So welcome to our Wednesday weekly webinar and today's guest speaker is going to be Tom Kelb. He's located out in Bismarck and he's a horticulture specialist in plant science. And before we get started officially I'm going to do a quick advertisement. Please join us for upcoming webinars every week, same time, same link. Next week it's going to be actually actually Todd Weidman is going to fill in for Kim Hallway because she's taking or she's left the state for another state. And then we have Esther coming up and Glenn Muskie and several others. So please join us. A few logistics in case some of you are new to this system while we've been using the chat pod of course. If you have a question and we'll try to take all the questions for sure at the end there's a little pod and you see number five has a place where you can type in your question. And of course you can always follow up with any of us afterwards. There will be a short survey at the very end and I believe Bob is going to also send those out as part of our system that we do. It's very short. We really need your input because this was funded by a grant. And you also have the opportunity to win a prize and print out a certificate. We tried to make it with your while. It will take you two minutes. And visit our field of work website. It's a work in progress and new resources continue to be added. So check that out. We're adding new things all the time. And now I'm going to turn it over to Tom. Thanks Tom. I'm glad you made it. Yeah, thanks Julie. Like you said, you never know with computers. And my computer wanted to do a series of updates here at the last second. And so I was scrambling around trying to make it stop updating so I can get on with you guys. But it's great to be here. Thanks for the invitation. And today we're going to talk about 10 Steps to a Fantastic Vegetable Garden. We've got the spring fever now. It's warm. And there's a lot of interest now in getting the garden going. Today I'm going to talk about how we can have a productive garden. And the other thing that we're going to emphasize is how we can work smart in the garden. Not work hard, but work smart. And our goal is to have lots of delicious vegetables that are healthy, nutritious, and we will talk about minimizing the use of toxic pesticides in our garden because we just don't want to be eating toxic vegetables. Also, I want to say that I like informal talks. And so I welcome your questions at any time.  And I'll pause a couple of times during the talk. And some of the steps, there's 10 steps. Some steps will take a few minutes. Some will take a few more. But we're going to have a good time this afternoon. So let's get started. Here we go with our vegetable garden. And the first step to a great garden is you've got to put your garden in the right location. And I think there's three important elements here. One is we want a sunny site to have a great garden. We've got to have full sun at least eight hours of the day. We need lots of sun, especially with any of the flowering vegetables. And most are, we're talking about tomatoes and peppers, eggplant, beans and peas, corn. They all have flowers and they all need lots of sun. If you have a more shady spot in a garden, you can put your leafy or your root vegetables in that area of the garden. But we want lots of sun to have a productive garden. The other thing I want to talk about is water. Watering is the most limiting factor as far as yields in North Dakota. We are in a semi-arid state. It is dry here. All of us who aren't raised in North Dakota, I appreciate how dry it can be here some of the summers. So if we want to have a productive garden, we have to have access to water. That's important. But as far as drainage goes, we don't want too much water, right? So we want to make sure everything is well drained. And a garden like this will maximize drainage, being here in a square foot type of garden. Today, I was asked to talk a little bit about square foot gardens. And so let's do it right now. Does anybody know who this garden god is? Just type it in if you want. Wow. Okay. This is a lot of shy people out there. You can't remember. You read his book. There you go. Where you go, Todd? Todd, you win the special prize. Mel Bartholomew, he's got the number one best-selling book for years. No, that's not Esther. No. Mel Bartholomew, and he's got a book about square foot gardens, and he talks about how it's a revolutionary way to grow, to maximize, and yield in a small space.  There's nothing like a square foot garden. People have been growing their vegetables in raised beds since prehistoric times. But nevertheless, he put the spin on, put in some lumber around the bed, divide everything in the square foot area, and then sell a blower. And so, he's got a lot of, he's got a lot of, he's got a lot of, he's got a lot of, he's got a lot of, he's got a lot of, he's got a lot of area, and then sell a book on it. And I do, a lot of people here like the book, me too. When I put in my first square foot garden, I use this as my resource, and I recommend this as one of the resources for us. I always kid about Mel that he has, he's the only gardener I know who has white pants.  And Mel's idea talks about how you can divide your garden into square feet. So you can have a square foot plot, and it kind of makes sense, like if you look on the right, you can grow 16 radishes in a square foot. But on the left, you can see like, he thinks you can grow a watermelon in a two square foot plot. I don't know how true, or a pumpkin. I don't know about that. I've never saw a pumpkin vine grow only about two feet. But I guess you can let it just trail over the edge of the plot and or trellis it up. It is make every square inch count in the garden. Okay, raised bed gardens do have a couple of a few benefits here. The first one is it's clean and aesthetic, and that's why how Mel can have white pants and still have a great garden. It's also easy on the back, a raised bed garden because you don't have to bend down as far, right? So that's really a benefit, especially for those of us who are over the hill, and we don't quite bend as easily as we used to. Another nice benefit about raised bed gardens is it has no compaction, and that's because we don't step on the ground, okay? We can just reach across the garden. You don't have to step over the garden. Raised bed gardens have great drainage and being raised, they warm up quickly. And usually we have fewer weed problems in square foot gardens because one thing is that every inch is covered by a plant, so the weeds, the emerging weeds can be smothered out. And I also find that just if the young weeds plowed very easily, okay? And also weeds won't be creeping in from the turf. They didn't have to climb over the raised bed. So we have fewer weed problems. So I highly recommend raised beds for gardens. It's a great technique. Okay, now let's talk about some of the major issues with raised bed or square foot gardens, and one of them has to do with the use of pressure-treated lumber. There's a lot of misinformation about pressure-treated lumber. The pressure-treated lumber used in the past is chromated copper arsenate, CCA, okay? CCA was safe to use in a square foot garden or a raised bed garden. It was a reasonable use of it. There's no instances where anybody got poisoned by the use of pressure-treated lumber. Nevertheless, the manufacturers decided that it wasn't worth the grief because the word arsenic in vegetables is just a bad combination, right? Arsenic and food, you don't like to put that together. So in 2002, the manufacturers started pulling this off the shelves, and you'll have a hard time finding CCA-treated lumber for residential use. It's pretty much limited now to the use of, like, using it on marine docks or maybe on a deck, but you can have a hard time finding CCA-treated lumber for residential use. And on the label, it says, avoid intimate human contact with the wood, okay? So I don't know how you feel about that. I love gardening, but I would never make love to my lumber in the garden, but I guess what they're talking about there is when you use this type of lumber, sometimes it's used for like a handrail, so people keep rubbing it when they walk down the steps, so don't use it for a handrail. But this is the problem of the past. It wasn't even a problem to begin with, but it's a problem of the past. Today, the type of lumber you're going to see if you go to a lumber store for residential use is ACQ lumber. Alkaline copper, a quaternary lumber, and what they did is they just boosted up the copper. So it's recommended as an alternative material for vegetable gardens, and it contains no chemicals that are considered toxic by the EPA, okay? So this is non-toxic wood. There's nothing to be scared about with pressure-treated lumber. Just make sure it's the modern lumber, and that'd be likely ACQ lumber. Okay, so I highly recommend the use of pressure-treated lumber in vegetable gardens. Other choices, you can use cedar. Cedar is natural, and it lasts a long time, but it's very expensive, several times more expensive than pressure-treated lumber. And, you know, unless you're really rich, it's just not... I just don't think it's that cost-effective, frankly. And I think we want to make our garden affordable.  Okay, we don't want that. We want our gardens to save us money, not cost money. Untreated pine is another option, and that's perfectly natural, perfectly safe, but it does have a short life. You know, maybe you'll get a few years out of it. Then lastly, railroad ties are the other common use for raised beds. Common with railroad ties is they are treated with a toxic material, tree-assault, typically, and you just, you know, they say you can use it if it's aged railroad ties, but it's really hard to determine how... at what age is the railroad tie safe now. So in general, I do not recommend using railroad ties for vegetable gardens. I recommend them for use in... use of landscape flowers or in shrubs, but not in a vegetable garden. If you are at all concerned about any of these toxic materials, you can always line the inside of your raised bed with plastic, you know, some black plastic, and that will serve as a barrier to prevent any possible toxins from getting into your plant, into your vegetable garden. Okay, here's an example. I saw Michelle Effort was on, and here's Michelle in one of her Junior Master Garden. Garden's a nice raised bed garden, and if you see that boy on the left with a green shirt there, that's one of our target audience, you know, the boy who's eating upside down bag of Doritos there and kind of confused looking at a broccoli plant for the first time in his life. Doesn't know what a vegetable is, and so this is a really salute Michelle and all our county agents who are putting up these Junior Master Garden gardens out there and making a difference, getting our kids to eat vegetables, and that's a big problem we have here in North Dakota.  