Ruby the dog has her own ideas as to how the world should work. Experience may slowly be disabusing her of this rather quaint notion. Earlier today she was sent to her very first morning at dog obedience school. Initially, the kelpie was frightened by the sudden change in routines. Fear soon turned to anger. During socialisation low tolerance for other dogs was expressed. People can sense this, and even the attending dogs quietly avoided Ruby. An inquisitive poodle thought the kelpie was hot stuff, and kept hanging around. They may end up being friends.
Life rarely works out like you imagine it will. Ruby will soon discover this, and perhaps a poodle for a friend is better than none at all? A human can only offer her the opportunity to improve, she has to do the hard work of changing. Despite what it sounds like, the kelpie is good enough for here. With the training and socialising, we’re simply attempting to file off the rougher edges of her personality.
Frankly speaking, there is a larger need for reform school. There sure is a lot of misbehaviour out there these days, and very little of it is canine related. It was difficult to ignore the news this week that the share market had reached a new high. Houses also cost $3,000 more than previously. Neither increase in cost was alleged to have been related to any sudden improvement of the assets. It’s not encouraging news. Such excesses should be curbed. A correction collar for the miscreants may be needed perhaps?
Sometimes I wonder if the folks creating this intriguing combination of economic circumstances even concern themselves with the thoughts or cares of the younger folks who are faced with ever higher hurdles to jump? It’s hard know really. Recently I read a concept which suggests that people invariably hate others that they are doing a wrong to. The basis for the concept was that the hate allows the wrong doers to sleep at night, presumably in the comfort of their own righteousness. It gives pause for thought doesn’t it?
My grandfather was a good one for giving advice. Sadly I was too young for the advice to register. He used to have the habit of referring to every other male by the nickname: ‘D@#khead’. Somehow the old guy was a commanding enough presence that he managed to engender the term with a sense of affection for the many foibles and failings of the individual so addressed. Certainly no trouble ever stemmed from this intriguing use of the language. He failed to pass on the how-to instructions for that little trick. If I tried it, there’d probably be no end to the punch-ups which would result from speaking to other folks with contempt. An unwise path for the less commanding!
As an old fella myself, I do wonder about these sorts of issues. What lessons should the elders in society offer to the young? And how would providing those lessons affect the lives of the people so proffering them? Of course a person has to abide by their advice lest they appear the hypocrite. It’s a complicated story, and it hardly surprises me that advice is rarely offered, and is often met with derision. People are highly sensitive to hypocrisy.
A few days ago I encountered a short paragraph of a fictional grandfathers advice to his grandson. The book was written by my favourite author, the now deceased, Jack Vance. Many people enjoy the works of P.G. Wodehouse, and they’re great reading. However, in those books the toffs always seem to win, despite their many misfortunes and acts of sheer foolishness. Jack Vance writes equally smooth and silky dialogue, clear narrative, with superb depictions. Of course there are the toffs, but the underdog usually wins against the odds through sheer skill. My kind of story! Anyway, the short paragraph of advice was taken from the book ‘Ecce and Old Earth’ and is reproduced here purely for educational purposes:
“My only specific instructions are these: do not allow well meaning but impractical theoreticians to exert any control over you; make sure that your associates are competent, experienced and tolerant folk, without ideological axes to grind.”
Sound advice.
Upon reflection, it seems odd to me that my experience has been that such good advice was rarely imparted. From a young age most of the training I’d received was geared towards vocational outcomes. The other stuff about people and things, well, that seemed to be up to the individual to learn. And that was often learned the hard way, by trial and error. Seems like a strange option to me. But anyway, as inequalities increase there’s just so much trouble brewing in society that I’m guessing the current arrangements will eventually change. And hey, it might even be for the better. But before then, I’m just trying to teach Ruby some lessons about how to be better socialised.
After a dry and mostly cool week, the very air now smells of honey. The tall Eucalyptus Obliqua trees in the surrounding forest are the second tallest flowering plant on the planet. And this week, the trees are producing flowers. Masses of flowers.
With all the flowers, and smell of honey, there are insects everywhere. Clouds of butterflies and moths are all over the place enjoying the nectar and pollen feast. The trees flower best when they have a bit more room to grow (I’m guessing). Some patches of the forest are so thick with the tall trees, they’re struggling for water, light and minerals. You won’t see any flowers there.
A few days ago, we headed about an hours drive north of here to have a poke around the gold fields relics. It’s amazing to see the abandoned industrial plant in out of the way locations. It’s all being taken back by nature. This week, we visited a large plant which was a wood to gas plant. The combustible gas produced was then used to power a 200hp engine which turned a water pump. That baby could shoot an extraordinary volume of water as a rock blasting jet. The plant was last in operation 70 years ago, and it would have taken a lot of gold to pay for the thing.
The machines must have used a phenomenal quantity of timber because a small narrow gauge rail line was used to bring the wood fuel in. Abandoned equipment was left all over the area, like this old stationary engine which looked to me as if it had been used as a generator.
Incidentally, when operating, the jet of water could be heard 3km (2 miles) away. Still, all good things come to an end. Economic feasibility always trumps technical possibility, and now the equipment looks rusty and abandoned.
I have no plans to ever use so much timber! Far out, that machine would have been a monster forest eater. However, having almost run out of dry firewood two years in a row, we do need a slightly larger firewood shed. Recently we have begun the excavations for this project. A day of digging this week, improved the site and provided space for another steel rock gabion cage as a soil retaining wall.
The excavated soil was relocated and used to complete the low gradient path on the underside of the chicken enclosure. A layer of crushed rock with lime was placed on the path surface, and that part of the job is now finished.
With space for another steel rock gabion cage and a hot day, we made a new cage – in the shade of course.
The new cage was put in place, and an existing cage was also sewn up.
The little bit of hot weather we enjoyed, helped the plants grow – a lot. A cucumber was harvested and added to a salad. Yum!
It seems to me that every single bird living in the area enjoys Elderberries. We have a number of those trees, and I’m fine with the birds taking all the fruit. Generally we use the flowers for wine making, and it’s a tasty drop, despite the rank smell when first cooked.
A number of chilli plants failed to die last winter, and those got off to an early start and have produced an excellent crop. Chilli plants can live for up to fifteen years. Who knew?
The tomatoes in the greenhouse are still green, but are showing signs of giving a decent harvest. Outside of the greenhouse, the growing season has been an epic fail for tomatoes.
The grapevines need no greenhouse! They just need serious protection from the birds, which they have.
Japanese chefs would probably kill me, like seriously dead. Those guys have sharp knives made from excellent steel! Sadly my risk is that we’re yet to harvest the ginger flavoured Japanese ginger flowers so often used in Japanese cooking. But they look good.
Onto the flowers:
The temperature outside now at about 10am is 15’C (59’F). So far for last year there has been 193.0mm (7.6 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 192.6mm (7.6 inches)
Hi Inge,
There sure are some interesting people out there, and thanks for the introduction. Being able to communicate science to the lay person, and make it interesting and comprehensible is a worthy skill. It was hard not notice one of the fine quotes from the book you mentioned: highlighting a year Einstein spent apparently aimlessly with the comment that those who don’t waste time, won’t get anywhere. Thank you for the book recommendation.
Talk about good advice, and with recently altered circumstances, I intend to heed just that. Although frankly speaking, there are some projects which need finishing here. And winter is rapidly approaching.
Hope sleep returned after the radio program? My sleep was likewise disturbed last evening, although for different reasons. Yesterday was 100’F in the shade, and at midnight the temperature was still 81’F so it was quite warm and uncomfortable over night. A cold change blew in this morning from the Southern Ocean, and so now it is only 55’F outside at 7pm (and wasn’t that much warmer for the entire day).
I’d actually performed paid work yesterday on the hot day with the intention of doing some pruning work in the orchards today when it was cooler. Except that 55’F and drizzling was not at all to my liking. Instead I decided to attend to chores around the house and have an easier day and simply relax. As the physicist you mentioned may agree, the brain works better when it has some time out in between work. What’s your take on that perspective?
Did the physicist make any other interesting observations upon the matter of life?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Pam,
Thanks, and yes, I’d like to believe it was true! 🙂 Glad to read that my irreverence brought a smile to your dial, even if it was of the droll variety.
Ah, sadly you are dealing with the same sort of faceless bureaucracy which did a similar thing to the road here a few years ago. I’m sure you’ve heard the excuses: Sorry the work was programmed into the schedule. Boss says just do it…
Hope your road has dried out a bit by now? Although it has been my observation that dirt roads require the magic ingredient of ‘road base’ in order to hang toegther. That’s the technical term for random sized chunks of smooshed up rocks which hold all of the clay particles together, or at least stop them from turning a dirt road into a flat slippery mud surface with two very deep Suzuki swallowing ruts. Perhaps you know this feeling?
