Dusted

My plants are at the stinky stage and as a retired chemist I have been trying to identify the skunk molecule. I assumed it to be a thiol (sulphur containing). Search the web and find lots of people think the same way. Wrong. It turns out to be myrcene, one of the terpenoids produced. No sulphur in it.

I am such a wimp.

I expose myself to the outside world once a week for necessities, with precautions.

A friend came over today for a visit. He had the gaul to follow me inside my house twice. The first time I grumped at him and I thought he got it. He followed me again because I was cooking and he was chatty. He isn’t a science type like I am and isn’t concerned about getting COVID.

Instead of telling him to his face, I had to resort to an email explaining how annoyed I was with his behavior

Being dependent on one piece of plastic is becoming concerning. My one credit card is a combo MC and debit card that pulls money from my bank account. It went down for a day and all of a sudden I had internet orders and food delivery services canceling on me. I suppose it is better than going to the market and trading what you have for what others have have, but it’s still a worry if you can’t pay vendors when required

I just tried a food delivery service which sends the raw materials for meals. I was afraid the meal size wouldn’t be large enough and I would eat both portions but it looks good so far. It’s $10 per portion so about twice the cost of going to the store, but no shopping, line ups or sick people near by. The shear variety of dishes is amazing. Seems to be lots of vinaigrette’s which isn’t something I ever make. They do taste good though.

Now all I need is a beer delivery service at a decent price.

I received my latest straight razor today (#7). It’s the first fancy one that has gold plating that I have purchased so far. I will have to spend a couple of hours honing it. 1K, 3K, 6K, 10K grit wet-stones. Then the compulsory stropping on leather before use. I don’t cut myself nearly as much as I used to. It is a steep learning curve, but somehow satisfying to successfully remove whiskers with a cut throat razor.

Roses will be blooming soon. So far the rose worms (sawfly larvae) haven’t been too bad. I have only sprayed once and plucked a couple off so the leaves are holding up. I’m using MC as rose fertilizer this year just for shits and giggles.

My poor young ladies don’t like the heat. I don’t usually grow indoors in the summer but got bored this year. These look mostly Indica with big fat leaves and droop most of the time because of the heat. It should help when I flip the light cycle.

I usually don’t spend time here in the summer because I normally don’t do summer grows, but here I am. It sure is slow on the forum compared to winter.

Just got my subwoofer replacement amp. It was out of warranty but they replaced it anyway. It’s amazing how much you miss the subtle presence of non overdriven 30-200 Hz frequencies when they aren’t there. Classical, jazz, folk, blues, but absolutely none of that hip hop rap crap. That is not music. It is spoken word, if you can even call it that.

Sorry, old guy rant.

This current problem leads one to ponder what is important in life. My fridge has never had food in it. I just went to the store and bought a couple of days worth of food and repeated. Even though I prepared early for isolation I missed some things. Veggies don’t last in the fridge. I actually blanched a kilo of fresh green beans and vacuum sealed several packages and put them in the freezer for the first time this week. Now the freezer is full of meat and veggies but I am developing an anxiety about food.

I started baking bread a month ago and no problem finding flour and yeast. Now it is not available.

Old school is starting to come in handy with the help of the internet. I bought a cabbage this week to supplement my veggies. Started fermenting my first gallon of Kimchi ever. Stinks like crazy!

Maybe I will have to review my backyard lawn and turn some of it back into a vegetable garden this year when the snow melts.

At least if infected people looked like zombies you would know to stay clear. Now the nice old lady next door may be a carrier and you can’t know it.

My recent interest in carbon steel knives has naturally progressed to even sharper edged blades. Enter the straight razor. I now have four. 4, 5, 6, and 7/8. It takes me about an hour to sharpen a new razor. 50 strokes per side on 1000 grit (with slurry), then 3000, 6000 and 10000 (no slurry). Strop between grit’s.

Now that’s all good but you still have to actually put a cut-throat razor to your face. I no longer need to shave in two minutes with an electric razor before going to work. Good thing.

Tried the shaving cream whipped with badger hair brush first. Well, you can’t see anything with that stuff on your face. Very patchy result.

Oh yes, then there are the shakes after trying to not cut yourself for 10 minutes. Put it down and rest before continuing.

I’m starting to get the hang of it using a shaving oil instead of a lather. You can actually see what you are doing.

I don’t use scented products and had forgotten about “after shave”. I thought I would use my unscented hand lotion as an after shave. Everything is fine for hours and then I start to see bright red lines appear on my face. Every slight improper blade touch to my face had become inflamed. Got worse, lasted for days. Found an unscented after shave called “Snake Bite”. Ethanol, water, IPA, menthol crystals. It makes my balls shrivel thinking about putting that on my freshly scraped face. Maybe tomorrow.

I generally go on a mini-spending spree in the winter. Before Christmas I looked around and asked myself “what do you do daily that irritates you?” Ah ha! Preparing and cooking food with 40 yr old knives and cookware.

Reading reviews on cookware I always see one at the top. Very expensive 5 ply alternating SS and aluminum. Two sauce pans, one skillet, and one stock pot later equals $1k Canadian.