That's just, wow, that's just amazing, that's unacceptable. And the problem is they take after their parents, and it's about 75% of adults in our state do not eat enough vegetables for a healthy diet. So anything we can do to encourage raised bed gardeners to raise bed gardening in a healthy diet, it's a good thing. Here's just another example of raised bed garden. I did this one several years ago, and you could see how it's just very simple. All you have to do is get some lumber and some deck screws. You're ready to rock and roll. And usually what we do is we use 8-foot boards and cut them in half, so it's 4-foot with 8-foot long. And here's a bed I did in Wisconsin and put a fence out to keep the deer out and the dogs in the park out. And it was a great garden for kids. I had over 100 kids in this garden. The problem is the first year we didn't use raised beds, and they were just stepping all over the onions and everything. So we decided to put in these raised beds so we have nice rows. And again, this is really a nice successfully to have gardens including youth gardens. A few questions that I often get for this is how deep should the garden be? And 6 to 8 inches is deep enough for a raised bed garden. You don't have to go deeper than that. You're not really getting much benefit. How wide should the square-foot garden be? It should be no more than 4 feet wide, because most people can reach 2 feet. So you can get on one side of the garden, reach 2 feet, get on the other side of the garden and find 2 feet. Then the other thing you can do is, as far as spacing goes, we'd like to have at least 3 feet of ground between the square-foot beds to allow for people to walk or wheelbarrows to get through. And as far as landscape fabric, landscape fabric is not necessary at the bottom of the raised bed. In fact, I usually do not use landscape fabric because I don't want a barrier between the native soil and my normal soil for the square-foot garden. As far as the soil itself, potting soil is the perfect mix for this, but you can make up your own home blend. I typically talk to professional landscaper or a landscape contractor, and I get a bulk amount of soil brought to the site, and I mix about 75% of topsoil with about 25% of peat moss. So that's what I use. How about I just pause right here and does anybody have any questions about square-foot gardening or about what I've covered so far in the past? Okay. Hearing none, we're going to march on. Next thing. Another key to a great, fantastic garden is soil. And we're from a rural state. We know from farms that if you want to have a great farm, you've got to have great soil. Same with the garden. If we want to have a productive garden, we've got to have great soil. So we want at least four inches of topsoil. That's what we've got to have. Should we do a soil test? That's a good question. And my general belief on this is that if there's anything mysterious going on in your garden and you're not having optimal growth, it's worth the investment to get a soil test. It costs $18 to get a soil test. And that can unlock the secrets and find out how we can make our garden even more fertile. So I highly recommend it. So think about it. A good garden can produce hundreds of dollars of produce. So an $18 soil test is definitely worthwhile. And then I think one of the best things you can add to your soil is organic matter. Then comes the question, what organic matter? I think if I just had to take one type of organic matter, I would highly recommend sphagnum peat moss from North Dakota Gardens. And like other organic materials, it will improve the structure of the soil. It will improve the fertility of the soil. It will help the soil to hold on to water when water is limited, but also it will improve drainage to allow water to flow out in case there's too much water. So it's just a great material. And I like sphagnum peat moss because it also will acidify the soil. And most of our soils in North Dakota are alkaline. So a little bit of extra acid will help bring it right to the sweet spot where we can have optimal plant growth. So I can recommend one inch of sphagnum peat moss to a garden or two inches and mix it in. Or for a raised bed, maybe up to 25%. And mix that in and you'll have a beautiful quality soil. Another material that people often use is manure. And I just want to say that one thing to be concerned about with manure nowadays is you've got to know the source of the manure because a lot of pastures now are being sprayed with herbicides and some of these are persistent herbicides. And so if a horse like this eats grass from a herbicide-treated pasture or if it eats herbicide-treated hay, then that herbicide, the animal will consume it. The herbicide will go right, will pass right through the animal without breaking down. And then when it poops it out, it'll have the herbicide in the poop. And so there you go. When you spread that manure out, you'll be spreading manure that's just laced with herbicide. And it's the pyridine herbicides that are concerned. And I'll get the question again this year. I'll have some callers come in and talk about how their tomatoes have some unusual curling or their beans and peas. They're very sensitive to these pyridine herbicides. And they can persist in gardens for years. So that's really a sad situation. So know where your manure is coming from and be wary of herbicide-treated pastures. Tony, you have a couple of questions in the chat. OK. Here we go. Michelle, if you build a tall raised bed 20 inches high, right. OK. As far as, yes. Michelle, the answer is yes. That's still a good way to go. Or if you wanted to, I mean, one question is, why you want to build a 28 inches high? OK. If you're just trying to save your back, sometimes you could fill in anything underneath it. Let's say the top, the bottom, 16 inches. I can't say any reason why you would put anything expensive all the way 28 inches down. So I've heard that people put styrofoam peanuts in it. I've heard people put rocks in it, you know, anything. Or that's another thing, Mary, a good comment. Sometimes people actually have it on legs. But as far as that key area where the vegetables are growing, a mixture like that, let's say 75% topsoil and then 25% organic matter, you'll have good success with that. OK. And that key, let's say, again, 8 inches. But really, 6-8 inches is all you need of good quality soil. Good question. Do you still need, Alice has a question, do we still need a gas tiller? Or is it a gas tiller? I think you mean like a rotor tiller for a square foot garden? No. You don't need to use a rotor tiller for a square foot garden. You're just going to be, a lot of people don't do anything. But if you want to just, you know, gently loosen the soil, then that'll just work just fine. The ground, nobody's stepping on it. It's not going to be compacted ground. Any other questions about anything else going on?  So that's, OK, here's another thing. I was seeing deep beds like that using branches. Yeah, any type of bulky material, good. I like any. I appreciate that comment. Anything to fill up the deep beds? Yeah, the whole key is that, that upper layer, upper 8 inches. OK, I'm going to keep moving.  It doesn't come out of the rear end of an animal. The best thing you can give your garden is your shadow. That's the best thing you can give your garden, because the best gardeners will have a relationship with their garden. They're going to be out there in their garden. They're going to cast their shadow on their plants. They're going to see when their plants are thirsty. They're going to see when their plants look a little pale and might need some fertilizer. Or they're going to see that first outbreak of aphids on the plants. So the Native Americans effort, they have a saying, the best thing you can give your garden are your footprints. That's the best thing. So it's the same philosophy. It's spend time out in your garden and enjoy it. And you have a better garden. And you can do what you want. You can sing to it. You can pray to it. You can talk to it, whatever you want. Just have a relationship with your garden. Okay. That's all the philosophy I have for today, though. Okay. Now let's keep moving here. The next thing is if you want to have a great garden, you've got to have great cultivars, great cultivated varieties. And because if you have bad seeds, it's got bad varieties. It doesn't matter how much, how good the soil is or how good you are at watering. If you've got bad seeds, then you're going to be limiting the production of your garden. So when I look for cultivars in North Dakota, I look for something that's early. That's the most important word in North Dakota. Our growing season is so short. It's anything that says more than 100 days in a catalog, I flip the page. Forget about it. We want a cultivar that's high yielding. We want a cultivar that resist diseases so we don't have to be spraying fungicides. And we want something with outstanding flavor, maybe something distinct that we can't buy at the grocery store, but it's got to have great flavor. Otherwise, what's the point? And I can think of only one exception to this and that is Swiss chard.  It's the worst tasting vegetable there is. I know there's probably one or two of you out there who will argue about this and then I find out about how you cook it. Yeah, you probably fry it with about five pounds of bacon, add some garlic, and then it's tolerable. First, I think this clover looks more appetizing than Swiss chard, but still, it's beautiful in a garden. This is part of my... Yeah, there you go. Here's part of my research team testing out different cultivars, one of my boys and girls. And they're doing what I call a snowflake test and that is a cultivar has to ripen before the snow falls and that's around... and this time it was mid-September in Bismarck. I want to give you a heads up that we do test cultivars in backyards and we've worked with over 800 households across North Dakota testing promising varieties and you've got this handout available, I think. These are the proven performers in North Dakota and if you'd like to join our research team, it's a fun project. We hope to launch this next week and every year we'll work with over 200 families to test and out all kinds of vegetables, herbs, and flowers in their backyards. Simple experiments, usually we compare a new variety with a new promising variety versus one that's reliable and we currently recommend. So we want to discover the new varieties. Okay. I'll just go over a few varieties here. One is, well, I think, who knows what this is? What type of vegetable this is? Any courageous people out there? The most common guess I get is current tomatoes or cherry tomatoes. But the answer is no. This is asparagus. This is asparagus and you may not know this but there are male asparagus and female asparagus plants and this is a female because it produces osprey and it produces seeds and the females live a balanced life. They produce seeds and they also produce spears but the seeds take a lot of energy out of those plants and so that's why if we want to have just spears, we want all male varieties.  So if you want to maximize yield and asparagus, we've got all male varieties now available to you. Another thing is there's all kinds of beans out there this year. There's magic purple beans that will turn green when you cook them and that kids love that see that magic and it's a good way to trick kids to like beans. If I had to recommend a type of bean for you to try, I'd encourage you to try fillet beans. These are long, slender beans of optimal quality. I would say the variety Crockett is really outstanding but just explore a little bit. Likewise with corn, there's super sweet varieties of corn now that are three times sweeter than what we had when we were kids. I remember this when I was a kid on our farm. I picked corn the night before and then I'd drive down to the Minneapolis farmers market and sell the corn the next morning. I had one day to sell that corn. After one day, that corn was cow feed. It wasn't any good. But nowadays we have corn that's much sweeter and that will stay sweet longer. So explore those super sweet types. And specific calls of our names are listed in the handout you have. Cucumbers. Wow, there's just so many amazing burpless cucumbers that are much more productive, much more higher quality than the standard, let's say straight eights that are commonly grown here in North Dakota and tasty greens are great. This question about GMO corn, and I appreciate that question. I want to make, that's a great topic. Let's be clear that it's going to be, it's almost impossible for a gardener to grow a GMO variety if they don't want to, because for you to grow a GMO, well first of all, it's rare for a seed cattle out to offer a GMO. It's very rare. It has to be one that's, it's most likely going to be in sweet corn if it is. But for you to grow a GMO, you have to sign a contract ahead of time and it talks about how you can grow the corn, how you have to isolate the planting, how you have to cultivate the planting after you're done producing the corn. So don't worry about GMO corn. I mean unless you have to make a special effort that yes, I want to grow GMO corn for you to grow GMO corn. You can't grow GMO corn accidentally. Okay, it's, it's just, it's just can't be, it's just, you're not allowed to, even if you aren't. You have to sign, you have to sign an agreement ahead of time. Okay, so don't worry about GMOs in the garden. That's a whole, not necessarily that they're bad or not, but I just say you don't have to worry about it. Green lettuce. Most of our trials, the gardeners love romaine lettuce. Give that a shot. You'll really be pleased. Green forest is a great variety. Canola. Pats say our growing season is cool here and it's hard to grow any type of melon. Athena is the most reliable variety. If you want to grow a honeydew, forget it. You're most likely going to fail. But there are galea melons that are very flavorful and you can make, you can grow successfully here in North Dakota. Try it.  