Sure, I had plans. Vacuum the house – check. Clean the bathroom – check. All stuff which needed doing. Late morning, Sandra came back home from dog training with the opinionated Ruby. The words: I think we should do the video today, were heard. Had I heard that correctly? Those were not my plans, but when in a relationship, one does need to compromise.
Years ago an old friend of mine told me he wanted to have a relationship with a lady where he didn’t have to compromise. It was an odd thing to say, and I may have replied: Are you some sort of psychopath, or what? For all I know he may have eventually found the girl of his dreams, but I don’t know because we eventually parted company as friends. Not wanting to compromise on any issue was part of that story.
Whatever. You don’t want to hang out with psychopaths, for any reason. Things may end badly for you. Fortunately I knew what to look for with such miscreants. The hippy dippy high school for disadvantaged children which I attended in Years Seven and Eight, showed us horror films for media studies. It certainly left me with the impression that the media could be a horror show, yeah. Anyway, I know things, like say, dudes wearing hockey masks are bad news. Strange dudes with razors instead of fingers, not to be trusted. Creepy clowns hanging out in drains saying something about balloons, best avoided. Two old dudes incoherently debating each other, trouble. You learn proper things in media studies.
Woe is me for I am house broken, and knowing when to compromise is a useful skill in a relationship, and you know, the time truly had come. The video demanded to be made. So made it would be. You see, I’d had a bad run recently on the social front recently and needed to do some re-branding. Alas, Sandra knew about it. I guess there’s always a story.
A few weeks ago an old friend was super excited about off shore wind farms, and may even possibly be looking forward to doing some work in that industry. Dunno. So me, being me, and having an interest in renewable energy technologies, takes a look to see what investors are saying about those giant machines when they’re located in the big drink of the ocean. Investors are the sort of folks who have to pay for the machines, and then try and get a return on their mad cash. The news reports suggest the investors were less excited about the technology than my old friend was. That’s cool, but here’s where I went wrong: I relayed the information onwards. Can’t truthfully say that I’ve heard from the old friend since then.
Then there was the other incident a few months ago. Another friend was waxing lyrical about the future of electric vehicles which were self driving. They were all going to be networked as well, so that would somehow make the roads all safer. Truly, I didn’t understand any of it, and may even have blurted out: Do you actually own an electric vehicle? This time around, I have heard from him by text message, but certainly haven’t seen him in months.
Yup, losing friends and alienating people seems to be something of a knack of late. It’s a weird old world when people can get upset about beliefs. Makes me think I’ve somehow stepped into a temporal anomaly and ended up in the Middle Ages. Hope they don’t want to grab the ol’ stakes used for burning inconvenient conversationalists!
I’m sure if it wasn’t such talk on my part, I’d liked to think that it may have been something else, maybe… However, I’m an adult and know when to compromise in a relationship and just sort of go with the flow. And that was how things rolled today. It was video making day. Sandra had never used a video camera before, and I’d been putting off the task for months and had no idea whether any of the components would even work. So we went over every aspect of the various bits and pieces, tested how everything worked, learned how to use the software, and uploaded a video.
After ten years of weekly writing, often getting way high up on my soapbox, it’s time to reach a wider audience. Of course the blog will continue in its current format. But it’s a truth universally acknowledged that more people will watch than read. Plus Sandra has promised to do most of the fun work with the videos. And so we’ll show what we’re doing as a response to a world which allows two old dudes to debate each other, one of whom was having serious troubles, and act as if there’s nothing wrong with that. See? This is why I get into trouble with friends by saying stuff like that.
Do opinions even really matter? A lot of people seem to think so nowadays. But deep down, I’m a practical guy, and if it feels cold, well, like a President of yore may have quipped: Put on a sweater. Seems like sensible advice to me, and the videos we’ll do are all going to be along those lines. No ideology, no soapbox, no opinions, just plain old, this is what we are doing, and this is what we are producing. It’s funny but when I look around, I don’t see a lot of people honest enough to show their garden output in all seasons, instead most people talk a big game. Gawd, I’m probably going to get in trouble for saying that too!
Anyway, one of the best places to save money in a household, is in the kitchen. The first video shows me making a batch of Anzac biscuits. We use them as a snack food for both us, and the dogs. The product cost, low. The quality, very high. And they’re super tasty. What’s not to like about that?
