Hey guys... so, I'm quite disappointed with how my plants are coming along. But there has been lots going on in my life, so I guess I can't complain. A few highlights. I went snowboarding for the first time in probably 8 years (maybe longer). I only fell one time and that was getting off a lift, I must say though it was a proper hard bail. I didn't even know you could fall that hard with little to no speed, lol. Was a really good time, and the best part is the mountain I went to has a special where locals only have to pay $10 for evening riding. 3pm - 8pm. They turn on the lights and that was also a first. Pretty cool riding at night... just had to be sure to cover up well, that temp drops pretty dramatically.
I also went to an art museum in LA a few weeks back. I'm not one to frequent museums, but man did I have a good time. We were only there for about 90 minutes, which was about right. I was supposed to pay for a ticket, but I didn't realize so I just walked right in the place and no one said anything... even better. One really cool part was that they had a collection of 9 sculpures by my favorite sculpter, Giacometti. He does cool stuff you guys should google image search him. Also while in LA we went to a favorite Korean restaurant of mine... Damn do I miss living in LA sometimes. One of my favorite parts of los angeles is being less than 15 minutes away from any kind of food in the world. Just anything you could think of, there is a good restuarant for it. Plus if you like cooking there is an ethnic grocery store not too far off. Any kind really.
Oh, another cool thing was I went to work with my wife, well I drove with her to work and dropped her off. Her office is east of LA where there are pretty foothills. I went up to hang at a part close, but wouldn't you know it's closed on Tuesdays. So I just went to park in a close by neighborhood and have a nap in the car when I spotted a few deer laying about in someones front yard. I got to watching them and after about an hour they wandered down the road, I followed in the car and we were just cruising down the road together. There was a young buck just trotting next to my door about 6 feet away. The 3 I had been shadowing met up with a couple more deer, then a couple more showed up. After a little bit there were 10 of them. Two were bucks, 7 females of varying age, and there was one baby. I hung out with them for a couple hours, just watching them play and eat and cruise around. I really like animals and to be blessed to watch a bunch of deer in the 'wild' was awesome.
Also... a few months back I had written a letter to an inmate I found on some website promoting inmates wanting to correspond with people. I think it was in August. I never heard anything back. I was pretty bummed because I wrote a pretty long letter and was looking forward to meeting a new person (or whatever you call it... not really meeting). Anyways, he finally wrote me back. He had been transferred to AZ (I wrote to him in CA). I guess CA is shipping a bunch of their inmate population off because we can't afford to house as many people as before with all the budget shit going on here. So my letter got forwarded to him... just took a few months. Was cool to hear how much he appreciated my letter. I wrote him back and look forward to a nice relationship. I really enjoy writing, like putting pen to paper. And it's cool to have a penpal. I had one when I was a kid and always wanted one again. Also I've always wanted to do something for all the peeps locked up. I'm starting small, but writing to one of them to let him know at least one person on the outside is thinking of him and has his back is a great thing in my book.
Not so cool is that our washing machine and water heater broke in one week. What's really cool though is that my parents offered to buy us a new washer/dryer... and I installed a new water heater all by my lonesome. Save at least a couple hundred bucks. The hardest part was bringing the thing up my 30 odd steps from the driveway to the spot it needed to be. Thank the lord I have a good hand truck.
Oh, and probably the coolest part of the last few weeks was I got to meet another RIU'er. He came over and we chilled. We were going to hit the local skate park, but got to talking and couldn't stop. I swear there is just a mass of cool people on this site. There is something to say for guys who grow and grow well. I don't think it's that we grow... AND we have a lot in common. I think it's that we are all a certain type of people, and being that type of person has led us to grow. To me the ones on this site who are like 'us'... the ones who don't grow tiny plants under a cfl just so they can smoke, nor the ones who grow commercially for a job, but the ones who grow because we have found that we love it, because we love raising plants and giving them attention... We really are a breed all to our own, and I think we are good peeps. It seems to me that we really love and care for our families. And most of us have pets that we adore and treat well. The ones with children seem to give a shit about them and adore them as well. We all care about our homes. We aren't driven by having things and money, but still appreciate the finer things in life. We all seem to like good music and all seem to have a really good time and surround ourselves with really good people. And we all seem to have positive things to say to eachother. I'm very thankful to be surrounded by a bunch of great peeps like you all... even if it is an internet community, we all still live in the world. So needless to say, me and the buddy who met up had a great time, and he really like my herb.
Oh yeah, also another small positive. My wife got a positive. That's right, just yesterday the little pee stick had a blue line. So come October we should be bringing a little jig into the family. Pretty trippy, the due date will be 2 days before we lost our first. Not really sure how to feel about the timing on that, but I'm going to take it as a good thing. Like I said before (i think I said it) the way we lost our last one does not bode badly on this one. Was just a freak thing and has nothing to do with Mrs. Jig or any of her baby parts. So hopefully and probably this one will be all good. If it's not... it's not. But I'm hoping for the best.
I forgot something else cool. I was offered a position for the local online newspaper covering the mountains to write about local sports for them. I won't be getting paid or anything, but who cares. They are going to issue me a press pass and for the most part I think I'll be writing about the local high school teams. I don't have any experience with journalism, but I LOVE sports and it will be cool to become part of and serve our community in a way I really like. I'm pretty excited about it.
Now, about my grow... I'm very very frustrated at the moment. The seedlings are doing well. They are under almost no light, so they aren't growing much, but they still look very healthy. Cleaning out my attic to make room for their new space is proving to be a big task. It's amazing how much junk one can accumulate in the matter of a couple years. WOW. The clones in the closet have been on their own for at least a week now and I swear they aren't growing... GRRRRRRR. I'm just dumping electricity down the drain as the 1000w is now in session and all the fans as well. My only thought on why they aren't growing is the Temps they are enduring. I don't know what is different from last grow, but something is massively different as the Temps are just out of control. When I first fired things up and closed the door, the lower and uppper temps (taken about at the first and second levels) were something like 90 and 104 f. Just insane. So I adjusted a few things, I sectioned off the closet so the ballast up top occupies a different air space then the rest of the grow and that got things more managble, but the temps are still around 80 and 85... or higher. It really sucks. I'm thinking the winter of non use made the 6" inline less powerfull and it wont suck as much heat. I really don't get it though. The cooltube setup seems as cool as it was before. I can keep my hand on the glass and it just feel warm.
I was thinking that maybe the roots weren't getting enough oxygen, or maybe the roots were rotting, or maybe just not developed, but when I checked them they were very full, long, and gleeming white, so I don't think it's the root zone. They aren't showing deficiencies, so I can't imagene they aren't getting enough nutes. The pH I have to admit was WAYYYY off. Maybe even up to 8.0. Yeah, bad I know, but they weren't looking sick, and I adjusted it down to where it should be. Been that way for a few days now and the plants just look exactly the same. I remember in my previous grows the plants would grow about an inch everyday. They should be big by now. I wanted to be in 12/12 already and they aren't even half as tall and full as I want them. It's really driving me nuts. Plus I'm not sure what else to do about the temperature. I have one more idea to suck air from the bottom space to the top, and hopfully that will get things in check... but I'm not confident about it.
So there... how's that for an update. Let me know what you think about any of it. I'm off to take pics now. Maybe even a video, who knows.
Last thing I swear... I'm still totally hooked on Black ops for my PS3. I'm starting to get a little better at it, and that's not a good thing... just makes me want to play more.
peace out RIU