Please do not plant Lilacs in South Dakota // 190th published book Day in the life of the King of Science, his character & personality-- reflections on Nature // Sociology science

[Archimedes Plutonium]

5AUG2025, I finally came to the realization and conclusion that my Lilac bushes are out of place in South Dakota. I live in the best plant growing section of South Dakota, and if lilacs struggle here, then no place in South Dakota can have happy growing lilac.

I looked at my bushes from afar, and saw the Black Walnuts on the opposite side of the Lilac. The Walnuts were flourishing, the Lilacs were partly brown, even though we had a rainy summer. I look at the Lilac in another location, the nearby Hazelnuts were vibrant green, the Lilac were partly brown and shriveled. I look at the Lilac in another location, the nearby plums were vibrant, the Lilac badly brown.

No, planting Lilac in South Dakota is like expecting a Polar Bear to be happy in the subtropics. Lilac just cannot be happy here, so please, do the lilac a favor and plant them where they can be happy. Plant plants where they can be happy!!!!!!!!! Have animal pets where they can be happy!!!!!!!! 

Make life happy for plants and animals.

Please do not plant Lilacs in South Dakota // 190th published book Day in the life of the King of Science, his character & personality-- reflections on Nature // Sociology science

AP, my logo picture is a scion blue-spruce onto elm rootstock plus some raspberry scion grafted onto elm rootstock in a proof experiment that Reincarnation is real. I am hopeful the gymnosperm spruce takes to the angiosperm elm. Although I probably should have grafted the elm scion to blue spruce rootstock since gymnosperms arrived 365 million years ago, while angiosperms arrived 100 million years ago. I am now grafting elm scion onto blue spruce rootstock in hopes of success.

[Archimedes Plutonium]

I saw a beautiful spectacle today, 8August, of where about 100 swallows were dive bombing to eat insects and below them, were dragonflies, about a thousand dragonflies after insects in the air.

We have had a wet summer, so I imagine insects are plentiful.

We have had drought years for the past 7 years in a row, and I do not recall the skies filled with swallows and dragonflies in those drought years. I do remember before the drought years of seeing thousands of dragonflies near my back yard, feasting and perhaps mating this time of year.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

I think the problem with lilacs is the same with hazelnuts. They do not thrive here in South Dakota because they have shallow root system that needs much water and South Dakota is on the dry side. Also I think they like a less clay type of soil and prefer more acid than base soil, while South Dakota is base.

Please do not plant them here for they suffer too much.

When I first moved here to South Dakota, I wanted cherries to eat and bought all types of cherry trees. Now they are all gone and dead, because South Dakota is not good to cherry trees, but there is a saving grace of chokecherry. South Dakota is perfect for chokecherry, although not as big of a fruit as sweet or sour cherries they are cherries, and they grow well and spread easily on their own. So I wish I had just paid attention to chokecherries.

Apricots do not do well here. I remember 2 years of fruit and ever since almost every one of the trees has died during the drought years.

This year I want to collect the seeds from my concord grapes to try to get new plants. They suffered from the droughts. But they found a lovely method of adapting. I trained them on a fence, but they climbed up a nearby apple tree. Half the apple tree is apples and half is concord grape.

AP

On Wednesday, August 6, 2025 at 3:11:40 AM UTC-5 Archimedes Plutonium wrote:

[Archimedes Plutonium]

I had almost a perfect day today, Saturday, 9 August 2025. Perfect in terms of my wish list and priorities. 

I wish for 12 hours of sleep every night, and got that.

I wish to start the day with science posts of good progress-- got that in the AP Modeling Principle of the neutrino as rest mass giver.

After the posts, I wish to have 6 hours outdoor work to improve buildings and grounds of Plutonium Atom Foundation research center. Got that in that I needed to repair a roof and side wall, and found it took only 2 hours not more.

I want to end the day with a few meaningful posts and publishing the next AP science book-- Got that in #353 soon to be published.

Excellent day and wish to have more like this one.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

God, my lilacs look awful, mostly brown, and yet we had abundant rain.

SWALLOWS

------------------

I have an interesting situation unfolding with my Swallows. They all departed except 1. I had 2 parents who gave birth to two sets of 3 chicks. In about 1.5 month they fledged 3 chicks then gave birth to 3 more and fledged them. 

I saw what I suspect were the Swallows in another part of town along with dragonflies.

But now, I have 1 swallow still remaining. Every night it returns to one of the nests and seems to be content. While feeding the cats, I sit in a chair and shine my headlamp and observe the swallow eating tiny bugs near its nest. 

I do not know if it is a parent or one of the fledglings. Maybe it is so happy that it wants a long rest in its nice home.

CATS

_______

One of my favorite cats is heavily pregnant and about to give birth. I named here Energy, for she is the most energetic cat I have ever seen. But a few days ago she displayed a remarkable sign of intelligence, far more intelligent than ever a AI chip will ever display, for chips cannot see geometry, they work only on algebra.

Energy-- heavily pregnant and  about to give birth, was in the company of her prior kittens who are about 1/2 year old and almost reaching adulthood. And Energy was trying to pick up and carry her daughter, as if her daughter was a newborn kitten. Her daughter seemed to go along with this play-act. But what struck me is that intelligence in animals is also Anticipation. Energy is anticipating her new litter of kittens where she picks them up by the back of their head and moves them around.

MY FINAL MOVE TO THE COAST

---------------------------------------------------

I must have posted this before, but should post it more often. A few years back I had decided to make a final move out to Washington or Oregon coast for my last home in life. Near a hospital, in walking distance and near enough to the forests and ocean.

I was sick and tired of 7 years of drought in a row, here in South Dakota.

But then in 2025, sometime in Spring, it started to rain, and the full summer has been wonderful rain, that 2025 is finally not a drought year. I, not once had to spend the doing nothing but watering, not to say spend the entire summer doing nothing but watering.

And in addition, I started to do grafting of plants.

So with the drought --- hopefully gone for good --- and with my grafting of plants, and because I am now 75 and 76 next year. I called the move, off.

Looks like I will finish out my life here in South Dakota, and I have a lot to be thankful for, because I have the ideal plants to research, animals to research, and a electronic set-up in place to write more books.

A major move would likely disrupt all of that and only settle down after 5 years, in which I would then be in my early 80s.

My only regret in not moving, is really, being close to a hospital. For at some time in the future, I will be unable to drive. And just last night, I think I may have found a solution for that --- bicycle. I have heard and seen people in their 90s who bicycle.

It may end up where in the early 90s of my life, I get rid of my vehicles and end up relying on bicycles only.

AP, King of Science

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Every year, I am given the gift of hearing tree frogs in Spring and seeing Leopard frogs in my bird bath tanks. How the leopard frog knows there is water inside is baffling. I saw only one leopard frog, but many years ago there were more than 10.

Concord Grape Seed

---------------------------------

Having endured 7 years in a row drought, I thought it wise to save the seeds and see if I can get more new plants. I have but only 2 vines remaining. And they found a better system of arboring. They climbed an apple tree and a elm tree.

Watermelon Seed

-----------------------------

I maybe out of luck here. A long time ago I bought watermelon seed and saved the seeds from the fruit for next year. But this year, for some reason I neglected planting the watermelon until late June, and may not get any fruit nor seeds. If so, I broken my yearly string of watermelon seed from the best fruit. I see some fruit starting about the size of a golf ball, but will it mature before cold weather????

