

      anyhow the pics above are the flowers after they blossomed and the ducks decided to eat them. i cleaned the boat out and is currently still ashore. 

          these are the trees i bought this spring from the soil conservation office at about the 2 month stage. i have recently lost some more and some of this might be from the heat . i have some regrowth from the roots as some trees try to regenerate themselves. some of the pine and some persimmon are like that. i also have a bunch of oaks and black walnuts to transplant too. as well some locusts have appeared again. most of these can be related to last rain over an inch about 2 weeks ago. it may also be to my delaying mowing due to drying conditions. our yard is still green and growing but pone pond is dry and another has to have water added to keep fish alive. this requires well water. right now we are heavily dependent on well water to keep things going. 

        this is a picture of a new to us but used greenhouse we recently purchased at a local auction of a nursery business. it is 28 x48 double walled plastic, the wood ends are going to be replaced with translucent fiberglass panels and galvanized posts complete with 2 entry doors. a large ventilation fan 4 foot around will be placed close to roof section in one end to allow ventilation of the greenhouse. at this time our major concern will be the propagation of trees as major product, and will surely evolve as we go along. we will be uncluttering the inside and aligning it on an east west alignment to maximize sunlight and hope to efficiently use it 10 months of the year. we have placed it in an open location able to achieve maximum sunlight potential in winter months. 

      so far we have far less than what one would have with a comparable greenhouse but we still have to erect it . this i will be covering more closely with you as explain all parts of greenhouse construction and use as i experience it. hopefully it will not be as long until i post again. 

immmmmm --- baaaaaack

     sorry for not writing for a while . a combination of problems and in the end it comes down to priorities . i have been busy on several projects around the farm. we have started making hay here on the farm. this requires a fair share of time . equipment needs worked on and a lot of it is preventative maintenance. the first field went flawlessly and this is always good. had no rain and this is good for making hay but bad for springs and ponds as the springs have dried up to at best minimal flow . the soil is dry slowing germination of seeds and supplying critical moisture needed . but most of the planting tasks have been completed. recently went through the pine trees and mulched them and trimmed as necessary. i went to an auction and bought another 150 arbor vitae and picked up close to 500 or more pots to move the new trees into eventually. 

      the hen ducks who had been sitting on their eggs have fell into a bad funk as nature has reared its ugly head and not only wiped out all the nests of their eggs to a critter.  that same critter apparently dragged the white duck off to an unknown demise just as she was about hatch her eggs out. then another nest was robbed , and this left just one brown duck with a large nest of eggs and out of that she hatched 2 ducklings and they were cute. but unfortunately they were lost also leaving us at a deficit on the duck population as we are down one hen . recent activity seems to suggest that maybe they may still try and hatch out a nest. 

     alas chip and dale my so called chipmunk friends who visit my back porch and at one point warmed my heart while watching them play just outside my window on a statue i have there. well it was all cute watching them push each other off the statue and horse around till they started eating my plants.this was only just after i placed food out there for them . they cut some expensive trees and rooted them up as if they were eating the roots. could have shot them. and now i have or have had a groundhog problem in the garden. this guy is going to get himself an electric fence very shortly if he doesn't change his culinary tastes and leave my cabbage alone. 

     the flies are terrible on the cows as they get little relief in this heat. the cows have adapted though spending nights eating when it is cool and then head for the barn when it starts getting hot. i guess it is a toss up for the flies , eat s--- or land on a cow . the flies hardly get so many choices. but it does give the cows some relief. 

     well i also planted some field corn with a grain drill as i just wanted to try it. was an interesting trial and feel you can get a good stand , and could also have the choice of row width by blocking fertilizer discharges with seed boxes . i used the fertilizer bin and just drilled the corn in with a cover crop of oats to reduce weed growth. i don't use fertilizer but instead go for lime as a soil amendment. the lime is better for the soil as it increases the release of beneficial elements necessary for plant growth .  hopefully the corn will be planted at a rate that will allow it to surpass the oat growth. just a trial , and will see where to go from here , once i see what i get. have the rest of my life to tweak.

