A mate of mine was talking to me recently about a health issue he was dealing with. I don’t really know what is normal for conversations like that, and it’s rare for me even to talk about my own health matters with anyone. Basically, I’m happy to be alive, and as everyone knows, the facts suggest that nature eventually has the final say in the matter. But it is hard not to notice that as you get older, people have these kinds of unsolicited conversations with you about their health.
With my friend, I knew what he had to do to correct the health matter, but I could also see within him a resistance to the changes required to improve the situation. My best guess was that he thought he knew better, and that may be so, after all he’s got greater educational standing than I. A few years ago I learned the hard way that people interpret the provision of unsolicited advice as a sign of porous inter personal boundaries. In simple English, by doing so, you can be equally interpreted as a ‘pain in the rear’, but also a ‘sucker’. Most uncool. So, with that bit of knowledge in the forefront of my mind I simply remarked to my mate: “You don’t know as much about food as you think you do.” A real Mr Miyagi statement which says a lot, but doesn’t say much at all.
It’s kind of hard to have a good repository of life lessons when you grow up in a house where the only adult has some mental health issues. There were times when you’re the child, but were required to be the adult. Other households probably teach their kids how to navigate life’s difficulties through good example, maybe? I dunno. I didn’t get that experience. Sometimes, I just have to learn life’s lessons – the hard way. And providing unsolicited advice, no matter how useful or greatly needed, seems to reliably blow up on you. Oh yeah!
A dude simply does the best he can in trying circumstances. Anyway, one of the tools I’ve begun employing over the past few years when facing new or difficult situations, is that of asking the hard question: What do I really know about this subject matter? It can be a safe bet that if the question is being asked, then the answer may well be: Probably not all that much! And it’s true.
If I’ve learned anything useful over the past few years, it’s that admitting when you don’t know as much as you think you do about a subject, is the beginning of what the old timers used to call: An open mind. I’ve observed, and also heard, that those beasts in the wild are threatened with extinction these days.
Long term readers will recall the disaster a few years ago when the $15,000 of LiFePO4 house batteries were having some serious troubles. The battery terminals (that’s the bit where the wires connect into the batteries) were running hot. Very hot. Hot enough to begin melting the plastic battery cases. This was not a sustainable situation, and they were way too expensive to simply write off. So I asked myself the hard question: What do I really know about these batteries? You already know the answer…
One of the best things about the interweb, is that there people with special interests who are happy to research and discuss the most amazing and intricate details about their particular interest. Solar power seems to attract such people, and thank Gawd for them! For months I took a deep dive into the technology with these lovely people, and now know far more on the subject than any normal person ever should. But with the knowledge, we were also able to fix the underlying problems with the expensive batteries. The cases and designs were modified, and they now work a treat.
Alert readers will recall the many upgrades and maintenance with the power system done over the past year or so, well those were the result of the deep dive. Whenever nice people talk to me about large scale batteries, and electric this and that, and how wonderful the future will all be, I do wonder: How much do you really know about this stuff? My gut feeling suggests that the answer is probably not that all much, otherwise they might not sound so cheery! Anyway, I avoid such arguments by merely mumbling reassuring noises.
For the past week there’s been a perplexing problem here. European wasps (aka Yellowjackets) have been loitering around a particular willow tree. The tree variety is a Salix alba ‘Caerulea’ (cricket-bat willow). Here’s a wasp on one of the leaves:
It was a bit scary taking that photo, but the wasps seemed more interested in the tree leaves than my good self as a source of protein. Here’s the tree itself:
Initially, I’d believed that the wasps had a nest nearby to the willow tree. My previous experience with the insects was that they live in underground nests. You can see in the above image that I’d cut back all of the vegetation around the tree, yet discovered no nest opening. It was something of a mystery.
At moments of uncertainty and indecision, I’ll go back to basics and ask myself the hard question: What do I really know about this subject matter? Turns out, and as usual, the answer is: Not very much. However, I did know that a swarm of the insects ate the mandarin crop, in a single day. That information was hard to ignore.
So I began learning about the life-cycle of the insects, which was illuminating. It was hard to know what they were doing on that particular willow tree. Turns out a field naturalist in the island state to the south of here (Tasmania) had also observed the link between the wasp and tree. Fortunately for me, the lady had then researched what the wasps were doing in the tree. And that’s when it gets interesting. Apparently that variety of willow has an aphid associated with it. The aphids are harvesting sugars from the leaves, and the wasps are then harvesting the sugar extracted by the aphids, as well as the aphids themselves for protein. It was reassuring that the field naturalist came to the same conclusion as I, the willow tree has to go. And she’s doing that very work in her area and reporting on a decline in the wasp population. Respect.
Theoretically, I could cut the tree down tomorrow and mulch up most of the branches and leaves. That would put an immediate end to the wasp mischief and send them back hungry to where ever their nest is. However, I don’t know whether my proposed actions will seriously irritate the wasps. Their sting is pretty nasty, and this is one instance where I don’t want to find out what happens. Best to wait them out until the weather turns colder and the wasps die off. I know far less than what I actually do know. But I can be patient, learn and adapt.
Winter is fast approaching. Most evenings we now run the wood heater. During winter the sun hangs lower in the sky. Two very large olive trees had grown so tall that they were beginning to slightly shade eight solar panels. Because of the height they’d grown, we actually didn’t have the equipment to reduce the size of the trees. So, we bought an el-cheapo hugely long pole saw and hedge trimmer machine. It’s a beast, maybe even a giraffe.
The reach of that tool is bonkers, and when the machine has all of the extendible poles connected up, the word ‘unwieldy’ probably best describes the experience. It’s a cheap machine, and some of the plastic components broke after the first use, but it does the job.
A goodly amount of cuttings were produced. It took many hours of cutting to reduce the height of the two olive trees to a more manageable level.
The following day, all of the cuttings were fed through the scary old wood chipper. Now that’s what I call a proper well constructed machine.
The mulch produced is used as soil feed on garden beds. I doubt the stuff is good enough to grow the more demanding vegetables.
We try to minimise waste. Over the years we’ve used non-stick fry-pans (aka skillets), but sooner or later the non stick surface fails. Then the fry-pan is useless and becomes a waste product. This was another subject which I knew nothing about, and candidly upon reflection it’s hard to even know why we used non-stick items in the first place. So, again I took a deep dive into this subject and ended up purchasing a carbon steel fry-pan. That thing, if well cared for, should last for more years than I’ve got left.
I’ve never used this cooking material before, and the first thing you do when they’re new is clean them because the manufacturers coat them with some sort of wax layer. People say this job takes ten minutes, but the reality was closer to twenty five minutes.
We got there in the end with the cleaning.
Then you have to do what is known as seasoning the carbon steel surface. In plain English that means smearing a light coating of grapeseed oil (other oils can be used) over the surfaces, then slowly heating it. It now doesn’t look nearly as shiny as it once did.
My first impressions cooking with the material is that foodstuffs do stick to the surface, but the cleaning process is very easy. Hopefully the cookwear lasts a lifetime, and then some.
Soil is yet another complicated subject. There was a remnant mound of a commercial compost product sitting for over a year and half. I’d been curious to see if anything grew in the stuff and so just let it sit there and observe the results. My expectations were that if the stuff was any good, it would be covered in weeds at the very least. Here’s what it looked like:
The black compost material is probably very finely composted woody waste, which is not much good for growing vegetables despite the name of the product. The mound was levelled and the material was spread thinly over a large area where it will probably increase the soil organic matter, hopefully.
There were no worms in the compost product, but the magpie family did thoroughly go over the area where the stuff was spread.
I also cleaned up the enclosure where the pumpkins had grown.
The soil furthest away from the camera in the above image is some of the best on the property. The other half closer to the camera, could use some work, actually probably a lot of work. And maybe also some gypsum, and Calcium Carbonate. I took the old rototiller to one half of the enclosure and dug down as deeply as the machine would go. Hopefully it all helps.
Despite the heavy rain earlier in the week, the sunny orchard is looking dry.
Maybe because of the dry weather, the wallabies (a smaller lone forest dwelling kangaroo) have been attacking the Silverbeet crops.
In another month or so, we should be ready to harvest the plentiful kiwi fruit crop.
For some reason, the wasps ignored the more zesty tasting Meyer Lemon crop. Softies!
Onto the flowers:
The temperature outside now at about 9am is 9’C (48’F). So far for last year there has been 302.4mm (11.9 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 218.0mm (8.6 inches)
Yo, Chris – I’ll remember ,when I’m on my death bed, not to mention it. 🙂 That’s a pity, about the willow. A nice looking tree. When you’re writhing in the throes of childbirth, you won’t have the bark to chew on, for the agony. I understand if you put a knife under the bed, it cuts the pain. Tip of the hat to “Gone with the Wind.” But enough levity. 🙂
I would not believed, if not for the picture, that the wasps could do that much damage in a day. Yes, they’ve got to go.
The olive trees look all neat and tidy. Be sure and leave feedback, where ever you bought that machine. One use and you’ve got broken parts? And people get upset about “single use” plastic bags.
The fry pan looks well on it’s way to being seasoned. Just use a bit of oil, every time you use it. And don’t run your temperature too high.
That’s an interesting observation, about the compost. Something I wouldn’t have thought of.
I hope the wasps don’t develop a taste for Kiwi. Or, anything else.
The mushroom is a Geastrum. There are many species. They like Eucalyptus. They’re not poisonous. But considered inedible, as they taste like ca-ca.
Geraniums are always very pretty. Now, if they just came in blue …
Leaves are changing. Can the dreaded hordes of leaf change peepers, be far behind? Too bad it’s not as easy as cutting down a tree, to get rid of them.
My garlic, mustard and radishes are beginning to show. I cut blackberries, out of another clump of Rhodes, that we have. I think I need to do that twice a year. It involves me walking along the top of a stone retaining wall. Someone dumps their cat litter, up there. Cat litter is often made from clay. Given a bit of time, in the elements, and it reverts back to its original form. And, it’s slicker than cat s___. Maybe I could throw a few pots, on a wheel. Lew
Hi Lewis,
Man, that’s an option, but surely it would leave us all unnecessarily on tenter-hooks? We’d be looking for your comment day after day, and left reaching into the vast digital emptiness. And meanwhile no doubts you’d come and haunt us for a bit. I could definitely see that happening. It’d be just like when a month or two back I’d missed an old school mates funeral by mere days. You’d be a nice ghost wouldn’t you? Or maybe, you’d be a trickster, and in the dark hours of the night begin whispering nonsense about gateways under the house into the eternal pits. As a side note, that would make a good horror story and no doubts our fortunes, or sorry in this case my fortune because you’d be beyond the pale, would be made – but can you please send the completed and edited manuscript with no attribution before you turn in on the final eve of your performance? 🙂
Anyway, could I handle such spectral mischief and maintain sanity? Do I want to find out? Probably not. So yeah, feel free to mention if circumstances for you are seriously going awry. We’d all miss you here, you know that.
