Chaka Pecan and Cattle

01/16/2026

06/02/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CJCx4Q4fg/?mibextid=wwXIfr

🌊 Japan Invents Plastic That Melts Away in the Ocean — and Heals the Earth! ♻️✨
This revolutionary material dissolves in seawater within hours — leaving behind no toxic waste and even enriching the soil it touches.

It could mark the beginning of the end for plastic pollution — and the dawn of eco-conscious packaging that gives back to the planet.
👉 See how it works: https://engineerine.com/plastic-dissolves-in-water/

09/12/2024

A poorly pruned crepe myrtle tree can turn into an eyesore with twiggy growth and a lack of flowers. Follow this guide to keep your tree in tip-top shape.

11/18/2023

“An army marches on its stomach,” Napoleon is supposed to have said. But unfortunately for the armies of his time, the food available to the stomachs of those hungry soldiers was neither appetizing nor nutritious--consisting primarily of hard bread and salted meat. Napoleon wanted to better feed his army, so he offered a prize of 12,000 francs to anyone who could invent a better way to store and preserve food.

The chef Nicolas Appert rose to the challenge. After years of trial and error he eventually perfected a method of putting food in jars and then submerging the jars in boiling water to preserve the food and seal the jars. In other words, he invented canning.

Appert won the prize and the fame that came with it. The process he invented is essentially the same process we still use today.

Appert is still celebrated and well-known in France (where "canning" is called "appertization"), but he has faded into obscurity in the rest of the world, despite being responsible for one of humanity's most important inventions.

Today is the birthday of Nicolas Appert. He was born on November 17, 1749.

11/16/2023

Here’s the new USDA Hardiness zone map. Nacogdoches is moving closer to the Zone 9A line.

09/17/2023

After such a hot summer many trees have lost leaves and needles way ahead of the normal leaf fall season.

It's time for my annual attempt to pass on some common sense on leaf management. Enjoy the Fall color of course but plan the handling of the leaves and help spread the word to your friends and neighbors. Having the leaves hauled off to the landfill is the worst decision. It increases taxes, wastes time and money, throws away valuable soil-building organic material and looks terrible. Here's a better way.

https://www.dirtdoctor.com/garden/Leaf-Management-Update-Newsletter-2014_vq4266.htm

04/04/2023

03/25/2023

The Four legged tree in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

One hundred years ago (1915), John Henning planted 4 linden tree saplings—2 on either side of the walk—leading up to his front door. Mr. Henning, a farmer who had immigrated from Germany as a young man, had moved into town when he retired. With lots of expereince grafting apple trees, he aimed to imitate the archways of lindens he recalled from Berlin. First, the two on the same side of the walk were lashed together and grafted. Then when each pair was tall enough to arch over the walk, he grafted the pairs. Over time, a towering trunk grew from the original four.

The four-legged tree of Cedar Falls has weathered two major setbacks in its long life. Not too many years after Mr. Henning started his project, the front right tree died and a replacement was grafted in. Thus the lesser girth of that trunk.

Source: Marcia Milner-Brage/Urban Sketchers

03/21/2023

10/13/2022

Good things keep happening. Right after a terrific Fall Plant Sale, we have just now learned we have received a grant from the Texas Department of Agriculture for our proposal to study the potential of pineapple guava, Acca sellowiana, in Texas. This project is a collaboration with Dr. Tim Hartmann, Texas Agrilife Extension Specialist, College Station, Texas. Tim has been our collaborator for many years on the kiwifruit project and we’re both excited to add this interesting fruit to our work. Improved varieties are changing the potential of this interesting crop in East Texas.