Ecological Weed Management class

Lots of impressions to sort, so I thought I’d begin a thread.

Dr. Nancy Gift is the professor. 13 students, including me. Another older person, Don or John, and he seems to be taking more than one class. He’s a plant beginner.
Josh is a returning Ag student after taking several years to work in the industry. He is extremely knowledgeable and motivated. He’s most interested in composting.
I recognize Katie from Dr. Smith’s class last spring.
Classes are Tuesday and Thursday from 8 to 10.
Dr. Gift spent the first class helping us see the various features of random plants out around the building in order to begin identifying them.

Tuesday, she gave a quiz on an assigned reading, and I blanked entirely. We also got a tour of the herbarium lab and we talked about creating a collection of samples. Plant presses will be distributed soon.

Today, we talked about climate change and how it affects weeds and their management. Since weeds are more genetically diverse in their own populations compared to crop seed, they have an advantage in coping with changes.
Since there is more CO2 in the atmosphere, you’d think plants would all love it. But I learned today that’s not necessarily so. I need to read up on the Calvin cycle of photosynthesis. There are three ways plants breathe. C4 is sorghum, which takes bigger breaths than C3 plants. Then there are CAM plants that breathe at night and photosynthesize during the day. These are desert and drought-resistant plants.

We took vans out to the farm and surveyed plants around the buildings and fence rows. Several buildings are overgrown with the biggest wintercreeper I’ve ever seen. And tons of berries hanging from them. It was like a horror movie!

I need to assemble a better satchel for carrying the field guide, a notebook and pen, and how to manage my damn glasses. Oh, and a magnifying lens.

Oh, and another tidbit. Even with plants having more Carbon available in the atmosphere, because it’s not balanced with the other elements from the soil, our plant foods can be less nutritious than in the past.

Oh, and the college is selling its carbon credits from their managed forest to California energy companies as offset.

AppHarvest is a hydroponics business building facilities in Kentucky. Josh worked for them for several months in the Richmond plant. He hates them for their arrogance and wasteful methods and their actions to replace the local farmers and then buy up their land cheaply. Dr. Gift agrees, and helped to persuade the college president to not sell land to them. She believes they are really gearing up to grow cannibis when it becomes legal to grow here.

The Calvin cycle and photorespiration:

https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/photosynthesis-in-plants/photorespir...

If I remember correctly, ATP is a Triphosphate, converted from ADP, diphosphate. This is the primary way that plants (correction: all life forms) make and release energy for their life functions.

Prof. Gift arrived with gifts. She decided that her collection of random field guides might be more used by some of us. The one that landed in my hands was Wildflowers & Plant Communities. The pages on bog plants was particularly interesting because of my recent visit to Hazeldell Meadow.

We discussed weed management in pasture today, with a side conversation on land grant colleges and the Extension Service and their publications.

There are mechanical and chemical methods of dealing with unwanted plants. But rotational grazing seems to offer more benefits than the other practices. There are upfront capital costs and possibly more labor, but the ecological benefits are high.
Keeping the grazers to a defined small space makes them graze more evenly. Changing paddocks helps with other pest issues such as parasites. Adding other species to the rotation combines the strengths of each. Joel Salatin is an example of intense pasture utilization. Also, need to read up on the New Zealand practices in sheep forage rotation.

Dr. Gift described her chicken tractor, an Eglu.



We walked across the hospital campus (noting the lack of weeds) to a community garden, where there were plenty.

I think I can finally identify barnyard grass, when it’s in flower, at least.
Two students tasted berries growing on an archway. They hadn’t identified it. Bad idea. Heart leaf peppervine. Ornamental, not edible.
Walked back keeping J (don’t know how to spell it!) company while she tried to find a plant in the book. She managed, and I had an extra bookmark for her. She wants to study agriculture, but this is her first exposure. I’d like to help her with some basics.

We got our plant presses!!

Oh and I found a winter vest in my closet with pockets big enough for the book and notebook. But it was too hot! Went looking for a better hands-free option and immediately found a sling satchel at Goodwill.

