Not Another Crappy Day in Paradise....Part Six

[ozzieAI]

sorry to hear of your troubles OH,but as another tropical grower i am all too familiar with the devastation the rain brings...

btw that neem oil bonide is hydrophobic neem oil, meaning that the active ingredients have mostly been removed through alcohol extraction. probably a reason why you had little if any success with it...check my thread linked in my sig (oils aint oils)...pure neem oil is the only way to fly...

good luck and have fun trimming...j/k

 

[oldhaole]

Here we go...true story. Roofing iron is very versatile for pissing people off.

Needless to say your view plane is very important. Next door neighbor was best man at my wedding. Very good friend for a decade. Lent him a decent sum contingent on the sale of his house next to me. A handshake deal. His house's front deck overlooks a vacant piece of my pasture.

Then he wanted me to sign some land rights I held since I was here first. I declined. He sued. Judge threw him out of court. Made him pay my legal bills. He told me to pound sand. Never was gonna pay me. Had no assets in his name.

What does this have to do with roofing iron?

Bought a hundred bucks worth. Cut it in half. Bent it into V shape. Scattered them all over his view plane. Got one rooster. Moved it around. Whenever the house was shown it would go great until they saw the rooster hutches. Then buyer thought I had twenty roosters. No sale. The hutches sat beyond the gulch. I didn't see them...didn't bother me....all I had to do was feed and water the rooster.

It took a year but I got my money. His Realtor told him pay, or the house would never sell or sell for far less than he owed. No lawyers needed.

I kinda have a soft spot in my heart for roofing iron. Nothing says ugly like a rusting piece of uncared for roofing iron.

 

[LokiLoki]

I kinda have a soft spot in my heart for roofing iron. Nothing says ugly like a rusting piece of uncared for roofing iron.

Made my day

 

[Canniwhatsis]

that is f'n awesome!

 

[Dirtboy808]

harvest time

harvest time

OH All my plants got them the ones in the green house less. The two outside have hundreds of holes. The tops of both plants died but some how the rest is doing ok. Nothing to brag about but will make some good oil. You are right about them being worst during a dry summer. I heard several people got wiped out. I got some ideas to get them so we will see. Maybe next year I will have only one big tree. They are a lot of work. I like my 8ft plants done in half the time. Here are some outside buds.

 

[Lightweight]

Two for two on making me actually laugh out loud OH. Hilarious.

And nice looking buds Dirtboy808.

 

[Dirtboy808]

Buds

Buds

OH Great rooster story. I'm leaning more towards plants like these.

 

[Dirtboy808]

Buds

Buds

 

[nameless]

hey OH. just swinging in to say aloha, hope your doing pretty good out there in all that rain. great story about the roofing rooster

 

[Rusty Trichome]

Hope all is well with your neighbor's "view". But I hope even more there's not too much WPM damage.

Finally. Been chasing you islanders for years, tryin' to do what the guru's do, and yield what the guru's yield.

First time for scissor-blisters, but it's worth the pain.

Outdoor Super Sliver Haze. Miracle Grow Moisture Control, (5 large bags) Supercropped to remain under 5 foot tall. (20+ foot wide).

Perhaps not as bulky as you islanders...so I guess we'll keep tryin, lol. But it really sucks that we only have one outdoor season here in the Nevada desert.

 

[Dirtboy808]

RT If you can grow anything good in that desert you are a great grower. I never wanted to go outside during the summer there, way to hot. I need Primo and a beach lol. and some good buds too.

 

[oldhaole]

Seems to be that time of year. The good part. Nice to see everyone has goodies, going, going, gone.

Nice selection there DB. Looks like that greenhouse is working out for you. You guys seem to have the worst of the pest world at your doorstep. Fire ants, Coqui frogs, and borer beetles. A fuckin' trifecta. Did I miss any? With all that messin' with you....you still pulled... Good deal. Who cares what they throw at you? Get 'er done.

nameless....long time. Good to hear from you. Thanks for stopping by.

Rusty....nice job. Big fat flowers. Looks like you are well set until your next summer season crawls back around. It's not that bad....only what? Six months away? Not that long. Piece of cake. And there is always indoor.

