Looking for Christmas whirlybirds

Close enough.

Driving in a circle...

...which isn't such a bad thing.

We've been hearing a lot of helicopters in the distance the last couple of days. It's time to harvest Christmas trees. I took pictures of the harvest at one farm last year on November 14. I wrote a post about it (and called it the now overused "Field Report"), a special day for me as it was the first day I used my new camera (non-household kitty photos). We had such a gorgeous day Tuesday that after chores were out of the way, I just had to go find the choppers.

I headed North, up into familiar country.  Familiar only to a point, for I passed a graveyard that I had somehow not noticed (or remembered) before. I made a mental note and continued down the road. The grass fields and Christmas trees are often right next to each other at the higher elevations.  It was nice to see the fields once charred, now a lush green. A lot of trees had been tagged for harvest. I scanned the skies for helicopters but saw none. The road I was on, Coon Hollow, empties onto Fern Ridge, which leads back toward the graveyard. That's the circle.

So, yes, more cemetery photos.

This shattered plaque moved me. It was alongside a marker for a boy of eighteen. And I must say I like the composition of the photo, even though I didn't give it a lot of thought beforehand (more often the case than not).

This marker caught my attention right away, as I have never seen one like it elsewhere.  From a distance I guessed it to be much older. And then I saw it's double not twenty feet away. The one in the back is dated 1981. I began to create a little vignette in my head, which I won't share out of reverence for the dead.

There is a rather sizable cemetery in town that I have no real interest to visit. It's just too big and public for my tastes. But you'd think that's where these two folks would be buried, seeing how the town is named after them. Yes, the founder and his wife. (It's either after him or both of them. I hedged my bets by phrasing my way first and then the way written histories have it.) I find the rusted coffee can and bottle a nice touch. They go well with the gopher mounds.

There were quite a few gopher mounds in this cemetery. Gophers are certainly a problem in this area, yet I hadn't seen evidence of them in any other graveyard I have visited.  Again, my mind went off on a tangent: How would one go about getting rid of the gophers? There are traps one can put in their runs, yet that would require digging, and digging in a cemetery seems, well, unseemly, unless to plant something or someone. One can also fill the runs with a mix of propane and oxygen and blast them out... but it is still a little too close to Halloween for me to contemplate waking the dead.

Reverence, bastin, reverence.

Last bits

Besides the Brussels Sprouts, the peppers are the last to be picked before we get a frost.  There is kale and chard too, but we'll pick that as needed. The remaining peppers yielded about 1/3 bushel each of bells and Jimmy Nardelos. I may try my hand at pickling when the rains come back on Thursday.

Bell peppers with ladybug.

Jimmy Nardelo Peppers (sweet)

A bit of humble hubris

Dem shorties with their pocket Queens...

PokerStars Pot-Limit Omaha, $0.05 BB (7 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($11.59)
Hero (BB) ($10)
UTG ($10.10)
MP1 ($1.75)
MP2 ($9.45)
CO ($6.49)
Button ($15.47)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 10, J, Q, J

1 fold, MP1 bets $0.15, 1 fold, CO calls $0.15, Button raises to $0.30, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.25, MP1 calls $0.15, CO calls $0.15

Flop: ($1.22) J, Q, 3 (4 players)

Hero checks, MP1 bets $0.10, CO calls $0.10, Button calls $0.10, Hero raises to $1.67, MP1 calls $1.35 (All-In), CO calls $1.57, 1 fold

Turn: ($6.11) A (3 players, 1 all-in)

Hero checks, CO checks

River: ($6.11) J (3 players, 1 all-in)

Hero bets $1.60, CO calls $1.60

Total pot: $9.31 | Rake: $0.45

Results:

Hero had 10, J, Q, J (four of a kind, Jacks).

MP1 mucked K, 9, Q, Q (full house, Queens over Jacks).

CO mucked 3, 9, A, 10 (two pair, Aces and Jacks).

