The “Pomodoro Gardener”

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Our focus piece today is the “action plan” which became necessary when we looked at the most valuable thing to own in the future.  That research kept coming back to food and water above all else.  I will be making a grocery pickup this afternoon and for just two of us living a simple life, it’s a thousand a month to eat plus have a daily libation. Government inflation and experienced inflation are gapping.

The gardening skills are only part of the equation.  The rest?  Ah! That’s a time management problem.  Since I’m a huge fan of both “Deep Work” and “the pomodoro technique”  as focus tools, the logical marriage follows even out here in our 70s and 80s.

Before we get to the face-stuffing, though, a look at important headlines along with the odds of a sudden month-end selloff now that we have “Kissed the Trend Lines.”  But will we reverse down? Ask in a week.

Stick around – there’s a lot to cover…starting with the ADP Jobs numbers just out.

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36 thoughts on “The “Pomodoro Gardener””

  1. Mulch this HomeSkilletz- and everything else you gotz laying around the ranch.
    Composting is most powerful gardening technique used in the hugglekulture beds and regular in da ground gardening going on around the beds at house BCN.

    Year round gardening is ultimate goal in these parts (40* degrees N) anzo in-ground or sub ground level greenhouse with Rocket Mass Heater built in https://insteading.com/blog/rocket-mass-heaters/ – is a solution.

    ..takes on moar urgency as news the Elbownians have entered the fray Against Mother Russia, last night – how anyone or country can be so stupid as to test the Russian Resolve is way beyond my limited ability at reasoning.

    So hunkering in the bunker takes on greater IMPORTANCE as we stumble our way outta of August and into “SeptemberPorn.”
    ..We danced until night became a brand new day
    two hypersonics playing scenes from an apocalyptic play
    September porn, still can make me feel that way.
    https://youtu.be/y4rKYxkFIMQ?si=vBapxFiwHnN6upgM

    No Bitcoinz? – please dont be the fearful fool – get youse a peace. Da other scarce “technology” of great interest to the Spiritual types – SILBER – itz da PHYZ U want!
    Sayz hear – “special” – also might wanna get Ureself sum karlilian SHUNGITE – again special properties = positive Benefits Humanbeans ..due diligence is advised.
    Off to make MOAR and take MOAR…”wee this investing stuff is easy”… remember the Mogambo Guru ?

    * yes it works on all kinds of Beans/Beanerz

  2. “The top row in the report is total employment (private plus government) while the lower is all private – that’s the one to look at”

    hmm ..its missing something.. oh yeah I know.. in influx of illegals entering and taking government jobs..
    oh the refugee that works at the govt. job can now speak a little english..
    my thought is..if the influx of illegals changes the dynamics of those figures tremendously..

  3. ” Taiwan Is An ‘Independent Country,'”

    Yep. And we’re all sovereign individuals w/agency too.

  4. hmm.. while Xi would like to kick in Taiwan doors…hmm..I don’t think he does..
    almost every citizen of Taiwan has a family history in China.
    not counting the moral and ethical decline in the Taiwan citizens..
    if he’s smart and he is..he will let the usa get bogged down.. let a keystone cop movement.. we can’t be everywhere at once..let us use up our reserves then wham..

  5. How do you ‘time’ enjoyment? I don’t believe that there is a timer that works on that scale., and that is one area that you didn’t mention. I enjoy working in the vegetable garden. I have never set a timer – never occurred to me to do so. For me it is a type of therapy., a mental escape from this BS world we find ourselves in.
    My garden isn’t huge., and I plan on expanding it by another 20% this Spring. I look forward to it., not bemoaning the labor and time involved in getting it done and going. That attitude seems rather detrimental. The outcome of the labor is worth every moment I spend working it.
    Yes., I have multiple interests and projects [ I don’t stress myself timing those either.,] But I feel that a successful and great looking vegetable garden is well worth any and all the time and effort I put into it. Stress free.
    Almost done around here with the garden. Spent yesterday canning the brussell sprouts.., [ , halved and oven baked with olive oil and aged parmesan – yumm..,] 11 jars total.., stretched a bit and that’s 20 to 25 dinners. Again.., enjoyment. Not time-labor calculations.
    Try adding a little mental-enjoyment into your thinking and calculations – might help a bit in the long run.