I believe my term research project is going to be Bermuda grass. Kentucky is an especially wonderful place for weeds. I’ve not seen them grow so large and abundant elsewhere.
But wiregrass, or another name is devil’s grass, is particularly aggravating.
Most weeds weaken if covered or mulched. Not this one. The roots just go deeper and the stems worm their way out in all directions and infest the plant beds.

I spent the afternoon cleaning my newish beds at the top of the front slope. The lawn that borders is mostly wiregrass, with a topping of crabgrass and a heavy load of nutsedge on top.

I acquired a carpet runner at Goodwill and laid it down on this lawn edge. I will alternate that with hard raking.

Today we had a quiz. 15 weeds laid out, and the goal was to observe and record particulars about each.
I’ve forgotten many of the botanical terms, and others have never been exposed to them. I find this to be a weakness in class presentation.
Secondarily, we tried to name each, but that wasn’t graded.

Then we went back to the community garden and spent an hour weeding a plot for Dr. Parr. She’s the soil science professor I want to learn from next term.
She was growing beans she brought back from Ethiopia. Skinny dark green things, not yet filled out yet.

On the way over chatted with Holly, who did a summer placement at Salamander Farms nearby. She related the fight against Bermuda grass there.

Aha! The quiz last week clued the teacher in to the fact that she had not reviewed basic plant anatomy and terms in a systematic fashion. So she took a brief stab at it today. Still not enough for some students.

We reviewed no-till history and the weed management issues that are related. Very very basic, though I did learn that even a brief flash of infrared light can signal end of dormancy to some seeds. There has been experimentation with night time plowing to address that.

We drove to a nearby soybean field and examined along the edges and surrounding areas. Teach couldn’t identify one grass and one flowering weed. But I did see passionflower vine for the first time.
And Bradford pear as a weedy volunteer. I think I’ve been mis-identifying it for some time.
I’ve got some mounting paper now for my specimens. She says it costs $80 a pack. Yow!

Thursday is no class. We are to spend it collecting and pressing specimens.

One of my classmates was doing checkout today at the college greenhouse sale. She seemed delighted to recognize me. She called me Rose, which a lot of people do. Now I need to sort through the names I wrote down and figure hers. I’m not good at names.

This class is benefiting three generations. Granddaughter Elly brought a seed pod to her mom for identification. It looked like milkweed to them both; but it was from a vine. And I was able to confirm that Yes, there is a vining milkweed.

We got our quizzes back. The one that asked us to describe plant samples. Prof. Gift again admitted she saw gaps in her presentation of materials. Glad she sees that.

We discussed mechanical weed management techniques and machinery. Lasers!! How cool! AI slave labor.
She gave us a 128 page book called Steel in the Field which covers all the variations of harrows, hoes, brush hogs. Even actual brushes meant to scrub the surface of the soil.

I returned the plant press I was issued so another student could use it. She didn’t have quite enough to go around.
We spent an hour in the herbarium getting a better feel for mounting techniques, labeling, etc.

The problem with a lot of these things is that they work well for seedlings. If you get the bits above the surface, that's enough. But they don't do much on the real established weeds. We even went so far as to buy a weed burner. Forget it! Burn off the green of a dandelion, or a thistle, or any of the weeds that crawl underground ... wait a week ... weed is growing as if you had fertilized it.Wait a minute, yes, you have concentrated the nutrients right there where the roots can get them. Bah, humbug! At least the mechanical ones you remove those nutrients.

>12 MarthaJeanne: Yes, she drew that diagram.

We were free labor at the college farm this morning. We walked over and back, so I’m pretty tuckered. We weeded the blackberry beds. It hasn’t been done all year, and it was a gratifying task.
Ragweed 8 feet tall, and foxtail and Johnson grass mostly. But we found lots of new stuff too. Oriental bittersweet, with its distinctive orange root; and Fire…. Shoot! I knew I should have written it down! Anyway it’s a compositae and my neighbor grows it.

The blackberries are thornless, upright and then with long canes. I will stop by next year to examine plant growth.

