Is it winter?

Post general questions and discuss issues related to climbing.
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peninsula

 
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Re: Is it winter?

by peninsula » Tue Jan 24, 2012 2:58 pm

Icarreau, got to hand it to you on the musical talent. I'm a Zeppelin fan, Stairway to Heaven was our high school prom song. I don't want to get started on those memories...

dskoon, all but the BCP are natives, but I'm told BCP should do okay here in PV. When I saw the BCP, I didn't hesitate to grab it. Don't think I've ever seen one outside the White Mountains, certainly not growing around these parts. I'd like to get my hands on a nice foxtail pine, too.

3Deserts, I tried germinating BCP. So far, nothing showing. However, I do have three giant sequoias germinating, cute little buggers sitting on one of the chairs by the window in the dinning room. It will be a few years before I get them in the ground, if they make it that far. I found the BCP at Grand Pa's Nursery in Descanso about five miles west of Pine Valley. It was the only one they had, and it is a nice bushy specimen, too.

I'm trying to get an englemann Oak (a white oak variety). Englemann are found only in SoCal. An interesting factoid is that San Diego county has more native oak species than anywhere else in the world. The englemann is the rarest of them all, and biologists are finding them resistant to the goldspotted oak borer, that blasted beetle-blight culprit that is killing multitudes of the CA live oak (red oak variety) down this way. I found a 24" boxed Englemann specimen for $210.00, and I'll get it if the current buyer backs out.

Hey Rick, I'm going to call Chalfant's Tree Farm and see if they have any foxtail pine. Either way, from their website, it looks to be like a nice tree farm worth visiting next time I'm up that way. I'd get another BCP if they have no foxtail.

Got another 0.25" of rain last night. It was a good ground soaker, this last system... 1.7" total rainfall for the month in PV. Looks like we are headed for a nice drying out. All of the holes ought to be good and wet for today's planting.

Cheers!

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MoapaPk

 
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Re: Is it winter?

by MoapaPk » Tue Jan 24, 2012 3:05 pm

manfromnantucket wrote:Do people in the military REALLY say "over and out"

We still use it for radio transmissions (i.e. little handheld FRS). Also copy that, understood, etc.

EDIT -- extra info
Probably the majority of folks know this, but if you are really young... or cell-phone addicted...

"2-way" radios can both broadcast and receive, but not at the same time-- you generally have to push a button to talk, and if the person on the other communicating radio tries to push the button and talk at the same time, you both hear nothing. So you need to indicate when you are done talking, and "over" is one of the clearest, simplest ways to let the other person know that s/he can have a turn. You also need to indicate when you are satisfied with the transmission, and are done, hence "over and out" -- else the fellow on the other end may think you simply lost the connection. Often the connection is so imperfect, that you need to indicate when you did or didn't understand, and the various "copy" adjuncts do that in a simple way.

One cherished scene from "Malcolm in the Middle" is when Hal tries to use a cellphone for the first time, and insists on saying "over" after each sentence.
Last edited by MoapaPk on Tue Jan 24, 2012 6:01 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Charles

 
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Re: Is it winter?

by Charles » Tue Jan 24, 2012 3:23 pm

MoapaPk wrote:
manfromnantucket wrote:Do people in the military REALLY say "over and out"

We still use it for radio transmissions (i.e. little handheld FRS). Also copy that, understood, etc.

My favourite was 10 4 in Highway Patrol.

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MoapaPk

 
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Re: Is it winter?

by MoapaPk » Tue Jan 24, 2012 4:01 pm

ten-four, good buddy. Got your ears on?

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Charles

 
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Re: Is it winter?

by Charles » Tue Jan 24, 2012 4:07 pm

MoapaPk wrote:ten-four, good buddy. Got your ears on?

Image

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Re: Is it winter?

by dskoon » Tue Jan 24, 2012 4:57 pm

charles wrote:
MoapaPk wrote:ten-four, good buddy. Got your ears on?

Image


Trucker talk, Charles. . .

