summer in the mid-atlantic region
Friday, June 25th, 2010
summer "officially" arrived Monday at 7:28pm, and it portends to be a long, hot and very dry one, if Saturday and Sunday were any indication of things to come. The 98%-reliable "Old Farmer's Almanac" is calling for precipitation to be 2-4" below normal, for the June & July periods, and so far they're spot-on for June.
We've just finished repairing the drip irrigation system in the 4 acres of fields where we grow trees on, in anticipation of a long, dry Summer. Those rows of trees are irrigated once-a-day, everyday and fed 2x or more each season. Even so, the Dogwoods, Redbuds and other fragile trees suffer during those Summer drought months, so we increase in watering cycles to their rows, while keeping the larger, more sturdy trees at the rate rate of water and fertilizer.
We're in a serious 3 week-plus drought right now, with scattered thunderstorms moving north of us, and we don't get a drop of the rain. It would take 3-4 days of gentle to moderate rain to do any good. Crops are suffering. The 4ft high field corn is 'curled', which means there's absolutely no water in the ground to scavange. Soybeans, too. Both are 'scavenger crops' and are really stressed out. I'm betting the per acre yields are going to be way down this season for the local farmers.
We're putting some of the 3-4 acres of trees on half water cycles, so they slow down, drop some leaves and go partially dormant. It's 91°F outside at 11:41am on Thursday, with a Heat Index of 98°F.
People are usually heading to "the shore" or "the beach", depending upon what part of the country you're from, and this area from July through md-August becomes a ghost town. No so this year, as the woeful economy has many people cash-straped and they're staying home; ""home-cations" as it's now termed. I haven't been to the beach or shore since the late 70s, and don't care to go, either.
Around The Garden Center™
Saturday was a worse-than-miserable day; one of the worst I can remember over the past 4-5 years. Our wells went down overnight and never finished watering 3 of the 12 zones. I had to put ina *emergency call* to our friends at R.E. Sanders Plumbing in York (PA), to make an emegency repair call. Tom showed-up about 2hrs later, as he was on another call, and got us back-up ad running. I had to re-program the Irritrol 12 Zone Timer, with Alan's help. who's "summering with 5 women" at the shore. It was 92°F and 81% humidity: f•cking miserable. I drank more water in 9 hours than I've drank in the past week. Three landscape customers — Rich's designs and my LSCP estimates & HICPA Contracts — showed-up at varying times; one couple taking 4hrs of Rich's & Jennifer's time, another taking 2-3hrs of their time. Jennifer's "Herculanean" work effort and ethic is amazing. I helped load hundreds of perennials and shrubs into a pick-up truck for two good friends/ customers, and was soaked with sweat. I loaded topsoil and mulch. Dad, Rich & I didn't get out of the Complex until almost 5:40pm. The cool shower and clean clothes felt good after getting home that evening. Sundy is predicted to be around the ssme temps, humidity, or worse.
By 8:45am on Sunday, it was already 79°F and 67% humidity, so I knew it was going to be a "stinker of a day", when we opened at 11am. Mercifully, we're only open until 4pm, and I looked forward to a cool shower, and dry, clean clothes once more. Jennifer & I finalized a landscape with a fussy and confused client, whose job we began on Monday, and I sold a few containerized Norway Spruces, but retail traffic was light and I barely broke a sweat. Home by 4:30pm.
I watched "Aliens 1" on www.fxnetworks.com/ on Sunday evening. Good movie; best in the series, IMO.
Gas prices in the York (PA) area have risen 20¢ in the past to weeks. Unleaded Regular (87oct) is at $2.69/gal, Unleaded Premium (90oct) is at $2.79/gal, and Unleaded Premium (92oct) is at $2.99/gal. Wowser; "driving season" is upon us and I guess they figure there's lots of cash to be made. The BP Oil Spill has nothing to do with this dramatic rise in at-the-pump prices; greed does, as well as supply and demand. With a national unemployment rate of around 10%, I don't think many people are going to be driving to the shore, lake cabin or grandma's, this Summer. More like stay-at-home vacations.
