Mathematical musings

 

Escher Me Crazy

EnginEmergent

90 degrees

Things are going well so far this season. Had some great help from my grand-nieces getting the melon, tomato and pepper plants put in. Corn is in a full month ahead of last year.

Water has been fairly reliable in the ditch after that night of heavy rain last week. A special thanks to Randy and his boys for keeping us ship-shape and floating right :)

Looks like it's going to be a good year for plums, apples, nectarines and peaches. And a huge, heavy load of blackberries coming on too.

Glorious sunny March day

Been so busy!

When I'm not working in the greenhouse or pruning our trees I've gotten quite a few new small home orchards to take care of this year.

The work at the micropropagation lab has also continued tho it is a slow process. Not surprising considering all the intricacies involved.

On top of that I've been giving my Python skills a polish over at Hacker Rank. That's been very fun, when I can find the time.

Finally I got a delightful shock to have this blog discussed at a recent Tech Hub/Soggy dinner. Would be a blast if we got a visitor or two from that crowd this summer and appropriately cyclical since it was Dave and Sara Lowe who introduced me to Soggy and the Rogue Hack Lab when they were still customers of ours.

Wishing you each and all a wonderful day full of meaning  and purpose.

Busy Winter

A busy winter is a nice change of pace. Starting on a new pretty good size 40+ tree pruning job around this weekend.

I've also picked up an interesting side job consulting with a local company which is starting up a plant tissue micropropagation facility. I did this for a few years back between about 2004 to 2006 there are even a few post on this blog about it. I think these fellas will have more luck than I did since they already have some market plans. Like my dad often said "Anyone can grow the stuff, selling it is the trick." Actually very excited to help them with this project.

Have begun clean-up of the greenhouse for this year's nursery prep. Seed order, new sprouting pots to order and soil to mix all coming up soon.

Hope this winter is keeping your life full with joyful moments.

Busy autumn

Before the frost rolled in and destroyed many of our crops I managed to cover about 100 feet of two rows of tomatoes with hoops and plastic. So we will be open several weeks into November selling those little gems.

The fall colors have really turned out dynamite this year. Could be the long, hot smoky summer and the early hard frosts but whatever it is it's delightful.

We've switched to an 11am opening which should be giving me an easy start to each day but I'm still finding so much to do that I can hardly get to the stand on time.

Kale! I've never raised it before but I'm taking a liking to it. What a lovely aroma! and one of the varieties I raised has a gorgeous purple color.

Happy Halloween everyone!

What insomnia is good for

Spent a little more time getting this animation code dialed in:

Gotta head out now and move some sprinklers.

almost working right

Just about got it right, (tomatoes)

Running so late

Seldom have we been planting the main season crops so close to the solstice but at least I'm getting them in a little before that. 100 tomato plants in this morning, 36 mixed squash and a couple dozen watermelon plants too. I also pushed in about 500 feet of our customer's favorite the Incredible sweet corn.

This last week I pushed in just shy of 1000 feet of sweet corn, Bodacious type as well as about 200 feet of  mixed winter squash and about 230 feet of watermelon (Charleston Grey, Jubillee rattlesnake type, Moon-N-Stars, and Black Diamond).

I tell you, it can be tough at times. My back gets sore and my worries weigh me down but the open sky, bird songs and the gorgeous mountains which surround our lovely little farm soothe my spirit.

Only a few days of spring left, hope you each and all relish them with gusto :)

Spring scramble 30

Busy, busy! Soil prepped for corn seed and first transplantings but waiting now for the irrigation ditch to be filled. Maybe a week, 2 tops from history and rumors of how much work the irrigation district has done.

This is our 30th year! have I mentioned this yet?

Splendid spring to you all!

Strange spring days

What a strange spring we are having! Rain, rain, rain. I'm behind in the nursery work this year. I'd say again but last year I was way ahead of this year's schedule. I'm also staring down the business end of a carburetor rebuild for dad's little Farmall Cub which I have sort of developed a mental block against. And my bro is still trying to find time to get over here to finish bleeding the fuel lines on the Massey Ferguson. Which means all these things cancel out since the ground is too wet to plow much less plant anything in. Weeks of rains still in the forecast too.

I've been reading a lot of other farmer's accounts of this spring so I'm not feeling too bad about where I'm at. Many of us struggling with wet and cold conditions. And I have got a fair number of maters and melons in the nursery, just running a bit late which might not be bad at all if they can't go in until June.

Fielder mountain is gorgeous this morning with vivid green growth and a parade of puffy clouds strolling along with a few storm giants in front of it.

The bluejays, doves, grosbeak, finches and sparrows have been busy at the feeder this morning. I'll have to dump them the last of this bag of seed and pick up another soon. I've got to say if you have fruit trees especially apple or pear which are bothered by coddling moth it really pays to keep feeders in your yard. The birds love coddling moths for a snack. The pear tree in our yard never has any coddling moth holes in the fruit.