My partner swiping the half bottle of Copper Soap saved my ass. The Copper Soap does a great job of making WPM go away. I don't like to use it that close to harvest, so the rain coming when it did helped too.

Who the hell is this gurudude? Don't worry about him or her. I'm sure if you had his or her growing conditions you'd smoke him...or her. Like DB says;

RT If you can grow anything good in that desert you are a great grower....

As you well know I suffer no such problems.

ozzie...figures...I bought the wrong stuff. Thought it would do something....anything? If it doesn't work why the heck do they sell it? To catch suckers like me for twenty bucks?

OH well. I'll only make that mistake once. The copper soap is back in stock, so I bought two bottles. Not gonna get caught without it... again.

In my last post I had a buffet of shit sandwiches laid out. A ton of garbage all screaming at me to get done...now.

We finished the fence yesterday. Roofing iron and all. Snuck that on as the sun set. Boys and girls it is not pretty. Got the call early. Not even seven AM. "What did you do? Why did you put that stuff up? It's ugly! I can't see the mountain any more! Can you take it down?"

"Gee...that's too damn bad. This property is zoned Ag. So is yours. That means I could put a pig pen behind that fence if I wanted to and you couldn't do a single thing about it. You were unhappy with the dogs. You cut all my cover. So they saw you and barked because that's what they do. Now they can't see you. Problem solved."

Dead silence....like it should be in Mr. Rodgers neighborhood.

Got everything untangled, taken off the stem, and hanging on my two fast takes before the rain. Then got it all out of here. I'd prefer not having anything major hanging....now wifey and patient have a big job ahead....and I set it up so both of them have lots of trimming...elsewhere. I still have an Unknown and a couple of Skunkdog clones to take....I'll trim them....my little contribution to the war effort.

The shitty weather ended that day. Last few days have been perfect. Couldn't ask for better. Tomorrow the last plant will be taken.

Last thing on the shitlist was moving those two boulders. Got one out, the other one looks really good where it is (translation; I can't move it....ain't gonna try)

So I worked around it. Finished that bed today, plants are all in, drippers set...one last barrage to make a quick couple of pounds before the new year. Now that the five big ones are gone, or will be, along with the clones, that leaves a pile of empty holes.

Which is a good thing.

That means we can start the pots moving again. Those big plants tied up a lot of room. Now that they are gone, the assembly line can restart up again. Everything wants to be up potted. Fire up the cloner. Clones and only clones for the next six months. The built in lull giving me the time to deal with harvest and replanting is almost over....it's about time.

By this time Monday we can go back to benign neglect.

 

[ozzieAI]

ozzie...figures...I bought the wrong stuff. Thought it would do something....anything? If it doesn't work why the heck do they sell it? To catch suckers like me for twenty bucks?

you are far from being the only one OH...every time someone posts that neem didn't work i try and follow up to see which they used and so far it's 100% that hydrophobic crap...i will try copper on my plants next season, thanks for the tip...

 

[oldhaole]

Noises From Left Field

Noises From Left Field

Put that fork back, tell the fat lady to sit down and cool her jets.....we ain't done...there are still a couple of months left. This ain't the mainland...we don't have to shut down like most of you cold slobs.

Mentioned earlier that the clones that are growing....are not yielding near the ones planted earlier in the year did. I was taking an average half lb per clone over Summer. So far, very little rain, but I have lost half my yield....just because the sun is weak and whimpy.

You lose half your yield, what do you do?

Kinda simple....put twice the plants in. It also helps to give the plants another week, or two, under lights, because as soon as the clones see the sun, the immediately flower. Maybe a foot of jump, no more.

The mutts are happily back in the house. We had our first couple of chilly nights....with a lot more to come. They make good foot warmers.

The big plants are gone. That part of this trip is done. The largest gave a hair over four. Smallest gave a hair under three. Total was close to fifteen. Overall they were nothing to write home about. Only one pulled toward the mom, the others were unremarkable. The product is light, and loose, volume wise it looks good, but ehhh. I could have done better. The mistake was the half assed breeding I did last winter. Still, there is a demand for ehhh. Surprising. There was no giant October flood like in previous years.

