60+ year old thread.

Get well quickly Rich. Last night I had back pain from an old muscle tear back in 89. A little Bio Freeze took care of that pain. I still did not sleep well.

Good morning, everyone. Came back from Michigan with a stuffed-up nose and a cough. A C-19 self-test was negative. I may not attend my guitar lesson tomorrow or go to physical therapy on Thursday. Today I have to clean out the work bench area of the garage and start to take down the yard decorations. I also need to pay the cat sitter.

Everyone have a great day.

 

Good morning:
A doctor comes into a bar and orders almonds with a daiquiri everyday
One day the bartender gives him hickory nuts instead of almonds
The doctor asks what is this?
The bartender replies “ it's a hickory daiquiri doc”

 

They're getting their water this year...

 

Good Moring Porch Pals & Sue! Going to get outside and do something today in the sun - dang cold - that'll fix it.

 

evening boys

Got half the front side yard cleaned up.... I see another dozen hours to clean up the rest of the yard... Wonder how long till more leaves fall and make it look crappy again

 

Evening all:

Sue!
Leaves , but now there are 3 decent size trees down that I need to clean up . They are not in the yard but came down in areas just off of it that I try to maintain. They are oaks that were killed by the gypsy moths, first all the small branches break off, then the majority of the larger main branches, then the main part of the tree comes down. Cleaning up those dead oaks has been a continuous PITB, it would be worse if my neighbor hadn't felled a bunch of them for firewood.

 

About 2 days after you finish. You will get 50 MPH winds that will drive all the neighbors' leaves into your yard. At least that is how it works up here in Maryland.

Good morning. Still not feeling 100% but I will muddle through. Need to take one of my son's boots to the shoe repair today for a small reglue. As long as I am out, I will go to the grocery store. Time to mask up.

 

Morning 60+

 

Good Morning Porch Pals & Sue! Last day of this nagging cold? Lights down, battery swapped. Button it up today. Old one had a mystery cell that would just quit, and I'd have to jump. Then be fine for months. I'd use the pulse repair on the charger I got, but just before New Years was the last straw.

 

Rain and wind today and tomorrow. More of the same the next 2 weeks. Rain amounts for Northern California 179% of normal. Snow pack in the sierras 170+ % of normal.
Time for me to catch up on relaxing and doing nothing.

 

California has the world production of Almonds. It takes about 1.2 gallons of water to grow one pound of almonds.

My uncle's almond ranch was about 90 miles from Sacramento.

Almond trees do well on subsoil irrigation—shallow roots. Water applied at the surface is about 10x those requirements.

Bees are needed to populate the trees to get almonds, and bees are the biggest challenge to modern almond farming.

 

You can polish a turd only so much

 

According to a 2017 study published to Science Direct, one California almond has an average "water footprint" of 12 liters or 3.2 gallons, which is quite a bit more than you might think, considering how tiny a single almond is.

The above is just one quote from hundreds you can find on the internet. Many are from agricultural scientific sources. The amount of water to grow one almond, a pound of almonds, a bushel of almonds varies between sources but all credible sources show that almonds are a very thirsty crop (as are many other crops in California). Sorry but 1.2 gallons of water for a pound of almonds isn’t even close. I personally don’t give a rip about almond production here in California. The problem isn’t almonds or other crops per se. The problem is water itself or lack of. The whole subject of water in the west is very convoluted and complex. I’ve studied and read extensively on the subject. I could teach a college class on the subject. I’ll give a tiny paragraph synopsis on the subject. Keep in mind there are dozens of books written on the subject.

All or almost all California water comes from reservoirs, lakes, rivers and underground aquifers. Reservoirs are the biggie. No dams, reservoirs, water storage has been built here in 50 years but over the last 50 years our population has more than doubled to around 40 million. Do we need more storage , yes but it ain’t happening. A large amount of agricultural water comes from natural underground aquifers which are being depleted. (It takes many years to replace the water we take in a year). The whole California Central Valley which is the agricultural bread basket of the world is in reality a desert. It is green and lush only because of the huge amount of water we pump into it from the above mentioned sources. If the giant import of water to the valley stops it goes back to desert. All of our water comes from rain and Sierra snow from about November to March. For the most part we get no measurable rain or snow fall the rest of the year. When we have a low rain and snow year we are screwed and a couple of poor winters can be devastating. Southern California uses the most water but has the least amount of water. There is a constant battle for Northern California water to be sent south. The battle for water is vary political. Nuff said.
I’m absolutely done with the water topic. Let me just say if anyone is interested in the topic there is a fabulous book written about 40 years ago (it’s been updated) and is still as relevant today as it was when written called Cadillac Desert. Easy read, very informative, mind boggling fascinating.
Ok I’m going back to doing nothing on this rainy day. Actually I’m going to binge watch the 3rd season of Tom Clancys Jack Ryan on Prime Video, 8 episodes.

 

Pissed me off the last time, it did. Drove into AutoXone last summer (where I got), and the little fart reused to check it. "It doesn't have OEM connections ".

 

WTF…

 

Thanks for the "insider" kind of information, it's hard to sort out the misinformation that's out there in the cyber world nowadays.

 

There are too many of these so called 'experts' out there, can't be casual about information provided anymore.

 

old school time bomb!

 

Okay... now I'm skeptical the other direction. 1.2 gallons seems far too low. But the "water applied at the surface" (10x1.2) must mean it is the amount used to keep the tree alive to produce almonds and is that per square foot or per acre or what? 120 gallons per tree wouldn't seem right so I suspect per square foot over the entire season. How many pounds of almonds are grown on a single tree and what is the average number of trees per acre?

Edit: 120 gallons per square foot seems way too much after I reread this. X10 is 12 gallons. Much less water.

 

I just don’t think we can get a definitive accurate answer . I think we just have to accept that it takes a hell of a lot of water to grow almond trees and almonds. I had a friend who was foreman on a huge almond farm. He told me that almond growing takes huge amounts of water and he feared that due to the amount of water required that the state would make it tougher and tougher to get sufficient water because of our constant shortage of water. He passed last year so I can’t get any more information from him.