It’s funny you ask that question, because we got to experience that very thing. So it turned out that many years ago I encountered the grader driver just as he was beginning to deep rip the road (a quarter mile in length). The intention was to flatten the road out, although the job was not necessary. I said as much to the grader driver. What’s worse was that the weather forecast suggested a massive storm was going to hit here over the following days. I immediately got onto the phone to the supervisor at the local council and asked him not to go ahead with the work. Deaf ears and stuff. The road was deep ripped, and like your experience it turned to moosh which we could barely use. Moosh is a made up term, but you know what it looks like.
I’d failed, so Sandra got on the phone to the council and to put it bluntly, sooked. A lot. And they had to bring in truck loads of crushed rock to place over the entire surface. Nowadays the road is only graded every couple of years, and it doesn’t even need that. I know the bloke who originally made the road when it was upgraded from an old Cobb and Co coach track. And he also did the earthworks for the house here. He’d been in the area for decades and knew what he was doing. We used to have great chats when he worked here.
The stupid thing about the entire incident was that if they’d used their brains and considered the work and taken local advice, it never would have happened. But they didn’t. Schedule and stuff…
What do you do, other than sook – a lot. You’re paying them to look after this stuff. That’s what property taxes go towards.
Oh yeah. Can you imagine the sort of ruts that horse drawn coach wheels would have left on dirt roads? A little bit higher up the mountain range from here there is an old Victorian era health resort known as Craigielea, and the Cobb and Co coach track which is this road, originally went through to there. It is possible that back in those days the accommodation was not used in the winter months.
The Victorian era folks used to freak out about the air quality in the big smoke during the summer months. They probably should have concerned themselves more with the water supply and sewage system there, which they eventually did.
Oh my! How had I missed this plant? Snapdragons are lovely flowering plants. Hope your seeds take and fingers crossed for that outcome. Plus it was hard not to notice that the species enjoys rocky well drained areas.
Cheers
Chris
Before I get into the thoughts elicited by your post, the grapes on top of the enclosure said so much about nature and her wily and abundant ways, unconcerned with our desired outcomes.
Training and education- Ruby has someone who can see the need for moderating her behavior, and can do something about it.
Not so much the supposed leaders of our grand enterprise. The school of hard knocks was a good but harsh institution, but it seems the school enrollment has dropped precipitously the last few decades, so now many lack the training and wisdom that school provided. For that matter, it looks more and more like no one is driving the train.
Me thinks that school will see enrollment surging shortly, and those who can’t cough up tuition will be shuffling off this mortal coil.
Gold- who decided this stuff would have the value humans ascribe to it? Madness is as madness does, to misquote the Forest Gump movie.
The California gold rush used the same water cannon method to speed up the Sierras erosion and march to the sea. Titanic amounts of material were sent downhill for nuggets of this metal. It was so bad in California, because there were plenty of mountain streams to utilize, and then it was just a matter of gravity and naturally resulting water pressure. No need to burn trees for power, but plenty were washed downhill, or burned for warmth in the mountain winters.
The misspent effort and cruel treatment of the unlucky natives who lived near surface deposits are some of the darkest marks in the human ledger book.
So it goes.
100F one day and 55F the next? We are being warned…….
It has been a weirdly warm winter here, will get to 50F today, ( should be mid thirties)and I may start tapping trees a month early.
Flowers- so which is tallest?
Hello Chris,
What a beautiful photo of the flowering trees. It has a very distinct Monet-quality. I first wondered if it was an oil painting and had to look at the tree to the right to see the photographic patterns.
I know of the chestnut trees in the forest. They only flower on the branches that get full sun. Usually no flowers are visible from the forest floor, but chestnuts rain down in October nonetheless, even in the densest of chestnut forests. For us dense humans walking in the woods, a hat protects our skulls, to avoid us getting even denser.
Money supply expansion, a.k.a. debasement, is a popular political sport, tried every so often. Usually ends with a switch to another currency. I think the goobers try to repeat the 1924 German debacle as a 100-year celebration. In the meantime, they shift a lot of real estate to the owner class. Inflation usually ends poorly. Did anyone mention pitchforks?
I suspect that soon your doormat will be worn thin by hordes of young people begging for an apprenticeship. You said some time ago that this had not yet started at that time. Now?
Not far away from us, an old lady was farming using horses until the early 1980s, and a young man walked up one day and started working with her. After a decade he was fully trained, more or less when she passed away. He is still there, farming with horses, now with his wife, and their kids have even moved out to new places. Rare skills are very valuable, for the ones who know what to look for.
At our place, we now start to get young people asking to come to apprentice. In April, we will have a Danish talented young person come here to work with us in the nut tree nursery for a couple of months. I learned the skills by unpaid apprenticing in Holland at several different places, and then practicing and improving and failing and trying again for several years.
One of the more famous market farming dudes here has run a paid (as in the student pays) 3-month apprenticeship for several years. If people are prepared to pay for university, why not for learning farming?
I wonder, will you have your apprentices build their own dwellings? I imagine you and Sandra walking around your lemon trees, in the image of Masanobu Fukuoka, trailed by a gaggle of padawans.
Peace,
Göran
Hi Steve,
Thanks for that. It also proves that whilst plans are good, adapting to what may actually be going on, is a fine skill to master. 🙂 Incidentally, I’m watching to see what the birds do with those grapes hanging outside of the vine cage. The parrots for some weird reason unbeknownst to me prefer their fruit slightly under ripe, so they’re a good indicator as to whether the fruit will soon be ripe.
Ruby is learning the hard way that accepting limits is actually a power move. It’s one of those lessons that gets lost in the noise of life for most people. And I’m glad to mention that the dog is responding well to the training.
Yeah, that’s true. I’m also of the belief that those folks have risen to their positions of power via a narrow path, and this has in fact been a negative factor. Up until a few decades ago (at least down here), this was not the case. It’s hard to really know motivations, but if a person so chose that narrow path of politics as their career, they’d be less likely to try different responses to new and challenging circumstances. You’d reckon they’d have mortgages and car loans to pay, and so would never want to question whether dogma is working. And so they fail.
That is very true about learning how to face life’s vicissitudes. I have friends whom have seen nothing but up and better. It does give you pause for thought. I’m hopeful that people can learn and adapt.
It is madness that desire for the metal. Hey, our gold is in the plants and soil.
As a bit of technical talk, that gas powered water cannon could fire out 10,000L (2,631 gallons) per minute, and I read an interesting account which said that at night the force was so great that the quartz when hit by the jet, would spark. The ferocity was that great. A lot of damage, really quickly. Can you imagine the top soil loss in those places?
There was an 1855 account from that area where some local bloke was decrying the rapid loss of the wooded hills.
Incidentally, in the excavation photos this week, you can clearly see the layer of top soil which we’d encouraged the development of during the past decade and a bit. All of that top soil was carefully removed and relocated to a garden bed.
I’d read another account from those days of some of the indigenous folks who’d turned their hands to mineral prospecting, and were outraged the colony troopers were trying to extract mining rights from them. The blokes had some rather pointed observations to make in that regard.
Yup, so it goes.
The climate variability does my head in as well. Many years ago, the most observant Claire alerted me to this matter and then explained what it meant in terms of plant growth and average soil temperatures. It’s even colder tonight. You really don’t want to experience such climate variability.
Dude, it’s less than 50’F outside right now! 🙂 What will be, will be.
🙂 You find these slightly higher up the mountain range here (they’re less fire hardy than my lot): Eucalyptus regnans. The name says it all. Some say they’re the biggest of all, but the physics of water pumps sets the ultimate height for all trees, so I’d guess equally tall is the correct answer.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Göran,
You’re most observant, and Sandra likewise made the exact same comment about the photo. I’m honestly not certain how that came to be either with the photo, and the background trees (you can clearly note a darker line of pines) are much further away than they appear in the photo.
Far out! Göran, I have mixed feelings there about your falling chestnuts forests! 🙂 Sure, the harvest would be excellent, but being hit by one of those spiky nuts falling from a height would hurt. Ouch! Yes, a hard hat is a wise option during such moments. It’s hard to know, but many of the younger eucalyptus saplings grow dead straight trunks and have less than 1m distance to their neighbouring tree. Longer term and if the area avoids a fire, the least strong trees will die and topple, and so feed the soil. And the remaining tree canopies will begin to spread with the additional room. I’m of the belief that this task should be assisted by humans, mostly because that work has been going on continuously for up to sixty millennia, and maybe longer. The forest has basically adapted to this work taking place. And sadly, if a big fire comes through, everything dies including the soil. It needn’t be that way.
