Weekend Update 08/11/19 With Pictures

So Monday night, Bernie was on the throne; being there's only ONE bathroom in the house, I had to go in there for something (I honestly don't know why I poked my head in there, should've just vaped). I noticed a GIANT spider, right behind Bernie's head. She's talking to me. I'm staring up at this spider. She notices that I'm staring. She says 'quit staring up there, you're scaring me'. I say 'then don't turn around!'. She turns around, sees the spider and panicks. She's yelling for me to kill it. I holler for Aaron to come up to get the spider. It's getting late and I think he had already started to lay down, cause it took him a while to come up. Bernie's yelling for a shoe now. Brandon hears the commotion from upstairs and I tell him what's going down. He asks for a picture of the spider. My phone is upstairs, so I run up the stairs to get my camera. Bernie is downstairs, hell bent on killing this monster spider. I grab my phone, and run down the stairs. Big mistake. I took a tumble and fell down the stairs. Now I'm splayed out on the living room floor. Aaron finally comes in, grabs the spider in a cup to release it outside. Allyson comes out of her room, steps over me to look at the spider. Hunter flies down the stairs, hops right over me and is amazed at the size of the spider. Bernie's yelling about something, not sure what... after a while she sees me still on the floor. She tells me to quit playing around and get up (CAAAAAAN YOU FEEL THE LOOOOOVE TONIIIIIIGGGHHHT....). Lucky for me, nothing's broken, except maybe my pride. Anyways, the point of me starting off with this story is to say I wasn't feeling very productive this past week. Hell, I took Tuesday off work to recuperate! So yeah, I have a reason for 'not feeling it' this week. Like I need a reason. Anyways... 

F. religiosa - Seedlings from batch 1 are starting to outgrow their jiffy seed growing tray. I've got to quickly figure out how I'm going to repot them. I don't want to put them in 4 inch pots, they'll take up too much room! Seems that's my only choice. Quick math. 4 inch, times 5 is 20 inches. I'll be able to fit 14 rows per shelf (7 per side), 5 deep. That's 70. Each seed tray has 72 pellets, so that's 144 seedlings. I have plenty of 4 inch pots, and I just bought a bag of potting soil. I'll probably need another bag of soil. Once they're all potted up, I'll need 2 shelves. I have one shelf wired for light. For the second shelf, I already have a string of lights for half the shelf, so I'll have to order another set for the other half. 

Repotting these guys was a lot easier than you might think! I've been growing them in the peat pellets, so I simply sank the whole pellet in potting soil. Nothing to it. 
For size comparison, I'm including pictures from batch 2: 

As far as the rest of the tropicals that will have to come in for the winter - I have the scheffleras outside, which will likely take up at least half a shelf. Then I have the Pachira aquatica; those wil likely ride out the winter right where they current are: on the window sill. Bernie's ficus will ride out the winter perched on the cat shelf. I also want to start an aquarium in the round glass bubble that's on my shelf. I'll get started on that soon. I'll also need another surge suppressor to support all the lights. Oh, they're all LED, so electric consumption will be at a minimum. Sounds like I have a winter lighting plan in place. 

Aaron got a hold of some small apples and he's planted the seeds for me. These were shit looking apples. Tiny by apple standards, too big to be crabapples. They were green and bruised, so no telling what they were supposed to taste like. Regardless, he got some seeds and put them outside. I think he should have stratified the seeds and waited for next year. Hey, whatever, I'll see if they grow. Even if they're not that great as far as apples are concerned, they'll still make good bonsai material.  That's IF they sprout.

Did I already mention that Aaron got some goumi berry (Eleagnus multiflora) seeds and we're trying to sprout those? No? Well we are. We'll see how they work. They've been sitting on my front porch now for the past.... three weeks I think? Maybe they just need to be stratified. Maybe they're just shit seeds. Time will tell. 

While I'm on the subject of Aaron, turns out he still has a few English Oak seedlings. These were acorns I accidentally brought home from Victoria. I think if they survive the summer, I'll grab them during the winter and sort them out. See if I can do something with them. 

So moving on to my projects....

Crabapples continue to grow. They're getting bigger every week. Aaron noticed a dandelion growing in the green frog pot you see in the far left. He knew I wanted to grow a dandelion and assumed I planted it. I did not; it simply came on its own. For now (s)he's welcome: 

 Neagari azalea project. They're all growing good. Continue to have good development. I don't know what the roots are doing, but if you look at the one on the far right, the roots are starting to become more and more exposed. I believe this means the roots will continue their development. 

Dwarf rhodie - same as the azaleas. Continue to grow, branch development is good. Green healthy growth. Beware August!!!

Azalea cuttings - still nothing. No roots, yet they're not dead. Whatever. Winter is coming you little shits. Fair warning.

Apple seeds - these are the seeds I got from a random apple I was eating. Taste was meh. Development is good. Growth is strong.

 A. palmatum - strange little guys. Skinny as all hell, but still there, defiantly giving me the one finger (leaf) salute. Hey Chuy, fuck you too, ese! 

Trident maple - Sorry little fucker. Those of you who've grown trident maple from cuttings know this is a sorry excuse for a cutting. Hey, whatever. This guy made it, so (s)he's okay, as far as I'm concerned.

Chinese Elm - Han the Solo seedling continues to bask in the sun. Sole survivor of the shit seed stack flushed up from the gutter by a shit shady ebay seller. Fuck you Slim Shady, I got my tree on.

 

Air layer project - not looking so good. With every passing day, my hopes diminish that much more. I noticed the one branch is pretty much dying off. The other isn't doing squat. I will continue to document this (potentially) dismal failure.

So much for my projects. Let's do some picture of some traded items!

Spruce - I dunno about this guy. Kinda has his thumb up his ass, twigs flying everywhere. Plus there's ants in its roots. Just one hot mess: 

Acer palmatum - kinda sorry looking, isn't it? Make my skinny ass little trident maple look plump by comparison. 

Trident maple - I have two skinny as hell little match sticks.

Chinese Elm - not very impressive:

That's all the pictures I have of my living projects. I said I was not going to post pictures of my clay projects until either they made it to the bisque stage or their demise. I dropped off the fish and a few pots at the studio yesterday, so it's now out of my hands. So I'm posting pictures: 

On the subject of my clay - Casey and Steve at Wilderbee Farms are considering what to do with me, being that I'm not building my clay at their studio. I'm just dropping pottery off to be fired. However, I will still need to use their studio for glazing my pieces. Their thinking is that instead of charging me for studio time, they'll charge me by the kiln load: half a kiln, full kiln, whatever I need. Then figure out how to charge me for the glazing. In the long run, I think this arrangement will be more economical for me. OH! Casey has also said that this arrangement will mean that I will be able to continue working on clay through the winter when the studio isn't 'open'. JOY!  

That's about all I have for now.