We had a very little frost last night and I worried for the fruit tree since it’s flowering so nice…
But it seems fine. Honestly I don’t ever recall this thing flowering as prodigiously as it is doing this Spring. Maybe because the winter was so wet? Maybe because March was unusually mild – I don’t know.
Not that it’s actually going to fruit, let’s not get crazy…
They say that Louis XIV had the inscription Ultima Ratio Regum cast into all the cannon of the French Army. It means “The Ultimate Argument of Kings,” and that always struck me as one of the most honest and up-front things any ruler or would-be ruler ever said. “We can dress it up prettier than this, but when it comes down to the unvarnished truth this is what it’s about: You’ll do as I say or I’ll send my goons to kill you.”
I thought about that for a long time. If there’s an ultimate argument, it seems only logical that there must be an ultimate answer. For years I thought the ultimate answer must be the bullets in my rifle, but it never seemed quite right. I’ve got bullets – he’s got frigging Cannon Balls. I mean, if there were three hundred million rifles throwing bullets at him, then maybe. But we all know that’s not going to happen. So if there’s an ultimate answer to his ultimate argument, it sure as hell ain’t bullets.
It finally came to me – and that’s when I abandoned the city and most of my stuff, and gave all that was behind me a good stiff Randian Shrug.
The ultimate answer to kings is not a bullet, but a belly laugh.
Little Bear 2009-2018
Laddie the Amazing Torso Boy 2011-2020
"Freedom Outlaw. It’s not what you do; it’s how you do it. It’s an attitude — from which actions always follow. It’s a do-it-yourself occupation. And a lifetime vocation."
- Claire Wolfe, Backwoods Home Companion, 6-07-10
I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.
- G. K. Chesterton
"If every Jewish and anti-Nazi family in Germany had owned a Mauser rifle and twenty rounds of ammunition and the will to use it, Adolf Hitler would be a little-known footnote to the history of the Weimar Republic."
- Aaron Zelman
"Authority should derive from the consent of the governed, not from the threat of force."
- Barbie
"Never underestimate the ability of shit to find a fan."
- F. Paul Wilson
"You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs." The sophistry of villains - Bah!
- Robert A. Heinlein, Double Star
“Truth is, I’m not specifically interested in an armed society. What I want is a free society.”
- George Potter
I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.
- D. H. Lawrence
Aristippus passed Diogenes as he was washing lentils.
He said, “If you could but learn to flatter the king, you would not have to live on lentils.”
Diogenes said, “And if you could learn to live on lentils, you would not have to flatter the king.”
Sandy Hook was a Gun Free Zone. So was the Westroads Mall. And the Aurora Theater. And Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Should I go on? They were all Gun Free Zones.
– Reality
“Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth — are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.”
- Robert A. Heinlein
"Civilization is the process of setting man free from men."
- Ayn Rand
If ever a man should ask you
For your business or your name
Tell him to go and fuck himself
Tell his friends to do the same.
For a man who'd trade his liberty
For a safe and dreamless sleep
Doesn't deserve the both of them
And neither shall he keep.
- Frank Turner
Don't be afraid to try something big, just because you're an amateur. The Ark was built by amateurs. The Titanic was built by professionals.
- Anon
"Nothing scares a police officer more than the threat of being treated the way that they treat people every day."
- Anon
"Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet."
- Gen. James Mattis
"Lust for power is the most flagrant of all the passions."
- Tacitus
"The man who knows what freedom means will find a way to be free."
- F.A. "Baldy" Harper
"The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude."
- William James
We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.
- Viktor Frankl
The free man will ask neither what his country can do for him nor what he can do for his country.
- Milton Friedman
“We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.”
- William Faulkner
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.
- Ernest Hemingway
"Everything the State says is a lie, and everything it has it has stolen."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
John Moses Browning - The most badass Mormon who ever lived.
"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.'"
- Ronald Reagan
The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.
- James A. Baldwin
"It is better to be a warrior in a garden than to be a gardener in a war."
- Anon
“I tried to live in such a way that, when dying, I would rather feel happy than scared.”
– Witold Pilecki
Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master.
- Sallust
"Place your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark."
- Lazarus Long
Read, every day, something no one else is reading.
Think, every day, something no one else is thinking.
Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do.
It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.
– Christopher Morley
“I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery; he must be made to feel that slavery is right; and he can be brought to that only when he ceases to be a man.”
-Frederick Douglass
ESSE QUAM VIDERI –
To be, rather than to seem
– Marcus Tullius Cicero
“A Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home, and it should be used for that protection which the law refuses to give.”
– Ida B. Wells
Do what thy manhood bid thee do; from none but self expect applause.
He noblest lives and noblest dies, who makes and keeps his self made laws
– Sir Richard Burton
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
– Winston Churchill
“Happiness is a journey, not a destination. Dance as though no one is watching you. Love as though you have never been hurt before. Sing as though no one can hear you. Live as though heaven is on earth.”
― Father Alfred d’Souza
if a lone bee finds it, yes, it could fruit. Miracles abound, have faith.
It may be a self-pollinating variety and not need a bee. But if it does need a bee, just take a small narrow paintbrush, dip it in the pollen on one flower, then swish it around in another flower. Repeat with various flowers until you’ve stirred the pollen in all of them. The heavy flowering could be just the tree being mature, strong enough with enough stored carbohydrates from last fall, to flower and fruit. It needs lots of leaves to provide stored nutrients to the roots for the following spring. Any idea what variety of pear it is? WalMart Special isn’t a variety.
