Not much to be seen in the fields on the way to work; pruning and training (almost all for machine harvesting) of grapevines continues. The clouds were too thick for me to see the sunrise this time. Some plantings of what seems to be winter wheat are coming along nicely. Some more mature orchards pulled out, also I think a few grapevines. New orchards being planted.
I suspect that new orchards require less water as they are growing than mature ones, and when mature the new ones will probably use less because they are starting out with drip irrigation, and the old ones had flood irrigation. —Alan
Upon re-reading that, I saw that it was not clear. Make that additional mature orchards being pulled out; they aren’t the first this year. Of course some are always being replaced, but it seems more than usual are being pulled out to save water. This past week has been the first normal rain of the season, and it is welcome although very far from enough to fill any reservoirs. —Alan
Back from Capricon. Only downside was that without glasses it was even harder than usual to recognize people. (Did I mention that the lens got broken Monday might?) The party went very well. I advertised it as "A different kind of con, a different kind of party. Donuts, coffee cake, kolachi." Apple juice for beverage. People really seemed to enjoy the food -- it was all but gone by midnight. And Traincon drew an amazing amount of interest. I should have printed twice as many flyers. Also sold more Worldcon memberships than expected. Could have sold twice as many if the price increase had been next week instead of last week, but a number of people decided to wait until later to buy their memberships.
Howard Dean rara avis est!
ReplyDeleteNot much to be seen in the fields on the way to work; pruning and training (almost all for machine harvesting) of grapevines continues. The clouds were too thick for me to see the sunrise this time. Some plantings of what seems to be winter wheat are coming along nicely. Some more mature orchards pulled out, also I think a few grapevines. New orchards being planted.
—Alan
I suspect that new orchards require less water as they are growing than mature ones, and when mature the new ones will probably use less because they are starting out with drip irrigation, and the old ones had flood irrigation.
Delete—Alan
Alan, what does it mean where you say "Some more mature orchards pulled out"?
DeleteIt's nice to have a sense of the rhythm of the seasons in the warm west. How's your precipitation these days?
Upon re-reading that, I saw that it was not clear. Make that additional mature orchards being pulled out; they aren’t the first this year. Of course some are always being replaced, but it seems more than usual are being pulled out to save water. This past week has been the first normal rain of the season, and it is welcome although very far from enough to fill any reservoirs.
Delete—Alan
I did notice beehives have been moved into the almond orchards.
Delete—Alan
Howard would seem to be first on this snowy Saturday!
ReplyDeleteEgad—food scandals in the UK. [Click] Local instead of national food content regulation—not good.
ReplyDelete—Alan
A new (to me) theory explaining the pleistocene megafauna extinction. [Click] Changes in the forage plants after the last glacial maximum. Makes sense.
ReplyDelete—Alan
Back from Capricon. Only downside was that without glasses it was even harder than usual to recognize people. (Did I mention that the lens got broken Monday might?) The party went very well. I advertised it as "A different kind of con, a different kind of party. Donuts, coffee cake, kolachi." Apple juice for beverage. People really seemed to enjoy the food -- it was all but gone by midnight. And Traincon drew an amazing amount of interest. I should have printed twice as many flyers. Also sold more Worldcon memberships than expected. Could have sold twice as many if the price increase had been next week instead of last week, but a number of people decided to wait until later to buy their memberships.
ReplyDeleteA really good con over all.