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peninsula

 
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Re: Is it winter?

by peninsula » Tue Jan 24, 2012 10:39 pm

3Deserts wrote:The BCP is not native? Do you know where the seed or cutting came from?


As far as speaking of the BCP not being native, I mean it is not native to San Diego County. Pine Valley has a mixture of alpine and high desert flora. At 3700 feet, it is a good elevation for pine as well as a decent variety of oak. Of the native pine species, mostly we have coulter and jeffery. I'm trying for the most part to stay native with my plantings with some exceptions. I'll check with the nursery to see exactly what species of BCP I have and where they acquired it. I am aware of the genetic similarities between foxtail and BCP, but I had no idea until reading up on them last year.

3Deserts wrote:What's your soil like? I wonder if a healthy amendment of limestone might not hurt.


The soil around my property is primarily a slightly loamy variety of decomposed granite. Drainage is very good. I understand englemann oak prefers more clay in the soil, so I'm not sure how well they will do in this environment, which is on the edge of their native habitat range. I do have a line on some smallish 15 gallon specimens if the bigger tree falls through, but thanks for the tip on the alternative nursery. As for the pine and cedar specimens, I'm going to check with the nursery on an soil amendments before I do the planting (they are closed until tomorrow).

3Deserts wrote:
I've got six different species on my hill (Q. agrifolia, chrysolepis, kelloggii, cornelius-mulleri, john-tuckeri, and turbinella, the last three being shrub oaks). The black oak is growing extremely slowly, but that's expected.


Wow, that's a nice variety of oak, you've got some hill there!

And back to the subject, we did get a dusting of snow on Laguna Mountain last night.

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MoapaPk

 
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Re: Is it winter?

by MoapaPk » Wed Jan 25, 2012 1:28 am

The mountains west of Las Vegas got snow down to about 5000' last night. At the end of today, snow was still on the N sides, and to the east of Red Rock, to about 6000'. But it will warm up in the next few days...

As for unnatural growth... most plants in suburban Vegas are not natural. I have a small patch of African fescue grass that does fine... if it receives the equivalent of 30 inches of rain a year. We have natural acacias in areas that (broadly) get just 4" of rain a year, but they grow mainly in washes that concentrate water. The popular decorative mesquites (the same genus) don't do well unless they get the equivalent of 10" or more -- these plants come from Arizona and Texas. People grow lots of plants -- like Palo Verde or Chihuahuan cacti -- that really do poorly in these colder temps; they live because their competition is constantly weeded away.

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Re: Is it winter?

by colinr » Wed Jan 25, 2012 8:49 am

I'm forunate to live 10 minutes from a choice of hikes among coast redwoods, a variety of oaks, or a grand mix of both along with other trees. Ya'll are renewing my interest in being more knowledgeable about the specifics. I grew up in a mixed oak forest at the far northern end of the central valley, with a dad who planted a bunch of coast redwoods among them. It was becoming trendy by the time I planted mine, but I've got several aptos blues in my yard. The first ones, planted about 7 years ago, are over 25 feet tall now. We get foggy mornings a lot in the summer and often over 20 inches of rain, with double to quadruple that amount up in the redwood canyons. It's still looking more and more like average numbers will be hard to reach, but we're coming off a huge rain year.

Image

I note that it has been in the spirit of this lengthy and meandering thread to post pics at several points. Maybe Wednesday can include some tree pictures. I know I've got some somewhere.

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peninsula

 
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Re: Is it winter?

by peninsula » Wed Jan 25, 2012 2:24 pm

Feedback on tree plantings from butitsadryheat and SeanReedy impresses me with how quickly these trees can grow! I was talking to Max, the owner of Grandpa's nursery, and he told me about his planting of over 150 jeffery and coulter pines back in the 70's. He lost all but one each in the McCoy and Cedar fires. The surviving coulter has an 8-foot trunk circumference and it over 80-feet tall, the jeffery is even taller.

