Quillback

I hear ya, my tomatoes aren't liking this heat.

Canned 7 pints of "Dilly Beans" Sunday, my first canning experience. Seemed to go well and it was easier than I expected. I'll have to give the beans a couple of weeks to marinate, and we'll see how it turns out.

100 predicted for NWA today, last year it didn't hit 100 until July 7. This may be an even hotter and drier summer than last year. I think I'll start cutting down the oaks and replace them with cactus.

I see, so I assume that to make this work, your local power company has to buy back excess electricity from you. The reason I ask is that my local power company, last I checked, does not have a power buy back program.

So what was the cost to you to install out of your pocket? Are they paying money to you to lease the panels? Curious how that works. How many years until you recoup your initial investment?

Forgot to add link. www.punkdomestics.com

I didn't do peppers this year, last year they didn't do too well, so I said the heck with them. Here's a link to a canning blog, lots of good recipes for canning cukes. I'm going to try and pickle some beans, but first I gotta go out and buy all the stuff.

Here's an interesting read, the experts are still struggling to create models to predict future long term weather trends. http://www.nature.com/news/climate-forecasting-a-break-in-the-clouds-1.10593 Here's an intresting excerpt, what they're saying is that aeresol pollutants could be masking the effects of global warming, and with the increased focus on limiting aeresol pollutants (coal from coal fired electrical plants is a prime factor), the atmosphere becomes clearer, and could lead to an even higher rate of global warming. Just an example of how complex this issue is, and the effects of unintended consequences. In other words, by "cleaning up" the atmosphere, we may be making global warming worse. As climate researchers test drive the new generation of models, they are particularly keen to measure the models' overall sensitivity: how strongly they warm up in response to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases. The addition of indirect aerosol effects makes the new model at NCAR more sensitive to greenhouse gases, says NCAR researcher Andrew Gettelman. Simulations show that the additional cooling from aerosol pollution, as well as the direct effect of haze, masked some of the warming from greenhouse gases during the twentieth century; but the model shows enhanced warming in the twenty-first century as curbs on pollution expose the full power of greenhouse gases. In simplified runs that double greenhouse-gas concentrations — which could happen by the end of this century — the new atmospheric model projects a 4 °C rise in global temperatures, whereas the previous model showed a 3.1 °C increase

Things are coming in strong now, except for the cantalope. I am concerned that the high temps that are forecast for the forseeable future are going to slow things down.

Devils Den State Park has caves, but several of them are closed because of some fungus that could get spread to the bats. I think they do tours, but you'd have to call to see. Definitely would not be as commercialized as some of the private caves. For further information, contact: Monte Fuller, park superintendent, Devil’s Den State Park, 11333 West Arkansas Highway 74, West Fork, AR 72774; phone: 479-761-3325; e-mail: monte.fuller@arkansas.gov; or Earl Minton, park superintendent, Withrow Springs State Park, 33424 Spur 23, Huntsville, AR 72740; phone: 479-559-2593; e-mail: earl.minton@arkansas.gov.

Still for sale.

I haven't been there in years, my grandpa died in 1970, when I was 13. Used to go up to the farm when I was a kid, he had an indian mound on the farm, I'd hunt arrowheads while he was working. After he died my grnadma rented out the farm, she passed on just a few years ago, and my uncle and mom sold the farm. Grandpa always complained about the soil at his farm, he always wanted a river bottom farm with black soil instead of that rocky red soil up in Campbell. But he made a good living off that farm, back in the 60's a farmer could do well on a 200 acre farm. I remember when the St Francis west of Kennett was full of trees, they've really cleaned it up.

Short video on fishing a Shakey Head, filmed on TR. Bit of a sales pitch, but some good info also. http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/vlogpage.html?ccode=VLOG199

My guess is.... big baits! LOL

Looks like it's going to be a long hot summer. My grandfather used to farm in the Bootheel, had a farm in Campbell MO. He mainly grew cotton and soybeans.