       well hope all is well with you and hope you are enjoying this weather. today i spent at atwood lake beach . a place i swore before was a breeding ground for e coli and actually i tried to get them inspected for their problem with goose feces. the main problem was they crapped on beach and this was carried  into the water by unknowing or caring individuals. apparently they have a handle on the problem and i could say the overall beach cleanliness was up 100 percent from last time i was there. my thanks to them as i enjoyed the cool water in this over bearing heat. 

      well the boat didn't sink but the ducks figured the flowers looked way to good and ate them . so i pulled the boat onto shore for now trying to figure out my next move. but the flowers were pretty when they finally opened. oh well that is what trials are for.

puter probs .com

         computers rarely die they are just sick and it is up to you to make them better. and it becomes an obsession of mine to make sure it works as it should . what started out as a slow response a couple of days ago has turned into anything but productive as i tried to reduce files and unnecessary programs in an effort to speeed up the computer.

       MISTAKE- the only thing wrong with a computer is the loose nut on the keyboard pounding away at it. as hour upon frustrating hour would add up to just wasted time seeking normalcy. i wasn't asking for the world on a silver platter but instead a puter that works. instead i get this thing. 

         it is functional and it is mine and still works and will tell you some history of where i am at with this thing. i bought a new asus laptop and the young zuckenberger lookalike assured me it was top class, it was at best buy and i knew with a store name  like that, i could only expect the best . and this young salesman surely wouldn't try to be hawking the asus laptops because they were a good deal for  them.i was kinda hoping it was for a good deal for me for me.

         but not having a functioning computer after mine had died, and not being able to scout for both those attributes as best i could determine from the web, so i was kind of at the mercy of this guy in an effort to get a good one. it has twin processors capable of 3.4 gb -gigabytes- exceedingly more ability to process than ever i could think of using due to my limited typing ability. 2 finger typing is as fast as i could possibly go and still it is barely a trace of the total calculating ability of this laptop. well the cost of it was bare bones at 800. this price went no where but up. one thing this young salesman didnt tell me about when he first started   touting its abilities,  but i soon found out as i was handed the bill.  

         well some of the free stuff i was offered , the geek squad , free programs i have since eliminated . instead i have opted to down load those  programs that will make my laptop a lean mean computing machine. this is fine in theory but we have to throw in the loose nut thing again. it has served me well ,though requires maintenance at times. 

         i was traveling and since i was riding on a train for several hours and  i took my laptop along . after all that is the reason for a laptop flexibility isn't it? to annoy other passengers. and miss out on social interaction as you are supposed to do with those things. apparently others don't share my  same appreciation for"porky's revenge," as the cheerleader wails . well i sensed ,even though i had earphones on it seemed as if sleeping people, were all secretly  watching my laptop, and when we got to the cheerleader part you could almost hear the people secretly sucking air in horror, lusting at hearing her silent screams of ecstasy ,  but at same time opposed to such good tasteful wholesome humor.  i , too was somewhat ashamed of my technology and the cultural implications that i has well shamed enough to just put the laptop away. i had all the gadgets that allows me the total ability of a portable office. and this is what i should have been doing instead, as i have the inclination and desire to do so,  no excuse to not write any where. i also have all the gadgets associated with the ability to do this.  one of them is a wireless mouse. 

       i was staying at a friends house and this loose nut in his hurry to put stuff away grabbed the mouse and stuck it in my then open laptop and closed the lid cracking the screen. a thousand dumbasses screamed silently in the back of my head as i heard the screen crunch. what was i called my self a loose nut?

      well to make a long story short as i go on and on as if i have unlimited computing power. my laptop is a permanent fixture. no more portable than a desk model as i now have a lcd screen  tied to the now defunct laptop to allow me  an improvement over the cracked screen.  i  also did add 2 new speakers and a wireless keyboard allowing me a flexibility of working up to 10 feet away from screen as if this old loose nut could see that far away from screen . 