Still, ehhh.... it beats a sharp stick in your eye.

Was it worth it?

Could I have done better sticking to the clones? The big ones take up a lot of space, and more importantly they eat up the time too. In the time it takes to grow one big plant from seed I could fire out almost three clones from the same hole.

You get double the product from a seed, but it is only worth half of what the clones fetch. And running the numbers, it appears to be a total wash.

Anyway... it don't matter. Fuck that donkey when I meet him/her next Spring, down the road....I'm an equal opportunity donkey fucker.

Time to change gears. Long season is done, trimmed, put it to bed, now we move on. There's one trick left in this pony. It'll be close, but anything planted by the end of this month has a good chance to finish this year.

They flew GH again last week, Thursday and Friday. This run was more to cash the check. They went down the line, most everything was gone, and away they went. That should be the last one this year....should. I'd like to know if this years weak GH's was a product of the mess in Washington, or the new normal.

Which was kinda nice. No ground crew visits this year. Advance warning has been on target. Four for four.

If your gonna go crazy this is the time to do it. The small plants stash real easy, they can be hid almost anywhere. The way you win in Winter is with numbers.

The gulch has been set up to take advantage of the weak Winter sun. Planting in Winter you need every minute of sunshine that can be scraped out of the sky. Lose an hour of morning sun each day and you will notice the smaller yield. So next up is topping the hedge that hides the big plants. It has to get done every year this time. Also over Winter we'll shut down the bottom garden. Put everything on the North side of the gulch.

To do that we have to use the rocks I've been pulling out over the last couple of months. Been saving them up for a few more new planters. These should ready soon for occupation.

 

[Chunkypigs]

thanks for another journey OH! glad you got through it unscathed.

 

[jiseman]

beautiful! I do not use the English to understand the secrets of you that is a big grower, but seeing you learn!

a hug!

 

[Casper808]

Atta boy oh u get em.awesome diary,journal,updates as usual.you are right no overflow dis year and no ground visits hmmmmm.maybe jus a lot of mediocre stuff.as u know only 10 percent is top notch da rest nahhh.pleasure to have you as a friend,many parties to come.aloha nui loa.

 

[oldhaole]

I Told You...We Ain't done yet.

I Told You...We Ain't done yet.

Stop pushing dirt on me guys....Ain't dead...not yet at least.

Summer, sure as shit, is dead though. That left the building like Shit through a goose. Winter took about five days to arrive. The Sub Polar jet dropped a thousand miles South, and the last week has been Shit. The top of West Maui got 10 inches over last night.

Luckily I'm farther South, so it was nowhere near as bad here, Still it was the first full blown trough of the season, with the juice to push through the entire state.

This seldom works this way. Summer is usually escorted home like an older relative after a party. Not this time. Summer got the bums rush....closing time...don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.

After five glorious days of slop weather.....ya get what I call the old Stress Test

What made it?

What didn't?

Let's start with what didn't happen.

The Unknown....that's a total fail. Floppy flowers that rot at the very thought of rain or wind. Unfortunately I still have a bunch ready to go out. Starts done, pau the lights, the only way these'll make it is if the rain runs away.

Fat Chance of that happening. Behind the passed front, another is screaming down toward us in another couple of days. Tonight the winds will switch from the North....and it's gonna get cold. Betcha' we'll drop into the fourties tonite.

For us. You guys are probably already pretty cold.

Now what kinda worked and kinda didn't.

Alien Dog.

I was pleasantly surprised that for such a thick flower more rot didn't happen. Unlike the Unknown, there is a yield here. Sure there is some rot, cut it out and there will be something left to play with.

I tied all but one up, the untied one fell over. Big Dirty Buds, unrotted, but full of dirt. Cleaning this up ....don't think it's gonna happen. Oil it.

Then there is the Skunkdog.

I love this plant. Beat it, soak it, treat it like shit....they laugh at it all. Sure, you gotta tie it up....but ya gotta tie everything up this time of year. Maybe two flowers rotted, but overall....five days of damage, no sweat...Idiot Proof.

