Why I Oughta...

Five and a half years.  That's how long the three posts have been installed in our backyard as a training device for the pair of Greenspire Linden trees that have been pruned in an horizontal cordon espalier.  This past weekend, I disconnected all of the wire and pulled the three posts down.  I put the posts in the ground in September of 2017 - look how NEW everything looks here .   Over the years, I've worked these trees to be a four-level espalier and it had matured (enough) to no-longer require the heavy-hand of a post and wire system.  See below for the pre-removal state:  And....below...are the trees with the posts and wires removed.  Feels VERY DIFFERENT over there (to me, at least) now. The top row of the cordon is thick and strong and vibrant.  Each layer down gets thinner, but the bottom layer has finally reached the fully-mature length.  I'll work to keep that bottom row horizontal with a bamboo pole.   #9 on my 2023 to-do list was to 'keep working the espalie

Here I was...thinking I'm writing a post that is going to knock a HUGE item off my 2021 to-do list in the yard.  But, when I went to go look up what number "cutting new, larger curvilinear beds" was on the list...imagine my disappointment that it isn't one of the 25 things.  Womp, womp.   But, it is still a big deal for me and a big milestone for the yard.   First, a review of a few things:  Starting with curvilinear bed design .  I covered where I wanted to go with our bed layout and how we had a bunch of "little" curves/bumps in our current beds - while the ideal state is very few, larger, swooping edges.  As Sue from Not Another Gardening Blog pointed out, these big, swooping curves are hard to pull off . I went through three colors of spray paint trying to get the curves right.  And, I think I got them like 90% there - with just a little bit of cleanup having to come in the next few seasons.   Second:  a note about the "order of operations" I

Today is February 16, 2019.  And today marks my 15th year of blogging.  15 years of doing anything is a lot, but 15 years of writing on the web feels like a good milestone and worthy of noting (at least here, on said blog.) The first post in the archives here on JakeParrillo.com comes from February 16th 2004 .  Back then, it was either at JoinCrossBlog.com or Rhodesschool.com.  But today, those are ported here.  And I've been writing here every.single.day for a number of years. I've failed to note this anniversary since 2016 when I hit 12 years .  Today....I'm at 15.  That's more than 1/3rd of my entire life.  In that time, I've had a few jobs that involved media, digital and communications. But, never strayed too far away from the Web.  I fell in love with the ability to publish online and never looked back.  I was lucky that I wasn't lured in by the siren call of The Facebook or anywhere else that publishing happens these days.  I've stayed here

All the way back on February 16, 2004, I posted the very first blog post here on the blog .  Well...it wasn't *here* then, but it was on what would become this blog. 12 years is a long time.  A lot of writing.  A lot of nonsense.  When I started, I was working for the House Republicans and living in Frankfort with my parents.  Today?  I'm living in my sister's house with my wife and three kids and a dog and working at Edelman.  Still writing nonsense, though. Over the past 12 years, I've now written  published 1932 posts.  Including this one.  Hundreds more on other blogs like the political satire one or our family blog.  But 1932 here.  Some started as "Chris Rhodes", but most as just me.  (Those of you who were around in 2004 will get that "Chris Rhodes" reference!) Here's a look at a screenshot of the archives totaling up the blog posts across time. I didn't mark the anniversary every year, but in looking back at the archives,

I just peeked down at the total number of posts right here on the blog and noticed that although we're just in the sixth month of the year, 2015 has become the #4 in terms of ranking of total number of posts.  I took this screenshot you see above from the right rail of the blog.  If you're reading this on your mobile phone, you're likely seeing this either in your email or the mobile version of the site, so you can't see the sidebar.  You can click "view on the web" at the bottom of the mobile version if you'd care to see the archives.  Or...just trust me that the screenshot above is all you need to see?!? There's certainly no talk about ranking in terms of quality over the years, but we're just talking quantity here.  Total number of blog posts. Back in 2012 and 2013, I had back-to-back years of writing a post every.single.day.of.the.year .  Then things dropped off in 2013 and 2014.  With the advent of Medium and Facebook and the various ot

That's (apparently) what happens when you go to the very top of Cortona .