Listening to your Garden Grow

So many of you persistent Peeps have been asking the MOAM about the status of the Aquaponics project.

Normally I ignore such annoying inquiries.... I mean... get your own freaking project.  Don't be bugging me about mine all of the time.

But I realize the leadership position that being a Mountain of a Man is.... and that many times, it is my obligation to stoop to the cravings and dispositions of those less fortunate.

So WTF.... here is the aquaponics status.

The project is the FREAKING BALLS!!!!!!  Even better than I had envisioned.

• The fish are thriving in the fish tank.
• Then plants are blasting out of the grow beds.
• And the Bell Siphons are draining the beds like a finely tuned Swiss Watch.

It is completely satisfying to watch the system operate in harmony with the siphon drains periodically pouring into the fish tank in random fashion, and the swirl filter pipes pouring the fish fertilized water back into the grow beds, whose water levels rise and fall in a predictable format.

The sound of water spilling into the grow bed and fish tank, and the gurgle of the bell siphons at the end of their periodic vacuum cycle adds a nice dimension.... like listening to your garden grow!

Last Thursday, Joanne made tuna fish sandwiches for lunch.   She makes them special.... chopping up red onions and celery, when I'm usually too lazy to add anything but Hellman's Mayonnaise.  When she was done, two small bottoms of celery stalks that had been in the refrigerator were left.   I took these, nestled them into a grow bed, and this morning, new celery plants are quite visibly sprouting.

We are on the second crop of lettuce on plants that have been cut back a few weeks ago.... tomato plants have to be strung up because they are too big to stand on their own, and pepper plants are filled with green peppers.  Zuchinis are just around the corner.

The fish seem vibrant and full of energy.   They are still very wary of me, but I hope to gain their trust and friendship soon.

I spread coffee grounds around the perimeter of the beds, and this seems to have repelled the gopher that harvested my conventional garden plants around this time last year.

Some tweaks have been necessary.  In order to keep the bell siphons kicking in regularly, the volume of water pumped from the fish tank has to be aggressive.  I am on my second 1000 gph pump and have to change out pumps and check the inside mechanism when the flow slows down,  Then the rate of flow overpowers the swirl filter and I had to install an overflow valve that returns excessive water back to the fish tank.

And the rate of evaporation has been greater than I had expected.  Boston is in a dry spell and it hasn't rained much lately.  When the water in the grow beds is drained, the pea stone grow media drys out quickly.  Tap water has to be introduced into the swirl filter to keep the level in the fish tank up every couple of days.

Also the solar system powering the water pump is only reliable when the panels are exposed to direct sunlight.... about four hours a day.   If I want to use off grid power twenty four hours a day, I have calculated that I will have to add six additional panels to the two that are now in service.  Maybe this is a project to take on in the fall.... but until then, the solar system will only be supplemental.

I haven't yet trimmed out the tanks with pine so that the galvanized tank support pipes are still exposed and unsightly.  That will get done sometime this week.

Next weekend is the 4th of July.  We will stage a photo shoot then and you can judge for yourself.

End of Quarter Double Down

Peeps....
It's been one of those stressful, no fun weeks.

End of the quarter histrionics.... customers needing to check corporate boxes.   We vendors at the bottom of the food chain are prone to excessive beatings at such times.  Rushing to get normal things done creates mistakes, which exacerbates the already frayed nerves.

When people tell me to double down, at times when I'm already doubled down.... I tend to have highly disrespectful and slightly vulgar thoughts.   As a professional trying to practice my profession, and as a businessman trying to make money, I'm already working at a pace that some would call feverish.  It gets pretty hard to maintain your cool when you then get extolled with corporate threats or pep talks.

But that's when being a MOAM kicks in.   You basically have no idea what my real thoughts are under my cool professional demeanor.   And the freaking work gets done regardless.

So this Saturday morning, I'm kicking back with Joanne and our 18 month old grandson, Connor, who spent the night with us.  After trashing the living room and watching some Sesame Street movie, our plan is to get in the backyard and trash stuff around there.

Later, Katelyn will come by, and I will supplement the trashing with some Bent Water Pearls.... ultimately resulting in being totally trashed sometime this evening.

It is a day that I deserve.