So there is a hard way to do this and an easy way.

The easy way would be to keep a single clone of everything else going and just work with the Skunkdog.

The hard way? Fuck that noise...I'm not that stupid. Plant the gauntlet and pray for sun? Don't think that'll fly.

NOAA puts out some pretty decent overall forecasts...and what they have to say is not good....for people in this line of work. It will be a wetter than normal first part of winter , then a dry spring.

So I might as well get used to it.

 

[oldhaole]

As they say on the radio....

And now for something different


"O for a voice like thunder, and a tongue to drown the throat of war! When the senses are shaken, and the soul is driven to madness,
Who can stand?
When the souls of the oppressed, fight in the troubled air that rages,
Who can stand?
When the whirlwind of fury comes from the throne of God, when the frowns of his countenance drive the nations together,
Who can stand?
When Sin claps his broad wings over the battle, and sails rejoicing in the flood of Death; When souls are torn to everlasting fire, and fiends of Hell rejoice upon the slain,
O who can stand?
O who hath caused this?
O who can answer at the throne of God?
The Kings and Nobles of the Land have done it!
Hear it not, Heaven, thy Ministers have done it!"

-- William Blake


Fuck...I'd better add something else lest you all think I'm in the bathtub with a self inflicted gunshot, bleeding out.

Boys and girls, just did the morning walkthrough. Rained again last night. The last couple of days the front mentioned in the last post, reversed, came back and rained the shit out on us....again.

Didn't do any damage. There are only four Skunkdog clones left in this cycle, hence, the year is almost done. I may scrape one or two beat up unknowns before the year is over, but were hairs away from the fat lady. Those clones got eight days of rain total. One has a rot spot close to the dirt. The other has none.

Needless to say, just about the whole next wave will be Skunkdog.

Other than that....keep your eye out for the fat lady....she'll be here soon.

 

[oldhaole]

Numbers, Numbers....Give me Numbers

Numbers, Numbers....Give me Numbers

Fair warning boys and girls....

The year is not over....against better judgment...not even close.
There is one more harvest left in this garden, and the way things are progressing.....I'm gonna grab another handful of peanuts from this garden before this logs' death at the beginning of the new year.

After the storms... it got nice. Sure, nights are cold as a witches' tit. But the days have been cool and sunny. Turns out the two big rains helped the last wave, at the same time it was busting up the wave ready, before that.

The ice is thin come on dive in
underneath my lucid skin
the cold is lost, forgotten.

So November is a...what's the right word....a learning experience. You have a flood of product, prices drop, You can fight it...and lose. Or you can just say "Fuck it." Pull back, that's what freezers are for. You have been doing this all year. Build up a nice layer of fat and live off of that until things return to normal.

Let the tsunami of weed strike, wash up, then recede. Don't fight it, let it play itself out. This season the tsunami here was very small. Total shutdown was less than four weeks. Last year it was until the start of Christmas. This year not even to Thanksgiving. Tells you something.

Most of the growers are sticking to clones. A few went big, but most have shot their load by now. They'll learn after Xmas.

But I'm still plagued with November.

Plant's are small. They yield about three ozs apiece....and that's when the rain doesn't put them on the dirt.

How the hell do you win at three apiece?

Simple. After Thanksgiving there will be one more half assed Green Harvest. Then they are done until at least March. If you have your starts ready, once that last GH is over you have four months to go crazy. Fuck the numbers, this is the free shot given everyone every year....take it. By that time the days will be getting longer, the plants bigger, come March, the numbers win.

Nuff about this shit. Getting ahead of myself anyway....that's all for next year anyway. Let's finish the one we're still on before the next installment.

Wait a sec....Your gonna do next year....and telling us now? What happened to messing with us? You know....your usual bullshit.

Let me be honest. Because of this log I have met some good people, both here and from all over. I have both learned and been taught by great people. I don't want that to end.

Plus....I want to go out on a high note. It's rough when you start out big, then each log is worse than the first. It seems to be all downhill from that.

I just want one more shot.