September 28, 2022

We have a family tradition of doing something special for birthdays.  When my brother turned 60, he played 60 holes of golf in one day.  Another brother ran a marathon distance on the day he turned 60.  This has trickled down to the children and my son would climb one of the tallest mountains in the state on his birthday and a nephew ran another marathon distance when he turned 40.  He was joined by his father for the last five miles and his 6 year old daughter for the last mile.  As only a child can do, she sprinted to the finish and told him she had won.  This year Melissa turns 60 and I told her we would do something special for her birthday.  It turned out we were able to book a trip that includes several days in Paris, France.  While this is not on her birthday, I told Melissa I was taking her to Paris for her birthday.

When I looked online, I found the area that became Paris, Arkansas, began in 1820 as pioneers settled along the Old Military Road between Little Rock and Fort Smith, and 5 miles (8 km) south of the Arkansas River.  Paris was named after the French capital in 1874 and became the Logan County seat, being incorporated on February 18, 1879.  Paris was a bustling city of 800 in the 1890’s and boasted two newspapers, a bottling-works company, nine general stores, and the Paris Academy of Arts.  By 1917, coal mining had become the community’s main industry, but this had declined by the 1960’s.  The town decided to widen its economic base and today has manufacturing facilities making parts for the automotive and aerospace industries.  Farming and ranching remain among the largest industries in the county, and tourism got a boost with the construction and opening of a 60-room lodge and guest cabins on the top of Mount Magazine, which is 18 miles (29 km) south of Paris.  An estimated 400,000 people a year travel to Mount Magazine.  Melissa and I turned around at Paris.

As her real birthday approached Melissa let me know the trip to Paris did not mean we would not celebrate the actual date.  She took the day off with my promise of a magical evening.  I had planned to take a scenic trip through the Arkansas countryside with the top down in the Benz, but the 100F (37.7C) temperature waylaid that idea.  We instead made an hour long scenic drive with the windows up and the AC on, and Melissa wondering where we were going the whole way.  Just when she thought she had figured out where we were going, I unexpectedly stopped just on the outskirts of a small town and exclaimed, “I told you I would take you to Paris for your birthday!”  We were in Paris, Arkansas.  The look on her face was priceless.

THOUGHTS:  The name ‘’Paris’’ originated from the earliest inhabitants of the region (the Parisii tribe).  The city is also known as the ‘’La Ville Lumiere’’ meaning ‘’the City-of-Light’’ because it is the first big city in the continent to have gas street lighting, and it also played a major role in the era of Enlightenment.  The city’s streets and boulevards were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps in 1857.  The name Paris can be found in 48 places across 17 countries, with 22 located in the US.  I grew up in Manhattan, Kansas.  Manhattan was founded by settlers from the New England Emigrant Aid Company (central New York State) as a Free-State town in the 1850’s, during the Bleeding Kansas era.  Manhattan is nicknamed the “Little Apple” in reference to the Manhattan borough of New York City.  Small towns are named to reflect their heritage, the origin of the founders, or with the hope they will flourish like their namesakes.  While few achieve these lofty goals, they hope the name provides lives on.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

September 27, 2022

When I opened my News Break app the lead story concerned a bug rapidly multiplying throughout the US.  Now with winter fast approaching the bugs are going to be moving inside your home.  The insect is originally from Asia and researchers think it came over on shipping crates from China or Japan.  It was first spotted in 1998 and has already taken over 44 states (including Arkansas) and four provinces in Canada.  Even though they do not bite, they are a nuisance when hundreds or thousands of them come inside your house.  The bug survives the winter as an adult by entering houses and structures when autumn evenings become colder.  In one home, more than 26,000 stinkbugs were found overwintering.  While we have a few hundred different indigenous species of stink bugs these are different.  If you try to kill, squash, or even vacuum them they will spray and make a vile smell.  The brown marmorated stink bug is more likely to invade homes in the fall than others in the family.