This is the easiest melon to grow, super early, super productive, and it's white inside. It kind of tastes, it reminds you of pears when you eat it. So I'm kind of just throwing out ideas here of ways that you can explore your garden. Not away from just stuff you buy at the grocery store, but explore some of these varieties or cultivars that are out there that you can successfully grow in our harsh North Dakota climate. Watermelons, again, in our trials, when I hand out watermelon seed, I know half the trials are going to be a failure. But if I had to pick one cultivar for North Dakota, it would be Sweet Dakota Rose. It's developed in North Dakota. It's bread North Dakota. It's the most flavorful watermelon we can grow in our state, Sweet Dakota Rose. But again, I tell you to explore. I would try a yellow watermelon.  Yellow watermelons are even easier to grow than red ones. So a yellow-fleshed watermelon, like early moon dean, you'll have success with that and something special out of your garden. For winter squash, most people who love winter squash will tell you that buttercup winter squash is the best tasting winter squash. Ian, buttercup winter squash, originated in North Dakota. My Lord, we're famous for our buttercup squash. And Burgess is the most widely grown variety. So if I could tell you to grow one winter squash, grow a buttercup. Okay, I see Ian has a comment of cream. A Saskatchewan watermelon. Great. A white-fleshed watermelon. So something different. I've never grown it, but I heard you got to be really careful with that one. It's got a very thin rind and breaks easily. But again, that's a great one to try. Thank you, Ian, for that comment. Tomatoes. There's all kinds of tomato cultivars. And there's a lot of interest in heirlooms. And I have to say, I'm not a fan of heirlooms. I think there's a reason why an heirloom is an heirloom. And that's because we've made progress. I didn't come to work today in a horse and buggy. I drove a car. It's called progress. And same with heirloom tomatoes. Heirlooms are very susceptible to disease. Almost all require extensive pruning, trellising. Almost all are low-yielding, very hard to grow. So I would say, if you want to grow an heirloom, do it, but expect to fail. So that means if you expect to fail, then that means if you get anything, any of these cracked tomatoes, you'll like it. Now, the good thing about heirlooms is that they do have amazing flavor. So the few tomatoes you get will be very flavorful. But again, there's definitely not reliable. And if we're looking for reliable, I recommend a determinate cultivar. And there's several out there, let's say like celebrity. And there's semi-determinates out there like Mountain Fresh Plus. But a determinate cultivar has a short, compact vine. You don't have to prune them. You don't prune them. And you don't even have to trellis them if you don't want to. This is Roma. Again, one of the easiest to grow of all tomatoes. And the nice thing about a determinate cultivar is generally it's early. And also besides being early, it has a concentrated fruit set. So this is different than indeterminate types, which are popular in other parts of the United States because they have an extended harvest season. But there's no need for an extended harvest season for us because we have snow in September. So we're not going to benefit from most indeterminate types. So if I just had to give a general recommendation, I'd look for a determinate cultivar. And yes, Gina, I am a pessimist. Thank you for that comment. I am many, many years of frustration trying to explore all these new varieties. And yes, some are utter failures. Every year is a joy, though. Let me just throw one on thinking about tomatoes. And that is, if you do grow tomatoes on a big scale, I want you to at least get introduced to the spring weave system. This is a system of trellising that most gardeners aren't aware of. But it's a nice, easy way to develop a wall of tomato vine and keep the tomato vine off the ground. You pound a stake about every two plants, and then you wrap twine, nylon twine around the plants, supporting the plants. Okay, question from the United Tribes. Yes, on a seed tag of tomatoes, it will definitely say if the cultivar is determinate or indeterminate. Also, if you look at a seed catalog, it will state determinate or indeterminate types. And there are some good indeterminates, too. But if I just had to give you a general recommendation or just a most likely successful approach, I would use a determinate type. Okay, any other questions about varieties, cultivars, or anything before we move on? Okay, let's keep going here. A lot of these steps are going to go quicker now. We want to maximize space in a great garden. One way to maximize space is to have a multi-crop, grow more than one crop in the spot. So let's say in spring, we can plant our spinach, and then harvest the spinach in the early spring, and then we plant our tomatoes afterwards, you know, in late May, early June, or that's when we can sow our cucumber seeds. Or on the other hand, we could have an early crop, let's say, or like peas. And then when that's all fried from the summer sun, we can plant our spinach for the fall in that area. Another way is to inter-crop, and that is put plants within other plants, and radishes and onions are good for that. So for example, let's say in our garden, we'll plant our cucumbers about five feet apart. Our rows are five feet apart. What we can do is we can take advantage of that extra space between the vines by putting in a quick planting of radishes or onions. Then we'll harvest that in the early summer, just when the cucumber vines start to fill in. So that's inter-cropping, planting between the rows. And then also, we talked about growing vertical, and that's a great way to have long, straight cucumbers is grow vertically. Another step that's important is proper watering. We want to avoid overhead irrigation. Oh, this is terrible to see this. I hate to see this because what's happening here is the leaves are going to get wet and they're going to be subject to diseases. We want to avoid overhead irrigation. Plants drink through their roots. So let's water the roots. Let's water in the morning. That's the best time because we water in the morning after the sun comes up or while the sun's rising. The plants are active.  And then any excess water will have a chance to dry before the nighttime comes, which is when a lot of diseases get active in moist foliage. We want to water deeply. We don't want to water frequently. The roots will grow where the water is. If we water deep, the roots grow deep. If we water, let's say, every night or every other day and just shallowly, the roots will stay near the surface. They won't grow deep and they'll be subject to drought stress. Also, mulching is a great tool for us in North Dakota. I'll talk about that more later. We want to prevent pests, OK? One way we can prevent pests and any type of pests, whether it's an insect or a bunny rabbit or a deer, the best way to control a pest is a physical barrier. Here we've got a floating robe cover over our planting shielding our plants from insects, a physical barrier. Another way we can control pests is by controlling weeds because insect pests like to live in weeds. And last, remove crop residue, because that also will attract insect pests. Last step is to avoid routine spraying. Don't decide, OK, I spray after church every Sunday. Don't do that. OK, it's good to go to church every Sunday, but don't spray after church. Because what happens is that most of the insects in our backyard garden are good for us or neutral.  So who has an idea what insect pest this is? Anybody want to type in a guess? OK, these are stages of ladybugs. OK, it's a larval and a nymphal stage of a ladybug. And so when you see this pest, actually, there are friends. There you go, Diana, great. And so what about ladybugs? I was taught ladybugs are the gardener's best friend. So should I go ahead and should I, like, buy boxes of ladybugs? No, you do not buy ladybugs. It's a crazy idea. Well, ladybugs are your best friend, but you cannot buy friendship. It does not work. Sorry, it doesn't work. I learned that a long time ago. OK, not that it was any money. That's the problem. But when you buy a box of ladybugs, the ladybugs you bought were hibernating. They were hibernating in huge clusters and they were harvested. When these ladybugs are released in your garden, they're not hungry.   So what the studies have shown that after 24 hours of releasing a box of ladybugs, this is how many remain. One, that's right. They're all gone. And the only reason why this ladybug's still there is because it has broken wings. It can't fly. So don't buy ladybugs. It's a total waste of money. Nevertheless, we still have insect problems. And so we need to address these. And like some insects like this, like you look at this cabbage worm, like some other types of larvae, they have amazing appetites. They can eat like two times their weight every day.  They've got amazing appetites. And so you need to take action to defend your planting. And there are natural insecticides out there. Like insecticidal soap, for example. The limitation with soap, though, is that you have to physically spray the pest itself to work. There's products like BT, this natural bacterium and dipel and thyracide are common insecticides with this. BT, spinosad, neem, these natural insecticides are all effective against these types of caterpillars. But the problem is they're slow acting. It can take a couple days for the insect to die.  So maybe that's a good thing.  And so that's why I'm going to get out that old carb drill, the number one insecticide in garden sevens, trade name, or pyrethrin.  You can watch that cabbage worm drop to the ground. And if you're lucky, you can see a few nervous convulsions and watch it suffer before it croaks before your eyes. So that's, you know, that's a very powerful feeling of revenge here. And that can be very appealing to gardeners, including myself. But again, this is a powerful weapon and you've got to use it judiciously, okay? And you've got to follow label carefully because they're toxic, okay? So that's a loaded weapon. They use it judiciously. How about our friend, the bunny rabbit? You know, I was a kid, I thought bunny rabbit. I was taught they're friendly and they're nice. You know, the Easter bunny came, gave me candy. Bunnies are good, they're gentle. But then I became a full-fledged gardener and I saw the true personality, the true heart of a bunny rabbit is evil.   They'll do it. That doesn't stop rabbits at all. There's only one surefire way to control bunny rabbits. There you go. There you go. You can use your imagination. That could be lead poisoning, as some people call it, blood meal may have some limited benefit. Or you can use a fence, like you see here. And the eastern cotton tails we got out in the eastern part of the state, you need at least a three-foot tall fence and jack rabbits, which we had throughout the state, and especially the west, more like a four-foot fence is what we need. Okay, or a couple. Wow, okay, Julie, I like your attitude there.  