My visit to OESCO

You guys are crazy- there’s no spelling error. I’m using a silicone valley created spell check.

Al,

Silicon is what they make chips out of. Silicone is used, among other things, for breast implants. The context of your sentence made it all the funnier for me.

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@alan

We all understand… we’ll just attribute it to the harvest season stress…

…and they’re coming to take me away… ha ha, hee hee ho ho… to the funny farm where things are beautiful all the time…:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Mike

Mike, I don’t actually find that joke very amusing. It is just too far a leap to make from a very minor misspelling that just happens to be highly amusing to the adolescent male mind.

No offense, Mark- but it’s actually kindof true- takes one to know one.

Wait, I reread the context. I get it. That is pretty funny Mark. But I’m going to hold onto my critique of your humor, Mike. That was a little bit out there- crazy, I mean.

@alan

I accept your point.

On re-reading I realize that the writing did not quite cut it as a joke.

Ahhh… the danger of the the layers of context that we lose in “text” over the spoken face to face communication. The loss of the tone of the voice, the cadence of the spoken phrase, the wink of the eye, the tilt of the head, the slight smile and body language …

In my head I was thinking more of myself and my state of mind on the “funny farm” due to my mixed feelings around harvest time. On re-reading I see that my writing skills did not measure up to convey this.

But I guess any time you have to explain a joke it’s probably because the joke was not a good one.

Sorry buddy.

Mike

Mike, you have plenty of currency with me- I was not offended, just didn’t think the joke was your best, and I can’t keep my opinions to myself.

My son says I have asperger’s, but I’m pretty sure it’s jack asberger’s.

@alan

Don’t ever keep your opinions to yourself.

I, personally, never object to an honest opinion shared honestly.

We are good.

Mike

OESCO also has orchard ladders. If you’ve ever tried buying one you’ll know they’re difficult to get through online or mail order. They carry the wooden Peter Baldwin ladders as well as the light aluminum models.

I was reminded of this thread when my dad and I drove up through OESCO country about a week ago. We were headed up a little further north to pick up some black locust lumber at this place:

http://www.ablacklocustconnection.com/index.htm

It was a cool trip, and I mention it here in part because we found ourselves driving past a series of apple orchards on our way. What made it interesting was seeing the different kinds of trees and pruning systems on display. There was one orchard, or part of an orchard, that still had big old standard or semi-standard trees. But it looked like people were going away from that, because we saw a couple of places where bigger trees were either being removed or severely cut back. Then there were other places where they appeared to be using some kind of dwarf or semi-dwarf rootstock, with significantly smaller trees on significantly closer planting. And then the most new-fangled, with what looked to be a tall spindle set-up on trellises. Guys were out pruning them as we drove by.

After we passed the tall spindles, I looked out the other side of the car and saw what looked like kind of a brushy, overgrown low woods, the kind of place where you’d want to get thrown if you were Brer Rabbit. Then I realized, hey, those are apple trees, too! An old orchard that had been abandoned and maybe grown in with seedlings? Hard to tell driving by, but it was interesting to see, and I did wonder what you would find if you went hunting around in there.

This summer I hope to visit UMass/Cold Spring Orchard in Belchertown.

I was out in that area for my youngest son’s hockey tournament in Jan of this year. It was quite a drive, a beautiful area to visit. I hadn’t visited that area in about 20 years or so…a very peaceful drive as compared to the hustle, traffic, and crowds of Boston.

I enjoy Jon Clements videos on YouTube.

He has a sense of humor. I almost attended one of his grafting seminars last year but I was sick and had to miss it.

How disappointing! Hopefully you’ll have another opportunity.

No, not grafting. It’s pruning I think. I can manage grafting quite all right after 4 years of it. It’s the pruning that is a hard concept as one should be able to visualize how a tree would grow. Visualization is often too abstract for me :grin: