Rick Valley

Oil wooden handles, metal parts and blades get an appropriate oiling (NB: here in the Maritime West the winter is RUST season, and rust prevention & stabilization are not just a good idea, dey de LAW! (especially as I learned today, after a another hot summer caused some asphalt shingles to fail and start leaks, A new priority was added to the list.... after I took a look at a tool that was not rusty two weeks ago!) I like to oil wooden handles by a wood stove (NOT TOO CLOSELY, RIGHT?) and make sure I don't leave 'em in the drying zone very long, like set 'em in the dry-the-boots range, and check 'em before eating dinner, so as not to lose track with a full, drowse-inducing belly.

All I can say is "Yeah, you right, ALL OF THAT!" Having myself experienced, in close succession, (but not much order at all, sorry!) : The death (at myside), of the love of my life, losing what I had planned as my final purpose/situation/job/and supportive community, (due to a would be "Queen Bee" anti- male/anti-monogamy disorganizer, while being manipulated and distracted through it all by my Babies Momma EX., the slow horrible cancer death of a beloved cat, and thankfully, at the end of the worst, crashing into the refuge of owning (by the willed gift of the love of my life) the half-acre lot w/fixer upper residence where I am now composing this post.  NB, I have managed to keep in contact with my son,  my second born,  despite his moving to an increasingly difficult distance (Portland! just a few counties away due to: I-5 traffic, "mega-Urbanimutation" and my increasing age-related mental and physical disabilities)

I can relate; around the same era I was experiencing that syndrome, and I found that warm saline solution and a bulb syringe did the trick. Around the same time I managed to eliminate some psychological stresses, and I began to feel like I might live to 60: I'm 73 now.

Apologies, I don't have a phone, suddenly, and I was placating the automotive gnomes- and got lucky. But I hadn't tracked which day was what, which is a bit scary- I didn't have a clue until I was back home and was gonna write down the @2-DO's and low and behold. I'm about to attack the highest mountain of stuff in the house and start packing it out and determine where to- I'm gonna be doing things weekly I think. I would Love  to (!?!Jesus Effin K-reist! my cat just got my left earlobe ready to receive an earring. @WTF ) I gotta staunch the blood... bottom line is making headway isn't always easy.  doing easy stuff can happen, and so far its been to enter a skeleton timeline for the morning or afternoon and do it, more or less. Now it feels like I`m on the edge of "can't recollect what the schedule is? So to make this hurt less, I'm nailing tomorrow's schedule: : wake pack for the day and hop on LTD bus with my senior pass with a cane and a daypack to the historic WOW Hall by 10:30. ( I will go a tad sooner and grab a Cafe Mam cuppa. en route, to set up chairs for the observance and help coalesce the memorial march ala New Orleans second line tradition. (Eugene has some connection with Mam folk in Guatemala, and they grow good coffee. I've spent some time with Mam folks, and a Mexicano I know has worked with them on getting organic certification. My favorite addiction and self reward (@ not more than 1 cup a day)

Frog made his living peddling the current "Frog's Joke Book",  full of old Vaudville-Style jokes, generally a small copy shop-style bifold and stapled, @1/4 thick, max. I admit I do not have a ready copy- perhaps this clean up will reveal one. I will bring any seasoned cane blanks I have ready, so some folks who want to do 'Norlins Style"
cane motions can take it with them- I might make that my Memorial contribution at the WOW Hall. I will post on this, and do a (blind or w/a prologue) if the Muse does not desert me.
As I'm "without a phone", EMail is my link to planetary knowledge. Or I can walk, bus or drive and do real time. Not having a phone has been a kick in the wrong direction, I gotta admit                  

I have always picked chestnuts with gloves on and later trod the burs with my work boots on. I did find that some trees and some years had better free-fall rates, if you dig me. And a very few trees were superlative at hull-free drop. And I remember fondly climbing up in a street tree, to shake the branches only to hear giggles and lok down to see an Asian American family happily picking up the nuts and smiling at me. But when I got down they had split??? WTF?

I apologize, but I can't deal with current tech, with an early stage Alzheimer's diagnosis**, I am finding things like driving and gardening are great fun and rewarding but digital tech gear is muy dificile, pura fracaso no mas! Like getting into a google conference: I gotta go to a friend's place and do it with a capable partner: that's OK.

How about planting with either a disease resistant standard rootstock with the variety grafted on, or rooting dormant 1 year twigs with hormone and bottom heat and growing them up and then coppicing on a rotation of whatever year count best optimizes fruit harvest and lumber yield? I have been able to market apple wood from pruning for clients as wood for barbecue and smoking meats & fish. Whaddya think? OR if you're younger than I and curious, just take seeds from your favorite apples, plant a hundred seeds, raise em' up, taste the results and keep the best and put the rest on timber/fuel coppice regime.

Why be BiPolar? I say both of the above AND Hot Springs,  Saunas, Hot Tubs too, especially in winter, with fond memories of using  "visqueen sheet" after build curtains and duck tape to turn a dormitory six-head open shower cubical steam bath, all ages/orientations invited, 20 occupant steam shower cubical = community & efficient use of energy & time: Command: "Right FACE! Scrub!! and close to majority determines the cold, with holdouts welcome to the diagonal corner. And communal towel drying circles too.

Chestnuts, IMHO, coevolved with Squirrels and Hawks: the sequence goes something like Chestnut makes nuts, squirrels harvest and cache nuts, hawk eats squirrel, cached chestnut grows in a spot not too far from the tree.  But there's actually a longer sequence: Chestnut makes nuts, hogs eat fallen nuts, and then both pigs and squirrels "sow" spores: spores grow, mycelium which collaborates with the chestnut roots, to aid in the tree's "Nut"rition(sic) -only the chain is yet more of a web) and you can elaborate that at your own pace as you gather chestnuts and collaborate* (*directly from the Latin: "to work with"

Just to brag a bit- Being a dad, I did get to do a great deal of gardening with my two kids. So: I know how it is to have portable little ones on me doing business in the plant nursery and on up to yard-monkeys who requisition my nursery tools for their projects. For a fussy <1yr. -to putting on the pounds toddler a baby in the bundler was the thing for getting the salad together, or change the irrigation.  The basic 3yd of jersey knit cloth sort, in front or on the back. No shifting, and if it wasn't strenuous activity, the kid fell asleep fast. The big gardenway cart was multi-task: get a ride to the garden & help pick the salad, or the pair would take the salad in while I closed the chickens in- all sorts of scenarios. When I had chickens, they enjoyed the additional duties tremendously, and I found tools both usable and even some made-for-kids tools that worked for more than playing in sand. There are lots of Japanese, European and Chinese tools that are great for kids, if you don't feel too bad about the accidents. First Aid in the field is a useful knowledge base to learn, eh? healing first-aid herbs in the field! Adding some clay in the sand pit made landscaping with toy animals, vehicles and boats a big deal, something I loved doing as a kid, in the vicinity of every different garden (4 at least, between whole family to life after joint custody began, and made sure they had every opportunity to follow. I always made a part of the garden theirs exclusively, and as my parents did with me, at farmers markets and nurseries they got to make requests.