As to Vegas and the un-natural flora, the same can be said for San Diego and most of SoCal. Coastal San Diegans seem to be clueless as to the fact they are living in a desert! When I visit friends in Phoenix, I'm impressed with many of the neighborhood yards being planted in native flora, or at least drought tolerant, non-invasive specimens. I hardly ever see that in coastal San Diego. Nothing bothers me more than a large, manicured green lawn being watered with automatic sprinklers while it is raining!

Unrelated to my rant, I did confirm the ID on the BCP, it is a Pinus aristata (indigenous to the Rockies), and it came from Oregon. I wish I could be around in 75 years to see how it comes along, but my son and daughter could be... all the better for them.

Friday, I'm taking the horse trailer up to the Moosa Creek Nursery in Valley Center and picking up one 24" (box diameter) englemann and maybe one or two more in 15-gallon containers.

Today is windy! It is forecasted to be dry the remainder of the month. I'm hoping for a wetter February than we experienced for January. Total January rainfall in Pine Valley came to a paltry 1.8" as compared to the average of 5.5". Average rainfall for February is over 6".

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Re: Is it winter?

by The Chief » Wed Jan 25, 2012 2:29 pm

Let's put this "NOAA Drought" concept into perspective.

As it was shared with me yesterday by the Eastern Sierra District LADWP's lead hydrologist (who is a friend and flew in yesterday in a LADWP Bell 407 for fuel during his mid-winter aerial survey) NINE of the last TEN years have been ABOVE NORMAL snow pack years in the Sierra from the border of Oregon all the way to their southern tip, with the last two being well over 175% ABOVE normal. He stated that all the reservoirs within the Eastern Sierra district are well over 110% capacity and maintaining that level with normal required flow rates to sustain the LADWP's req's for the LA Basin via the Aqueduct. This stems from the hundreds of incredibly deep and large natural ground water aquifers throughout the Sierra, sustaining overflowing capacities and continue to feed the streams that supply the above ground water flows. From what he and his team see, this flow will continue through the end of this year if not well into next year. Thus, he is not at all concerned if the Sierra experiences a "BELOW NORMAL" snow pack this season. He even stated that we could comfortably survive another. Fact is according to him and the LADWP's snow survey records stemming back to 1920ish, statistics show that will not happen.

When I asked him about the weekly NOAA Drought Assessment Report, he chuckled and shared that the NOAA lately has had an ill habit of "overboarding their drought graphs" and have been utilizing a far too short of a time period to claim such on their weekly Drought Assessment Data Report. According to him, the NOAA never includes current below ground water level assessment data in this report, at least not from his team. In his opinion, by not including this data, it actually does not tell the truth as to water levels that should be included in any "drought assessment report" for all the regions within their weekly published report.

Thus, according to my friend, the above should be considered when any NOAA "Drought Assessments" are looked at and used to make any drought claims.


But for those that insist on standing on the doom and gloom soap box, that information will never be shared. It doesn't sustain their position.

Over and Out.

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TimB

 
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Re: Is it winter?

by TimB » Wed Jan 25, 2012 2:43 pm

The Chief wrote:
3Deserts wrote:
peninsula wrote:...and 1 bristlecone pine (15 gallon).


Whoah, I'm very curious where you got a 15 gallon Bristlecone! Hell, I'd take a 1 gallon, fiver, ANYTHING!

Or did you grow it from seed?

Chalfant Tree Farm right up the road from my home carries 1, 5 15 & 25 gallon BCP's as well as many other varieties of local pines. Moderately priced as well. Got a 15 gallon one just last month and planted it in our front yard where he can look up at his many relatives directly behind our home.

Nice job Greg on the planting.



Over and out.


I would love to have a Bristlecone in my yard-. I wonder how they would do in the southern Idaho climate?
Hmmm....

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Marmaduke

 
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Re: Is it winter?

by Marmaduke » Wed Jan 25, 2012 7:44 pm

I have to 2 Queen Palms and a California Fan Palm in backyard. Very cold/freeze resistant. My Banana Plants die back but always come back in the late spring.

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