We moseyed back to the Ag building in small groups. I walked with Annalee, who wants to study hydrology, and Derrick who wants to teach high school horticulture. Gunner trailed us, last one. He is determinedly anti-social today; not even acknowledging when someone speaks to him. The others say that’s typical, but not constant.

My neighbor gave me too many figs yesterday, so I brought them to class and introduced several people to their first taste. It was all good, but Derrick insisted on telling and re-telling how the wasp fertilizes the plant and May still be inside the fruit.😮

I met Gerry on the way over. I hadn’t noticed her in class before.
Oh, and met Shane at the end of Tuesday’s class.

I like how much more interaction in this class compared to last term’s religion class.

Oh, and note to self.

The farm manager (Andrew?) offered us gloves. I normally discard my gloves pretty quickly, as the leather makes them clumsy. But these were knitted material and lined with grip dots. They worked excellently!

We went out to meadow and woods today for an amble. On the walk out, we were encouraged to identify and ask questions. Then the professor headed back ahead of us and collected 15 weeds for us to identify without the book or discussion. I blanked on bush honeysuckle and miss-IDed witch grass as crabgrass.

Campus tap water is mud colored yesterday and today. The city is working on it, but the students are distressed. I wonder how the cafeteria is managing food prep and clean-up for all those kids.

I googled the water issue this morning. Nothing online, though I’m sure there are internal emails reporting it.

But I found this interesting page about the city/campus water supply:

https://forestryoutreach.berea.edu/water/

I’d like to learn more about the relationship between college and town. My utility bill comes from the city, covering both water and electric. I just learned that the college has built a hydroelectric plant. The city has a small solar farm.

I’ve visited one of the reservoirs. Owlsley Fork is at the bottom of my ridgetop property.

Today we spent the first hour reviewing a chapter on beginning weed management that had been assigned. She posts this material on Moodle. I only scanned it quickly.
I brought a weed rosette in for identification in a large yogurt container. It was still fresh and easily examined. Fleabane. I fight it in my yard, but notice it most in the spring. Now I know more about its lifecycle.

Second hour we walked over to the community garden with the half promise to weed another plot. Instead, we just identified what was present and looked up the lifecycle of these. Most were annual grasses that had already set seed. There was no ag reason to remove them now. We would just be giving free labor to someone who had been lazy. Good. It was cold and wet, and I had worn the wrong shoes. (I thought she’d said we would do field work on Tuesdays from now on.)
We spent the time just looking for new weeds and re-confirming what we’ve already covered.
I have goose grass and crabgrass in my yard, but I’ve never seen them in full seed and height.

Oh, and I returned to the garden after class to get a few more specimens and one of the gardeners gave me bok choy and zucchetta.

An excellent review of herbicide 2,4-D:

http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/archive/2,4-DTech.html#chem

I use a formulation of dimethylamine salt.
It is listed as 7.59% concentration

The other components are
Mecoprop-p at 1.83%. (Also noting this is the single isomer)
Dicambra at 0.84%.
Both of these are also delivered as a dimethylamine salt.

Review of Mecoprop-p (potassium):

https://www.co.thurston.wa.us/health/ehipm/pdf_terr/terrestrial%20actives/MCPP-p...

And the Dicamba:

https://www.co.thurston.wa.us/health/ehipm/pdf_terr/terrestrial%20actives/Dicamb...

Interestingly, all three work in the same manner, disrupting cell division.

And the salt of 2,4-D does travel to the roots. Prof Gift said it’s only effective as a foliar application. I didn’t challenge her, but I have always used it successfully as a stem or stump treatment. I see this mode as much more environmentally friendly, when possible. It reduces the amount needed and keeps the spray at ground level instead of higher, where drift can occur.

I’ve used it successfully on young trees that invade yard and garden and are too big already to pull or dig.

Years ago, possibly decades, I taught Confirmation class at church. The parish supplied bibles for each candidate; but they were flimsy paperbacks. So we spent one class decorating/personalizing them and giving them an additional cover of clear contact paper. It was much easier for the students to keep track of their own book and kept them in better condition.

I finally remembered to bring some contact rolls back from WV to treat the weed field guides; which are also softcovers and get a lot of abuse in the field.

