How'd it go today?

[Burnham]

For whatever it might be worth (I suspect next to nothing ), our usually prolifically bearing blueberries have been low producers the last two years, like yours. It has been dry, but we irrigate them. No changes in shading.

I do have a theory as to why...decrease in pollinator species, due to regular helicopter pesticide treatments on the nearby 90 acres of Christmas tree plantation.

That company has been sanctioned recently, limiting application methods and technique. It will be interesting to see how the berries manage in the next few years...but I expect it could be a good while before the bees, moths, and butterflies get back to healthy populations.

 

[lxskllr]

That's interesting if nothing else. Austin's look like they're doing pretty well.

 

[stikine]

Yup, but the whole pollinator issue is definitely a big concern. I hope B's come back.

 

[pete mctree]

We banned the nicitinoid pesticides here in the UK a few years ago & I can happily report that the insect populations are increasing again. The big worry is that Monsanto etc are lobbying government to re-introduce them. People need to care a little less about money and a little more about the world we live in 🙁

 

[biggun]

Into my first 24hr of the first dose of Moderna vaccine, and I feel... off... I feel a little run down, and my left ear feels like it's on the verge of infection. Is that the vaccine, or my brushcutting escapades? Don't know. That brushcutting kinda messed me up. I've worked harder for longer, and didn't have the same reaction I got the other day. That job was particularly "dusty"; I guess that's what you'd call it. My face shield would get so choked with debris, I could barely see out of it. Hand to wipe it off with my glove several times. That's never happened before. Y'all saw my face in the pic I posted. Dunno what I got into, but it didn't agree with me.

So, that's my day. Got up at 4am, did laundry, grocery shopping, took a nap, and just sitting around feeling meh :^/

I had my first shot of Pfizer on Friday. Within 10seconds I got a bit of a head rush like the first blag of a cig. The for the rest of the day an anxious kind of feeling. Almost coming up on shrooms or class A’s or when you have far too many strong coffees. I was still like that around 11pm. Felt a bit stiff the next day but I reckon that was due to a shoulder workout I had done the day before.

 

[Mick!]

How’s the hand Rich?

 

[biggun]

How’s the hand Rich?

Getting better thanks. Been signed off by the surgeon and hospital physio team last week. Now I can actually try and start training it and getting stronger.

They reckon it is 85-90 percent healed but the last 10-15% might take another 6 months plus.

Now I need to find a good, local, physio who knows hands and keep on with the physio.

 

[biggun]

Considering what it looked like 6 weeks ago I think it is a vast improvement.

In the meantime I have been chilling with the family as the weather has been great. Swimming and snorkelling in the fjord and just taking it easy. Norway closes pretty much for July, so there would have been minimal work even if I was healthy.

Went for a sauna on the fjord the other night with the missus. It was great swimming at 11pm. Very handy as it is about a km from my place. The other swimming pics are the dock just down from my house.

 

[cory]

For whatever it might be worth, our usually prolifically bearing blueberries have been low producers the last two years, like yours. It has been dry, but we irrigate them. No changes in shading.

I do have a theory as to why...decrease in pollinator species, due to regular helicopter pesticide treatments on the nearby 90 acres of Christmas tree plantation.

Ohhhhhhhh, The Irony.

Tell me what could be more harmless, more placid, more inviting, more quiet and welcoming than a christmas tree farm??? A green and growing harbinger of human's holiday joy.

Few things, I say.

But,

Add in helicopter pesticide treatments on said plantation?

Bring on thy creeping doom.

 

[cory]

 

[stig]

When our logging was shut down, hopefully temporarily, the mail order bride and I went on a trip.
She is on a quest to visit all Danish lighthouses, and we managed to hit 4 new ones.

We also made a short trip into Germany ( We are both vaccinated, so we could cross the border both ways with no problems) to buy a Water Vole gun.
They are illegal here.
That will be a big step up from the traps my wife has been using in her relentless war on the little pests.
They are hard to trap, because they push soil into the traps set in their tunnels, releasing them. This device is made to fire when they push soil against it, shooting a 9x17 mm. blank and basically blowing their brain out of their asshole.
Right now she is setting the first one, while quoting Göbbels: " Was wollt Ihr dann, den totalen Krieg"

European water vole - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_water_vole

 

[Mick!]

An endangered species in the UK, highly protected.

 

[stig]

Pull the other one, its got bells on it.

 

[stig]

Jaysus....I just read up on it, you were not kidding.

Man, to me that is like protecting the Norway rat.

 

[lxskllr]

Looks like another day sitting in the house. Back's settled down a little, but it's still being an asshole. Aside from that, it's hotter and more humid today. Went to aldi to get some 'special buy' baked beans before they're gone. They're really good. Went to the dollar store for some vegetarian rice pouches, but they sold out. I thought I might buy another pair or two of gloves just cause, but they were gone. Completely cleaned out, and they had a shitton when I bought mine. I'm thinking a professional of some kind saw them, and wiped out the supply. Who the hell wears latex gloves, especially in the summer?!

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Well, found out where that noise is coming from.

 

[Mick!]

Jaysus....I just read up on it, you were not kidding.

Man, to me that is like protecting the Norway rat.

What nuisance are they causing you?

 

[lxskllr]

What am I seeing there? I guess that's part of your trailer?

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Yes, tandem spring equalizer. Not really supposed to be slotted.

 

[stig]

What nuisance are they causing you?

Eating my veggies from the bottom up.
When we put in the raised beds, we had to place stainless steel netting under them to keep the little pests from digging their way under them and destroying everything.

I have to put a barrier of stainless steel netting 2 feet down around the poly tunnel because they keep tunnelling in and killing my melons.

Over the last 25 years I've lost over 30 fruit trees to them.
Came out one morning and my Belle de Boscoop apple was horizontal.
They had gnawed every root off of it and only left a bare knob the size of my fist.

 

[biggun]

I can’t really plant shit at my house. I haven’t bothered as all the neighbours just say the deer will eat whatever grows.

Deer are a very common sight in and around my garden. Just wish they would chew down the bloody weeds.

 

[treesmith]

I used my F250 to pull the dump trailer to get some sand last week. Hadn’t used the goose in a while, and living on a dirt road, the ball gets caked with dust/dirt under the truck, and additionally, had frozen up in the hitch. I got my wife to hold the latch bar while I drove it out from underneath with a block of wood and a hammer. That won’t happen again....

 

[lxskllr]

Today kinda sucked. I spent six hours doing literally nothing. Went out to do percs with the boss, and it took longer than expected. There isn't any need for me to be on site doing percs anyway, and since I went in his truck, I didn't have any of my stuff. I could have deadwooded some of the guy's trees(it's a friend of the boss), or cleared some of the rat's nest of vines. Less fun, but useful, I could have cleaned my truck. Alternately, I could have just stayed home. I'd rather do nothing in my house than out.

I sometimes humorously think you don't even have to touch a white pine to get sticky; you just have to walk by it. Damned if I wasn't under a white pine, touched nothing, but grab my coffee cup, and I have a dot of sap on my finger. WTF?! I later sat under the pine, and now I have a blob of sap and bark pieces stuck to the ass of my pants... One good thing came from sitting on the ground under various trees. It seems to have helped my back. It feels better now than it has in a couple of days. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little better. Supposed to be a couple degrees cooler at least...

 

[treesmith]

At least if you sit on some money, you’ll come away with a bill or four!

Regarding sap/rosin, I bid a huge pine a few months back and got the job. Since then, it’s been struck by lightning...big spilt, sap everywhere. I’m dreading it.

 

[cory]

What do you use for your friction hitch- cord or mechanical?