    • Our little garden had a rough start, then hit a wall when two little bucks I’d not seen for a couple of years and NOwhere within a hundred yards of our house here in our little town suddenly came around the corner of the house one morning nibbling here and there. I had just got up and was looking out the carport window to see if the World had any surprises for us that day. When we went to see where they’d been just about everything had the tops eaten out of them – so we named them Venison and Sausage. The one exception to their assault was the corn but the Sun took care of those plants regardless of how much water we’d put to them.

      It was a trial run anyway and we learned some lessons. I hope we try for a Fall garden once we plow it all under again – that is IF Life gives us any kind of break and it starts raining. Our daughter’s marriage blew up a week and a half ago as everyone knew it probably would so we’ve moved her, our youngest granddaughter and their Australian Blue Heeler (that, luckily is a very good dog that everyone loves and, no, we don’t call him “Bluey”) into the house we’ve been seriously thinking of turning into a B&B. Something has always told me that a short time rental enterprise just wasn’t going to happen in that location and we’ve just found out why. At least she’ll be sharing the bills in another month or so as they will skyrocket with them in it now, plus they’re closer, but it’s these constant changes in our personal constellation that makes planning a virtual impossibility. At least her husband aspired to being a Prepper. There was a lot of things in their garage that Preppers lust after like a Berky filter and 6 months of survival food buckets – plus TP!

      God must think I’m a builder with skills that need to be exercised as He keeps handing me wreckage and says “Build something with it! Do it till you get it right!”.

  7. re: coup de grâce
    feat: iboga

    Folks,

    The “France24″ newsfeed informs that the military junta has restored internet service to the République Gabonaise which had been unceremoniously severed last Saturday evening by the for-now-toppled democratically elected government. One imagines further details of the house arrested president’s alleged 40 French properties as well as finanglings of his 49 siblings shall follow along soonly.

    Let the people inhale the moment deeply with a verse from Gabon’s national anthem:
    ” Yes that happy time dreamed of by our ancestors
    Come to us at last, rejoice sentient beings,
    And hunt the sorcerers, those treacherous deceivers
    Who sow poison and spread fear.”

    Also, filed under “France24” ‘Africa’ news is reporting on the tragic gang violence going on in Haiti…

    Attention USA home gardeners – please be advised that Gabon’s iboga shrub (tabernanthe iboga) is not legal for cultivation. Anecdotal reports suggest that the hallucinogenic effects of the plants may render positive outcomes for heroin and opoid addicts to get clean. This “Guardian” report offers detail on germinating therapy treatments as well as dangers when the real mccoy is cut with rauvolfia vomitoria (devil’s pepper?).

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jan/23/ibogaine-iboga-drug-addiction-psychedelic-gabon

    • “iboga shrub”
      I would suggest NOT messing with herbs without knowing the dosage .. leave it up to a pharmacologist to put it in proper dosage amounts..
      all of us has weeds growing in and around our homes that have similar properties.. people that choose to get that euphoric feeling can on just about anything..
      like herbs from the yard there is the matter of proper dosage.. these should be made by trained people ..take to much and it could be fatal. like water. to much to fast and your dead..

    • re: Flameout
      feat: Buddy, can you spare a light?

      Folks,

      “CGTN” published a ‘chart(s?) of the day’ which may offer foreboding thought of weighty matters to come as the euphoria of weightlessness decays. The charts compare China-USA (and the West in general?) with data from 2019 to 2022. They don’t say it but it could look like the before and after of covid has been devastating to the West.

      Percentage share of global merchandise exports:
      China is up, US is down.

      Percentage share of global digitally delivered exports:
      China is up, US is down.

      https://news.cgtn.com/news/2023-08-30/Chart-of-the-Day-How-has-China-U-S-trade-changed-since-2019–1mGw0RUEKje/index.html

      Speaking of numbers, the First Couple dropped into a Washington area middle school grade 8 math class on Monday to welcome the children back. The school district website states that the school ranks below the median in performance, the student body is 83% Black, 23% are in special ed, and 58% are deemed “at risk”.

