Up at 5:30. Mixed the tank at 6:00, Sprayed the second half of the orchards with fish, kelp and fermented herbs. It takes almost exactly two 100-gallon tanks to do all the orchards. Sometimes (like today) we finish up the tank exactly on the last tree. How does that happen?

Later in the morning a massive cloud of bees swarmed at Finley. Marc and I rushed up and with Skylar’s help we were able to guide the thousands of bees into a cardboard box. Another colony for the orchard.

In the evening I took the big trek down to Portland to the beautiful Merrill Auditorium to attend a concert of the 86-year-old Herbie Hancock. I’m not all that familiar with his music, but our former apprentice, Nick Libby, invited me to join him. I was not disappointed. The five-member band did not hold back. They were cooking! It was sort of a cross between George Clinton and Sun Ra. Chaos with a great beat. Sometimes outright wild. Right up my alley.

“Double Dare” (drawing by Abbott Meader)

I was once again reminded of what Marion McPartland told our film-maker friend Huey about the four points of great jazz: play in any key, improvise, swing, and have a sense of humor. Hancock and his band were spot on all four. Herbie himself introduced a number of the tunes. He was thoughtful, charming, gentle and occasionally even silly. At one point he quoted Wayne Shorter’s definition of jazz: “I dare you.” Sounds like our definition of orcharding.