Wishing you each and all a splendid spring day.

Waking up to snow

A lot of us in Oregon waking up to snow on the ground this morning. A couple flurries have blown through here but most of the inch or so we had has melted off already.

Mom's 2 new solar dancers (a dinosaur and a "whale") are rockin' and jiggin' on the back of the couch by the front window. I just came in from putting the heater in her car so it'll be toasty when she goes to the Needlers meeting later on.

A bunch of little chores on my list today. We picked up perlite and vermiculite at Grange Coop yesterday so no more excuses, I'll be mixing soil today. Gotta wash trays & pots too.

I-5 has been rumblin' crazy busy since about 5 this morning. I can see a bunch of silvery flashes from cars and trucks racing by. The rest of Fielder above I-5 is completely vanished in a wall of heavy fog.

In the midst of life's pains, fears and worries there is still time for comfort, small joys and humble pleasures; don't ignore them!

A glorious late winter morning.

Settling in for a lazy Sunday morning nap. Oatmeal & toast for breakfast w/ Ayurvedic Roast coffee substitute & hazelnut creamer, so yummy!

Was watching "Values of the Founding Fathers" on CSPAN but it got kinda boring after the opening speech. Mom watched "Knit & Crochet now" off the DVR then snoozed off. Easy Listening on the Music Choice now.

Dreamt about Sparky last night. We curled up on the sofa and watched "Peanuts" cartoons with Snoopy. 1st time I ever cried in a dream but Sparky licked my face and made me laugh.

I've been called out to estimate a big orchard job near Provolt this week, fingers crossed. Not sure how big, just told it was "many" trees, grapes and berries.

The yard is frozen and the birds are busy at the feeders. Mt. Fielder has draped a shawl of fog across its shoulders.

"Midnight at the Oasis" just popped up on my Spotify list. Boy, that brings back a long corridor of memories. "You don't need to answer, there's no need to speak".

Y'all have a super awesome late winter day :)

Almost done planting

Just have 1 last row of late summer squash to plant tomorrow and we'll finally be "laid by". A nearly mythical state wherein the amount of work to be done suddenly drops off. Last year I planted well into August but that was just because we started so late.

Just about everything is in flower, tassel has begun to emerge in the corn and the early watermelon are already bigger than a softball.

Lots and lots of weed control to do but between the craftsman rototiller and the ol' Cub cultivating tractor I'm staying a pace ahead. Was tilling besides the cucumbers when I had the delightful realization that I would not be fighting tall weeds to pick my cukes this year. Last year I had to spend so much time fixing automobiles and equipment it was a real mess. Still some bad nutsedge which will cut into production but at least I won't be shaking Johnson grass seed out of my hair.

Gotta head out soon, sure hope it's cooled down a bit. So very glad the ditch has remained full after GPID did some repairs earlier in the week (during our water days unfortunately) I'm just about caught up again.

If everything keeps clicking along at this pace we should be ready to open for sales to the public in about 2 weeks. Our 29th year!

A wonderful summer evening to you each and all.

Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and watermelon

Thousands of linear feet of summer fruits and veggies planted, gotta prep some fresh corn ground tomorrow. Low water on Sunday not even a surprise. Mulch and driptape mounds are soakin' wet and plants are lovin' it. Gotta do a few more things in the flower bed but we've got sprout there too.

Busy Spring 2016

Been poundin' busy for just over a week now. So far have finished soil prep and planted Bodacious sweet corn, Incredible sweet corn, Jubillee watermelon, Black Diamond watermelon, Charleston Grey watermelon, Moon-n-Stars watermelon, 4 kinds of cantaloupe, Ogen melon, Crenshaw melon, Juan De Canary melon, honeydew, Collective Farm Woman melon, Table Queen winter squash, Butternut, Delicata, Buttercup winter squash, Witch-Kissed pumpkins, Howden pumpkins, Jack-O-Lantern pumpkins and about a dozen more oddball things like radish, turnips, parsley, okra etc. which I had leftover from last year and just piled together and intercropped with the pumpkins.

Next week I will be planting 3 kinds of cucumbers and summer squash and beginning soil prep for the later fields of corn.

Rock on with your bad self! :)

Hey EverybodY! Sorry it's been so long. This season's farming has been fiercely tough so I've had to direct all my energy into work. Harvest is well under way with only the tomatoes still holding off in turning ripe. A giant pile of cantaloupe, Ogen melons and Juan De Canary melons have been giving me sore muscles instead.

Here's a great article any of my farming friends might find interesting: "They tell me not to get angry. But if I am honest, sometimes I do. "

On the precipice of planting

Fingers crossed I will be breaking ground tomorrow or Monday. Got the Cub International clucking along like a happy hen so I can jump the gun before the Massey-Ferguson is out of the shop and run the disk across what I hope will be the 1st field of corn.