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 6/28/2007 We spent the last couple days up at my mother's house in Boonville. I have been growing pine trees in my backyard here in the city and they are getting bigger and bigger, so I had to relocate some of them to another place if I wanted to be able to walk around anymore. I hauled a whole car full of plants up there and spent all day Wednesday setting up a watering system to (hopefully) keep them alive. My mother is so busy with animal rescue that I can't count on her to check on them or water them regularly.The watering system parts and setup were actually remarkably simpler than I imaginged, and they work well enough I think that the plants should do well. I put landscaping fabric below the plants and laid the tubing over it, with little rings of emitters around each plant. I set the water to come on twice a day for about 15 minutes, which seems like a lot...but the soil and containers that the trees are in are designed to allow water to flow right through, not to hold it. Still, Thursday morning I went out to check before leaving to come back to the city and found one pot full to the brim with water, the drain hole had become clogged with something which I poked out of the way with a stick. My hiking trip got cancelled and then rescheduled for the week after when it was supposed to happen, but I didn't go hiking, which was a great disappointment. My friend Aaron had a family emergency so I went with another friend, Joe. Joe and I only had enough time to drive to Bishop and do some plant collecting, no hiking. We were up in the White mountains for a day digging up Utah Junipers; I got a couple of really nice plants which will make fantastic bonsai if they live. I was so beat up and tired after half a day of collecting that I was glad that Joe was there to keep me going. He brought a GPS and marked trees as we hiked around, then we had fun going back to #13 or #11 and trying to remember which tree had been the best of the lot. Sometimes we found other good trees just as the GPS said we were arriving at the one we were looking for; the radius is a good 15 feet so, and with trees this small you can be 15 feet away and not see it because another tree is in the way or you are looking in the wrong direction. It was a whirlwind trip over Memorial Day weekend during which we stayed at the cabin for the night before and after the collecting. I had thought it was about three hours by car from the cabin to the collecting site, but it turned out to be much closer to 5 hours. My friends and neighbors, Katy and Shane got married on the second Saturday in June. I was a groomsman and felt it was my duty and obligation to help out for the weekend. Shane, being a do-it-yourself kinda guy did it all himself, or rather the pair of them did. From flowers to building stairs to DJ-ing they were running their entire wedding themselves. I managed to goad and prod Shane into being on-time for the ceremony, but had no control over Katy, who showed up almost an hour late. Nevertheless, it was a beutiful ceremony and a wonderful reception, all in Shane and Katy style. 3/27/2007 1/5/2007 11/23/2006 10/1/2006 9/1/2006 7/20/2006 5/30/2006 5/20/2006 4/25/2006 3/22/2006 2/22/2006 1/25/2006 12/20/2005 11/17/2005 10/27/2005 10/8/2005 9/11/2005 8/26/2005 8/9/2005 8/1/2005 7/20/2005 7/5/2005 6/17/2005 5/27/2005 5/1/2005 4/15/2005 4/5/2005 3/24/2005 3/13/2005 2/5/2005 12/28/2004 11/29/2004 11/3/2004 10/2/2004 9/10/2004 8/23/2004 8/8/2004 7/21/2004 7/2/2004 6/8/2004 5/4/2004 4/20/2004 3/28/2004 3/10/2004 2/10/2004 1/15/2004 To reach entries prior to January 2004 click on one of the older entries on this list and scroll down to the bottom of that entry. e-mail Eric |