Oh yeah, the 1924 effort was a world class mess. And look were it ended up? Not good, and you’d think that our leaders would have a a good comprehension of history. I’ve mentioned previously that the graphs for forecast future debt servicing (forget about new debt) look completely nuts. Of course, this is not to denigrate the most excellent tree nuts. Hey, I’m keeping a watch on the chestnuts, hazelnuts and horse chestnuts here to see how they go this year. So far, the parrots are avoiding them.
You may be right there, and I can only hope so. However ‘now’ is too early, in this country at least. People aren’t hungry enough at the moment, or at least this is my belief. I could be wrong. A few years ago by sheer chance I sat next to a young bloke on the country train, and based on the soil book he was reading struck up a conversation. Turns out he knew people I knew, and we had a good chat. I tend to have faith that this will be how things work out, and enthusiasm is a worthy attribute.
Well done! Respect. I look forward to reading about your adventures with such enthusiastic people wanting to learn.
I agree, that is an excellent model, and yes, why not? Seriously though, I need to get the infrastructure works done first before considering such options. Accommodation is an option which is on the table. Hmm. Do the folks stay on farm in those examples? Accommodation around these parts is basically unaffordable due to the economic shenanigans of our leaders and their policy choices.
That is certainly possible, but sadly I have a hunch that things need to decline a bit further. But I’m not really sure about that belief though. I guess we’ll find out how things roll.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Hope your troubles are receding into the past?
Candidly, I’ve been wondering whether you are taking time out to watch that movie. You know the one. 😉 It really is very good, and recounts a simple story most excellently. And the bloke can act.
Of course, you may have been on a diet of no movies whatsoever, and have an entirely different opinion in relation to the previous paragraph. Hehe! If I was being really cheeky I’d say something like: It’s OK to be wrong you know! But in this instance I’ll restrain myself and desist from doing so. 🙂
Anyway, thinking of you and hope that things are getting easier today.
Cheers
Chris
Hello Chris
I am always fascinated by the abandoned sites that you visit. Are they usually open to just walk around? I remember on a visit to Eire , being amazed at the places that I could just walk around in. That doesn’t apply here.
You asked whether the physicist had other interesting things to say on life. I haven’t the faintest idea! This is because my waking times in the middle of the night are utterly disconnected from my daytime life. So extreme is this, that I had to seek the physicist on the internet in order to rediscover his name and the title of the book. Knowing that this is a problem of mine, I had tried incredibly hard to remember some details and am still staggered by how little I remembered. Haven’t gone shopping this week so shall have to wait till next week to try and get the book.
Inge
@ Pam and Chris,
Ugg, now you’ve BOTH been victims of the Dread Grading Schedule. Unfortunately, it’s a nasty fact of life. Having worked near the road maintenance supervisors for 3 decades, well, it works something like this…
A schedule is set, as certain maintenance goals MUST be achieved during the calendar year. Some roads in a given vicinity are about ready to be graded, so ALL gravel roads in that vicinity get graded, even though some may still be too wet to grade. At the end of the year, a report is sent to the elected officials detailing how much work the maintenance department accomplished. At least here, it’s important to show that all 1,200 miles of gravel got graded once in the spring and once in the autumn. If the usual goals get met, the elected officials don’t remove heads, err, relieve higher ups of their jobs.
And Chris is correct. The road needs a base of large rocks. Then another layer, about 4 inches deep, of smaller rocks/large gravel mixed with “fines”, which hopefully have a high clay content. Finally, an additional 2 inches of smaller gravel that has been crushed to remove most of the roundish sides, again mixed with fines, is placed. That’s the theory. Never works that way, but that’s what it’s supposed to be. And this area doesn’t have enough clay in the soil, so the gravel doesn’t get held i n place well and ends up in the ditches.
One extremely wet March, the electeds told our maintenance gang to grade roads in a certain area which had turned to thick ooze. The road grader got stuck, sinking over its hubs into the mud. It had to be pulled out by thick chains attached to a caterpillar.
DJSpo
Chris,
Appreciated the Muster Dogs video. It was enjoyable and informative.
From last week also…Avalanche is VERY good at distributing licks and kisses, both sneaky and overt. When I get nailed I simply congratulate her on winning. Again. And go wash my face if needed. She is adept at “walk by” leaps and kisses to the face.
I have no experience whatsoever with a chainsaw mill. Sorry.
Things got hectic and erratic at the end of last week. The furnace had an issue. Water was puddling atop the furnace and dripping onto the floor. NOT a good thing. It was emanating from the exhaust pipe near the connection to the furnace. It takes but a little bit of water to make a large mess. Furnace tech arrived Monday afternoon, did some work with waterproof sealing tape, and fixed the problem. No charge, as I purchase a maintenance program annually from that company. They do regular maintenance in the summer, then anything else is free. And since I’ve been on the program since forever began, any big problems they find during the maintenance job are also fixed at no additional cost. Fortunately, it stayed well above freezing, so it wasn’t too cold. We ran the gas fireplace twice a day to stay warm.
Hopefully Ruby and the humans will get what they need out of doggy school. I wonder if there’s a part of her that understands that she and Plum were “rejects”? Getting treated to special consideration that neither Plum nor Ollie attend may be a big thing for her. Having rarely been part of the “in” crowd, I have a soft place for “rejects”.
I’ve known a few people similar to your grandfather. Similar language, too, yet the tone of voice used when calling someone a “Dorkhead”, or worse, makes up for a lot. I’ve also known people who use nothing but cuss words with their dogs, but the tone of voice is the same that I use when I tell Avalanche “Good girl”. The vocal tone and body language mean a lot, sometimes.
The Princess and I were discussing elders’ responsibilities for imparting lessons to the young this weekend, especially as it related to imparting knowledge of traditional crafts and skills. Sadly, she and I have both witnessed people who have specialized skills being asked if they could teach them, only to get the reply “For $100 per lesson” or whatever rate popped out of their mouth. Then the expert would speak up at meetings and complain that nobody wants to learn the old ways. It’s not as if the person seeking the knowledge had the money to spend.
I witnessed a different side of that in the woodcarving world. It is difficult enticing younger people to learn the hobby. Unfortunately, it is possible to buy a nice piece of wood, a computer program and the proper hardware. Then all that is needed is to add the plans for the desired result. allowing the computer and hardware do the project, the human doing something else while the computer whiles away. “Look what I carved!” Umm, no, and it is easy to see the difference between that type of project and something actually carved by hand. Learning how to do things is hard work!
Then there’s the other type of life lessons, what you learned the hard way growing up, what I learned in various schools of hard knocks. Having several would-be mentors who clearly knew not what they were talking about or who were hypocritical in their own lives didn’t help. I’ve come to the conclusion that guidance based solely on experience can be given if and only if the other person seems sincere when they ask for advice. So much in life needs to be learned via failure and struggle, else the lessons don’t get properly learned.
Thanks for the additional pictures of the old buildings and machinery. I’ve found a few similar places. It’s always interesting to explore, observe, then research that location.
Your grape arbor looks much like dad’s grape arbor did, including grapes growing through the top and lying on the top. Some of those grapes are bound and determined to feed themselves to the birds.
Spectacular roses – Yes! Thanks for the pictures.
DJSpo
Hi Inge,
There are no fences to all these places, and you can just wander around the sites. Most of the time, we are the only people there. It is worth noting that anything of value which was not bolted down, has long since disappeared – or at least that is my best guess.
I’m not doubting you about your local circumstances, and acknowledge that there are a few sites down here where fences and entry fees apply (like the mansion a few weeks ago, however it was free to walk around the grounds). But mostly they are free to walk around. To try and put things into some perspective, the state here has the same land mass as the entire UK, but with fifteen times less people. Most of the population is concentrated in the big smoke, and a very few small-ish inland towns. But other than that, it can be very quiet in rural areas. This is part of the shock of the hordes of leaf change tourists for me. The area simply cannot economically afford the facilities to cater for the needs of the sudden influx of tourists when they are elsewhere for the rest of the year.
You have a keen mind for the economic dimensions of a story, and perhaps those circumstances mentioned in the previous paragraph may in some way go towards explaining my dismay when confronted by sudden hordes of tourists?
Eire would be a fascinating place to visit, but my blood would probably send me to more northerly and slightly easterly locales. 🙂
Hmm. It may not be a problem. There are some who feel the worlds divide more keenly than others. Ever was it thus. Out of curiosity, has this always been the case for you, or has the effect increased since you took up abode in the ancient forest?
