I'm not sure about $1,000 from just asian pears and blackberries...asian pears do command a premium, but with 10 dwarf trees you'd need to get at least 30 pounds of fruit per tree to be in the neighborhood--maximum yields for dwarf asian pears top out at 40-50 pounds based on a medium level of tree management. Blackberries always produce and sell well for us, it just depends on the market (and where you are in KS) how much you can sell them for. In rural SE Kansas, we got $2.50 per half pint this year, but blackberries were thin in this region due to late frosts and an unusually cold February. Also, it depends on the area you're in as far as selling--if you're in an area that has a low-cost farmer's market, it might be worth your while. I would recommend perhaps growing vegetables to hedge your bets if you are planning on doing farmer's markets or roadside stands. Certain crops (cherry tomatoes for us) are decently low-maintenance and could help to bridge your gap between when blackberries and asian pears are coming ripe. If you are just selling on Craigslist or through some similar method, this would not be necessary, although you might have a harder time commanding a good price on what you are selling. Selling to retail stores, I was told by the state, is harder to do because you have to have state-approved holding areas for the produce before you take it to the store. Finally, jams and jellies are a great option, simply because you can use any excess fruit that does not sell and it cuts down on your shrink. Anything that diversifies your offerings is a benefit. As someone else mentioned, there are no regulations in KS regarding jams & jellies (as long as you are selling direct to the customer), but I would definitely look into insurance if you are selling any value-added product. Although our market does not require it, I have insurance for this very reason (costs $360 for one year--six month terms are also available through our insurer). However, I think with only 60 feet of blackberry plants, you might have to pick one or the other--selling fresh berries or in jams. We have 300 feet of cultivated berries and tons of wild blackberries, and had nowhere near enough to satisfy market demand. Shoot me a message if you have further questions! I hope I can be of help since we're apparently both in the same state... -TK

***"If it was burning oil I'd think I'd get a consistent black smoke?"*** No. Gasoline overfuel (or excessively rich) causes black smoke because of the very "complex" way gasoline burns, or "combusts" in the combustion chamber, because of the "complex chemical make up", of gasoline. Gasoline, Diesel "fuel oil", and engine lube oil, are all in the family of chemical compounds we call Hydrocarbons. Hydro for Hydrogen and carbon for Carbon. Hydrocarbon compounds are made by combining "elemental Hydrogen" and "elemental Carbon" together. Because hydrogen and carbon can "link up" in very complex combinations (compounds), these combinations are called "chains". How many atoms of each element, and the varying ways they alternate and hook up determines the "properties" of the final compound. Some of the resulting combinations are very "stable" and DO NOT want to evaporate (or even "melt") easily. Other combinations will "flash" at low temperatures and remain "a thin liquid" at extremely low temperatures. One thing all hydrocarbon compounds share is "combustibility". The ability to combine with oxygen (or "burn"). Some hydrocarbons are eager to combust and only need to get near a "molecule" of oxygen and they just "throw open their arms" to the oxygen (very "promiscuous"). Other compounds are so reluctant to "mess around" with oxygen that they must first be heated to a high temperature before they'll have anything to do with any oxygen molecules (or oxygen atoms). You can draw your own analogies there, but suffice it to say, these compounds are very "chaste". Ok, lets use this in a practical way now. Starting with "how come "burning oil" makes BLUE smoke. The short "answer" is: Because the oil "ain't actually burning". Some portion of the oil (in an engine that is "consuming oil") does actually burn, but the majority of THOSE hydrocarbon molecules are only "vaporized" by the heat of the combustion chamber environs. The hydrocarbon compounds that make good "lubes", are some of those "chaste", or stable ones that don't enjoy "a good combustion". The color of lube oil "vapor" in an exhaust plume is similar to to what you would see if you poured some oil on a hot exhaust manifold. Starting a Diesel engine in frigid temps will result in the following observances in the exhaust plume: First, you will see the fuel oil "vapor plume" as a white or blue/white color, because the initial heat of compression, is only hot enough to vaporize a portion of the Diesel fuel oil, but not hot enough to "ignite" (flashpoint temperature) the fuel. The next color change will be the addition of black as the combustion chamber temperature begins to reach "ignition" flashpoint. But, even though ignition has been achieved, the temperatures in the combustion chamber have not risen enough to support "complete ignition and combustion" of all the available hydrocarbon molecules. This "incomplete combustion" means that some of the hydrocarbon chains are combusting "partially" or incompletely. In this stage, some of the HYDROGEN atoms break out of the compound and unite with oxygen atoms. Some of the CARBON atoms get liberated and quickly "recombine" to form both "new hydrocarbons" and "plain carbon compounds" (soot.....black). It is the resulting carbon and new carbon compounds that give the black color to the plume. This black color only last briefly in this scenario, because the temperatures inside the engine rise rapidly now, and the combustion of the fuel is near enough to complete, that the exhaust plume will become almost clear in a "good engine". But that was in a Diesel engine having combustion chamber compression pressures of more than 500 PSI. Fuel oil can be processed (combusted) very well under those conditions, but engine lube oil would require even a greater magnitude of pressures and temperatures to "burn clean". As a result, a worn out Diesel engine throws out "blue oil smoke" too (though some of that is actually "uncombusted fuel" too, when the engine is in bad condition!). In a gasoline fueled engine, the gas is highly volatile (evaporates readily). Highly volatile compounds are also "highly combustible", and will therefore "burn" in the lower compression environs of a "gasoline engine" (though not without a well timed spark to "incite ignition and propagation"). Gasoline is a complex blend of different "complex hydrocarbons". The more volatile compounds are very eager to burn and create a fast moving flame front, or "propagation wave" that moves through the combustion chamber from the spark plug "spark gap" when the plug "fires". This combustion process is not a "homogeneous" or "simultaneous" process. The highly volatiles burn and consume oxygen first, followed by the "lesser volatile compounds" as the temperatures rise (remember it takes some heat before some of these "chaste" compounds will join in). The least volatile compounds (both of the "original hydrocarbons", the "new hydrocarbons", and the resultant carbon compounds) are faced with a problem. Most of the good looking oxygen atoms have already paired up with the more promiscuous hydrogen atoms and early carbon atoms, so there "are not enough" oxygen atoms around for everybody to find a partner. Not "everybody" will locate an oxygen partner and there will be "some wallflowers" at the end. If you make the fuel/air mix too rich with fuel, there will be even more leftover wallflowers "after the dance". These "wallflowers" end up going out the exhaust in various quantities (depending on specific criteria of fuel, air, spark, temperatures, compression, and a few etceteras). It is the carbon compound "wallflowers" (soot) that give the exhaust its black color when too much fuel is present. Lube oil, (in the same analogy) does not get heated up enough to burn, but does get hot enough to vaporize and so lends the characteristic "blue oil smoke" color to the exhaust. A term that has come up in recent years (in technical speak) is "stoichiometric combustion". That term essentially means that there are "just enough" molecules (atoms) of Oxygen to combine with the Hydrogen and Carbon atoms in the hydrocarbon fuel during combustion so that there are no atoms of any of the "original" elements remaining after combustion stops. As far as one can see into the "near future" stoichiometric combustion is unlikely to be attained in commercially available power plants (engines I mean). CLASS, DISMISSED! PS, check the "choke wizard" per tomplum's suggestion.

