Bumper Crop

asian pear with sagging branches

There’s a lot going on. Before writing about this year’s huge fruit crop, a little about superconductivity (again), energy efficiency (or the lack of), thousands of EVs being scrapped in China, persecution of Catholics in the US, and the very important BRICS summit meeting Aug. 22nd in South Africa, plus a review of our Do-it-yourself solar projects

room temp superconductivity debunked

An article in ‘Nature’ by Dan Garisto Aug. 16th seems to confirm my post from last week in which I sort of scoffed at the July 22nd announcement by 3 scientists that they had achieved superconductivity at room temperature. I went on the record as saying it was impossible.

it takes energy to produce energy

charting how much energy has to be put in compared to how much we get out, or Energy Return on energy Invested (EROEI), from Robert Bryce , “The Iron Law of Power Density”

…as you can see from the chart, other sources of energy can’t hold a candle to nuclear

EV junkyards

according to a Bloomberg article, thousands of EVs in China have been abandoned.

The Chinese government subsidized EVs before there was any significant demand. This is what happens when a central authority tries to control the economy, instead of allowing the laws of supply and demand and free enterprise determine the allocation of capital. The subsidies resulted in hundreds of car manufacturers and new startups producing EVs, but the only buyers were ride-share startups. (the range on those early models was only about 60 miles) When the subsidies were cut back in 2019, many companies went out of business. Their fleets of EVs were not saleable because the newer models have more appeal and longer range. If you enlarge the photo, you’ll see weeds growing up between the cars. What a waste!

Bloomberg - “About a decade ago, encouraged by government subsidies, hundreds of automakers across China, both established players and startups, waded into electric-car manufacturing. They churned out huge numbers of early-stage EVs — relatively no-frills cars whose batteries in some instances could only run for around 100 kilometers (62 miles) on a charge…Those vehicles were mostly bought by ride-hailing companies that leased them to drivers. “At the beginning of China’s EV market, delivery numbers were driven by car-sharing fleets,” said Young Huang, a senior analyst with JSC Automotive, a consultancy with offices in Shanghai and Stuttgart. “Only a few private customers chose to buy them.”

persecution of catholics - in the US!

from Jim Rickards “Strategic Intelligence” newsletter, Aug. 21: “Last January, the FBI produced a memo warning about “Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology.” This memo was produced in the Richmond, Virginia office but had input from the Los Angeles field office and the Portland, Oregon field office. As usual, the FBI had no examples to support their claims. It was all anti-Catholic bias run wild…When FBI Director Christopher Wray testified under oath about this a few months ago, he said the source of the memo was solely the Richmond field office. He lied. The participation of Los Angeles and Portland has now been confirmed.”

a new currency for the BRICS nations

…and Jim Rickards on Aug. 22nd, the day of the BRICS summit meeting in South Africa: “The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) currency will not involve the yuan, ruble, rupee or other national currency of the members. Those currencies will continue to exist for domestic consumption and contracts, but they will gradually be replaced by the new BRICS currency for international settlements. The value of each unit of BRICS currency will not be tied to another currency or basket. Instead, it will be tied either to a basket of commodities (oil, gold, copper, wheat, iron ore, etc.) or simply to gold.

“Over 67 countries have been invited to attend, including 53 from Africa alone. Among those 67 countries, more than 20 have expressed interest in joining the BRICS, and seven have formally applied for membership….If any new members are admitted, first on this list will be Saudi Arabia….Russia and Saudi Arabia are two of the three largest oil producers in the world (the other being the U.S.), so including both countries in the same group creates a forum that may be more powerful than OPEC when it comes to setting oil prices.”

- this could be the beginning of the end of the US Dollar’s dominance in global trade. The two main reasons so many nations are interested in developing a new currency for global trade are because of the massive money-printing of the US dollar, which is the current reserve currency, during covid and beyond, and the abuse of monetary power by establishing sanctions during the Ukraine war. The sanctions made it much harder for some countries to use their dollars and to engage in trade and commerce. Money and banking was used as a weapon against Russia and countries who had anything to do with them. The sanctions have not only been a failed policy, they also created a strong backlash against the US. The BRICS summit is important because it is a reaction against the US having so much power and using the dollar as a weapon. A currency controlled by a consortium of nations will spread that power around instead of giving it all to one country. This won’t happen overnight, but it’s coming.

Bumper Crop

“Like apples of gold in settings of silver
Is a word spoken in right circumstances.” Proverbs 25:11

“Keep my commandments and live,
And my teaching as the apple of your eye.” Proverbs 7:2

apples and pears

Last year, our fruit trees had less apples and pears than any time in the last 20 years. But this year is the opposite. I’m not sure what the cause is, but the branches are bending down almost to the ground from the weight of the unprecedented load of fruit. One of the branches on our Bartlett Pear tree broke, so I’m picking some of the ‘low hanging fruit’ before it’s fully ripe, to lighten the strain on the branches. Pears will ripen after being held in a paper bag for a few days. Unripe apples are fine for pie and applesauce.

pear tree broken branch - click to enlarge

neighbor’s apple tree, huge branch loaded with apples broke and is lying on ground

For our youngest apple tree, bearing its first real crop, I’ve propped some of the branches with forked sticks.