Rock Elm saplings to transplant

---------------------------------------------------

I have about 20 Rock Elm saplings in pots to transplant. They came from the seeds of one Rock Elm tree.

I am excited in transplanting them soon in a long line row for Lanscape beauty. I am trying to build a north to south corridor for the squirrels to go all the way north to south or vice versa in the town without ever touching ground. There are too many cats around.

One of my cats named "tree climber", that squirrels are his favorite prey, but I cannot stomach hearing some poor squirrel sounding off, unable to go to ground for the oak acorns.

One time I saw a amazing feat by a squirrel sort of to show off a cat. For a cat had started to climb a small tree with a squirrel in it. And as the cat got midway, the squirrel reckoned that it is better to climb down and go to a bigger tree nearby. So midway, the cat was climbing, and on the other side of the cat, the squirrel quickly scampered past the cat, leaving the cat in the tree all alone. Squirrels know they are king in trees.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Horrible day for me today, 23Aug2025. I just found out one of my tallest Rock Elm trees has died. It was a sudden death for it was lush green in Spring and early Summer. I suspect what killed it is groundhogs. For there was a large groundhog hole nearby.

Then, if that was not enough sadness, I found out my 200 to 300 collection of Rock Elm seed early this year comes up 0 as far as tree saplings. I do not know, do elm seeds need to go through the stomach of a bird, or they need 2 years to germinate or whatever??? And I had spent so many hours preparing the seed by potting them and watering them and saw about 20 tree saplings sprout and grow. Only to find out that they were not elm saplings but rather mulberry or perhaps hackberry. They had serrated leaves but if I flip the leaf over for a look at vein structure--- elm is parallel veins while mulberry and hackberry look sinuous.

Months back, I thought, maybe elm saplings changed their leaf structure once they get a larger size.

But no, it looks as though I have 0 Rock Elm from collecting 300 seeds.

A terrible record so far.

By the end of today, I made a decision, have the landscaping end up with mostly Black Walnut and some Burr Oak.

And pragmatically, really, that is not a bad ending indeed. For Black Walnut is a delicious food.

Instead of fighting Nature so much to suit me. Go along with the flow.

Chokecherry loves it here

Black Walnut loves it here

Wild Plums love it here

Mulberry loves it here (and I can adapt to eating mulberries)

Go with the flow.....

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

A troubling day for me with the news of Rock Elm death and that none of the 300 seeds germinated.

I proceeded to read the web on elm seed germination. Something I should have done last Spring when collecting the seed.

One forester stated that "American Elm remains dormant until next season".

Rock Elm is genetically nearest that of American Elm.

If I had known that idea this Spring, I would have taken 10 of the 300 seed and gone ahead and sowed them to see if they came up. While drying and storing the 290 seed for next Spring. In fact, that will be my planned mission for next Spring if lucky enough for any Rock Elm to have seeds. Plant a few, and safe storage the rest for next year.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Worst mistake I made in 2025, was planting watermelon seed on July 1 rather than May 1, barring any further mistakes from today through December.

So I guess I can blame it on the 7 years of drought in a row, that I was busy transplanting strawberries in May and June that I neglected the watermelon seed planting.

I had always planted the vegetables in the past on May 1 to make sure no frost.

And the fact that I had to prepare the soil from sod for the watermelon, that finally I planted them around July 1 or the first week of July.

Last night, 24August the temperature fell to 7 degrees celsius. Will not be long before we reach frost. And if no sizeable watermelon I will have lost my Heritage watermelon. For about 15 years now I planted the seeds of the best watermelon in that season, and as the years went by the improvement in quality of fruit increased every year.

So I am in danger this year of losing my Heritage seed watermelon, and will have to start all over with a store bought package of seed.

Seems like the year 2025 is ever growing concern and awareness for me of Seeds-- Rock Elm seed, and now watermelon seeds.

I should have put aside about 100 of those seeds thinking they can last for 2 years and planted the other 900 seeds. Many times in the store, some seeds are left overs from last year.

AP, sad at heart for my watermelon.

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Back again canning fruit, of 150 quarts of fruit-- applesauce, pears, chokecherries, mulberries, plums.

During the 7 years in a row drought, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 there was little on the fruit trees as they felled their fruit as drought became worse. And what little fruit there was, I ate fresh, not thinking of canning anything.

Applesauce

-------------------

Of course you will need a blender and I set the setting on "smoothie". I love applesauce far better than a fresh apple itself. I do not know why that is. Maybe the cooking diminishes some of the malic acid. Or maybe it is the slight added sugar or maple syrup I add.

Yesterday I canned 7 quarts of applesauce. And I use only a thin metal pot so the heating to boil is quicker. I do not use those thick metal pots anymore as they take too long to get to a boil. And I stopped using pressure cookers. In fact I wish I never bought pressure cookers as I hot pack the fruit that comes to a boil. Pressure Cookers are meant for meats or low acid food, and I simply do not can meats or low acid food.

The hot pack method is the way to go. And it took me 3 hours to pare, boil, hot pack 7 quarts of applesauce yesterday. 

Pears

---------

Pears are about 2 times easier to can than is applesauce. For you skip a blender and the paring is far easier than apples. It took me 1.5 hours to pare, boil, hot pack 7 quarts of pears today.

Now as a fruit favorite, I would say oranges and tangerines are my favorite and applesauce and pears are what I consider average fruit. But then, if I add cream to a bowl of chilled pears then this dessert is top dessert, even better than a orange. Pears and cream is somewhat like cereal and milk, the two go together.

My goal is the same as before the drought years. Can 150 quarts of fruit. If I do 7 quarts a day that would be 7 divided into 150 is about 21 days, less than a month. And with the end of August and all of September should give me plenty of time.

So the entire winter, I have plenty of fruit to eat and keep me going in fruit to Spring of next year when the strawberries, mulberries, raspberries come into bloom and harvest. A continuous year round fruit bonanza.

Hazelnuts

---------------

Fresh picked hazelnuts are a delight.

Black Walnuts

------------------------

If I can get any that the squirrels have not gotten. I need to wait for the green husks to separate and just pick up the nut.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Well, finally, my straggler swallow flew away-- migrating south for winter. Flew away near the end of August. At nights when feeding the cats, I shone my headlamp up at her/his nest and watched the swallow eat bugs that came near.

I believe this swallow was resting up for the long journey south.

So in summary, the mating pair returned in 2025, sort of late spring and had one set of eggs that produced 3 chicks which fledged in a very short time 1 to 1.5 months and then had another set of eggs that produced 3 chicks in a nearby nest and fledged in 1-1.5 months.

Swallows are fun to watch.

They are masters at flying and acrobats in flying. I have seen some swallows that follow me as I stir up bugs in the grass and they fly down, swoop down and eat the bugs.

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Now I better write this down and have a record of it before I forget it.

About 2 weeks ago I lost a black & white female cat named "Jumper" for she jumped over Calm and a tabby female named "attacker" for she attacked other females and attacked one female that caused me to put her down from the mortal wounds. Both fought one another and hung out with a male all white cat I named Calm. He is the calmest, relaxed male cat I ever owned. He never fights, never wants to fight and sometimes even breaks up fights between two females.

So I lost Jumper and Attacker, and trying to figure out what happened to them, while Calm was still in his usual run of the place.

But, 4 days ago, I lost Calm also. Three cats lost in about 2.5 weeks.