The best article I’ve ever read on the use of willow bark is from a website with the title, The Art of Manliness. I can respect that perspective: How to Harvest and Use Nature’s Aspirin. The usual caveats apply here to the link. We have other varieties of willow… Just sayin.
The wasps are a serious pain, but their day of terror is coming to an end due to climactic issues. I baked a batch of toasted muesli today and the wasps were battering away at the kitchen window screen. Those pesky critters have no chance when it comes to sturdy stainless steel woven mesh screens, but I’m slightly worried when they soon begin the hunt for protein. Who wants to think of themselves as a mobile meat market?
Nah, I’m unconcerned about the el-cheapo machine and knew that some of the plastic components would break on day one. I went into the deal with open eyes and a comprehension as to what would soon happen, which did. The reality is that such machines probably have a very short life span, but if well cared for the core of the machine might be OK. Treat the thing very gently and it will be fine, expect more than that, and it will end up in the tip in short order.
Thanks for your observations regarding the fry-pan, and that’s another one of those things we’ll treat gently. Yes, I’d noticed that as well about higher temperatures. In fact the induction cooker works better at lower temperatures.
Dude, the wasps could smell the home brew. They could smell the freshly baked batch of toasted muesli. The wasps have to go. Other than me, they have no predators here, and so I have to step up to the challenge. Who knows where the nest is? I’d read how-to guides as to discovering the nest, but they could be anywhere within 0.3 miles of here.
The compost purchase was a total disappointment, but I’m also going to take a talk on such matters later in the month, and you know, the facts speak for themselves and the photo tells the underlying reality. Incidentally, I’ve used the stuff because we had it, but have had to add all manner of stuff to it so that plants grow. Most of the people I know add way too much woody material to their compost heaps.
Hmm, I’d not known that. Interesting indeed. Pulled the down under fungi book out, and the book detailed two of the Geastrales family fungi, and the variety here was neither of those. There were hints that the species have been long used in traditional uses, but as you’d imagine, the details were missing. Fascinating.
It’s raining cats and dogs outside. Dame Plum demanded to be let outside to do her business, and we both ended up rather damp…
I’ll keep an eye out for a blue geranium, but you have to admit that the deep purple varieties are pretty cool?
It’s funny you mention that, but we had to go to the post office this afternoon, and imagine the horror of discovering a technician hovering over a commercial coffee machine which was in bits. We survived the ordeal, just… How the leaf change tourists managed their disappointment is just not cricket.
The winter radishes here are a bit more advanced than what you’re seeing, but I do hope that you enjoy them. My advice, don’t let the tubers get too big. Why would anyone dump cat litter on top of a stone retaining wall? Surely you have a theory?
Well, now you mention it, I do enjoy an occasional gripe. A professional hazard I’m told. 🙂 I’m not looking at that particular media circus. Allegedly the metaphorical hookers and blow have entered the media chat, and um, things appear to have taken a turn to the bizarre, and it perhaps reflects poorly upon all concerned. I’ve never been paid by that method!
You might be onto something with the car park noise complaints. You may need to invest in a decibel meter, and be ready to film the miscreants. Then deal with the fall-out. Good luck! 😉 Out of curiosity, what possible noises could even be coming from the car park? Are you entirely certain that it is not a gateway into the eternal pits?
Ah, sorry but such nutritional numbers are only ever an average. The reality may differ, depending on all manner of factors where they were grown. And if soil quality has deteriorated since the numbers were published, things may be worse now. Man, I feel like a total buzzkill. The book sounds extensive.
Yeah, that happens down here too with blood, and when stocks get low, there’s a recruiting drive. But three hours really annoyed me. It was too much. Yeah, that’ll do it. My mother had that around the same time, and man that was bad, and no small thing. That fortnight left a strong impression on me, put it that way. She was in a bad way, but then recovered. And consequently as an unrelated side benefit, stopped the spit on handkerchief wiping business. Us kids ran the household for about two weeks, and did an admirable job of it. That time would have been tough on you. Far out.
I did the drip dry routine myself a while back. It’s filthy wet and cold outside.
Did your area get any of the eclipse?
Yeah, I remember that about the chicken light. A bit of a helping hand for the hens. We build up the straw on the concrete floor of the hen house from here onwards. It’s a good insulating layer, but deep winter is hard on chickens. If they’re going to keel over, the coldest part of the year is when they’ll do it.
Hmm, I hadn’t known that and believed that auctions were orderly linear kind of events. Makes sense to keep the punters guessing right up until the last hammer falls.
Sorry, yes of course and thanks for the correction. I’ve got a mental block about this subject in that whenever you mention shrimp nachos, I read shrimp tacos. Dunno why.
I agree with you about that fire subject. Society looks to me as if they want to take a really passive approach to the entire issue. But basically, forest management is done on the cheap, and even environmentalists who should know better, have a two dimensional perspective of forest ecology. And that’s also true about the survivors response.
Ah, shoe story – the bit you said about weeing on a shoe and pretending it’s rain!
True. Swap one monster problem out for another even biggerer problem.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – So no more whinging about “man flu.” 🙂
Well, if given the option, I’d probably linger around. Unless … It seems like in a lot of ghost stories, the ghost is “tied” to a particular place. Haunt the Institution? I don’t think so. Although, ghosts are often linked to objects, and travel along with them. I’m quit partial to my 1840’s, Empire style, dresser. But gosh knows where it might end up.
That was a really interesting article on willow bark. And the website looked chockfull of other useful information.
I suppose the wasps will either adapt to a changing climate, or, another variety will move in. “Nature abhors a vacuum.” Something else will fill their ecological niche.
Yes, a lot of people don’t seem to get it. Treat things gently, and they’ll maybe last a long time. I treat everything gently. From my little flip phone, to doors and drawers, and even the spigots in my bathroom and kitchen.
The Master Gardeners were here, this morning. I told them the tail of your observations on your compost heap. And how it applies to that carp they brought in here, last year. Also, the tail of your wasps. I also related to them, that according to my Old Farmer’s Almanac Gardening Calendar, pumpkins should be planted the second week of May. Earlier than I thought. Just another gentle little nudge. They were busy rounding up things for their yearly plant sale.
Well, purple Geraniums are not blue. “Accept no substitutes.” I got to wondering where that phrase came from. An advertising slogan, from the 19th century. For … Coke.
Yup. Radishes get woody, if you leave them in the ground, too long.
Well, whoever dumped the cat litter on the top of the wall is a moron. I’d say, about half the people living here fall under that classification. It’s a target rich environment, as is said. We can narrow the field, a bit. According to a recent census, there are about a dozen cats in the building. Old ladies and their cats.
Lots of noise from the parking lot. Those infernal vans and delivery trucks with their “beep, beep, beep.” Slamming car doors. Inmates hailing each other, and having long drawn out conversations, about nothing in particular, at volume. The landscapers with their leaf blowers. I’m finally to a place where I can filter a great deal of it out. But not all of it. Turning on my A/C or stove fan, also creates enough “white noise,” to drown them out.
Sure, the nutritional numbers are not sacred writ, but if the … whatever is organic, or home grown, more likely to meet those numbers. At least it’s a general idea, of what is higher or lower in some nutrients. Who knew potatoes and bananas have a similar nutritional profile?
Yes, I was in hospital for 18 days, with Hep B. Early on, a nurse told me if I drank a lot of water, maybe my eyes wouldn’t turn yellow. She was spot on.
Eclipse hasn’t happened yet. We won’t see much of the effects, this far northwest. I’ll be glad when it’s over. The country has gone eclipse mad, and it’s eating up a lot of the news bandwidth. That along with some sports thing going on. Let’s get back to the important stuff…
https://www.cnn.com/style/article/pompeii-dyaqua-solar-panels-tan
It’s only the “big boys,” in the auction world, that publish catalogs and take things in the order that they appear in a catalog. Although auctions that put their stuff on-line, usually follow the order of the on-line items. But, country auctions are more … free form.
The wildfire documentary was pretty interesting. There was one segment, where some outfit here in the US, tests housing. They build a house, or two houses side by side. Move them into a huge (one would assume) fireproof warehouse. They have huge fans to recreate wind, and an ember generating machine. They fire everything up, and stand back and see what burns, why, and what materials they are made out of. The guy that fires everything up, had a wild, maniacal gleam in his eye, and said he loved burning houses. I’d keep an eye on him.
Last night, I watched a documentary called “Conned: A True Story.” One of the stories was on plain old financial fraud. But the bulk of them was about some outfit that does potential authors out of a lot of money. Usually self published authors. Promises of hitting the best seller lists, or movie deals. The author just has to prime the pump a bit. With lots, and lots of their money. It was pretty informative.
I get a couple of publications from AARP (American Association of Retired People), and there’s always an article or two on scams seniors need to watch out for. The other night, I got my first notification of a download that my computer maker wanted to make. But was it really from them? I spent about a day, poking around, to make sure it was legit. But even though I was pretty sure it was, there’s always this moment of holding your breath, and hoping for the best. Lew
Hi Chris,
You asked whether the creek down the road was running and yes it sure is! The paths at the wetland where I go hiking is now flooded in parts but considering how dry it’s been the last few years it’s all good.
The eclipse coverage here was around 90% so we got a nice view from our yard as it has been a bright, sunny day. It got noticeably colder and the light was unusual though it didn’t get dark as some places not too far did.
Funny you should mention wasps. I was at the Land Conservancy’s annual meeting yesterday and a book in the silent auction was about wasps. https://extension.psu.edu/book-review-wasps-by-heather-holm
It was the one item I bid on but didn’t get it. Sadly silent auctions have now gone techy. You can bid online beforehand or continue to bid on your phone during the event which I did not do so subsequently was outbid. Anyway wasps are much maligned I think. The most common ones we have are paper and mud wasps (or daubers). Paper wasps seldom sting unless their nest is threatened or you accidently put your hand on one. Mud wasps are not aggressive at all. Now the hornets on the other hand ….
Margaret
Hi Margaret,
That’s great news about the creek and wetlands returning to their more usual damp form. It’ll be a real boon for the birds and plants growing there.
The eclipse sounds like it put on a good show at your place. Did Cecily end up travelling to the more total eclipse locale? 90% shading would be good enough from my perspective. They’re eerie aren’t they? And the news reports down here remarked that you could noticeably feel the lack of warm sunlight.
You know I can remember the last total eclipse in Melbourne in 1976. I was at my grandmothers and very young, and she sensibly made us kids watch the eclipse on television whilst it took place outdoors. We probably weren’t to be trusted… There was a lot of emphasis on the risk of going blind from watching the event with the naked eyes.