      Guess who marched into the classroom and declared according to the transcript – “–what’s the matter, baby? You’re looking at me like you don’t want to be in this math class. …”. Thankfully, Dr. Biden was at hand being introduced as an English teacher. She took the floor and delivered an endearing and memorable welcome address to the children comprised of complete sentences.

  8. “He thinks the Chinese will wait another week – maybe two – before making their move. ”

    hmm.. I’d wait till winter winds blistering across the country.
    not sure if it’s this year or next that the countermeasure of shutting down natural gas and propane hits the ole pocketbook.
    I think he will wait..let Taiwan decide to go back into the fold so to speak..we cannot adequately protect taiwan..and everyone else to.
    when it lites up we will try to defend everyone at the same time and ourselves..toss an emp in there and it’s nightmare on elm street..

    • New election for Taiwan President are in late Jan next year. There are four candidates – three are “China Friendly”., the forth is a very outspoken “Freedom and Independence” for Taiwan – and he is leading in the polls by a huge margin. I do not believe that Taiwan will ‘decide to go back’.., it doesn’t look like they are leaning in that direction. And with the U.S. [ and possibly France] ready to ship hundreds of millions in new arms to Taiwan – I’m not convinced that Xi can wait much longer – he also needs to rally his people due the economic quagmire they now find themselves – and nothing rallies a population like a good ole fashioned war.

    • The Chinese economy is the major thing that will spur the invasion of Taiwan – at some point they will need the diversion away from their problems

  9. hmm mediation in Niger…
    they are running out of time..
    WINTER is coming fast.. and there are crop shortages the loss of the nordstream pipeline puts nato in a deep freeze..
    https://www.wfp.org/global-hunger-crisis
    they have to move fast if they want to get the oil and gas and other resources..
    since Niger signed a security agreement with Niger..this could be the spark..
    https://www.nato.int/docu/review/articles/2006/09/01/energy-security-nato-s-potential-role/index.html

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cfr.org/blog/nigeria-and-russia-sign-military-cooperation-agreement%3famp

  10. Morgan Stanley sees the S&P 500 nearing 5,000 by year-end – what would be an 11% rise. Starting in September. This would top the all time high of 4,818.
    – Andrew Slimmon is the Senior portfolio manager of the $665 billion dollar investment management business arm of MorganStanley.
    – His counterpart at Bank of America stated we will see the S&P500 hit a new high in September as a Bull Market Rally will dominate the markets until, the end of the year.
    – These two guys are in charge of over a trillion dollars in investment funds – should we be listening to what they are saying?

  12. .., and answer to a query:
    “I think they are missing a major point. If they decide to price-in the cost of a recession, the market will plunge ten percent in a week. And a recession is still on the table. Neither the recession, nor a sell-off can be ignored so easily as they are predicting. Why has Buffet increased his cash to near record levels? A couple of hundred billion buys an awful lot of depressed stocks, and he loves to do that. You are right about one thing – Morgan and BoA are selling something, but I don’t know what it is either. “

  13. Yo G – “think about it”

    Go deep, go long – coot will hit U with a “bomb”.. an SPY bomb.
    Bear market smear market, this “puppy” is powering higher to new higher highs.
    Love that “higher highs”.. reminds Steve Winwood Arc of a Diver ..A Higher Lover- https://youtu.be/k9olaIio3l8?si=270XoMwGnzA92Gwx
    A higher love = a higher high, no?

    – got that tune included on the PianoDisc system (PD iQ in app store) installed on a Yamaha p22
    – Birthday present 2 coot from coot, been taking weekly lessons since mid July. The recently restored Schumacker baby grand with AMPICO player system was given to my Daughters’ family. The sound and resonance coming from that piano are unreal, unlike any piano sound I ever heard before.It is what inspired me to learn how to play.
    I open the front windows of her house, and put that player system on loudest setting and sit in front of keyboard and watch peeps walking down sidewalk out front..everybody stops and listens and looks. Yeah nobody knows I can barely play jinglebells, put I practice everyday – and everybody knows how to get to Carnegie Hall..