Some of the contact paper hadn’t aged well and had to be tossed. But I still have plenty. I will cut more pieces and offer them to the rest of the class next week.
I’m so relieved to have this done.

Giving low quality bibles for confirmation class sounds like a bad idea to me. It says loud and clear, "You only need this until you've been confirmed, and then you can throw it out." I have a clear memory of a group of young people coming into coffee hour after their confirmation. "What a relief to have that behind us. Now we don't have to go to church on Sundays any more."

>21 MarthaJeanne: I’ve had a lot of frustration over the years concerning youth religion classes. My friend, Rose, and I jumped in because we both had kids in that class and it was going so badly. We were able to inject some life into it and even kept a youth group of graduates going for a while. But control was wrested back by the old hierarchy for the next class and it was back to teaching from a workbook and jumping through stupid hoops again.

Interesting weed misc.
Poke berry juice was used by civil war soldiers as ink, writing letters home.
It’s not true that it was used for the Declaration of Independence. That ink was made with oak galls.

The topics for this week are Rangeland week management and Urban weed management. But the readings she’d added to Moodle were faulty. So the rangeland discussion was pretty basic.

We did some basic weed review outside the building and she offered a quiz do-over for anyone who wanted it.

I’ve spent the day starting mounting my pressed weeds. I haven’t done a particularly good job labeling what I gathered.

Discussion of final paper. We are assigned the task of creating a commercial crop rotation that is 7 crops long, designed to manage weeds actively.

Downloaded Lentil Underground, which describes Montana farmers doing just this.

Class was cancelled. But no one got the message. The prof sent me an email at 12:40 this morning, and presumably also tried to send one to the rest of the class through Moodle, but it hadn’t arrived yet.
Who checks these things first thing in the morning getting ready for an 8am class anyway?

But it was good that I opened my school email account while we waited for her to arrive. And several came to look and confirm with their own eyes. What they might have missed is that she scheduled the midterm for next Thursday. Next tuesdays class was already cancelled as a “reading day” school-wide.

I had brought a couple of specimens in for ID from the ridgetop, and Derrick used his phone to give me answers.
Lespedeza cuneata - Chinese bush clover - the dominant plant now in my meadow.
Physalis - a leggy, coarse and fuzzy clump with paper lantern seed pods.

My house has been taken over by weeds. Inside. The plant press is in the second bedroom, with stacks of paper, cardboard, the boxes of books used to add weight, the stack of finished work, and misc. samples keep taking over all surfaces.
The mounting station is on the living room floor in front of the windows. The reference books and notes are stacked on the couch.
And I’ve got a few samples being pressed out on the carport because of their size and density. I thought lumber and big rocks would provide better weight for pressing.

I’ve got a dozen done. I need another 20.

Blue violets are throwing seed at an amazing rate this season. I had noticed what looked like flower buds nestled in the center of the plants, but poking them open revealed them to be seed pods.
Researching, I learned about cleistogamous flowers

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleistogamy

https://awkwardbotany.com/tag/cleistogamous-flowers/

Midterm tomorrow morning. I don’t feel adequately prepared.

I didn’t do well on the test. There are some I know from long history, others I’ve never seen, and more that look a lot like half a dozen choices. I missed lambsquarters though.

I did dream last night that we all went to a Halloween party dressed as weeds. It was very cute. Gerry said she would be chickweed. We chatted out in the hall after the test, waiting to go back in and get a last look at the samples. She’s in engineering, with a minor in sustainability.

The classroom was set up this morning with more weeds for a make-up test for whoever missed coming last Thursday. After, we all took a tour through the stations and discussed the plants. Today we focused on the seeds; their various shapes, sizes and other attributes. Then we discussed seed dispersal and germination needs. Then we went back and talked a little about flower anatomy and pollination.

Several students brought their pressed plants in and we gathered to help with identification confirmation. Prof. Gift lightly critiqued presentation and labeling, to help us before we submit the collections for grades.
The rest of us will bring ours in Thursday for the same group help.

Jacquesha was excited about a plant she had tentatively identified as honeylocust. We went out afterward and looked at it, and sure enough - compound compound leaves. Nature is so cool!