Does anybody have any questions about insects or bunny rabbits, or for a move on? Okay, I'm going to go through the rest quickly here. We want to control weeds, and the key is control weeds when they're young. There are chemical weeds, herbicides, and triforilin, also known as preen, is a widely veiled product, and there's natural products like corn and gluten meal. And then, of course, there's mulch. Talk about that. Todd talked about mulch a little bit earlier. There's all kinds of mulch out there, clear, black, red. There's IRT, infrared transmitting mulch, there's silver mulch, strong mulch. Clear mulch will generate the most heat, and it uses like the greenhouse effect. So if we want to get our plants off to a quick start, clear mulch will generate the most heat. So you can see these cucumber rows side by side on campus in Fargo. You can see the row under the mulch is already blooming, and much more established than the row right next to it. That's not under mulch. The problem, as like Todd mentioned this earlier last week, was that sometimes, you know, if you have a weed-infested garden, mulch, you can have weeds grow underneath the mulch, and so that can be a concern. And that's the reason why black plastic, the second one there, is more commonly used. It will generate heat, and also any weeds that do emerge underneath the mulch will die because they don't get any sunlight. But the key about black mulch, to get the good heat transmission, is you have to have it smooth and taut against the ground to come into contact with the ground, because if there's gaps there between the mulch and the ground, you're going to lose a lot of heat there. There are studies that show like red plastic mulch is best for members of the tomato family, just because of the special wavelength that's reflected. And again, there's all kinds of mulches out there, and so investigate that. Let me just throw a couple. The IRT looks promising. That means an IRT mulch allows the infrared to go through so you get that nice greenhouse effect going. But since it's brown or dark green, the weeds won't have a chance to get going, because they'll be smothered, they won't get the light that they need to grow. So the IRT mulches are getting popular now. Okay, silver mulching is mainly good, is more used in warmer climates, and straw too. Straw does not generate heat, so we're going to put that on later in the year. Okay, as we wrap it up here, prevent diseases. We want to use disease-resistant cultivars, space plants properly. If you see diseased laser plants, we can get them out of the garden, and there are fungicides available to protect against the spread of the disease. But again, I really like using disease-resistant cultivars. It's your best offense. There's powdery mildew. We have varieties that resist this naturally. Harvest regularly. You know, we talk about zucchini, you know, one zucchini, two zucchini. That's great. But we want more zucchini, right? I know this is where I'm supposed to insert the joke here about too much zucchini, how we got to lock our car doors in the summertime, otherwise our neighbor's going to put zucchini in it and all that. But I have to say that zucchini deserves more respect from us gardeners, okay? It needs more respect, because why don't we respect a vegetable that's so productive? We should honor zucchini. The problem is not the zucchini plant. The problem is us. We just don't know what to do with it. And it's such a multi-use vegetable. Zucchini, we can cook it, but also we can use it like, when I was a kid, we used it as a baseball bat, our big zucchinis. You can carve a zucchini out and make it into a canoe. Zucchini float. We can have boat races down the Missouri River with zucchini. And then also, there's another strategy. We talk about the legend of Montana Maggie. Montana Maggie once, she had, this is a true story. Maggie was a gardener and she was in her house and all of a sudden, a bear came to her property and started eating seed out of the bird feeder box. Her dog got so mad about that. Her dog started barking, barking, barking, barking, barking, trying to defend the bird seed box. Well, Maggie heard the dog bark and so Maggie went out to the deck there looking out at the backyard and saw the bear and he goes, shoo, bear, shoo, you get out of here, bear, you get out of here. And all of a sudden, the bear didn't like Maggie. Didn't like that. So the bear started coming, charging right at Maggie. So there's Maggie on her deck racing through the door and here's the bear's face right there, halfway through the door. Maggie's there, you know, she's trying to reach on the kitchen counter. Is there a knife or something she used to defend herself? No, there wasn't a knife. She just grabbed something. She grabbed a zucchini. She bought the bear and the bear ran away. So zucchini, what a great crop. You can even defend yourself with zucchini. But if you want to have lots of zucchini, you've got to keep harvesting regularly. The last point is you want to extend the season. Okay. And frost can come early. So a blanket of protection or even a double layer is even better, just like with us. When my mom taught me, you know, put on two coats or put on a sweater and a coat, use layers, they'll give you even more protection or take advantage of cool season vegetables. And, you know, for example, kale, it's getting very popular now and this can grow in temperatures in low 20s. I've seen it even survive snow. So take advantage of that. So I want to thank the people who took the photos for this presentation and asked, does anybody have any questions before you wrap it up for today? Actually, Michelle has a question, putting straw around fruit trees. Keep the ground colder? Okay. That's yes, Michelle. A straw around trees will keep the ground cooler and help to reduce premature blooming. But instead of putting straw, I would recommend that you use shredded bark mulching. And then you can keep it there. Because, you know, one problem if you use straw, is straw can attract rodents. And rodents will be drawn to those fruit trees and especially they can gnaw on the bark. So use shredded bark mulch instead to do this and have it minimal bark near the trunk and build it out to about three inches or so. I've got a lot of questions about slugs. Yeah, there's two ways. The most commonly used way is that iron phosphate or iron phosphide, I want to say iron phosphate. And one product is called sluggo. It's a natural way to control slugs, especially in a place where we're going to grow vegetables. The more toxic slug-asides or mawask-asides like meteldehyde, and I'll just type that in real quick, meteldehyde, that's used in more ornamental plantings. Okay, sluggo, there you go. I think sluggo is one of those iron phosphate products. Get away, of course, there's that old beer trick, right? You can, slugs are attracted to yeast.  Another strategy, diatomaceous earth is sometimes used, and that is spread along the perimeter of the garden. That can help. Even like put out a one-by-eighth board, and then at night the slugs will go, after they're done feeding, they will go under the board because they'll be cool and moist here. Then in the morning, you just pick up the board and you can scoop up the slugs that way. Good questions. Any other questions? I will hop in, and I'm going to save time for the entertaining and very educational session today. I've popped in the survey link, so please take a minute or two to fill out the survey. And don't forget to show up next week. We should have another entertaining and educational session featuring Todd Weinman. I have a fun job. I get to work with a lot of cool people. Thank you, Julie. Thank you, everybody out there. I really appreciated it.


What's going on everyone? Sam here with late in sports cards ripping one box of twenty two twenty three pinny hoops basketball hobby for Christopher M. It's a good luck here Christopher. Let's do it my friend See we can get out of here Yeah, that's actually kind of fair Shane kind of fair Now to the top of it. Are you sure? Owens, Lukas, Purple, Grant Williams So follow their curve stomper Waffden, there's a hoopla Kevin Booker D-Wade, Scotty Barnes on the prime time foil. There's there's a Green, Zyra Williams second year 91 of 99 for the Gris LeBron prime time. There's Tyree Sallibur and nice one there on the auto hot signatures for the Pacers We'll take that for sure. There you go Michael or Christopher, Christopher. I appreciate that Jason. There's hypnotized Donovan Mitchell. I was gonna say honestly, honestly Joshua Christian Coloco, Nicola Jovic, now playing Max Christie Thanks Jason, Davis, Dyson Daniels and to 2022 is Duncan Robinson, Road to the Finals, Jabari Smith rookie, all the big rookies will get sleeved and top-loaded Christopher is not gonna do it right at this very moment Baldwin, now playing Osemane Zhang The Abita, there's to 999 is Is that Dorian Finney Smith? Yeah Dorian Finney Smith, Road to the Finals for the maps There's Jayden Ivey Rookie as well as a Kyrie Irving on the red back Dallin Terry, Jalen Duren, Kevin Durant, City Edition I like those City Editions These are kind of clean Jalen Williams, John Morant and Purple Lonnie Walker Max Christie, class action J-Rod out of 50, that's fair That's fair, illegal AI, Caleb Houston and Patrick Baldwin Purple, Johnny Davis Really Shane? That's awesome Chet Holmgren rookie Raymond Trey Young on the red back Insert Rhyme Time, Steph Curry AJ Griffin rookie Trayman and Jake L'Arabia That is not numbered for the Grizzlies On the foil, now playing Jabari Smith And City Edition Zach Levine Ooh nice We've got Walker Kessler at 199 Congrats on that one there, Christopher That's awesome dude Nice Kessler Walker Kessler rookie And Terry Eason And last pack for you here Christopher Good luck buddy Not bad Box of Hoops overall Keegan Murray rookie Nice Terry Eason And Zero Gravity Andrew Wiggins That'll do it for your break there Christopher, thanks again as always for the support buddy We've got those right out to you


Section 7 of WHAT SHE SAID AND WHAT SHE MEANT, AND PEOPLE WHO HAVEN'T TIME AND CAN'T AFFORT IT, CHAPTER II, MAKING CALLS. Her next stop was at Mr. Jarvis Veeder's mansion. Mrs. Veeder was not in, but the young ladies were. Would she see the young ladies? Yes, she would. They were graduated young ladies, having finished their education, whatever that may mean. They certainly ought to have a degree of leisure, and if their father could be induced to help along in industrial school with his money, perhaps they would help it with their time and their education. She was shown to the back parlor where were the Mrs. Veeder and with them two other young ladies, each with their fancy work. They gave her kindly greeting. She was a frequent collar at the house, for she made lovely dresses and aprons for the little Veeders. I wish I could give you a glimpse of that back parlor. It was a most luxurious room.  If it had a fault, it was that it was crowded. Finally Mrs. layman's eyes rested curiously on the number of fancy ornaments which filled the available spaces, tidies of every hue and shape and design on the backs of rockers and easy camp chairs, and on the three-cornered sofa three of them, three on the teta-teta, and on the arms of all the chairs that could boast of arms. The vases, on mantles and brackets, rested on mats of bright-colored wools, rose mats and pansy mats and tulip mats, and every grade and shape of mat seemed literally to swarm. Worsted cats curled composately in the corners of the hasyx, with which the room was plentifully supplied. In front of the doors were elegant mats of rich design, a great gray woolly dog occupying one's center, heavily surrounded with fine-worsted work, known to the initiated by the name of filling in. At the other door was one of those devices of Satan for consuming time and money, an elegant mat manufactured out of raviled Brussels carpeting laboriously knit together again, and a sleeping lion in wools and beads crouched in the center of the hearth rug. In short, the menagerie in green and blue and yellow and brown wools that curled in millennial peace together in that room represented a small fortune in money and an almost unlimited number of hours. And wonderful to relate, all these works of art were the product of the united skill of the young ladies of the house. Mrs. Lehmann had long been aware of this fact, for the fond mother loved to boast of her daughter's industry. Surely having done up the fancy work for a century to come, these young ladies were the ones to devote their leisure to industrial schools. She explained the subject with equal clearness, but with not quite the enthusiasm that she had shown at Mrs. Van Normans. That lady had had a quieting effect on her ardor. Well, said Miss Lillian Veter, I am sure it is a nice idea, real sweet of you to think of it, Mrs. Lehmann, but who will be the teachers? You say you will need a good many, where are they to come from? Why, said