I heard there was a coyote run over nearby on the highway.

Coyotes would kill a cat. And it is my belief that if all humans vacated South Dakota, in a few years, what cats remained would die of winter or die from coyotes. That if all humans vacated South Dakota, in about 2 or 3 years, no cats would live in South Dakota, that is my hunch.

So well, today, I was walking past the building that Calm hung out, not expecting to see him, but eaten by a coyote. And to my surprise, I hear a faint meow that is distinctly Calm's meow.

So chalk this story up for Cat Intelligence. Apparently Calm had encountered something that scared him--- probably a coyote or band of 2 coyotes.

And in reaction, Calm has found a perfect ideal home in 2 blue spruce trees. Calm gets to the base and then climbs some elevation into the Blue Spruce and sleep up there in the tree. No coyote can get under the tree, nor go climbing without getting the needle like sticker ends of Blue Spruce needles.

So cats, at least Calm is very very smart to recognize Blue Spruce will save his life from coyotes.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

I have to laugh at myself, for Saturday, 6 September I planted Lilacs to make a new hedge row. I dug up young shoots from a established Lilac and transplanted 4 of them. As I was saying all my lilacs have browning and are struggling. This is the first time in my life I have done a Fall transplant. I prefer Spring.

But I am hedging my bets on the lilacs making it, so will plant Burr Oak seed along with the lilac, if one fails, well I can hope to bank on the other making it. Maybe all two will make it.

I am trying to make a squirrel run from North to South of Meckling, were squirrels need not come down from the trees.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Horticulture News

-----------------------------

I have been extremely busy this summer. Mostly writing science books, but a-lot of outdoor work also. I divide my day into 3 parts. I sleep in for 12 hours. When I get up I do some science writing while still fresh in mind. Then I spend 6 hours doing chores, maintenance, of course feed the cats, grass cutting, repairs and even science experiments. Once done with the 6 hours, I spend more time on writing science until bedtime.

Last Spring I started to graft different plants for a Reincarnation Experiment. Tried to get raspberry scion to elm and hackberry and ash rootstock and blue spruce scion to elm, ash, hackberry rootstock. All of my grafts failed. Which is no surprise to any horticulturist for I am attempting cross Order in Linnaeous Botany Classification. There has been success in Cactus cross Order grafting, so I believe there is success in other plants.

I believe this is Reincarnation in action. For in cutting the scion it is dead, and by grafting, I bring it back to life.

So I await next Spring and this time try grafting raspberry scion, elm scion, ash scion, hackberry scion, mulberry scion to blue spruce rootstock. Gymnosperms are ancient plants while angiosperms are more geologically recent.

Post this in my 80th book.

AP, King of Science

[Archimedes Plutonium]

There is an old expression-- "by the skin of your teeth".

Well, with watermelon seed, by the skin of my teeth, I was able to retain my "Heritage Watermelon Seeds".

What I mean by heritage is that I sowed watermelon seeds sometime in early 2000s, perhaps 2005 and this is now 20 years later where I save the seeds of the watermelons grown and sow them next year. Of course I save on the  best melons for their seeds. This has been going on for 20 years. And I always was looking for the fast growing ones-- only 2 months and especially saved their seeds.

So then we had 7 years of drought from 2018 through 2024, miserable drought where I especially had to water the watermelon patch.

And I had about 200 seeds ready to go for 2025, but I was caught up in some other matter--- strawberries and rock elm seeds and a roofing repair job, that I missed planting the watermelon until the first week of July. Risking the possibility I would have no watermelons of the heritage collection.

I especially liked the "very white flesh with only a slight touch of red for it was firm and on the sour side". 

But luck is with me, for just today, 11 Sept 2025, I picked two ripe watermelons, small ones. I tell if they are ripe by seeing a yellow side where they rest on the ground. 

Watermelon is best eaten when cut in half and refrigerated for 2 hours. 

So today, I saved my Heritage Watermelon Seeds for I have now about 75 seeds.

My normal planting time is 1 May and have watermelon ready by July.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Get a hold of that. Saturday 13Sept is weather forecast of 33 Celsius and it is the middle of September.

I removed my air conditioner.

September should be jacket season, not shorts and T shirt.

[Archimedes Plutonium]

The Year of Horticulture for AP

-----------------------------------------------

A beautify day in a beautiful year for me, for today was nice cool sunny Autumn day, a seed day!!

2025 did not start out that way, no, instead I had fear and dread that with little snow, that 2025 would end up as the 8th year in a row of drought and that we would have the worst drought ever.

Instead, by middle Spring the rains came back and heard it say that in July we had 38cm rain alone in July when normally we have 63 cm for the whole year in a normal year. During the 7 years of drought in a row, I would go the entire summer without rainfall and had to water with garden hose all summer long.

I was so sick and tired of 7 years in a row drought that I had property for sale and was moving to the West Coast. But when the rains came this year, I changed my mind and am staying put. Not just because the rains came back, and hopefully here to stay, but because of my renewed interest in Horticulture. I have figured out that Reincarnation Science can be proven true by grafting horticulture cross family even cross order in Linnaean taxonomy of Kingdom-Phylum-Class-Order-Family-Genus-Species.

So my new found interest in Experimental Grafting means that a move would interrupt all the experiments indefinitely and unsure I could set up grafting experiments in my new location. So I decided to stay put, and probably end up dying here amoung my horticulture experiments. This Spring I tried to graft raspberry scion to elm, hackberry, ash rootstock with no success. Later I tried blue spruce scion to elm, ash, hackberry and still no success. Next spring I reverse the scion of elm, hackberry, mulberry, ash to that of a gymnosperm of blue spruce rootstock. Perhaps I may achieve success. My worst problem is dessication.

Today, 20Sep2025 was a Seed Day

----------------------------------------------------

So I had a bucket of acorns from Burr Oak, and a bucket of wild plum seed to plant.

I am trying to get a tree corridor in Meckling from North to South so that squirrels can stay in trees the entire distance of Meckling without touching ground, to save them from all the cats in Town.

So I am planting some Burr Oak in spots where trees are absent.

Planting seeds is far easier than planting transplants. 

But I am going to have to learn tree identification better. I do not yet recognize wild plum from chokecherry, nor do I easily recognize apple and pear saplings when and if they come up.

So I am going to have to sharpen up on tree identification from leaves alone. And some sapling leaves are different when young from a mature tree.

And my renewed interest in horticulture is going to alter my sleeping habits. I need to have 6 hours of the day working outside and so I am going to have to get to bed earlier and wake up at perhaps 11 or 12 instead of 2 or 3 pm. Not easy changing your sleeping habits.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Yesterday 25Sep2025 was the first day of this year that I enjoyed Black Walnut as the squirrels leave me plenty in the walkway. I have to wait for the husk to turn black and then pick out the nut. I use a vise grip to open the nut and then dental picks to get out the meat.

Very tasteful, and I am assured--- organic.

So yes, I want to build a treeline all the way north to south in Meckling so the squirrels can go the distance without touching ground with so many cats here in Meckling.

I am adding the asparagus seed to my collection of seeds to germinate next Spring. Picking off the orange round berry.

Good news also on Watermelon, my Heritage seeds, as a found a big melon today, hidden under the leaves so I have plenty of seed for next year. I prize my watermelon for through the years I saved the seeds of the earliest bearing and the firm white inside with only a slight hint of red. That is why I call them Heritage-- the best of the batch worthy of next year crop of watermelon. So next year, I not make the mistake of planting in July but plant on 1 May.

