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Celery Seed looks like this on a healthy plant;
On a stressed plant it looks like this.
Celery is a good mother, it will sacrifice itself to make healthy seeds. It may even make more flavorful seeds when it does this. They certainly seem stronger flavored.
The seeds will dry out and become ripe while a healthy plant will still be producing seeds. The ones lowest on the plant dry out first. you can gently roll the seeds in you fingers to release them.
It is easier to harvest a stressed plant, all at the same time, and the flavor may be stronger. However the flavor of a happy stress free seed, is quite divine. And the only way you will ever know it, is if you grow your own.
Bob
When I started this blog, one of the decisions that I made was to keep it politics free. I think I regret that decision now. So my new 4th of July resolution is to be a bit more outspoken.
I am a technician by trade. I have been a technician since 1979. I have done other things at times, but I have supported my family for a long time by doing repair. To put that date in perspective, the Vic 20 was not out until the next year. I am an old timer in this field. Come to find out, that my career, skills, livelihood, and future are of little consequence to the politicians of Texas.
Here is an article on the issue by the Texas Chapter of the Institute for Justice.
Here is another article from PC magazine.
Texas House Bill 2833 is a strange beast and one of the least clear bits of legislation that I have read. It does however state,
SECTION 3. Section 1702.102(a), Occupations Code, is amended to read as follows:
(a) Unless the person holds a license as a security services contractor, a person may not:
(3) engage in business activity for which a license is required under this chapter.
SECTION 4. Section 1702.104, Occupations Code, is amended to read as follows:
Sec. 1702.104. INVESTIGATIONS COMPANY. (a) A person acts as an investigations company for the purposes of this chapter if the person:
(1) engages in the business of obtaining or furnishing, or accepts employment to obtain or furnish, information related to:
(A) crime or wrongs done or threatened against a state or the United States;
(B) the identity, habits, business, occupation, knowledge, efficiency, loyalty, movement, location, affiliations, associations, transactions, acts, reputation, or character of a
person;
(C) the location, disposition, or recovery of lost or stolen property; or
(D) the cause or responsibility for a fire, libel, loss, accident, damage, or injury to a person or to property;
(2) engages in the business of securing, or accepts employment to secure, evidence for use before a court, board, officer, or investigating committee;
(b) For purposes of Subsection (a)(1), obtaining or furnishing information includes information obtained or furnished through the review and analysis of, and the investigation into the
content of, computer-based data not available to the public.
SECTION 11. Section 1702.226, Occupations Code, is transferred to Subchapter F, Chapter 1702, Occupations Code, redesignated as Section 1702.1045, and amended to read as follows:
Sec. 1702.1045 [1702.226]. PRIVATE SECURITY CONSULTING COMPANY [CONSULTANT]. A person [An individual] acts as a private security consulting company [consultant] for purposes of this chapter if the person [individual]:
(1) consults, advises, trains, or specifies or recommends products, services, methods, or procedures in the security or loss prevention industry;
Sec. 1702.381. CIVIL PENALTY. (a) A person who is not licensed under this chapter, who does not have a license application pending, and who violates this chapter may be assessed a civil penalty to be paid to the state not to exceed $10,000 [$1,000] for each violation.
(b) A person who contracts with or employs a person who is required to hold a license, certificate of registration, or security officer commission under this chapter knowing that the person does not hold the required license, certificate, or commission or who otherwise, at the time of contract or employment, is in violation of this chapter may be assessed a civil penalty to be paid to the state in an amount not to exceed $10,000 for each violation.
My best interpretation of this law is that, in the Great State of Texas, Without being a private investigator, I cannot legally pass any information that I obtain while working on a computer. Nor can you hire me to do so. We could both be imprisoned for one year and fined $4000 for engaging in this activity. Nor can I give recommendations on backups or computers based on security of data. So I cannot tell you how you got your virus, nor can I tell you who loaded files on your computer.
The intent of this bill, may or may not be positively motivated. Private Investigators serve a needed role in our society. We don’t want just anyone taking money to follow, scrutinize and spy on us. At the same time, when you are accused of a crime, or are being stolen from, you need to be able to find someone with the skills to dig up information for you. Having someone hire a hacker or computer geek to see if your husband is cheating on you, could seriously ruin your life without previous cause. Is the technician going to keep copies of stuff, or fake issues so you keep paying them? A private investigator at least can loose his livelihood if he strays too far. There is a reason that having loose cannon investigators is against the law. This does not mean that the law should be vague, overly broad, and endangering of the lives and careers of honest technicians. Nor do I mind good clear laws that would require ethics of technicians. I suspect we will be seeing attempts at doing that soon enough.
My wife called the office of the state representative (Representative Joe Driver, R-Garland, website http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/dist113/driver.htm) that pushed this bill through. After expressing concern that this destroyed her husband’s livelihood, the lady in the office that had apparently helped put this bill together, told my wife that she clearly did not feel the same way about protecting the populace of Texas. When my wife asked what this had to do with protecting people, the lady accused my wife and I of being sympathetic towards child molesters. What this has to do with public safety and child molesters is anyone’s guess.
Odd thing is, that as I read it, this bill protects child exploiters from my coming forward with evidence.
I have at times worked with the police to help them find and interpret computer information. It, in fact, has been part of my job tasks. Specifically, the task requested of me has often been to protect the safety of children. Now I may be at risk if I help the police. Cooperating with the police may actually be giving evidence against myself . Next time a child is receiving threats of violence, I must risk a felony to help protect that child. I won’t go into some of the other issues that children need to be protected from. Sometimes the children need information directly in order to protect them from harm. Now that may be a felony offense. Even if I am assured that I am safe, as long as the law on the books is unclear, I may be at risk. Nice laws, nice law makers.