    Practice. “We’s talking practice!”-bubba chuck

    See ya at the Turn..

    • No worries there Bill – CBDC’s have FAILED everywhere they have been tested. Population does NOT want them, will not NOT adopt them.

      Nobody listens, just moar bitching , moar moaning and complaining…waawaawaa

      Oh well – tough shitski’s – Generational BUYing opportunity this past March in BTC – G E N E R A T I O N A L …last time Price in USD – $20k

      • LOL. Oh Gawd. You’re so funny. What would we do without you here? If George allowed avatars yours could be Arte Johnson’s Little Nazi with a Bitcoin symbol on his helmet.

        I simply do not know how the bankers expect to survive a wholesale move to CBDCs even in a resounding failure of the US$ system. You’re right, nobody except the profoundly and willfully ignorant people who only care about getting what they need out of the plastic cards they carry want these digital impostors. Once the other shoe falls they’ll know what imperial despotism is right here at home, the black markets will begin to proliferate and, eventually, everything that goes with it. I can easily see TPTB shutting down any means to use any digital alternative other than CBDCs which means BC exchanges are shut down or severely assaulted IF they leave public access to the Internet up at all. If only officialdom can access the ‘net then BC is sunk and you’ll see no tears from the bankers that own everything then.

        Please understand that World domination IS the end-game here and we will continue to slip-slide down that slope as time goes on. Those here and elsewhere that cling to the view “Normies” have will be sobbing in their last latte when they realize what they’ve been told is real. I was talking to a young electrician yesterday about everything going on and he kept saying “I just keep a positive attitude and hope for the best”. Ya, right young feller. Wish in one hand and poop in the other and see which one fills up first.

  17. “you need to know where MacDill Air Force Base is.”

    Or not.

    Ops to the west of us are run by USINDOPACOM (pacom.mil). A blowhard in Florida might slow down the SpcOps, but it shouldn’t affect our operations in the Pacific.

    BTW, DeSantis has half of the hurricane-affected area back online already. (Last I heard, Florida has 175k without power, down from nearly a half-mil this morning.) It is utterly amazing what a Governor can accomplish on his own when he’s not sitting around waiting for FEMA
    _______

    Russians claiming that Ukraine has attacked a Russian base adjacent Estonia. Will they also entangle the Baltics? – Russian base on fire on Estonia border – Four Il-76s destroyed – “Project Edelweiss” activated”

    This is incredibly bad. The Ukrainians have drones that’ll fly 700km, but unless they can convince folks they skimmed them in after flying over 300 miles of Russia at treetop level, then some other nation (or six) are playing a really dangerous game of “aid and abet…”
    _______

    ” Did Russia Hack Poland’s Trains? MSM Says Yes, but … Well, You Decide”

    No.

    Frankly, Russians probably have hacked the comms, transport, and power/infrastructure systems of every nation in the EU &or NATO. That is a really powerful trump card that Russia is not likely to even hint at until its play can be a decisive move toward an end game that’s favorable to Russia (Do I get an award for “most stupid buzz-words in a single sentence,” for this one…???)
    _______

    “This as the Council of Foreign Relations has come out with a proposal that mediation would be better than a military event…”

    Be advised the CFR is packed with neocons and Foreign Affairs magazine is its official mouthpiece.

    “Thing about this report is we think it means there are still smart enough people who can see the U.S. can’t take care of its homeless, let alone light up and be ready for four and even five wars at the same time.”

    The vast majority of CFR members don’t care. Their agenda is not driven by the prosperity, or even the survival of the United States.
    _______

    “Virtually all major countries are essentially bankrupt in terms of resources and replacement population…which will have to lead to the inevitable outcome.”

    You forgot “morals:”

    Virtually all major countries are morally bankrupt.

