Covid Continues! Arrrgh!
Virus variations suck.

Well, still get your vaccination! Yeah, I know, it sucks, it's scary, you never get vaccines, but do it anyway. Soon, if everyone does their part, we will hopefully be done with this wretched virus. So hang in there and keep keeping on, I really hope it can't last forever.
For what it's worth, it does look as if the variations are getting less worse. Bad grammer, but you know what I mean. So perhaps maybe covid will be around to stay but it won't be any worse than the 'common' cold? Not that it's good, but maybe it's something folks can live with? I think a lot of the annoying part of this whole enchilada is that folks just don't know what to expect and as soon as it seems someone has a handle on it, it changes. Hmpf! Well, we can see what next month brings.
Oh, and get your data from a variety of sources, not just social media or links sent from folks who have a decided opinion about whatever the subject may be. There's too much non-congruent databases out there and folks now only get information that adds to their own personal wished for world. We have the internet, we can check international newspapers, valid sources of data such as hospital/medical websites for medical data, research papers for nuanced data writter in obscure languages and even other knowledgeable folks, but just be aware of folks with agendas. So far my newest favorite is a research paper claiming octopi are aliens from outer space, but not even all research papers should be taken at face value.

January 24th, 2022

Happy New Year 2022!
and what's a 'Black Water Tiger' year, anyway?

Happy New Year! This is Hawaii, so there were fireworks in pretty much every neighborhood. It's lovely to be on the front lanai and be able to see loads of fireworks without having to go anywhere. Surprisingly, even with all these major fireworks in the hands of amateurs, everyone seems to manage not to get injured. Or at least, very few injuries considering the sheer quantity of fireworks blown off.

Have you seen the size of one of these large fireworks? Some of them are about the size of a softball, with a several foot long wick and they get launched out of big tubes. They call them things like 'five inch mortor' and are a fairly major explosive device. But, amazingly enough, considering the amateur status as well as the possiblity of beer, very few injuries and very few things set on fire.

The other thing these fireworks do is chase all the evil spirits away for the year. So, in order to keep out the evil spirits, you have to set off more than your neighbors.

For those who keep up with Chinese New Year stuff, this upcoming New Year (Chinese New Year is the first new moon in February, I think?) anyway, it's February first this year. This upcoming year is a 'Black Water Tiger' year. Oh frabjalous joy. The 'water' part is supposed to indicate emotions, so just what we need, another emotional year. Tigers, of course, are vibrant, dangerous, somewhat unpredictable, like to wander around and fortunately, also like to take naps. Sounds like an upcoming crazy tourist year, this being Hawaii, we really don't need a crazy tourist year. I'm not sure what the 'black' means in Chinese New Year terminology.

Well, on to more at home new year stuffs. There has been some new content added to the webpage. Mostly trying to update the bunny information since our herd members change as some bunnies move away and new bunnies appear. There's usually two to three dozen of them here at any particular time, but keeping track of which two or three dozen is the tricky part. Then getting the online bunny herd to match the bunnies in the yard herd is another tricky part.

The biggest change in the bunnies has been density of color and a new color. I'm pretty sure Amber is a 'red' bunny. She seems to be a chocolate agouti with rufus, which, I think, is 'red'. Hopefully the Beach Bunny color of Hula Bunny yarn will get a bit more vibrant. The tawny colored buns provide the color for Beach Bunny and with some red added in with the tortoiseshells and fawns, that should get it a touch darker. Hula Bunny yarn doesn't have dye, it's the color of the bunnies which creates the color of the yarn.

Amber was supposed to have a litter with Axial, although she's now a week overdue, so I'm guessing she didn't get the memo. I'm not sure if Axial will be the sire of her next prospective litter or not. They'd not exactly been chosen as prospective parents, they were just the last two bucks from last years pile up of extra bucks. Fortunately, they were the two best ones and they weren't closely related so it actually worked out really well when the Gender Fairy made an appearance and changed the odd colored buck I'd kept to see what color it was going to be (Amber) from a buck into a doe. Axial had always been a buck and a black one at that, but he's got great wool and conformation so he was kept, even though I didn't need another buck, especially another black buck. So, between the gender change and possible litter, those two are a surprising addition to the bunny herd.

Winter Solstice is past, so now it's time to replant the garden. There had been some tiny tomatoes still producing, but they are small cherry tomatoes with sort of a sharp thin flavor - if a flavor can be sharp and thin. So, time for some new tomato varieties. I like to get a few new seeds each year and since they're open pollinated heritage seeds, I can save seeds from the best plants and keep the variety going. Which means, each year the annual $20 seed money is new varieties each year and not just replacing a variety that we grew the year before.

These folks are a new seed source this year and they only have tomatoes - Tomato Fest. They have loads of choices and descriptions which include flavor, which is always useful. They do have a minimum $15 order amount, if I remember correctly. So, five varieties were ordered and they sent an extra gift variety, so now there's six new tomato varieties to try.

Since this is Hawaii, tomatoes are direct seeded in the garden. The problem I'm having this year is all those tiny cherry tomatoes that are popping up seedlings all over. I may have to start these varieties inside so I can tell them apart from the unwanted cherry tomato volunteers. There's already a half dozen volunteer tomato plants in one of the other raised beds, I think those should maybe be moved to somewhere else so they can go nuts without annoying me.

In order to keep a pure strain of which ever tomato among these six new ones is the best, this first batch of different tomato varieties will be grown all at the same time and seeds won't be saved. The growth habit, fruit production and taste of the different varieties will all be evaluated. Then all those plants will be cleared away or relocated to somewhere fairly far away and the best variety will be planted all by itself. When it's the only tomato flowering, then those will be the seeds saved. Although we may be missing some tasty hybrid crosses between different tomato varieties, this will allow us to keep the chosen variety replicating itself.

One season it was six varieties of lettuce. One variety didn't grow well, one variety didn't taste all that good, another one had a strange texture and one variety was tasty and grew really well. That was from 2014 or somewhen around then. The best variety was 'Crisp Mint' Romaine lettuce and it is still planted out in the garden. I'm not sure how many generations it's been since then, but it's still growing pretty much true to the original in flavor and crispness although now it's adapted to our specific location and grows even better than the original.

Another season we tested bean varieties. There's several varieties still planted, but at least every other season, a variety called 'Good Mother Stallard' is planted for soup beans. It is a pole bean, grows well, produces a lot and fixes nitrogen in the soil so it's helpful for garden fertility. I've still not decided a proper green bean yet, but green beans aren't as high on our 'edible' list as soup beans. At some point, a lima bean may be planted, but those last several years and can become huge. Green and soup beans seem to just make a plant, make beans and then die off.

This being Hawaii and all, we don't really plant yearly, its more of a seasonal thing. Depending on the crop, it can be up to five or six crop 'seasons' per year. Corn does okay with about three seasons, it's not really happy with a 'winter' season when there's less sun. Lettuce can be grown pretty much all year, we just plant another short row about once a month. It does grow slower in wintertime, but there's less sunlight during that part of the year and gardens are solar powered. In Hawaii we don't need a whole lot of anything at any particular time since it is pretty much always growing season. Mainland folks and folks who have gardens that get killed off by snow and cold have to have a whole lot of something in enough quantities to be able to can, dehydrate or freeze them.

So, given the growing conditions here, we chose only 'indeterminate' tomato varieties. They will set a few tomatoes over a long harvest season. Perfect for using fresh, not so good if one wants to stick them into jars. That silly cherry tomato did make enough cherry tomatoes last year that ketchup was possible, but normally we don't get that many all at once.

Click on the picture above for the previous blog entry
or check the list of older blog posts at the bottom of this page