Earlier in the week was sort of dry for the middle of winter. That sort of weather is a sign from above, to continue cleaning up the old loggers mess. This week, we relocated and burned off a number of very old tree stumps. The trees appear to have been pushed over many decades ago by the loggers and left to rot (more on that later). All of the fallen trees display the scars of the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires, and they were all hard work to clean up.
The trees were clearly dragged to where they ended up, and you can tell this because generally trees don’t grow on a horizontal angle. An electric jackhammer and mattock were used to remove the compacted clay from the root balls. Whenever I moved away from the stump, the birds would dive in and sift through the loosened clay feeding on any unfortunate insects.
Root balls are too heavy to lift, We have no machines to do that work, so we simply roll them over towards, and then into the bonfire.
That day, most of the timber was rotten, but generally any timber which can be saved is used as firewood. But first any of the good stuff has to be cut into more easily moved rounds, and you can see some of them in the above photo.
One of the root balls had been mostly lifted way above the soil level and was left on an unusual 20 degree from horizontal angle. I’d thought it would be easy to remove, but no. That job ended up taking about four hours to sort out. You can see the last chunk of the epic monster in the next image.
The next work day, we burned off a few more old tree root balls. To the loggers respect, at least this time around the tree roots were not lodged in the soil upside down.
And the birds watch our every move.
And near to a very large and old tree which had been pulled over long ago (as seen in last weeks blog), we discovered a rusty old broken cable. It was sticking up out of the ground, possibly where it had been dropped. I removed it from the soil and placed it on the very large old long dead tree.
It’s uncomfortable to consider that the loggers were somehow able to tie a knot in the thick steel cables. But it sure was broken.
Looking at the broken steel cable, and considering what may have happened, I get the impression that way back in the day there may have been a forestry incident, someone got hurt badly, and the saw log recovery job came to an abrupt halt. A sobering thought, but given the mess, there’s a high probability that’s what happened.
We learned that the rental charge for the LPG gas (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) cylinders had increased yet again, and is now $70 per quarter. For many years there was no rental cost at all because we paid for the cylinders upfront. One day, new rules came into force and it looked like double dipping to us, perhaps? Anyway, we use very little of that gas energy source, and candidly having them next to the house during a bushfire is something of a serious explosion risk. So we’ve decided to discontinue the use of the 45kg (100 pound) bottles and make other arrangements. You can get almost 8 smaller bottles per year for the rental costs alone, let alone the costs for any usage. They have to go.
Winter has been rather mild this year, and there is plenty to eat from the garden. Meyer Lemons are having a great year and they survive the occasional frost.
Mandarins are another variety of citrus tree which seems to grow well here.
The flavour of the massive Kiwi fruit crop is improving with the occasional frosty weather, and we are eating the fruit, but they could be better.
About a year ago, we moved many of the Rhubarb plants to an area where they are more easily harvested. And over the past few months, the plants have really established themselves and are growing very well.
This next one is hard to explain. The Alpine strawberries in the greenhouse are producing berries.
The plants in the greenhouse are doing quite well, and I’ve reduced the watering to maybe a day or two per week so that the soil stays warmer. The application of cold water cools the soil and slows the growth of the plants. Reducing water to a bare minimum works…
Onto the flowers:
The temperature outside now at about 11am is 5’C (40’F). So far for last year there has been 465.0mm (18.3 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 449.6mm (17.7 inches)
Yo, Chris – Compromise? My sweet patootie! You couldn’t wait to get in front of that camera. 🙂 I had a couple of additional thoughts, about the video. You might want to toss around the phrase, “kitchen economy,” or “home economy.” Gives a bit of a theme, to what I’m sure will become a series. And, a little more eye contact, with the camera. Show them that Australian twinkle, in your eye! 🙂
I could pretty much figure out which movies you were referring to, in your Media Studies. Except for “two old dudes debating each other.”
I guess you’re going to have to start asking yourself, which is more important. A friendship, or being right? You know, my Idaho friends and I don’t see eye to eye on politics. I don’t bring it up, and neither do they. Ever.
I spotted the magpie, before you mentioned it. I missed the Kookaburra, entirely. That photo, of the last piece of wood. Is that a bear, peaking out of the brush, behind you and off to your left?