When I looked online, I found the brown marmorated stink bug (Halyomorpha halys) is an insect in the family Pentatomidae, native to China, Japan, Korea, and other Asian regions.  The adult brown marmorated are approximately 0.67 inches (1.7 cm) long and about as wide, forming the heraldic shield shape characteristic of bugs in the superfamily Pentatomoidea.  They are generally dark brown on top with a creamy white-brown underside, but individual coloration may vary.  “Marmorated” means variegated or veined (like marble), which refers to the unique markings to this species that include alternating light-colored bands on the antennae and alternating dark bands on the thin outer edge of the abdomen and brown legs with faint white mottling or banding.  The nymph stages are black or dark brown with red husks (integument) between the body plates (sclerites).  First instar nymphs (larval stages) have no white markings, but second through fifth instar nymphs have black antennae with a single white band.  The nymphs’ legs are black with varying amounts of white banding.  Freshly molted individuals of all stages are pale white with red markings.  Eggs are laid on the underside of leaves in masses of 28 eggs.  They are light green when laid, slowly turning white.

Like all stink bugs, the glands that produce the defensive chemicals (smell) are located on the underside of the thorax, between the first and second pair of legs.  The species was first collected in the US in September 1998 in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where it is believed to have been accidentally introduced in shipping crates.  The nymphs and adults of the bug feed on over 100 species of plants, including many agricultural crops.  By 2010–11 the bug had become a season-long pest in orchards in the Eastern US.  In the Mid-Atlantic States during that year, US$37 million in apple crops were lost, and some stone fruit growers lost more than 90% of their crops.  This stink bug is established in many parts of North America and has recently become established in Europe and South America.

THOUGHTS:  Several wasps and predators indigenous to North America and Europe have been reported to attack stink bug eggs, nymphs, and adults.  Researchers have experimented with predators like the spotted lady beetle (Coleomegilla maculate), the spined soldier bug (Podisus maculiventris) who is another stink bug species, and the common green lacewing (Chrysoperla carnea) in the US.  The Samurai Wasp (Trissolcus japonicus) is the primary predator of the bugs in China and the species has self-introduced to North America.  The Joro spider is another invasive Asian species, and a natural predator of the stink bug, and was identified in Georgia in 2015.  It seems invasive predators attacking invasive pests is the approach taken by researchers.  What happens after the “spider swallows the fly.  Don’t ask me why”?  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

September 26, 2022

It is just under one year since I wrote about our decision to place the cover over the pool in our back yard.  While this had been a request from our lender, I figured it was not a bad idea.  The cover is designed to keep the leaves out (which are again starting to fall) and serve as a deterrent to people inadvertently walking into the open pool (pay attention!).  After some initial delays (supply chain, not my problem) we were able to get the cover and the water bags that hold it in place on the pool.  This worked well although I needed to buy a sump pump to keep the rainwater from filling the cover and pulling it into the pool.  That was until the arrival of Zena.  The covered pool became an instant attraction to our puppy, and she would jump into the pool to swim.  She later began to attack the orange caps on the blue water bags (she loves plastic).  I pulled the tarp out of the pool last week to let it dry and today was determined to re-cover the pool in a way Zena could not compromise.

While the easiest way to re-cover the pool was to reset the water bags, 6 of the 12 bags now had the orange caps chewed off.  I thought about placing some of the bricks stored near our shed around the outside of the tarp but knew these would not last long.  Zena loves to carry any bricks she finds on the back patio and even throws them over her shoulder (yes, I am talking a full sized brick).  I had thought of bundling several bricks together, but again figured Zena would find a way to chew off any ties I used.  That is when I hit on the solution, concrete blocks.  The dimensions for a Standard Cored Concrete Block are 8-in W x 8-in H x 16-in L (20.3-cm W x 20.3-cm H x 40.6-cm L) and weighs about 30 pounds (13.5 kg).  While this might tear the cover, it will be more effective against the cover being drug into the water by the weight of the rain.  Another plus was Zena would not be able to carry the blocks around (I hope).

I purchased ten blocks from our local hardware store and placed them around the pool.  Melissa and I got on opposite ends of the cover to stretch it tight and placed a block on each corner.  Several more blocks were added to each side, and it was ready.  We stepped back to admire our work.  During this whole time Zena had been wildly racing around the pool cover as she does with unknown objects.  No doubt remembering her times as a puppy, she launched herself into the middle of the cover.  Of course, it collapsed under her weight (60 pounds/27 kg and she is a puppy) and she and the cover went into the water left in the bottom of the pool.  Zena immediately scrambled for the steps but could not find traction for her wet feet.  After several lunges (and shouts from Melissa) Zena made the step and was able to leap out of the pool.  We decided to re-cover the pool by wrapping the cover around each block.  Zena is good at respecting barriers, and this made an eight-inch (20.3-cm) high barrier along both sides of the pool and with a discernable break on both ends.  When it rains, I will again need to break out the sump pump.

