Trent's 2014 Grow Log - COLD COLD COLD

Devv · Apr 24, 2014

Smart move only doing one thing at a time, I do the same at work, nothing worse than making 3 changes and a server starts hating life.

Hope I didn't already post this, but I use a 6-12-6 liquid at 30% when they're that small. I've had really good luck with it. Those plants will do fine

Sad to read that beautiful reloading room took on the water, what a mess to clean.

I have that same Lyman press, I thought the turret was too sloppy and I tightened the heck out of it. I don't need to rotate it as that made it quite snug.

Good luck with your plants!

TrentL · Apr 24, 2014

Devv said:
Smart move only doing one thing at a time, I do the same at work, nothing worse than making 3 changes and a server starts hating life.

Huh.. ain't that something. I work with that computer stuff too.

Run hosting and server ops at a couple of datacenters here in the Midwest.

You don't happen to work at Rackspace, do you? Have a friend down that way who is a Principal Architect at Rackspace.

Devv · Apr 24, 2014

I manage the Cisco phones, the network design and implementation, as well as the SAN's, VM's, and physical servers for a school district. No contracting out for anything other than fiber work and sometimes network drops. I use Linux where I can, because it's free and bullet proof. Have written a few database driven web applications using php and Postgresql, I mainly ported them over from when I owned a dialup ISP, wrote them for myself to manage users with Free Radius back in the day. All this got me out of leaning over cars, did that for 20+ years specializing in computer driven systems.

Working in the AC is much better

TrentL · Apr 24, 2014

Haha I agree about the A/C!

I got my start back in mid 90's. Dropped out of high school and started a computer repair shop out of my grandfather's TV repair shop. TV and VCR repair was rapidly declining with our new-modern-age-disposable-mindset. So he had a spare bench to let me use.

In 1998 - the personal computer industry had all but collapsed as big-box companies waged the "endless price war of the 1990's", which put thousands of computer shops out of business. As I was closing up the shop a previous customer walked in and I was headhunted to do programming on a fortune-500 business system. 20 years old I got hired on at $25 an hour.

Three months later I'd negotiated a direct 1099 and cut out the middle-man labor placement firm, and was suddenly making $45 an hour. Fast cars, speeding tickets, license suspension (twice) over the next couple of years. I put a LOT of strippers through medical school. Didn't save any money, spent it as I made it. Didn't have custody of my first two kids... tripping over passed out friends every morning laying in my livingroom to go to work...

Eventually I bottomed out, sobered up, and straightened out. Car repossession (can't get insurance when you have no license, can't keep a car with a loan without insurance...) and eviction notice (complete with police escort) kind of woke me up to the evil of my irresponsible ways.

Once I paid for damages on the rental house on top of sacrificing my security deposit, I met my 2nd wife and life did a complete 180.

By 2002 I'd won custody of my first two kids in court after a long battle.

In 2003 I went independent and incorporated a software company to sell some software I'd developed independently to heavy equipment and agricultural dealerships (won't name names, but think green.)

In 2005 I'd outgrown the home office, rented a building, hired my first employee.

In 2008 the rug got pulled out of me. Our software / custom development business evaporated overnight as that unnamed Fortune 500 announced a new business system, and outsourced ALL development overseas (originally to Australia, then to India, and now to China).

So I had to re-work my business from the ground up again, and moved in to network engineering, server administration, and hosting operations. ("Offshore THAT, bitches.")

In 2008 100% of our revenue was from software development; in 2012 only 4% of our revenue was from software development. The remainder was helpdesk services, colocation hosting, network engineering, data communication circuit commissions, etc. Last year over 4 billion dollars in transactions went through servers we maintain and software we've written.

So I guess "I'm a survivor."

Or at least, "lucky."

We're a Microsoft silver partner and an Intel Gold partner; rely heavily on Intel supercomputer technology in our highly available private cloud infrastructure.

But my god is it stressful. Gardening is one of my outlets; shooting another stress vent, and martial arts caps it off. (30 years in Shotokan karate).

TrentL · Apr 25, 2014

These things are growing fast.

Yesterday morning I moved the lights up and off the plants - going from a few inches over them to 15+ inches over them.

I went down there this morning, and over the last 24 hours *most* of the plants have grown about 1" taller than they were; some a couple of inches.

Just that fast. Boom.

They are also starting to send shoots out on the nodes which were shaded before. Little tiny nubs of new growth forming above each leaf.

I also spread the plants out (as best as I could) since the leaves were overlapping so horribly, packed 18 per tray.

Will take some current pics tonight (or maybe this afternoon if work is slow).

TrentL · Apr 25, 2014

Well this explains why I haven't seen any ladybug larvae in quite some time...

He's kind of bashful. Been watching him for a few days now. It's a potter wasp. We have them pretty thick here in the woods.

Whenever I come in to the grow room he's busy buzzing around... but he always hides right away. He (she?) will pick a plant to go hide under each time.

I've learned to watch where he goes and hides, so we don't surprise each other if I pick up a pot to water...

lucilanga · Apr 25, 2014

I hate those and their stupid hiding habits.
I'm allergic to stings, so it's like waiting to be stung.
And it's not like I can always see or hear them.
I hate those!

TrentL · Apr 25, 2014

First day I put out my overwinters I made the mistake of bringing them back in to the grow room.

I spent the next 3 hours with a solo cup and paper plate catching pissed off yellowjackets.

Unlike the milder potter wasps, the yellowjackets will actively hunt you down and ruin your day.