We all brought our pressed weeds in for help, but only four people got to have their stack reviewed. I wasn't one of them. But I was able to help identify some samples.

Five minutes or less spent on cover crops and mulches. Perhaps less; though there may be readings on Moodle I've missed.

The concept of Terroir was brought up - exclusive traits donated to plants from a particular location - soil and climate factors.

Began our discussion of herbicides with a general chemistry look at the Periodic Table. Toxicities depend on molecular structures (rings) and elements. The 7 bond column -Fluorine, Chlorine, Bromine, Iodine - are most active. Also the heavier elements are more toxic.

There are herbicide family traits, and we are each to present one family in class. (see the next entry below.) I signed up for Acid amines, as that's what I mostly use.

Gift mentioned that the inert ingredients can be more generally toxic to humans and animals than the active ingredients. But often, they are considered trade secrets and don't need to be disclosed.

Choose an herbicide family to present on

Acid Amine

Aryloxyphenoxyproprionate

Benzonitrile

Bipyridinium

Cyclohexanedione

Dinitroaniline

Diphenyl ether

EPSP synthase inhibitor

Glutamine synthesis inhibitor

Growth-regulator

Imidazolinone

Methanearsonate

Phenylcarbamate

Phenyl pyrazinone

Phthalic acid

Sulfonylurea

Thiocarbamate

Triazine

Uracil

Urea

Nonfamily herbicides

Weed quizes
13 of 15
28 of 30

weed test
17 of 24

Class trip to a pumpkin farm! What fun! We walked a variety of fields and saw some species for the first time. Jimsonweed, for one. Discussed the special issues presented by a sensitive and late-planted crop. The herbicides are very limited, even with a practice of field rotation. At this time of year, the fields are pretty wasted by compaction and only a few, but plentiful noxious weeds. Still, production appears to be bountiful. Teach paid for a pumpkin for each person who wanted one. We’ve got promises of pumpkin pie next week.

Per >24 2wonderY:, the final paper. I’ve decided I’m not going to do it. Holy cow! To do it right, you’d have to have a masters degree in agriculture. I’m not going to devote the energy. And since I’m auditing, it shouldn’t make anyone mind.

Instead I’m going to submit very detailed reviews of a few books. They are ones Prof. Gift might be glad to know of.

We switched focus to herbicides today. The college farm is organic, but Prof. Gift is not a purist. She also knows that we need to know the pros and cons of each product. Along with background materials that are of general importance for each class of herbicide, she presented one particular herbicide in detail. For the next two weeks, students will be presenting one from the list in >33 2wonderY:.

I chose Acid Amine, because when I googled it, 2,4-D is the only one that popped up. Since that’s the one I rely on, I thought it would be best to learn more about it in depth.
My gosh!! My knowledge of chemistry is not adequate. I took both General and Organic back in the 70s. Some basics are seeping back with great effort.
She is encouraging us to enliven our presentations and have fun. My classmates who are presenting on the same day as me (Nov. 8) are two of the quiet ones. Gunnar in particular refuses to speak to others. But i did notice him smiling broadly at the pumpkin farm on Tuesday.

Oh, I couldn’t access phone or laptop in class yesterday. School Wi-Fi was being too cautious. I probably need to visit the IT office and get that handled.

I have finally counted up my mounted specimens. Besides the 2 duplicates and the ugly ones, I do have 30 to turn in tomorrow. Just gotta get my labels printed and glued on today.
Also want to spruce up my front porch Halloween display. The town is having an activity at one of the parks this evening at the same time as trick or treat. So I don’t know how busy we’ll be in the neighborhoods.

I found I missed two specimens when I was making up my labels, so I had to hand write them at the very end of the evening when I was exhausted and even shaky. Oh well.
That part is done! I had hoped to take pictures of the collection, but that will now have to wait for some time. I expect Pro. Gift’s review will drag on. She does say that the bast of them will be displayed in the college library.

Some will also be added to the school herbarium collection if students agree. I spent some time looking through that collection last week hoping to confirm a few of my identifications. There is a lot of repetition there. Giant foxtail, anyone?