I’ll be very interested to hear what you have to say about the book. From what I could ascertain, the physicist takes an unexpected turn in his world view. There is probably a great deal of beauty in physics when it is not smothered by a materialistic lack of wonder.
Did paid work today, and am hoping to organise a quieter week on that front coming up. I worked Sunday due to the sheer heat, and I enjoyed the work because it was very interesting. But I’d not done that for a very long time, and when it came to writing, I could not hide from the realisation that the work obscured the more creative aspects of my brain. I’m still pondering the experience and have no idea what to make of it all.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Oh man, thanks so much for the insights from at the coal face of country roads maintenance. For your info, and as a useful comparison as to societal wealth relativity, the road up above the house hasn’t been graded for many years. Of course that work is also not necessary due to low traffic volumes and being well made in the first place… The kind of main dirt road it hangs off however, probably does need grading every six months.
Have you ever wondered what happened in the days before diesel powered graders and rollers? Far out. Imagine how much a horse drawn coach with it’s super thin timber and sheet metal lined wheels would have damaged dirt roads?
Your perfect mixture of road base materials sounds delightful to me! I’m candidly envious of such well maintained dirt roads. 😉 The dirt road to my grandfather’s and his WWII drinking buddies rough remote camp had extraordinarily deep ruts. They’d swallow a car for sure if foolishly ventured into. Such minor inconveniences were largely ignored by the old blokes, and I can’t recall them ever being bogged or (even worse) high centered. And it was a good thirty miles out of town way up in the remote alpine area.
Ouch! You know conditions are bad when even the grader gets stuck in the mud. Hehe! One of the things that the local earthworks bloke told me was that he was somehow on call to perform fire break duties if a major fire event ever occurred. Not sure how that worked, and had neglected to ask whether he was paid for this risk. Incidentally in a slight coincidence, we’ve discovered an old fire break track way down below on the other side of the edge of the forest. Dual ruts in the soil usually indicate such things, but they’re old.
Woof! Woof! Hope Dame Avalanche attended to the muster dog video as well? There’s something quite pleasant to think that a show on working dogs can generate such a large national audience.
DJ, I had to hide that bit about Dame Avalanche and her licky activities from the fluffies lest they get any ideas. Both Ollie and Dame Plum are already bad on this front. But sneaky walk by leap licks are the whole next level. Your husky is one smart dog.
No worries about the chainsaw mill, I don’t either! 🙂
Smart thinking with the maintenance program for such a crucial device. Good stuff. And you were remarkably lucky with the milder weather. Of course there is a school of thought which suggests that the machine politely waited until an appropriate time and first opportunity to begin malfunctioning. 🙂 We have no plan B with heating, so the wood heater is regularly tended too and treated with kid gloves. Of course, we did burn out the steel on the previous wood heater many long years ago in more innocent and possibly far more naive days! That was an interesting and super expensive fix. And the wood heater all those years ago was replaced at the beginning of winter too just for an added element of err, stress. Oh well, if we’d been more careful with the original wood heater…
The rejects can often be the most interesting of all. And dude, I’ve had some cool friends, some interesting friends, but have never been on the in. 🙂 Ruby wants a bit of special treatment, but also some firm boundaries, and so Sandra and the dog are working out their mutual obligations and it’s all a good step in the right direction.
Vocal tone and body language is very important for the dogs as well. And sometimes a good well timed cuss word is needed to provide proper emphasis. Best not to over use such tools though.
Yes, exactly. It is difficult. I’m thinking that a difference here is that what you and I are doing are hobbies, and people are actively discouraged from such activities in our culture. And I’m not at all certain why that is. If you could somehow convince them that mad cash could be gained…
Everyone learns differently, and for varying reasons. I hear you though about the ‘failure and struggle’ path which incidentally involves getting up off the mat again whilst the ref is counting. In some ways, I quite appreciate the sheer randomness of peoples experiences and paths. However, it is not lost on me that some cultures suggest that wealth rarely lasts for more than three generations in any lineage. Clearly this is not always the case, but as a generalisation it is often more true than not. The unexpected side benefit of the failure and struggle path is that the lessons get drummed in. It would be a completely different experience to be simply told such lessons, don’t you reckon?
Yeah, maybe the grapes do have their own plans! 😉
Thanks, and cheers
Chris
Chris,
Glad my roads experience was helpful.
I’ve seen some photos from the US Civil War circa 1862. Guys were trying to move cannons on a soggy, sodden dirt road during a multiple day rainstorm. Basically, there was no road, just a muddy morass that taxed both horses and men. There’s a reason that the ancients didn’t do much fighting during the wet seasons and winter.
I’ve been on roads with deep ruts. Definitely stay out of the ruts! Else, lose parts from the undercarriage, you know, important things like crank cases, mufflers, petrol tanks.
Dame Avalanche paid some attention to the video. She pays better attention if there’s things like howling wolves or howling huskies. She really paid attention when we were watching a short video of an idiot trying to move a bull buffalo off a road in Yellowstone National Park. He yelled and growled at the buffalo from a distance of less than 3 meters, and the buffalo snorted and charged. Dame Avalanche really perked up for the snorting. She, the Princess and I were all rooting for the buffalo. Buffalo missed the idiot but did dent his car. 🙂
Dame Avalanche caught another mouse. Liberal praise and rewards were lavished on her.
She IS sneaky quick. The sneaky walk by leap licks isn’t her only shenanigan. Her sly nose poke into the whatevers region is lightning fast. I swear that she laughs after those.
We’ve been customers of the same furnace company since we bought the house 28 years ago. My parents had also done business with them. Their “insurance” plan is a great deal for the customer. The company likes it because it gives them a steady source of customers.
I was overhearing your conversation with Inga. You hit on a very good supposition: “There is probably a great deal of beauty in physics when it is not smothered by a materialistic lack of wonder.” I’ve found this to be very true. I’ve been around both materialist physics guys and those who’ve not lost their sense of wonder. The materialists all still had some sense of the beauty of physics, albeit mostly in how the mathematics works. For me, at least, and I saw this in my father and others also, seeing something in nature and also being able to know why it is doing that brought further appreciation of both the event and the physics. Something like Halley’s Comet, the aurora borealis or your aurora australis, shooting stars, I’ve found these to be much more enjoyable once I understood the physics.
Then, of course, some of the physics laws seem to be universal laws in much more than physics. Newton’s 3rd law, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, seems to have applications everywhere, not just in physics. Similarly with Goedel’s Incompleteness Theorems. It can get quite exciting, at least for me.
Ruby might need extra and special treatment forever as a means of her understanding that there is a reason for respecting boundaries. Thordog was like that, to a degree. My guess is that there’s an underlying insecurity there that requires extra attention to assuage.
Ah, yes, hobbies. Doing something for the enjoyment it brings. With carving and pyrography, it’s the process that’s important. I built a few radios from kits when in my teens. Again, the process, the thinking, the concentration are what’s important. The result follows from the process. But people no longer want to do the process, they just want the end result. A PERFECT end result. I’m also finding that I enjoy the process better when I understand that my carving project is telling a story.
What is wealth? A great stock portfolio? It can vanish. Knowledge about how to garden, tell stories, brew beer, repair radios? A lot to be said for that idea. Stuff is stuff. Skills and abilities can be traded for stuff.
Of course grapes have their own plans! Heck, any piece of wood that I’m carving has its own ideas. I was just working on another flat pumpkin rough out. The wood where the pumpkin stem was (key word WAS) well, that was different texture than the rest of the wood and broke right off the pumpkin with one gentle nudge with the knife. Gone, just like that. So now I have to decide what it is going to be, but it won’t be a pumpkin. Hmmm, if I dimple and paint it right, it might become the lemon in a knife fight. 😉
DJSpo
Hi DJ,
That makes a whole lot of sense, and incidentally you sent me off on an interweb rabbit hole ending in the notorious 1863 Mud March. That campaign all seemed rather ambitious and ego driven to me, which I guess was why the big kahoona responsible for that debacle was replaced. It was hard not to notice that the replacement for the replacement, was also quietly pushed aside. Thanks for mentioning the artworks and although I’d not come across a photo, there were some drawings of those campaigns which made for uncomfortable viewing. Very foolish.
Dude, deep ruts on dirt roads is a hard way to discover that all those vehicle parts you mentioned, may not be as robust as the hapless driver possibly believed them to be. Sump plugs and differential casings are also worthy notes! 😉
Howling huskies are talking Dame Avalanche’s language. Why would anyone attempt suicide by trying to move a large bull Buffalo? And candidly, err, bears and wolves in that park should also be treated with great respect. The Buffalo was clearly letting the tourist survive as a warning to fellow tourists about what could happen. In this particular case, the tourist should perhaps look upon the dent as a souvenir?