Wiley, Mrs. Lehmann, it must be a benevolent work entirely, of course, so we must depend mainly on those who have their time at their own disposal. I thought perhaps you and your sister would take up the work. My patience, said Miss Lillian, and the idea, said Miss Evelyn. Why, Mrs. Lehmann, I hope you don't think we are ladies of leisure. I assure you I am hurried from morning till night. Last Christmas I sat up until midnight two or three times to finish my bead cushion, and I have at least a dozen pieces of fancy work in the house this minute waiting to be finished. When they ever will be, I am sure I don't know. You see, Mrs. Lehmann, we have such a host of friends, and they all expect something in the fancy line from us, knowing that we understand all such work, and then our large house requires so much of that sort. Oh, dear me, don't mention our doing anything of the kind. I am sure I shudder at the thought of the holidays, or of weddings, or of people's birthdays, for fear I shall be so crowded with work. And Miss Lillian sighed, and pushed back her hair from her flushed forehead, and bent over her white silk-spits dog, and said, One, two, three, four, no, why, one, two, three. There, I've made a mistake. Now that dog's nose will all have to be taken out. What a shame! I declare I won't speak again in an hour. As for Miss Evelyn, she had exhausted the time at her disposal, in the sublime sentence, the idea, and from that time had devoted herself most energetically to her bead fringe, keeping up an incessant murmuring of One, two, three, and a pearl, One, two, three, and a pearl, until you wondered that she didn't scream over the stupidity of the thing. It was impossible not to measure the amount of mental and physical and spiritual life of these two young ladies by a comprehension of their absorptions, and Mrs. Layman, without suffering herself to waste any arguments at all on them, turned to their friends Miss Alice Markham and Miss Margie Lee, both of them members of the same church with herself, both of them pledged not to live for themselves, but for Christ, both of them with fathers whose bank accounts supplied all their wants, real and fancied, both of them having graduated at Madame de Longe's seminary. How did these young ladies occupy their time? She appealed to them. Miss Alice answered with spirit. I've always observed, Mrs. Layman, that you people who are very industrious suppose that young ladies who do not have to work for a living have therefore nothing to do. Now certainly I am not a young lady of leisure. I am keeping up my music. I practice four hours a day. That in itself consumes about all the available time between calls and going out. And then I read French and German as regularly as I did in school. An industrial school may be a good idea, though probably about the last thing that these dreadful people want is to be industrious. Why don't they go to work? That is what I always wonder. There is a great deal of useless sympathy wasted on the poor, miserable set. But the children, ventured Mrs. Layman, who realized that to attempt argument with this lady would be a literal casting of pearls where they would not be appreciated. Well, the children, lazy, thieving set, just as bad as they can be.  And as for the girls, Miss Maurice has been trying to gather some of them into her mission class, actually coaxed the little wretches to come, bribed them with sugar plums, and how did they repay her? One of them stole her pencil case the very next Sunday, and they looked more like animals than human beings, and smelled fuh. Words failed Miss Alice, and Mrs. Layman turned from her promptly. A young lady who could bring forward the utter degradation of the poor as a reason for doing nothing for them was not the material needed for teachers in an industrial school. But before she utterly left her, she could not resist the temptation to ask one question, which she meant as a probe to that lady's conscience. May I ask you, Miss Markham, what you are going to do with your music in French and German? Do with them, queried Miss Markham, in a half-wondering, half-supercilious tone. Why, my good woman, what do people generally do with talents in superior education? That is a solemn question, said Mrs. Layman. It really needs to be settled on one's knees before the Lord. If music and French and German are worthy of the absolute absorption of all our available time to the exclusion of any other of God's work, then if we are Christians they must in some way be doing God's work, else we are not applying our talents to the end that they were given, nor to the end that we covenanted when we united with his visible church. I am simply asking for information, Miss Markham. I suppose, of course, your special talents are consecrated. Then she turned entirely from her and looked at Miss Lee. Are you interested to know what that young lady was engaged in? An occupation which so absorbed her that apparently she had neither eyes nor ears for any other earthly object? She was snipping holes in a piece of cloth and sewing them up again, snipping carefully, skillfully, sewing them with infinite pains and millions of delicate stitches requiring patience and skill. She called them wheels and eyelets and leaves and scallops, and when they were done it was perfectly exquisite, and was designed for the infantile robe of an atom of humanity who luxuriated in more of that article now than her weary overburdened little body knew how to bear up under. The maker of the said embroidery was civil and ladylike. She smiled kindly on Mrs. Lehmann, hoped she would succeed. Such things were needed, she supposed, though she never had time to think much about it. She was always busy, one thing and another took up the time, until now she really was busier than she had been when in school. She never could teach anybody, sewing and lessons and all that she had no taste for, had tried to teach her own little sister to him and made wretched work of it. Still there must be people who had time for such things, people on whom society didn't make so many demands. They were just the ones too, for they could understand the poor and turn into their feelings, as of course people of position and culture couldn't be expected to do. But, after all, said Mrs. Lehmann, the one who seemed to understand the poor better than any other person who ever lived was the Lord Jesus Christ. And then, in a moment, she was sorry that she had said it, for these young ladies all looked at her as though she had some way said an improper thing. Her aunt she knew they would not have considered Jesus of Nazareth a person of position and culture. But she left them to their dogs and cats and fringes and snippings and betook herself to the next name on her list, Mr. E. D. Landor. This family were at dinner and she was ushered cordially into the dining-room. Come in, come in, said Mr. Landor heartily. He was a merchant and the stockholder in half a dozen factories, and everybody spoke of him as a whole-sold, generous-hearted man. Come right in. Have some dinner with us. You have dined a sensible woman to dine at a reasonable hour. Ah, well, and how is your good husband, the best machinist that comes about my premises? He will make his fortune yet and deserves to. All this Mr. Landor said in a brisk business tone, carrying on his eating at the same time with rapidity and skill. He was used to giving attention to several important affairs at once. Mrs. Layman took courage from his cheery voice and loud cheery manner, and unfolded her errand. I grieve to tell you that the benevolent face settled into an ominous frown. Now, my good friend, you are dealing in a kind of filth that won't wash off.  It is all stuff to talk about the worthy poor. There is no such thing. It is a crime to be poor in this country, a man ought to be punished for it. Mr. Landor, said Mrs. Layman with spirit, now you are talking nonsense and you know you are. Any man who calls himself a patriot and remembers the army of soldiers who came home from the war, ruined in health and crippled in limbs, has no right to say any such thing. I had a friend who went, and who came, and who is poor, dependent on others for his support. Now! Well, well! Said Mr. Landor. There are exceptions, of course, but they only prove the rule. The masses of the poor are so, because they have been improvident, extravagant, dissipated, idle, everything that is mean and to be condemned.  They have been lifted up too much. They need letting down. They ought to be sent to State's prison every one of them. And their children too, I suppose. And their children to the House of Correction, or any other place where they can be kept from being a pest to the city. Those are my sentiments, and you are welcome to them. And Mr. Landor brought his hand down on the table in so emphatic a manner that the plate-glass shivered at the jar, and he thereby evinced that this was a sore question with him, touching somewhere a bare spot in his conscience. As for Mrs. Lehmann, his excitement seemed to cool and quiet her. "'You are more willing to support the poor than I supposed,' she said, with quiet sarcasm in voice and manner. "'I certainly do not expect any such munificent donation as you will have to give for your share if you propose to have this great army of people clothed and fed for the future at the expense of the State. Now I was for putting them in a way to help themselves, but you propose to take care of them and their children for all time. Still, there is one trouble in the way. What about their souls? The prisons and penitentiaries stand ready, I suppose, to look after their bodies. At least you can be taxed to help build places large enough to receive them. But will they assume the responsibility of the souls? I thought the Lord left that work for us, His professed followers. He said they would always be with us. He didn't say anything about our finding them nowhere safe in prisons and penitentiaries. Mr. Landor stared at her as though she were talking in an unknown tongue. "'The fact is,' he said after a moment, "'I haven't time to be sentimental about this thing. I have had to work hard myself, am working hard yet, and I am not given to gush or sentiment of any sort. A man like your husband, who can work for his wages, I am willing to respect. But a man who comes sniveling around me expecting sympathy because he doesn't want to work and support his family, I've neither time nor patience for. I can't afford to support the poor of this city, Mrs. Lehmann.' In point of fact, now what do you want to do? Have soup houses and free lunches and hot coffee and sandwiches, and educate the people and elevate the masses? I know the terms you see. I'll bosh the whole of it if you'll excuse my saying so. And your husband is much too sensible a man to allow you to get mixed up with it, or I'm mistaken. As long as you feed the vagrants for nothing, they will be willing to be fed. And as long as they can live without work, they'll do it. As for the children who are too young to work, they have got to suffer for the sin of their parents. That's Bible! I'll risk any of them starving, either. That sort never do. No, ma'am, I can't hedge your list, can't afford it. Let them work and earn their living as I do. Mrs. Lehmann rose to go. Long ago she had decided that this man could not claim brotherhood with the self-sacrificing, long-suffering Lord. She began to feel that his family on earth was smaller than she had supposed. Yet her voice was not disheartened, nor her manner that of one crushed. Well, Mr. Landor, we shall have an industrial school and try to teach these children to work and earn their own living. And we shall have soup houses, too, buy and buy, and sandwiches and coffee. And when you come to lunch with us, you shall not be insulted by being offered anything free. You shall pay a good round price for it. I am sorry that you don't see the way clear to help us, but we shall do it. She did not know in the least who the we meant, but the Lord knew. He honored her faith just then with a touch of sight. Uncle Frank! A clear, youthful voice came up from the lower end of the table. I want to help about this thing.  