As a fellow bookworm, reading John Wyndham’s ‘Day of the Triffids’ only a few years afterwards, you’d understand that both experiences left a strong impression about the risk from free sky shows! 🙂
Proving that auction sniping is a real thing. We’ve all been there, and only just missed out on auction treasures. The synopsis of the book sounded superb to me, and oh well, there’s always next time.
We have a similar wasp ecology with both paper and mud wasps. Neither of those wasps are aggressive, although I believe a paper wasp sting is one of the most painful insect stings around in this part of the world. But as you note, you’d have to be doing something really stupid to the insects to be stung by them. And I absolutely agree, the European wasps on the other hand are overtly aggressive, and there’s no need for them to be present in this location. Plenty of other insects will do their role with less hassles.
Thought you might enjoy this brief article: Dreaded fire ant’s sting burns, but wasps, hornets and bull ants top the Schmidt pain index. I’ve been stung by those Bull ants. Not a fan.
It rained here again today. The weather is turning towards the cooler. In some far higher parts of the continent, the first decent snowfalls of the year were recorded.
Cheers
Chris
Hi, Chris!
Dear Mr. Miyagi! He knew a few things. But watch out – as you near my age – 67 – there is so much that is suffering from the wear and tear of life that there is always something malfunctioning, and thus one is very tempted to complain in case someone in the same boat has some advice.
The only childhood navigation that I had, besides being taught the social graces of good comportment and table manners, was to get good grades and then to get married. I had no help with either, but just happened to do well in school and was then lucky enough to meet the man who became my husband. It’s been a tough row to hoe, being taught no responsibility, nor even simple things like cooking. Once I learned to read, I began to devour all the books in my school library. Books have always been my salvation. And now, the internet has been incredibly useful.
I don’t know much about solar panels and their batteries (I know you have tried, Chris . . .), but I know to listen to someone who does know (Chris again!) and therefore I do know more than most people. And I try to do that about other things.
That must be the same wasp that we have. It looks exactly the same. Ours is Vespa Crabo (for crabby?).
That IS one hugely long pole saw.
I thought you had a cast iron skillet like mine. Carbon steel must be different.
I saw a big, fat wallaby – I mean groundhog – yesterday. That’s bad news, but not as bad as a wallaby, maybe.
Thanks for the flowers and the strange, very strange fungi. Yes – who doesn’t like a geranium?
Pam
Hi Lewis,
Well that’s one option which we may describe as the ‘whinge-free future’ zone. 🙂 But seriously, I really don’t know what to do when faced with such health talk from friends and was genuinely curious. And bear in mind, I do not seek out such conversations, and have the perspective that we all have to take personal responsibility for our own health, or face the consequences. Honestly, it was a minor part of the essay, but secretly I was kind of hoping to create some debate so as to discover where the much neglected middle ground might be found? A total mystery to me. You have more life experience than I, and it’s not as if we haven’t discussed navigating this particular thorny issue before, but I really don’t know how to strike a mid-point. Have you got any suggestions, other than simply dropping the subject altogether? And that’s an OK response too.
For the record, (and you are super cheeky to bring up the ‘man flu’, but I take your point) I was really asking the question in relation to verbal conversations, as distinct from the lovely comments here. Admittedly I had not made that distinction clear. I don’t believe that anyone here has crossed that line, or even gotten close to it, but I see things in other parts of the interweb that bother me. And like the boy scouts suggest, it’s best to be prepared.
I hadn’t known that about ghosts. I’d previously believed them to be linked to a place. Hmm. Sunday night I had a really weird dream about there being three ghosts in the house, and awoke in the hours before dawn and thought I saw the silhouette of a young girl running in the walk through robe. Except the shape was if it were a cardboard cut out, but all black. Strangely the experience was not frightening. The next day, the Editor just casually mentioned an old uni friend of hers who had a propensity for imbibing illicit substances. I remarked that it probably wasn’t a good idea to see what she was up to these days, and there the matter rested. I don’t need the distress of such knowledge. The two had a falling out decades ago, because both the Editor and I believe that the so called friend spiked her drink for amusement. It wasn’t funny.
Yes. The website has very clear explanations. Just the thing!
My thinking with the wasps is that we’ll arrange matters (i.e. the ecology) here so that the wasps may visit, but probably sadly can’t stay for dinner. There are plenty of other wasps and insects here which are less aggressive. It was pretty cold here today, and at higher elevations on the continent, they had the first snowfalls of the year. Brr!
Wise to do so, and even spigots can be damaged by careless behaviour. It’s local legend around here that one of the nearby towns pubs apparently burnt down because the water mains for the hoses were opened too quickly and the pressure blew the valve up – and so the pub just burnt down in the meantime. Incidentally, I’d like a flip phone instead of the thing I’m forced to own.
Seriously good compost, is actually hard to purchase. So I reckon most of the stuff you can buy is similar to the carp you put up with last year, and the stuff in the photos. It’ll do something, but there may be better options. The second week of May (our November) would be about right for planting pumpkin seed here as well.
Oh my! Yes, purple is not blue. 🙂 But if you squint a bit and try not to focus directly on the flowers, maybe instead look at this brochure on the possibilities… Never seen a blue geranium flower before.
Do you reckon the cat litter was dumped on the wall to ward off other cats from outside the place? Like marking one’s territory? We’ve spoken of my grandfathers thoughts and what he’d actually say, although if either of us used such language, we’d be thrown out for the wolves. I still don’t know how he got away with it. Has H ever come face to face with one of the dozen cats?
Say, that’s a lot of noise. Over Easter there was one day where the wind was still, and other than forest noises, there were no signs of human activity. It was quite pleasant to sit with Ollie and just listen.
I didn’t know that about bananas and potatoes having similar properties. I keep thinking I’m going to have to set up a new potato patch. Always more work to do!
Man, that is one bad bug, and I can see how you ended up there for that length of time. My mother was in a bad way too. The water advice was good. Helps keep things flushed out. Life changed after that experience, in all sorts of ways. It’s not like such outcomes were widely known about in those days.
Hopefully you survived the eclipse of 2024, and prospered? 🙂 It’s even in the news down here. And those PV tiles are very clever devices. From the photos I couldn’t tell that the roof tiles served any other purpose than keeping the rain out of the interiors. All those wires would make cleaning the guttering out hard, and it was a bit triggering to see gunk in them… 😉
Being a successful auctioneer would be a real ‘crowd reading and playing’ skill. Not just anyone could do that.
Bummer for the trashcan man for putting it on public record that he enjoys such activities. Although, to his credit he’s found a useful outlet for his hobbies! Just being silly. They test the various systems down here as well, and then provide them with a fire resistance rating, but testing a whole house design requires a lot of mad cash. It ain’t cheap. What we did here was cobble together a grab bag of various tested building systems, but has the entire house been tested as a coherent design? No. This is why when we built the house, we were super careful to ensure that the systems connected up well. But a structure is only ever as good as the weakest link.
You’d imagine that authors would be smarter about such things? Maybe?
It seems like everyday in the news there are stories of people being scammed out of their mad cash. A couple of years ago when we bought the Dirt Rat Suzuki, I did a general background check on the health of the car dealer, before sending over the mad cash for payment. Doesn’t hurt to be too careful with sizeable payments.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Pam,
🙂 Total respect. That’s what I do too, you may have noticed? If uncertain, ask… I’ll bet the question ‘why’ was a favourite of yours as well way back in the day? Books are most excellent aren’t they for providing knowledge? My friend on the other hand appeared to me as if he had a very closed mind on the possibilities of helpful advice. It put me in an awkward spot, because I knew what he had to do, he just didn’t want to entertain any changes. But that’s the thing – when things are going wrong, then maybe the old patterns aren’t all that great?
Speaking of such matters, I almost forgot to mention that the clocks tipped back an hour last Sunday morning, and now I can get up in the sunlight again. Feels more natural to my brain. A cheeky person could perhaps suggest that the patterns are right once again!
Like you, I was also an avid reader from an early age, and libraries provided a view into a much larger world. Honestly, the lessons I was given were also not all that great, but if you can learn how to learn (which clearly you can), well then you can learn. And cooking is such a useful skill given people eat several times per day.
My mother was single mother and as such I was forced to cook (and other domestic duties) from about the age of 12, and you do learn a lot about simple things by doing that activity repetitively, but I also like food. Sandra was a terrible cook when we first got together, but then her parents were even worse in that regard. I kind of suggested that she could do better, and that happened. Forget about the education, the certificate people see in the house is her first prize for best apple cake at an apple festival a decade ago. It was a good cake.
The basics are pretty good knowledge too. Some people I’ve met don’t even get those lessons.
Thanks for the lovely words.
Say, that’s a big wasp. I believe the species here is Vespula Germanica, or the European wasp, although it could just as easily be Vespula vulgaris. They’re pretty similar, and seriously I didn’t want to get too close for a proper identification. The texts suggest that they can be a bit hazardous around their food sources and nests. It seems that some observant folks over in New Zealand have also noticed: that wasps were reduced by tree canopy cover by species not attracting honeydew-secreting scale insects
The pole saw needed to be big to reach the highest portions of those olive trees. Note to self: Don’t let them get that tall again! 🙂
Ah, no the skillets work similarly, but the US has a preference for ones made from cast iron, whereas other parts of the world use carbon steel instead. The care and feeding of either skillets are remarkably similar.
That is bad news about the groundhog. I’m coming around to a saying which sort of suggests: Grow, and the critters shall come! I’ll spare you the groundhog day jokes, and instead ask if you saw any eclipse in your part of the world? The wallaby looks set to attempt to eat all of the winters Silverbeets.
🙂 Geraniums are lovely, and hope yours enjoys some outdoor time soon. If you accidentally stand on one of those earthstars, they puff out a tiny cloud of spores.
Cheers
Chris
Hello Chris
Thanks for your interesting writing. I have no spare time at present as I am drowning in family. Also drowning in rain and mud. Yesterday we had our highest recorded tide here. Masses of flooding, fortunately it doesn’t reach me.
Daughter is going to start painting my windows and doors tomorrow. Some of the windows, on the sunny side, have no paint left on them.
Inge
Hello Chris,
There are so many areas of life where I think to myself – “What do I really know about this stuff?” Thanks for writing about this.
Since I was trained as a researcher (did a PhD twenty years ago), I often look into background studies, and most of the time realize that not many people know much about real stuff.
We are great at repeating factoids and things we have read somewhere or heard. We tell stories that have some logic or make sense to us.
However, I seldom meet people who really learn from their own observations.
And most research is done in too isolated experiments to be useful.
Usually I come back with the conclusion: It depends…
We have a cast-iron skillet, and I bought a second hand carbon steel skillet last week. However, the carbon steel version does not work on our induction stove, so it will be placed in the backup cabinet to be used on the wood-stove next winter. We can cook on the woodstove, but the ventilation of that room is crap, so only no-stink food can be done there. In the kitchen we have a proper exhaust system. Better.
Great work on the olive trees.