Today I am doing more apple canning. I hope to get 100 quarts of fruit to eat during Winter & Spring. I was slow on the draw for canning this year for my normal canning is 200 quarts. Slow because for the past 7 years of drought, I sort of forgot my rountine of canning. In those drought years I simply ate the fruit off the tree for there was little to harvest.

And, today, for the first time in my life I am analyzing the apple and pear leaf, for I hope some of the apple and pears I planted seed will germinate.  The drought killed many of my best trees. But one tree sticks out from all the other apples is a green-sour apple. Another outstanding apple tree is a red one but small fruit, larger than crabapple but smaller than the grocery store apple. What is nice about this red apple is that it is so prolific in fruit, that my harvest this year comes mostly from this one good tree. One good apple tree sort of makes the other apple trees as reserves. This good apple tree was adjoining the horse corral and perhaps all the horse manure made this tree be prolific.

It is now dry in my region, but not to worry for we had excellent rain in Spring and Summer. If it is going to be dry, then it is best in Autumn and Winter.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

My Saga in Canning

-------------------------------

Well this is a saga worth telling, for it marks my stupidity and then recovering from my stupidity to do it right.'

So I moved back out West in years 1999-2000 and I moved to a place where I could grow much of my food with plenty of land and already some established fruit trees. I had come from living in apartments in Hanover New Hampshire and now living on my own personal land and I wanted to can my own food. I had lived much of my life in Mormon country of Utah and had gone to Utah State University for a Masters degree, and so was very familar to the Mormon practice of storing and saving food for a crisis.

I was mostly a Organic Food eater but not 100%, and would say I was 50 - 50 up until 2016 when I had cancer and thus converted 100% to organic food. I will not eat anything if not organic (without chemicals especially pesticide and herbicide).

So the canning of food for me became critical importance for often the food stores had little selection of organic food.

But here was the big stupidity by me, one of the worst stupid mistakes I ever made in life. I thought that canning was tantamount (equal) to pressure cooking. So in year 2000 I shopped for a pressure cooker. I did not know then, that you need no pressure cooker if you can acidic foods like fruit, that you just need to __pack boiling fruit into cold glass canning jars___, and be done with it. Acidic fruit is a poor environment for bacteria to grow. I thought all my canning had to go through the pressure cooker. And how stupid was that. By year 2000, I am sure there was plenty of information on the Internet on the cold pack canning, and if I had had my wits about me, since I was on the Internet every day of the year posting about physics and math, but no, I did not spend a single second looking up Canning of fruits.

So now I have a pressure cooker that just is never used anymore.

I have too large stainless steel pots--- thin metal so it is quick to boil.

And the cold pack method for acid fruit is simple. Boil the fruit and pour into (I use a thermal glass measuring cup) as to not make a big mess, and fill each Kerr or Mason jar until near the top and screw on the lid.

I have honed my canning to be 2 hours at most. Paring the fruit. Paring the fruit takes the most time. Boiling the fruit and packing the jars. In 2 hours I can do 14 quarts of fruit. And just recently I had used a blender to make apple sauce, but that was taking up too much time making it a 4 hour operation instead of the 2 hour operation. I found that the boiling of apples in small chunks of paring makes applesauce and no need to involve the blender.

The biggest time taker in the process is the paring of the fruit such as apples, pears. Rhubarb is the best for there is little to pare. I am finding apples and plums the worst in paring time. Pears are easier to pare than apples. I find many of my apples scarred by some insects and perhaps fungus. So a-lot more paring.

I am near 100 quarts as I write.

In the old stupid days of canning, with pressure cooker took upwards of 6 hours. With all the cleaning of stuff. Took the entire evening in work and a mess and to cleaning the equipment.

So, well, my failure to look up on the Internet--- you do not need a pressure cooker. You need a pressure cooker if you do meat or non-acid food.

And as far as eating the canned fruit, about every 3 days I ping the lid on my cans to hear for breakage of seal. If the ping is dull or flat, the seal is broken and I eat that fruit that same day. In the winter time, often some seals are broken and set them aside to eat.

I use lids and seals over and over again until they are damaged. I ___do not use for One Time Only___. I find some seal lids I have used on 3 times.

Another stupid thing I did was start out in year 2000 in buying the Wide Mouth, but now I use mostly the small mouth for the seal is better on small mouth lids.

Now that the rains have returned, I have plenty of fruit to can. And for me, a 200 quart canning year is my goal.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Incredible, this is 2Oct2025 and the inside of my house was over 27 degree Celsius this morning. In South Dakota in the past, we should have freezing weather at night by this time of year.

And although I did not have to water plants and trees with the garden hose this spring and summer, turns out we had no good rain in the entire month of September nor October. So yesterday I got out the garden hose and had to water the Yew bushes, Taxus species.

In South Dakota, no matter where you are, drought is around any and every corner.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Please do not plant hazelnut bushes in South Dakota. Soil is not acid enough and they require more water than this climate gives them.

Remarkable day in that it reached 27 degrees Celsius again, and this is 4Oct when normally we should expect 15 degree Celsius.

Very dry Autumn, if it continues I could say 2025 was a drought year as Winter and early Spring were drought and if I add on all of Autumn and November + December, then 2025 is drought, the 8th drought year in a row. The good part of 2025 is we had plenty of rain for much of Spring and all of Summer.

If I were a gambling man, my bet is that South Dakota will never have "enough rain" and always teetering on the drought.

Yesterday I saw a farmer harvesting his field. So dry I could not see the machinery, only a huge cloud of dust. 

Every year the Sun blazes hotter and hotter for we have a Sun gone Red Giant phase, and we better make a permanent colony on Europa if we do not want to go extinct.

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Alright, I define a drought year as being one in which no rainfall for more than a month+ week = 5 weeks, during the growing season. That is Spring through Autumn.

The year 2025 has become the 8th Drought year in a row for my place in South Dakota.

I asked this question a year ago, whether any research found that a drought in Autumn can kill a tree??? One web site said that "If it happens too soon during the transition it could kill off essential buds and stress your plants at a critical time."

The never ending saga of droughts in South Dakota, as the Sun gone Red Giant phase will hammer that home every year of the future. I thought perhaps the drought had been broken. Nay, it just moved from summer to autumn this year.

And the answer will be, the answer if politicians of South Dakota are wise enough. The answer is irrigation using the Missouri River. For, in an environment where Sun gone Red Giant, it is only a matter of time that the Midwest USA is another Sahara desert.

Set up irrigation of South Dakota much like what Phoenix has irrigation for that city.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Brrrrr.... 18Oct2025 here in South Dakota received much needed rain, but still 2025 was a drought year as we had no rain for 5weeks starting September. I can live with that but had to get out and do some garden hose watering so the plants and trees could form proper buds for next spring.

If it gets any colder than today, I need to swith out from jacket to coat. It is now 7 degrees celsius. Soon I will turn on the indoor heater. But I am more worried about erecting the cold frame for the strawberries. I am cutting back on indoor strawberries and onions for winter. But they do purify the air considerably.

And then there is the problem of some of my cats have grown so fond of the outdoors that they do not want the garage to live in for the winter. 

Well, I will face the problems as they come.....