I can't do it so well as my uncle could, if he would, but almost anybody can start a thing." And she reached forth her hand for the paper. I'll write my subscription in pencil, and in order to be sure that it is binding, you may, if you please, pay it now, Uncle Frank.  I have reflected, long enough to know that somebody may be starving just this minute. I'll help feed them first and reflect afterward. But, Maude, I am your guardian, remember?  She pushed the paper toward him with a gleam in her eye that meant business, as she said. But, Uncle, I am of age, remember? If I choose to waste my money, I am not sure that you can help it. A flush of victory mounted to Mrs. Lehmann's very forehead as she received back her subscription paper, and she gave her hand to the young girl with an eager, thank you! That was almost like a benediction. She saw the clear, unmistakable characters that had been traced on the paper. Maude L. Harlow, one hundred dollars. I want to be one of your teachers, Miss Maude said earnestly, retaining the hand and looking with strong, grave eyes into Mrs. Lehmann's liquid ones. That is, if you will teach me how. I don't know anything about such work, but I know I can learn. Maude! In harsh tones from her uncle. Why, Maude! In pleading once from her aunt. My dear child, I wouldn't have you do such a thing for the world. Such a horrid place for infection! Miss Maude laughed. My life is no more precious than others, auntie. If you are afraid to have me bored here, I'll go to the Sansom house. They are not afraid of any amount of infection, if you give them money enough. Anyway, I'm going to work in this school if I can get a chance. But Frank, there is no use in talking. I know what I am about. My father got the first dinner he had had for three days in a public soup-house once, and you began your education in a charity school, you know. Do you think I could forget the debt of gratitude, I owe? Was Mrs. Lehmann discouraged with her two hours' work, do you think? Not a bit of it. She was not the woman to have gone home discouraged, and to have folded her hands and wept over failure, even had she not met Miss Maude Harlow that afternoon. Indeed, I will own that she was of the temperament which made her, after the third rebuff, set her lips together in the firm way that some women can, and say to herself, now we will have an industrial school and all the other improvements. But then, meeting Miss Maude, and having her name on a bit of paper and hearing her words and clasping her hand, made her feel gloriously triumphant, made her feel as though she had been at court and clasped hands with one of the princesses of the realm, and so she had. She gave an account of her afternoon's work at the tea-table, after the little Lehmanns were sleeping the sleep of downright weariness, detailing her experiences with touches of humor that made the husband shout with laughter and the white strings of grandma's cap quiver as she more quietly enjoyed the fun. Then she said, You went too far to the other extreme, daughter. It isn't the very rich who can understand and help the very poor, that is, as a rule. There are Miss Maude's, thank the Lord, who are exceptions, but as a rule the busy workers are the ones to join hard and hand in such work. Mindful of that bit of advice from her wise old mother, Mrs. Lehmann on her very next afternoon of leisure went out to call on Mrs. Jenny Johnson, who lived in a pretty house just around the corner from the avenue. She being one of those who, though not by any means poor, was certainly not among the wealthy. Mrs. Lehmann knew her very well, in fact exchanged calls with her occasionally. A most unlucky time had she chosen, however, for this call. Mrs. Johnson was preparing for a tea party. She had invited Mrs. Dr. Merchant and Mrs. Judge Butler to take tea with her, as well as a dozen other persons less notable. She was making special preparations. Mrs. Lehmann, by virtue of her being in acquaintance, and by virtue of the hostess being in great haste and anxiety concerning something in the oven, was suddenly summoned to the dining-room to look at the table, for the feast was to be that very evening. It was worthy of being looked at as a matter of curiosity if one looked from no other standpoint. Having only one girl, explained Mrs. Johnson as she wiped a streak of flour from her flushed cheek, makes it necessary for me to set the table before any of them come, and obliges me to do the whole of the getting-ready myself. I declare it makes slavish work of having company. If I weren't ashamed about having so many people invite me and never returning it, I don't believe I'd ever get added in the world. As it is I haven't invited half the people I wanted. Now we wanted you and Mr. Lehmann to-night, but, dear me, we didn't get around to your street at all. Mrs. Lehmann disclaimed, as best she could, any expectation of an invitation, and then she regarded the table with an amused air, while the over-tasked martyr continued her tale of woe. I have had to do every bit of the cooking myself, and my fruit-cake did act abominably. I had to make the second batch before it looked black enough to suit me. My pound-cake looks nice, doesn't it? And I had real good luck with my gold and silver and orange cakes. But the thing I pride myself on is this lemon-cream-cake. I do think lemon-cream-cake is the very prettiest-looking cake that ever was made. But such a sight of work as it is! My bones fairly ached the day I made it. I whipped the eggs myself, and egg-beater is nowhere when you come to such delicate work as that. Two, three, four, six. Counted Mrs. Lehmann to herself, and smiled again. Six kinds of cake with which to entertain a company of ordinarily well-fed people, after seven o'clock in the evening. Besides there were pickled pears and pickled plums, and current jelly and grape jelly, and canned quince and canned peach and stewed cranberries and chicken salad and cold turkey and oysters scalloping in the oven as fast as they could. Poor Mrs. Johnson didn't know that Mrs. Judge Butler, whom she was so anxious to honor, would not have had one half of these dishes at her table. Our Mrs. Lehmann, who had originally come from an aristocratic tree, was quite aware of it. She wondered, within her earnest soul, why good sense, or failing in that, why conscience itself did not loudly protest against this foolish waste of money, time, and strength. Mrs. Johnson, in her anxiety, had no room for conscience. "'Do you suppose the cake will dry?' she asked anxiously. It isn't cut, but I didn't know how to manage unless I had it on the table before they came. I haven't a girl who can attend to any such thing. She is only a cheap girl. It is one of the miseries of being poor.' "'Poor!' And the mistress of that table, spread for one evening's feast, and not by any means intended for the halt or the lame or the blind, or the poor and needy in any form. The words suggested to Mrs. Lehmann the object of her call, and more, it must be confessed, because of a curious desire to study human nature from this standpoint, than because she had any expectation of help, she made known her wants. CHAPTER IV. SOCIETY MARTERS "'Bless your heart and soul!' exclaimed Mrs. Johnson, dropping now in utter exhaustion on the chair behind her. I've neither time nor money for anything. I'm harassed to death now with all that I have to do. I work like a slave, Mrs. Lehmann. I really do. Every bit of my baking I have to do myself, cakes and pies and puddings, and getting fruits ready, all such things I have to attend to. It is just work, work, from morning to night. Mercy knows I'm sorry for the poor if anybody is. And as for giving an afternoon a week to them, I couldn't do it any more than I could fly. I just get through now, and that is all. I haven't time to read more than if I couldn't, and Sundays I'm so tired I just lie and doze half the time. I'd help if I could, and I hope you'll succeed, but I've got a large family to take care of, you know, and they are hearty eaters. Mr. Johnson thinks as much of his pies and puddings as he does of me, and I'm the only one who can make them to suit him. Dear me, I haven't time to do another thing. And as for money, my, what little I get of it I could use a dozen ways at once any time. Actually, I have to spend a good deal of time in planning what we can do without the longest. Oh, I know what it is to be poor. I tell you I'm sorry for them. And six kinds of cake on her supper table, was Mrs. layman's mental comment. Then she thought of the poor people whom she had visited that week, and contrasted their homes with Mrs. Johnson's. But that lady was in a hurry, her oysters were overdoing, and her toilet was not quite made, and it was growing late. There was no use to talk to her. But Mrs. layman by no means despaired of her. She knew an argument that is often needed for such natures as hers, as well as for some natures not in the least like hers. I'll tell you what it is, Mrs. Johnson, she said briskly. I mustn't hinder you now, and I hope you will have a real pleasant time this evening. But I want you to promise me that some day next week you will take an afternoon and come make some calls with me down on Higbee Lane. It will only be one afternoon, you know, and that will help a good deal. Mrs. Johnson mopped her hot and tired face with her apron, and said doubtfully she didn't know. Maybe she could manage to find one afternoon, but she had a great deal to do. Still, one afternoon, if that would be any help, she would really try to go after she got rested. I am so tired now, she said frankly, that if they should all send word they couldn't come and I could go to bed right away and sleep till day after tomorrow, I think I should like it best of anything. I never have time to get rested. But one afternoon, well, yes, I'll try to do that much. Mrs. layman went away smiling. At homes she would show her, homes of which she did not dream. What if it could weaken her to a sense of her opportunities and responsibilities? What if it should even, in time, show her that six kinds of cake made by a woman who has no time to do any of Christ's work were six absolute sins? What an accomplishment would that be? And she tripped up the steps to Mrs. Porter's as though she had received a twenty-dollar donation at the last place and expected as much more here. Mrs. Porter was sowing, and she was in her back-sitting room and had her two children with her. Another Mrs. layman's, you think, see if it is. That back-sitting room was the dingiest spot in the house, and every broken-down piece of furniture that the house contained seemed to have been moved in there. I don't make company of you, you see, the hostess said, half apologetically, as Mrs. layman helped herself to a seat. The children smashed things around so that I don't try to keep anything decent in this room. She was grim and severe over the question of the poor. She didn't believe in them any more than Mr. Landor did, in a quieter but an equally dogged way. I haven't time to go racing up and down the world tending to other folks's affairs, she said severely. Even if there was need for anybody to do it, I couldn't. People who have to do their own work, sowing and all, are not the ones to look after other folks. I do every stitch of my family sowing, Mrs. layman, and it keeps me slaving night and day. She was slaving at that moment on a pollinace for her daughter Helen, aged twelve, and it had a row of knife-pleading all around the bottom, and a row of bows up and down the front, and a row of buttons everywhere, at least so it seemed to Mrs. layman's eyes, as she surveyed the gleaming things that went over the left shoulder in little clusters, as though to have them an inch apart would not have consumed enough of them. Why do those people go to work and earn their own living? Who would employ them, Mrs. Porter, would you? I know, she said with grim satisfaction, but there are people enough who like to get their work done for them while they run around and attend to other folks, I never was one of that sort. And in objection to your theory of work, there are a great many other people who do their own, some who are obliged to, and some who prefer to on the score of economy they think, but really because by so doing they can save enough to be able to put another ruffle on their dress. Did Mrs. layman glance surreptitiously at the skirt, which belonged to the