Sometimes a cheap tool is the right tool.
We also got some poorly performing “compost soil” last year.
Not all soil is created equal. 😉
Peace,
Göran
Hi Chris,
Since it was only a two hour drive to Cape Girardeau, MO, where we could see 4 minutes of totality, and I’m a total geek about this sort of thing, Mike and I decided way back last summer that we would make arrangements to drive down on the 7th and back home on the 9th and reserve a motel room for two days, avoiding eclipse traffic. Mind you, that was 8 months before the eclipse – but the only available rooms around Cape were up to $400 US per night. Waaaay too rich for our blood. We eventually found a room most of another hour’s drive past that, in Charleston, MO, at a price we were willing to pay.
While we could have seen 2 minutes of totality in Charleston, I really wanted to see the full 4 minutes. But we also wanted to find a good place to view the eclipse that wouldn’t be a circuslike atmosphere, with food trucks, questionable music, loud announcers interpreting the eclipse for us, and video screens with the eclipse playing on them. A little research led us to a public park in Jackson, MO, just west of Cape, which looked ideal. Plenty of green space to spread out on, easy to get to from where we were staying, no planned program. All we needed was good weather, and that wasn’t anything we could control. Especially not in April in the midwest US.
When we woke up the morning of the 8th, planning to start out right after breakfast to drive the 45 minutes or so to get to the park in time to find parking (with totality being so close to St. Louis, we knew a lot of people would be coming from there that morning to see the eclipse, all of them looking for parking), a dense blanket of fog overlay the land. The good folks of the National Weather Service promised it would lift after 9am. Would they be right? We just had to wait it out.
They turned out to be right, and we got to the park a little after 10 am (totality was to occur around 2pm). Quite a few people were already in the park, and many more came after we arrived. We walked around our section of the park and the parking lot we were parked in, looking at the license plates on the cars to see where people came from. Just in that one lot – and it wasn’t the only lot in the park – we saw license plates from 25 of the 50 US states! Plus we talked to a woman from New Jersey who was parked in a different lot, for a total of 26 states represented.
The park turned out to be an excellent choice. Everyone was on their best behavior. Even the dogs and the children were well-behaved. No one insisted on inflicting their taste in music on anyone else. No public program, no loudspeakers, no screens. Just green space and enough of it to spread out, only some thin high clouds that didn’t obscure the sun, and temperatures in the upper 70sF before the eclipse got far enough along for the temperature to drop.
The eclipse was completely worth the effort to see it! The light level dropped really fast in the last 10 minutes or so before totality, the park lights came on, and just before totality, a bat flew over Mike’s and my heads! Then it got dark enough to see Venus and Jupiter, at 2pm in the afternoon, with light streaming off the blackened disk of the sun. People were cheering! It’s one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever been fortunate enough to see. Then the moon moved away, and the light level and temperature rose as fast as they had fallen.
Mike and I waited in the park until the partial part of the eclipse ended before starting back to the motel. That’s when the wisdom of staying the night farther away and not trying to drive back to St. Louis after the eclipse became clear. Epic traffic jams resulted when everyone who came down from St. Louis decided to start back home. A two hour drive turned into a 6 or 7 hour drive for most people. We, on the other hand, encountered no traffic jams as we headed in the other direction back to the motel, and no jams this morning as we headed back home.
It looks like another eclipse crosses part of MO in 2045. They’ll have to have that one without me. I’d be 88 then – if I’m still alive, which I doubt. But I got to see two total eclipses, this one and the one in 2017. That’s everything I can ask for.
Claire
Yo, Chris – There is no middle ground. There is no mid-point. Best to just bite the tongue, til it bleeds, and change the topic. A few months ago, a lot of people at the Club climbed on the Keto diet bandwagon. Well, it gave everyone something to talk about. Not much mention of it, these days, and no one seems to have lost any weight. That stayed off. Having been in the book biz, I’ve seen the fad diets come and go. We used to refer to those books as the Fad Diet of the Week. My Idaho friend is preparing, today, for her colonoscopy and upper GI, tomorrow. I did tell her to think of it as fasting. And that all the cool kids were doing it. LOL. Here we go …
When I had my colonoscopy, a few decades ago, I declined the anesthetic. She’s going under, but wondered about pain, etc. I told her, a bit of bloat, because they blow a lot of air up there, to open everything up, so the camera can take a good look around. But otherwise, nothing to worry about. And suggested she might want to go down to the local petrol station, and hit the tire air, for a trial run. 🙂 Yes, I’m truly awful.
And let me tell you about this funny looking growth I just noticed ….
Back when I was a wee small lad, and once I obtained my adult library card, I read a lot of more adult, serious stuff, about ghosts. Early on, I ran across a statement, that there were no known incidents of ghosts harming anyone. That most people harmed themselves, when confronted by, or startled by, a ghost. That stuck with me. So when confronted by the paranormal, I’m more or less more interested, than frightened. Now keep in mind, demons are a completely different issue.
Let’s hope the wasps don’t remember, from year to year, where the Mandarin oranges, are. Maybe you can fit one with a little GPS device, and track it back to its nest? 🙂
Who knows what possessed someone to dump the cat litter. Best put it in a plastic bag, and put it out with the rest of the garbage. Maybe they had the idea of some kind of weird recycling? H occasionally sees one of the cats, but they’re moving the other direction. But it still distracts her from the business at hand … Of course, a passing butterfly or leaf in the wind, distracts her from the business at hand.
One interesting sidelight to my go around with Hep-B, was, at that time, it was believed to be spread only by needles. So, there’s my doctor, checking me out for “tracks.” I was a little miffed, to be thought of as a junkie. It was only a few months later, I saw an article, where it had been discovered that Hep B can also be acquired through, what is politely called, “an exchange of bodily fluids.”
The eclipse is done and dusted, and we can move onto something equally vapid. There are frost warnings, for tonight, south of us. Our local forecast is just one degree (F) shy of freezing.
Zach is a very good auctioneer. Of course, besides going to auctioneers school (yes, there are such things), he was mentored by Mary Garrison, from whom he bought the business. She still helps out, from time to time.
Our building manager, Little Mary Sunshine, is back. Maybe, I’ll finally get my paperwork for the recertification. She has all my paperwork, so, the balls in her court.
Our dumpster is overflowing and won’t be picked up til tomorrow morning. Someone is cleaning out Suzanne’s apartment. I noticed, yesterday, there were quit a few tined goods. I didn’t have my reading glasses, but near as I could tell, it was mostly well past the “use by” date. A few more things appeared on the swap table. Also, it looks like a lot of books were added to the Institutions library. I’ll have to check those out, tonight, when things are quiet. Time to do some serious thinning, again. Lew
Hi Inge,
Many thanks for the kind words. And may I presume that the family are a more enjoyable experience than the rain and mud! 🙂 Sorry, just being cheeky.
Oh my goodness. That is a risk with ocean frontage. If I recall correctly, your house was moved back and away from the ocean to higher ground? A good idea. There was a strong storm off the city of Sydney last weekend which washed a number of beaches away. The photos were rather alarming and the sand looked to me as if it were now a minor cliff face.
Respect. Paint and other timber preservation techniques are most excellent for saving timber from the ravages of the environment. Although, it may be too humid for the paint to cure to the timber properly given your mention of lots of rain. Still, it is probably a case of something being better than nothing at all.
Moist timber succumbs more easily to fungi and insects than dry protected timber. That’s the theory anyway. It’s a subject I’m considering due to the new larger firewood shed project. More to come on this matter in a few weeks.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Göran,
It’s an important subject, so glad to hear that you are likewise considering the implications of that. It’s a bit like raising most of your own food. I could probably do that task now, but the margin for error would be too small for my comfort. That suggests to me that I need to know and experience far more than what I’ve learned to date.
Respect for your excellent educational achievement. And exactly. I’d be interested to learn your perspective, but tend to believe that due to the sheer complexity of even basic systems, we build upon past knowledge and just hope that the earlier folks got things right. So yes, poking into background studies tends to highlight assumptions made and weaknesses as to the overall comprehension of the subject matter at hand. Basically, our brains can only comprehend just so much detail, and no more.
Truly, the strangest comment I’d ever read on the interweb was some dude denying my observed experience in relation to the sun’s energy output on one specific day during the depths of winter. The day was around the winter solstice, and the power system recorded 15 minutes of peak sunlight for the entire day. Hardly a controversial data point. Except the dude made the claim that he had some model which suggested at this latitude the average should be 2 hours of peak sunlight, so the conclusion he drew was that there must be something wrong with the system itself. A fair enough conclusion, except that the dude was wrong.
Yes, I absolutely agree with you, it depends…
Ook! Now you mention it, I have not yet attempted to use the carbon steel on the induction cooker. This is easily tested!
Hang on a second whilst the experiment takes place. And for the record, you’ve stressed me out! Thanks…
The carbon steel frypan worked on the induction cooker at 2kW. That’s a relief. I’m now scratching my head to try and understand why your carbon steel skillet doesn’t work. One possible explanation is that there is a layer of aluminium in the sheet. This may have been done to reduce the overall weight of the skillet. Göran, it is possible that the parentage of the skillet is not the same as the claims. Sorry for breaking the bad metallurgy news. Do you have any ideas as to why it doesn’t work?
Far out. Man, that ventilation issue is something we also have to grapple with. We designed and constructed the house to be well sealed, but with cooking, or even running the wood heater, you have to open the window to let fresh air in, otherwise the air quality declines rapidly. And finding a balance with that issue is very difficult.
Thanks. The cheap tool will be fine, but it will require careful use and regular attention. The thing is, the tool was one fifth the cost of say a Stihl machine, which is what I usually prefer to purchase. The job did not justify the quality leap.
Oooo! So true. Yes. Not all soil is created equal. It’s a hard way to learn though. 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Hi Claire,
Anywhere that has a Mark Twain national forest has to be OK by me! Thank you so much for the on the ground report of the event, and what fun you both had. 🙂 Two hours away is not all that far really, and worth the trip for such an epic natural event.
Claire, it ain’t just you. US$400 a night accommodation is way too rich for my tastes as well. Ah, so you and Mike stayed further south, good move. And Jackson was west and north of the Cape. Respect. Your research efforts sure did pay off. We tend to also look for the neglected best seats as well.
Ha! I loved the suspense, would the fog lift, or wouldn’t it? What a show you both enjoyed. Wise to get there early. Your story reminded me of when we lived in the inner urban big smoke: One warm Valentines Day evening, we walked the dogs down to the park only to discover couples picnicking in a carefully laid out chequerboard pattern across the entire park. There was plenty of space, it was the sheer neatness of the scene which captured the imagination.
Whoa, that’s an impressive turnout from around your country. And given that your research, and also all of theirs clearly aligned (26 states is suggestive of the facts on the ground), no doubts you ended up in the right place with what the kids would possibly describe as your: peeps (i.e. people). Your experience with the total eclipse sounds amazing. Nature can put on a great show.