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Really BBBRRRR... as today is the first day below freezing water temperature. And signalling Winter is on its way. I had to wear a thick coat. 

Cats seemed not to mind or notice the bad weather.

An urgent job for me is the strawberries under a cold frame, before the snow flies.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Every year that I have lived here in South Dakota, I have seen the Canadian Geese and other birds migrate Southward, all done before November 1. Today is November 1 and not a single sight of bird migration.

What has happened with the birds???

I am waiting for them to feed them rice by the pond.

None so far.

Has something gone terribly wrong????

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Maybe they migrate only at the first sign of bad weather. Today I heard a flock of Canadian geese overhead, but did not actually catch a sight of them.

It definitely is winter here for I had to put on gloves for the 7 degree Celcius.

The first time I moved to South Dakota, being familiar with Ohio and Moab, Utah. I thought that the snow would melt after a couple of days. For like in Ohio, snow one day and 3 days later all disappear in warmer weather.

No, when snow comes to South Dakota, it tends to stay there for 4 months accumulating more and more. But in past years it has melted. The weather forecast predicts 17 degrees C for much of this week.

That gives me more time to build my strawberry pots cold frame stacked high in pine needles and leaves.

Last winter killed 60% of the strawberries with glass and plastic frames. I am trying a new method to see if I can save say 80% of the potted strawberries.

I noticed that around the foundation of my home, the south side, that the plants grow very vigorously and go dormant the last. This gives me the idea that I should dig a trench alongside the South side of the house and line the trench with potted strawberries and pile on the pine needles. Will try this next year come Autumn.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

No, I heard the same sound tonight and it was some other animal, not migrating geese or birds.

So where have the migratory birds disappeared to??

Tonight I was reading about Kite reintroduction into UK and then into Spain. They are beautiful large red birds. And it says they were almost driven to extinction by poisoning.

I wonder if poisoning is killing our migratory flocks??

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Well, tonight I spotted the beautiful constellation of W, Cassiopeia , but, unfortunately unable to spot the Dippers and the North Star.'

In my youth on vacation out West, 1969 I remember a campground in Colorado and looking in the Heavens, the sky full of stars, just everywhere and bright. Nowadays it appears we will never see a sky of bright stars ever again.

I am looking up pictures on the web and telling me that Ursa Major sits low on the horizon and that Polaris in Ursa Minor then to the right would be Cassiopeia.

I have to keep that in mind for the next sighting.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Ahh, yes, here is some encouraging news. 6 days ago: Missoula Montana Thousands of migrating geese spotted at Freezout Lake-- NBC Montana.

So maybe the flocks are just late this year as a super warm year, and they only migrate when the weather is bad up north.

As Earth warms, maybe Geese will live up north permanently.

[Archimedes Plutonium]

This is Thanksgiving Day here in the USA. I like it mostly for the pumpkin pie with cream on top and the cranberry with cream on top ( all organic, for I learned my lesson with cancer in 2015-16).

But today I received a most special Thanksgiving Gift of hearing Canadian Geese migrate over head. Sorry I did not actually see them for it was after 7PM and totally dark.

Thankful for I had bought them a sack of rice to spread on the ground as they fly through, hopefully the ducks also.

So I am guessing that the Canadian Geese and the Ducks only migrate if their northern homes get too cold. And only then do they take off and migrate southward.

Which really can be a harbinger of or predictor that the global warming is not because of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels but rather from Sun gone Red Giant phase, and the Earth will only get hotter and hotter as the years go by. At some stage, northern birds will stay put.

And the irony of it all, is that many winters in a Sun gone Red Giant will be colder than the winters of the past. Irony in that we have Polar Vortexes now, where a warm front takes a hold of the North Pole and sends that Arctic Air down South to South Dakota and we have 2 weeks of what Arctic winters are like.

The Irony that in Global Warming we have worse and colder winters than we had before.

So, tonight, I get out my sack of rice and hope to start feeding the migrating Geese and hopefully ducks also.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

A beautiful winter night here in South Dakota, although cold, with snow on ground. The Moon was full, so bright I needed no headlamp. And surprisingly clouds overhead, yet I could still see bright stars.

Which brings me back to a long lost question nagging me.

The question is do Clouds follow the rotation of Earth, or do clouds form in one place and as the Earth rotates on axis, it eventually meets up with those clouds formed elsewhere? Or do clouds follow wind patterns? I think the definitive answer is a bit of both. That a land surface comes in contact with a cloud mass from the Earth's rotation and also, clouds are blown in to a land mass. And some clouds form in that specific region from nearby evaporation.

Intriguing question. Perhaps those astronauts in the Space Station can answer the question???

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

I had a terrible miserable day today, Fri 5Dec and let me recount the horrible problem.

So I was at the Bank depositing a check, and the teller asked for my credit card to pull up the account. And transaction over with; I wanted to speak to someone else.

I departed the bank and spent time with other business, finally at the grocery store before heading for home.

There I was at the checkout and usually pay by credit card. Pulled out my wallet and no credit card in the pocket I usually keep it.

PANIC, PANIC Attack hit me.

My mind last recalled the clerk at bank needed it. So fast, pay for the groceries and I have 6 minutes to get back to the Bank and enquire, before the bank closes. Will I have to null and void the card????

I managed to get to the Bank in time, all under this Panic Attack, and find no credit card inside. Then it hits me, I may have slipped the card into my briefcase before talking with the banker about some other issue.

Any day that I lose a credit card, or a wallet, is a Panic Royale. Even if I lose a pair of glasses, or especially keys causes Panic.

And in my life I built up a system of where---- Constant Good Rules of Behavior to avoid Panic Attacks.

Apparently I had not built a Good Rule for when I give my credit card to a clerk.

Good Rule of Behavior to Add to my Inventory

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Whenever giving my credit card to someone else. Do not wait for the end of the transaction for there can be many many side show distractions before getting my card back--- to receive card and receipt back. No, before the transaction is complete, insist on having the credit card back, and where I slip it back inside its pocket in my wallet.

If I had had such a Rule before today, I would not have gone into a Panic Attack and ruined the day.

Funny, when I was young I kept losing expensive pens, and then I had the Rule built that my pen must be clipped to the wallet I carry, and ever since, I have not lost my pen.

Another rule I built goes back to when I was real young in my teenager years. My father and I were on vacation and unfortunately locked the car with keys inside. We had to call for a locksmith. From that experience, I built the Rule that always have an extra key inside the wallet. For chances are, that you will not lock the car keys and the wallet both at the same time inside the car. And it worked several times in the past where the wallet comes to the rescue.

I still have not found a good rule for _____not losing my glasses_____. But working on it.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

So yes, during my life, I built up these rules to keep me out of trouble. Especially on losing wallet, credit cards, drivers license, Driving a car, losing keys, losing tools etc.

But still I manage to lose things, even momentarily.

For my wallet--- the rule is never ever set the wallet down. Always have the wallet in my pocket, a secure pocket for one time I was pickpocketed, and now my wallet is always in a secure pocket-- tight or velcro latch. If not in pocket, it can be in hand, but nowhere else.

Now for my credit card or drivers license--- If I give either one to someone such as a clerk-- the focus of attention will be not the transaction but rather insisting the clerk return the card before completing transaction and to where I put the card back into my wallet.