You ought to have a psychic, out to the farm. Have them touch the cable. It’s probably full of “vibes.” Now, if this were a Stephen King story, when you touched the cable, you would have had a psychic flash, of the accident.
The lemons and the Mandarin oranges, are lovely. Looks like a good start, on the rhubarb. The leaves on yours are slightly different to the leaves on ours. Yours have more of a point on them. Ours are more fan shaped. What’s that growing in the greenhouse, that the dogs are so interested in? Radish?
Succulents have such interesting flowers.
There was a volunteer poppy, that was getting ready to bloom next to one of the raised beds. Between this morning, and afternoon, it burst open. Not a poppy I was familiar with. A Pom pom poppy. There’s another one, coming up. I wonder where the seed blew in from. I can’t remember anyone growing those.
Our weather has been odd. No rain on the radar, or in the forecast. But, we had enough rain, yesterday, that I didn’t have to water. Today, there were a few drops, when I walked H. But not enough to skip watering. Too much of a good thing? Our irrigation system has gone berserk. In some sections, the sprinklers are coming on, three times a day. Some areas are waterlogged, with standing water. Oh, well. Master Gardeners come, tomorrow morning. Maybe they can get it sorted. Lew
Yo, Chris – A new solar project, from the Land of Stuff …
https://www.yahoo.com/news/worlds-largest-solar-plant-featuring-083000242.html
Gives you something to aspire to. 🙂 Lew
Hi Lewis,
That is big, very, very, huge. Honestly I have no idea what to make of such an installation, and clearly I don’t think in such monster terms. I converted the acres to square miles to try and wrap my head around the size, and it was 51 square miles. You know, I was seriously trying to imagine how anyone would go about finding a cable problem over such a large area, and also noticed that it was in a desert, err, sand blasting of the glass will be a problem. The panels will get hot there and de-rate too, but it’ll be interesting to see how it works in reality. Still won’t produce any electricity at night though. But yes, it certainly sets the bar for sheer vision, I’ll give ’em credit for that.
Ah, yeah very funny! Yeah, Fats Domino, man I know my music bro. 🙂 Dude, it’s been like seven years since the last video. That’s what happens when the camera breaks and isn’t replaced, until now. I’ve missed the screen, the fans, the parties. And that’s the thing, practical all the way with this series. But alas, whilst working I kind of have to watch what I’m doing because you know, I’m a guy, and as such am limited to doing one thing at a time, so looking at the camera lens and doing stuff is maybe a step too far. Makes me wonder how celeb chefs manage that trick. Hmm, might watch them a bit more closely. The Editor does not believe this talk of male limitations, but I dare not hint that it may be possible to do two things at once. Think of the consequences!
Yeah, sure you don’t. We don’t talk politics here, but we can occasionally mention the words ‘car crash’. It’s kind of a code word to describe two old dudes debating each other. Hey, we’d be more interesting up on the podium. I’d definitely say something about sweaters, and dare I say it? But that would take all the ‘heat’ off you. 🙂 See, I can do amusing…
OK, point taken. I’ll do my best to nod along and try and look enthusiastic the next time someone mentions such grand schemes. Won’t it be wonderful? I’ll say, then go on to talk about how practical woollen jumpers are. Will I get the same enthusiasm returned in kind for my efforts at dissembling? What do you reckon? I guess there is middle ground there. But I do get your point, and on a serious note I am careful not to annoy people. Sometimes I just make mistakes.
Lewis, I would not so casually amble through the forest if there were bears. The things here will kill you just as dead as your lot will, but after the deed is done, they generally leave you alone and don’t tend to rip a person limb from limb whilst munching on the particularly juicy bits. Your bears are quite scary.
Hopefully the leather riggers gloves protected me from such dire forces stored in the cable. Mr King is right too, leave such things well alone. I tend to believe such tokens remain as a lesson to the unwary, like a stay away from this bad-as idea because it will end badly. Mr King knows what he speaks and writes of. When that steel cable broke, I’d hate to think where it would have whipped around and hit before the tension and energy was depleted. I’ll be curious as to your thoughts, but something suggested that the cables were to stay in the area where we found them. I think I’ll do that. They’re part of the history now.
Rhubarb I believe, will hybridise and adapt to the local environment. Those crowns came from a local lady who inherited them from her grandfather. They also self seed here, and you’ll see new rhubarb seedlings growing. That’s radish growing in the greenhouse on one side of the row and beetroot on the other of that bed.
