Derek Thille

Quite the cast of characters....

Nice.  Light was definitely reduced in parts of the prairies due to smoke, so it isn't a big surprise some things suffered.

We've had a cool spring in southern Manitoba - a garden centre newsletter recently commented that they see things about 2 weeks behind typical.  I keep checking, but perhaps it's time I just exercised a bit of patience and simply wait to be able to confirm things.  Yesterday there were still some remaining piles of snow (in shaded areas that had drifted).  We are supposed to get a few days later in the week into the 20s so that should speed things along.

I do need to plant out additional variety...things are slowly progressing on where I want to get the property.  

Here's hoping for more thriving.

Congrats from a mere mortal in meatspace.

Brett Crawford wrote:Hey Derek I just had a thought about your Arctic Kiwi > as I said, Ron Paul's gave me two males instead of two females.  Maybe you got two of the same sex, so no fruit as they are dioecious.  The male's leaves become very variegated if exposed to the sun (very pink around the edges) and are often bought for that ornamental value.  The females may be variegated as well, but to a lesser extent.  So if both your plants looked the same, that is why it never fruited.  You can also tell if they are different by the flowers being either male or female. Also, they not only don't mind shade,  they prefer if a good amount of the day is in partial to full shade, requiring 6 or less hours of sun.  If buying, be careful, some (like T&T) advertise Arctic Kiwi, but are actually selling Hardy kiwi.  Not the same and not nearly as hardy.  Shop by the Latin name Actinidia kolomikta.  T&T sells Actinidia arguta.

Here's an article from the U of Minnesota about Actinidia arguta with a short bit at the end noting Actinidia kolomikta is hardier.

I just poked around and found that Morden Nurseries carries named varieties of A. kolomikta.  In recent years, I've been using them more anyway as they have decent prices and grow a lot of their own product.  They also have a u-pick orchard with a wide variety of apples and a few other fruits - it's nice to be able to confirm what is hardy to the area and get a chance to see what the fruit is like before going all in on a plant.  Our acreage is about half-way between Winnipeg and Morden/Winkler.

I regularly see HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle...I think) lanes in large cities in my travels.  The challenge is always to strike a reasonable balance between encouraging behaviour with the stick of negative experience for those who won't or can't comply.

To add to the confusion, USDA zones and Canadian plant hardiness zones are determined differently, so they don't exactly line up.  For those of us north of the border, it may be safer to pay attention to Canadian sources.

Thanks Brett.  I didn't mention it earlier, but Incredible Seeds in Cape Breton lists mulberries, but not Trader.  The ones they have suggest zones 4 or 5 as hardiness though.

Great info on the kiwis.  Our original set was 3 plants, supposedly two females and one male.  I thought I'd kept them straight, but perhaps not.  Near the end, we had two plants in the city growing nicely but I never saw any flowers.  They didn't last long after being transplanted at the acreage.  The fence / trellis I was planning for them is in full sun, so perhaps I need to rethink placement.

It's good to see you back here.

John F Dean wrote:Hi Derek,

Speaking of drag in a truck, keeping the tailgate down/ removed helps me as well.

In a first year engineering drafting course, we worked on options regarding tailgates.  My group spent some time discussing it with a technician in the mechanical engineering department.  He cautioned that some of the options (such as a mesh tailgate) may not have an impact - the flow around the metal may interfere with each other effectively making it like a solid tailgate at speed.  That project is where I learned about the coefficient of drag.  The caution is that these things are designed with various factors in mind.

Our group designed sort of an inner tailgate that could be latched to make a solid tailgate or folded down forward so that it was always available as needed, but if there was no load in the bed it wouldn't provide the air resistance.

Somewhere along the way I also learned a bit about air turbulence behind a vehicle being a significant factor.  That is why you see some of the tractor trailer units with fold-out attachments that will make the back of the trailer a bit more of a boattail than a squared-off box.  Fuel economy is also the reason you see some of them with skirts.

Phil Stevens wrote:Reducing speed is a big factor. Once you get above 80 km/hr (50 mph) the penalty imposed by wind resistance really kicks in, and it goes up exponentially. So going turtle mode will beat the bunny every time when it comes to getting the most out of what's in the tank...or battery, as anyone who has driven an older EV with a limited range can attest.

Of course, keeping tyres inflated and bearings greased is important as well, and so is avoiding rambunctious acceleration. Anticipating stops and coasting whenever possible helps a lot, because turning your forward motion into heat by braking is a net loss of useful energy.

The coefficient of drag (which is a factor in fuel economy related to wind resistance) increases with the cube of velocity.  So driving at 100 km/hr increases the Cd by a bit more than 1.37 compared to 90 km/hr (100*100*100/(90*90*90)).

With the computer calculations on my pickup truck, I can see a dramatic difference some days driving to the acreage compared with driving back when one direction is approximately with the wind and the other against.

What's luck got to do, got to do with it?
What's luck but a second-hand circumstance?
What's luck got to do, got to do with it?
Who needs a tent when a tent can be broken?

(sung in your best Tina Turner voice....)

From many of the videos put out this winter, I've thought there wasn't much snow.  If there wasn't anyone within earshot, it made a sound but wasn't heard.  The treefall not heard round the world.