John Wolfram

Rufus Laggren wrote:In the great scheme of things, these few thousands (across the country) will leave a mess of litter, but not much impact. Just annoyance  and the creepy feeling one gets seeing another human acting really, utterly, foolish.

I hope that is the extent of the impact. However, some of the people leaving the cities are varying the virus with them as well, and as they flee they make it so every place gets hit hard at the same time.

Right now, far and away the best deal in town on a cordless electric chainsaw is the 16" Jonsered 58V saw made by Husqvarna. It comes with a 5.2 amp hour battery and on a good day you can pick one up for $90, new. Of course, there's a catch. First, Husqvarna is discontinuing its 58V line, so don't expect the batteries to be useful with new products (but they do work with the existing 58V Poulan Pro, Snapper, and Jonsered products). Second, they are sold at Menards, so you need to be in the midwest US to get one.

I ended up buying two and selling the second charger on Ebay, so for $140 plus tax I got two 5.2 Ah batteries, an electric chainsaw, a backup bar, and a second chain. This past weekend I was using the saw to clear an area so I could plant more fruit trees, and I ran out of go-juice before even the first battery was fully drained.

I put an orchard in a place that flooded for a few weeks during the growing season with the result being just about every plum, peach, apricot, and apple dying. About 1/3rd of the pears survived (mainly those in higher areas). The persimmons did a bit better, and the pawpaws did the best. I found out that pawpaws tend to grow along river banks, so that result was unsurprising in hindsight.

From my perspective, a sure sign that a plant is easy to grow is when people complain about it being invasive. In my area (Great Lake Region), mint is probably one of the easiest plants to grow.  

Tim Mackson wrote:Pear trees seem to be my failure.  Apple trees are a toss up.  The pear trees that I'm trying to reproduce never have good quality scions to offer.
Thank you for any replies.  I appreciate you all.Stay healthy.Regards,Tim

Try hacking back the pear tree, hard. Get rid of ~20% of the branches. That will cause it to create numerous water shoots to form that will be good grafting material for next year.

Chris Watson wrote:

Mike Haasl wrote:A lack of toilet paper may inspire greater use of bidets.  As this gentleman demonstrates:
https://redd.it/fmqd3j

And yet, the uncertainty of my job situation is making me very circumspect about where I choose to drop a Grand.

A grand? You can get one of the bidet attachment things for under $40.
https://www.amazon.com/Non-Electric-Bidet-Toilet-Adjustable-Nozzle/dp/B075983YXZ/ref=sr_1_5?qid=1584975128&refinements=p_36%3A1253529011&s=kitchen-bath&sr=1-5

Nice. I for one am really interested in seeing how many interactions become telephonic from now on. For instance, 6 months from now, when this craziness hopefully has died down, and it's time for another appointment, will you do that one over the phone because it cuts out a lot of hassle?

From the article:

And the move to secure the intellectual property of CureVac, whether for exclusive or general use, is bound to inflame that debate.

There's a huge difference between these two options. The US writing a large check to buy the IP of the company so it can be shared with others to speed development of a vaccine makes a lot of sense. Buying the company for exclusivity is a different matter entirely.

One more thing (since I'm full of hope and good cheer), next week I will be closing on the refinance of my house that was made possible by all the doom and gloom. I'm sure I can find a good use for that $3.90 a day I won't be paying in mortgage interest.

I've been working from home for the past 18 months. With little kids running around, it has been a challenge to find a quiet time for conference calls. Now, since everyone that can work from home is, kids screaming in the background of a call is practically expected. It's a little thing that makes me quite happy.