I have a unique rule for tools. Often I need multiple tools for a job, and so I count the tools before the job, and count them after the job. If I lose a tool, my rule is that I have to buy a new one the next time I go to the store. This rule makes it painful to lose a tool as I have to fork over money to replace the lost tool. When young I would have multiple tools at a work site and throw them down after finished with a tool, and often forget I had thrown them down, ending up as losing or rusted tool.

Life in General is nothing but a Series of solving problems, and a good life is one in which, I do not add more problems due to my careless behavior.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Speaking of Rules for driving. When I grew up as a driver in the 1970s onward, traffic was not much of a problem, but as more traffic increased through the decades, driving became more and more scary, especially on Expressways.

A recent addition to my Rules on Driving involves changing lanes on the expressway. I cannot think of a more horrifying problem in driving ---- you are on a expressway near a big city and it is rush hour to get to work and your exit is one or two exits ahead-- but traffic is stopped and long lines. And you are in the wrong lane. Do you attempt to switch lanes or miss your exit????

My rule here is stay in your lane and if necessary take the wrong exit.

An accident on the Expressway easily can kill you or cripple you for life.

In my entire life, I had but one accident. A year or two after getting a drivers license I had a accident at a stop sign where I ran into the rear of a car and dented their fender. No bodily injury, but enough to tell me to start making rules on driving. Ever since then, I was accident free. The key rule in driving is drive --- Slow and drive defensively. 

Lane changing and speeding is for those who will be in a accident.

I must comment on the fact that I own a electric car hybrid. And they are easy to speed in. Electric vehicles have an easy time of acceleration as compared to the gas powered engine, and so they take some time to adjust to.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

So I am enjoying the Winter so far. Plenty of sleep, and plenty warm with electric heaters. After my cancer in 2016, I threw out the wood stove as too dirty of air to breath. It may have caused my cancer itself.

And I am trying to finish this textbook on Logic which has become my most difficult book to write considering the time spent on it, almost the entire year, and not yet done.

I am eating well also, as my appetite is enormous. Tonight I had my easiest dinner to make--- fish sandwiches.

I take organic sourdough bread and with a tab of butter heat them in a microwave, then spread can opened sardines, 1/2 a tin of olive oil deskinned and deboned. Not as great as what I experienced fish sandwiches in England in 1999 with the bun and tartar sauce, but good enough for me.

And for drink I had a pyrex glass cup with water and a few organic blueberries for flavor.

When I was young one of my favorite drinks was Tang, a orange drink that you dissolve a crystal powder in water and drink like it was orange juice. But none of that stuff is organic so I would never drink that now. And tea is too much trouble to make, I like something fast and easy.

I start the morning when I wake up, actually it is after 1 or 2 or 3PM with taking Vitamin D organic gummies. Maybe if I had done that starting 1999 when I moved back to South Dakota, I may not have caught cancer, and had not used a wood stove. I suspect that a wood stove inside the house is like smoking 2 packs of cigarettes per day.

My second holiday is shortly coming up, for I celebrate 7Nov and 14Dec. 7Nov, 1990 is the birthday of Plutonium Atom Totality, and 14 Dec 1940 is the birth day of discovery of the chemical element plutonium.

The other night I heard "Joy to the World" from a school choir that sounded uplifting. So this year I will use Joy to the World on 14Dec.

Joy to the World, the Atom is All

Let Earth teach chemisty physics

Let every heart be plutonium

And heaven and nature sing 

And heaven and nature sing

Joy to the Earth, plutonium reigns

Let people their songs employ

While fields, forests, hills and plains

Repeat the sounding joy

Repeat the sounding joy

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

So, tomorrow, Saturday 13Dec promises to be the coldest day this year so far at -23 degrees Celsius.

Yet it is snowing tonight and promises to snow tomorrow.

I once heard a man say that it does not snow when it gets really cold. Maybe he made that statement thinking the atmosphere cannot hold water to form snow. But I am sure he was wrong. For Antarctica is permanently cold and it snows there all the time.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Well, I certainly am in the thick of winter. -23C temperature tonight. Today my auxiliary heater for the plants indoors has been on nonstop.

In the 1970s I lived in South Dakota and know how brutal the winters can be here, much like Minnesota is the freezer or refrigerator of the USA (lower 48 states). But South Dakota is worse than Minnesota because the wind is more fierce here.

But that was OK for me for I am a cold person with high metabolism. I suffer in heat more than I suffer in cold. But now I am 75 and getting to where I cannot withstand cold as well as in my younger years.

Just last year at about this time I contracted the smallpox virus hiding in me to come down with shingles. That told me something new--- I better take better care of myself in old age and in winter.

When I moved back to South Dakota in 1999 I knew the winters were brutal but could put up with it. And especially when I started to sleep with a electric blanket. And I said to myself---- Winter, you are Conquered. With the electric blanket, there is never any problem in winter time. 

But then came 2015-16 with Liposarcoma cancer, the size of a small watermelon in my right rear peritoneal. It would have killed me if I had not had it surgically removed.

To this day I do not know exactly what caused it???? Could it be something I ate??? Something I breathed in???? Perhaps the electric blanket caused it????

Not knowing what caused it, I eat only organic foods now. I am careful of what I breathe in and eliminated the wood stoves. I will not return to using the electric blanket.

It is frustrating not knowing what caused my cancer, so the best that I can do on that front is eliminate the suspects.

AP, King of Science

[Archimedes Plutonium]

So, we passed the coldest day of the year so far with -23C. And looking ahead for the next 2 weeks, every day above freezing and reaching 4 or 5 degrees Celsius.

I am super happy all my cats and kittens made it through the worst day. Especially the kittens since some of them have calcivirus. But just yesterday, the worst kitten was playing. If a cat is playing means they are happy.

And I discovered to my anguish that I have a roof leak, in the melting snow. And this looks like I have to spend more time this coming summer on a solid tar patch to a section of roof. 

Idiot Carpentry

-----------------------

When they built a garage add on to my house. They joined one V roof to a smaller V roof with a strip of flat section. This flat section is meant to run off the water perpendicular to the normal flow and water tends to get under the V roof and leak into the garage and house where joined.

Really really idiotic carpentry.

I spend too much time in writing science books, and here, this carpentry mess will have to take up time this Spring and Summer, if not, I end up losing the house and garage in decay.

So I am planning to finish book #373.

Future history of my textbooks-- 1st year college Logic was based on a batch of books I began to write in year 2025.
#350 Geometry
#365 Calculus
#366 Logic
#367 Pure True Logic
#368 Advanced Logic
#369 Advanced Geometry
#370 Physics electricity
#371 Plutonium Atom Totality, 10th edition
#372 Improving the Scientific Method
#373 Thermodynamics Corrected

Once I finish these, I plan a vacation away from writing science books and make sure my buildings are in tip top shape.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

To my delight, tonight, saw the Big Dipper and the North Star (Polaris) but other parts of the Little Dipper were not seen and saw Cassiopeia. Also saw Orion.

In Winter for me the Big Dipper is in the East. In Spring it will be North of Polaris. In Summer, the Big Dipper will be West of Polaris, and in Fall, it will be South of Polaris.

Orion is so recognizable with its 3 stars in a line as the hunter's belt. So I use the upper part of the Big Dipper to find Polaris and the lower part of the Big Dipper to find Orion's belt.

Our ancestors spent loads of time looking at the night sky, shame we spend so little time.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

I once asked a grown up at Kiewit Center where free computers were available to any student or employee of Dartmouth College in the early 1990s. I was of course a employee of the College and privileged to use the computers anytime one was open. 

