That’s such a bummer! I’ve not met many New Englanders who know about pawpaw, so I hope you have an easy time finding some locally adapted ones. Or is there a nursery you’re planning to order from?

That sounds right, ours don’t generally need much feeding so you’re probably spot on about the sun access. IME they need around 6-8 hours for a decent fruit set but I can imagine that might be tough if they’re under cover

It’s next to impossible! We have a neighbor who picked up a half bolt of tulle for netting hers, but ours are all mingled with other plants which make netting difficult

when reached for comment, the makers of the ai tool stated that they were shocked that the tool was used for the purpose for which it was built

/s because it’s not a real quote but also:

/s

Look at those chonkers! Great job! If you’ve got apples or bananas and a paper bag, you can put one of them into the bag with the unripe tomato and the ethylene from the other fruit will help it to ripen

Hah we’ve got some crazy tall varieties too, some are about a foot high. It’s a shame you didn’t get much off of them this year, can I ask how you fertilized them?

On the off-chance that the question is not rhetorical, they’re classified as an herbaceous ground cover, usually growing between 5 to 12 inches/ 12.5 to 30.5 cm depending on species and cultivar

Hey thanks! He stopped by the farm today to take a short tour (nothing like you all are dealing with but it’s hot & dry for us northerners) and I’m going to be visiting one of his rewilding projects in a week or two to consult. We’ll see where it goes!

We’ve had a friend visiting for a few days to help build out his photography portfolio and get some nice pictures of stuff around the farm, which I’ll be sure to share once I’ve gotten them. It’s super nice to have outside perspective - I don’t always feel the progress that others perceive, and don’t give much credit to the work that’s put into it. I should put more into validating myself and my efforts, but it’s still nice when other folks help out with that.

I’m also nearing functional completion of my bookshelf project but have been a little bad about documenting it for !diy - I have a few photos I’ll share once I have regained some of my bandwidth. I’ll still have to do the trim but will be able to start storing our books, records, and stuff there soon instead of all the small shelves and stacks scattered around the house.

Wednesday morning edit: a few weeks ago I met another photographer, one who works for National Geographic. They reached out this morning to see if I’d be interested in collaborating on a project or two of theirs and I’m crazy excited for that opportunity

It’s a tattoo of Ceanothus americanus, from a botanical survey of North America commissioned by the first continental congress in 1774. The lettered images on the bottom show the development of the flower head and seeds.

Botany counts, dammit

It’s genuinely the highlight of my year every time, I’m so glad you got to have that experience too!

Assistants to the branch manager

I studied savate (French kickboxing) for a while, as well as some karate. The savate really did wonders for my flexibility and balance in a way that I didn’t experience with the karate, and it also felt more applicable in the “real world” in the same way that krav maga and other close quarter / street fighting martial arts do.

To echo @TexMexBazooka, the real lessons were in de-escalation and knowing how to defend yourself decisively to enable escape from the fight. My savate instructor was very clear that any and every fight was a deadly one and that if he found out we fought instead of escaping he’d kick the crap out of us and then kick us out of the program.

I think there’s also a benefit in learning how to take a hit, even though the goal is to avoid those. There are lots of body mechanics involved in fighting motions and practical experience taking and avoiding hits teaches you to recognize those movements automatically.

I’ve never grown it myself but it looks like they’ll reach maturity in around 60-70 days so you’d be seeing harvests sometime in September or early October. I couldn’t speak to whether you’ll still have the temperatures they’ll need for ripening then, but can say it’s worth a shot

Pillow clearly needs more, they barely tasted the first one!

I have H.G. Wells’ The Outline of History three volume set - the 1940/41 edition - which I found for five bucks. They’re my nerdiest treasures.

Those are some wicked cute dogs!

Holy wow, another Köppen enthusiast in the wild! The rest of this comment is great too

Bram Stoker’s Way of the Vampire is at --/11, and is absolute trash. It’s also hilariously stupid and worth watching with people who enjoy making fun of movies.

This is great stuff! I am personally fond of the slightly yellower spot in the grout where it would be harder to have space to clean, that’s an absolutely wonderfully realistic touch