  18. “Assuming it’s organic, of course. But whether it’s from an English Cottage Garden style, the latest spin of Container Garden, or the best time ever with Electroculture with Square Foot Garden, it doesn’t really matter which one of these is chosen. Given a similarly sized onion, pepper, or potato, I don’t know anyone who can say with gusto that “Aha! This is from a no-till, straw mulched monoculture!” As contrasted with “Mama mia! Square Foot, second planting, three servings of compost tea!”

    You would be surprised.

    Michigan produces the best-tasting apples, peaches, cherries, and onions. Indiana produces the best tomatoes and muskmelon. Washington apples and Georgia peaches are famous. Michigan’s are better-tasting, because the climate forces them to grow more slowly and absorb more nutrition as they grow. Everything grows faster and more bountifully in California, but Red Gold, which makes Heinz, Hunt’s, Brooks, Del Monte, and every other brand of ketchup one can think of, including all the private-label and store brands, is located in Elwood, Indiana, in the heart of “tomato country.” Anyone who is familiar with the taste of a tomato can tell instantly whether a ‘mater comes from Indiana, Ohio, or New Jersey, or comes from a place like California where the fruit grows so rapidly that it has very little taste.

    If you allow your plant growth to be too efficient, its edible portion will suffer, both in taste and in food value. In a sustainable, organic farm, you can NOT take more out of the soil than can be replenished via manure (brown, or green) and mulch. In an EOTWAWKI situation where you have to produce food for you & yours, or die, that bag of 12-6-6 isn’t going to be available. If’fn you can’t till fish heads and melon rind into the soil and grow your own insecticide, you’re fux0red…

  19. FWIW,

    When I was a kid:

    We stopped at a roadside stand in Indiana, and got corn, tomatoes, and cantaloupe. When we got home, Mom dragged the mass-produced produce out of the ‘frig and my parents had me do a taste test. There was no comparison.

    We stopped at a roadside stand in Michigan and got Jonathan, McIntosh, Lodi, and Golden Delicious apples, and Elberta peaches. There’s no comparison in taste.

    BTW, stuff like this is called “home-schooling.” For any young’un who doesn’t want some perv telling their 4yo daughter: “This is a penis. Isn’t it nice. Did you know you can have one too, but you can’t tell your mommy and daddy? (etc…)” home schooling ain’t rocket surgery.

    Kids remember concrete examples, and if you let your child pay for, and receive the change from small transactions such as these, in no time you can move to “What are these things in the cart going to cost?” and suddenly, you have a 6 or 7 year old who can do addition and subtraction, and do multiplication in their head (to compute the sales tax), and you haven’t put a piece of paper in front of them or shoved their nose in a book.

    My kids are constantly amazed and staggered by the level of stupidity exhibited by those around them. Part of this is because they really are of above-average intelligence, but a good bit of this is they’ve worked in retail, and even in their 30s, still race the cash register to see whether it is faster than they. They still notice things that other people don’t. They still DO things that other people their age can’t, and it’s all because I was a bastard from the time they were toddlers until they hit puberty, and made them compute the change from transactions, before they received it…

  20. “For two people who like to have 4-6 months of ready food on hand in the freezer and storeroom, where do you put the veggies? This means planning for a harvest in advance by eating down the freezer to make room,”

    First, you dig a hole…

    There are crops that’ll keep for many months in a root cellar, which do nothing but take up space if stored “conventionally.” In your locale, I’d want to dig down 15-16 feet because I would want the ceiling to be at least five feet below ground. Around here, there are a lot of cellars that’re only about 5′ high. I’m 6’1″ and I don’t like to stoop to walk.

    I would also like rudimentary lighting, even if it’s only a 40w bulb in a Leviton ceramic fixture (actually, I’d use a couple 4′ LED shop fixtures, but that is lighting overkill in an environment where there is normally zero light.) Therefore, the “ceiling” would be at least 7′ and probably 7½’, and I’d want the cellar at least 6′ wide, to accommodate 18″ wide shelves down both sides and across the back. (One of my ancestors installed the end-shelves on a pivot and hid the escape door + tunnel for the running slaves, behind it. ‘Tis a lesson not worth forgetting…)

    18″ shelves are sufficient for top-fed racks (they automatically keep your stuff in “oldest-first” order and so, automagically rotate your stock for you.) Somewhere, I have plans for both can-racks and bag-racks, but frankly, they’re so easy to visualize, after looking at the plans once, both construction and modification went into me brain as exploded 3-D dimensional drawings…

    Make sure you have both a door or hatch at the top and a door at the bottom. You want as few critters as possible to invade your stash.