I worked on two, multi-=phase landscape estimates on Monday, plus the HICPA Contracts for each phase, printed labels, sealed them in 9"x12" manila-clasp envelopes, and mailed them off around 12noon. I must have 35-45 separate estimates out, but only a few people are responding, so far. I expect more since I'm giving, for the first time in 21 year, a "Summer Plant Discount", to entice them into the job. No discounts on the hardscape jobs. Never have; never will do so.
Here's why I always answer my condo's door with my Kimber 1911 .45cal ACP "Eclipse Target II", at the ready, cocked, round chambered and unlocked.
The temperature hit 92°F with 88% humidity and a Heat Index of 99.5°F on Tuesday, and it was again miserable. I had a few site visits to make and was drenched when I got back. The two homeowners didn't even break a sweat. Small pores, I guess.
Despite the shit-for-brains, sambo, Obummer-lib-dem-progressive-high tax and spend economy, jobs are trickling-in, and we'll get through 2010. Somehow. We'll get those SOB's OUT in November, and if he tries the EO (Executive Order) shit, we'll null and voild all of them. Sambo's toast, IMO!
Running a small business is tough work. If you own one, you know what I mean. No one else in my company can do what I do, yet I can do all of my employees' jobs, with varying degrees of effort and aplomb. I did them all before I hired them all, so re-doing them would be simple.
Delegation and supervision is the key to any businss
The “Virtual Cabin” – A Novella™
After Sundays' 11am-4pm stint, I drove to The Cabin, to check supplies, feed & water Jenny, and relax or a few hours, before going back to work on Monday.
The Pantry was filled, so needed no re-stocking, so I lit a medium fire in the giant hearth, sipped a 50-yr old Brandy, lit a Marlboro, took a shower, and went to bed. Jenny soon followed and slept at the foot of my King-Sized bed.
After a horrendous thunderstorm on Thursday, I drove to The Cabin, fed and watered Jenny, showered, turned-on the AC for the first time and sat at massive Oak kitchen table to finish looking at several Business Sale Contracts for my Garden Center & Nursery. I wasn't impressed with any of them, made side margin notes, and write "NO Sale!" at the top of each of the three. Until the "right buyer" comes along, I'm keeping the joint.
I went back to York at 11:30pm, with full intentions of coming back Sunday and spending some time here. After that last Sunay of work, I'll leave Saturday afternoon, and spend all my Sundays in July and September at The Cabin. Natch.
Things Which Make Your Head Explode™
The asshat lying clown, John "No Brain" McCain (RINO-NV) is claiming "he never supoported amnesty." He's a fucking liar! He and Fat & Dead Ted Kennedy WROTE the f•cking Amnesty Bill back in 2006-07! The 2007 McCain-Kennedy Comprehensive Immigration Reform Amnesty Bill would have merely required illegal aliens to pay a $5,000 fee in order to stay here and gain legal residency. The fact is that McCain places the same value on American citizenship, at roughly the same cost as a 2003 Volkswagen.
Last Friday marked the first anniversary of the death of a weird, emaciated and nearly broke entertainer, who died as ugly as he lived -- drugged into oblivion while dreaming of attractive young males: Michael Jackson. Rot in hell and good riddance, child molester piece-of-shit!
Fonts For You™
Many Journal entries are best viewed in the Charrington Roughened and the Orlando typefaces. You may already have Century Gothic on your Windows-XP machine, and that's almost always used for the body copy or subheads, so grab it, if you don't already have it; you're reading it now. They're free from my website. Grab 'em! Save them to your HD, and install to C:/Windows/Fonts (folder), thru your WIN XP Control Panel > Fonts > File > Install New Font. Simple stuff; just takes a few minutes.
Here are a few others, which have been used in my Journal: Papyrus and Acoustic Bass, and Caesar Regular and Carleton and Charrington Strewn and Catherine. If you get and install them, you'll see how much nicer these pages are to view and read. Plus, they add to your repertoire of available fonts in MS-Word, as WIN-XP System Fonts, so you can use them for your daily documents.
Here's a new one, for your Windows/Fonts folder: Sketchy.