Is your Pom pom poppy a peony? Papaver paeoniflorum is the variety the interweb returned? Quite an amazing plant to have just turned up in the garden. There’s a peony farm near here, and I went to the open day once and it was mayhem. Who knew that plant was a cultural thing?
Proving that the weather here and in your part of the world is somewhat similar: Record-challenging high sitting over Tas this week. The next seven days of weather forecast reads like a day-on-repeat. Sunny, cool, dry. And it rained early this morning.
The Little Monsters film is on the to-see list and we’ll try and nab a copy, somewhere… There’s an earlier version of the film with the same name. They both seem to have done poorly at the box office. Will the film title be used a third time?
Always feel free to indulge a decent whinge. Seems only fair given some of the stuff I write about! 🙂
Oh, I’d never have thought of that problem with the brain vat situation. Not much a brain could do about it, that didn’t involve zombies taking up the cause.
I have doubts you’d get any meaningful statistics on airline safety. It’s probably the result of people wanting to fly on the cheap. Some things should never be done on the cheap don’t you reckon? I recall the days when they used to feed you a proper breakfast. Somebody I know told me when they flew recently, and they were given an apple to eat as a substitute for a meal. Just between you and I, flying sucks, and I usually don’t tell anyone that, mostly because they think I’m judging them, but it genuinely isn’t about them, I just hate flying. See, this is why I annoy people. It’s a gift! 🙂 And yup, that quote makes a lot of sense to me. Maybe I saw one too many plague riddled catapulted corpses during the middle ages in a past life? I dunno.
It sure was a tit for tat in that war as boundaries were pushed. Didn’t rationing continue on through the 1950’s?
The mise en place was good for me, and we’d heard of that term from watching the potty mouthed chef. But alas, we discussed the placement of those two tubs in the aftermath of the videoing. Also, the Editor could have panned the camera over so I didn’t leave the frame, but early days, and that was her first shoot. And yes, there was parchment paper on the baking tray. Did you notice the biscuits almost slipped off the tray as I put them on display? A quick adjustment and everything was saved. The dogs are dirty to get in front of the lens.
I’m not 100% sure how much control I have over the comments, but will do my utmost to filter spam and trolls – as usual. No point giving them air time. Good to hear, hope the hard core foodies turn up to troll me, particularly on other websites. That’s called free advertising. But it also suggests how well I know the recipe. Hmm. Few people would have encountered an electric solar powered oven!
Cheers
Chris
Hi Inge,
What a nightmare, and I had wondered how goods got onto your island from the mainland.
That’s sadly part of the rural experience. Things cost more, and I hear that too – we don’t freight to your area. Believe it or not, we get no mail delivery here. Before moving here, I’d not been aware that mail delivery was not a thing everywhere. It truly is a black hole for services here, but in other respects, that also reduces the opportunity for exploitation. The worst is having to pay for an annual water bill. It’s outrageous given I have to pay for and maintain all of our water and sewage infrastructure. But what can you do?
Looks like we’re headed for a week of stable cool and sunny weather. How’s the rain going at your place?
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Don’t forget those red carpet premiers! 🙂 Yes, I thought about the perils of making eye contact, while cutting something up. There was a Saturday Night Live sketch, sending Julia Child up, that did just that. Blood spurting, everywhere. Hmm. Just found out the story about Child dropping a chicken on the floor, is a myth. Yes, I caught you juggling biscuits. I thought it was part of the act 🙂 Yes, it would have been nice to show the electric solar oven. Oh, well. Another time. Can’t reveal everything right off the bat. Hold something back. Keep the audience wanting more.
Ah! I see. You time traveled from watching horror movies, in your youth, to “the debate.” I ignored the whole thing, other than seeing the headlines, in the aftermath.
Well, just try and hesitate, long enough to ask yourself, “Do I want to keep this person as a friend.” There’s something in Recovery that I can’t quit explain, something, something about an action (from another person) and a reaction (from you, or me, for that matter.) That one might insert a thought, in between. I try, when meeting a situation, to ask myself, “This is what I would have done in the past. Why not try something different.”