But there were many of High School students taking up computers, even though some students needed the computers. And there were some grown-ups who should not be using the computers. They were all Apple computers and had a printing room where you could get print-outs for your homework.

I remember asking one time this grown-up who was a frequent user, or should I say abuser. I asked him why he took up space when a queue line of students needed to get a computer. And he answered, quite civily, that he thought whoever showed up, could use the computers.

Well, this is now over 30 years later and reflecting on his quite civil reply, I mean not a angry brisly reply, but a civil reply, and reflecting now,.... that is the way I treat my stray cats. Whoever shows up at my back door for food, well, feed him/her especially here in Winter time. Even the possum that cleans up after the cats. It is a smart possum, for he/she, cannot tell if male or female, but the possum has come to recognize me as "friendly".

One of my stray cats always cries when other tomcats crowd him at the dinner table. I named him "Crybaby".

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

2025 Xmass wrap up

----------------------------------

Well, 2024 was a sad and bad Xmass, as I came down with Shingles that year, thinking it was bed bugs and finding out instead it was Shingles, the chicken pox virus that hides in your body. I later found out that the vaccine is 99% effective and that the virus is implicated in causing Alzheimers disease. So, I, wisely took the vaccine. Do not believe a single word that comes out of the mouth of Trump and his anti-science moron RFKjr on anything related to Medicine and Health.

But today in 2025, Xmass is another sad and bad day, for one of my kittens died last night, and she was just about to reach adulthood in a few months. She died of calcivirus. And for some pecular reason the family of 2 adult females, male, 2 kittens found a new and different place to sleep next to a spruce tree in tufts of grass purely outside, rather than the garage or outbuilding stable. For some reason they wanted to sleep outside next to a spruce tree in grass tufts, and this probably exposed the kitten to too much cold. So I am in mourning for this kitten even though I now have, still, 33 cats to feed. Cats can be immense joy added to my life but also intense pain and sadness on their death. Perhaps the sadness is partially a reflection that soon, I too will bite the dust and die.

But, alas, Heaven is likely to be far more joyful and happy than is living a life on Earth, even for the most happy among us. So that in the future, somehow, all of humanity has to turn the picture around 180 degrees. Instead of mourning and sadness of death, the reverse, a time of happiness that the dearly departed are in a place far better than us, leaving us to work out and grind the toils and troubles of living on Earth. ATOM

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Well, Apple Corporation gave me a wonderful Xmass gift by making a movie out of all my photos, Thank you Apple and Merry Christmass to you. Sorry, I will not buy a new iphone until 2030 as I expect my iphone will last another 5 years. I just paid off my phone in 2025, so am waiting for 2030 as I expect your iphone should last for 10 years.

Today, 28 December was a miserable day as a blizzard. South Dakota blizzards are awful. I am lucky to get the outdoor cats fed, and spend the rest of the time indoors writing my science. And 28Dec was a magnificent day for my science as I push ahead further in the Light-Wire replacing the Light-Wave of Old Physics. The last 35 years of my life has been devoted to Science, and everything else comes secondary, side show dressing to my science work.

One thing good about blizzards, for my property, is it blows in all the corn husks from farmers West of me. Blows in those husks and fertilizes the trees all along my West bank, fertilizing and mulching them. And I use the blown in corn husks to make bedding and cat litter boxes for the garage cats.

So today was a great day for my science as I am getting closer to verifying that the Light Wire replaces the Light Wave. So looking at the silver lining of a blizzard, is the science progress of the Light Wire.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

So last night was -15 Celsius here in South Dakota, a normal usual temperature for winter time. This is expected to last for the next two weeks.

When I had Liposarcoma cancer in 2015-16 I made a large list of suspects that may have caused the cancer. And I likely will never know what caused my cancer. On that list was the electric blanket, not a high suspect but a rather low suspect. But last night I woke up to find my feet were cold. 

Usually I go to sleep after a hot bath and have no problems getting to sleep without having to warm my feet after the hot bath. But this morning I had problems. I figure it is my age and will be 76 this year.

So, well, I decided to take my electric blanket out of storage and bundle it around my feet.

I like my entire body to stretch out. I prefer sleeping on my back with feet stretched out and not one leg hanging over another leg. I detest the fetal position. If I sleep on a side, the legs have to be free of one another, for the sake of the heart. I do not want to cut blood flow circulation.

And so I came to the realization this morning, that to get me into the 90s in age, I am going to have to make this compromise and use electric blankets in winter time, especially for my feet. We tend to neglect our feet and the health of our feet.

So, well, every night now in these subzero Celsius winter, I will have the electric blanket for my feet if needed. A compromise, for I am using the blanket only for my feet.

Without the electric blanket, I do not think I will make it into my 90s.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Brrr.... Tomorrow, Thursday and Friday promise to be the coldest days of this year at -25 degree Celsius.

This is just one of the reasons I want New Years Day to be March 1, instead of January 1. When I say -25 Celsius was the coldest day of the year, do I mean 2025, or 2026, since New Year Day falls in the middle of Winter. Definitely, we need to make New Years Day fall on the 1st day of a season.

I suspect the reason we have 1 January be New Year Day is because winter is a time of low activity, so to spark up winter we concentrated the holidays in winter, since there is not much else to do.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

We have a week of cold snap to last until next Friday 30 January before the temperature climbs upward according to the forecast.

I am surprised at how accurate weather forecasting has become over much of my lifetime. Rarely are they wrong on cold snaps.

I remember one February in past years, maybe 3 years ago where we had a Polar Vortex in February, a new phenomenon to me, as it was colder here in South Dakota than parts of the arctic. If we do not have a Polar Vortex in February, this week will be the coldest week of this winter season.

And good riddance for the older I get, the less able I am to cope with winter cold. I already fetched out my electric blanket as me feet are not able to cope with winter.

My outdoor cats are coping well, especially Queenie, for she is now 11 years old. She must have found a warm spot under the house near a heat duct to keep warm.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Brrrr... badly cold since last Thursday and not to go away until next Monday. So I have Saturday and Sunday to tolerate this. The cats have it worse. And the cat-food can clean-up of recycling for me is on hold until Monday.

Every year seems like 1 week is a bad week in winter. But it could be worse--- Polar Vortex.

I am taking it all in stride, especially sleeping in for 12 hours.

Some of my potted indoor strawberries have died in this cold snap.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Outdoor Cats have been surprisingly resilient in this cold snap, especially Queenie who is 11 years old and relies on sleeping in a pile with other cats for warmth. They find a spot under my house where some heat vents from inside the house.

So it looks as though tomorrow, Sunday is the last day of this Crashing Cold Snap is over with and starting Monday we may reach above freezing.

I am one who proposes New Years Day be celebrated on 1 March, the beginning of Springtime, for it is stupid silly to split a season in half such as winter and call it New Years Day. A New Year should be uplifting by starting it on 1 March.

Looking at the weather forecast into February I am looking for the first day wherein the daytime temperature is above freezing 0 celsius along with the nighttime temperature above freezing temperature. The first week of February says the daytime is above freezing but the nighttime is far below freezing. I suspect the week before 1 March will all be above freezing both day and night. And the cats can then enjoy another spring, summer and fall basking in the warmth of another lovely year, hopefully Queenie will enjoy the year.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Brrr,,,, tonight -21 Celsius, but the good news is a warm up where the daytime is above freezing. And Thursday, 5 Feb promises daytime as 5 Celsius and night at 1 Celsius, the first day of 2026 where day and night is above freezing.