More Calf Roping and Less Bull Riding

Spent many hours in the F150 today, doing permit work in Cambridge and Boston.

Something has to be done about traffic.  It is a waste of time in your life... even if Howie Carr is on the radio.  I'm really loving that fact that BO's bromance with Cameron of the UK has hit a little snag since Cam is losing his PM job.  You think BO will put another bust of Winston Churchill in the Oval Office???    Me Neither.

Anyway....

Feeling good about the Libbies in Britain taking it on the chin.  Get England out of the EU and in charge of their own country again.   This will bleed into common sense support for Trump and border control.  Dems can feel the pendulum swing.   They had their sandbox for Obama's eight years but it's time to halt the Bullshit.  They are whining big time and doing crap like taking over the House Chambers in a failed attempt to prove the they give a shit while chowing down on pizza and Chick Fil A takeout.

Muslim refugees pouring into the West would not be doing so if someone with Balls would kick the shit out of Isis and restore the refugees into their own land.  Once the Leader of the Free World is not an Indonesian, Kenyan, Muslim sympathizing, Narcissistic Chicago Commie whose qualification to lead is skill on a teleprompter.... we can get this rodeo back on schedule...   More calf roping and less bull riding.

My Mother's Obituary

I used to believe that the worse possible thing would be to open the newspaper and see the obituary of one of your family in it.

And so it was that today, the Lynn Daily Evening Item carried the Obit of my mother, Winifred C. Nestor.
~

Winifred Nestor, 90

Ft. Lauderdale, FL — Winifred Crosby Nestor, age 90, of Ft. Lauderdale, formerly of Lynn, died Thursday, June 16, 2016 in Ft. Lauderdale after a lengthy illness. Born and raised in Lynn, she was a graduate of the Essex Agricultural Institute Nursing Program in Danvers and had worked as a Nurse at Union Hospital, Saugus General Hospital and various nursing homes throughout the area.  She was the devoted wife of John J. Nestor, retired Lynn Firefighter who predeceased her.

She is survived by two sons, John Nestor of Marblehead and his wife Joanne, and James Nestor of Fort Lauderdale and his wife Linda, as well as grandchildren Delanie Nestor of Fort Lauderdale, Ryan Nestor of Marblehead, Katelyn Boyle of Wenham and Michael Nestor of Beverly and three great grandchildren.

Service information: Services are private.  Donations may be made to My Brother’s Table 98 Willow Street, Lynn, MA 01901.

~

She was miserable in her old age, having lost her eyesight and generally her will to live.  All of her family except for me and my brother had passed.   She lashed out at others rather than try to pass her final years in peaceful decorum.

She was always aggressive and outspoken, and would say biting comments that caused pain.... but I don't think she was a bad person.  I know that she loved my father, my brother and I, and as a young mother she ran an organized household.   When she was first married, she took in my Uncles Dick and Bill which was a stormy relationship.  Then she bore twins, one of whom died at childbirth and the other, my brother Edward, lived with cerebral palsy until his death by pneumonia at age four.  I was a one year old at the time.

She was particularly critical of any girl that I brought home, and her relationship with my wife Joanne was tempestuous at best.   But I always knew that in a wierd way, she was professing her love for me and my brother. when she attacked our other loved ones.

Having quit high school, she obtained a licensed practical nurse designation after attending the Essex Agricultural Institute Program in Danvers.   I remember how hard she studied, and how proud my father was of this accomplishment.  Then later, after my father had passed, she went back and got her GED.

She smoked since she was 14 years old.  It was a habit that I resented and abhored.   I couldn't stand the sight or smell of cigarettes and wished that she would stop.   It was a scourge of my childhood, but she defiantly would state that it was her only vice..... she didn't drink, didn't run around..... but she sure as hell would smoke those Chesterfield unfiltered butts.

Yet she lived to be 90 regardless.

She had moved to Florida and lived in a senior citizen trailer park by the time my kids were born and right after my father died on Christmas Day, 39 years ago.   I think she had a good life down there for a while, participating in park activities, taking trips to the Bahamas and other retired stuff.   Thankfully, my father's pension as a retired firefighter covered her financial needs.

She kept in touch with all of her extended Crosby family members.... my cousins that I really never knew.... and was close with her childhood friend Honey.