       it has served me well . it has ample storage space so far and  when downloading  pics, it is pretty responsive, when not in web mode. i have also added  the internet via a wireless wifi connection through the usb port . now since all you loose nuts  that are out there are reading this totally understand all i am saying, so  i will just move on . after 4 days of less than optimum performance and trying time after  time , different speed enhancing features to it and nothing worked. i rebooted to an earlier time. this is just like it is in a country song when you get a divorce and play the song backwards , you get your wife back , your dog back and your kids back , so i get all those bad programs back . so in effect i have learned a valuable lesson, don't fix whats working. as my grandpa would say , keep your fingers out of it. oh well  it is better and just needs some tweaking but it is time to live and get some things done that don't require sitting in isolation as my main focus. we are alive again and cant wait for future times together. thank all for reading and bearing with me in my time of learning as everyday is a learning experience . its just as we get older a lot of lessons are ones we should have already learned. -life moves on.

reflections 

          recently i was privileged to come back into possession, photos i thought were long lost and it brought back a flood of memories . a tide of emotions some low, flowing into more feelings until you ebb and reminisce over lost thoughts.  feelings of emptiness, loss of loved one , an old dog , a friend , at varying moments of your life . your paths though intertwined left each other at a crossroads somewhere in the past . and this reflection of that moment in time is all that lingers behind to remind you. how i hate to love and hate at same time. to want for certain past memories of times not so perfect  but ones you wouldn't trade for anything.
        and maybe that is the reason we should grab for all we can while we are here. to be free like these guys showing off for my friend in new york one day as i accompanied her on a photo session as we just pulled over at a waterfalls on a lovely clear creek. things you wont see in a picture is knowing that this first guy had surgery on his heart and he had a scar up his midsection where they had  laid him open. he was real friendly and was quite eager to show the scar off, and tell us his story.  he was young and had spent quite a bit of time sick, but now he is in great shape, compared to where he was.
        he was talking to my friend who also had her own share of problems including major surgery and a loving donation of  a kidney  from her brother to save her life, as both hers was failing. , but now she is fine and her new kidney was placed in her front abdomen , but then you wouldn't know that as a picture doesn't tell you that. that i was a lucky person to have known her in the first place and admire her courage in the face of diversity to move on as this young man did also.  to allow all of us  including  this young man , myself and now you the reader see a little more into this picture and be able to understand how this happened to be.
        how this all reflects a happiness that supersedes all other emotions as you see the water pour down his back as gallons upon gallons of cold clear water pouring over the falls and weighting him down as he tries to stand under the shower .  i secretly wished as my friend did ,that we had the youth's freedom to be there in that spot where he stands and feel for yourself  the sensation he must have been experiencing as we were suffocating from the heat outside and that waterfall looked so refreshing. no matter how hard you look you could never see this in this picture.
      and as i look at other pictures of people and places i haven't been i wonder what it is like to stand in tiananman square in china and watch a protester in a standoff  with a tank , or a girl cradling the head of a student who had just been shot at kent state university . images i will never forget .
       no matter who is taking the picture at the moment it is recorded.  it is unrelenting proof of a moment no one can discount . you have proof this is what it was like at the moment the picture was taken.
      an image on a piece of paper that is not human,  but human designed and is charged with all the power it contains to bring you to the brink of tears, to make you laugh , to make you yearn , to disgust you , is it fair that it should exist as such. such is the power of a picture and hopefully the next time you look at one you might ask yourself a few more questions. and look a little deeper , and find that emotion.

