Am I officialy a Nerd? (early X-mas)

[nepenthes_ak]

I totaly got like 3 sweeet books for x-mas.

My favorite, is Pheidole in the New World, A dominant, Hyperdeverse Ant Genus By E. O. Wilson!

And The encyclopedia of Insects by Vincent H, Resh, Ring T. Carde!

and

The Bees of The World Second Edition by Charles D. Michener!

I got 3 months of Mushroom growing kit/stuff coming in, Reiki ****aki and One other I cant think of at the moment!

Ive also recently gotten two other books

Ants of North America By Brian L. Fisher and Stefan P. Cover!

The Ecology and Evolution of Ant-Plant Interactions by Victor Rico-Gray & Paulo S. Oliveira!

We celebrated Christmas early because I'm going to North Carolina for X-mas with my dad. This is probably the most books Ive gotten for X-mas that Ive ENJOYED throughly! About 15000 Pages of Insect reading Material (give or take 200-400 for index and glossary)!

Does this make me a Nerd officialy? Not to count the other 15 or so books, on CP's Another couple on beekeeping, and Ants?

I dont care!

 

[phissionkorps]

Does this make me a Nerd officialy?

No. Last christmas I asked for Diversity of Life, Scientists Confront Creationism, and Monster of God (about alpha predators...not religion lol). But maybe that just makes both of us nerds...

 

[DrWurm]

I checked the return address on a couple of packages we got. I'm getting a Vex robotics starter kit for sure.

 

[xvart]

Nerd Alert! lol. I hear you guys. I'm the one that buys old science text books at the book cheap book drives where I work.

xvart.

 

[nepenthes_ak]

The thing is the books are a couple hundred dollars, and we end up paying liek 30-40 cause of insurance.

hehehe... My mom had like 7000 dollars in books, most of them she isnt going to replace. We have like 4000 dollars in books left to buy.

 

[Outsiders71]

Not at all Neps! You have some very interesting hobbies and I enjoy reading your threads. Keep seeking what you have passion for.

 

[NeciFiX]

Hah, you guys are weak, I've bought special Enhanced IDE Hard drives and speaker sets and almost dual-channel RAM for Christmas for people.

 

[Clint]

Hey! You're almost as big of a nerd as Dandy!

Just kidding, Dandy. I love you. Even though all of your computer wizardry goes over my head!

 

[jimscott]

Nah, I get Christmas books like Billboard's Hot 100 of the 70's and 80's, and encyclopedias about baseball and football players & teams. I love statistics and when I was a kid I read almancs for fun. Now that's a nerd!

 

[Est]

special Enhanced IDE Hard drives

almost dual-channel RAM

Is that liiiike....
When I'm watching the World Cup and the commentator says that the ball was "partially deflected"?
Or the way my friends girlfriend is "kinda" pregnant?

lol What're you talkin' about, man?

'Tis the season to be nerdy.

 

[Finch]

I asked for books on


organic apple orchardkeeping

an complete encyclopedia of vegetables herbs and fruit

and another one on birds and bugs



and if you enjoy insect books, i really would recommend that you get "for love of insects"
by Thomas Eisner. It is the best- reviewed insect book of pretty much all time and focuses on chemical defense . I love it!

http://www.amazon.com/Love-Insects-Thomas-Eisner/dp/0674011813

 

[herenorthere]

Is the apple book The Apple Grower, by Phillips? That's a good book.

 

[Outsiders71]

Keep me updated Finch on the organic apple growing. I have been organically growing veggies for a few years now but am totally ignorant to growing fruit organically. Also a title for the book would be nice .

 

[xvart]

I'm still looking for an 11th edition Encyclopedia Brittanica set... I thought I got lucky today and someone was dropping off some "old" EB's. It was the 13th edition! The hunt continues.

xvart.

 

[Finch]

Is the apple book The Apple Grower, by Phillips? That's a good book.

Yes it is! I did not remember the title, glad to hear you like it. Its only one of 4 things i asked for (under pressure at that) so assuming i will get it. If not there are always bookstore cards!

Keep me updated Finch on the organic apple growing. I have been organically growing veggies for a few years now but am totally ignorant to growing fruit organically. Also a title for the book would be nice .

Sure, if i remember! Im interested most in heirloom apple varieties, but those may not be the best types to grow organically either. Either way I would like to have an orchard sometime in the future. Long-term kind of thing. And geese!

http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Grower-Organic-Orchardist-Gardening/dp/1890132047

 

[xvart]

Keep me updated Finch on the organic apple growing. I have been organically growing veggies for a few years now but am totally ignorant to growing fruit organically. Also a title for the book would be nice .

What veggies do you grow? I can't wait to have a vegetable garden. I always love eating fresh tomato BLT's.

xvart.

 

[Finch]

You like encyclopedias and you like veggies, you would like the book Vegetables, Herbs and Fruit: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. I took it out from the library 5 times already before i decided to just get it, lol. It even includes recipes and uses for those rarer ones that you dont know what exactly to do with.

 

[Outsiders71]

What veggies do you grow? I can't wait to have a vegetable garden. I always love eating fresh tomato BLT's.

xvart.

Heh.. it's more like what don't I grow . This last season I grew cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, zucchini, eggplant, bell peppers, serano chile, jalapeno chile, a bunch of tomato heirlooms (Brandywine FTW), and Okra. Yes it is possible to grow Okra up north but it took awhile to become productive and has a short season. I also try to grow those giant pumpkins (Dale's Atlantic Giants). I also planted some 1 year old asparagus crowns that I should enjoy next spring and around 30-40 cloves of garlic this fall.

 

[Finch]

Ah! Brandywine is the best tomato out there!

 

[herenorthere]

We're getting off-topic, but it's heading to my favorite topics.

Apples are tough to grow organically. Insect control isn't so bad, but disease control can be. Unfortunately, popular heirloom varieties are often disease-prone. A lot of modern varieties have been bred for disease resistance because disease control is so expensive, even with chemical controls. Around here, peaches and pears (especially Asian pears) seem to be the easiest fruit to grow organically, but that'll vary depending on where you are. I think that no matter where you are and what methods you use, apples will be about the most difficult fruit to grow.

As for gardening, it's seed catalog season and here are my two favorite sources:

Fedco: http://www.fedcoseeds.com/
Seeds from Italy: http://www.growitalian.com/

The first is much cheaper, but the second has some unique things, including my favorite tomato - https://growitalian.com/Qstore/Qstore.cgi?CMD=011&PROD=000110. We get our seed potatoes from the first place and, speaking of potatoes, I highly recommend growing sweet potatoes and here's the best source:

Steele: http://www.sweetpotatoplant.com/

We've had good success growing sweet potatoes in CT and they are essentially pest-free, assuming voles aren't a problem. Plus the plants look like an ornamental ground cover. Okra is another very attractive plant and I agree that it's worth growing in the north. The productivity is low compared to what I used to get from my garden in MS, but it's still worth it if you have some space to fill.