Such a traffic jam would be my own personal nightmare as well. 🙂 Often after working in the big smoke, I’ll go and get a coffee and a small continental cake and read a book for a while, thus dodging any heavy traffic in a most thoroughly enjoyable way. But you two took that trick to eleven on the dial! Nice one.
Claire, you never know about that future. But if I dare add, it is the wise person whom has enjoyed both experience and the knowledge of enough. 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Chris:
I did see the eclipse! It was not total here, but covered maybe 2/3 of the sun. The funny thing is that I had not really thought about looking for it, but as I was leaving that day to go see my mother in town my daughter-in-law handed me two pairs of eclipse-viewing glasses and said: “If you happen to be outside during the eclipse, you might want to use these.”
My mother and I sit out on the front porch of her assisted living place on afternoons that are nice, and that was supposed to be a nice day, so I was planning to do so anyway. About 2:30, one of the nurses popped into my mom’s room and announced: “The eclipse has started!”. So we toddled outside where, amazingly, there were two chairs, and watched for about 45 minutes. My mother wasn’t interested; in fact, I don’t think she has been in the sun in 25 years (afraid it will ruin her skin!), but I watched the whole thing, till it reached its peak, then when we went in and I passed the glasses on to some nurses, who could watch it in reverse.
Pam
Hi Lewis,
Thanks so much for your guidance in this matter. Basically, I had no idea. None. Nein. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Stuff-all. I could keep going you know, and that’s not a threat, it’s a promise! 😉 But, you’re probably rapidly gaining an appreciation as to my utter ignorance in respect to this subject matter. Still, a person has to navigate their way in the world, and as the courts have been wont to suggest: ‘ignorance is no excuse’. So anyway, how’s that funny looking growth goin’ man? 🙂
Maybe it is just me, but I was always a bit ooked-out by the keto craze. After all, it looks a lot like starvation to me, and I love food way too much for such silliness. And I’ll bet people at the Club never once spoke about the side effects of such diet crazes, did they? Hmm. Does anyone ever really want to be exposed to Keto crotch? That was apparently one of the side effects, and there were others just as unappealing.
Food is such a funny topic. One of the undocumented side effects of growing up in the cash strapped house I landed in, was that there was hardly ever junk food in the house. Food was basic, but at least you knew what it was. Far out.
Oh hey, I learned a new phrase today courtesy of Jack Vance: horn-swogglery. That’s a new one. Something to do with being on the more advantageous end of the extortion and blackmailing caper. Have you ever come across that description before? The words were discovered in his previously unpublished book: ‘The view from Chickweed’s window’. Chickweed in this case being one of the minor characters in the book. It’s a revenge tale with a female protagonist, kind of like a 1978 version of ‘Kill Bill’ but without the violence. Apparently the author struggled finding a publisher for the work, and so it languished until the fans published the collected works. Despite ‘Saturday Night Fever’ dominating the pop culture around that time, I reckon some aspects of the book would have been too risqué for the timid publishers of the time.
Who knew a person could go without the sedation? But it probably makes sense to do so, and you’d have a vastly quicker recovery time. Hey, I had all my wisdom teeth removed under local anaesthetic, one of which was impacted, and despite the stitches and quiet afternoon of rest, I was mostly fine the next day. Not so with people who go all out. Oh yes, what you wrote is what I’d describe as self assessment. 🙂 You’re like super bad for saying such things to your friends. Hope she is OK.
Always useful information, and I wasn’t remotely freaked out. More of, ooo, that’s weird. Could have just been seeing things in the dark hours. But people being harmed due to fright, yeah I can see that. That other lot you mentioned, people seem to be rather incautious these days. There was a song last year which sounded like boasting about such matters, and people seemed to like the song, but I dunno. I guess the problem with thinking you’re strong enough to deal with such things, is that you don’t know, and things could end up badly if you misjudge there. Best not to muck around with such things. I’ve heard that the trick is not to invite them in. What’s your view on that?
Ha! You go first putting the GPS tracker onto the wasp. No freakin’ way will I do such a thing! 🙂 Thanks for the laughs. The ag depts suggest laying out meat traps and then tracing back the direction as to where the wasps came from. Apparently they like flying in straight lines. Not a bad idea to hunt them down.
I’d read something about composting kitty litter. Hmm… … Ah, seems like there is more than one sort of kitty litter, and the clay stuff is perhaps not compostable. It’s weird what happened, and I just don’t understand it either!
No doubts in dog obedience school H would get the report card which reads as follows: H is a good student, but is easily distracted. If she applied herself diligently to the task at hand, her overall performance would improve. Dogs are easily distracted, even working dogs who have focus bred into them. On a serious note, the question there is: Focused on what? You want ‘walk’, and H wants ‘butterfly’. The rest is all training. I just ask for a good enough response from the dogs. Can you imagine what it would take to be able to work as a horse breaker? Talk about mind games.
That lot have their prejudices and blind spots, that’s for sure. Mate, in those days, they took kids away from single parents for lesser things than that. Probably not a bad idea that after a number of days, we were whisked away to my grandmothers house. But yeah, there were some funny beliefs about things back then.
One degree is almost as good as. Did you dodge the frost? Forgot to mention that the clocks turned back last weekend. Yay! No more getting up in the dark, for now at least.
Don’t you reckon that auctioneering would work strange changes on a person, much like how the carney lifestyle would? There’s an element of the showman about the work.
All you have to do is meet the deadline. Whether the next rung up meets their deadlines, is out of your hands.
You’ve mentioned that dumpster effect. Given your dumpster is under a chute, I guess there is no risk from dumpster divers? Not all books are worthy of a spot in a library where shelf space is limited.
Oh, there’s an autumn pie and tart trail organised by the local council. Went on the hunt at lunchtime to a bakery I’d never been to before, and the pie was OK. I’d say above average, but not good enough for a return visit. Onto the next pie! The hunt continues…
Cheers
Chris
Hi Pam,
You go! What a fine gift from nature, you got to spend some time with your mum and also enjoyed the eclipse. It doesn’t get better than that. It was very thoughtful that the nurses had placed some seats out for the two of you (or you managed to nab the last two chairs). And nice of you to return the favour.
And a two thirds viewing, is an excellent achievement.
Incidentally, you got me wondering about the necessity of the glasses if you weren’t looking at the sun (or anywhere near it in the sky). I presume your media has been full of the warnings.
Thanks for the laughs. Reputable sources suggest that a person needs some regular daily sunshine to get their Vitamin D. 🙂 It’s been said before that ‘mother knows best’. All very true and impossible to argue, but which mother are they talking about? That’s what I want to know.
Cheers
Chris
Another eclipse report:
Our relatives back in Indiana just happen to liven the path of totality, so the relatives used that for an excuse to have a big get together. There were around 40 of us, and the weather and my sister’s big back yard world out quite well. Very cool experience as others have described.
I have a long handled lopper that operates with a long rope, but is not up to the task for many of the topmost branches that need it most. Just might have to upgrade. Some of the apple trees have gotten away from me.
Now back to it. Spring has sprung with a vengeance, so the outdoors work list is on tap for this week.
Yo, Chris – Back in the 1950s, when I was a wee small lad, highly processed food was just coming in. But, as Mum wasn’t much of a cook, we did get a lot of it. Balanced with really healthy stuff from my uncle’s farm. A mixed bag. I often think what I’d say if someone stuck a microphone in my face, and asked to what I attributed my longevity, I’d have to say that I really didn’t know. I regularly eat a lot of healthy stuff. Is it the banana a day? The two squares of dark chocolate? The cinnamon I put on my oatmeal? The turmeric or nutritional yeast I sprinkle on my dinner? Or, perhaps, some of those things working in concert.
Due to an odd set of circumstances, I was looking into Otzi the Iceman’s tattoos. He had around 60 of them, by the way. Mostly, just parallel lines. But of interest, is that they were around places where people have joint pain. So, were they medicinal? But what I really started wondering about, was his medical kit. Did he have willow bark. After our discussion. No willow bark, but Birch also contains similar compounds that have a natural anti-inflammation and pain relieving properties. Especially, a Birch fungi, which he had in his kit.
I had heard the word “hornswoggled,” mostly in old western movies. It first appeared in print in 1829. Best guess as to origin is that it had something to do with cowboys and cow punching.
I went the no anesthetic route, as I didn’t have anyone to drive me to and from the procedure. The doctor was hesitant, but after I told him I wasn’t touchy about my bum, as some men are … well, after he picked himself up off the floor, from falling out of his chair in laughter, it was a “go” on the no anesthetic route.
Yes. Best not to send demons invitations, with RSVPs requested. 🙂 Maybe your sighting was a dream, inside a dream?
H’s fantasy report card: Why do I get the feeling it was lifted, directly off of one of yours? 🙂
Close, but no cigar. Overnight low was 2F degrees, shy of freezing.
Auctioneering is kind of performance art. Not an occupation for the shy and retiring. The auctioneer, here, Zack, isn’t really an … over-the-top kind of a person, when you meet him in “real life.” But when he’s “on”, he’s really good at what he does. I think.
Yes, even though I’ve got all my recertification paperwork in, Little Mary Sunshine will make it seem as though it’s my fault that it’s late.
One of the care givers was out, when the dumpster was empties. The dumpster man, was not pleased. Even took pictures. There will be extra charges. Again, it’s a failure of management, that they don’t ride herd on these things. Now we’re hearing that everything in our apartments have to be six feet away from heat sources.
Last night, I watched “Poor Things.” Hmmm. One of the oddest movies I’ve seen in a long time. Mild spoilers, ahead. It’s a bit of a Frankenstein tale, with many twists. A very odd scientist acquires the body of a young pregnant woman. Who drowned herself. She’s dead, but her fetus is still alive. Sooooo … he removes the brain of the fetus, puts it in the woman, and reanimates her. So, to start out, she’s got the body of a woman, but the brain of an infant. Would I recommend it? Well, no. But maybe yes. I’d say, proceed at your own risk. Lew
Hi Steve,
Many thanks for the eclipse report, and your massive family get together sounded like a fun time. Incidentally, you sent me on an interweb rabbit hole looking at the country between where you are and Indiana. I learned that the term ‘hoosier’, could apply here! And that Hoosier Hill, the highest point in the state was a scant 382.67 meters above sea level. That’s rather flat, even from someone who lives on a remarkably flat continent! The elevated plains surrounding this mountain range are higher than that.
Glad to hear that the weather co-operated with the event. Did you feel the sudden drop in temperature?
Ha! I’ve got two such hand tools as well, one of which works via chain links. Another has a saw blade. They’re good, but not good enough for the benign neglect those two trees endured. If I had unlimited time, then those tools would be fine, but who has that much free time?