The Global Warming Money Pit™
Have you seen this video: "BBC: The Great Global Warming Swindle"? It was outright-banned from leftist, hate-filled, dirtbag lowlife scumbags, Google.com's and YouTube.com's websites, by the mentally-ill, left-wing, global warming idiot wackos, but I've preserved it, for posterity, aka you, me and *ours*. Watch, be informed and download it for others to see. It's on my corporate server, and will stay there, BTW.
Here's what the Global Warming Scam is all about. Sweet, huh? They're so transparent, aren't they?
Here's everything you need to know about the Global Warming Fraud, and why it's a good thing. It's a l-o-n-g article, so get a sandwich, iced tea and settle-in, for a very informative read. I'm right there with you, BTW.
The "Greenhouse Effect" is a natural and valuable phenomenon, without which, the planet would be uninhabitable. Global Warming, at least in recent times, is real. CO2 is not a significant greenhouse gas; 95% of the contribution is due to Water Vapor. Man's contribution to Greenhouse Gasses is relatively insignificant. We didn't cause the recent Global Warming and we cannot stop it. Solar Activity appears to be the principal driver for Climate Change. CO2 is a useful trace gas in the atmosphere, and the planet would actually benefit by having more, not less of it, because it is not a driver for Global Warming and would enrich our vegetation, yielding better crops to feed the expanding population. CO2 is not causing global warming, in fact, CO2 is lagging temperature change in all reliable datasets. The cart is not pulling the donkey. Wake-up, folks.
Here's a listing of The Best Global Warming Videos on the Internet.
Hey, fat, shit-for-brains, bloated, liar, huckster, fraud, criminal, charlatan, scumbag, loser, disgraced ex-VP AlGoreBore (LIAR-TN), is back using $300 million of OPM (Other Peoples' Money) to promote his Global Warming Bullshit, after the worst Winter in over 100 years. Welcome back, fatso huckster asswipe, AlGoreBore!
CO2 bad? No; CO2 is good, and we need more of it, or we're in for a very cold period, very soon. Here are the facts about CO2.
Roger Revelle of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Harvard University and University of California San Diego, spits on the lying scumbag, AlGoreBore. My, my, oh my. (((snicker))) No, there's no consensus on Glo-bullshit Warming, other than it's a LIE! Just ask Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT, Richard S. Lindzen; he's eminently-qualified to call AlGoreBoreAsshole, a LIAR! As I am.
There's another "ice age" coming, not the AlGoreBoreLiar 'Glo-bull warming' crap.
Larsen B Ice Shelf in Antarctica collapses in 2002 = Glo-bullshit Warming? Doubt it.
Read this Glo-bullshit Warming idiocy. Go ahead; I'll wait.
AlGoreBore's "hypocrisy"? See it right here!
You need to watch this 30 minute film; it's an eye-opener if you think that we're running out of crude oil, and that America has no reserves. We have more oil and natural gas in Alaska alone, than all the rest of the world's known reserves, COMBINED! Grab an adult beverage, and watch it.
Better get out your Winter coats, 'snuggies', wool socks and snow shovels, as it seems we've got an 80-year "Little Ice Age", on the way. Yawn; no biggie.
AlGoreBore's "Glo-bull Warming Bullshit" has spawned so-called 'cottage industries' around the world, worth hundreds of millions and probably billions of dollars, for green corporation validation, carbon credits, foundation & university climate studies, grants and a host of other BS-related crap to his lies and garbage. Global warming competes with cancer and competes with AIDS for a finite amount of money. This year's natural resurgence will surely see the global warmists, led by celebrity warmist, Gore, compete viscously for those US Taxpayers' hard-earned dollars. And I'm betting that the really important disease, cancer, loses to Glo-bullshit Warming and AIDS. Dammit.
F*ck all the "Glo-bullshit Warming Alarmists"! I say, FUCK-THEM-UP, and cleanse the planet, if they try to physically-intimidate and hurt anyone! I will; count on it! "Get in my face", assholes, and that'll be your last day on this Earth! If there are any "dissenting scientists" out there, who need protection, just get in-touch with me, and I'll guard you & yours. You can count upon that, folks!
