Deluxestogie Grow Log 2019

[deluxestogie]

Fortunately, the screen door to my shed opens outward. Unfortunately, the shed is so full now that there is no inside to go into. I have completed harvesting my 2019 tobacco. My chronically incorrect weather forecast is for nothing but sunshine and 80+°F temps for the next week or so. If that holds, then I won't have to take my sun-curing stalks to bed with me.

Bob

 

[Charly]

Well done Bob ! You can now enjoy your spare time with a good cigar ! You deserve it.

 

[deluxestogie]

Spare time?

Bob

 

[GreenDragon]

Spare time?

Bob

You know, that stuff you have when you’re not working on the Oh Deere, planning cross country hiking trips, rolling cigars, tending the garden, formulating pipe blends, creating new blend labels, writing books....

How is the Oh Deere btw. Were you able to resurrect it again???

 

[deluxestogie]

Oh! Deere lives again!

Bob

 

[MrMotion]

Hey Bob, just wanted to say thanks for the advice and guidance over the last few months! I'm a 28 year old enrolled Native American that grew up on a reservation in Wyoming then enlisted in the army (for 10ish years) to escape. Met my wife in Tennessee while stationed here, after a 3 year stint in Montana we've made TN home and I'm LOVING farming and growing things. Everyone scoffed at me when I told them I wanted to grow tobacco and roll cigars, but you didnt, all of you really helped and supported it and I appreciate all of it. This first season has taught me soooo much and I'm crazy excited for next season!

Casey

 

[deluxestogie]

Thank you for the kind words. Everyone scoffed at me when I started as well. All you can do is just smile, and enjoy the smoke.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Today, I filled a bushel basket with sun-cured Trabzon leaf. I'm guessing that 1/3 to 1/2 of it will fit into my fire-curing chamber for the Latakia Trial. The rest will experience the joy of kilning, followed by use in pipe blending this winter. The little bit of leaf left on the remaining stalks should finish up in a few days to a week. The apparently cured leaf still on the stalks have a stem that is still not cured. So they need that extra time.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Yesterday, I emptied the kiln of a 5 week run of 2018 leaf. That's always a frantic couple of days, finding a suitable disposition for huge bags of leaf--some very dry, some still damp. I have to fiddle with each bag's moisture, and decide whether or not to just leave it open, remove all the leaf to dry, or mist and seal it for later handling.

A giant bag of Corojo 99, the leaf from which had hung in the shed for 1 year prior to kilning, came out part wet and part dry. With that situation, I untangle and mix up the leaf, then close it, so that it can equalize the moisture better. Then I bring out a pound or two at a time, flatten it (for this variety, at least), and put it into my 30" x 10" poly-nylon bags, suitably labeled. In stacking the flattened leaf, I try to alternate somewhat moist leaf with somewhat dry leaf. Once filled, stem ends up, the smaller bag is left standing upright, with the top left open, until the case is just right to close it.

Aged Bob, holding aged Corojo 99.

Well over half of the Corojo 99 is leaf of about this size. The remainder is nearly as large. It just seems like a magical variety. It's still to soon to smoke it (I tried some yesterday--just couldn't resist.), but should be primo stuff in about a month or two.

Bob

 

[GreenDragon]

Beautiful color on that leaf Bob.

 

[dubhelix]

Nice work, Bob.

 

[deluxestogie]

Beautiful color on that leaf Bob.

Thanks to everyone for their kind comments.

All of the Corojo 99 was stalk-harvested. For kilning, I stripped all the leaf off of all the stalks, and just stuffed them into large plastic bags. So each large bag contains leaf from every stalk level. The base leaves are a light-to-medium tan, the top leaves a very dark maduro, and there is everything in between. The leaf in the photo is likely from just above the mid stalk.

Bob

 

[ciennepi]

Bravo Bob! Your smile is better than thounsand word to describe the joy you have in growing tobacco.

 

[MAB]

Bob, also this year a great cultivation and a beautiful Log, full of information, a lot to learn, and your subtle funny humor (I hope I don't miss the translation) always make me smile!
Thanks!

 

[deluxestogie]

With a cloud of smoke, and a haughty "Hi-Ho-Silver!", my 6 year old Dell notebook computer galloped off into the sunset after lunch today. Who was that masked man?

But transplantation medicine being what it is, they were able to transplant both my 12 GB RAM and my unharmed hard drive into a similar vintage, used Dell with a bit faster CPU (i5 to i7), a larger battery, and generally nicer specs. So, $370 later, I type this on a tactile, back-lit keyboard...yay! My computer guts went from the body of a measly Inspiron to that of a solid Latitude. But it's still an antique, though an antique that has suffered fewer blows from slings and arrows over its lifetime--a life that began as a sturdier product. If it lasts me a year or two, then I will be content.

My happy demeanor is a radical change from earlier in the day, when I feared that all the stuff on my computer was toast. Even though I do a total back-up weekly, my next back-up is scheduled for tonight.

Now, all I have to do with the Latitude is download and update all the dozens of specific hardware drivers, so I'm not just plodding along on the Windows 10 default drivers.