Knives next. I looked at traditional Japanese blades, but they are designed around fish, so I went with Western style Japanese knives. Made the mistake of ordering a High Carbon SS (AUS10) blade first. I was not that impressed. Did some reading and found I probably wanted Virgin Carbon Steel blades instead. I now understand the passion for this kind of steel. Five knives later equals $1k Canadian.

Oh well. It was cheaper than some years hobbies.

A different thread made me think about growing in the early 70’s. Possession was a criminal offense. Growing was trafficking a narcotic. If High Times wasn’t seized at the news stand you might find a copy. They mentioned a scientist named Rosenthal who researched pot. Try to find his stuff at the University library, only the books where stolen or reserved a year in advance. Kids think Goggle always existed. Life is simpler now, or more complicated

The last 7-10 days of flowering are so boring. By now you know every flower on every plant, but nothing happens, except the slow death of the big leaves. Check trichomes, nope still no amber in the last hour. At least seedlings grow, albeit slowly.

Since retiring I have come to enjoy a midday nap. I just read this habit increases my chance of stroke by 25%. Crap. Well, I can see lots of house cleaning and more walks in my future

How do I balance my scientific beliefs without contradicting some our sponsors? Some of the stuff is snake oil. I don’t mind that they sell stuff that isn’t required since there are willing buyers out there. But when they start to believe their own propaganda and argue with science I start to vibrate

Things you did in your youth that might kill you now. When oil first came out in the 70’s we for some reason used two hot knives to vaporize the oil that had been spread on tin foil and folded over. I quit doing that when I noticed the tin foil getting smaller after every use. You would also think we would dedicate two knives out of the kitchen but oh no every one ended up blue

My house is starting to stink and I have 5-6 weeks to go. I was hoping these wouldn’t be as bad as the Blue Cheese but oh well. I wonder how bad the Super Skunk will be when I get to those seeds?

Have you been to a playground recently? They have made them childproof. How can you have fun with no risk? OK so we can’t allow unfettered Darwinism, but how long before it weakens the species.

SHIT now that sounds like eugenics. Sorry that is not my point. Polarization of opinion without common ground will destroy our democracy. But screaming louder doesn’t make you the winner

My faith in modern society has been confirmed. I was told today by General Hydroponics that my garden was unique. No other growers have my situation including the responder to my inquiry (employee). Wow I am a special snowflake!

PH drop from 6.2 to 4.5 over four days using their Bloom N source. Never happened to me in 30 years of making my own N source out of Calcium Nitrate.

I spent 20 minutes composing an appropriate response to their canned bacterial contamination blurb. Hit send. Blocked. They project an interest in your feedback but don’t really want to hear it.

Either marketing is censoring the scientists or they are just not aware of the real world. A lot of book smart people are pretty stupid. I mentored several Ph.D.’s out of academia into commercial laboratory settings and it’s painful how ignorant they are about anything outside of their specialty. But the marketing people quote them as Gods.

AAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGG

Dilemma. I want two grow rooms. One is just not enough. The trouble is, it is illegal to have more than four plants here. I have grown illegally since the early 80’s and never been caught. My grows are for personal consumption and there has never been a reason for the authorities to look at me. I did freak out the first time I had to pay my utility bill at the bank after first turning on an old mercury vapour street light I had put in my grow room. They showed graphs of usage!!

Cons: Lose my house, go to jail, die on the street on release

Pros: endless daily entertainment, prevention of SADS through high intensity light therapy, humidification of the extremely dry winter air in my house. Maybe cloning. Maybe breeding (not me).

Now that I am flowering I can only look for 12 hrs a day at emerald green. If I had two rooms life would be much greener

Geese I hate having to deal with stupid non-metric measures. General Hydroponics, an American company, lists their nutrient feed rates in mL per USG. Pick a system for goodness sake, and be consistent. I’m sure their scientists gave the info in mL/L to marketing and then they went and changed it. Science is done in the metric system!

Nuke crackers (Triscuits, stoned wheat thins, etc) for 15 secs before use. It drives out moisture and warms them

It’s snowing. Thankfully I put my summer car to bed for the winter just yesterday. I only drove it twice this summer which is a shame. It’s a 94 Mazda RX7 which I have upgraded over the years. I’m not used to driving it anymore and it can be scary doing a wide open throttle run with almost double the factory horsepower on an already fast car. At least the suspension, brakes, wheels, steering and tires have been upgraded as well. I really should take it to the race track which is nearby.

I also just put my roses to bed for the winter. Hybrid tea roses aren’t supposed to grow here. I ended up chatting with the owner of the nursery I buy my roses from last year. She says I have been preparing them for winter wrong all my life. It’s what my mother did. I have been chopping them a few inches above the ground, then covering with buckets and a tarp. They survive but only just. This year I stopped doing any trimming after the first few weeks in Sept. I now have just mounded soil up around the base of the plants and will allow them to freeze from the top down. We shall see if we should trust Science or Mother. I’m guessing science will win.