pollinace lying near her on a chair, and which had two carefully made and carefully trimmed ruffles on it? Probably the suggestion that she might have done so made Mrs. Porter savage. That's their concern, I take it, she said stoutly. If they choose to spend their money in ruffles and don't steal nor beg them, they are accountable to nobody as I look at it. In which we should differ, Mrs. layman said, speaking very gently. You and I have proclaimed before a watching world that we are the lords, that our time and money and strength and talents belong to him to do with as he directs. Whether therefore the time shall be spent in pleading ruffles and the money in furnishing them would depend on whether he saw an end to be attained that would honor him, would it not? This was new ground to Mrs. Porter, evidently she had never realized in her life that she had promised any such thing, rather she had plumed herself on being independent. Some answer must be made to this waiting woman, and puzzled and annoyed she knew not what to say. It was this that made her voice more irritable in its tone than before. I never have time for philosophizing over things, my work always lies before my eyes, and I go ahead and do it the best I can. That's my duty, I believe. Yes, Mrs. layman said, still very gently, but I think it is one of the most intensely practical questions of the day, and one that I should think would puzzle people more and more the higher they reach in the social scale, how far their planning and spending and sewing could be made to subserve the interests of the master. But we are not getting on with the question at hand as to these poor people supporting themselves. Many of them could work if they had the opportunity, but for the women especially work is hard to find, and skilled laborers are plenty, and among the men their awful enemy that a free and intelligent and Christian people have licensed to do its worst is working wonders of poverty and sin. Then there are those who could not work if there were anything for them to do.  Something must be done to save them, or they and their children will go to ruin together. Mrs.  They are a shiftless drinking, thieving set, the most of them. I know those Higbee-lane folks, the very worst scum you can find in the city. That is most painfully true, but you know the Bible doesn't read. Feed the hungry who are worthy, clothe the naked who are sober and virtuous, tell the respectable and moral people about Christ and Heaven. You see, Mrs. Porter, these are questions with which, in a sense, we have nothing to do. Or rather, the poorer and lower people are, the more imperative is their need of Christ who came to save to the uttermost. This time Mrs. Porter sewed away very fast and spoke no word. Won't you give us a little of your time? The pleader asked, timidly, after a moment of silence. She had not deemed it wise to ask here for money. Not that there was no money, but that there were many ruffles and side-pleetings and biased bands of silk and velvet, and whatever other costly material was the prevailing fashion, for there was a grown-up daughter as well as the two little ones and the twelve year old. I have no time to give, was the short and comprehensive answer. A woman who does her own sewing has dreadful little time, especially if she does her work as she ought to do it. And I calculate to keep my house in order. Some folks think that amounts to nothing, but I consider it as much a Christian duty as anything is. So do I. I quite long for the privilege of helping some of these poor mothers whom I have been visiting, to make their dreary and in every way dreadful homes into something more worthy of the name. How much you could help some of them by a few kind suggestions? Well, my own home needs me. I look after that without any suggestions from anybody, and so might they I daresay if they wanted to. It is the desire to do better that's lacking. You may depend upon that. I think my first duty is to my children. I stay at home with them. Who is to look after my children, I wonder, while I go to Higby Lane and take care of other peoples. Sarah Jane, don't you put your feet on that table again. If you do, I'll whip you as sure as you're alive. And you, Thomas, no more whistling. I'll tell your father of you, see if I don't, and then you'll catch it. No, Mrs. Layman, you and I shouldn't agree, I suppose, if we should talk till midnight. You believe in making homes pleasant for other folks, and I believe in tending to my own home.  And that's just the difference between us. By this time Mrs. Layman was fully of the opinion that she and her neighbor would never agree, even though they talked on forever. And without promise or shadow of promise or help or sympathy from this Christian woman, she was obliged to take her leave. At another time, perhaps, Mrs. Porter would not have been so hard-hearted. In truth she was sore-hearted. She had a reasonable degree of expectation that she would be invited to partake of those six kinds of cake and pickles and cream salad and hot rolls gotten up by Mrs. Johnson. And not having been summoned to the feast, she was feeling aggrieved there at. Also Mrs. Johnson's duty to society was productive of bitterness in the heart of at least one sister, and reacted in a manner that was not for the good of the cause. CHAPTER V. FIRST FRUITS Was Mrs. Layman discouraged now, do you think? You must constantly remember that she was not made of the material which discourages, else she would never have started. She counted the cost before ever she did start, and assuredly, having put her hand to the plow, she meant not to look back. She rehearsed her afternoon's work again at the tea-table, this time with more pity and commiseration for the narrow souls of others than with laughter, and Grandma sagely remarked that she hadn't hit the right medium yet. It was not among the people who were engaged in that most hopeless of all struggles, the trying to seem rich, that you found open hearts for the needs and pity for the sins of the abject poor. Were all the people in Mrs. Layman's reach of the stamp who ignored their relationship to the souls for whom Christ died? By no manner of means were they. You have only the result of two afternoons of work, and even in those afternoons was there not a Miss Maude with her golden purse and her fresh young hands and her consecrated heart?  How they planned and worked together those two sisters in Christ, revealing, by their loving friendship and cooperation, the very depth of the meaning of that tender and constantly abused term, sisters in Christ. I wish I had time to tell you about other calls and other helpers, very different some of them from Miss Maude, and yet equally grand in their way.  And Mrs. Layman, looking at her, believed it.  Poor was Mrs. Hunter. That is, people looking on called her so. But after all, I hardly knew of a richer person than Miss Priscilla Hunter. Time, she said, bless you, yes, there is always time for what ought to be done, whether it is to finish a jacket or pick up a basket of chips for somebody poorer or lame-er than you are yourself. It is a good idea, too. I wonder you have been so many years in getting it thought out. Help! Of course I will. I'll bring my scissors and snip out things for you in odd hours. Oceans of things can be done in odd hours. And I've got a little bundle laid away that will do to make over for somebody. And Mrs. Jackson has an attic full of trumpery that she will never use. I'll see that a good load of it gets sent around to the room. You've got a good room? It's Mr. Hordwell's, isn't it? Of course he'll let you have it. I'll see him if you want me to. He's a friend of mine. I'll slip up there between daylight and dark and see about it. What a helper was Miss Priscilla with her snipping and her slipping here and there, and her strong, vigorous, helpful words like whiffs of breezes blowing fresh from off the sea. There was Mrs. Harland, an invalid never moving out of that one room, never moving in that room except in her wheeled chair. What wonders she could do! She had access to her husband's purse through his heart. It was not a very powerful purse, and yet it constantly overflowed toward the industrial school, for I hope you understand that there was an industrial school and a soup-room and a free lunch-room, or, what was better than free, a lunch-room where the honest and industrious poor could come and for five cents purchase a dinner. There were mothers who work, could and did work hard till noon over the wash-tub, and slip around the corner to the depot of supplies, and, for a dime, purchase food enough for a decent and wholesome dinner for husband and children, ready cooked when her work made it a necessity to be so prepared, ready to be cooked and with careful directions how to cook it when that was all the help needed. So far had broadened and deepened the scheme that had begun in Mrs. layman's brain. Rather than that, it was taking on new plans and schemes every day. It involved a reading-room and a free library open to the poorest, and a store of supplies that could be purchased at the bare cost of furnishing them, and, when needful, less than the bare cost. It took in a pledge to attend a Sunday school and a church service, and a pledge to neither touch, taste, nor handle anything that could intoxicate. Only but surely all these plans moved. There was no thought of failure. Where there is a will there is a way. Dr. Vincent has improved upon that time honoured saying, by adding, where there is a woman there is a will. Grandhearts and great purses took hold of Mrs. layman's idea. There was Mr. McMartin, who, as soon as he became aware of what was being attempted, and before it had taken such proportions as to rouse the public pride, inquired and listened and nodded, and wrote his check for five hundred dollars, and sent it by his errand boy to Mrs. layman with his compliments. There was Mrs. Chester, a woman with five children and a sick husband, who sent, tied up in the corner of a handkerchief, a dime for her husband and a dime for herself, and a five cent piece for each of the five, and an ill-spelled note to the effect that the children prayed every night that God would bless the work. And Mrs. layman laid the sacred dimes and five cent bits side by side with the five hundred dollar check, and thanked God for them all, and knew that in his hands the one would accomplish as much as the other. She had her triumphs, too, as the days went on. The Mrs. Veter attired themselves once of a sunny afternoon in summer silks, and swept into the industrial school rooms, and awed, over the extreme neatness of the little pupils, and the skill they had acquired with their needles, and asked, wouldn't it be nice to teach some of them to do fancy work, and they might be able to actually support themselves by it? And Mrs. layman, the superintendent of the enterprise, rejoicing that the young ladies actually desired to consecrate their talents to usefulness, formed a class in fancy needle work, and the young ladies took turns in attending it. Then came, one day, Mrs. Van Norman's carriage, and Mrs. Van Norman's footmen, and a basket of the most elegant frosted plum cakes in delicate patty tins with Mrs. Van Norman's compliments for the children of the industrial school. She was so delighted with their singing the other evening at the hall. As for Mrs. Johnson, she had devoted that afternoon to making calls with Mrs. layman, and the sights she saw made her so sick at heart, and so sore of conscience, that she could eat no cake for her supper, and at intervals, for several days afterwards, she said, oh my, oh mercy me, dear, dear, who could have thought it? And any other term that seemed to her to express indignation or commiseration or dismay? And then she went to work, hands and heart and soul, for the poor. She hasn't given a tea party since that time. Company she has had, pleasant, reasonable gatherings, social reunions in her pretty parlor, but not a single regular planned, six-caked, pickled, creamed, jellied campaign since that memorable afternoon. She hasn't had time. Now there are those who criticize Mrs. layman and others of her class. They broadly hint that a woman who has so much to do for others must neglect her own, but her house must suffer, or