Ollie can chase off a herd of Sambar deer all he likes, but a bull kangaroo standing his ground and in fighting stance (about eight foot tall I reckon) is not to be trifled with. I remarked to you last week that I advised the dog that there was no support from me in this matter. And wisely Ollie backed down, and learned a valuable lesson, which is that: Not all fights should be fought. I just made that up, but it does sound like something which may have been said in the 1970’s series Kung Fu. How good was that show? It gave me the idea to take myself to the local Dojo when that became necessary.
Go Dame Avalanche! This is why she is titled. And the mice have to take her seriously. And you are also taking Dame Avalanche seriously. 🙂 Far out, thanks for the laughs. Ollie is likewise sneaky with his nose with people he likes, and I now warn visitors who wish to interact with him.
It’s a good business model, and one I likewise follow. As I explained to someone three weeks ago who did me wrong, it’s called a relationship. Hmm. On a serious note, with your lot, the installations of those furnace units would be like the cream, but the regular check ups keep the lights on and pay the rent for the business. I’m impressed, and those sorts of arrangements are becoming rarer, don’t you reckon? It’s what you aim for if you want longevity for a business.
Ah, thanks. You have the soul of a poet, and the mind of a physicist, so it is high praise indeed that you’d noticed those words. I know what you mean about people seeing beauty in mathematics, and quietly, just between you and I, Sandra has a knack for mathematics which simply baffles me. But I can respect the gift, and also appreciate the differing world-view.
I like the way you look at natural phenomena and derive meaning from the comprehension as to what is going on. I hear you. I’ll tell you a little story about Sir Scruffy. When he got to be a really old fella, and struggled getting up and down the stairs, I’d carry him outside on cold winter nights so that he could do his business before settling in for the night. The winter night skies are clear and dark despite the high humidity. And Sir Scruffy and I would look at all the stars. You could see the band of the milky way, and of course the blob of cloudy light which is the Andromeda galaxy. The dog and I would look up into the dark and marvel at the display. We’d watch for shooting stars, which are remarkably common when light pollution is elsewhere.
Did you see that one, mate?
Yeah, it was pretty cool wasn’t it?
I might put you on the ground now, you’re getting heavy.
Thanks Chris. Are you feeling cold?
Nah man. How about you?
Yeah, I’m feeling cold and might head inside if you don’t mind.
He was a smart dog, and we both enjoyed the mystery which is nature.
Ha! Sun Tzu would comprehend Newton’s third law for sure. 🙂 Oh wow, my mind is now blown. I’d not encountered Goedel’s Incompleteness Theorem, but when Einstein is handing out awards for such work, well, the facts speak for themselves. Another interweb rabbit hole! Thanks. 🙂 Gödel is perhaps raising the spectre that limits are powerful and freeing, and sometimes faith is required when knowing can never be reached. I reckon the bloke is a realist.
I agree, Ruby needs exactly that, and will in turn accept limits. It’s been fascinating watching this story play out. It does look like insecurity, doesn’t it.
Well done, and I did similar things as a kid. Why not build your own radio? And hey, I recall constructing a wide band AM radio which had amazing sound quality, and got me wondering about why they all weren’t constructed that way. AM radio usually sounds bad. It gets the old brain working, yeah. And oh yeah, a perfect result. The dissatisfaction I’ve heard expressed from people about construction work done by trades is embarrassing. A pivotal memory for me was when living in the big smoke. One morning found me walking to work in the city as was my wont. I walked passed a swish Victorian era house which was being worked upon, and observed a lady berating a couple of blokes: ‘something, something (I didn’t quite hear) tiles’. And amazingly, the blokes were ignoring her and getting on with the work, but you could feel the tension. I felt that any minor flaws with the tiles probably didn’t matter all that much. But I’ve seen people doing and saying things over the years. I dunno man, I don’t treat people that way.
Of course, your materials and work are all stories. We live in a world of stories.
That’s a good question and my views are similar. Purpose and hobbies are valuable things. I do wonder if hobbies are at a disadvantage because of what you mentioned about people wanting a finished product? Dunno. Hmm.
Bummer! But that lemon in a knife fight work (hope you can get a werewolf in there somewhere?) is just asking to be done. 🙂
Began another section of the low gradient path today leading up to what is a formerly rat infested shed, but will soon be materials storage racking. The sun shone strongly but the air was fairly cool at about 25’C. A nice day to be outside working. Might have to make some larger rocks though… Sunday through Tuesday will be hot, then the rains will return.
Cheers
Chris
Hello Chris
The division in my worlds has only come with old age and poorer sleeping. I have always had a strange relationship with trees since I first lived surrounded by them from the age of 7 – 9 inclusive. Later in my teens I used to go into the country to sleep out under trees. This concerned my mother a lot but I was actually very good at caring for my safety.
Don’t know when I’ll get the book as I couldn’t get into town this week. Son had a job that he couldn’t leave.
Inge
Hi, Chris!
Re #2: Bureacracy reigns, in regards to dirt roads. Our neighborhood road has been around about 150 years. I suspect that they did not use gravel back then, perhaps there was a bit of couduroy road; we have done that occasionally on our property, having the logs to do so. Anyway, I’m not in a mood to sook.
Ha! Do I have rocks for the “dragons” . . .
Yeah – “reform” school was my first thought. And poodles make fine friends.
This is not generally a good time to buy property, which is why we are waiting – and watching.
I am thinking that partly your grandfather could get away with the swagger because he had some wealth behind him? That would have given him rather a better sense of security.
But Wodehouse pokes such merciless (and humorous) fun at the toffs that we all know that their “win” may not be what it appears, as his following book with the same characters always proves.
Look at those messmate flowers! I can’t even imagine the wonderful honey scent.
“The machines must have used a phenomenal quantity of timber “: That’s the first thing that I thought of, what a lot of wood that would use. We use enough just heating our home.
Elderberry flowers do stink, don’t they? I did not know that chilli plants could live that long. We’ve only grown them outside, though I always start them – as I am about to do – inside.
Thanks for the flowers, including the ginger. They smell like ginger don’t they? We grew some once.
Pam
Chris:
I was just out in the upper garden. I had moved the elderberries a short distance from there when we moved the whole garden downslope last year. A couple of evenings ago I had helped my son extract Mr. Diggy (aka Tractorzilla) from where Mr. Diggy had gotten stuck on the edge of a big pit back there. All is well with Mr. Diggy, but – alas – my elderberries (dormant right now) are under where his huge tractor wheels were spinning.
Pam
Chris,
Yes, twas the 1863 Mud March I was talking about. Hmmm, maybehaps it was just some drawings I’ve seen of that. I’m glad I wasn’t one of the poor dudes mucking around in it!
There are some locations that make one think that car parts are part of the wilderness. Hubcaps, sump plugs and differential casings can be found in abundance at some locations.
Visitors to Yellowstone get beyond stupid. People try to pet the buffalo. In this instance, the guy got impatient waiting for the buffalo to get out of the road. There were a lot of stopped cars both directions due to the buffalo in the road. He went beyond stupid and was lucky not to get gored and/or trampled.
People also get really dumb about the elk at Yellowstone. They don’t understand how elk protect their young, so will see a baby elk and think it was abandoned, so people have loaded baby elk into their cars and taken them to the park rangers. The elk will not take the youngster back. Also, they will try to get the attention of bull elk, which is a questionable thing at any time, but during their mating season? Ha, the elk can do a 3 meter vertical jump. They have attacked antagonizing people even when the people were outdoors eating breakfast at the resort within the park. We don’t really need to talk about the inherent dangers of befriending bear cubs and trying to pet wolves, do we?
Ah good one! “Not all fights should be fought.” Well said. I’ve got a more generalized version that I’ve often said aloud in certain situations: “Just because you can do something doesn’t mean that you should do it.”
That furnace company has been operating in Spokane since 1924! They seem to know how to have solid relationships with their customers. Also, many of their employees spend decades working for them.
“You have the soul of a poet, and the mind of a physicist.” Thank you. I view that statement as a big compliment. Thanks. I’m very grateful that I can explore both worlds, the mathematical and the poetic/artistic.
Thanks for the story about Sir Scruffy. Not all dogs even bother to look up unless something startles them. Good on Sir Scruffy for having a different attitude! Often during my morning coffee in nature, Dame Avalanche likes to just sit there. Sit and just be there with papa. You’ve got good memories built up around Sir Scruffy, so I’m trying to learn from that and pay extra attention to those times with Dame Avalanche.