Have you taken "The Global Warming Test"? If you have a sentient, functioning brain, and a simple knowledge of "the facts", you'll easily get a 10-of-10, as I did. Go ahead, and give it a try!
Read this article and pick-out "The WWF's Big Lie". If you chose this paragraph — "Summer sea ice is now forecasted to completely disappear in the summer months sometime between 2013 and 2040 — something which hasn't happened for over a million years." — you'd be right. There isn't, and never has been and ice on the earth dated at a million years old, and who the hell was around back then to begin recording it? The lying sacks-of-shit at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) are typical lowlife, left-wing wacko scumbags, in-bed with the "Glo-Bull Warming" Crap, of asshole AlGoreBore and his phony, money-making scam. The oldest, and not reliably-dated ice cores are >160,000 years, and those are shaky in fact, at best. So where did the lying WWF pull the million year crap from? Their asses, of course!
Shit-for-brains, mentally-ill, fat, bloated liar, AlGoreBore's (LOWLIFE-TN) "ally", in NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by AlGoreBore's chief scientific ally/"asshole/butt-buddy"— Dr James "Moron-Cretin-Asshole" Hansen (DIRTBAG-NASA) — and is one of four bodies responsible for monitoring global temperatures, announced that "last month was the hottest October on record". Total, factual bullshit and lies. This was startling. Across the world there were reports of unseasonal snow and plummeting temperatures last month, from the American Great Plains to China, and from the Alps to New Zealand. China's official news agency reported that Tibet had suffered its "worst snowstorm ever". In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month, and ranked it as only the 70th-warmest October in 114 years. So what explained the anomaly? GISS's computerized temperature maps seemed to show readings across a large part of Russia had been up to 10 degrees higher than normal. But when expert readers of the two leading warming-skeptic blogs, Watts Up With That and Climate Audit, began detailed analysis of the GISS data they made an astonishing discovery. The reason for the freak figures was that scores of temperature records from Russia and elsewhere were not based on October readings at all. Figures from the previous month had simply been carried over and repeated two months running. Read this article, and find out why both lying, corrupt, criminal, subhuman idiots, GoreBore & Hansen, should be stood against a wall, and shot, IMO. In fact, the pathetically-socialist, left-wing UK, has just begun to awaken to what the "Climate Change Bill" will do to destroy their nation, or what's left of it. IMO, it's probably too late now to save the UK, but at least some of the more Conservative people over there, will at least get the chance to flee to America (or elsewhere), before we also "go down the proverbial dumper", as they've done. Heh.
On Friday, January 2nd, I ran a fully-attributed story in my weekly "Journal", which had links to other stories and facts, thoroughly-debunking AlGoreBore's trillion dollar scam and fraud, Global Warming". The Daily Telegraph UK's columnist, Christopher Booker, was the erudite author, and here is the link to that story. Nice job, Mr Booker!
Now, lowlife shit-for-brains dirtbag, Arkansas Gov Mike "DumbAss Turd-Boy" Beebe (ASSHOLE-AR), said that global warming is serious problem, not a "hoax," and requires more than a state response. "I think it's a threat, and I think global warming is occurring," Beebe-The-Shithead said in response to a caller to his statewide radio program who said he believed the climate change crisis was a "hoax." Idiot. Stupid idiot. Global warming is bullshit, you two-bit asshole! Crawl back inside of AlGoreBore's rectum, dumbfuck!
And global cooling goes merrily along, without any help from us mere humans, as it has for millions and millions of years.
Another "lie/error" in the favor of Glo-BULL Warming's false bullshit and lies? Got duct tape?
Here's the truth: Lord Monckton of Brenchley's Science & Public Policy Institute.
The commie/fascist/socialist liberal-demokkkRAT filth in the US Congress, have refused to allow Lord Monckton to testify the truth, against con-man, liar, scumbag AlGoreBore's LIES! This is Commie Russia, NOT Free America!
Some People Just Need Killing™
This will do it!.
Yes, I agree with the premise of this article, that "the death penalty is a Noahic Covenant with God, in a post-flood world". Well said, Joe Farrah.
