FYI, this is what fly poo looks like

I watched a fly poop on this leaf then fly away.  Huh!...

The greatest compost manager that has ever lived

... at 350 N. Maplewood St., Orange, CA 92866

My recent compost adjustment has resulted in a SHATTERING of my previous puny record of 164° to a new high of 168°!

A strange emotion has swept over me... a feeling of emptiness or a pit that can never be filled - now that I have achieved the highest levels of supreme excellence, what else is there?

Spirit Crop - can you steal from the dead?

Family came over today for Dad's birthday.  Nieces were slip-n-sliding on the lawn, dogs were chewing on each other's necks and adults were sipping my fresh squeezed Stoli screwdrivers.

Of course I grabbed oranges from my buddy Chris' house as per usual however today he wasn't home and his gate had a new padlock on it.  Hmmm...  Chris mentioned that his next door neighbor had recently passed (he was old) and that I could gain access from his back yard and hop the fence.  On my return hop over I noticed a Spirit Crop - a few tomato plants and a chili that were, I hope, lovingly cared for while neighbor was still kicking but now looked terrible and neglected.

The key to extra sweet tomatoes is stress by water reduction (the plant focuses energy on fruit production because it thinks it's dying - you get to play god)  and these things looked hella stressed!  Long story short I nervously pilfered everything that was ripe or even a little overripe, added to my oranges and got the fuck out of there before lightning struck me down!

I expected more in a week

3rd corn crop this season - third times the charm

I was away in Miami for work all this past week.  My Mom stopped by Wednesday and watered for me as we were having a hell of a heat wave.  This morning when I finally walked out to the yard I was expecting... something more than what I saw - things just didn't grow as much as I had hoped.  But... everything looks good and healthy.

I love amazon and blue stripe 1/4" emitter line

I also had my Amazon order waiting for me.  This was a shipment of Toro blue stripe 1/4" emitter line on 6" spacing.  Home Depot used to carry this stuff but I tried to buy some a couple weeks ago and was told they no longer carry it.  I tried a local commercial irrigation supply company, "HydroScape" and while they were able to finally locate it from a distributor the price was something stupid like $48 per 100' roll plus shipping and tax (<-- this will make sense in a moment).  So I left and I was irritated (ha - irrigated, irritated...).  Good ol' Amazon to the rescue! - note that the picture shows all black tubing but I verified the PN and it was the right stuff.

This was a chewed up, leafless
stem last week (check
older post).  It bounced back
well!

My PVC collars worked perfectly so I'm hooked on that solution.  Pole beans look killer, tomatoes are shaping up nicely and my watermelons and cantaloupes also look good.  I flipped my entire compost pile (which is huge) and watered it, expecting it to spike back up to 150+.  Fertilized and watered the lawn, heavily watered the Carolina Cherry trees and pruned my navel orange trees.

I just lost interest in writing anymore, I'm tired and have to get up early.

Red Noodle beans

This is one of the sickly looking tomatoes
that Seanna planted when she was here.
After some manure and fish emulsion
they are responding well

Stupid huge compost pile

Lots of different things taken care of today, best of all was getting caught up on my composting.  All ingredients I've stored up over the past few months have been shredded, mixed and in the pile.  I broke my rake I've had for years and drove to the store and found the exact model for $7.59 - sold.  Installed another section of trellis and sowed a run of red noodle and fortex poll beans.  I also sowed a row of bush beans on each side of the poll beans as an experiment.

Bean seedling that was devoured last
night.  I want to see if it will fight back
and send out some leaves

Re-sowed the areas that haven't emerged yet and cut some PVC collars for seedlings that are being targetted by pests - If this is effective then it's a nice little method to keep the bugs off.  Problem is you can't install these until the seedlings are a certain height or else you'll make them leggy which is a whole new problem.  It's also tempting to drive the collars down into the soil but that will shear off the roots or at a minimum damage them.  I'm leaving them floating to see how it works out.