THOUGHTS:  While we were trying to re-cover the pool a second time, Zena was cowering in the doorway of the patio.  She had shaken the water off herself several times but was still visibly upset from falling into the pool.  After we finished the re-cover, I was standing by the pool and called Zena over, but she was reluctant.  It was not until I stepped away from the pool that she finally came.  This might have been a good lesson learned to help keep her safe in the future.  We can all recall a time when we leapt without thinking.  When we survive, these may become life lessons.  If we choose to ignore these lessons, we are what Darwin might have called “natural selection”.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

September 24, 2022

This year’s warm summer really decimated the tomato plants I put in the containers.  They did not produce much fruit and then all the lower stems withered and died and all six of the plants are looking bad.  When I researched how to prune a tomato two years ago it suggested not to prune at all if they were a determinate (stops at certain height) but pruning an indeterminant will cause the plant to quit producing stems and start producing flowers.  I knew the tomato plants I have put in the containers over the last three years were indeterminants. I had never pruned them, and they had never grown much above the tall cages (4 feet/1.2 meter) I use to support them.  This year the plants were short on production but had all outgrown the cages by several feet.  Since it is getting cooler, I decided to prune the dead stems and see if they would make a final push at production before the frost.  As I worked, I pondered why the tomato is referred to as both a fruit and a vegetable.

When I looked online, I found it the double reference for the tomato is based on context.  The Encyclopedia Britannica states a tomato is a fruit but is labeled in grocery stores as a vegetable because of their taste and nutritional purposes.  Botanically, a tomato is a fruit (a berry), consisting of the ovary and its seeds, of a flowering plant.  The tomato is considered a culinary vegetable because it has a much lower sugar content than culinary fruits.  The tomato is also more savory in taste than sweet and is typically served as part of a salad or main course of a meal rather than as a dessert.  Tomatoes are not the only food source with this ambiguity.  It turns out bell peppers, cucumbers, eggplants, avocados, green beans, and all kinds of squashes (such as zucchini and pumpkins) are all botanically fruit yet cooked as vegetables. 

The confusion over culinary verses botanical difference of tomatoes as fruits or vegetables led to a legal dispute in 1887.  Nix v. Hedden, 149 U.S. 304 (1893), was a landmark decision by the US Supreme Court that, under US customs regulations, the tomato should be classified as a vegetable rather than fruit.  John Nix founded the John Nix & Co. fruit commission in New York City in 1839 and became one of the largest sellers of produce in New York City at the time.  Nix & Co. was also one of the first companies to ship produce from Virginia, Florida, and Bermuda to New York.  Edward Hedden was Collector of the Port of New York who applied the tariff.  In a unanimous decision, the Court’s opinion held that the Tariff Act of 1883 used the ordinary meaning of “fruit” and “vegetable”, instead of the technical botanical meaning.  The holding of this case was said to apply only to the interpretation of the Tariff of 1883, and the court did not claim to reclassify the tomato for botanical or other purposes.

THOUGHTS:  While the tomato may generally be served with dinner and not as a dessert, there are many recipes for tomato cakes, pies, and especially gelati and ices.  Likewise, the only way I have ever eaten pumpkin is in a pie.  Does this mean both are culinary fruits as well as botanical fruits?  Words and their definitions are an important part of communication and culture and what we intend to mean can be understood differently by others.  Communication requires people to speaker and listen in a way others understand.  Otherwise, it is just noise.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

September 23, 2022

Inside my local newspaper was an AP article on a shift in the population center of the US.  This calculation is preformed every ten years after completion of the survey by the US Census Bureau.  For the next ten years this honor belongs to the town of Hartville with a population of 594 residents (as of 2020).  Missouri has been the population center of America since 1980.  Since the 2010 census identified Plato, Missouri, as the population center it means this decades’ shift was 11.8 miles (19 km).  This is the smallest distance shift in 100 years and the second smallest in US census history.  Dignitaries from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the US Census Bureau were present to officially debut the red granite marker topped with a tripod.  According to the Census Bureau this “spot would be the ‘balance point’ if the 50 states were located on an imaginary flat surface with weights of identical size – each resenting the location of one person – placed on it.”  Sounds like someone has a lot of time on their hands waiting ten years for the next census.   

