Transplanted Squash saplings

The garden has done fairly well during the little family trip. The potatoe plants have grown entirely out of their containers, I'll have to put up wooden supports pretty soon. The string beans have grown much bigger, and some of them are even beginning to climb their scaffolding. The tomatoes have recovered somewhat, there are new green leaves on those 2 plants. Still there are plenty of yellowish leaves on those 2 saplings, I think one would be lucky to expect any fresh garden tomatoes this year. In anycase, I set down the two squash saplings that were growing indoors for the last 3 weeks. The saplings were transplanted with plenty of compost to ensure solid growth. I think this small organic garden can safely hold some additional herb plants such as basil or chives but not much more.

Some thoughts on conservation

This weekend I went on a "family bonding" trip with the parents. It turned out to be a semi-mystical, if not downright religious, experience. We visited the grand canyon of Pennsylvania located 30 miles northwest of Williamsport, PA. We parked our car along a river that was surrounded by 2 huge mountain sides. Going over a rough dirt trail, we hiked to the top of one mountain side. The climb was a grueling one, the path was extremely steep and treacherous in some areas.




After an hour, we reached the summit, which is over 700 meters above the river. At the peak, the view was awe-inspiring. The river was a glistening thread of silver, winding it's way between two magnificently broad mountain slopes. The slopes themselves were heavily forrested, so that in the setting sun, it seemed that great stream of silver was strengthened, broadened, by two geldings of emerald green. Both faces of the canyon stretched far into the distance. we could see swirls of mists and cloud formations beneath us out to some 20 to 30 miles away. There were falcons flying hundreds of meters below us. The sight was almost too much for me to take in, mere words cannot do it justice.



This canyon was created by processes ungoverned by any form of reason or intelligence. Over millions of years, that river had carved a 700 meter valley out of the side of a huge mountain. Trees filled in the niche, providing for an abundence of aboreal mammals. These small creatures thus sustained the wonderous falcons which soared with such speed and grace. That canyon was a mosaic, a tapestry created by nature whose threads were that of geology, erosion, and of course, life. That canyon due to it's remote location and difficult terrain, had attracted few visitors. Besides my family, we encountered no more than 10 other people along the entire hike. This place seems magical, untouched by man and all of his foibles. I marvel at such a natural wonder, yet at the same time, I cannot help but feel a touch of loss. There are few such places left in the world. Humanity is capable of intelligence and ingenuity, yet we cannot come even close to creating such perfection. Sure, we can wipe out that canyon in the blink of an eye, but destruction is always so much simpler than creation. What are we really doing with the consciousness that has been bestowed upon us? We use our sentience to take these gems of nature and we hack it down, pave it over. We transform such beauty into parking lots, shopping malls, townhouses, and of course, office buildings. And what is it all for? So we can brag about a raise? Maybe a promotion? Or perhaps to impress that pretty girl on the other side of the office? There seems to be so much amiss with the human condition. I don't believe that we are really meant to be drones in an office, generating products that only exists to create more people. We are probably not meant to live a life where we have to watch ourselves die one second at a time while killing everything else around us. This philosophical rant has truly gone on enough, I should stick to earthly matters such as potatoes and rabbits. In anycase, this was one cool trip!

Garden Update

This has been such turbulent week for me. Too many things are happening at once, some good, others not so good. In anycase, my garden seems to be mostly flourishing. The potatoes and the string beans are growing very rapidly, I've already added in about 8 inches of additional compost into my container grown potatoe plants within 2 weeks and the growth of the potatoe plans shows no signs of slowing down. The String bean plants that survived the culling are now beginning to span out. I've put in bamboo stakes to give them a framework to grow on.


The tomatoe plants that I transplanted last week are not doing so well. The stalks seems to have weakened since the transplant.

I'm fairly sure that the bed in which the plants were set down have been properly fertilized and loosened. The problem may be that the soil acidity levels are not compatible with this breed of tomatoe saplings. In anycase, I gave these 2 plants some liquid feed, hopefully this will work.

Weather Warriors

Fishing today was extremely difficult, the weather by the lake was unusually cold. At 57 degrees Farenheit, the wind chill factor was a great dis-incentive to be out there in the first place. I found that by fishing very close to shore and of course extending the length of line between the floater and the hook itself, a certain niche of fish could be caught. That breed being the carnivorous sunfish that dwells near the waters under trees. Sunfish are stunning creatures, embellished with a beautiful red/orange mark on their stomach. Using this strategy I was able to capture two medium sized sunfish, not very impressive but enough for a nice dinner and definitely a pleasure to behold.

Around 6:30 pm the weather became very unfavorable, storm clouds were overhead, there was a splattering of rain, and the temperature dipped below 50 degrees. Under those conditions, I decided to take what I've won and head back home.

Garden plants are blooming!

The potatoes seems to be doing very well, all 6 bubs have bloomed. I'll wait for the stalks to grow to at least 4 inches before covering them with compost.







The string beans have all bloomed into rows of pretty shoots. I'm going to wait 2 more weeks before putting up scaffolds to hold the vines.