noneya

             these are my sasquatch shoes , and i keep them hung up for now. ever wonder why they saw bigfoot prints in urichsville? well these are a pair of sasquatch shoes to fit over my shoes. they are quite heavy and awkward to walk in , but they have been a fun carving for me to do. it is amazing how easy you can twist your ankle with these things. i made them because i wanted to walk through a neighbors garden when i lived in newcomerstown area. he was a little bit red -tarded , and i ended up fessin up to my shenanigans before he had a chance to know any different. but these were by far, not one of my first carvings.
         one of the first things i carved ,  i remembered the other night and it was when i was younger and just after i had married my ex. (words i never thought i would use in one sentence) . she had kids by a previous marriage and were still quite young when we moved out of the city of marietta to a house on a hill up bear creek . it was called nun"s hill after the folks that had previously lived there. it was an adventure just getting to the top of the hill and on rainy nights as the drive became a water filled gorge as rain would sheet off the hill and would actually push stones you placed for traction down the hill . my ex  these 3 kids and myself  lived up there with out any electric at the time as the electric company  was slow to hook it back up. we heated water over a fire and did dishes and basically camped out. we did have a toilet that would flush with a bucket of water but for the most part we turned in at sundown and as they were sleeping i would sit on front porch and here nothing but the earth spinning into tomorrow as it was so peaceful there.
        as i was hooking the pump back up after i finally got electricity to pump running water out of the well and i had installed a 3 bay stainless steel sink out of a bar somewhere i picked up for nothing.  i needed a stopper to hold the water in the sink. my son zak who was the youngest and was always tagging along behind me and asking questions about what i was doing. like.
     "what you doin dad?"
   " making a none ya" i said as i was carving a stopper for the sink out of a hunk of 2x4 . i would wrap an inner tube around it to make a leak proof seal. but to explain it to a six year old is hard to do as one question leads to another. and i had used the none ya phrase on him before with some success as he stood there looking bewildered . none ya in actuality meant none of your damn business. this he didn't know as i never explained that part to him. again.
      "what you doin dad?"
     and again i said "none ya " then came the why's ? "why dad?"
     " because i need one".
     " why?" again he asked .
      when i would get a little irritated with the questions i would go into a long technical spiel about nothing so he didn't have much of a chance to say something, and he would look at me like i was stupid, then again i was trying to carry on a long winded conversation with a 5 yr. old, asking myself now and then who was stupid?  well after about fifteen minutes of him asking me why and me skating around the truth about none ya , did he finally leave me alone
     later his mom asked where the stopper was for the sink , and he asked her why?
    she explained to him that she need it to plug the sink and explained to him what it looked  like and he said
     " oh you mean the none ya"
      she said to him ," what did you call it?"
     again he said the" none ya ", and she started laughing and yelled for me.  
     and when she told me what he called it.  i laughed as we all did but zak had a hard time figuring out why for awhile . so after that  we called all our stoppers none yas. 

self deprecating humor

   

          well it seems as if get the most response when talking about the animals and when they get the best of me . it is easy to make fun of situations and one i got into years ago happened in mother goose land just off i-77 at thee tuscarawas st. exit in canton .it was just across the nimisila creek as it runs parallel south along i-77. they had a petting zoo and storybook characters from the tales of mother goose. they also had a fiberglass whale and the place still exists but has been grown over and is ramshackle, the last i looked. 

       they had a jet and i would say it was from the korean war era and it was used as a slide as the jet engines were pulled out and you could slide through the wings and look in the cockpit through the clouded canopy. my brother and i were a little old for all the fairy tale stuff and the petting zoo, but had to go along with things as we had just went to church and ate dinner with grandma aand grandpa , and my sister sherry wanted to go to mother goose land . anyhow it wasn't our choice but we still found something to mess with. we both wanted to get into the cockpit of this thing ad we kept trying to dislodge the canopy to open the cockpit. we got the top to wiggle and then we had a crack and both of us managed to work our fingers under the lip of the canopy and picked it up and slid it open. we were happy having accomplished the feat. 

     the heat blasted out as the jet sat in direct sun and built up pretty good heat in the cockpit and a smell of mustiness wafted up out of the cockpit. my brother jumped in and messed around with it flipping switches pulling and prodding as i leaned over top of him checking it out myself. this was amazing stuff imagining what it was like to pilot this jet up in the sky and it looked so heavy as it would have to go fast or it would never go anywhere. soon it was my turn and i slipped into the pilot's seat and took a hold of the joystick and would maneuver the rudder while pushing on the pedals on the floor as you would push one in and other would come out. i was sitting there trying to figure all the dials and gadgets out when my brother slides the cockpit door closed over my head . i told him not to close it but by the time i had said that he had me closed in and instantly it started getting hot. i tried to open the canopy and it wouldn't open . i told my brother this wasn't funny and instantly he starts laughing , and i thought he was holding it closed but he wasn't . 

