Deluxestogie Grow Log 2022

[Redleaf]

As I have mentioned previously we are having an old fashioned winter here. Cold and lots of snow. Drove 40 miles after dark in a blizzard last night. Not a lot of snow but visibility was bad and the pavement and gavel roads were difficult to differentiate from the ditches. I’m not sure how many times I have cleaned the snow from driveway and th rest of my yard and bin yard. Seems we get a call for more malt barley just after every snowstorm. Glad I found a snowblower for the job because the snow piles from cleaning with a bucket Luke really be starting to accumulate. Was all set to clean driveway this AM but it started to snow again and I am not going anywhere till tomorrow.

 

[Redleaf]

 

[deluxestogie]

Coffee Plantation
After pondering the number of huge, empty coffee cans squatting in my back porch, I have decided to grow 6 potted Machu Picchu Havana (ARS-GRIN PI 116159 Peru 1936) plants along the upper edge of my driveway. It will have decent sun, and is close to the water outlet alongside my pumphouse. My greatest hesitation was the quantity of potting mix that these require. I am quite fond of free dirt. I decided to salvage all the starting mix from last year's potted plants. I usually just dump those into beds that need some organic supplement.

The Machu Picchu Havana is not nearly as productive as Corojo 99, but it yields luscious, dark maduro and oscuro wrapper. Since I won't be trading away any of the tobacco already planned, in order to make room for these 6 plants, this will be almost a freebie. Of course, I will need to shift them all a short distance, and back again, each time I mow the lawn.

A Machu Picchu puro from 2014.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

It's going to be a humid day.

Bob

 

[GreenDragon]

Safe to say you probably will not be enjoying an after breakfast cigar on the porch this morning

 

[deluxestogie]

I never smoke an after breakfast cigar. The cigar is my breakfast when it's nice out. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day—to skip. Unless I will immediately be engaged in heavy, physical labor.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

My 48-cell 1020 tray inserts separate into 12 four-packs per tray. Each of these will require its own identification. One four-pack is ALWAYS four of the same seedling variety. My grow for 2022 requires me to start exactly 96 seedlings (including extras of each variety). That comes to a tidy, two 1020 trays. One of those trays will be nothing but Corojo 99. The second tray will hold the other varieties. These Covid-shrunken Popsicle sticks are marked on both sides, with a Sharpie.

In addition to identifying the variety of seedling in each four-pack, that little wooden stick also serves as an indicator of soil moisture, which can be visualized from the height of water wicking by the wood.

Any additional tobacco varieties are too late, according to IRS, CDC, USDA and FTT guidelines, and will not be approved (without a properly completed exception request, signed by the CEO of the Deluxe Skunkworks).

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

I began to doubt my senses. Were these new Covid-Shrunken Popsicle sticks really smaller than Popsicle sticks from the good old days? I scoured my back porch growing supplies for one of the original sticks.

Comparing them with a ruler, the difference is only about 1mm in width (~10%). That's not really apparent when looking at just the Covid-Shrunken sticks. But...their lesser weight was obvious, the first moment I opened the box. If they put only 11.3 ounces of ground coffee into a "1 pound" coffee can, maybe nobody will notice.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

And on the subject of quality deterioration of consumer products, below is a two year old ear swab, compared to the very same brand purchased a few weeks ago:

The ratty-looking one is not cherry-picked from the container. The entire collection of 500 swabs (no, they've reduced the number in the same-priced package to only 300!) looks like that crummy one on the right. I use these mostly for cleaning my pipes. I would guess that no more than 2/3 of the cotton previously used to make these is now used for the new ones. Somebody at the factory was told to reset a dial on the machine to use less cotton—probably the lowest quantity that still allowed the machine to function at all.

Bob

 

[Oldfella]

And on the subject of quality deterioration of consumer products, below is a two year old ear swab, compared to the very same brand purchased a few weeks ago:

The ratty-looking one is not cherry-picked from the container. The entire collection of 500 swabs (no, they've reduced the number in the same-priced package to only 300!) looks like that crummy one on the right. I use these mostly for cleaning my pipes. I would guess that no more than 2/3 of the cotton previously used to make these is now used for the new ones. Somebody at the factory was told to reset a dial on the machine to use less cotton—probably the lowest quantity that still allowed the machine to function at all.

Bob

Perhaps ears have shrunk. This could be caused by covid masks pulling on them. Maybe?
Oldfella

 

[deluxestogie]

"From the 3rd century the quality of fine pottery steadily declined, partly because of economic and political disturbances..."

Regarding quality of commonly produced and commonly used items in ancient Rome.

Bob

 

[93rdCanadian]

Good ole shrinkflation at play. Unfortunate to see so many products go down the shoot in quality, not many companies out there that are consistent, once they have a name the cuts start rolling in year after year.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day—to skip. Unless I will immediately be engaged in heavy, physical labor.

Bob

I actually find hard work is best done early in the morning on an empty stomach. Once I finish I eat, nap, and smoke haha. Interesting to see we all have out different habbits.

Looking forward to seeing the green plants soon, Spring is inching ever closer day by day!

 

[deluxestogie]

Chip Shortage

You read about it every day. Due to a chip shortage, prices of everything are going up, factories may have to close. Today, I asked the delivery guy about them. He said that he just wasn't getting them in sufficient quantities. Just this morning, he had inquired of his distributor about the shortage, and was told the usual production, supply chain, raw materials story. They can get plenty of certain types of chips.

So I was forced to make a substitute—once again. I ended up buying the traditional chips, instead of the much tastier, wavy chips.

Bob

 

[Homegrowngoodnes]

Po ta toes! Boil em mash em stick em in a stew!

 

[GunnyJ]

Who can say no to that?

Po ta toes! Boil em mash em stick em in a stew!

 

[deluxestogie]

Gollum: "Oh yes we could. Spoilin' nice fish."

 

[GunnyJ]

Gives it to us raw and wriggling...

 

[deluxestogie]

There are 686 minutes of quotes in that film series.

 

[GunnyJ]

Yet one quote to rule them all...

 

[deluxestogie]

Looking out my back porch window, I can hear these birds chirping. Spring is just around the corner.

Bob