Sawyer '16 - Memorial Day update

OCD Chilehead · May 30, 2016

No worries on the pics. I was just seeing how you were doing.

Glad your on the rebound.

Sorry to here about the plants.

Take care

Devv · May 30, 2016

Wow! John!

I can certainly understand where you're coming from after my health issues last spring. I sure hope these badass bugs that have come around lately are not a continuing problem for us all.

Take your time and get well!

Sawyer · May 30, 2016

JoynersHotPeppers said:
Get better man!

Trident chilli said:
+1 on your health ..... looking forward to your pics when your up to it

Thanks, Chris, John. I think I'm pretty much over it, whatever "it" was. It's just going to take some time to get my wind back.

OCD Chilehead said:
No worries on the pics. I was just seeing how you were doing.

Glad your on the rebound.

Sorry to here about the plants.

Take care

Thanks, Chuck. Yeah, it's always a shame to lose plants, but I over do it so much on seed starting, the losses pale in comparison to what's left. Out of over 200 varieties I started, I only lost a handful. I'm going to inventory what's what soon and update the OP to reflect how many plants of each variety I have at this point.

Devv said:
Wow! John!

I can certainly understand where you're coming from after my health issues last spring. I sure hope these badass bugs that have come around lately are not a continuing problem for us all.

Take your time and get well!

Hey, Scott, yeah, I've thought about your troubles last year a few times over the last few weeks. I never went to the doctor, so I don't know for sure what this was, but "walking pneumonia" came up in more than one conversation. I guess that's a fairly non-specific term though. It does seem like forum members have been having more than a fair share of bugs lately. For myself, I should just learn to say "no" to the annual DC trip. It comes at the wrong time of year and two of the last three years I've brought back a bug. Still, I like what I do there and it helps me feel like I'm doing my part, so I'll probably keep going as long as they keep asking.

Okay, these aren't pepper pics, but maybe the boss will let me slide on this. I'm going to start another thread in the "growing other" sub-forum for this sort of thing, other natives, tomatoes (around 70 varieties), hops, and other non-pepper gardening shots. But for now, this thread is in sore need of some color. In my last post I mentioned going hiking recently. There's a place I've known of for years and years, decades really, where I've wanted to hike. It's along the base of a bluff, maybe 3/4 mile in length (mile and a half round trip), running parallel to the lake shore, but back far enough that it's mostly not visible from the lake. I can drive to about the mid-point along the ridge above the bluff, park, then just wander along the ridge, eventually dropping down more or less gradually to lake level on a point jutting out into the main body of the lake. From there I turned back along the base of the bluff and it didn't take long to realize it was going to be a challenge. No path or trails except for a very faint deer trail I could pick up now and then. I kept as close to the base of the bluff as possible because the ground is relatively level there. It quickly drops off to the left to a steep descent down to the lake. For much of the way, sticking close to the base of the bluff worked, but a couple of times I found myself on a dead-end ledge above ground level and had to back track. In one place, a tree has fallen away from the bluff leaving behind a very unstable slope. I think I caused a small landslide scrambling across that. And for much of the way, I was walking on unstable rubble fallen from the bluff itself. In a couple of places, the slope comes right up to the bluff and my feet could get no purchase. There I proceeded on hands and knees, pulling myself up and along by roots and rocks. But it was worth it to find scenes like the following. (If you don't look too close you won't notice the photos are all a little blurry. At this point I was shaking, whether from exertion, worry, fright, or still being sick, I'm not sure.)
Ferns grow in the fissures of the bluff:

Columbine, too:

The ferns go on and on:

I found this patch of Jack-in-the-Pulpit after a particularly strenuous stretch:

Biggest patch I've ever seen. In an area maybe 8' x 12' I counted 35 blooms. I plan to go back when the time is right to get pictures of the seed heads.

All told I found hundreds and hundreds of plants, if not thousands, but most were not blooming.

This is a view in front of me:

And a look back:

Here, I'm only about half way to where I need to be, so I put the camera away and got back to my vehicle right at dusk.