Besides our bears and cougars, there’s this ….
https://youtu.be/LG4ZcRHB3b4?si=4V6Hb8vkyOvRr4L0
I didn’t realize they ranged so far north. King has a short story, in the new book, about Florida, a dog, and an alligator. To say more would be spoilers.
I’ve been thinking, recently, about the interior life of dogs. H is such a funny little thing, and I often wonder what goes on in her head. She probably wonders the same thing, about me. I think it’s kind of like a Vinn diagram. One circle is me, one circle is H. Where the circles overlap is where we reach a common understanding. All else is a mystery. On both sides.
Yes, I’d say the cable is best left where it is. Although you’ll have to be careful not to run over it with one of your machines. Or, you could sell it for scrap.
The Master Gardeners were here, this morning. They got the irrigation, sorted. Someone had set it to go off, four times a day. Gail, who knows the most about the system, is moving to Florida. She winters there, and is making a permanent move. She trained at least four other Master Gardeners, in the mysteries of the irrigation system. No, I didn’t. Above my pay grade.
The Master Gardeners said the pom pom is a Poppy. There are some lively discussions down the rabbit hole, as to what the difference is, between a peony and a poppy.
I’ve let a couple of my radishes, bolt. I want to save the seed. They’ve started to flower, and I noticed some tiny pollinators. One Master Gardener called them “Fairy Bees.” I did a bit of research. They’re actually called “Fairy Wasps.” But they don’t sting. There are many different species.
It’s forecast to be 90F+, here, by next weekend. That ought to really kick the garden into high gear.
I think I’ve mentioned how when you look at ads for plane or train travel, in the 1940s and 1950s, everyone was so well turned out. It was an occasion. They dressed for it. By cheapening air fare, they cheapened the experience. Although, you get what you pay for. First class air travel, can be pretty lush. Then there’s private jets and corporate jets.
Rationing ended, in England, in 1954. Even bread, which wasn’t rationed during the war, was rationed for 2 years after. A character, in “Foyle’s War,” mentions that a rationed loaf was probably “half chalk.” Also, a couple in the series manage to get into the prefab houses they were building. They were happy to have it. And, a lot of people liked them, as they had amenities that they didn’t have, before the war. Such as indoor plumbing.
The early seasons of “Call the Midwife,” take place just after the war. The effects were being felt, well into the 1950s. Lew
Hi Lewis,
Ostentatious, I could do that on the red carpet, yeah. Proper tails and a top hat would be the way to go in this instance. Of course one wouldn’t want Toto the dog ripping any curtains away at an inconvenient moment. A bit of a buzzkill really. In a commercial kitchen one never needs to hear the words spoken: “I need a doggie bag for my finger” 5 Year Engagement: Finger Chop. A good film too and with food, plus it flips the male and female roles and tells the tale of the downsides of a super-extended courtship. Is that a film recommendation, well yeah, right back atcha! 😉
The last second save of the biscuits from falling off the tray was part of the performance. An established rock band has to learn how to deal with the occasional dropped line and/or waver from the correct timing. Years ago I was at a party with folks who performed in symphony orchestra’s and so I put the hard question to them. Turns out, the show really must go on! That’s what professionals do.
This whole video thing is a project of the Editors, so we’ll see where the winds take us all. At the very least, it should be fun.
It ain’t just you man. There’s a theory that in the early phases of a civilisation a creative minority arise and work tirelessly to solve the various problems faced. After a lot of years and generations, people do what people do and get lazy. That’s when you discover that there is now a dominant minority in power whom can’t seem to solve basic problems like say, tying shoelaces. Then then the whole unnatural edifice crumbles to dust. I didn’t watch the debate either, I’m too busy getting on with the future. The headlines were bad enough.
Lewis, it’s a personal problem which everyone knows about. I like neat endings, and so people who are cowardly and don’t wish to confront their inner workings when dearly held beliefs are challenged by reality, well, they poke me, and they prod me, until they get a reaction. It’s really sad for me to watch people not wanting to be the bad guy, when they are exactly that. Refer to the previous paragraph as to why it goes on. My wider comprehension of the social landscape is that we will all (or mostly all) have to experience abject failure at a civilisational level before settling into a more mature and hopefully wiser frame of reference.