   we wrestled with it for about 5 minutes and by now i am sweating buckets inside this thing. i yelled for him to go grab grandpa and get some help. he said to be quiet, we would just get in trouble . at this point i couldn't think of any more trouble i could be in as i felt like i was slow cooking. then we began to attract attention as another group of park visitors were alerted at my brother shouting at what they thought was an empty jet. well looking at strangers faces through the canopy of a jet while slow cooking is an experience i would rather forget. 

      then some genius says hey look there is the handle for the ejection seat pull it and see what happens. well my thought about that it all works good in theory but in practicality it probably sucks as it designed to work in the air when plummeting to the earth and the canopy goes one way and you the other . here i am sitting over an explosive charge hopefully removed and if not will blast the seat and me through the canopy. which is closed and locked now . not a smart move and  further complicating things for my brother. and as for me im sure the last thing to go through my mind in this event would be my butt. just didn't think pulling this handle was a good idea,  when i refused to pull the handle they tried to wedge a pen knife into the canopy as by then  there was a generous crowd of about 20 people there on both sides of the jet looking at stupid boy , who got stuck in jet. and grandpa and grandma were no where to be found. 

       i remembered we used that lifting and pushing motion to unlock it the first time , and when they got it up i yelled to push and it slid open and people cheered and i emerged . i was soaking wet but rlieved to be out in now cool fresh air , someone muttered they ought to lock that thing , somebody could get hurt. and i just looked at them. people were asking where our parents were and my brother and i just took off.   we went around the corner and there was grandpa and grandma as they working there way towards us and wondered what the crowd had gathered around the plane for. we just shrugged our shoulders and didnt say anything. the plane is gone , but the memories linger as life moves on.

   

mothers day 

       happy mothers day to my mom , Florence . many thanks for a lot of things , and i guess the most important is to know right from wrong , now to do it all the times? don't think anybody is that saintly to live there life always doing the right thing. but it is nice to know the difference . 

      sorry i had to end the nuke house thing , as i would think it interesting reading , somehow i feel most people don't share that idea. if anyone is interested i will send them a copy if you request it from this web email address : kdavis3051a@gmail.com . it is a big file so may take awhile to download. this is also one reason i didn't finish the fallout shelter as i have been doing quite well at brief subjects . trying to keep myself relevant to a certain degree to the subject at topic. it is a serious subject and does require some thought . and i really don't want this blog to be a survivalists textbook . i guess my biggest question is if an atom bomb or hydrogen bomb is a weapon of mass destruction , then the manual should have been an instrument of mass protection. cant say that this one manual so adequately covered all we should know if there was a nuclear attack. well lately i have been attacked by those animals i care about. 

     having left the door to my house open on a couple of occasions as i went elsewhere close on the farm to come back and be invaded by animals.  those ducks were the first ones , having figured out where the fish food is stored , or duck food as they know it, anyhow they saw me away from the house and with door open decided to try and venture in for a morsel or 2 and possibly leave me a duck pile. well i snuck up on them and it was like daffy duck was a keystone cop as they almost flipped out as they saw me come around the corner. 

    this morning while looking out my back window and just looking up over hill i saw first one chipmunk then another and they started playing on this indian head sculpture , and they were funny you could almost see the smiles on their faces especially at the one breeding scenario. if i had only knew or realized this also was a prelude to a home invasion by the varmints when i least suspected it. again i left the door open for a second to fill the bird feeder there normal place of nourishment, and i come back to the house and started in door and noticed one of the chipmunks in side the house. freaked out he ran inside and i chased around living room and back out the house. its not your enemies you have to worry about its your neighbors you have to watch. mine are animals. 

       i finished carving on my tiki like head , and actually have it glued back together and excess glue peeled away in picture second pic down . this will be a neat tool to know how to do as it allows me to do larger pieces of carvings by gluing appendages where i need them . i use gorilla glue and it works extremely well in this situation and is excellent for use in outside environment. 

      also this is a project i have tried once before but made the boat out of wrong wood and it would only flop over on its side . it also did a good job of sinking. well i hollowed out more of the bulk and flattened its base to make it more stable and it seems to work as it is floating. still not finished with it and have some other ideas i dont want to spoil you with . so you will have to wait and see .this is all carved out of one piece of wood with a chansaw.