Cool spider hanging out on my glasses

Pray for my kidneys

I've consumed a very large amount of alcohol in the past 36 hours and there's another storm on the horizon!  It started Yesterday with (now probably played out) fresh squeezed screwdrivers and Chris Huber.  I think. Yes, it was yesterday and Chris arrived with oranges and the oranges met the vodka and away we go.  WTF does this have to do with vegetables, farms, composting, etc.? - nothing, but I want to talk about it.
So we had 3 rounds at my house, then to the kitchen where we finished off the last of the 1942.  Now we're feeling good.  Kevin is dispatched to my parents house where a plan is forming to watch Flight 666 with my dad.  So Chris, Kevin and myself descending on my parents house to drink more and watch an Iron Maiden documentary.  Luckily my Dad pulls the plug on the plan so we adjust to have dinner at the circle and more drinks.  We get to Citrus City Grill and there is a 30 minute wait.  Name in, off to the bar next door to kill time.  Two more beers, actually they were my first but whatever.  Back to the restaurant where over the course of our nice ambiguously gay mandinner I slurp down two martinis.  We leave and have a quick detour by the barber shop for another beer (long story) then off to the Pump Room for a few more.  That was Friday.

Best baby I've ever encountered and I've encountered... well, like 4
babies

Now today I wake up with a hangover that would kill a small child, hell it would kill an adolescent in some countries.  It's serious and I decide to drink through it rather than suffer the nausea and headache of a stage 5 hangover.  Blueberry bagel extra toasted with extra jalpeno cream cheese and a medium americano with 4 shots later and I'm feeling 73% human and ready to get dressed and brush my teeth.  And drink.

Screwdrivers (<-- plural) give way to a near-frantic desire to have friends come over and destroy their perfectly good Saturday with me.  Several well crafted texts designed to temp, guilt and beg later and Kevin Anne and Emma are en route!  Anne only had one drink and was the designated driver but Kevin and I put the hurt on, again.

BTW, if that "baby pen" looks familiar?... maybe cause it is!

I want to hang out at my parents house tonight, I like 'em, they're cool and don't forget my Dad has an Iron Maiden documentary.  Kevin and Anne ("K&A") get the boot, my teeth get brushed and I inexplicably pair a nice shirt with my absolute shittiest pair of jeans and set course for parents house.  Movie was rad, scotch was good, Chui hung out with my Mom while she did needle point, my Dad made his famous popcorn and my great day wrapped up with a perfect relaxing night with Mom and Dad.

No farm work was done Today, NONE.

Amendment experiment

Bag-an-a-half of steer manure blend before being
cultivated into the soil

I pulled my 2nd failed corn crop yesterday and sent the stalks to the compost heap.  I'm narrowing down my cause of failure and at this point I think it's a combination of insufficient water and nitrogen - shocking, the two things corn needs the most.  With the area cleared I amended with two bags of Steer Manure Blend (HD no longer sells straight manure, at least not by me and Pam just dumped her chicken manure in the compost).  Worked the manure blend (manure and compost) into the top 3" of soil and leveled out, then dragged some shallow furrows to set seeds and planted away.  Four rows 18" apart with 6" seed spacing that will be thinned to 12" spacing.  Irrigation is now working well and the area should get plenty of moisture.  I'll talk to Pam and try to get the next bucket of chicken shit worked into the corn field.

This is one of the better looking tomatoes of the
suffering bunch, I'm experimenting to see if the
problem is nutrients/soil fertility

While I was at it I amended the  mounds that held the tomatoes that Seanna planted when she was here.  As soon as the poor guys hit the dirt they started to yellow and wilt.  After observing for a few days and monitoring soil moisture I can only assume it's a soil fertility problem.  Added manure and deep watered with seaweed extract.  The next few days will tell the tale.

While I was in the sowing mode I dropped some zuccini and summer squash seeds into EW4, just a rough job as this is about the absolute latest you can start those guys.  If it works it works, if not then no big deal as the seed will be shot by next summer anyway.

I can't believe how fast the Red Noodle pole beans have emerged!  I'm not sure, but I think I sowed those seeds last Sunday with Ben and they emerged by Tuesday - 3 days, that's awesome.  Wednesday I will succession sow another set of bush and pole beans, then again 10 days after that.