I’m always thankful to the Lord for our harvest, and this year we’re so blessed that we’ve been able to give away 8 bags of apples to the neighbors, and it looks like we’ll soon have a lot of Bartlett Pears and Asian Pears to give away too.

the intelligence of the trees - aka ‘epigenetices’

The trees seem to ‘know’ (see earlier post on epigenetics, “A Tale of 3 Trees” and “The Intelligence of the Cell”) they need to shed some of the excess weight on their branches, so a lot of apples are falling before they’re ripe. Those make good pies and applesauce, because adding sugar cures the tartness, and cooking cures the hardness and also kills the germs that may have been picked up from the ground.

I’m not sure I can explain the bumper crop. Our neighbors have been blessed too, so it’s nothing to do with my particular trees or the way I’ve cared for them. I know some years an early spring thaw brings out the blossoms too soon and then a late frost kills many of them, causing a poor crop. Fortunately, fruit trees are designed by the Creator to be ‘smart’ enough (epigenetics again) so that not all the blossoms open up at the same time, so some always survive even with a late frost. This year, it seems every blossom was fertilized by the bees and formed into an apple. That is so rare and wonderful, but I’m sad to see some have to be cast off to save the branches.

grape vine

It’s interesting, though, that our grapevine, which is also having by far the heaviest crop since I planted it 23 years ago, is not dropping any grapes on the ground. That reminds me of a bible verse – Malachi 3:11, speaking of a promise for faithfully tithing to the Lord: (Bev and I tithe, as a way of showing our thankfulness to Him, and have never regretted it – you can’t outgive God; God is good) Mal.3:11 - “I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty.”

grapes starting to ripen, and not dropping; looking good

When making the rounds of the neighbors, we took the opportunity to also give away 5 bibles since we had accumulated several modern English translations over the years; the newer translations are easier to understand than the King James. It was good to have some face-to-face talks with the neighbors. We don’t do that enough nowadays.

root cellar

We have a small root cellar filling with apples, and an old spare refrigerator full of apples, and the trees are still only half picked. We’re making applesauce and apple pies and will soon be canning pears.

our ‘root cellar’ is simply a 4’ hole in the ground, lined with concrete, and protected by an insulated, hinged roof cover

old, spare refrigerator that was given to us years ago

Our fig tree also had it’s largest crop this year, with a possible second crop ripening depending on September’s weather. I wasn’t sure what to do with all the figs, and am open to suggestions. It’s only the 3^rd year we’ve had figs so I’m still learning…As an experiment, I pureed a bunch of them in a blender, and added the puree to applesauce, in a ratio of about 2/3 applesauce and 1/3 fig ‘sauce’, and I brilliantly labeled it ‘apple/fig sauce’. It tastes good. It was easy, because the fig’s skin is perfectly edible; I just threw them in the blender whole.

We also have a ‘hardy kiwi’ vine which is loaded, but it’s always been very productive. These northern kiwis are about the size of grapes, their skin smooth and easily edible with no ‘fuzz’, and they’re sweet as honey. If you cut one open, the flesh is green and full of tiny black seeds, just like a big, regular kiwi.

Our bumper crop reminded me of the description of heaven in Revelation and a similar prophecy in Ezekiel… “On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” Rev.22:2 “Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.” Ezek.47:12

DIY (do it yourself) solar projects

The hot sunny weather that we’ve been having this summer is as hot and lasting as long as we’ve ever seen, with as long a spell without rain as we’ve ever had.

The home-made passive solar hot water heater is giving us lots of free hot water, and my home-made solar oven (it’s just an insulated box painted black with glass tipped at an angle and an access door in the back. By setting it on a 5 gal bucket, I can easily rotate it to follow the sun.)not only saves a bit of electricity that would have been used for cooking supper, but also keeps us cooler by cooking less inside the house.

Of course the simplest solar system of all, the clothesline, is not exactly a new invention!

Talking about DIY projects, what I’m working on now is a little 600W off grid solar system for emergency backup for when the power is down. I’m concerned that we might have rather lengthy power grid outages in the future because of the inadequacy of the grid to handle all of the new demand for electricity due to subsidies for EVs. The increasing reliance on wind and solar systems is being foolishly rushed instead of being built up gradually and sensibly. Wind and solar are intermittent and battery backups are not long-lasting.

I’ll do a detailed post on the 600W solar system project when it gets a little further along. My design allows for adjusting the tilt of the panels (more upright in winter for the lower sun; more tipped back in summer), and also the capability of swiveling the whole array (three 200W panels) from east to west throughout the day, maximizing electrical output.

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next week - hope to have an update and analysis on the BRICS conference, a projection of the gradual demise of the US Dollar as the global reserve currency, a discussion about how this will affect us and our children, our investments