Home Again, Home Again

Wedding Anniversary

Karen and I are celebrating our 47th wedding anniversary this month.  We were married in 1967.  A good and productive friendship.  We raised two children.  We share positive feelings, loyalty, and love.  We support and help each other.  

Orchard Work:

We have been busy taking care of our south field orchard.  We pruned all the trees in the south orchard, sprayed the trees with oil, painted all the tree trunks white, fertilized all the trees, installed or repaired all the drip irrigation lines, and thoroughly watered all the trees.  We now have 65 trees in the south orchard on our property.  There are apple, apricot, cherry, fig, peach, persimmon, plum, and walnut trees in our south orchard.  We share fresh fruit with friends and co-workers in season; and we dry and can fruit.  In the north orchard on our our five acre parcel, there are apples, cherries, figs, grapes, lemons, oranges, pecans, persimmons, and plums. 

Like everyone in California, we are worried about the effects of the severe drought.  We have two wells on our property, each 125 feet deep.  In normal rainfall years our water table is at 50 feet.  One well feeds our home, and that well pump runs on 220 volts.  The second well is used for watering and for keeping two small ponds topped, and the second well pump runs off of solar panels.  


Current Reading: 

Botany for Gardeners  By Brian Capon.  Portland, Oregon, Timber Press, 1990.  Glossary, Bibliography, Index, 220 pages.  ISBN: 0881922587.  VSCL.  

Complexity: A Guided Tour. By Melanie Mitchell.  New York, Oxford University Press, 2009.  Index, bibliography, notes, 349 pages.  ISBN:  9780199798100.  VSCL.  

The Ethics of Creativity: Beauty, Morality, and Nature in a Processive Cosmos  By Brian G. Henning.  Pennsylvania, Pittsburg University Press, 2005.  Index, bibliography, notes, 250 pages.  ISBN: 0822942713.  VSCL. 


Calculator Fun:

I am learning to use my new Texas Instruments TI-84 Plus programmable calculator.  A good calculator is an indispensable instrument for anyone studying mathematics and science.  I used a Hewlett Packard programmable calculator when I was a library administrator for the County of Los Angeles. 

Lately, I have been studying statistics and botany. I have always enjoyed being a amateur naturalist and a science enthusiast. 

The calculator was a recent birthday present from Karen.  I turned 68 years of age this month.  


Blue Room Setup

I have been setting up one room in our home for more active usage.  It has been kind of a storage room the past year.  I moved in the rooms items and instruments needed for natural history studies and specimen storage.  I improved the lighting and put a table in the room.  I rearranged the book shelving in this room. 


My Personal Fitness and Exercise Program

Rodger Andresen and I have been training partners.  We lift weights 5 days each week.  He can pump some heavy iron.  Roger and Jennifer also attend my yoga classes in the evening.  Here is my weight training and exercise program for 2014.   


Fractal Art


Check out some of the free or shareware Fractal Art programs.  I like the Chaos Fractals program.