Fortunately they were a little sluggish because of the cooler temps - but still, as they warmed up in the growroom I became increasingly concerned as they got ACTIVE.

Over a dozen of them came in with the damn plants!

The overwinters now live in the garage.

Devv · Apr 25, 2014

Glad you did well in the IT field, it's my second career, got into it in late 96. Customers can make things stressful, I agree with that. I no longer get stressed out when things go wrong. Well not like I used to

That wasp might turn into many if it's parasitic. I'm locally allergic to wasp and bee stings, I swell like crazy. A few years ago I pissed off a honey bee nest in a tree on the tractor, I'm living proof that over 50 peep's can still sprint like a teenager when they have to

Do you the big red ones? I forget what they're called. Very aggressive!

TrentL · Apr 25, 2014

We get giant cicada killers (MASSIVE sized hornets)... cow killers (wingless huge red ant looking things.. THOSE are in the top 3 most painful insect stings in the world).. "mud dobbers" (black wasps, generally harmless.. think they're also called paper wasps).. yellowjackets (aggressive and painful).. potter wasps... bumblebees.. honey bees...

And that is just the back yard.

LOTS of biting / stinging insects around here. Haven't even mentioned spiders. We don't get huge ones like you do in Texas, but we have our share of poisonous ones. Locally we are saturated in brown recluse - NEVER handle leaves in central IL without gloves, and always wear boots. Those bites cause necrotic skin lesions that have to be cut away, then you have to get skin grafts to replace the dead tissue.

And of course.. black widows. I ran across one of those in the shed a few weeks ago. THOSE will send the Orkin man running away.

I got bit by a widow back in '99, most painful damn thing I've ever experienced. Violently ill for about 16 hours, muscle cramps worse than anything you've ever felt.
Tilled the garden this evening.

Looked around about 1 hour in and thought I was hallucinating for a minute since the dirt was moving on it's own.

Look closer and I have hundreds of Funnel web spiders crawling all over the garden. Most tiny - but there were a few 3" specimens lumbering around.

Stirred them all up tilling.

I look down at my bare feet in my flip flops and realize "maybe tilling a garden in flip flops isn't the greatest idea."

Meh. I survived.

I *really* hate spiders though.

lucilanga · Apr 25, 2014

/me faints.

TrentL · Apr 25, 2014

Well guarded overwinters.

Garden

Took Marley a full 12 hours to dig it all up

(Just kidding. He helped a little but the gas tiller did most of it.)

Devv · Apr 25, 2014

Soil looks nice!

Here we have sand, one has to make the soil.

My garden is fenced. One season of the dogs "helping" me plant the complete onion grow was enough...

lucilanga · Apr 25, 2014

why's that dish so far away from the house ? perhaps because of the trees?
it can't be a sprinkler.
why not sticking it on the porch or on that pole, what's that pole standing for ?

OCD Chilehead · Apr 25, 2014

Looking good Trent. I love this time of year. Everything turning from brown too green is awesome. Nice job on the tilling. Have a good weekend.

TrentL · Apr 25, 2014

lucilanga said:
why's that dish so far away from the house ? perhaps because of the trees?
it can't be a sprinkler.
why not sticking it on the porch or on that pole, what's that pole standing for ?

Trees. We're surrounded by 100 foot tall trees on 4 sides. There is nowhere to mount it on the house to get clear visibility to the satellite; had to put it in the yard.

Jeff H · Apr 26, 2014

Love that the camper is pictured in many of your plant pics. Kind of out of the way but still there. Very nice. The wife and I enjoy our rv camping very much and are just getting ready for a new season.

TrentL · Apr 26, 2014

Devv said:
Soil looks nice!

Here we have sand, one has to make the soil.

My garden is fenced. One season of the dogs "helping" me plant the complete onion grow was enough...

I always dump last years potting soil from potted plants in and till it in to amend it. We have a predominantly hard brown clay yard, it's taken some work to get the soil black. You do NOT want to try to till up new ground when the ground is completely dry; you need a jackhammer. When we sunk the post for that damn satellite dish it took 4 hours with a hose trying to get dirt out. And my 300 pound welding buddy had to turn the soil when we trenched the line; I just bounced off the shovel when I jumped on it (180 lbs).

OCD Chilehead said:
Looking good Trent. I love this time of year. Everything turning from brown too green is awesome. Nice job on the tilling. Have a good weekend.

Well my neighbor has a pretty solid gasoline tiller that he lets me borrow each year. Makes pretty short work of it. The only problem is tilling new ground; getting the turf raked away and removed.. real pain in the ass. I always forget to tarp it over in the fall if I'm going to expand to kill the grass, and I pay for it in the spring.

Got one more section to break ground and till up, 100% hard packed clay, going to be a nightmare. Adding a row of flowering bushes in front. The damn ground is so hard that GRASS won't even grow there. So it'll take a bit of work and soil amendment to get it cultivated.

OCD Chilehead · Apr 26, 2014

Have the same ground here. Been doing some leveling why it's still workable. Now if I could just barrow your neighbors tiller.

TrentL · Apr 26, 2014

Jeff H said:
Love that the camper is pictured in many of your plant pics. Kind of out of the way but still there. Very nice. The wife and I enjoy our rv camping very much and are just getting ready for a new season.

There's a story behind that. I went fishing one day, got drunk, and bought a camper.

Wife was not entirely happy with me that day.

(We haven't used it yet.... because... I don't have a vehicle strong enough to tow it...)

Maybe this year I'll get a 3/4 ton. But it'll probably just sit there another year until I can ante up for a decent truck.