The Old Folks Home

[superchemicalgirl]

Oh thank you for posting this! We had a ton of those in our yard where I grew up (Maryland). I called them Sputnik Trees. I loved playing with the grapes of pollen and the "sputniks."

I don't recall my parents complaining about them at all, except the massive amounts of pollen it would put out.

 

[Wisher1000]

You obviously did not run around bare-footed much. That is where the trees lose their charm and turn people against them.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Nope. We lived on a farm. You always wore shoes.

 

[ChooksChick]

What a cool looking tree! I would be unhappy about the 'Sputniks' with my bare foot favoritism, however. I hate to wear shoes.

There are a couple of trees that dump things that look like that around here, but I don't recall any fall leaves that look so nice. I think it's the Sycamores around here, and they have leaves like dinner plates, drop twigs on you if you look at them wrong, and bark that peels off in big sheets.

Oh, my. Look at this...

Wikipedia says: Fallen, opened fruits are often abundant beneath the trees; these have been popularly nicknamed "burr (or bir) balls",[12] "gum balls",[17] "space bugs", "monkey balls", "bommyknockers", "sticker balls",[18] or "Poink-a-pons".[citation needed]

Hereafter I shall refer to something (dunno what yet) as a bommyknocker or a poink-a-pon. I must.

 

[ozexpat]

Greetings from the other side of the planet.

Lots happening. A big hatch is underway. The boar semen has been ordered and will be delivered on Tuesday. I will do the AI Tuesday - Thursday. I have been sorting teenage poultry. We put several roos in the fridge.

My daughters birthday was a huge hit. She had a two tier pink fondant cake with a fondant fairy princess crown. It was at Jollibee - Google it. The mascot did his dance and the kids were very happy.

I have been looking at locations at around 3500 feet should I win the lotto. I would love the cooler mountain air.

Our gardens are struggling to retain moisture even with lots of rain. I am thinking about doing a prototype raised bed on a layer of something pretty permanent to slow down drainage. I wish we had clay near by. I would truck in 20 meters.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Lots happening. A big hatch is underway. The boar semen has been ordered and will be delivered on Tuesday. I will do the AI Tuesday - Thursday. I have been sorting teenage poultry. We put several roos in the fridge.

Our gardens are struggling to retain moisture even with lots of rain. I am thinking about doing a prototype raised bed on a layer of something pretty permanent to slow down drainage. I wish we had clay near by. I would truck in 20 meters.

I'm moving dirt today in anticipation of planting the garden this week. I've already moved a yard of it and now need to go get another yard in BF's truck. I usually drive a small car, stick shift. This giant Chevy, in automatic transmission, really scares me (and should scare everyone on the roads with me, too). Speaking of which, I need to remember to pick up BF from work today.

The hot hive that I installed yesterday seems to have calmed down a bit and so far hasn't driven me off from the planting area. Yesterday it was hordes of bees attacking us... today it is only a few. They are still gentle(ish), they haven't stung, but they sure are trying to communicate that they want you out of there.

Oz, when are you coming up to Maine? I could have you do a semen install in my goat.

 

[mrballance]

You obviously did not run around bare-footed much. That is where the trees lose their charm and turn people against them.

I have two and I hate them. When I mow they shoot out like bullets. The trees are huge and I have to rake every year or you would break and ankle walking. With or without shoes

 

[Hangtown Farms]

You can make bees work anywhere so don't let that stop you. You could always put up a small fence like this (our local brewery did it for a local beekeeping organization).



To do a nice bee set up (including bees) it's about 500$. That's really not bad for start up for a hobby, and again that would include the hive and accessories plus a package of bees.

I love love love this idea

What an amazing difference of climates between you, SCG and I.
It's almost always humid here and temperature extremes summer to winter swing wildly. It usually hits 100 and below zero.
2012 was a brutal summer. April hit 90, May 95, June and July both hit 108 and 101 in August. It seemed like it stayed above 100 for weeks. The average high that July was 99, and the average low was 77. Some nights it doesn't even get below the mid 80s.
This past winter it hit -19 here.
When it's really hot here, the humidity can be 90% with no wind.

I had my hives on a long concrete slab that once was an old machine shed. It also holds 2 of my chicken coops and the hives were between them. It gets morning sun but by 9 or 10 it's in heavy shade so that doesn't work. It used to be in the sun till noon but has gotten shadier with successive years. 70% of the property is in heavy shade at any one time and there isn't one place that has all day sun. It's mostly mature oaks, elms, maples, hackberries and mulberries. The vegetable garden is in the sunniest part of the place but still only gets 6-8 hours of sun.

The inside of the hive needs to be a constant 50% humidity. If my humidity is 80% and the hives are in the shade, that's a problem.
I knew someone in Texas that put their hives in full sun but the bee books say there should be summertime shade at noon.

and me here at 3400 feet in the lower Sierras have a great climate. 10-15 degrees cooler than the Valley so we rarely get to 100 in the summer. and its a dry heat but not too dry like Nevada.
It does not get real cold either. we can get a good amount of snow but generally when it snows its around freezing and does not last too long except down past the chicken area in the shade.
we probably average 30-40 inches of snow a year here with 50 inches of moisture of which occurs from October thru May , a few thunderstorms in the summer. A interesting point there has been more and more of these the last decade. If you go another 1600 feet up to 5000 feet they get well over 150 inches of snow a year and up at 8000 feet over 40 feet. The average winter snow line is 4500 feet . We usually get the really cold ice water rain in winter as I call it. The kind when your out working in the pierces your body lol.

No idea what a sweetgum tree is or why it's so ferocious.

Got my bees hived, this new set of bees already seem "hot." They chased off BF and I from the garden area earlier this afternoon.

Liquidambar Styraciflua . it is a great fall color tree even out in California but the spiky balls turn people off . there is a variety called Rotundiloba that does not get them

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I'll trade you those trees for the acres of poison ivy I have. I'd rather rake those sputniks up... plus the idea of throwing them while mowing is intriguing.

I managed to get the truck out, get a load of dirt, and get the truck lodged back near the original dirt drop off location around the side of the house which is a really narrow location... without having too many "there's no clutch" panic moments. BF will have to extricate his truck this evening. Just getting it there I almost hit the duck pool, the duck waterer, the duck enclosure, the goat enclosure, the house, the rocks in front of the house, the chicken tractor...

 

[drumstick diva]

Chooks Chick I had the misfortune of planting a sapling Sycamore tree in 1973, I liked the big leaves. I got it at Kmart, nothing on it t said : it will be huge, it will throw abundant branches to the ground for no reason, it will have a huge branch spread that will try to get in your bedroom windows/ rub shingles off the roof.

Also it is the latest to put out leaves and the last to dump them - long after our free leaf pick-up ends. Then too, it produces big balls of seed. They were fun to throw at things because they poof and spread millions of seeds everywhere. So far I haven't seen signs of them sprouting BUT, when they poof seeds my throat gets tight and I have endless coughing. I don't bother seed balls anymore.

I would never have one again unless I had many acres and would locate it far from home., it does make good shade when it actually has leaves.