Apples grow fast and thick, yup. Man, I’m learning as I go with the gentle art of pruning, but read an excellent book on the subject last year.
Broke more boulders today, then hauled the large rocks back up the hill.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Headed way down to the forest edge this morning and continued to mine the remaining boulders in that rock shelf for their very large, but moveable rocks. I quite enjoy the work of rock breaking because there’s something really quite enjoyable about cleaning up an area whilst deriving useful things from the area as payment for services rendered. We’ve now got a small pile of large rocks ready to install on the low gradient path, but that’s a job for another day.
So, I always work to music, and had the radio down with us today. It’s got a digital display, and such tech things encourage dependence upon their accuracy. The music wasn’t playing, mostly because I’d be unable to hear the national youth broadcaster over the sound of the rock drill, jackhammer, and big yellow taxi, sorry I meant to say, yellow power wheelbarrow engine.
The work continued. Went to check out the time on the notably accurate seeming digital display of the radio, and it was with horror that somehow the time had slipped past 3pm, and without lunch! Lunch being kind of important. Except, that was the one clock I’d forgotten to turn back due to you-know-what last weekend. Horror at the forgotten lunch, soon turned to relief that the kitchen at the general store would still be open.
Went to the local general store and picked up the mail and enjoyed coffee and a very late lunch. Winning. And that radio clock has been turned back an hour. A Zero to Hero story!
A replacement food dehydrator machine arrived in the mail today. Yay! The older machine was a quarter century old, and I went to investigate the guts of the machine a week or so ago and noticed that the circuit board was cracked in several spots. I’ve kept the old machine and when, or if, there is some free time, I’ll rebuild the circuit board.
But, alas, the rock shelf is now depleted, and Peak Rocks is back again. Sad…
All those things sound good to me. Plus a sense of humour, or at least the absurd. That helps too with longevity, although I’ve known some people over the years who survived on sheer spite. Those people best avoided if you ask me, which you didn’t. 🙂 Hey, the Editor is also on board with the cinnamon thing too. I’d have to say, in your case all of the above sound good to me. Oats are very good though. My gut feeling (and please excuse the inadvertent pun) was that the skill of cooking was not exactly respected during those decades you mentioned, and certainly that continued on into my early adult years. For something we do three times a day, a bit of care and attention to the task seems warranted to me, but then I like food. I’ve observed plenty of people who have a tortured relationship with food, and that’s a mystery to me.
Yellow Birch (Betula alleghaniensis) is a very interesting tree. Not at all common down here. Thanks for the useful prodding. We’ve got the ‘Silver Birch’ varieties which don’t tend to enjoy the damp winters here. Otzi was probably a very interesting dude.
What? Did you say: ‘cow punching’? Surely this can’t be a thing, maybe? Ah, I see, it is the colloquial early name for cattle herding and does not necessarily refer to the literal definition (although it may have been true early on with loading cattle onto rail cars).
🙂 It is a truth universally acknowledged that not everyone can hack discomfiture. Your colon story suggests that you’ve got what it takes. There are risks with general anaesthetics, and things don’t always turn out so well. And I’d also have to suggest that if you’re awake and alert, they’ll be more gentle. Respect.
I’d heard that good advice with that unmentionable lot, and don’t need to be told a second time. Rarely ends well. Now my mind is blown away. Yeah, maybe it could have been that dream within a dream.
Well, good lines should be recycled and built upon. If not, I might run out of cheeky ideas! H will be fine and surely her feelings won’t be hurt by the observation, especially once she’s survived doggie correctional school. Anyway, being distracted, no doubts H’s mind has gone onto other things already? Ruby and the Editor are attending such a school, and both are getting a lot out of the experience. We’re lucky to have such a club not too far from here.
Such bold talk with the near frost sounds like hubris to me. Good luck! 🙂
Some folks can front a rock and roll band, then lead a quiet life. Zack probably has that knack down pat. Compartmentalisation is a skill.
Ha! You’ll never know about your paperwork, unless they begin asking you why you were late handing it in? Anyway, that’s probably why the lady gets the big bucks.
How do you keep anything six feet from a heat source? Even the wood heaters I’m aware of don’t require such massive clearances. Makes you wonder what happened to cause that particular new rule?
Sounds intriguing. The trailer looked nutty, but in a good way. And Emma Stone is a great character actor.
Cheers
Chris
Chris:
Mother Nature?
Pam
Yo, Chris – New finds from Pompeii. They’re still picking away at that complex with the bakery ….
https://www.yahoo.com/news/pompeii-breathtaking-paintings-found-ancient-062325407.html?
Hoosier also refers to a famous kitchen cabinet, that was made in Indiana …
https://w.wiki/9jNi
I had a few, when I was in the tat trade. I knew a dealer, years ago, who would go to Kansas, every year, and pick up Hoosier Cabinets in various states. He’d renovate them, and sell them through his shop. Nice old couple. Retired teachers.
I once went out to work in the Aberdeen library, on a Sunday morning. Couldn’t figure out why no one was there. Almost headed back home. I was a time-change victim. 🙂 I can also remember church services, where people (including the pastor) either showed up an hour early, or, an hour late. Stop the madness!
Can’t do without a food dehydrator. One of the more useful kitchen gizmos.
Yes, the 1950s and early 1960s could be pretty bleak as far as the cooking scene went. Who can forget Poppy Cannon’s “The Can-Opener Cookbook?” (1951). Not that that kind of thing has died out. As recently as 2002, there was “The Can Opener Gourmet.” (Karr.) The history of cooking, in America, is interesting. And sure has had its ups and downs.
Poor Otzi! Apparently on the run, with an arrow in his shoulder. There’s a story there, that invites speculation. Not that we’ll ever know what really led to his end.
I thought maybe cow punching had to do with punching the red hot brand onto cattle. But, apparently, not.
H was distracted and transfixed by something, yesterday. It was a squirrel, climbing up one tree, and leaping over to the crown of another. A pair of ravens, have taken up residence in our woods. I’ve seen them out and about, several times. I’ve also heard their distinctive “Caack!”
Well, our dumpster is overloaded, again, and the signs are back up to hold our garbage. The garbage man will not be happy, tomorrow morning. I managed to get my two small bags of garbage, in, before it got entirely out of hand. I don’t know why Little Mary Sunshine, our building manager, doesn’t ride closer herd on these people cleaning out apartments.
When I took H for her walk last night, I noticed there were four large piles of books, on the return table in the Institution’s library. Suzanne had a lot of books, DVDs and VHS tapes. It’s chaos, in there. Makes no sense. There was some space on the shelves, but all my carefully laid out subject sections have been moved around. Why? So, when the dust settles, I’ll be spending some time, in there. I pulled out a sack full of books, that I’ll be donating to the local women-centric bookstore. Some will go to the public library. There’s a lot of religious stuff, that no one is interested in. I’m afraid that might be binned. There’s a couple of shelves of quilting books. Near as I can tell, there’s no more quilting club, here. Some of those will go. Unlike people cleaning out apartments, I may be making a trip to the local landfill. Lew
Hi Inge,
Not sure if you’re still reading, but I thought you might be interested to read of the type of surf hitting the New South Wales coastline over the past week. I’d had an article which showed the before and after photos of the beaches, and let’s just say that the comparison was not all that great. That article disappeared and I’ve been unable to find it again.
Anyway, here’s what has been going on: Nine metre waves and 100 km/h winds hit NSW. Nine metres is just shy of a thirty foot wave. Nice sandy beaches have difficulty surviving such strong weather. I’d not want to encounter such a wave in a small boat.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Pam,
At first I’d believed you were joking around like I was, but then realisation hit hard: You’re right! Respect.
Went to an alternative farming expo today and really enjoyed the experience. It’s taken a while, but we’re country-as through and through nowadays. 🙂 It was lovely to talk shop with like minded people and drool over the many handy small farm machines. There were chickens and miniature breeds of cattle, working dogs trials etc. Do they have such things in your part of the world?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
The Pompeii finds are amazing, but I’d have to suggest that neither Helen of Troy, nor Cassandra, as depicted in the ancient frescoes were perhaps worth the vast troubles which ensued. Monty Python suggested as much in the film ‘Life of Brian’ about origins of ‘Nose City’. The film left a deep impression upon me.
Similar kitchen cabinetry used to be seen in my youth, which was remarkably similar to those Hoosier cabinets. At the time, the timber door fronts were often replaced with cheap glass (with very thin glazing) and the cabinets were used to display the best crockery in the household. Bizarrely, the ceramic items on display were rarely, if ever used. In the link you provided the photograph of the kitchen from 1910-1920 which was fascinating. It would have been quite modern, and seriously differs from the Victorian era kitchens I’d seen in historic houses during my travels over the years. I dunno if you noticed the big contraption next to the gas burning stove top? I reckon it is a wood gassifier device which would have produced a combination of methane and hydrogen for the stove top. The so-called old school ‘town gas’. Sometimes the fuel was produced using coal. What do you reckon about that guess?
It’s a clever idea to focus on restoration of a particular item, like those Hoosier cabinets. The real risk there is if the market falls out from under them. Did you notice in the old photo of the kitchen that there were few if any built in cabinets? Such a cabinet as the Hoosier’s takes up a lot of room – which was the entire point of the things. The restored Victorian era kitchens I’ve seen look to be busier places with more workbenches, storage cabinetry and boxes than the one in the photograph.
It looks like there is a reasonably probability that there may be a La Niña event later this year. That usually means a cool and wet summer, but we’ll see.
Went to the Seymour Alternative Farming Expo today. It was good fun, and aimed squarely at small holders. It was good talking shop with the exhibitors, and I was drooling over the small portable milling machines, especially the Lucas Mills. So good. As you’d expect, we learned a lot, spent some mad cash, and had a blast. Lunch was a hot dog with chilli cheese kransky, additional cheese, fried onions and mustard. That was good, very good in fact. For the record, we looked at the chicken sales, but did not buy any. A lot of breeders are producing Silkie chickens this year which I assume must sell to someone? Dunno. Te Editor and I are firm of the opinion: No more Silkie chickens here. We tend to prefer either the Araucana or Light (or White) Sussex breeds, mostly because they lay well and are usually problem free here in this environment. Attended a session with a bloke who trains Kelpie working dogs, and as usual learned stuff. A snake catcher had a demonstration and talk, and confirmed to me that’s a job for the experts. Apparently, the eastern brown snakes here have been downgraded from second most deadly in the world, to third place – a new species in central Australia was recently discovered. Hope the reptiles aren’t upset by their fall from venomous grace?
Dude, a long time ago I did a contract job which had set hours and also fell into the same daylight savings change over trap. It’s a brutal experience to be a time-change victim. I likewise share your pain. More alert folks are all too happy to point out our failings. Well that’s on their heads, don’t you reckon? Where’s the congregation gotten to this week? 🙂
Yup, took the new dehydrator out for a spin, and it works well, and is possibly better than the old unit. The newer machine being warmer does work wonders with that task. 😉 It is a useful machine, yeah.