When I looked online, I found the center of the US has also been calculated geographically as well as by population.  The geographic center of the US is northeast of Belle Fourche in Butte County, South Dakota (with coordinates: 44°58′N 103°46′W).  The geographic center of the contiguous 48 states (minus Alaska and Hawaii) is near Lebanon in Smith County, Kansas (with coordinates: 39°50′N 98°35′W).  Although the designation has no official status, the geographic center of North America is in the US and was thought to lie near Rugby, North Dakota (with coordinates: 48°10′N 100°10′W).  In 2017, a new calculation of the geographic center of North America placed it near the town of Center, North Dakota.  The change occurred because of rising sea levels because of climate change and from a shift in the calculation measure itself.

For years the cities of Center and Rugby have contested which is the actual geographical center of North America.  Different scientists have used various methods to determine the geographical center of the continent.  Now, changes in sea level due to glacial melt have resulted in a shifting in its position.  The lack of a clear definition of what constitutes a geographic center also contributes to its varied identification.  The debate between the two cities officially ended recently with the accurate calculation of the exact geographic center of North America by University of Buffalo professor Peter Rogerson.  Appropriately, Center, located in Oliver County, North Dakota, is the new geographical center of North America.  Rogerson used the azimuthal equidistant projection method to determine the geographical center.  Based on his calculations he concluded the geographical center was in the middle of the city of Center, 145 miles from the previous geographical center in Rugby.  The findings are more accurate as the azimuthal equidistant projection method considers the Earth’s curvature.  Both have commemorative markers and still claim the title of North America’s center.

THOUGHTS:  Although my memories are vague, I still recall our family visit to the geographical center located near Lebanon in Smith County, Kansas.  I believe this was on the same trip where we visited the Farm and Ranch Museum in Gering, in western Nebraska.  The mission of the museum is, “To preserve and interpret the agricultural heritage of the High Plains.”  The wonder of these odd trips was passed on to me as an adult.  Our first vacation (after the honeymoon) as a tour of the small towns and attractions of western Kansas.  The common “wonders” in rural areas still hold an appeal.  How we lived and survived the rigors of the past are a road map for the future.  Hopefully, we will learn from the pandemic as well.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

September 22, 2022

While coming back through town from the recycling center yesterday I was on the side street waiting to pull onto the main drag when a car with a large AEL emblem emblazoned on the side door drove past.  I pulled into traffic and noticed a smaller version of the emblem was also on the rear panel.  I had never seen the acronym before and wondered what it stood for.  When we stopped at a traffic light, I got close enough to read the small print beneath the emblem.  It said, American Esoteric Laboratories.  I did not know what that meant but thought that either someone had a good sense of humor or medicine was finally being honest.  It was neither and was not as esoteric as I thought.

When I looked online, I found esoteric testing is the analysis of ‘rare’ substances or molecules that are not performed in a routine clinical laboratory.  Esoteric tests are “niche” assays and often require specialized personnel.  Some of these tests have been or are currently being analyzed using RIA (radioimmunoassay) technique which is both costly and time-consuming.  Esoteric laboratories are beginning to benefit as test volume increases due to population growth and the aging population, an increase in the number of tests per patient, and an increase in esoteric and genomic tests which are part of the trend to customize treatments.  Esoteric tests are generally considered to include Biochemical Genetics, Cytogenetics/FISH, Flow Cytometry, Microbiology, Molecular Genetic Pathology, RBC, Special Studies, Special Coagulation, and Virology.  The tests do seem esoteric.