What can I say, other than I get eerie insights. 😉
Thank you for the wise advice about taking a moment to consider, and I will try hard to do better in future. Mostly when I act, the relationship is nearing the conclusion phase for whatever reason, and I give them the peace of conscience to blame me. My shoulders are up to the task. For your elucidation, one person moved interstate and works jobs which see them sent on remote jobs which pay well, but I dunno what hours to phone and so we drifted with the loss of contact. 12 hours work shifts in remote spots will probably do that, especially if they don’t want to put the effort into acknowledging that they’re out of synch with the majority of society. Oh well, people come and go around here all the time, as was said somewhere! The other, and I don’t really know, but at a wild guess (and this is pure speculation based on nothing more than a gut feeling) has to deal with family issues, so pulled away from contact, but wanted and here again I’m just guessing, to indulge in anger to maybe because that is easier than feelings of loss and all the stuff going on at home? I accept that life is complicated, and I’m sure you’ve experienced your fair share of friendship dramas?
Hey, that’s a book tease if ever I’ve read one. 🙂 Is it a pet and/or service alligator? If the climate continues to warm, those critters will expand their territory, maybe eventually reaching as far north as where you are, maybe further.
A good point, and I almost did exactly that with a machine before taking a closer look at the broken steel cable. What have we got here? Hmm My gut feeling suggests the situation didn’t end well that day. Scrap metal is getting good prices. The other week I got a quote for lead (the metal) at $0.72/kg. Not bad.
A man’s gotta know his limits! 😉 Hey, I used that above-my-pay-grade line today, because it was true. Thanks for mentioning it. Mission creep is always a problem in my profession. Good to hear that the irrigation system has been sorted out.
I’m not worthy to discuss such subjects as to whether a plant is a peony or a poppy. I could add the useful observation that both varieties of plants begin with the letter ‘p’, and that at least may mean something? What’s your gut feeling as to the Latin name for the plant?
The seeds of the radishes are quite large (relatively speaking) and glad to hear that you believe them worthy of saving for another season. We’ve collected seeds too, and are planting more of them all the time. Dinner this evening was a salad which included grated radish and roast beetroot – both taken from the greenhouse.
90’F is admittedly rather warm, but spare a thought for us down here in winter land. It’s 34’F outside right now, and the nights will get even colder this week. On the positive side, the kiwi fruit are improving in taste.
You have mentioned that, but then the general level of deportment was far higher when I was young. In my first adult job it was a requirement to wear a full suit and tie, and nobody thought anything was wrong with that. People know less and less about clothes these days based on what I observe of the things being worn. Hopefully chalk is easier on the digestion than say, plaster? Oh my!
That part of the world had to learn how to live within their means, and repay a lot of debt. It ain’t cheap to fight wars.
Brr! Me cold! 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – I see you’re “Five Year Engagement” (looks like a rom-com), and raise you “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.” Yup. It was a popcorn evening. High body count (the bad guys) and cool explosions. And, a bit of a comedy. Based on a true story.
https://w.wiki/AFf6
By the way, I noticed that the costar of “Little Monsters,” is an Australian actor. Abe Forsythe. I see by my library record that it’s “under review.” Hmm. Wonder if I can send them chocolates, or something, to sway their opinion.
I’m looking forward to more “Land of the Wombat,” episodes. Will there be an animated version? A musical episode? 🙂
Can’t tie your shoes? Slip-ons. Or, thongs. Never mind the cold weather. You probably have too many toes, anyway. Maybe the thong will become the symbol of our collapsed civilization?
“Do I think that mole looks odd?” (said the accountant.) “Maybe, you should consult a doctor?”
What Latin name?
Back when I worked in libraries and bookstores, I had to wear a shirt and tie. No suit coat, though.
Well. When I took H for a walk, yesterday afternoon, there was a policeman, out in the hall. Brought her home and went out to have a cuppa, at the Club, and then do some shopping. Some for me, some for the Club. There were two cars in the lots, when I left. “Lewis County Corner.” The guy across the hall from me had died! Sometime, last week. Luckily, he didn’t have a pet.
Other than to say “good morning,” I really didn’t chat with him. He smoked, and, rumor has it, drank heavily. We now have 5 vacancies, in the building.
