Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Hiatus
Like the French, I'm taking the Summer off. When the temps cool, posting will return. Apologies for the lack of advance notice.
Thursday, June 09, 2011
The Buckeyes' Summer of Schadenfreude.
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| Click to animate. Starring ~ Terrell Pryor as Hogan "Tats" Hero |
OSU Prez E. Gordon Gee as Klink, the Bell Captain Colonel
Disgraced former OSU coach, Jim Tressell as Sgt. I. C. Nutting-Schultz.
"LSUfreek" appears regularly in the college football blog, Every Day Should Be Saturday . Follow him on Twitter.
Buy lots of popcorn.. it's going to be a long, fun Summer!
Friday, May 20, 2011
Hacks.
Remember back in the 80's, when 60 Minutes did their hatchet job on Audi, claiming the cars took off by themselves, even though the drivers were standing on the brakes? And then, when it was shown that while the drivers thought they were standing on the brakes, they were actually standing on the accelerator, which is why they drove into storefronts, and rivers, etc.? And this was long before today's "sophisticated" electronics which make Toyotas really take off by themselves? And when presented with the actual facts, that due to a slight design flaw the brake and accelerator pedals were a little too close together for big American feet, they just ho-hummed and moved on to the next ambush victim without so much as a mumbled "sorry" to Audi?
Yeah. That 60 Minutes. They're going to do it again this Sunday. I'll miss it, because I haven't watched it in over 25 years. See if you can't miss it, too. And I hope a million cancer survivors march on CBS headquarters in protest.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Monday, May 09, 2011
Beyond The Sea
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| The parents.. Otis/Fada. Image ©Camilla Colleen |
Life at the Hare-Brained Homestead
So, enough with the semi-hopeful signs of life with the trees. Here are some things in the yard that are positively thriving. The drought-hardy, Chihuahuan Desert native flora..
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| Ocotillo |
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| Prickly Pear Cactus |
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| Cholla Cactus |
Survival Mode
The drought continues. According to the weather services, the humidity late yesterday afternoon was 1%. The dew point? A ridiculous -20°F. That’s right. Twenty freaking degrees below zero!
And since the ambient temperature was 110° higher than that, it wasn’t likely that we would squeeze any moisture out of the air.
Somehow, despite the lack of any measurable precipitation since the end of last year, (and that was a single snow fall, so really, the dry spell goes all the way back to Summer), things are turning green. It’s most noticeable when driving home from town. Huge green swaths of creosote bush surround the base of the Florida Mountains. In the yard, the mesquite brush seems to be the most drought-hardy of all the plants. Dammit. Of all the flora I wish dead, the mesquite is at the top of the list!
I’ve been watering (and no, so far there’s no shortage of water in our aquifer, knock wood) the peach tree and the pecan tree, and the fruit is looking good.
The pines, at least from a distance, look as dead as the pronouncement from a friend who knows things about trees and plants. But if you look closely, the trees have a secret. When stressed, as they are in extreme drought conditions, they seem to go into a kind of survival mode. First, they dropped almost two-thirds of their needles. New needle clusters normally would be sprouting from
the ends of the branches , but even with the constant, 24/7 drip I’ve got going to our two pines, the tree’s not sending water to the extremities. But it is using the water! A few weeks ago, I noticed these little green needle clusters start showing up on the branches closer to the ground. As time passed more have begun to sprout, and on higher branches, too.
What seems to be happening, and I couldn’t find quite what I was looking for on Google, is the tree has gone dormant at the top, and the extremities, but it is keeping itself alive by pushing out enough green to keep transpiration happening.
This is even more evident on one of the trees in the back yard. Up until a couple weeks ago, I was certain it was dead. While other trees in the yard were full of broad, green leaves, nothing was happening with this tree (which we’ve never identified, but we know the hummingbirds like to roost in it because it’s the closest tree to the feeder). The ends of the branches were brittle dry. No sign of life.
Then a strange thing happened. Leaves began to sprout from the trunk; and from the thick areas of the branches closest to the trunk. It looks odd, but this is another tree that’s killed off part of itself, to save itself. Kind of like that kid in 127 Hours.
One of the climate models looking 6 months to a year out, shows a powerful el Niño is a possibility. That , if it happens, will most certainly break the drought. Will the trees then “wake up”, and go back to the way they were before the drought and the powerful February freeze? Don’t know. We’ll just have to wait and see, but I’m happy they seemed to have figured out a way to hang in there and wait with us.
And since the ambient temperature was 110° higher than that, it wasn’t likely that we would squeeze any moisture out of the air.Somehow, despite the lack of any measurable precipitation since the end of last year, (and that was a single snow fall, so really, the dry spell goes all the way back to Summer), things are turning green. It’s most noticeable when driving home from town. Huge green swaths of creosote bush surround the base of the Florida Mountains. In the yard, the mesquite brush seems to be the most drought-hardy of all the plants. Dammit. Of all the flora I wish dead, the mesquite is at the top of the list!
I’ve been watering (and no, so far there’s no shortage of water in our aquifer, knock wood) the peach tree and the pecan tree, and the fruit is looking good.
The pines, at least from a distance, look as dead as the pronouncement from a friend who knows things about trees and plants. But if you look closely, the trees have a secret. When stressed, as they are in extreme drought conditions, they seem to go into a kind of survival mode. First, they dropped almost two-thirds of their needles. New needle clusters normally would be sprouting from
the ends of the branches , but even with the constant, 24/7 drip I’ve got going to our two pines, the tree’s not sending water to the extremities. But it is using the water! A few weeks ago, I noticed these little green needle clusters start showing up on the branches closer to the ground. As time passed more have begun to sprout, and on higher branches, too.What seems to be happening, and I couldn’t find quite what I was looking for on Google, is the tree has gone dormant at the top, and the extremities, but it is keeping itself alive by pushing out enough green to keep transpiration happening.
This is even more evident on one of the trees in the back yard. Up until a couple weeks ago, I was certain it was dead. While other trees in the yard were full of broad, green leaves, nothing was happening with this tree (which we’ve never identified, but we know the hummingbirds like to roost in it because it’s the closest tree to the feeder). The ends of the branches were brittle dry. No sign of life.
Then a strange thing happened. Leaves began to sprout from the trunk; and from the thick areas of the branches closest to the trunk. It looks odd, but this is another tree that’s killed off part of itself, to save itself. Kind of like that kid in 127 Hours.
One of the climate models looking 6 months to a year out, shows a powerful el Niño is a possibility. That , if it happens, will most certainly break the drought. Will the trees then “wake up”, and go back to the way they were before the drought and the powerful February freeze? Don’t know. We’ll just have to wait and see, but I’m happy they seemed to have figured out a way to hang in there and wait with us.
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