Yes, you’ve hit upon what I think is a major point of Goedel’s Theorems – the freedom that comes from limits. The Incompleteness Theorems are sneaky about that. Logic has its limits, as it can’t know everything. On the flip side, faith has limits, in that everything might be explained, but much can’t be proven. I’ve learned/am learning to try to find balance between the two. Life is so much more enjoyable in the overlapping parts.
I’ve long not understood the attitude of yelling at staff or contractors or salesclerks or whoever. It does little or no good, but often makes the situation worse. It takes a lot less energy to have calm conversations when they become necessary.
I think the desire for the finished project is related to ignoring the “faith” side of the equation. As you find breaking rocks to be meditative, my wood carving and pyrography can approach being meditative. It takes concentration, effort, and the willingness to make mistakes. There’s no easy way, no shortcuts if you want to do it yourself. And people don’t want to do that, or look at the stars, or listen to the birds. I enjoyed listening to the rain on the patio roof while drinking this morning’s coffee. It was very relaxing.
We had a wintry mix – snow, rain and whatever – for several hours today. It was one of those days that felt cold to me at +3C. 25C with sun sounds good right now. 🙂
DJSpo
Hi Inge,
I’d heard that ageing can affect sleep. Although truthfully, it is a subject which is rarely discussed, although I have no idea why this may be. Sleep is important to me. Acceptance is a knack I’ve learned via the school of hard knocks. From our long discussions over the years I get the impression that you have lead an interesting life. Respect.
The worlds have always been porous, it’s just that most people are trained to look to elsewhere, and oft-times that is to their advantage. Civilisation would not look the way it does without those benefits don’t you reckon? Like your experience, my grandfather and his WWII drinking buddies took me out to the bush in a rough camp by a remote alpine river, and I ran wild. It’s your wits that get employed keeping you safe in such an environment, and sometimes the forest accepts a kindred spirit. But I can move and interact in a city as well, it’s just not where the heart is.
Well, work does intrude, and has to be done. You should see how long things take to arrive here at the very bottom of the planet! 🙂
I must say, thanks very much for your introduction to the not a yes man economics blog. The authors dry wit resonates.
Another cool and sunny summers day today. The next four days are going to warm up! Monday or Tuesday look set to reach 100’F.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Pam,
Oh no! Garden destruction can occur quickly, and sometimes without warning. Although the large tyres that a backhoe (AKA Mr Diggy / Tractorzilla) utilises have been known to smoosh, or squoosh plants (it is candidly difficult to know which word describes the worse outcome). Fortunately, elderberry shrubs grow like weeds here. Hopefully this is the same in your part of the world? The timing for the smooshing / squooshing of those plants is actually pretty good. I’ve found a semi-hardwood chunk from those plants stuck into fertile ground will happily take. I won’t mention that given how much the parrots enjoy those berries, little elderberry shrubs seem to be turning up in all sorts of unexpected locations. Oops, broke my own rule there and probably shouldn’t have mentioned that… 😉
Good to hear that Mr Diggy is now on safe ground. Hopefully the backhoe bucket was used to clean up the mess the machine made?
The hamlet here has been around for a similar amount of time. For your interest, the population in this area has waxed and waned over that time. Is that the case in your part of the world? One particularly dry period of time almost wiped out all but the hardiest of souls up here in this part of the mountain range. Drinking water was a problem, but crops failed and also the lack of water meant that remote timber mills had no water to operate their boilers for the saws. Hmm.
Your rocks sound like they’ll be put to good use with those dragons. Do you reckon the rocks will moderate the winter temperatures experienced by the snapdragons?
Ruby is rapidly getting with the program, and frankly speaking, the poodle seems more excited at the prospect of a kelpie friend than does the owner of said dog. The wilful dog will be fine, and is already better behaved. Dunno, maybe all she wanted was to be more special than the other two dogs?
That’s true, my grandfather had both wealth and status, but he also had a real knack with directing and commanding people. I’d posit the opinion that unlike many of our leaders today, he didn’t appear to be self-serving even when he was looking after his own interests. He brought the people around him along for the ride by sheer force of personality. He was old-school in that regard. Dunno. He was thrust into WWII at such a young age, and then put into a make-or-break position of authority on many occasions, which he survived. I suspect it changed him in all sorts of subtle ways – as does many life experiences. You know, I think he was mostly fearless. Towards the end he didn’t fear death, I just got the impression from what he told me, that he wouldn’t have liked that state very much. You know what his fear actually was? Retirement. Go figure that one. I’d be happy to retire, I just can’t afford that. A truly interesting bloke.
That is absolutely true about Wodehouse’s fictional world. Bertie was an idiot with good intentions and deep pockets, whilst Jeeves was the real hero of the stories. Thanks for the correction. I have a stack of Wodehouse books which I’m slowly working my way through. For my birthday last year, Sandra bought me a collection of about a dozen second hand of the authors books. The books are surprisingly expensive.
If you’ve ever smelled an active hive, that is pretty much what the farm currently smells like. The cars have a layer of pollen on them like yellow dust. Not an experience hay-fever sufferers would want to encounter.
We use just enough timber to heat the home all year around. The forest grows much faster than any amount of timber that we could ever use.
Yes, elderberry flowers do not smell all that pleasant. Although bizarrely, they make an excellent tasting cordial or wine. We made the error of planting one too close to the kitchen…
Your chilli plants could be grown in pots, and brought inside before the cold winter weather hits. Trust me, they will then get off to a very early start and you’ll get a bumper crop. What’s not to like about that? Word on the street is (not my experience) is that they’ll live for fifteen years, but produce best for the first six or seven years.
Hmm, the Japanese ginger tastes like ginger to me, but with a mild onion-ish after taste. The true ginger tubers have not even produced a single stem this year – even when they are in the greenhouse. So, my thinking is that I’ll ignore the mild onion-ish after taste and stick with what works.
Do you grow proper ginger tubers?
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Who knows? But the print I came across of the infamous Mud March might even have been one of those old wood carving prints used back in the day in the printing process. It was like a very detailed line drawing. And I’m so with you. The troopers had long coats drawn about them and it looked as though the wind was howling. Cracking the sads was probably not an option in those circumstances, and so a sullen work-to-rule may have been the best approach. It was a stupid waste of energy and morale to pursue goals in those sorts of conditions – which is probably why we can read about it today. Reading of Napoleon’s retreat from the failed north east campaign left a strong impression that even the best of leaders can make serious blunders.
Hehe! All true. I’m in a rural area and have noticed that collecting such parts and no-longer-running vehicles can also be something of a hobby. Is it a dirt road thing? Maybe. 🙂 Perhaps it may be surmised that some locations simply attract car parts? When we bought the block we had to remove the remains of a very old vehicle dating maybe from the late 1940’s. Being scrap metal, the local tip would take the metal for free. Hauling the burned remains of the car away was a big job. The car had been clearly burned out in the 1983 bushfires. Even today, sometimes that soil will eject little chunks of glass from the smashed windscreen. I’m sure archaeologists far into the future may still be unearthing mysterious objects from that vehicle’s remains.
It’s not just Yellowstone. I’d have to suggest that such actions are hard wired into our peers. I’ve been up north of this country and there are signs at most waterways advising people to be wary of entering the water. The signs display text as well as an horrific looking man eating crocodile – sharp teeth and all. But do people listen or heed the warning? Yes, mostly they do. Except I saw one old dude just happily wading into waters with such a sign nearby. The guy was probably fine, but I didn’t hang around to find out on the basis that you cannot un-see some things. And there were less crocs in those days.
And I recall as a younger bloke competing in a mini-triathalon where beforehand serious people (err, the officials) were discussing the sighting of a bull shark near to the swim only a few hours earlier. Talk about being put off your best game! 🙂 The general vibe was that it was only a bull shark and so most of the time they’re OK, maybe. I eventually stopped competing because of an incompatible risk assessment. The final straw for me was sending everyone out for an ocean swim in massive surf. It was like the Perfect Storm! One second you’d be lifted way into the air by huge rollers. The next you’d get smashed on the sand under the water. It was stupid of me to think that swim would have been OK when they said so. I should have simply walked away.
Those are some fine examples of what not to do when encountering other species which may have different opinions as to where humans sit on the scale of might is right! The thing is, I suspect that the people doing all those unwise activities have no relationship with the natural world. It’s taken me probably fifteen years to develop a good relationship with the family of magpies living here. They’re wild birds and we have worked out a way to co-exist. Can you imagine the extraordinary societal effort required to learn and maintain that level of interaction with all of the major species in a local eco-system? It’s an astounding task, and yet it was done long ago as a survival strategy. In some ways it kind of reminds me of the individual story of plant varieties. If you want to grow them and harvest the production, you have to comprehend the story of the plant from the beginning to the end, and in all manner of seasons. It’s an extraordinary effort to undertake.