American Esoteric Laboratories (AEL) is a regional provider of esoteric and clinical laboratory services.  The laboratory offers an extensive test menu of both routine and esoteric testing.  AEL testing locations in Tennessee include the core laboratory in Memphis and AEL East in Knoxville.  Additional AEL laboratories are in Mississippi, Alabama, Missouri, and Arkansas.  AEL also operates convenient patient service centers throughout Alabama, Arkansas, the Florida panhandle, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee.  AEL is the MidSouth Division of Sonic Healthcare USA.  Sonic Healthcare is a global healthcare company with headquarters in Sydney, Australia, that has grown to become one of the world’s leading healthcare providers.  Sonic has operations in Australia, the US, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Ireland, and New Zealand.  This is truly a globalized medical operation.  Like much of big medicine, I had never heard of it.

THOUGHTS:  When the pandemic began spreading early in 2020 virus testing was done by sending the sample off to an esoteric laboratory.  The word esoteric means obscure or puzzling, and at the onset that was what the virus was.  These specialized laboratories analyzed the rare substances or molecules associated with it.  As testing became more common local labs began to perform the tests, and now over the counter self-tests are readily available.  While there is still much to discover, the virus is no longer seen as obscure and puzzling.  It is something to be tracked, studied, and ever more understood.  Now the esoteric part is why there are still those who deny it exists.  Act for all. Change is coming and it starts with you.

September 21, 2022

I have mentioned when the pandemic hit in early 2020 and operations shut down, so did my local recycling center.  When the center finally opened 10 weeks later, I stuffed my recyclables in the jeep filling it completely.  This included newspaper, glass, plastic bottles (drink and milk), tin cans, and cardboard.  I have continued to take my recyclables to the center but have found it harder to know when it is open.  The hours have changed at least three times over the last two years, and that does not include times it has just been closed (presumably virus related).  Over the last two weeks I faced several setbacks in my quest to unload recyclables.  I did not know they had changed hours (and days) and when I first showed up the center was closed.  When I returned the following week, the truck had not arrived to remove the cardboard bin.  I was able to deposit my other items, but the cardboard stayed in the jeep.  I drove the broken down boxes around another week, then loaded the additional cardboard I had and went back to the center.  They had again changed their hours.

When I looked online, I found Cardboard is a generic term for heavy paper-based products.  The term “cardboard” has general use in English and French, but the term is frowned on in commerce and industry as not defining a specific product and they tend to use more specific terminology.  The construction can range from a thick paper known as paperboard to corrugated fiberboard which is made of multiple plies of material.  Natural cardboards range from grey to light brown in color, depending on the specific product, but dyes, pigments, printing, and coatings are available to change the color and look of the cardboard.  Cardboard was first made in France in 1751 and was used to reinforce playing cards.  The term cardboard has been used since at least 1848, when Anne Brontë mentioned it in her novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.  The Kellogg brothers first used paperboard cartons to hold their corn flaked cereal, and when they marketed it to the public included a heat-sealed bag of wax paper wrapped around the outside of the box along with their printed brand name.  In modern times this bag is plastic and is kept inside the box.

During 2020 the US hit a record high for the manufacture of cardboard.  Around 80% of all the products sold in the United States are packaged in cardboard and over 120 billion pieces were used that year.  That same year, over 13,000 separate pieces of consumer cardboard packaging was thrown away by American households, which combined with all paper products constitutes almost 42% of solid waste generated by the US annually.  Most types of cardboard are recyclable, but boards that are laminates, wax coated, or treated for wet strength are more difficult to recycle.  Clean cardboard (not subject to chemical coatings) is usually worth recovering, although the difference between its value and the cost of recovery is marginal.  Cardboard can be recycled for industrial or domestic use, and like newspaper, cardboard can be composted or shredded for animal bedding.

THOUGHTS:  Some will ask why I did not check the website before I packed my items for recycling.  The answer is I did but the site had not been updated.  I checked again as I sat in front of the locked gate and found the hours had been changed in May.  The new hours included (most of) the hours I was accustomed to use, but not all.  Many stores and businesses have taken to including a disclaimer saying, “Hours may vary due to restrictions”, and you are asked to call for confirmation.  Like blaming supply chain issues, and the signs on semi mud flaps warning you to “stay back”, this is another way of saying, “It is not my fault.”  Someone must be accountable, right?  I took my cardboard to recycling today.  Act for all. Change is coming and it starts with you.