Poppy is a fascinating person who lived a very interesting life. The right person at the right time, is perhaps how I view the err, creation. A bit of passion, some connections, and a very serious work ethic to boot. Her demise sounded strange to me, but in the history I read hints of complexities.
The arrow in the shoulder of Otzi is suggestive of an altercation which may have ended badly. However, by dying where he did, like the digs at Pompeii reveal, you and I (and plenty of others) are given a window into the past to ponder and marvel upon. It’s a rare gift to the future.
You get that impression with cow-punching don’t you? An odd thing to do to an animal which is big enough to be respectful of. Speaking of which, they had some hornless Poll Highland Cattle on display today. They also had a miniature highland variety (under 42 inches in height) which also looked really cool, being smaller than the more usual cattle. My kind of cattle…
Life is beginning to spring back at your place. Hope the squirrels keep out of the garden. And ravens truck no nonsense from lesser birds. Clever birds.
That’s not good. If I may dare suggest – matters will come to a head when rubbish fees go up significantly.
To my mind, donations of such books and other media are not a return to the library, but more of a hopeful: take this rubbish so that we can avoid the personal horror of disposing of it thus also avoiding the utter lack of value of the stuff. It’s a make believe scenario. The stuff will end up in the bin.
There is a property not too far from here that is now very neat and they run horses on it. Many years ago (and two owners I reckon), the place used to be filled with industrial rubbish – like damaged machinery, cars and stuff. You wouldn’t know it nowadays. Your job with the library is kind of like fending off that outcome, and providing a nice and neat library. One has to be fearless when fending off rubbish… 🙂 It’s true though.
Cheers
Chris
Chris:
They do have such things here – sheep dog trials were my favorite – but I don’t have time for it now. The county fair was a favorite, too, and we occasionally made it to the Virginia State Fair.
I feel most comfortable with country folks, also; they are who I have things most in common with, but I can get along with all kinds because, being human, we all have something in common.
Pam
Hello Chris
I just managed a quick rather sketchy read through. That was indeed one heck of a wave height.
Here people have been swimming in the high streets.
My property is in it’s original position about 80 ft above sea level. My previous one had been moved back/up.
Today has been dry and I got outside to deal with some clearing and planting.
Inge
Hello Chris,
The Seymour Alt-Farm Festival sounds like a great event. I have not found any such gathering here yet. (The main tourist event of our village is a Tractor Pulling competition. Not my cup of tea.)
Regarding skillets and induction heaters: some mixes of stainless steel is not magnetic, and therefore do not resonate with the magnetic field of the induction heater. Nowadays I think that all major brands use magnetic steels in the pans.
However, I found a Hackmann skillet bargain at the Red Cross Second hand shop a few weeks back for equivalent of 20 AUD. Hackmann is a Finnish company from 1780 or so, that is famous in Scandinavia for high quality knives and cookware.
Coming home, I realized that it was of the non-magnetic kind, so it will only be used as a power-cut backup skillet.
Spring is here with all the wonderful smells and flavours. We will start grafting walnut trees next week. And chestnut trees after that.
The first rhubarb harvest came in yesterday and we will start eating home grown spinach next week. It is a great time of the year.
Peace,
Göran
Yo, Chris – The movie I remember is “Trojan Women.” (1971) It was adapted from a play by Euripides, first performed in 415BCE. 🙂
Roman ideas of “beauty” were perhaps a bit different, than ours. On the other hand, Pompeii, when you get right down to it, was a bit of a provincial back-water. Really good artists would have got themselves off to Rome, or somewhere else where they could make the big bucks. I’ve seen some stunningly realistic pretty ladies, in both fresco and mosaic. Never mind sculpture.
I watched a documentary called “Railroad Stations in American Life.” It was short segments on railway stations, all over America. So, why mention it here? Somewhere I read that a lot of the stations were patterned on the great baths, in Rome. The Baths of Caracalla and some of the other ones. Huge halls with lots of windows to let in sunlight. A lot of the early ones were part of the “city beautiful” movement. A lot were built in the Beaux Art style, or, later ones in Art Deco. Some are partially still used as train stations, others converted for different uses. They also had photo montages of smaller, rural stations. A lot of carpenter gothic.
One thing I’d always been vaguely curious about, was as to why so many stations are called “Union” stations. Back in the day, there were a lot of railroad companies. In large cities, they often each had their own station. Chicago had five. Seattle had two. Eventually, they decided to consolidate, or form a “union” under one grand roof.
Stoves: Got me. Might be a hot water reservoir. Yes, not much storage space, back in the day. There were also no closets. Hence, pieces of furniture like wardrobes.
Your farming expo sounds like a lot of fun. If it has an amusement ride area, and a midway with games of chance, it’s like our county fairs. Sounds like they’ve got the lethal foods covered. 🙂
How much damage did Poppy do, to the American palate. 🙂 Producers of processed foods, besides paying for advertising, in women’s magazines and women’s pages in newspapers, would occasionally slip writers a bit of cash, to sing the praises of their products.
Maybe Otzi was making eyes at someone else’s wife? 🙂
Branding was done on calves. Slightly easier to handle, than the full grown beasts. Video is 2 1/2 minutes.
https://youtu.be/Rh-h05fd1ko?si=E5CTsTpxXiK0pNI3
My spinach made an appearance, yesterday. Still no action from the carrots. I ordered seed, yesterday. Beets, parsnips, turnips, green and yellow zucchini and a few other things.
That’s the thing. Our building manager, Little Mary Sunshine, will just pay the extra fees. Rather than riding herd on the cleaning out of apartments. No skin off her nose if the poor garbage man, and everyone in the building, is inconvenienced.
Oh, I’ll be fairly ruthless about weeding out the library. Some stuff I’ll donate to the library for their book sales. Once we have space freed up in the dumpster, I’ll start feeding SMALL amounts into it. Books weigh a lot. Yes, people tell themselves comforting tales. As in, going through all the motions of recycling, and then none of that stuff gets recycled. It’s all rather theatre. Lew
Hi Pam,
The working dog trials are great aren’t they? It’s good to watch the dogs working in a team with the boss human to herd cattle or sheep to where ever it is they are wanted. The dogs are super smart too, tell you the truth, those two Kelpies keep me on my toes. Poor Dame Plum had another seizure this afternoon, but she quickly recovered. I suspect that she is eating something, which itself ate something, and this is setting her off.
I’m assuming that the State Fairs have become a bit like what I reckon the Royal Melbourne Show became? They’re all about rides and show bags, and entertainment I believe. I really like the expo because it is none of those things. It’s aimed squarely at small holders, and is good.
Me too. I hear you. Walking among many different worlds is part of having an open mind. Years ago I used to work in the big end of town, yet write for the hippy press and do all the other stuff we got up to in order to save/earn a buck. I’m pretty sure there ain’t many in the top end of town who can lay a brick wall. My grandfather provided a life template as to what was possible. But then, I never gave myself fully over to those work folks.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Inge,
Many of the oceans surrounding the continent can produce some big swells. Can you imagine the courage it took to get on board a small sailing ship and head into the roaring forties? I’d read of one extraordinary wave height reliably measured at 17m / 55ft off the west coast of Tasmania. Truly, such things give me an attack of the vapours! 🙂
I presume you don’t encounter such large ocean swells off your island?
Surely you jest about people swimming in the high streets on your island? Oh no! You weren’t kidding. Good to see that a couple of cheeky scamps can take advantage of the conditions in between offering assistance to flooded businesses.
Thanks for the correction. 80ft has a reassuringly nice height above the ocean.
Are you intending to trial any new vegetable varieties this summer? Hope that the ground dries out a bit for you (although not too much though).
Ollie tackled a tardy wallaby the other day. This was probably the marsupial consuming the silverbeet. Unfortunately, I became involved. Ollie’s freedom has been somewhat restricted, just like Flynn. The wallaby seems OK, and at least seems to have learned a valuable lesson.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Göran,
The expo was really good. It’s all about the sort of animals and machines which can be used on a small holding. I reckon you would have enjoyed it. There are expos for much larger farms of course, but those are known down here as ‘Field Days’. We’ve been to a few Field Days, but I much prefer the small holder expo.
A stall selling chestnuts and hazelnuts would probably have done some brisk business. Most years we buy our chickens at the expo from the local poultry clubs sale, and they’ve all been good. Didn’t buy any this year because none have died recently. No point overstocking the chicken enclosure because that will cause trouble.
Hehe! There’s a local old tractor group in the area, and yes, they also do a tractor pull competition some years. I’ve never been, but many years ago that local group took their road registered old tractors for a spin up into the hills and ended up on the road here. Hard to ignore the noise! They were admiring the view. I went up to have a chat to them, and they were really lovely people.
That skillet is a pretty good find, and will last you a life time, and then some. Oh well, what do the old timers say about: Nothing ventured, nothing gained. 😉 Hey, you can always use such a skillet on the wood heater, maybe.
Yay for spring! Yum! Yum! Stewed rhubarb is very tasty. Hope you planted enough rhubarb crowns for the household? Good stuff with the walnut and chestnut trees. Thanks to your poking, we’ll plant out more chestnut and hazelnut trees during winter. I’m about given up on growing walnut trees here. There are some very old specimen trees around, but getting a walnut tree established is very hard here.
This evening I feel like I’ve been in the boxing ring earlier today for ten rounds against the reigning champ. We restored the area where the rock shelf previously was this afternoon. You’d never know the huge number of rocks pulled out of that area. But restoration is hard work, which is basically why the loggers always leave such a monster mess. I’ll feed the soil there tomorrow.
And I’m enjoying your blog.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Thanks for the deep dive into the early 70’s film. A truly fine cast. Don’t you think that it is amazing that a work from the ancient playwright Euripides survives to this day? At High School I recall reading the play ‘Medea’, but was honestly too young, and otherwise unprepared for such a work. And you’re probably right there. In the unlikely possibility that if the ancient Romans got their hands on me, they’d probably consider me to be a huge ambling barbarian. Positively uncivilised to boot! I have no doubts that in that time, I’d end up as a slave.
I hadn’t thought of Pompeii in that light, but it makes sense. Thought I should add in that I quite enjoy living in a back-water, although thoughts of active volcanoes is a bit off putting.
Really? It’s quite the interesting observation on railroad stations. They do have a certain ‘look’ to them, although newer iterations tend to favour the whole exposed concrete, glass and stainless steel thing. Speaking of changes in building practices over time, I came across an article on the DIY elements of post war housing in the 1950’s what with labour and material shortages: How Colleen and Ted Hood handmade 10,000 bricks to build their Murwillumbah home in the 1950s .
The architect who drew up the designs for this house often remarked that we were the last of the Mohicans when it came to DIY house builds.
There’s even a photo of one of the old house plan books, which used to guide construction back in the day.