her table, or her children, or her dress. Something is wrong. To be sure, her house is still the sunny home it always was. To be sure, her friends still like to go to Mrs. layman's, because everything always looks so fresh and nice, and the children are so well behaved and happy. But then, of course, something must be wrong, or she, with her three children, could never give a whole afternoon each week to say nothing of constant odd hours to outside work. It does necessitate care, the husbanding of the seconds, the cutting off of many a ruffle and tuck and frill and pucker. But Mrs. layman has chosen between them. Since she cannot do both, she has decided that the souls of the poor, whom Satan hath bound, are of more importance than the decorations of the bodies which belong to the Lord's free men. Was she above criticism? Yes, really and truly above it. She had gotten where it hardly jarred, up on deck where the sky was fair. Occasionally she laughed about the comments in a good-natured way. There were always those who stood ready to let her hear of the comments just for friendship's sake, you know. There will always be that class of people, on the earth at least, until the millennium. I really believe I ought to make a tidy, she said briskly to Grandma one evening. A tidy? Said Grandma, lifting her head and putting her spectacles up on her forehead, and looking as though she thought much planning had made her daughter mad. What does the child mean? Well, mother, you know I neglect my family, and I've been looking into it. I don't see but the house is in pretty good order, and we have all excellent appetites, and the children are pretty well-clothed. There seems to be nothing actually lacking for the comfort of this family unless it is a tidy. We are really deficient in that luxury or necessity. Perhaps I ought to set to work. Grandma saw the point and laughed until her capstrings shook like leaves. But Mr. Layman took a more serious view of the matter. I beg you, don't! He said earnestly, whatever you may be tempted to do in revenge in this world don't make a tidy. If I had the naming of them I'd call them untidies. If they are not the torment of a man I don't know what is. I never go to Mr. Coleman's, but when I get out of a chair there is one sticking to my back and one to each elbow, and I always have an uncomfortable feeling that there may be one hanging to my hair. And the criticisms that troubled Mrs. Layman so little were infinitely more than balanced by the blessed rewards of the work. She always remembered a certain summer afternoon when the first fruits of a glorious harvest, the extent of which can only be known in eternity, were gathered in. It was one of those homes that had been low and destitute and uncleanly and awful. It was a mother and she lay dying, and on the table but a few feet from her stood a little coffin, neat, tasteful, delicate.  In her baby hand she clashed a small, white, fragrant bud, and the mother's eyes over which the film of death was creeping, sought ever and a none that tiny coffin, and as often as she saw it she smiled, and among her last words on earth were these. Baby and I are safe, baby is gone where he said, suffer them to come, and I am going, he is waiting for me, and there is a clean white dress there for me, for me! And I, the voice fails, stops, gathers strength for one last effort, and I should never have known anything about it at all or about him if it hadn't been for you.  And the minister read from the Bible, and among his selections came these words. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. What! over that coffin, holding that sad, sinful, almost lost mother, holding that baby, child of the lowliest and lowest of earth. Yes, indeed, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Ye that are weary and heavy laden, beloved of God, called to be saints, come unto me, and they had gone. And Mrs. Layman had risen away above criticism and pettiness and envy and misunderstanding into the realm of Christ-like work and Christ-given joy. End of section 10 End of What She Said and What She Meant and People Who Haven't Time and Can't Afford It by Pansy


Hey guys, welcome to Rotor Riot. I wanted to take a minute to reintroduce you to the Rotor Riot pilots. This year's been crazy for us. We've gone through a ton of changes. We've evolved and we have grown. And I couldn't be more proud of the seven pilots that make up the Rotor Riot team. Each of us has a unique way that we fly and different things that we most enjoy about this sport and lifestyle and different way that we approach this stuff. But when we get together, we do awesome stuff. Let's meet the pilots. What's up guys? It's your boy, Vortex. So I'm pretty much known for being the Bando King because back in Detroit, we had boundless, plentiful abandoned buildings and that was kind of my playground where I like to play. If you're gonna fly abandoned buildings, you gotta fly frames that are super durable. They're gonna take the bashing. So that's typically what I go for.  So my day job and where I spend most of the time is working on things for the store, things like putting listings up on the store, managing the inventory and now that we're running our own operation here in the warehouse, there's a lot of upkeep and a lot of physical things that need to be done in the warehouse.  I'm Joshua Bardwell and you're gonna learn something today and what I do is help people get over the hump of getting into the great hobby of FPV. The more people that we can help educate, the more the hobby can grow and the more people that can be educated and it can continue to grow. How many videos have I made? 1,600 to 2,000 videos on my YouTube channel. Most of them focused on getting people into FPV or helping them make smarter buying decisions by reviewing products. My favorite part of flying is being able to express myself through motion. There are so many different ways that people express themselves through motion. Dance, skateboarding, you name it and all of them require a certain level of athleticism that let's face it, I just don't have. I think one of the greatest parts of FPV is the ability of anybody, almost regardless of their physical abilities to be able to enjoy the sense of motion of speed and interacting with the environment in a creative way. I'm Zoe FPV and some of you know me as the queen of 3D. 3D is the ability to have the drone flying in the direction orientation you want. I'm walking the abilities of the pilot and allowing you to do anything that you can imagine. One of those extremely hard skills to master and it takes a top level pilot to really bring out the best in what you can do with 3D. And that's why I love doing it. That's what pushes me to continue flying is by having the ability to do anything and allows me to do everything. One of the things I've been most passionate about is making drone racing interesting. And to make drone racing that next generation spectator sport, you have to make the drones bigger so you can actually see them around the track. That's why I've always been pushing for giant drones to become a thing. That's why I helped found X-Class drone racing and why I'm such a believer in drone sports. It's not just the thing that's fun to do. It's a thing that encourages more engineers to get out into the world. It's a thing that encourages the average person to become a mad scientist and push the limits of their knowledge and push the limits of physics while they do it. And that's really why I love drones. It's a whole new frontier of possibilities that we're just beginning to get a grasp of. Guys, it's Jamie, little stellar fox. A big reason why I fly is because when I'm up there, I'm not down here. I turn on my music, I totally zone out and I'm just dancing with the trees and that's it. Really what makes a good pilot is the passion to push forward. The people that are growing and doing new things and are pushing themselves, those are good pilots. I don't really focus on tricks. I do a lot of focus on flow and making my lines nice and soft and gooey. I really enjoy being able to flow and just move fluidly. A huge focus that I have is getting more females into the hobby. Girls wanna see other girls flying. And I love all the guys, but it's super great to have a female that you can look up to and be like, that could be me. Hey guys, Cory Tapp, AKA Cricket FPV. I am shooting to be the best in freestyle FPV. So for me, flying FPV and the new tricks and everything that I've been doing has just been about innovation and just doing things that nobody else is doing. And not to say that there's anything wrong with what everybody else is doing, but me personally, I just wanna be different. I want my flying to be something unique and something that you don't see any place else in FPV. My biggest influences in FPV would have to be anybody that really is pushing the envelope and innovating FPV and just doing new things, not the same old things that everybody's been doing. I want the people that push, push, push. This isn't fun if you're not pushing to be the best. I'm on their coattails, just keep moving. Because if not, you stop, I'm coming backwards all day, every day. If you're not pushing, I'm pushing 10 times harder. Use that one. The best racer in the game. Ready to fly any quad, any time, any track, any location doesn't matter to me. I'm ready to go. Being on DRL is really awesome. We get to race in locations all across the world against the best competition. We're racing drones over 100 miles an hour. It's really a good demonstration of the talent that a personal pilot can have on the sticks and what they're able to do. In my flying style, I like to fly very, very smooth. I don't like any jerkiness. I like to get a nice smooth line. I love that flow. I love flying. For me, part of the reason that I'm so determined, I'm so cocky or what people say are arrogant is because for me, trying to get better in FPV is not just so I can be the best. It's the challenge of being the best. Like that's what excites me the most of the challenge in FPV. Whether it's being the smoothest pilot out there with the best flow or being the fastest racing pilot, the challenge to get there, I would be really upset at myself if I made it to the very top. I just love that challenge. I love that drive. Like let's go fly 150 batteries today. Let's go do it. And that's why I'm so confident in my flying. I push myself, I challenge myself, but I just love flying. You get very immersed when you're flying these drones. You forget that you're sitting or standing there on the ground and you feel like you're actually in it. You're free. You can do whatever you want. I love it so much and it helps drive me to just push harder and push harder to be the best. Finally, I go by Lidrib and I am all about the flow. Whether it's trees or an abandoned building or a parking lot, I'll fly. I'll fly anywhere and I want to find long, continuous lines that are just fluid and keep you on the edge of your seat. I love FPV because to me, it is the merger of art and science. You have to take all of these technical skills where you have to build this machine and tune it and configure it and then actually practice the physical skill of flying it and get good at flying it. And then you take the footage from those flights and you have to think about motion and colors and music and turn it into art. At the end of the day, you're looking at screens and moving sticks with your fingers, but it's not like playing a video game. You're not just in your living room. You're going out into the world. You're looking for unique spots. You're trying to fly them in ways that no one's ever seen. You're doing something really special. The Rotor Riot pilot team is made up of not only some of the best freestyle pilots, but some of the best people in the FPV community. We want to share this hobby with as many people as we can. We love flying and we want you to love it too. The Rotor Riot team is stronger than ever and we are on a mission to FPV everything and share it with the world. Hit the subscribe button to make sure that you don't miss a single episode and we hope to see you here next time on Rotor Riot. I'm the grandpa of Rotor Riot. I can pretty much, I think I could be Van Over's dad. Mathematically, I could be Van Over's dad.