Up, up and not away!

I've thought about this thread and the great discussion and counsel I received her many times over the last three years. And having just got off the phone with DS, this seemed like the perfect time for an update. A few weeks after this thread started DS began to get involved with an activity in high school. (Yes, 'an' as in just one.) But he enjoyed it, made some new friends, and began to become more social and more happy, spending less time on the computer. Soon, he was excelling in this activity and won a few city-wide awards. Grades remained As and Bs and efforts remained spotty. Summer before Junior year, I enrolled him in a summer college class in an area of his academic interest in the region where he wanted attend college. He loved it and got excited about learning at the college level. He never talked so much as when he got home from that two-week course! We also toured colleges on the trip up, and he discovered what type of school appealed to him. Junior year he continued to take college prep courses, pull As and Bs, and scored 'OK' on his college boards. NOT Ivy League, or even second tier, so we lowered our sights. The two schools he liked best from our summer tour (one Ivy, one just below) seemed out of reach. But he did win a prestigious art prize (raw talent, not effort or interest) and began putting together an art portfolio. Summer before senior year he worked with a coach to write his essay (dynamite - but he did it himself) and application. Senior year was more of the same, though his grades actually improved a bit. He kept retaking his ACTs until one lucky Saturday he scored well enough to slide into the bottom of the 'middle-50% range' at his preferred two schools. Then we crossed our fingers and waited. He was accepted at his safety schools, wait-listed at my top choice (his #2) due to late paperwork (the disorganized dope!), and turned down at his stretch schools, including the Ivy, his #1 choice. Oh well... But then his luck turned, and the Ivy offered him a spot next year if his freshman grades were 3.0 or better. And his #2 school (my #1 for him) accepted him off the wait list. So that's where he's going, and he LOVES it. And things are going GREAT in every respect. First off, DS went back on his ADHD meds -- his own idea. He admits that he should have been on them all along (Duh! But Dad wouldn't hear of it!) and that now he is able to focus SO MUCH BETTER! Well, apparently it's true, because midterm grades are just in and I am thrilled to be able to brag on my kid! He is THE #1 biology student in the entire college, has an over-100 Chemistry average, and no lower than a B+ in any other subject. So it's all turning out pretty darn well, if I say so myself! (Amazing what a little maturity and Concerta can do for a teenage boy!)