Today we discussed herbicide modes of action and did the same for random insecticides too. Pointing out that you can possibly predict health issues in animals and humans just by looking at the chemical formulation and how it acts in the target pest.

>38 2wonderY: The wi-fi problem seems to have cleared up on its own. I tested before I left campus and could not get it to replicate the issue. Thank goodness.

I also need to begin reading materials I printed out* about 2,4-D for preparing my presentation next week. Too much organic chemistry! And the only resource text I could find won’t be much help.

*I’m still not good at absorbing technical data from the screen. I prefer hard copy for some things.

I did have an extra duplicate specimen, so I took a picture of it:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CkbWc6Up4L1/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Jakeisha presented the herbicide Methanearsonate, which is a contact only cell membrane disrupter. Her PowerPoint presentation was slick and beautiful. She’s such a fun and bubbly person, and operating on no sleep today.
Her additional activity was asking us to write a poem about various modes of action. The index card I got was “pigment disrupter.”
It was an easy one. My poem:

On the plants, I’m getting mean,
On a scale that is extreme.
Oh my beans, oh my beans!
Where’s the green?

We watched a YouTube video that explained photosynthesis in a fairly basic way.
Huh. I remember the Calvin Cycle from classes in the 1970s. At that time we learned ADP to ATP. No mention of another chemical in the cycle doing energy storage as well, called NADPH.

Looks like I may have to take a hard science class again. Well, maybe not. I’m too old.

For the next couple of weeks we start class at 8:30. That’s nice.

Spoke to Katie and Gunnar about our planned activities next Tuesday. Gunnar has a quiz game planned. Katie and I will collaborate on chemical modeling using candy.

>40 2wonderY:

With the time change and the push back to 8:30, the sun was way up for our trek to class. Much better!

Gunnar presented the Uracil family, an early post emergent use herbicide that targets nutsedge and a few grasses. It’s structure is similar to amino acids and slows growth and causes chlorosis. It’s used in pineapple, citrus, peach and oddly, peppermint production.
He followed up with a Kahoot! Quiz. Layne was the big winner.

Katie’s family was ESPN synthase inhibitors. Glyphosate acts by depleting certain amino acids.
Her activity was (because she’s an art major) a challenge to draw a plant affected by RoundUp, without looking at the paper! Yikes, that was hard!

Then Pro. Gift had us draw a weed and see if others could identify it. That was surprisingly hard as well.

I didn’t present, but I had told my day-mates I had an activity, so I did that.

I brought various candies and toothpicks and challenged them to build a molecule, preferably of their assigned herbicide.
Prof. Gift called it brilliant, and everyone was enthusiastic. The models were beautiful. She took photos of the models next to their diagrams. I heard someone say this made organic chemistry much more appealing.

I prefaced my project by apologizing if they’d done this before. I told them it wasn’t an option back when I took chemistry for 3 reasons:
1. Electrons were still hiding in their shells.
2. The only candy we had was penny candy.
3. We hadn’t invented colors yet. (After a snort from the audience) It’s true - I’ve got pictures!

My 2,4-D molecule (the acid form):

Miriam presented the Phthalic Acid family today. I don’t think I’m gonna go into any detail.
Derek did Diphenyl Ethers and Jeri presented Triazine.

Short class.
Beautiful day, so I walked across campus to the ISS office. Jimmy or Billy helped me with my wi-fi issues. He showed me how to use the secure version rather than the guest wi-fi. Hopefully that will resolve the issue and enable me to print documents at the library.
He also showed me how to take a screen shot on my particular phone, in case I get blocked again.

I skipped classes the week before Thanksgiving, and there was no class the holiday week. So it’s been a long stretch. A couple of students welcomed me back. That was nice.

We did some basic review of the basics of IWM, Integrated Weed Management:
Mechanical
Chemical
Cultural
Prevention

Did you know why the traditional field spacing of certain crops is 30”? That’s the width of a horse’s ass. I need to check that tidbit.