H and I are heading down to the Club, to drop off the few things I got for the pantry, last night. Clear the decks for when the boxes come tomorrow. Lew
Yo, Chris – An interesting article about the world economy, and debt.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/02/economy/global-debt-crisis
Suggesting doing something about the world-wide debts is about as politically popular as, well, suggesting people put on a jumper and turning down the thermostat when energy gets expensive and scarce. Lew
Chris,
I’ve had similar results when people ask my opinion about solar, electric cars, you get the picture. Or when they try to convince me of their views. Giving facts and reliable data bursts bubbles. And might end a friendship. Although I’m not sure how strong the friendship was if giving facts destroys it.
Videos. So you and Sandra can make videos. You might need to do a video on how to make videos. Then I could maybe do that project I was assigned on the job 10 years ago that entailed making a video. 😉
Opinions? UGG. If I want somebody’s opinion, I will tell them what it is. It is so much more enjoyable talking about actual events and creatures. Like the raccoon that trotted down the alley the middle of the morning the other day. Or the 2 crows who were simply standing for 10 minutes in the bird bath. Just standing. Two crows, so I had to recite the old poem “The Twa Corbies”. Ot the 2 crows who were on a wire hanging across the street, cawing at Dame Avalanche and me until I looked up and brightly said, “Hi guys! How are you this morning?” Perhaps all they were doing was saying “Hi! Hi! Hi!” and got startled when somebody responded. Or maybe teaching the basics of chip carving at the club. These things are all more rewarding than simply exchanging opinions about stuff that is beyond my control.
We had some good thunderstorms all weekend. Probably 12mm of rain Sunday. Everything is dry now – windy again.
The furnace guys were here today. Annual maintenance on the furnace and heat pump/air conditioner. Just in time, too. Temperatures are expected to be between 38C and 40C from Monday through Thursday next week.
The quince bushes have multi-trunks. Never tried the fruit. There’s always some, but not very much. One of these years I’ll break down and stew some, see how it is.
I was fortunate. I know 2 guys who were adept at bush survival, all seasons. Washington Williams grew up learning and taught himself a lot more. The other chap, who is now in the carving club, was a survival instructor for the military. I was fortunate to be able to learn from both.
Agreed. Asking if someone is ok might backfire. But a friendly, “Hello, nice day, isn’t it?” can go a long way.
Got a knife sharpened with a stone. The scissors will need work on the grindstone. There’s some pits in one blade, so I’m thinking the scissors are beyond repair.
You know it was planned decades ago by the loggers? Yes, they KNEW that someday, someone would do some cleanup of their mess and Feed the Birds in the process. If you had been able to see their entire mess from an aerial view soon after its creation, I’m sure that it made a picturesque pattern. Or not. Anyhow, they were looking decades in the future so that their friends, the birds, would be handed some wonderful meals.
I can see it now. A new Olympic sport: Rootball, the event that makes football and rugby look like they’re for sissies. The winner would be the person who moved the most rootballs from location A to the target zone, removed all the clay from the roots, and had good rootball fires going. Timed event: 6 hours maximum to separate the men from the boys.
Our roses were spectacular this year. All of the “designer” grafted-on roses have died in some harsh winters. New shoots appeared from the roots, all of the plants now sporting dozens of deep red blooms. It has been a grand year for the thyme flowers, also. They’ve been in full bloom for over 6 weeks.
DJSpo
Hi DJ,
It’s all very weird isn’t it? By the time I’ve gotten onto the part of the conversation where the words blurt out: OK, let’s see how this ‘ere thing you’re talking about works out, they’re already super annoyed at me. And I’m not sure about the matter you raise either. But you’re right though, if the friendship has become so fragile that one disputed belief ignites the fire which burns the remains, well man, I dunno, it’s a total mystery to me. I’d prefer my friends to have their own thoughts on matters, mostly because I could be wrong, and the correction in my own thoughts would be a useful adaption to reality. As I mentioned before, and have said plenty of times, I’d be happy to be proven wrong. Other folks clearly feel more heavily invested in their opinions.
Ha! I don’t think so, man. 🙂 Anyway, you missed the deadline for that video project by a couple of years, or so. But then, if they decide to pay you for your efforts a decade later, maybe you might be onto something there? Of course here you enter the land of the return on investment. For your info and edification, the equipment cost: Wireless microphones $200 + Camera $200 + Tripod $200 + Memory card $70. Plus not to mention that we must have the most expensive interweb connection on the planet due to the remote location… It’s a bit of a laugh when people tell me what cheap connection plans they’ve got: ‘Yeah, they charge me $10 a month and it provides 42 million terrabitsles of data That was made up, but you get the gist.