Outcome: Hero won $8.86

Shorties

I wasn't going to play any poker today. Wasn't in the mood, really, which is a good thing to recognize. I had busted out some heavy chores, was chilling with a good read I got for my b-day, and then moved on to the latest "Barron's" to see what the pundits thought of the state of the economy. Since it appears that I've missed out on the bull run that began in March, I decided that if I couldn't splash around in the market, at least I could do so with my small roll.

So, having adequately rationalized a game, yet wanting to limit my risk, I looked up a couple deuce PLO games.

Quad eights and sixes came in handy, although I didn't make a whole lot putting the shorties all-in on the river each time. They're limiting their risk even more, so I wasn't surprised when this hand played out the way it did.

PokerStars Pot-Limit Omaha, $0.02 BB (8 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG ($4.56)
UTG+1 ($1.91)
MP1 ($1.62)
MP2 ($2.53)
CO ($3.45)
Button ($1.81)
SB ($5.93)
Hero (BB) ($5.87)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 4, J, 9, Q

UTG calls $0.02, UTG+1 calls $0.02, MP1 calls $0.02, MP2 calls $0.02, 2 folds, SB calls $0.01, Hero checks

Flop: ($0.12) 10, 5, A (6 players)

SB checks, Hero checks, UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, MP1 bets $0.06, MP2 calls $0.06, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.06, 2 folds

Turn: ($0.30) K (3 players)

Hero bets $0.30, MP1 calls $0.30, 1 fold

River: ($0.90) 10 (2 players)

Hero bets $0.42, MP1 raises to $0.84, Hero folds

Total pot: $1.74 | Rake: $0.05

Not much I can do there. A split is probably the best outcome, but this being Omaha, I don't think so. I'll wait for a better spot.

PokerStars Pot-Limit Omaha, $0.02 BB (8 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB ($4.54)
UTG ($1.89)
UTG+1 ($2.51)
MP1 ($2.45)
MP2 ($3.45)
CO ($1.81)
Button ($5.91)
Hero (SB) ($5.07)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A, 10, 9, 6

UTG calls $0.02, 3 folds, CO calls $0.02, Button bets $0.08, Hero calls $0.07, 1 fold, UTG calls $0.06, 1 fold

Flop: ($0.28) Q, 2, J (3 players)

Hero checks, UTG checks, Button checks

Turn: ($0.28) K (3 players)

Hero bets $0.28, UTG raises to $1.12, 1 fold, Hero raises to $3.64, UTG calls $0.69 (All-In)

River: ($3.90) 7 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $3.90 | Rake: $0.15

Another shortie bites the dust.

Now, of course the prudent player will want to know why I was in either of these hands. The first one is easy from my perspective. I had the odds to see a flop. I would make a determination upon the flop and action. Of course I'm calling the half-pot bet.

I called the Button raise in the second hand only because I had been watching the Button carefully for the time I had been in the game. He had been in a lot of hands. And even if he had pocket Aces, I often will play a suited Ace in those situations knowing I have one of his primary outs, and this type of situation has worked well for me in the past. I also figured UTG would come in as well, for he had also been playing a lot of hands and his stack had been fluctuating quite a bit. He wasn't a maniac. He was playing like a newbie. Out of position, the flop would make my next decision easy. The free card made it even easier.

I knew exactly what to do on the turn, and when we got it all-in, I expected to split; and figuring my opponent had a better flush draw, I prayed for no club. I certainly didn't expect a set of queens.

So, I ask myself what I would have done had he pushed on the flop.  Does he get fold equity because of his stack size (meaning that it's just not worth it)? Would the Button have called?  The answer is probably not to either question. Still, the push when clearly beaten with only one card to come is still a bad move. He should have been watching Mr. Tens Full.

Field Update

One of two loads of Kubocha Winter Squash

The Mexican Roja garlic is fully cured and ready for storage.

Joke of the Day

Compassion and Anger walk into a bar
but never get around to ordering drinks.