Pepper plant pics pending, promise.

OCD Chilehead · May 31, 2016

Great scenery. Glad everything is good. I post everything on my glog. LoL!

Sounds like you had a great time. I need to get out of the yard and into nature.

Thanks for sharing John

stickman · May 31, 2016

Glad to see you back in the swing John, we'd wondered how you were. Were those hiking pics taken in a karst area? the rock looked like limestone in the pics. Looking forward to seeing more green from you as you find the time.

Sawyer · Jun 2, 2016

OCD Chilehead said:
Great scenery. Glad everything is good. I post everything on my glog. LoL!

Sounds like you had a great time. I need to get out of the yard and into nature.

Thanks for sharing John

Hey, Chuck, thanks. I don't get out for a hike nearly as often as I'd like, but any is better than none. And, yeah, I wouldn't normally worry about posting non-pepper pics, but those are the only pictures in the thread so far. The orange ghost has adapted to its new shoes and is starting to grow again, so I'll at least get a picture of it posted soon.

stickman said:
Glad to see you back in the swing John, we'd wondered how you were. Were those hiking pics taken in a karst area? the rock looked like limestone in the pics. Looking forward to seeing more green from you as you find the time.

Thanks, Rick. If it ain't one thing, it's another, right? I had to look it up, but yes, there is a lot of karst topography around here. The whole (or at least much of the) Ozark Plateau is an ancient seabed. Everything is underlain with limestone around here. I think that will provide some buffer here in NW AR when the New Madrid fault cuts loose again over in SE MO/NE AR. It also makes for some cool fossil hunting. I have several small slabs of limestone encrusted with small crinoid fossils and back in '03 the world's largest nautiloid fossil was discovered nearby:

http://news.uark.edu/articles/11388/shell-shock-three-university-of-arkansas-students-find-world-s-longest-nautiloid-fossil

It also produces some prime pepper-growing soils.

OCD Chilehead · Jun 3, 2016

Sounds good John.

We enjoyed the pic's. Keep'em coming. LOL!

Have a great weekend.

Devv · Jun 3, 2016

Glad you got out and around John, the pics are very nice.

Just don't rush it! I'm about 1 year out of the hospital and still not where I was "before", I'd say 75%, But I keep pushing forward, and believe me I really work at it. When I lived in Virginia, in the late 80's, I enjoyed hiking in the mountains, the scenery was fantastic. Here I would have to drive to really find something that interested me. I'm doing the retirement countdown...LOL, Then I can break away :shh:

Here's to your health!

stickman · Jun 5, 2016

Sawyer said:
Thanks, Rick. If it ain't one thing, it's another, right? I had to look it up, but yes, there is a lot of karst topography around here. The whole (or at least much of the) Ozark Plateau is an ancient seabed. Everything is underlain with limestone around here. I think that will provide some buffer here in NW AR when the New Madrid fault cuts loose again over in SE MO/NE AR. It also makes for some cool fossil hunting. I have several small slabs of limestone encrusted with small crinoid fossils and back in '03 the world's largest nautiloid fossil was discovered nearby:

http://news.uark.edu/articles/11388/shell-shock-three-university-of-arkansas-students-find-world-s-longest-nautiloid-fossil

It also produces some prime pepper-growing soils.

Very cool story of the fossil find in the drainage ditch! I hear ya 'bout limestone soils being great for peppers as long as you give 'em the right soil pH... my Mom lives in an area in far western Massachusetts that's underlain by Dolomitic Limestone and Blue Shale, and the soil carbonates really make here garden grow well when they're buffered by lots of compost. You should see the stuff she grows there.

Essegi · Jun 21, 2016

I've read now about health issues. Hope all is better now.
Glad to see you back, always a pleasure to read you posts!

KiNGDeNNiZ · Jun 23, 2016

Great seed listo. Looks like things are on the up and up
..
Great shots of the fern...

Wish my seed list was organized as to how old the plants are.
.lol

Devv · Jun 23, 2016

How's things John?

You Ok?