Tuesday, September 7, 2021

Tree-mania

    I've recently become obsessed with planting and growing trees. I want them for fruit, for shade, and for windbreaks. I'm trying to cultivate a diverse 'forest' but locating seeds or seedlings from anything other than mulberries and cedars is difficult. I pulled what I think is a maple that was growing in a crack in the pavement near the shipping dock at my place of employment and put it in a pot.



    It's been about a week and it seems to be surviving. I hope to transplant it outside next spring. I also pulled up three small plants again growing in the pavement at work. I think they're cottonwoods or aspens but I'm less sure than the maple.

    Unfortunately when I got them home I immediately put them in direct sunlight outdoors and they have since shriveled up and died.

    Today I tried my hand at cuttings. I took two mulberries, one small and one big, and a mystery plant whose leaves and stem resemble a branch from the crabapple in my backyard. I put the small mulberry in a cup of water and placed it on my dining room table. The large mulberry and mystery plant are in a jug of water sitting on a patio table outside. Time will tell if they survive and root.

    Later this year I plan to walk around my town collecting seeds from various trees, primarily oak acorns and sycamore seeds. I know of two locations in my town where there are sycamores and there should be plenty of oaks in the town parks.

Sunday, August 29, 2021

Portrait of Grand Duchesses Anastasia and Maria Nikolaevna

 

A miniature portrait of Grand Duchesses Anastasia and Maria Nikolaevna. Google tells me this was part of a Faberge egg but I can't find any solid confirmation of this. I also thought the Maria portion of the portrait was based off this pic:

Source: Klimbim on Flickr

but that assumption appears to be wrong.

Tuesday, August 24, 2021

Sunday, August 22, 2021

Eastern red cedar seedlings

    As promised in my last post here are some pictures of my chosen Juniperus virginiana. Absent are two more that have started turning yellow, one the got uprooted during a strong storm Friday night, and one that appears to have been snipped by a rabbit.

Backyard tree

Front yard #1

Front yard #2

North side windbreak #1

North side windbreak #2

North side windbreak #3

Plenty of backup seedlings


Friday, August 20, 2021

Growing cedar, cherry, and apple trees

    Recently I have taken up an interest in growing trees. My house currently has only one crabapple tree, located in the backyard. I have tried in years before to grow trees but this year is my first major undertaking. To this end I have transplanted ten cedar saplings that were growing round one of my downspouts. I planted six in the front yard, three on the north side of the driveway (with the explicit intent of preventing snowdrifts during winter), and one in the backyard garden. My transplant method was little more than scooping them out with a garden trowel and depositing them in the selected location where I simply slammed the trowel into the ground and opened a small hole.

    The last time I was able to check them (thank you 12-hour work shifts) only one was turning yellow, perhaps not a coincidence that it was also the smallest of the bunch. I also possess seven apple seeds and eighteen cherry pits. I plan on planting the apples in the backyard and the cherries in the front yard, with three cherries to be planted in the verge (the area between the sidewalk and the street).

    I'll take pictures of them this weekend and post them here, assuming more haven't begun to die since I was last able to water them on Tuesday.

    I've also considered letting one or more of the mulberries that the birds "leave" everywhere grow although I'm not sure what my neighbors will think.

Tuesday, August 17, 2021

2021-2022 Iowa State women's basketball non-conference schedule

Nov 4 (Thursday) vs Wisconsin-River Falls (EXH.)

Nov 9 (Tuesday) vs Omaha

Nov 15 (Monday) vs South Dakota State

Nov 18 (Thursday) @ Drake

Nov 21 (Sunday) vs Southern

Gulf Coast Showcase

Nov 26 (Friday) vs Charlotte

Nov 27 (Saturday) vs Penn State/St. John's

Nov 28 (Sunday) vs South Dakota State/UMass/UCLA/Kent State

Big 12/SEC Challenge

Dec 2 (Thursday) @ LSU

Dec 5 (Sunday) vs Longwood

Dec 8 (Wednesday) vs Iowa

Dec 12 (Sunday) vs UNI

Dec 19 (Sunday) vs Prairie View A&M

Source: 2021-2022 Women's Basketball Schedule

Monday, August 16, 2021

The Role of Monarchy as a Stabilizing Force

    On August 15, 2021 the nation of Afghanistan fell to Taliban forces unopposed, nearly twenty years after being deposed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Modern Afghanistan's problems can be traced back to the 1973 coup d'état that saw Mohammed Daoud Khan overthrow his cousin King Mohammed Zahir Shah and the Kingdom of Afghanistan. In five short years Khan himself would be overthrown and killed during the communist Saur Revolution. The following year communist Afghanistan, along with the Soviet Union, would find themselves embroiled in a nine-ear long war against rural, Islamist insurgents that saw the Soviets withdraw by 1989 and the communist Afghan government collapse in 1992. After a civil war throughout the 1990's the Taliban established themselves as the new government before being overthrown by U.S. forces in 2001.

American helicopter evacuating embassy personnel in August 2021

    From the Cromwellian atrocities in Ireland during the Commonwealth period to the Reign of Terror in 1790's France. From the Russian Civil War and the Red Terror of the Soviet Union to the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. And finally the fall of the Afghan monarchy was the beginning of 50 years of unending chaos and violence for the country. It's clear that the replacement of monarchy with the inherent instability of republicanism leads to violence and political extremism. I leave you with this quote by Winston Churchill:

"This war would never have come unless, under American and modernizing pressure, we had driven the Habsburgs out of Austria and Hungary and the Hohenzollerns out of Germany. By making these vacuums we gave the opening for the Hitlerite monster to crawl out of its sewer on to the vacant thrones."


Reject republicanism, return to monarchy.