But everybody eventually died around her.... her brother, her nieces and nephews.   And she fought like hell with my brother who was devoted to taking care for her.   It was not pretty.

When my brother called and told me that she had passed,  I asked him if he was going to have a ceremony down in Ft. Lauderdale, but he said that everybody who knew her was dead.   He wants to take her ashes and spread them on my father's grave at the Lynn Firefighter's plot in Pine Grove Cemetery.

I think that they both would like that.

Mom... you taught me how to act, and how not to act.... and I pray that you will Rest in Peace.  I'm sure that we will cross paths again in God's Great Plan.

Growing Pains

So Peeps....
I think that your MOAM is all grown up now.

At least I'm old enough to know that this world is a boundless free-for-all populated by political leaders who treat others like sheep and blatantly lie to enhance their power.

And the Sheep do not care.

They are content to be lead by such obsequious leaders who actually are mirrors of themselves or who they wish themselves to be.

Truth, ethics and integrity are completely missing as the sheep lie and deceive in order to keep their individual interests feathered.

I used to think that if you gave someone all of the objective facts, they would form an honest opinion. But they assemble the facts into pre-conceived notions and distort the conclusions to fit their subjective agendas.

Is the truth unobtainable?

I'm  grown up enough now to admit that it is.

Quite a Haircut

Today, after a morning of wireless design reviews at the Boston Redevelopment Authority, I dropped by Silver Shears in Marblehead to get the haircut that Joanne has been harassing me about.  Silver Shears sounds pretty hoity toity, but it isn't.... I qualify for the senior citizens rate of fourteen bucks.

And lately, I have been getting it cut stylishly short.  Trying in vain to stay relevant with the times.

So I was waiting for the young barber who does the cool cuts, when the 75 year old guy asks me if I wanted him to give me a haircut.    I told him, to buzz me with Number 3 clippers and take a lot off the top.  He gave me a modest trim and thinned out the top a little.

But I didn't have the inclination to correct him or resist.  He was talking about what life was like when he was a kid in Lynn and Salem, and I listened to his recollections and went along with whatever haircut he came up with.

A haircut didn't seem more important than listening to his stories.

Then shortly after I got back to the office, my brother called and said that my mother had passed away 15 minutes ago.  Winifred Alberta Nestor was 90 years old last March and was not aging gracefully by any means.

She was willful, and sometimes paranoid... with no filter between her head and her mouth,  So she said some pretty screwed up things over the years.  People either loved her for it, or stayed away.

But even though she was a pain in the ass sometimes, she was my Mother, and I loved her, and have a lifetime of memories - both good and bad.  She is with my father now, who has been gone for 39 years.  She never seemed attracted to any other man as far as I know.

She wasn't a person at peace with herself.  I hope the afterlife changes that.

I love you and I will miss you Mom.

An Inconvenient Truth

Another gun massacre in a gun free zone. The inconvenient truth is that we must maintain a responsible armed citizenry.... as the 2nd Amendment acknowledges.

Gun control laws like we have in Massachusetts allow people who pass a background check to possess firearms for concealed carry.

It is not just out right to bear arms ..... it has become our obligation.

Islamic Terrorists will continue to target gun free zones to cowardly pick off their victims.  We have to responsibly eradicate these zones.

This is sad.... it is inconvenient... it shouldn't be this way.... but it is and we have to respond appropriately.   Not by denial or the enactment of laws that further endanger us.

Benghazi Still Bothers the Hell Out of Me.

Aquaponics Update

The aquaponics project is moving along. Seventeen fish are in the fishtank, pooping and adding ammonia, nitrates and bacteria that are circulating up to the grow beds.  The beds in tune are filtering out these nutrients and returning purified water back to the fishtank.

A critter got into the fish pellets a couple of nights ago, and spilled the bucket, but didn't seem to eat too much.  That was my fault for not securing the cover.

The only problem is that the bell siphons are not dependable, and only one bed seems to be really thriving.

But the whole system looks cool as hell.  A number of SuperPeeps such as Tommy O and Brendt D'Orio have dropped by for a personal tour, which your MOAM is only to happy to provide.

