Keffka's Stonington Soil, Bag Seed, 2022 Setup Indoor Grow

[Keffka]

This knowledge falls in line exactly with my theories of symbiosis, and sort of exceeds what I imagined. With the drastic reduction in reliance’s on synthetic fertilizers and the massive industry it’s spawned, it will generate far more than it uses. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear there’s a shady fertilizer industry story about this knowledge being buried until it couldn’t be denied.

 

[Gee64]

Beauty Keff

Todays images..

Buds are beginning to fatten up, I can see crystals on the leaves poking out of the buds, there’s a slight scent I keep catching.. I’ve been moving my thermo/hygro meter around the room.. the size of the plant is affecting my readings.

She's a Beauty! Look how long and lush those hairs are. She looks happy

 

[Gee64]

Gonna drop these educational links right here.. one is a general overview of soil and soil life the other is an in depth series on building a healthy living soil.. Others are welcome to post any resources they have or would like to share in relation to soil.

Both of these are outstanding videos.. I have quite a bit of work ahead of me in trying to establish and maintain a healthy living soil.

Here’s another really cool video with direct comparisons between organic farming with soil health in mind and synthetic monoculture farming.

These are by far the 2 best videos on organic growing I have ever seen.

 

[Keffka]

These are by far the 2 best videos on organic growing I have ever seen.

I thought they were too good not to share.. I’m telling you though lol I felt like I was learning something I wasn’t supposed to know, because now I’m sitting here like “synthetic fertilizers should be illegal” and I KNOW that’s NOT what these companies want to hear lol!

 

[Gee64]

I feel exactly the same. The fact we weren't taught this in grade school made me quite angry. Im glad I'm not alone now.

 

[Keffka]

Todays images

 

[Keffka]

Hello all.. Updates will be a little sporadic over the next week.. We think our dog might be moving toward checking out of this life.. He’s lost a lot of weight over the last 3-5 weeks, and has been having a hard time keeping food and water down this past week. We took him to the vet who Xrayed him and found no obstructions. It could be cancer or diabetes, or it could be a stomach virus. If it’s a stomach virus he’ll bounce back within the next couple days. I don’t think it’s a simple stomach virus. He went blind a year ago for no reason the vet could find without putting him through a lot of stressful tests.. He was otherwise healthy though. Today is just over one year since that and I think that whatever caused his blindness has spread.

I don’t believe in keeping sick or elderly animals alive with rigorous medicine regiments or highly invasive surgeries with a low chance for improvement. It seems cruel to me.. Quality of life is a big deal, and his already took a hit with the blindness. I know how painful life can be as a human being with an ability to express myself, voice my issues, and numb my pain.. I can’t imagine how damning and painful it is to be a sick animal with zero control over my life. It touches on my fear of Alzheimer’s and dementia.. I wouldn’t live my life like that (have already discussed this with my wife) and I won’t make my animals either. I’ve watched a lot of people waste away into nothingness trying every single thing they can just to die as a husk of themselves, it’s difficult.

So, if he hasn’t shown any recovery by Monday, it will be time to put him down. It’s sad.. he’s 13, so both of my sons have known him their whole life, but it will be a good lesson for them in grief, emotional regulation, and the fragility of life.

 

[StoneOtter]

I agree sorry.

 

[Keffka]

I agree sorry.

He had a good life.. we got him when I was stationed in South Korea from a pet store that had a restaurant across from it that sold dog meat stew. So I like to believe he escaped a cruel fate. A few others bought dogs as well but he was the only one that lived. He’s been around the world and to more places than a lot of people lol.

Death is what makes life special, and I really hope I can pass that on to my kids through this.

 

[Keffka]

Todays images.. the potassium deficiency has continued in the scarred leaves. There’s a few hints of it in other scarred leaves as well but nothing in the new growth yet. I top dressed the OG plant food (kelp meal, lobster meal, etc.) with EWC and watered it in with BSM water.. I’m heading out today to pickup a stronger air pump for teas.. the air pump from our fish tank wasn’t strong enough to aerate well.