September 19, 2022

I came across a story in the back section of today’s newspaper addressing the difficulty of locating huckleberries in northern Idaho and eastern Washington this year.  Even when pickers encountered healthy bushes, they had few berries or none.  While that may be discouraging for human pickers, grizzly bears and other wildlife depend on the berries as a key food source.  Tabitah Graves, a US Geological Survey (USGS) scientist, said she started tracking huckleberries because they are a very large part of bear diets, comprising over 50% of their diet in the peak of summer as they bulk up to hibernate.  Huckleberries have also been found in scats of coyotes, martens, and weasels, and wildlife cameras have recorded pictures of all kinds of birds and small mammals eating huckleberries.  Janet Prevey, another USGS scientist, says the plants may become less prevalent at some lower elevation and drier sites.  That could mean huckleberries recede from some of the plant’s southern range and advance in northern latitudes. 

When I looked online, I found Huckleberry is a name used in North America for several plants in the family Ericaceae, in two closely related genera: Vaccinium and Gaylussacia.  Huckleberry is a North American variation of the English dialectal name variously called ‘hurtleberry’ or ‘whortleberry’ for the bilberry.  In North America the name was applied to numerous plant variations all bearing small berries with colors that may be red, blue, or black.  It is the common name for various Gaylussacia species, and some Vaccinium species, such as Vaccinium parvifolium, the red huckleberry, and is also applied to other Vaccinium species which may also be called blueberries depending upon local custom, as in New England and parts of Appalachia.  Four species of huckleberries in the genus Gaylussacia are common in eastern North America, especially the black huckleberry (G. baccata).  The huckleberry is the state fruit of Idaho.

Native American tribes intentionally used fire to regenerate shrub fields and make them produce more huckleberries but those were low intensity burns.  Huckleberries need ample sun and tend to like the types of openings that fires often create.  When forest canopies close in because of plant succession, berries are often shaded out.  Many of today’s fires are high intensity, driven in part by higher temperatures (climate change) and a buildup of biomass (fire suppression).   It is unclear what kind of impact more severe fires would have on the distribution of the berries. Huckleberry habitat may be reduced by 5% to 40% in the Northwest and that it could expand 5% to 60% in northern British Columbia, Canada.  The timing of flowering and fruit could change by as much as 50 days.  Not so good for the grizz.

THOUGHTS:  As mentioned, huckleberries in Maine are called blueberries.  One of the favorite books for my sister’s children growing up was called Blueberries for Sal.  This charming story has been loved by readers since its first publication in 1948.  This follows the story of two mothers who think their child is following them, only to discover the cub and child have switched (spoiler alert: both go home with the right mother).  As huckleberries become scarce or move locations humans and animals are going to find it harder to locate this important food source.  Act for all. Change is coming and it starts with you.

September 17, 2022

The middle of the front section of my local newspaper carried an article on Thursday about a University of Mississippi student who came up with an innovative use of beer boxes.  During March 2020 Ryan Lubker saw a cardboard deer head and wanted to spice it up.  Being a college student and locked down by the pandemic he had plenty of beer boxes and decided to put the ideas together.  The prototype used real beer boxes and cut them out with a laser cutter.  Rather than a two dimensional picture of a deer, this used slotted pieces that are assembled into a three dimensional model looking like a deer head.  Lubker has since graduated, but at the time he was studying business management and manufacturing at the school’s Haley Barbour Center for Manufacturing Excellence.

When I looked online, I found the Haley Barbour Center for Manufacturing Excellence (CME) at the University of Mississippi is advertised as an exercise in contrasts: a factory floor in an academic setting and a future-focused technology center on an historic university campus.  CME was designed by the firm CDFL to be a cutting-edge experiential teaching environment where students immerse themselves in the manufacturing process.  The building integrates a 12,000 sf manufacturing floor into its design.  Other innovations are a photovoltaic system and the state’s largest solar panel array to help power the CME.  The site includes natural day lighting on the manufacturing floor, low-flow restroom fixtures, flexible power and utility infrastructure, and roof insulation that increases mechanical efficiency by 30%.  This is the perfect location to spawn the innovative Beer Deer.