We have harvested a good size salad's worth of lettuce already, and the tomatoes and peppers are kicking along nicely.  But the cauliflower looks pretty bad and the parsley is a bust.  I'd like to get some kale in there soon

Settled Science

With all of the personal trials going on recently that is none of  your business, this MOAM has been blowing off steam on Facebook threads.... mostly about Presidential Politics.

But the thread yesterday with some Liberal Friends about the "Settled Science" of Global Warming (aka "Climate Change" to fit the narrative since it just doesn't seem to be too warm lately) was a vigorous exchange and a nice respite from ranting about the Evil H.

I truly believe in climate change.  The boulders in my backyard are clear indications that mile high glaciers recently scraped their way through the neighborhood.  But the mammoths and cave men didn't cause this, and neither do Republicans as my Libbie friends like to fret about.

And you can look at the Al Gore "documentary" as the fabricated political propaganda that it is and still be in favor of environmental  measures to keep our country healthy.

I like to fish in Boston Harbor, which was a polluted mess in my childhood a generation ago. Environmental legislation eliminated this pollution without people like John Kerry and BO telling us that the our biggest problem was melting ice caps, and that this was "Settled Science" so get in step and STFU.   A bit Fascist for my taste.

The Harbor was cleaned up and Stiped Bass returned.   So did Turkeys, Coyotes, Raptor Hawks, Deer and a host of other critters who never showed up in the neighborhood when I was a kid.  This was all due to RCRA clean up that happened without political fabrication of global doom.

Forty years ago, people were worried that the world couldn't add any additional human population.... the "Population Bomb" was the moniker.   And we were lectured that there was only a little petroleum left to go around.  Certainly not enough to last forty years.   Facts didn't bear these fears out.

Libbies like to call people who disagree with their position as "Deniers".   I am one of those.   I actually have heard of legislation filed in California to fine people who profess denial of Climate Change.   Too bad Fascism still exists.

I definitely will not last the next 40 years to show my fretting FB Lefty Friends that they were wrong, But then again.... they won't be around either.

Sheep Talk

Maybe I went a little too far yesterday.... with all of the Evil H lamentations and rants on Facebook the morning after she clinched her nomination from the "SuperDelegate" rigged Democrat primaries.

I know that I called one Libby a Sheep and told her to "BAA".

That probably was uncalled for.

But the early morning fawning by ABC News and H's proclamation that she has broken the "Glass Ceiling" with quite a bit of self adulation pretty much put me over the top.



But then again.....

If you are one of Hillary's supporters, I can only say this to you.

BAA, BAA, BAA,

You are a mindless sheep, oblivious to the disgusting characteristics of this odious manipulator.

No Offense.

Evil H and DNA

Peeps....
I know that some of you are pretty good practical jokers and like nothing more than to put one over on this MOAM.

So when I was out washing my truck on this sunny Marblehead Saturday morning, I experienced a slight jolt to my system when I got the pressure washer to the back of the F-150.

There are three categories of practical jokes in my MOAM book.

1.  Category 1 - LOL... that is pretty funny.
2.  Category 2 - Who the Phuck Did THAT!
3.  Category 3 - Whoever PHUCKING DID THAT to me IS PHUCKING DEAD!!!!!




This one is kind of between Category 2 and 3.

I have carefully removed the offensive sticker and have sent it to the Crime Lab for a comprehensive DNA analysis and fingerprint examination.

I don't want to blame the wrong person for this slanderous action.

But I'm thinking.... Dale Johnson or Peter Crawford.

They are both low enough to do this and their DNA is probably easily attainable.

For those of you who get cheap chuckles from this kind of caper, please note that thousands of mentally challenged Peeps who live on every comment or gesture made by the MOAM could actually vote for the EVIL H if they saw this despicable sticker on my pristine F150.

This could tip the freaking election.

Woe to Fish

Bought my Massachusetts Fresh Water Fish License at Dick's Sporting Goods in Danvers today on the way home from some Friday afternoon permitting action at Boston ISD.

With the rows of fishing tackle and other apparatus to capture fish at that store, you would think that there wouldn't be a fish left in Massachusetts by the end of the year.   It is like an arsenal stuffed with weapons to do battle with stupid fish.

Course I stocked up a little bit.  Some drop shot hooks, regular hooks, bobbers, sinkers and other stuff designed to help me slay panfish without mercy down at Redd's Pond.

It is going to be a massacre.