Vivaldi's "Autumn" (Amazing Sand Animation!)

changing of the guard

friday, october 2th, 2009

during my drives to various homes and lscp sites, I'm noticing more and more Pin Oaks dropping their acorns in huge amounts; ditto with Black Walnuts and Chestnuts. While it's squirrels and chipmunks going after the acorns, it's mainly people stopping for the Walnuts and Chestnuts.

Cleaning the Black Walnuts is a truly messy affair, and must be done with latex gloves, or your hands will be stained black for weeks. The Chestnuts are simple to crack open, and the shells are free of the staining tannins. Unfortunately, the eating quality of the Chestnuts in this The best, juiciest and most flavorable Chestnuts come from dedicated farms in California, and not your local junk trees. area is merely 'passable' (sour taste), so I prefer to buy mine from Girolami Farms, in Stockton, CA. I usually buy 15-20lbs and give them away in 1-lb gift bags, around Christmas and New Year, keeping a pound or two for my own use, of course. Mmmmm, piping hot with butter and salt. Life is good. But I digress.

Just because the acorns, Chestnuts and Walnuts are of extraordinary size this year — I remember something similar in 1995-96 just prior to The Blizzard of '96 and The Blizzard of 2003 — doesn't guarantee any extraordinary event, such as a brutal Winter or accompanying blizzards aplenty. But once again, I digress.

By week's end, 75% of the area's cornfields have been cleared, and the soybean fields are yellowing-off, and will be targeted next for harvest. The 10-15 ton transport trucks are making their runs to Red Lion's Grain Mill, for processing, and shipment overseas. Yield per acre is up, while price is way down. Farmers get screwed, once again. Shame.

Around The Garden Center™.

The cool, Fall-like weather continued through last weekend. 70°F temps during the day and upper-40s at night. Much-needed rains arrived late Saturday afternoon/evening and continued into Sunday morning. I stopped in nearby Stewartstown and picked-up some Pit Beef sandwiches for lunch, but no one back at the Nursery was interested, as they'd all brought their own lunches. Except Charlie, who never brings a lunch.

Rain at this time of year is both a blessing and a curse to my LSCP & HDSCP Crews: shorter days, cooler temps, no warmth to dry-out the top 1-3" of ground, it makes the earth like a grease pit and machinery operation becomes 'dicey'. It's a great time to install trees, as they're beginning to go dormant and require very little in the way of care, except watering until complete 'leaf drop'.

I watched all 32 episodes of "Jerhico" on Saturday evening, and it brought back "memories", which I hadn't had in many months. The rain poured-down; I heard on the 3 skylights and windows. Powerful rain. Both the cats and I were up 2-3x during the night to check window closures, and get some water.

By Sunday morning, my lower R/S back was hurting so bad that I was limping around the condo, even with the aid of an ice-pak. So I stayed home for the day, on the sofa, with the ice-pak, and nursed the pain along. Dad had both Jennifer & Charlie in to help him, so I didn't feel so bad about not going into work, for the 5hr stint. I took some Gabapentin non-narcotic pain-reliever, and it helped, somewhat. I watched the "Sum Of All Fears", once again, and went to sleep around 8pm.

Despite 10hrs of off-and-on sleep, Monday came too early at 6am. A cold front moved through around 3pm, dumped 2-3" of rain and dropped temps 10-15°F very quickly. We did more retail business on Monday than on Sat-Sun combined; go figure. I fed the cats, took out the garbage, grabbed a quick, hot shower, and watched History's Channel's 2hr "Day After Disaster". Seeing DC nuked was 'gratifying' (just kidding!)

On Tuesday, I finished-up the last of the James' LSCP Estimates, worked on the New www.gdnctr v4 with D••••, closed at 4:20pm, watched Glenn Beck News on Fox-TV, and watched FX's "Tears of The Sun" (one of the very best SEAL TEAM movies ever done), "The Transporter" (BEST Brit-SAS MOVIE SERIES, EVER!), "A Few Good Men" (leftist, Hate-America, Hate-US Military, commie, piece-of Marxist-shit Rob Reiner) and "Sons of Anarchy". Great movies! I had the *HEAT ON*, for the past few nights, BTW. It was cold.

Wednesday was Dad's day off, so Jennifer and I 'held down the fort', while the LSCP & HDSCP Crews were out on their respective jobs. We sold 4 Dragon Lady Hollies to a landscape contractor from Harrisburg, and several trees to a local couple. Calls from various LSCP contractors have been increasing, lately, due to our 25% Off Nursery-wide Fall Sale. The large HDSCP-LSCP Job in Maryland is finally winding-down, and will help our 'break-even' numbers, but not enough to make the final year-end numbers. After January 1st, I have to make the agonizing decision as to whether to open the doors in 2010, and try again to make the 'break-even' numbers, with reduced staff, inventory and overhead.

I had Thursday off, got-up at 6am to feed the cats, and went back to sleep until 11:45am. Heat on to 80°F! It was 54°F outside and 63°F inside. Sure felt good. Errands, food shopping, ammo purchases, looking at a new Kimber .45cal ACP, but deferring the pruchase until later in the season. Drat. I'll have to see how the season "ends financially" for the company.

Kill These Subhuman, Murderous muslim Filth!

Najibullah Zazi, Michael C. Finton, and Hosam Maher Husein Smadi all need killing, as do all murderous pig-fucking muslim garbage scumbags, who want to kill Americans, IMO! NO MERCY! KILL THEM ALL!

Get the subhuman, filthy, murderous muslim pig-fuckers off my Capitol Grounds, dammit! They all should be in detention camps in the desert, and away from the Civilized World, IMO.

Liquid Sculpture.

Martin Waugh loves drops and splashes, and he has dedicated his site to displaying their elegance through the wonders of high-speed photography. With a small amount of specialized equipment, in just a few thousandths of a second, Martin captures still images of magnificent drips, splatters, and liquids. The galleries here showcase the variety of his "liquid sculptures," whether they be plain water, milk and cream, or something a little more risqu?. If you look closely, you might even spot the photographer himself, and you'll probably wonder how on earth did the world get in there? Some say that to find beauty, you've got to look in all the right places, but why not just start with your morning coffee?