Lubker posted the original beer box labeled model on TikTok with no intention of starting a business, but the idea went viral and 1000’s of orders started pouring in.  He set up a pre-order page and used the money collected to finance the business.  Since he was a student, he did not have time to market, manufacture, and fulfill orders so he outsourced most of the duties.  The beer cartons were too flimsy for the final model and the die is now cut from corrugated cardboard.  More than 50,000 Beer Deer have been sold, and different varieties are now offered.  The deer can be made from different beer brands, and other animals are available (Booze Moose, hook-line-and drinker/fish).  As the website confirms, “no deers were killed or beers chugged for these familiar wall mounts.”

THOUGHTS:  Last April I blogged on how strict taxidermy laws are.  Proper hunting tags, permits, or other documents are required to determine the animal was lawfully acquired and it is a crime to be in possession of animals unlawfully obtained, or to transport, ship, or receive an unlawful carcass.  Once stuffed you cannot discard the taxidermy in the garbage or sell it without committing a felony.  Buying a Beer Deer gives you all the ambiance (?) of a mounted head, but none of the “head”aches.  While “no beers were chugged” in the manufacture of these mounts, that may be a stretch for the invention.  Act for all. Change is coming and it starts with you.

September 16, 2022

During the hot months of summer, I tried to keep my container vegetables watered to save them from the heat.  Like most gardeners in my area this kept my plants alive but only sporadically resulted in fruit.  When it began to cool off and we received a period of rain I backed off and let nature do its work.  I got a few small peppers (sweet and hot) and an occasional tomato, but they plants seemed to be giving up.  While we have not gone back to the extreme heat of the summer, we are still predicted to get into the high 90’sF (35+C) through next week.  I continue to get few blooms and even less fruit and the bottom leaves of all my plants have wilted and several plants have died.  Since peppers are classified as a perennial, I wondered how long they could continue to produce.

When I looked online, I found the jalapeño is a medium-sized chili pepper pod type cultivar of the species Capsicum annuum.  A mature jalapeño chile is 2 to 4 inches (5–10 cm) long and hangs down with a round, firm, smooth flesh of 1 to 1½ inches (25–38 mm) wide.  It can have a range of pungency, with Scoville heat units of 4,000 to 8,500.  Although commonly picked and eaten green, if allowed to fully ripen they will turn red, orange, or yellow.  The growing period is 70–80 days. When mature, the plant stands 2 ½ to 3 feet (70–90 cm) tall.  During a growing period, the plant can be picked multiple times and will produce 25 to 35 pods.  The plants will crop continuously from the start of July through to the end of September when the first frost hits.  During this period, it is recommended that you regularly harvest the fruits as this will encourage the plant to continue to produce flowers.  Once picked, individual peppers may turn to red of their own accord. The peppers can be eaten green or red.  Although usually grown as an annual, peppers are a perennial and if protected from frost can produce for multiple years, as with all Capsicum annuum.

When I checked my notes, they indicated the vegetables in my containers began to wilt and die last year (especially the tomatoes) by mid-September and even the peppers were gone by the first week of November.  While the plants had continued through these times, they had stopped producing flowers before they began to wilt.  I realize if I want them to continue producing, I really need to continue to actively water the plants and reapply fertilizer.  As the season drags on and little fruit is being produced, I wear down and no longer check them as often as I do early in the season.  I do not treat these vegetables as perennial, and even welcome the break after the frost.  Once again, if I were going to rely on the plants as a subsistence food source, I would need to be more attentive.

THOUGHTS:  I have mentioned that I had grown 15 tomato plants for my horticulture arrow as a cub scout.  These were grown inground and flourished.  They produced more fruit than our family could use or than I knew what to do with.  I started the spring plant strong but was tired of taking care of tomatoes by mid-summer.  They still refused to die, and I was made to continue to harvest and distribute them.  I think I would have been devastated to find out they were a perennial.  I know to effectively use the vegetables I grow now, means deciding how to save (can, dry, freeze) them for later.  Last year I chopped and froze jalapeños, peaches, and strawberries, and there are remains of all three in my freezer.  While I have not thrown this food out, I do not seem to use it either.  Despite over 42 million Americans living in food-insecure households, collectively we manage to throw out an estimated 80 billion pounds of food.  The average household throws out $640 of food or almost 16% of the food we buy each year.  The country buffets where I used to dine always had a sign that said, “Take all you want, but eat all you take.”  Those may still be words to live by.  Act for all. Change is coming and it starts with you.