so waht ya doin today?

[Bret4207]

Ok guys, rain may pick up N2 from the atmosphere but your grass can't fix nitrogen. N2 is very chemically stable and requires immense energy to break down. Few plants have the ability but legumes can do it.
Unless your lawn is alfalfa or clover then the N2 picked up by the falling rain isn't relevent.

Nitrogen in rain absolutely benefits any non-legume plant deficient in N. No the grass can't fix it like legumes, but it definitely uses it. N is one of the primary fertilizers for all you grasses like corn., sorghum, etc. Too much burns it, too little and it gets stunted. That's why we follow a leguminous crop with grains/grasses. The nitrogen released from the decaying legumes is used by the following crops.

 

[Brad]

Nitrogen IS a great fertilizer, but not nitrogen gas. Nitrogen gas is extremely chemically stable and most plants can't use it at all.

Chemical fertilizers use nitrogen containing substances like anhydrous ammonia. These are created in industrial plants largely thru the Haber process.

There likely is some nitrogen in rain but mostly from nitrogen oxides reacting with the water to form acid rain.

 

[Rick]

Probably best not to argue with a farmer about fertilizer. Maybe it's acid my grass likes so much.

 

[uncle jimbo]

Where do you live if I might be so nosy? We have 46 miles of road to maintain in our little town and the cost of ripping up a road and putting in a new base is extremely expensive. Just wondering where they still do that. All we can swing is a skim coat over the top after fixing the trouble spots. That runs in excess of $130K per half mile.

I live in Utah, about 30 miles north of Salt Lake City. That road that is part of the road that goes up to the gravel pit. The wife's family owns the land but leases the mineral rights to a construction company. They have all the equipment to do the work themselves, except laying down the pavement. I own the bottom part of the road and in the lease agreement they have to maintain the road. Well the road need to be replaced. And I told them so, so they replaced it. It really did need replacing so I didn't have to persuade anyone.
The pit is behind the berm, so you can't see it. That way by law. It is in the county so that makes it ok to shoot up there. My private shooting range. I can shoot up to 1100 hundred yards if I so desire.
But anyway, I did ask the the job foreman what a truck load of pavement cost, $1700 per truck load.
These did turn out as good as I wanted, but the pit is behind the berm in the foreground. But this is my backyard. Lot of smoke in the valley today.

 

[Ian]

Don't tell the granola sisters that NOX compounds make fertile rain or they'll have to invent some new excuse.

That's some pretty country there, Jimbo. The only parts of Utah I've seen either look like the moon, nw Arizona, or the San Juan mountains.

 

[Brad]

Want are all those highs sticking up in the background? Isn't land supposed to be flat?

 

[waco]

Want are all those highs sticking up in the background? Isn't land supposed to be flat?

Those little guys? Out West we call those hills.

 

[Brad]

Interesting concept.
We have Hills in Nebraska but ours are made of sand and they pretty much all look like that.

 

[waco]

I guess it all depends what you grew up around as perspective.

 

[Brad]

Corn doesn't grow well on mountains. Those hills do feed some fine eating beef.

Think of what those hills looked like when tens of thousands of bison roamed.

 

[Ian]

There's more square footage per acre on the vertical. We call these 80' elevation changes "hills". View from the mbr deck:

 

[JonB]

Grass? I don't care about grass.
BUT, during the rare dry spells in wet and wonderful MN, I water my garden...it keeps the garden alive, but I don't see much improvement in the plants. Now, a nice 1" rain, my garden plants seemingly jump for joy with new growth.

I've heard the nitrogen story and am skeptical the plants would react that quickly. I've also read that rain water has a higher concentration of Oxygen...and it seems plausible to me that is what is perking up the plants.

Also, Rainwater captured in a rain barrel and stored for a week or so, doesn't have the same effect as the falling rain. I suspect the rain has out-gassed that extra oxygen? I've also tried Aerating (a redneck version of oxygenating) rain water that's been in the rain barrel for a week, but I seen no results that were similar to the falling rain.

Maybe it's God's hand in the mix?

 

[Gary]

The very act of receiving rainfall is IMO by the Hand of God.

 

[Ian]

The very act of receiving rainfall is IMO by the Hand of God.

That's what we say around here, every drop is a gift.

 

[fiver]

old water gains a large H to the mix, those are the ones the hydrogen engines run on.
and what heavy water is made from.

 

[Brad]

Heavy water contains deuterium in place of one hydrogen. Deuterium is an isotope of hydrogen with a single neutron while normal hydrogen has only a single proton and no neutron.
Add another neutron to dueterium and we get night sights.

 

[Ian]

And if you add one more do you get quaterium, quartetium, or Chernoblyl?

No pix but I set 21 tee posts and dug a 16"X 54" hole for the 6" steel corner post this afternoon. I'm getting too old for this.

 

[Pistolero]

The wife's John Deere 425 mower hydraulic drive transaxle went from an annoying drip to
a unaffordable pour ($25/gallon JD magic elixir hydro fluid) and it was downed. Pulling the
mower deck off.....hey, it doesn't roll like it is supposed to. So, I found out why --


Did I mention that one part of our property has some many surface limestone rocks
that she calls it "The Minefield"?

So, over to the 20 ton press. And one whacked fingertip later (those are a big spring when
you are bending them - I knew it and still got bit). Got it straight, tracking within 1/16th inch,
good enough for me.

Then, back to the original job.

Pull off seat and fender-seat-floorboard pan. Vacuum up MORE grass clippings jammed
everywhere. I had blown this off very carefully with the leaf blower before I started. Can't
knock it all loose, though.



Then pull the drive shaft, a couple of hydraulic lines and cap them, then a couple
of control rods, and drop the transaxle out.



Then the control arm bolt, a snap ring, washer and then use an O-ring hook to pop out two O-rings. Get them tomorrow,
and reassemble. Tab A in slot B, etc.

Prolly saved enough to cover my new S&W Model 18-2. Free guns! Yay!

Bill

 

[Pistolero]

And Ian, AFAIK, nobody had added another neutron to tritium. Probably be very, very short half
life it you managed it, so gone in a hurry. Tritium is unstable, breaks down to deuterium
with about a 12 year half life. Gives of a beta (energetic electron) which hits the phosphors in the
night sight tube, causing a glow. Prolly take a LOT of energy to stick another neutron on, then it would
just pop right off again.

Bill

 

[Ian]

The engineers at Boeing never got my jokes either.