I can imagine, with 4 novice fisherfolks using nightcrawlers, and the fish biting good, that you were one very busy guide.

Glad to hear you got into them Bill, and I'm sure you had some very happy clients.

Your links are somewhat contradictory and generalized, except for the first one. A quote from link one: For example: A system that costs $18,000 has a payback period of about 20 years. The cost of a solar panel today is around $3 per watt, and the extra cost of installation brings costs up to $5- $6 per watt. Note: Installation costs for PV systems include both labor and the electronics needed to tie the solar array into your existing electrical system. Link 3 seems to contradict that: The environmental impact of using solar energy is negative at the start with the cost of the materials and the cost of production of the equipment. It balances out after a few years and the impact is then positive. Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_environmental_impact_of_using_solar_energy#ixzz1yYB8j08D 20 years to get to even on a typical residential solar panel installation. Tough sell in this economy for the average homeowner. I've looked into installing them on my house, but the savings aren't there. Solar technology is certainly capable of supplementing our electrical use, and I am hoping in a few years costs will come down enough for it to make sense for the average homeowner. And if we're talking electric cars in our future we're going to need to extra electricty to charge those cars. And I'm sure you noticed in the links you provided that to replace exisiting electrical production using wind as part of the solution, they're talking about intalling 120,000 wind turbines over forty years. 120,000 wind turbines? Have you driven through Wyoming lately and seen some of those wind farms? They're a blight on the landscape - is that really a good idea to add 120,000 more? And wind farms are not without their impacts - seems to be an issue with local climate warming. http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/smart-takes/do-wind-farms-have-a-negative-effect-on-the-environment/26086

Picked up this 6.25 lb. fish this morning on a Zoom Ol' Monster. Only caught one other bass besides this one. My fishing buddy missed a couple and that was all the action we had. This bass must have been desperate, one of it's eyes was bad, you can see it in the pic.

Speaking of gas prices, gas just jumped about 20 cents/gallon in this area last weekend. DId a refinery blow up somewhere? What the heck is the reason? OIl and wholesale gas prices didn't move up, in fact they have dropped the last few days.

Yep oil is expensive and getting it out of the ground is causing environmental damage. But I still haven't seen any realistic plans to get us out of our carbon burning lifestyle. First off, government can't underwrite the expense, we're 15 trillion in debt and adding a trillion a year. You can say future economic growth based on alternative fuel will help our debt problem, but first that's a leap of faith to assume that growth will be there, and it will take too long to happen if in fact it does happen, we have to tackle our debt and spending problems NOW before we can even make any plans to spend who knows how much to convert us to a greener energy lifestyle. And you can't ignore the fact that any carbon based fuels that we save here will be used by the developing world instead of us. We're in a global economy, the Chinese are eating our lunch and will continue to do so, they're more than happy to burn oil and coal even at the higher prices we're now seeing. And don't forget oil is priced in dollars, part of the price increase in oil is due to a weaker dollar, weaker because of our debt and spending problems.

Speaking of subsidies, the Senate killed an amendment to end government buying of "excess" sugar produced by American farmers. This excess sugar is bought by the government and then sold at a loss to ethanol producers.

You always have to look out for unintended consequnces. We're shutting down coal fired electric plants as the EPA is tightening down on emissions regulations. What happens? We're now shipping coal to China where they're happy to burn it. And I doubt they are very concerned about emission levels. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/19/us-coal-idUSBRE83I0AK20120419

Jeb and I were out early yesterday around the Big M area, tough bite for us, we got 3 keeps and about a half dozen shorts. Came on a mixture of stuff, Ike DT 16, big shakey head, c-rigged craws and FB jigs. Thanks for the tip on the tube, may have to drag that around next week. Weather's gonna be hot, dunno if there will be much of a mid-day bite anymore.

Investing in our future is tough to do when we're 15 trillion in debt, and adding a trillion to that debt every year. I alos believe economics play a huge role in the energy debate, if you want people out of gasoline fueled cars then you have to present folks with clear cost saving reasons to do so.