Fun side note.. I’m now getting the urge to bite the buds and squeeze them lol

 

[Keffka]

I’m so glad I decided to just run this bag seed run and work out my deficiencies.. the confidence I have in growing has grown more than these plants

I’m able to see deficiencies, scars, pests, all kinds of stuff.. I’m quickly gaining a massive amount of knowledge on organic methods, microbial and fungal sustainability and it feels so natural. There’s something inside of me that connects with this stuff.. Like the knowledge was there already and needed to be unlocked. It’s intriguing.

I come from a long line of wilderness people.. My family was here in America before the Europeans showed up. The men in my line have all been hunters, trappers, and ranchers. My mother wanted no part of it, left my dad and moved us to the city (Detroit from Texas lol). Started a new family with my stepdad, but there’s always been a part of me that isn’t like them. I can fix things, I value labor, I’m not filled with hate, I have a connection to the universe, I believe Mother Nature is warning us, I’m not materialistic, and I willingly refused their wealth and their path to it, and went into the Army .

As hard as she tried, I became everything my mother hated about my dad even though he wasn’t around lol.. Some things are just in your blood, and I think being in tune with the planet is in mine.

 

[Keffka]

At 350 today my dog died in my and my wife’s arms. He was 13 and a half and was our first kid before we had kids. No euthanasia (he was scheduled for Monday but quickly crashed after stopping drinking willingly).. he fought until the very last hour.. he hung on just long enough for the both of us to hold him and let him know we were there forever. We took him to be cremated and will carry his ashes with us forever. RIP Trouble “Bubba”, was a perfect fit for our family, a lover and a fighter.

 

[Keffka]

I won’t be a full on downer.. here’s todays images.. she just hit 24 days flower trichomes coming in everywhere.. shades of purple coming through..

 

[Mikedin]

At 350 today my dog died in my and my wife’s arms. He was 13 and a half and was our first kid before we had kids. No euthanasia (he was scheduled for Monday but quickly crashed after stopping drinking willingly).. he fought until the very last hour.. he hung on just long enough for the both of us to hold him and let him know we were there forever. We took him to be cremated and will carry his ashes with us forever. RIP Trouble “Bubba”, was a perfect fit for our family, a lover and a fighter.

Sorry to hear that bud, we have 4 dogs they are our other kids

I won’t be a full on downer.. here’s todays images.. she just hit 24 days flower trichomes coming in everywhere.. shades of purple coming through..

but this is looking great!

 

[Gee64]

At 350 today my dog died in my and my wife’s arms. He was 13 and a half and was our first kid before we had kids. No euthanasia (he was scheduled for Monday but quickly crashed after stopping drinking willingly).. he fought until the very last hour.. he hung on just long enough for the both of us to hold him and let him know we were there forever. We took him to be cremated and will carry his ashes with us forever. RIP Trouble “Bubba”, was a perfect fit for our family, a lover and a fighter.

Sorry Keff. Hold your family tight

 

[StoneOtter]

 

[Keffka]

Sorry to hear that bud, we have 4 dogs they are our other kids

but this is looking great!

I grew up with dogs myself, rarely any less than 4, so I’ve been through this a lot.. However this was the first time it was specifically my dog that my wife and I bought and raised, and it was the first time I had to be the one to make the decisions so it sucked, but wouldn’t trade it for anything

The plant is looking really good.. I ran through it and popped all the popcorn off I could see.. at first I was using clippers but it was far easier just to reach and and pop them off with my fingers. Sent the smell flying lol.

Sorry Keff. Hold your family tight

Thanks Gee.. I always do.. One of the biggest lessons I learned from my Army time was, my family is what really matters to me. Not money, not stuff, not titles, not work, none of that.. It’s my family that my wife and I have created that means most.

