signs of life

on the twenty-second of december the low temperature in my yard was -13 ( fahernhait ) and the high temperature the next day was 0...six days later the high was 57 degrees ( faherenheit again )...the temperatures have not fallen much below freezing at night and highs have been above freezing since...

precipitation has fallen as rain...and there is quite a bit of green out back so today i wandered out there to see what, if anything, was up...

much of the lightening struck elm is dead ( although it will put out green branches in the spring...the roots will not give up )...however...

seems woodpeckers are excavating it for insects...

and it is alive with lichen-tinged landscapes and bark...

native berries are evincing new growth...

while the cold hardy new york imports are putting out stolons and setting daughter plants in the east bed...

even the hollow in this old stump...

is harboring nrew growth...i have to wonder what february will be briningin in the way of weather...

these are coming up out front...i know what they are and they are certainly cold hardy...still, it is just a bit early and i am uncertain of outcomes...one can hope for insulating snow...we will see.

i missed kathy today

"in crowding phenomenon that applies equally to flocks of birds and sheep,schools of fish, herds of reindeer or gazelle, and fields of cereals. the greater the genetic similarity, the less variation, the greater the likelihood that they will all be vulnerable to the same pathogen." from "against the grain" by james c. scott______________ i read that and kathy was standing over my shoulder saying " i told you that a dozen years ago "...which she did...oh, she'd be unhappy with me on a number of levels...then again, if she was still here things might be different...there are moments when i am forcibly reminded of how much she mattered to me...no doubt there are many others...i was part of her "gypsy traffic" and she impacted us all.

some zea morphology

teosinte, ancestor...

maize, domesticate

four corners

today's mail brought my four corners potato ( solanum jamesii ) tubers...these are the only potatoes indidgenous to the united states and, spud fancier that i am, i felt the need to see what i could do with them...

these are small tubers and with no experience i have no idea if this is the largest size they attain or if these are simply seed...we will see...

i took the three smallest tubers downstairs...

assembled three pots with compost, perlite, and worm castings...

placed a tuber in each planted about an inch deep...added water...

and put them under the lights with the teosinte...

which is looking cornier every day and will need larger quarters under some different lights soon enough...

i opened the plastic bags the other tubers came in and put them in with the rest of the slumbering seed potatoes down there...if things go as hoped they will remain doemant until spring...if not...there are more lights down there.

closing in on a new year

six days ago it was reasonably cold...

now it is "unseasonably mild"...

and, unfortunately ( this is relative...certainly the outcome had a fortunate side as well...i am dealing with the microclimate of my back yard, not the overall geography of the area ), the storm that brought the cold only brought a couple of inches of snow...not nearly enough for the wheat's purposes...

it is not at all happy...

all the brown in these photos i would call ex-wheat...so for what would seem the third consecutive year cold has preceeded snow which is the direct opposite of the wheat's needs...i am assuming ( and i could be wrong, however i think not ) a truncated crop again...could we call this a climate change index here at the south end of the inland sea...if it continues yes...we will see what the variables bring...

there is still a portion of green in the asparagus...dwindling to be sure...still some green...

the berries are still very green...cold hardy, they have obviously ignored the cold...only the onions can say the same...

and in the basement the teosinte continues...so does the spud...it was sleeping so i did not disturb it with the cmaera...more as it comes up.

winter wheat, an indoor season, and a bureaucratic note

it is cold in my back yard...then again it is cold in most everyone's back yard in most of the country so don't get the idea i am complaining...

the winter wheat finally has some snow cover...but not enough to cover everyone...i am uncertain about spring outcomes...we will simply have to wait...

it is christmas eve...something like four degrees or so ( fahrenhait ) and there is still a touch of green in the asparagus ( yes it has mostly died back...but not all )...just saying bureaucrats...

downstairs where it is about sixty degrees warmer there are four tesointe plants coming along well...time to transplant to larger homes soon...

the michigan blue down there is tall and leafy...productive is another issue...another "wait and see"...a lot of this is wait and see...that's how it is today...more as it comes up