  21. “As of this week, I am back on sprouting of mung beans. Not hard to do, but I got out of the practice”

    Any seed that is not hybrid and hasn’t been killed can theoretically be sprouted. A sprouted seed has between 6 and 16 TIMES as much food value as the unsprouted seed. You can sprout wheat into a cream of wheat superfood in a matter of about 4 days. Navys or great northerns will make a ham & bean superfood if allowed to sprout before cooking. Pinole is already a superfood, but I would like, someday, to try to sprout the corn and see if there’s a way to make a sprouted pinole. The advantage to a sprouted superfood is the name of the [survival] game is calories, and sprouting causes a radical increase in both the caloric and nutritional value of seeds…

    • I’ve been trying to sprout a couple of apricot seeds for many weeks now by putting the seeds ( I removed the outer shell ) inside a wet paper towel and putting them in a ziplock bag. So far nothing but some browning of the paper around the seeds and no evidence of mold but no roots have presented themselves. I’ve had them on the window sill but should I have put them in a dark place? You hardly ever see apricot trees at all any more.

        • Anything is possible. I’ve gotten peach pits to sprout before but I may just be in too much of a hurry as well.

      • “You hardly ever see apricot trees at all any more.”

        Southern Indiana and SoCal.

        The Indiana apricots are healthier (pits are much higher in laetrile), but I prefer California. If it’s a hybrid or cross-pollinated, the pit is dead. I don’t know how to grow pit-plants (peaches, apricots, plums) from seed. With some, you’ve got to extract the seed from the pit. With some, you plant the whole fruit (and the meat nurtures the pit to life). I’ve bought seedlings, so as to not have to know. What I DO know is to grow apricots, you have to have peach or apricot trees, to grow plums or nectarines, you have to have nectarine or plum trees. They will pollinate each other, but the fruit, like a mule, is sterile…

  22. Alcohol, nicotine and other recreational drugs are a tax on anyone’s lifestyle. All of the health risks associated with tobacco proclaimed by the medicals are understated if anything. I will acknowledge that the Oxford study which blames all disease on alcohol consumption is academic social engineering lunacy; however, there are definitely risks associated with high consumption. For me, the risk of exposure to mean drunks while social drinking was the biggest health downside.
    In corralling Ure operating expenses, you have to deal with lifestyle issues. And no, I am not trying to convince anyone to give anything up, I am just pointing out that sometimes you have to align your lifestyle with the economics of reality.

  23. while i do understand Ure Position with reguards to Bitcoin and cryptos Goerge.

    the 4 vantages that intersect and support what i see are

    The SEC will approve Black Rocks Bitcoin fund in 2024.

    also this line from the Fed.
    ‘I have no issue with bitcoin now that it is fed controled and regulated.”

    the advancement of AI.

    and the change in opinion from warren buffet.

    he went from ‘i wouldnt buy all the bitcoin in the world for $25.” to most recently saying bitcoin and cryptos are like toys.

    plus the entire ecomony collaped prior to covid. covid shut it down so nobody noticed. in the last 3 years the entire supply chain, comercial and industrial complex has had an over haul, restructuring and re-organization. to the green belt and black belt six sigma courses. almost to the letter, if you have studdied those buisness courses. i have.

    so, the economy is set to bloom greatly, huge prosperity and Trump will greatly benifit from it once he takes office.

    been seeing that a while. but i dont say everything i see.

    it is important to understand everyones position and they why and unsterstand their supporting data. all sides of the table. not just clining to one position. once you see the shifts in postion. the future becomes less muddied water and more in focus.

    once im up and running. i will drop the link here.

    until then. all the best.

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