Oh that’s good too. Yes, doing nothing is sometimes the path to wisdom.
I agree. Longevity and low staff turnover is a sign of a very well run business. Admittedly, nowadays it has become very common for people to jump from one job to another. This was frowned upon when I was a young bloke, but as decline continues apace, it’s becoming more the norm.
It’s a bit like recycling really. If we as a society were really serious about recycling materials, the general arrangements would look very different. Just take packaging for one example. There would be standardisation in the materials used, and they’d be durable enough to be washed and re-used. The old story of a job for life, well I did hear it spoken about when I was a very young bloke.
Thank you. I appreciate your world-view.
Dame Avalanche is a fast learner if she is just quietly sitting with you. Wow, that’s young too. Do they run the obedience classes during the winter months? And yes, those are the good times. Ollie will now sit with me whilst I work around property, or at least stick nearby whilst investigating a choice wombat nugget.
He was lolling around the orchard today in the sun as I brush-cut the grass away from the trees in the citrus orchard. I’m uncertain that the large dog enjoyed the smell from me distributing several wheelbarrow loads of coffee grounds + wood ash + Calcium Carbonate mixture around the orchard. Not a subtle smell as you may imagine!
Also I cracked the sads today! All of the strawberry runners were removed from the grape enclosure. I used a combination of mower and brush cutter to turn the whole lot of them into mulch and soil feed. Hey, the way-back machine folks (!) would perhaps appreciate my new preference for the Alpine strawberry varieties. I’m grappling with the possible reality that: a) the soil was too well fed and the hybrid plants ended up producing more plants and no berries; and b) I can not face replacing all of the hybrid strawberry plants every season or two. The hybrid strawberries everyone wants, just don’t work with my gardening style.
You know how you mentioned focus a few days ago? Well, I reckon acceptance of limits reduces the options and allows for increased attention upon the remaining choices. When I was a kid, people seriously said to me that: I could do anything. Compared to what I was observing of them, it seemed like a lie, or at the very least a false-belief. But it’s a good way to get lost doing nothing.
I agree, and the sound of the rain falling on the patio roof would have been delightful.
Your weather = Horrid! You can quote me there. Hehe! 22’C and sunny today. Mind you, Monday is forecast to reach 37’C with a warm overnight… Still, I’ve experienced much hotter weather here and mustn’t grumble as it has been a cool and rainy growing season.
Cheers
Chris
Chris:
It was too risky to clean up Mr. Diggy’s mess on the edge of the Big Pit. We’re lucky he didn’t slide into it.
No – our hamlet has only waxed since it was settled by freed slaves all those years ago. Luckily, there are now local government-set limits on the size of properties up here. I’m not sure why, but it means that no-one can build on properties of less than 5 acres (2 hectares). The properties around us range from 5 acres (us) up to 400 acres.
I have noticed that rocks do seem to moderate winter temps. Also, it appears to me that leaving hardy green winter growth around some of my crops (ie: weeds) seems to moderate it some, too. I had no mulch and no time to place it, anyway, last fall. I am sure that would have been best.
Ah! Ruby thinks that going to reform school makes her special! She’s a funny girl.
Actually, for all his faults, we need more men like your grandfather. Chris! Ye shall not retire! It would be the death of you. I have seen it happen so many times.
How odd. Our second-hand Wodehouse books, even the hardcovers, are quite cheap.
Where is the indoor winter space for chilli plants? We are full up with baby fig trees! It’s the greenhouse that we need.
I only tried to grow ginger once and it had to be outside. Our growing season was way too short for it.
Pam
Hello Chris
As with your blog, I enjoy the comments in ‘notayesman’. these are the only 2 blogs that I read at present. I tend to give up on others after a while.
Have had my mind blown by an obituary that has been written for my sister by someone on facebook. I knew that my sister was a fantasist but the stuff that she told this person is unbelievable. It was my elder daughter who saw it and told me. She didn’t know what to do. I encouraged her to go in and deal with the worst of it, she has done this. I don’t touch facebook.
Do you know how Lew is?
Inge
Chris,
I have driven by rural properties on gravel roads that use hubcaps for fence decorations. Yup, the bumps and washboards and ruts knock off the hubcaps. The property owners place them on the fence so the lost cars can find them. Turns into a decoration project instead.
Maybe the guy wading into “Lake Crocodile” thought he was tough. Maybe he thought he could outdo Crocodile Dundee. All I know is that I pay attention to my surroundings, read any and all available signs, do what the signs say. The signs are there for a reason. But, well, many people are unobservant, won’t read, think they’re above the rules, or think that they have no limits and can easily defeat a wild creature. During the days when I would float a kayak through local whitewater, I knew my limits. If I flipped over, my kayak roll was not the best. Therefore, there is a 3km stretch of river exactly below where my parents lived in which I never kayaked. Much further upstream, there was a Class 3 rapids that I could handle at low to slightly moderate river flows. Above a certain river flow rate, and I didn’t get in the river. Limitations. Water is POWERFUL. You’re fortunate to have survived that swimming storm.
Standardization among various manufacturers makes too much sense. It is one of those things that should be done but isn’t. Do you remember the days when manufacturers bragged about how long their machines lasted and that they rarely needed repairing?
Yup, they run obedience classes year-round. When I took Thor to class, it was in a large house with a large yard. Lessons were mostly indoors, but there was some outdoor work. The owners retired, the new owners quickly deciding that the dogs weren’t learning properly because the dogs all thought class was for socializing. That wasn’t the case when Thor was there: it was for schooling. Classes were 6 weeks for 2 hours per session. Now there are 4 sessions of 90 minutes, all indoors, in a relatively small building. And the first session is only for humans. The old format worked much better.
My parents had both the hybrid and the alpine strawberries. After a few years, they only had alpine strawberries, for much the same reasons that you are moving that direction.
I remember being told, repeatedly, that I could do anything. So what did I do? Nothing, due to paralysis over too many choices. 😉 Well, not quite, but it didn’t take too long for me to realize there were many things I couldn’t do: I never had the athletic ability or the drive to excel in sports; I still can’t draw, so that limited creative options. Being part of the outside groups meant that I couldn’t shmooze and mesmerize, so being a politician was out. Etc.
Yes, Thursday’s weather was rather horrid. I’ve been in much worse, but the description is apt for Thursday’s weather. Friday actually had some sun breaks. It is very nicely clear Friday night. I go outside and the winter constellations are all brilliant.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Ah, all is now explained. I’d missed the significance of the big pit. Not somewhere you’d want to end up. If it’s not a long story, how do you even get a big pit when on the side of a hill? And yes, your son was very lucky to have avoided that fate. Ever thought about filling in the big pit?
A small holding is perhaps not for everyone. After WWI, the government offered up land for returning soldiers. A lot of land was cleared, and then along came the drought just prior to the Great Depression. A lot of that land was then abandoned. Up this way there used to be mills, potato and berry farms, but the last timber cleared was a few years ago in a softwood plantation and the logs were processed far away in the land of elsewhere. After all the hoopla dies down, I do wonder what will remain. And I dunno about your experiences but making land productive is a complicated business, and certainly one of the most difficult activities I’ve ever put my brain towards.
They set a minimum limit of 20 acres here, but some blocks are up to 300 acres. So, same, same. To be able to subdivide you have to have over 100 acres. They officially talk hectares here, but people comprehend what an acre means.
Hey I’ve noticed that as well. During winter months I’ll chuck in a photo of thickly planted raised leafy greens garden beds with frost and I’m of the belief that just like what you wrote, the dense plantings keep themselves warmer than they’d otherwise be.
I dunno about mulch. It seems to attract frost in some way I’ve never really completely understood. Maybe if compost was mixed into the mulch, the bacterial action would keep the soil warmer, but I just don’t know.
Ruby is shortly to be returning to reform school. We’re also taking her out and about now regularly in order to socialise her. The dog lives in a bubble, and that’s not the world as it is. Kind of like introducing her to polite society in the vague hope that she doesn’t mess things up too badly! 🙂 You can only but hope.
I agree. My grandfather was both a shark and a person whom kept the big picture and the others around him foremost in his plans and actions. Our leaders these days by contrast have forgotten to lift all boats mostly because the returns are declining and they just want more for themselves. Sadly economics forces me to continue working, and I’m cool with that. This is what I’m here for.