Who knows? I may have to become a private investigator to remain a technician.
Bob
I got a garden cart kit from the North Houston Woodcraft store. They had one put together, and it moved perfectly, really quite manuverable, so I was quite interested, the box was open, so I started to count the parts. The salesmen assured me they had looked over the parts, it was all intact, and that they would give me a 10% discount on the cart. I took it. I don’t get to the big city much, so we did a bit of shopping in Houston. On the way back I looked for the manual so that I could figure out what I needed to do. The manual was missing. As were a bunch of parts. So I figured out how I was going to make it without plans, and getting parts that cost way more than the discount, go figure. Don’t take this as an insult to Woodcraft in general, the Woodcrafts in Orange County, California, and San Antonio, Texas, are wonderful places that any wood worker would be made right at home in. The support that I have gotten at http://woodcraft.com/ has been extraordinary, and if anything, I feel like I owe them.
Here is how it ended up;
I wanted it to look rustic, so I used some weathered juniper, and used my wax mix to preserve the look.
The image in my mind was a hay cart, so I improvised around that.
My wife has claimed it as hers, so I guess it is a success!
Bob
I have been harvesting lettuce seed recently. Usually I just put a palm below one of the dandelion like flowers and with the finger tips of the other hand, massage the ripe seeds from the flower. The ripe seeds fall right out, along with a bunch of chaff.
As a child, I used to go out in boats with my father. He was a professor of ichthyology, he studied fish. We would go out with buckets of formaldehyde, to preserve our catches. One of the most interesting tasks we persued was collecting samples of all the camouflaged life that was teeming in the seaweed. Tiny shrimp, crabs, fish, insects and sea horses blended into the seaweed that was quite thick with all the creatures. If all of them just ate the seaweed, it would have been gone quickly. Instead these creatures mostly hid in, filtered from, hunted, cleaned and on occasion, ate the seaweed. It was a balance forged over the ages.
Several years ago, I planted a bunch of lettuce from every source I could. I wanted to find the single lettuce that did best for me, and tasted the best. This way, I could raise one lettuce and have pure seed each year. My test was a failure. Too many lettuces were delightful, but did not fare well. Too many were not quite what I wanted. A lot did not germinate evenly or at all. Some varieties fell prey to insects instantly, some could not take the weather. I enjoyed a lot of them, but I resigned myself to buying seed each year and not keeping a variety. I let a bunch of them go to seed hoping to play with a hybrid, but I did not know how or when to harvest the seed, I let it dry out completely and rain spoiled most of my chances to figure it out.
So you know, keep watering the lettuce, when the parasols on the seeds open up, preparing to catch the wind, then the seed is ripe. You can pull them out by the parasol, or gently roll the still green flower base, and free the seeds.
The next year I had a bunch of volunteers come up. After sampling a few leaves, it was clear that this romaine was just what we wanted. You can take mature leaves off and it keeps producing for months, it is just sweet enough and just bitter enough to be perfect. The stem is crunchy the leaves are tender, it does great in a salad or on a sandwich, so here it was, a gift from nature, the lettuce of my dreams.
So now I grow huge amounts, remove the plants I don’t like for one reason or another, and let them go to seed, so I keep a broad genetic base, and always have extra seed. I suspect that when I got all that lettuce seed, I got something else. Something that a lot of people would never have noticed. Most people spray or pick the entire plant, and never see it go to seed.
A lettuce plant can grow tall, and live for a long time while producing seed month after month, if it is kept healthy. As you can see from this picture, it is a big mass of buds, seeds, leaves and stems. On this mass is a resin of sorts, so it is also sticky.
This time I decided to go for a huge mass of seeds. I bent the heads over a large steel bowl, and then worked each of the dandilion like flowers with my fingers. the ripe seeds fall right out and split from their ‘parasol.’ I shook the entire head and gently rubbed the slightly sticky resinous mass with my hand dropping even more seeds into the bowl.
I collected an amazing amount of seed, although it does not weigh much. I was just finishing when my wife called me to supper. After supper I went out to sift the seed from the chafe and pack it up. The seed was filled with bugs. The bugs blended in, but the surface was alive with the mass of moving bugs. I stopped counting different critters at about 9, as I was not sure if I was repeating or getting different ages mixed up. Apparently my lettuce is like the seaweed I picked through in my youth. The bugs are not as striking and wierd, they are mostly off white, pale green or barely yellow. But the same principals are here. The neat thing, is that my lettuce appears to be insect free. I get nice big leaves, and lots of seeds. So here in my yard is a Sargasso sea if you will. A complex environment.
I do not mind the bugs one bit. And while I can claim some rights as I am the one that prepares the soil, plants and waters these treasures, there is a balance here, that predates me. There is a symbiosis and an entire biological system in the lettuce I grow, that makes me a bit player. They patrol, protect, and preserve their home, my lettuce in ways I do not know. These critters do it for a living, I am just here for the lettuce.
Bob
This is one of the least common and most useful, simple planes,
This is a pretty simple tool. all you need is a plane blade, such as you can get at most hardware stores.
You don’t need a rare earth magnet this big. Two or three glued into drilled holes on the bottom would do a great job of holding the blade while letting you remove it to sharpen.
If you cut a nice slot for it, the magnets just keep it in place when you pick it up, the rest of the time the slot holds it in place as you use it.
This plane is great for cleaning up surfaces into corners, odd raised bits, removing glue, and trimming dowels down to the surface of the a board.
Bob
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