Oh, good Zelda told how to pollinate. As well, if you FEED the tree some fertilizer spikes, you will encourage it to fruit, because then it will have extra nutrients to put into the effort of making pears. I use a little soft makeup brush to pollinate if needed. Best wishes for the appearance of pears.
I was told by the nursery manager that this tree was self-pollinating, as of course it would need to be. I can’t really testify that it’s true. It really did come from a nursery in the big town about 50 miles away, run by people who seemed to know what they’re doing. Of course most of the trees died even after careful soil preparation, but it’s not a Walmart Special.
I doubt that Joel has a “little soft makeup brush”, but with hermits you never know. And I would think the moo cows and elkies might provide enough fertilizer, although some extra might not hurt. My bet, though, is that even if it sets fruit, ground squirrels or pack rats or birds would get to enjoy it instead of Joel and Laddie.
But if it does succeed and sets a whole bunch of pears, maybe you could train Laddie to fetch them like these dogs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LRvdcKVTiM
do with tennis balls. As long as you don’t mind Corgi fang marks on – and in – your pears…
}:-]
Are the hummingbirds doing their thing yet? If so, they will also pollinate them pear flowers…
As usual and logical, well-fenced trees have limited access to manure from critters. Chicken manure would be very good if not green, however. Humans would need to toss tin through the fencing, which should be good enough to keep out chickens. If there is fencing which prohibits critters from climbing in or reaching through to branches, you increase the odds to get fruit. I have apple trees, highly and widely fenced from deer. With extra fertilizer spikes, I double or triple my fruit yield from each tree. I grew up around orchards. Even with the best “cooked” chicken, cow, horse and sheep manure, we still fertilized the fruit trees. The fruit, if the tree is properly fenced, will fall inside the fencing, which neither corgis nor rabbits should be able to breach. Yes, hummers are good pollinators, if you can get them in the area. Good luck Joel.
He does has hummingbirdies:
http://joelsgulch.com/the-secret-lair-goes-full-suburbanite/
And I’ll bet his pack rats and ground squirrels would not find ANY fencing to be too much of an obstacle. Of course, I’m not sure how much they’re into pears, since those things usually don’t taste quite like Jeep wiring…
For young/small trees like yours I start them off with about 13′ of 3′ chickenwire – comes out to appx. a 4′ dia. enclosure. I use 4 1/2″ rebar stakes for the corners – but that’s just ’cause I have a ton or so of rebar around. Your watering well should be about 4′ diameter too – until the tree grows wider and then you expand the watering circle to the drip line of the tree’s foliage. Leave your stakes tall enough to give you some attachment points higher than the tree is tall. Plastic fruit tree mesh runs about $8 for a 7′ by 21′ package at Ace – that’s 3 7′ by 7′ covers. Tie one to the tall rebars over the tree and down to the 3′ chickenwire and you’ve got nearly 100% coverage of the tree – and you don’t have to pick the mesh out of the tree at the end of the season. Once it gets too big for this treatment – then the deer and the cattle will probably just have their way with your tree…
Feeding does pay off – the next year. I just use a granular fruit tree fert around the drip ring of the tree – 3 times a growing season if I have the time.
Technically – you should probably cull most of those blossoms once you have an idea how many have taken pollination and are ‘set’. There’s no way your tree can bring all those buds/fruit to ‘term’. Half a dozen fruit on that tree would probably be more than optimal. It is a tiny thing after all and has to put a lot of energy to that fruit – some of which would be better spent growing branches.
Personally – I’ve never been very good about culling fruit for quality yields – so I wind up with tiny peach trees with 50-100 golf ball sized peaches! They still taste fine though – but I think peaches are more forgiving about being crowded than your pears will be.
I put up the plastic mesh early in Spring to discourage the deer – they don’t like getting a faceful of mesh if they try to browse – and then later in the season when there’s fruit – it keeps most of the birds out and off your fruit. If the deer’s hungry enough – the mesh will only slow them down. The chickenwire keeps the rabbits and larger rodents from ‘girdling’ the sapling. That’s when they strip the outer bark from around the trunk and kill the tree – if they’re hungry enough…
Good luck with this, Joel. It’s a lot to absorb – but never has good information about these things been so available. I don’t recall if pear are self pollinating – but it’s easy to search out online.
Zelda:
“WalMart Special isn’t a variety”
Well, heck. And here I thought I was being smart shopping there. 🙂
Robert, my WalMart is a treat and a total hoot in spring when the fruit trees arrive. The growing conditions where I live are similar to the Arctic Circle with highly alkaline water, but for reasons unknown the varieties sold at my WalMart are those that thrive in Arkansas. Would like to know what the qualifications are to be a fruit tree buyer for WalMart, pretty sure knowledge of geography and climate zones aren’t included. Joel could grow fruit but it would take preparation and the right planting stock, and the fact that the first attempt wasn’t a huge success just means different methods are needed Plug Nickel Outfit has sensible good suggestions. I’d probably remove some of those blossoms because it takes a lot of energy to support all those flowers. Lucky Joel will likely not have to worry about his tree being killed by fire blight. Yes some pear varieties are self-fertile. I have two varieties that are and there are lots more.