Ha! This is perhaps a business opportunity for you? Wodehouse books are bizarrely expensive down here. Although freight costs and small market may be the answer.
Sorry, yes the fig trees should take precedence. Something, something, keeping the lights on and food upon the table. 🙂
It’s too cold here for ginger as well, even in the greenhouse. The tubers survive. But the question then becomes: Is surviving, thriving? Dunno.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Inge,
🙂 The comments are where all the action takes place. The regular essay could be viewed from certain perspectives as a vehicle for which we can explore larger ideas – and swap news from afar with interesting people.
There aren’t all that many places on the interweb where I sally forth either. My time is unfortunately limited. Did you know we’re coming up to almost ten years of regular weekly blogs and chats?
Inge, it’s not just your brain which is now blown. I was unaware of the concept of a fantasist. And why would there be an obituary on facebok? Hmm. Well that is an intriguing world view and sometimes I don’t keep up with current standards of etiquette. As a comparative, it does makes sense to me to dream of a desired outcome, but I’m a very practical person whom sticks to desires which can be converted into actions. This is perhaps an unpalatable perspective though? I’m not joking around, but when I was a child, adults used to lie to me by saying that: ‘I could do anything’. That statement was patently untrue, and yet they continued to say it. It’s not hard to see where such talk is being used in society these days.
Like you, I avoid facebok and do not even have an account for that thing.
As a distraction, I thought you may enjoy the obituary I penned for my old mate who died a few years ago. It’s a fave essay of mine. He was a serious character: Can I be forgiven?
Lewis is out of action at the moment. I have it on very good authority, and also with his approval, to mention that he is busy re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Frankly speaking, I’m uncertain what this means, but you have to admit, it paints a vivid picture. I hope he’s doing OK.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
It’s very thoughtful of the landowners to leave peoples inadvertently discarded rubbish in prominently displayed locations so that they can reclaim the stuff should they so require. 🙂 It’s not just the landowners by the way, I’m likewise intrigued that hubcaps could simply hang onto a steel wheel by the force of tension. That is of course, until the force of tension is countered by a sudden and much greater buffet of energy delivered from impacting upon a pothole. Physics and hubcaps. But yes, it is a form of decoration.
Incidentally, in many rural areas it used to be quite the done thing to hang foxes and/or rabbit carcasses from fences along country roads. It always seemed a bit wasteful to me given the bodies would boost compost, especially given the bones etc. But it used to be the done thing. I don’t mind the foxes because they hunt the rabbits and keep their population down, otherwise the dogs and I would have to do that task.
Times sure have changed though, and in some areas I see quite a lot of rabbits nowadays. Do you have rabbits in your part of the world?
It is hard to know what the guy wading into the crocodile infested waters was thinking. Motivations can be a very murky world to explore. But like you, I tend to pay attention to my surroundings. People’s appetite for taking on risks is always a always on a continuum too, and sometimes you have to learn the hard way. I’m wary of confronting wild creatures, or wild people for that matter on the basis that the outcome may not be predicted in advance. Of course there are plenty of situations where there is little to no control, but with activities my view is to consider likely worst case scenario, then just do my best. Like what you wrote about the kayaking and not pushing past your experience and limits. And sometimes unfortunately you have to go beyond, or are forced by circumstances to do so. Candidly, I learned that lesson the hard way in my first senior role. Man, did they see me coming or what? I reckon I ended up doing two jobs for the price of one. Like those rapids you wrote about, water is powerful and sometimes you can be swept away. Wise not to lose sight of the shore.
Hehe! My point exactly. If we were really serious about the future, the everyday arrangements would look very different. And standardised manufacturing would be one of those things. Need I mention that manufacturing would be far more geographically distributed than it is today? The folks who make the inverters I use, use that exact claim. And so far it seems to be holding up. One machine has been in constant use for fifteen years now, although it is nearing time I replaced all the electrolytic capacitors and gave it all a very thorough clean. They’re ceasing manufacturing in three and a half months.
4 sessions is a bit err, short for dog training in my opinion as well. Ruby is in for 11 sessions, and they’re all outdoors. It doesn’t seem like a business, but more of a club – very properly run if I may say so. I agree, dogs need more time, and also time out for socialising, from training.
I agree, you learn quickly that there are many more things that you are unable to do, than things which you can do! 🙂 It’s true, and it always baffled me that adults told me that story, with a sort of sense of derision that my options were somehow better than theirs. That was the adults ‘get out of jail’ card with that story, I guess. I dunno, the claim didn’t pass what they’d describe as the pub test. You may not be able to draw, but you can carve, and I know which art form will be around for longer!
And that’s funny! Nice one. Hey, try sharing candid opinions with superiors who don’t want to hear them. Oh yeah, you did that as well. 😉 It happens…
Well, the term horrid does work for that sort of weather. The sun shone with a bit more warmth today. 27’C. Had the day off any work, although I did bake a batch of biscuits this morning. Went to a local cidery and enjoyed a pint of their finest (which is very good) and shared a plate of nachos. There was a food coma this afternoon – only to be expected under the cheesy corn chip circumstances. All up, a very pleasant day. Good to read that you are beginning to feel some warmth from that big fusion reactor in the sky. Spring is fast approaching for you. Any plans for the vegie patch this season?
Cheers
Chris
Hello Chris
‘Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic’ sounds worrying to me.
I had read your friend’s obituary at the time but forgotten it since.
My sister communicated with people on the internet who never met her. It seems to have been an outlet for her imaginary life. This includes a sister lost in early life! That is me! Also life in a Polish orphanage etc. etc. The whole thing is incredible and I wonder what else will surface.
Inge
Chris:
The Big Pit was dug by a fellow with a very large powerful machine (which later turned over with him in it on the side of our hill, but that’s another story) when we were clearing a bit of the property to build our house. It’s only about 100 ft (30m) behind the house and we threw lots of tree debris and other stuff into it while building, and for over 30 years since. It’s pretty full, partly because soil has washed down into it, too. All kinds of wildlife, including a pesky groundhog, live in it, burrowing into the sides. Birds live in it, also. So, it has been left as is. You can imagine how captivated by it my two small sons were back in the day. Also my neighbor’s beagle; we had to haul Henry out of it more than once.
Anyhow, there are still edges of it that are somewhat treacherous, and the road to the back of the property is a little too close to it. Was too close to it. The road has now been moved further away.
I feel that one can survive and thrive. Or is that thrive and survive . . .
Pam
Hi Inge,
The words sounded worrying to me as well. Life is rarely smooth and invariably tragic.
As an interesting side note, I re-read the obituary last evening. It was hard not to notice that there were some aspects of the grammar and style that I’d change if the same story was penned today. Learning never seems to stop.
Please accept my apologies, but I’m confused. How do you have a sister in an entirely different country? And an orphanage to boot.
At my father in laws funeral, a eulogy was read which I felt distorted certain facts which put him in a more favourable light. What was weird about that, was that he’d told me an entirely different story about those exact same matters. Which was true? Who knows. I didn’t like the guy because he’d said some rather ungentlemanly things about me, which I immediately put the stomp upon. There was no end of mischief to that guy.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Pam,
I ain’t arguing with you. The big pit would be like total pure 100% catmint, but for kids. The mysteries to be found in such an exciting environment would perhaps be greater than you or I could ever know. Beagles have been known to pursue scents beyond the point of diminishing returns. I’m wary of such dogs, although the one’s I’ve met have been quite lovely – until they discover a scent, and take off after it.
Sorry to say, but turning over all that soil would just make life easier for your pesky groundhog. Please do keep them in your part of the world. 🙂 The rats here can tunnel well enough if they put their minds and bodies to the task.
But turning over a large machine is not something I have ever experienced. Fingers crossed this state of affairs continues. I’d spoken to people where this has actually happened, and they told me that they often use the boom arm on the machines to right themselves back up again. I lack such skills.
In fact at one point I was gifted a 4 tonne excavator by a local to use as needed, but the centre of gravity was so high that it just felt unsafe. I’d probably still feel the same way today.
Good to hear that the road has now been moved away from the super pit. Vehicles were never intended to explore the depths of that dark abode! 😉 Anyway, that’s the theory. And there are times we all dream of flat land.
That’s the plan anyway. Life intrudes upon plans, and all we can ever only do is our best.
Cheers and better get writing!
Chris
Hello Chris
Of course I didn’t have a sister in a different country (until she went to the US in adulthood) or in an orphanage. This is just part of the fantasy that she pedalled around the world. Her second husband believed it all as well. There is way, way more to her fantasy story. I don’t understand why she had to do it when are actual lives were quite interesting.
Hurrah! The sun is shining today.
Inge