Had I simply purchased a new i5 yesterday, I would have a CPU that is 7 generations newer, for only a couple of hundred dollars more. But antique is good, so long as it allows me to get my work done.

Bob

 

[Charly]

Computers are fragile things... I am glad you found a quick solution !
It's always a chore to install all the things you need on a new computer...

 

[deluxestogie]

A Pause for a Happy Moment

I'm discovering hidden secrets of the used Dell notebook computer into which my hard drive was transplanted.

• Its USB ports are all..every one..USB 1.0, which is virtually unusable for significant data transfers--like data backups. A look at system resources showed that the entire computer was essentially asleep, because of the bottleneck in the USB transfers. "Excuse me, sir, but would you like another byte? Okay, are you ready? Here's one more byte for you. Let me know when you can cope with yet another whole byte." (After 13 hours of an attempted backup, my external drive had yet to become even the slightest bit warmer.)
• It does have an external SATA jack, which would be great for an external backup, but would require that I purchase a new backup drive.
• Its Core i7 CPU (despite the deceptive model number on the Dell system itself) is a generation 2 Intel i7 chip, with only two cores, and is slower than my 6 year old notebook (gen 3 Core i5)
• Its dedicated graphics card is slower than the Intel integrated graphics on my old system's CPU.
• The new system's high-definition audio is hard-wired for music, with no adjustments for treble and bass, making it difficult to hear the streaming news casts.
• After two days, my email client (eMClient, which I really like) finally noticed that the system's hardware had changed, and disabled the license. Sorry, no email for you! Kudos to them for displaying a dialog that actually explained the problem and how to fix it.
• The new system's touochpad doesn't do scrolling in any way that's useful, although its two "mouse" buttons work more reliably than those on my battered, old system.
• The keyboard's Home, End, PageUp and PageDown buttons are now in bizarre locations.
• And suddenly, several different applications that I regularly use demanded that I download and install an "updated" version.
• My Dell "Support Assist" diagnostics program still thinks it's in the old system, so it won't automatically find any new drivers for the new hardware.
• The power adapter that came with this i7 system became hot enough after 5 minutes to burn my fingertips. It would surely burn down my house if left plugged in overnight. But my three (count them...3) old adapters are compatible with this system, and work fine. No harm, no foul.

So, where does the cigar come in? As I was ranting and fuming at the computer headaches while fussing with it on my front porch, beautiful weather ringing in a gorgeous day, the randomly rolled cigar that I was smoking tapped on my shoulder. Wow! What a delicious cigar! It's filler is WLT Honduran Habano, my Corojo 99 (2018), a bit of WLT Habano 2000, and WLT PA Broadleaf. The wrapper and binder are both WLT Cameroon.

Now, this is not an unusual blend for me. And the cigar was carelessly rolled (as usual). But it came together at this moment as unusually excellent. A happy moment, and one to capture in photo and prose.

And I'm enjoying typing on an excellent keyboard for a change. I'm sure that, once all the hardware and software confusion calms down, and I become more accustomed to a different layout, and figure out how to do my backups, there will be peace again. Change is not easy for a codger. Finally, at 11:45 am, I am getting to the forum. 25 new posts waiting.

Bob

 

[GreenDragon]

Sorry about your computer woes. We love 'em when they work, hate 'em when they don't. At least you have a nice cigar that will (hopefully) help prevent an "Office Space" type breakdown (or beatdown?).

 

[HostilePride]

I was a computer salesman/tech as my last job (4 years) which had it's highs, but many many lows of how many people didn't do backups, only to have a computer fail on them. At least you are onto it.

I don't know what router you have Bob, but if it's anything more than what your ISP gave you, they often have USB ports on them for attaching storage as a network drive (not all routers, but the higher end ones do). Maybe consider that, as your network speeds should be far better than USB1.0

Used laptop hdd's are also fairly cheap online if you have a SATA port like you said.

That last pic you posted is a magnificent leaf btw, if I can achieve anything close to that I will be a happy man.

 

[deluxestogie]

More computer nits.

I discovered a remarkable thing this evening. In Task Manager, I noticed that my 2.7 GHz CPU never ever went above 0.6 GHz! That's slower than my 19 year old Pentium 4 desktop. I immediately suspected that the CMOS settings had been improperly set. They were not. Every setting was just as I would have chosen it to be. But within setup, a log grumbled about the wrong power adapter being attached (apparently my "compatible" 60W adapters), and that if I remedied that by connecting the power to an adapter that it liked (90W), then it would graciously restore the system performance. What? I had never heard of such a thing. I've been mucking around inside computers for 45 years. This craziness is a first.

When the system rebooted, I brought up Task Manager again. 0.6 GHz for the CPU. Then I unplugged the power adapter cable. Right before my eyes, the CPU speed climbed and climbed--up to 2.7 GHz, with occasional "turbo" bursts even faster. Curious discovery, and also a big load of crap. It makes you wonder who thought that was a good idea.

So, until I can drive back into Blacksburg, and replace the defective power adapter, I'll have to go with battery while it lasts, then go slow while it recharges. Maybe the USB ports are actually faster, if the CPU isn't hamstrung. But a full backup takes longer than the battery alone will last.

As always, an unhappy answer is way better than no answer.

Bob