I hope January-Feb Winter 2026 is over with and ended of severe cold.

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Brrrr..... another cold winter night, going down to -13 C, same for Monday. But then Tuesday offers to be good weather, daytime 12 C night -6C. So Tuesday looks like the end of winter for what year 2025 or 2026?? This is why I like to have 1 March be New Years day, not in the middle of winter season. Just make New Years day be 1 March and have the last three months of 2025 be December, January, February. Besides, why have a holiday smack dab in the middle of winter.

I am having trouble with one of my favorite cats-- I call her "Energy". She is a tabby. And the trouble is she found a way of getting out of a 2 story concrete block garage. There are no trees she can climb down, so I suspect she is jumping down. So I stopped putting her in the garage at night for fear she will hurt herself. 

This will be another project for me to fix in summer. Fill in the roof spaces.

I am enjoying watching the Moon for the past months in proving Earth is round and rotating on axis and even a heliocentric solar system. Last month in January I was watching the Full Moon move from NorthEast to SouthWest as the night progressed.

Now we have a Crescent Moon that starts in SouthWest and progressively moves to NorthWest.

Still not managed to see all the stars in the Little Dipper that has Polaris. I see only 3 of the 7 stars. Is this common throughout the US? To see only 3 of the Little Dipper stars. I see all 7 of the Big Dipper stars.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

So yes, the Crescent Moon tracks a path starting SouthWest at 7PM then during the night and early morning 3AM is in NorthWest of the sky.

The Full Moon in January starts at NorthEast at 7PM then tracks to SouthWest by 3AM.

It is proof that the Earth rotates on a axis. For the perfect model is take a lid and pretend it is Earth and hold a smaller object to be the Moon. Hold the moon object at Southwest, now pretend you are at sunset 7PM. As the Earth rotates on axis, it causes the appearance of the Moon object to track North west as you spin counterclockwise in the night.

The reverse for full moon that starts NorthEast, and as you spin with Earth at night to 3AM are drawn closer until the Moon is Southwest.

Well, today is 24FEB2026 and I am super happy tonight because the weather forecast is the end of Winter where the days are above freezing into Spring.

My poem of joy:

H  O   O   R   A   Y

end of Winter

T   O    D   A   Y

It was not always like this for me. Most of my life was enjoyment of Winter. But with age, you gradually recoil from Winter.

I am looking forward to completing my 4 logic books this Spring. I need warmer weather.

[Archimedes Plutonium]

So, if you have a sleeping disorder like I have, where I work late at night into the morning and sleep and get up about 2PM, well those are perfect hours for being an astronomer.

So I am watching not only the Moon phases but the constellations. The Big Dipper is easy and prominent. The North Star is a shade dimmer than the Big Dipper stars. And never able to see more than 3 stars in the Little Dipper.

I have been tracking Cassieopia along with the North Star and getting a little bit tough to spot the W star constellation.

I the southern stars of Orion and the triangles are easy, perhaps they have the brightest stars.

I am curious as astronomy is likely to be one of our earliest sciences, along with mathematics. But the first science had to be tool use, throwing rocks and stones, making hand tools out of rocks, and then making fire by striking flint on iron pyrite.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Tonight was great star watching. Yes Cassieopia is lined up with Big Dipper and Polaris. The Moon was bright at 1/2 Moon and moving from SouthWest to NorthWest as the night progresses.

I am admiring the southern hemisphere of the 3 triangles and those brightest of stars.

Sure enough, Sirius is the lowest to the horizon in the triangles of the South near to that of Orion constellation.

I am glad that late in my life I am picking up what I missed in my teenage years of star gazing, and Moon gazing.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Yes we have a full moon now.

Watching the Moon and stars is rather fun.

Now I am going to try to explain why I see the full moon NorthEast at 7PM and as the night progresses, it slowly moves to SouthWest due to rotation of Earth on axis going counterclockwise.

                           

  

                      2AM*    1AM*   

                   *                  * 8PM 

          3AM*                         *   

     7AM *                               * 7PM 

            *                                 *

            *         Earth                *

   ##         *                              

Moon           *                    *

   ##      

                     

So, picture Earth and I am at sunset at 7PM and Earth rotating counterclockwise and see the Moon NorthEast.

From 7PM through 3AM is nighttime. At 7PM I see the Moon located NorthEast. By the time 1AM rolls around, the Moon will have moved in the sky to near South, not because of the motion of the Moon but because Earth is rotating on its axis. By the time next morning comes at 7AM the Moon will appear SouthWest.

Watching the Moon in Ancient times should have convinced any logical person that the Earth is Round and rotates on its axis. It also can prove the Earth goes around the Sun and not vice versa.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Recently we had a poor night sky with clouds, but tonight was good.

I am tracking the Dippers, big and little and seeing if Cassiopeia is following the Dippers. 

It looked like Cassiopeia was diverging from Polaris, as the Big Dipper is directly overhead Polaris and Polaris supposed to point to Cassiopeia under the Little Dipper.

But I can confirm tonight that Cassiopeia is still in line, if not slightly off.

I wonder if Mariners ever used the southern stars more than Polaris, for they are so much brighter. But I suppose it only takes Seconds to spot all of them, so they used all of them.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Several days ago, maybe last Sunday, I noticed my female black cat, all black except a white spot on her neck and belly was missing. I let her clan out about noon from the garage and lock then in about nightfall with a huge plate of dinner.

I named her "Lover", because her predominant behavior was she was in love with me. I say that because instead of eating like the rest of her clan, she just wanted to be near me for me to pet her. She preferred me over food. Her mother "Energy" is a friendly cat and her father "Tree Climber" is a friendly male. Unlike the other two tomcats-- "Crybaby" and "Distant" they are wild and unfriendly.

I am monitoring the mating of friendly with friendly yields friendly.

She was about 2 years old and perhaps she would have kittens this summer.

So she was absent for 2 days when the dinner time roll call came around. And so I started to search the neighborhood.

Finally I made a short trip east and west of the highway and there I found her, on the side of the road. She had been run over by a truck I presume, face smashed.

I collected her remains and buried her on the grounds she used to hunt.

Cats are so vulnerable to roads.

I now have 31 cats under care, most of them are wild and unfriendly.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

So, we have a winter cold snap for 2 days, ending next Tuesday. I can handle it.

And today I started a new habit. Of cleaning out old food containers. I put on the compost pile all those old Tea saved up, and the quart of ginger saved up.

I no longer drink tea and see it as a milder form of coffee. I see no nutrient value in tea and replaced it with frozen fruit that I put in refrigerator until thawed and then microwave for a hot drink.

Every year, try to eat up the old and make way for the new.

I still have some old flour to use up; and maybe I can get into a pancake habit.

I hate to see food go to waste in a world where so many go hungry.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Tomorrow promises to be 15 C, a nice spring day and perhaps the end of winter altogether for the past 2 days were snowstorms.

Gives me a chance to do some outdoor chores I have been holding off.

And I need to clean the cat poop boxes.

I am anxious to see if any of my strawberries in pots survived the winter buried in pine needles. If they did, I will improve their winter habit.

Some of the cats need to spend a day in the sunshine after mostly in the garage, they are probably more tired of winter than I am.

AP