Hey, some of the newer stations which are basically less well ventilated than the older Victorian era stations, are unsurprisingly apparently having troubles with air quality. All that engine exhaust has to go somewhere.
I’d not heard of the ‘union’ station moniker before. A sort of early consolidation of services perhaps? Even those rail tycoon folks could have understood the need for the various services to all connect up. The stupid colonies down here originally decided upon different gauges, as you do. It’s OK as a strategy, until you want to connect up a Melbourne to Sydney rail line which goes from one state to the next. A station on the state border used to be the point where passengers changed trains.
Yeah, it could well have been a hot water reservoir / boiler warmed by the stove / oven (probably wood or charcoal fuelled). That would have been quite advanced in 1910. I’ve been looking at how to make charcoal, and quite a number of cheeky scamps use that stuff, add some other stuff and make black powdah (sic). It’s a bit of a thing, apparently and not as hard as you’d think it might be.
Built in closets and cupboards (excluding the kitchen), only came to be in my lifetime. Many of the older houses we’ve restored certainly didn’t have any such thing – excluding of the kitchen, of course. Given some of the materials the things are made from, like say vinyl clad plasterboard doors, I do wonder about their longevity. But people seem to love the stuff, so who am I to argue with popular opinion?
Years ago I made a substantial timber chest for the Editor to store the sheets and other such linen in. It’s a lovely dark brown timber, and is super heavy but can be carried using the even heavier duty ye-olde metal handles (which may have had their origins in Bali).
I don’t think so man! 🙂 What? Are you serious? The Royal Melbourne Show has amusement rides and a carney-life sort of atmosphere. You see the games of chance there as well, with the ubiquitous wall of prizes. But nah, there was none of that stuff at the farming expo. Dude, the lethal foods were good. We don’t have that sort of unusual kind of food experiment thing you lot have going on at your State Fairs – like deep fried and battered chocolate bars.
That’s a good question? It was of interest to me that Poppy had I believe, her original work in the advertising industry.
Otzi did do that. True. But what I heard was that this wasn’t the primary motivation for the man hunt. No. What really moved the powers that be against the hapless medicine man, was that he’d disparaged the rival Shaman’s home brew. That was the final straw. They gave him some supplies and a half a day head start. But Otzi’s brew really did prove to be no match. You read it here first! 😉
Ouch! They tend to whack microchips onto cattle these days.
Ah very good. Yeah Spinach germinates at lower soil temperatures. The carrots will be fine, maybe… Hope the other seed arrives soon, although it is only very early days in your growing season.
One can only have such an attitude when the mad cash is flowing nicely. When things are tight, tis a whole different story. 😉 Very clever too to slowly feed the unwanted items into the dumpster. I’ve heard books being described as light weight, but this does not generally refer to the physical properties of said book.
We cleaned up the area where we’d removed all of the rocks recently. There were a lot of holes in the ground where the rocks had only just been. In another year, it will look as if its always been neat and orderly. I got in with the rototiller and ripped up a lot of the clay in that area, and that will get some air back into the soil. I’ll give the area a feed of the coffee ground mix tomorrow. Me tried tonight.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Sure you’d be considered a barbarian. You wear pants! And probably, socks with your sandals. 🙂
I noticed that as part of that Pompeii Trojan War frescoes, there was one of Leda and the Swan. Although she looks a bit startled (well, attacked by an amorous swan…), I’d say that bit was done by a different, and more talented artist. Local boy, on his way to Rome! Just as a bit of fodder, for the next pub quiz, how does Leda fit into the Trojan story? The swan was Zeus in disguise. Leda laid an egg. Who emerged from the egg? Helen of Troy. Actually, Leda laid two eggs. One contained boy twins, the other girl twins.
That was really an interesting article about the folks who made their own bricks, to build their own house. Also, the “related stories” at the bottom, on Art Deco and post-war architecture was interesting. Yes, almost impossible to go out and build your own house, these days. Often, for reasons Mr. Greer covered in his last post.
All through the 1930’s to 1950s, if you didn’t have the skills to build a house, there was plenty of information around. Magazines like Popular Mechanics. The Sunset magazine folks, put out a series of books, often updated, that covered all aspects of house construction. I haven’t checked it out yet, but I guess you can buy pre-fab houses from The River. There’s a U – Tub video, of people unboxing and setting up their new homes.
It was mentioned, that back in the day, there were different gages of railways. Another reason some railway lines had their own stations. Narrow gage helps win the war! 🙂 I read somewhere, that as Russia retreated, during WWII, they destroyed a lot of their rolling stock, so it wouldn’t fall into German hands. Why? Russia had a different gage railway, compared to Germany. It slowed down the German advance.
Then there’s model railroads. I’m sure Sheldon Cooper could explain it all to us, but there were many different gages.
There are a lot of black powdah (sic) hobbyists, here. Part of our hunting season is reserved for black powdah. There’s also a bow hunting season. The powdah folks are often reenactors.
My Empire Style dresser (circa 1840s), had very deep drawers. Great for storage of sheets, blankets, towels, sweaters, etc.. Cedar chests were a big deal, here. Some of them were “hope” chests for aspiring brides. Cedar lined closets were a big deal, for awhile. Kept the bugs at bay. They sure smelled good.
I got an e-mail that the seeds were shipped yesterday. There just coming up from south of Portland, so, I should get them early week. Way more weight than from Territorial, yet the shipping is a few dollars less. Funny, that. Lew
Hi Lewis,
Cool. Being considered a barbarian feels powerful! 😉 Oh what, I can’t believe that nobody is trying to copy my style with the whole socks and sandals look – it gets a bad rap you know. Their loss…
Swans can be quite menacing, although not as disturbing as being confronted by a (what is it, a clutch?) of geese. Those birds have bad attitudes and they’ll hiss in a menacing way ,and then try and extort some most excellent bakery product from you. Leda may have had some serious real concerns there, as Zeus had a bit of a reputation for the ladies. Personally I’m disinclined to believe that having a god which is easily bored could be a good thing for the human worshippers. Talk about being kept on your toes.
With semi-deities in the population, Troy probably had some issues to deal with, and it ended really badly for them all. Not something to emulate.
Exactly. If there’s a shortage of bricks, and they’re super expensive, how about doing something different? If labour is in short supply, make the fricken thing yourself. The difficulty factor is over stated. Many years ago I used to really enjoy going on a mud brick house tour, and it was always a pleasure to see what the owners had created. Housing need not look like it does nowadays, and in fact I’d have to suggest that the current trends are but a moment in time.
Well, yeah that’s true. A certain percentage of a DIY house has to be completed by registered folks, but dispensation of some rules can always be applied for. I’d gone down that path, and the authoritas seemed pretty reasonable and quick to provide a decision to me. Many folks aren’t aware that this is even a possible option. Most people begin with the story in their heads: This is too hard. With that story locked in, it is too hard.
Man, up to about the early 1990’s you could buy books on how to build a house. It’s not rocket science. And for the stuff we never understood, we just went to a housing estate under construction and wandered around looking at the houses and how the builders did the aspects we were unsure about. People over state the complexity.
I’d never considered that aspect to the rail road gauge story, but that makes sense. The colonies down here used to be wary of the other colonies before Federation. Most people forget their history. I guess if there is a long established rail road in place, it probably suggests a cheaper transport option than by way of road – which for an advancing army would be a dangerous option.
Ha! Have to laugh. I used to date a girl who’s father owner a model railway shop so I know the lingo and might be able to hold my own with Mr Sheldon Cooper for a short period of time. 🙂 Look, if he’d owned a brewery instead that would have been more fun, but probably way more trouble.
Speaking of breweries and bakery products, the local council is promoting an autumn ‘pie and tart trail’. It’s an annual thing, and throws a spanner in the works for the more methodical search for the very best bakery products in the area, mostly because there are suddenly a whole bunch of wild cards, and only so much time to continue the search. Anyway, today we went to a nearby cidery for lunch and enjoyed a very excellent pork pie. I suggested to the Editor that we should make the time to go back and re-sample, but alas there are only so many days in the month.
Fortunately there were no geese trying to bot the pork pie. Winning!
Yes, I noticed that about those folks. They seem rather gifted at hands on low-tech possibilities. Look, that genie is way out of the bag.
Cedar does smell nice. Have you ever encountered the aroma of a Camphor chest? The carvings are amazing too. They used to be a thing in the 70’s. And I also recall that they may have been called ‘glory boxes’ (your ‘hope’ boxes) and the parents would fill the chests with linen for their girlie kids as a wedding present. It was a thing, but was dying out in my child years. It’s sad to think of what traditions have been lost over the years, but no doubts they’ll make a return due to necessity. We bought 1,000 thread count cotton brand new fitted sheets second hand which is used on the dogs bedding. It was under $10 and had a slight colour issue. Any society which can provide that possibility has clearly lost the plot.
Ha! I shall not wade into the Territorial freight costs debate. I’ve read a few books from Steve Solomon, and he can explain soil issues to me in plain English in a way no other writer has dared touch. Of course, he sold the biz long ago… But still. 😉
Cheers and better get writing. Oh my, it’s 8:30pm already…
Chris
Yo, Chris – Geese flying in a group, are called a skein of geese. On the ground, they’re a … gaggle of geese. 🙂 When we moved to Vancouver, Washington, it was to a rather rural area. Our school buses traveled through acres of mint fields. In the mint fields, were gaggles of geese. They ate the weeds, slugs and bugs. But left the mint alone. All that area is now one housing estate after another. Going to and from the Club, I pass a large mint extraction factory. I can often smell their product.
I once saw a cartoon, of two books. A very fat volume was titled “Greek and Roman Myths Including Zeus Fooling About.” Next to it was a very slim volume titled, “Greek and Roman Myths Without Zeus Fooling About.” 🙂 . There are still people among us who think they’re semi-deities. The higher the self constructed pedestal, the further the fall.
That was a pretty inspired move, going out to check out building sites, to get an idea of how houses are put together. I’ve read a number of books, mostly narratives, on building a house. The most recent one was by Annie Proulx, the novelist and short story writer. It’s called “Bird Cloud.” Which is what she calls her place in Wyoming.
I’ve always been a bit fascinated with model trains. But more the miniature diorama aspects. The buildings, etc.. I see it’s time for our annual model train show. I think I mentioned it’s a shadow of it’s former self. Mostly old duffers, these days. Bowling alone.
And what do you put in a hope chest? The bride’s trousseau. 🙂 Now there’s a word you don’t hear much, any more.
I can’t say I’ve run across any furniture made of camphor. That I was aware of. Though I know the smell. Small camphor lamps were used, back in the day. Camphor is banned in the US, in oil, in amounts larger than 1%. Causes seizures in children, or something.
I went down to the Club, last night, and had a couple of cheese burgers. With lettuce, tomato and fried onions. Tasty. Lew