 

[Keffka]

I have wondered though if I should’ve cut the side branches off instead of just popping the buds off? I figured I would be better off just popping buds off and leaving as many fan leaves as I could even if they’re on different branches, I assume based on mobility, the plant can use any resources that are mobile, doesn’t matter where they’re at. I’m still trying to put some weight on these buds and they need the resources so I left most of the branches.. I took a couple smaller ones that were just in the way of other stuff

 

[Keffka]

related unrelated (dog post only feel free to skip past).. I learned very quickly over these past few days the difference between a sick dog and a dying dog and I’m quite upset with my Vet.. I brought him in on Tuesday and by Saturday afternoon he was gone. On Tuesday she examined him and gave him some fluids and medicine but sort of hinted at euthanasia.. I said it out loud cuz I want her to know I won’t fight euthanizing him if it’s time. She said take him home and watch him if there’s no improvement in 2 days we can talk.

On Friday the vet office calls and asks what’s going on and I explain he’s worse, he’s no longer eating, he doesn’t seem to understand what his water is, and he can’t lay down, he just keeps popping back up and wandering or staring, and it’s clear his mind his almost gone. She says she’ll have the vet call me back.. They were open for multiple hours after that phone call and they were open multiple hours yesterday, but I never once received a call back.

To be fair to the vet, I wasn’t going to euthanize him until this morning at the earliest.. I needed time for my family to come home and say good bye. He didn’t make it though.. From the moment he stopped drinking water by himself it took about 48 hours and he was dead. He fought every single second during these past couple days. Unfortunately I couldn’t even force liquid into him.. The same method you use to give dogs liquid meds behind their teeth did nothing, it was like his throat was closed off.

I’ve smelled smells I could never imagine, and I’ve been responsible for picking up body parts, and that didn’t touch the smells from the dog. There is a very distinct scent when a dog voids it’s bowels versus just poops, you will not mistake it, I associated it with burnt death.

Anyway.. I’m not sure what the vets expectations were but I wasn’t about to sit and let the corpse of my dead dog decompose while I waited for Monday. We took him to a pet crematorium last night. All of this stuff is because we live in city limits. If we lived outside of the city limits I would’ve done everything myself, but you can’t shoot a dog and then incinerate it within city limits without people losing their minds.

As far as my vet goes, I’m a bit concerned she wasn’t able to see how close to death he was. If nothing else, for the ungodly amount of money they charge, I figured she’d be a little more proactive. Anyone whose owned dogs knows that once they start dying it goes really fast. In my mind, she should’ve known. She saw him almost a year ago exactly, diagnosed him as blind, and weighed him at 15 pounds. This time he was lethargic and weighed 8 pounds.. He lost half his body weight over 3-5 weeks, I’m concerned this wasn’t a bigger sign to her, especially when the X-ray showed no obstructions.

There’s a strong possibility that I am just redirecting my emotions to annoyance with the vet.. I spent the last 3 days watching my dog die as I helplessly tried to get him to eat and drink so in all likelihood the vet did exactly what she should’ve done and I’m just immaturely taking it out on her in my mind.

 

[Keffka]

Todays update.. 2 days shy of week 5 flower.. She was showing me phosphorous deficiencies in the new growth so I moved up the fish fertilizer I was gonna do. 2 tbsp of Fish bone meal with a half a cup of lobster compost watered in with dechlorinated water with a tbsp of BSM.

I finally got the stuff needed to get my tea making going on a small scale.. just in time too.. the lower leaves are taking quite a hit on what looks to be potassium.. it’s still only in the scarred leaves but it’s on most of em. I’ve got a tea brewing with BSM and alfalfa meal, kelp meal, and lobster meal. I’ll be tossing EWC in tomorrow and the tea will be ready just in time for the beginning of week 5. She’s down to about 2 days in between watering, with her consumption increasing rapidly.

edit: lol just realized my tea bubbles are a smiley face.. good sign!