Also look for a YouTube titled
Row spacing as a weed management tool, by Grow IWM

I asked about research on harvesting weed seed in order to remove and destroy it. Yes, there are difficulties, but so? At the pumpkin farm, I wanted to get out there with a shop vac and Hoover all the noxious seeds up.

I recall a notation in a book I read about a researcher encouraging mice populations that will consume up to 80% of weed seeds through the winter. I found the book and will pursue that line of inquiry as part of my final paper.
The Soil Will Save Us

Also want to think more about a substitution technique. A deliberate introduction of a substitute weed; one that will compete adequately but has more redeeming qualities than the species you hate. I’m trying to do this on a small scale in my yard.

Oh, and it was a sunny mild morning so we took a brisk walk to an alfalfa field on the other side of the elementary school.

Our session today was pairing up and coming up with advice typically asked of weed specialists by the general public.
So we hit on many of the common weeds on my properties. It was an interesting conversation, with multiple inputs.
We three elders broke out in song:
“We paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”
And recommended the youngsters listen to Joni Mitchell.

I brought three discards from my closet and offered them. Gasps of excitement! Marion took the velvet long sleeved shirt with a fall leaf pattern. I tried to wear it Thanksgiving day, but my arms are too long for it. It fit her perfectly.
Katie took the Tantrum velvet patchwork vest. I hope it fits her. She remembers my vests from the spring religion class we took together.
And Derek’s eyes glowed at the vest covered with gold embroideries. It was way too big for me, but it barely got over his broad shoulders and he managed to button it.

They took all the trees and put them in a tree museum. And charged all the people a dollar and a half just to see them.

You don't need a weed museum quite yet.

Did I mention my excitement at seeing a Utube of Joni at the Newport festival? Still a great performer.

I went up to Lexington last week for a visit to both Barnes and Noble and the Eastside Library. An art exhibit at the library echoes the pressed plant exercise we’ve completed in class. I took some photos and will share them with Katie, a visual arts student.

Justine Riley is a mixed media artist, and the exhibit shows her response to the spring tornado, featuring bits of botany swept by the winds.
Here is her Instagram account:

https://instagram.com/sketchjournalrecord?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Dr. Matt Liebman

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_4I67PMAAAAJ&hl=en

My paper will be a deep review of several books
The Soil Will Save Us
Lentil Underground
Organic Weed Management

Today's class was meant to help with the 7 crop rotation plans that others will be writing about in their papers. So we talked generally about the families of crop plants and their special challenges and strengths - plant habit, sensitivities, season, etc.

The rest of the time was given to individual research.

I invited the young women to the next classroom to sort and pick my closet discards. They took half of what was in the box and said I should bring it back again when Derek was there. They said he wore the gold vest all day last week.

The items looked so good on them. Jakesha is the youngest and said she had never worn vests or scarves. She was so cute! And they love the rich colors that catch my eye.

I missed class last Thursday because I was hunting my glasses. Found them after nearly 20 hours.
But I hadn’t realized it was the last class. This is finals week.

I’ve been trying to get permission to audit Soil Science in January but haven’t been able to reach the instructor. Dr. Parr is in town, but on sabbatical. So she’s not on campus and doesn’t check her emails. Dr. Gift had said she would speak to her, but still no action.
I went to the department office this morning and she called Dr. Parr and got her verbal okay to sign the form on her behalf.
I’m sitting in the Registrar’s building now waiting for someone to return from lunch.
Hoping I can get this squared away today.

Well, no. Although I had the secretary post her phone number, the registrar was not willing to take her counter signature or call her to confirm. They are requiring an email from Dr. Parr. So I called the secretary and she will convey that request to the professor.
Ugh.

After a flurry of emails, I believe I'm registered for class.

Dr. Elaine R. Ingham

Maintaining the life within our soils
Soil health - about an hour and a half podcast

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M3-GZSySdec

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_Ingham
Soil Biology Primer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleistogamy

I met with a gardener yesterday that reported this self-seed making in one of her plants. I forget now which one, but I will ask.

Buckthorn eradication without herbicides or even goats

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C1nqcYir7nM/?igsh=NzBmMjdhZWRiYQ==