Sadly on this topic, I casually mentioned to a friend the other day who has the same phone, that the big super nice telco is about to switch off the 3G network at the end of next month. He’d missed the news and suddenly looked dismayed. He’s on a el-cheapo plan which clearly was too cheap to notify of the impending shut-down. Suddenly I’m the bearer of bad news. You see what I’m dealing with here? 😉
Agreed! And have you noticed that the crows may be onto something there? Maybe it was Monday, I now forget the details, but we descended out of the mountains and forest, venturing to a bakery in a town on the eastern edge of the range. The experience of a freezing cold day was improved with a warm sausage roll enjoyed on a park bench. Usually the magpies in that town know I’ll share a few chunks of the bakery product. But not that day, the crows were in the nearby tree cawing away. Can we not have a few quiet moments to enjoy the sausage roll, and where had the magpies gone? DJ, was it an avian upgrade?
It’s always fun to hand on skills, and you do that with your woodworking club, and I get paid to do that sometimes for a living for work . 😉 The videos will be very practically based. Getting up on the soapbox is fun too, but there’s only so far that can be taken.
Amazing to think that your soil surface dried up so quickly after half an inch of rain. Hopefully none of the lightning strikes ignited any fires? Where such awesome energy touches the ground, plant soluble nitrogen is added to the soil.
Ouch! You’re in for a rough week weather wise. Hope the nights are cooler? It was 0’C this morning with frost everywhere. Brr! Although today was very sunny, but cool. Still not enough sun yet to fully charge the house batteries, maybe tomorrow?
Before you do possibly stew the quince fruit, please do drop me a line and I’ll chuck in a recipe. It’s not quite hot enough here for the quince trees, but maybe also the fruit trees are too young? I dunno.
Ah, you use a sharpening stone. Respect. It’s amazing how a steel edge can be kept sharp, and of course you have Viking blood which would instinctively know about such matters. A few years ago I went to a course with an old timer orchardist and he had a pocket knife which was razor sharp and used for grafting. He used a leather strop to sharpen it. Probably takes off a lot less material, but those sharpening stones remove very little material as well.
Dunno about you, but I’ve got a little electric knife sharpener to remove such pits in the edge. Maybe the cutting edge can be rescued?
Whatever will those long departed loggers think of next? You’re probably right! 🙂 My best guess is that they walked away from the job. We had a hugely damaging wind storm, maybe four years ago. Here was largely unscathed as the bulk of the mountain range protected us, but other more exposed to the easterly winds areas of forest in and around the entire area were hammered. The forest clean up was eventually stalled due to protests, and nowadays when I look at the area I do wonder what will happen when the next big fire sweeps through. Probably not good.
Very funny, yeah, all true, and need I mention that gym membership is not required here? Plus I made an amusing Roman dodecahedron joke which fell entirely flat. Oh well, delivery and timing is everything in comedy…
That’s great news about the cold weather clobbered rose’s root systems producing vigorous plants with delightful flowers. Perhaps you and your lady knew the outcome in advance and the grafts were merely sacrificial tender varieties paving the way for their superior sports?
Cheers
Chris
Hi, Chris!
What a weird school that was. Did it do you any good?
I see nothing more important in a marriage, besides love, than being able to compromise. You have that knack.
The launching of your videos is very exciting, but how are you going to find the time to add that to all that you do already? But “plain old” sounds good, very good. I like your chef’s attire.
No wonder no-one wanted to buy that 22 acres; what a mess left behind. And it’s very scary viewing the scorch marks, knowing how bad it was, and that it could happen again. The birds are funny. Kind of strange to see the two different species sitting together.
Yeah – I see now why you can’t re-use the cable.
Recently I was pondering the use of LPG in a new home, but decided that it would be way too expensive, except to keep, as we already do, for our emergency generator. I think our cylinders are 33 pounds.
Your winter crops are doing well. I guess the strawberries are not called “Alpine” for nothing.
Guess what? My mother’s assisted living place has now been infested once again – it’s been a long time – with that which shall not be mentioned. Everybody just seems to have a cold, including her, but still she is quarantined/confined to her room for 10 days. It’ll never last because as soon as she feels better she’ll keep popping out and the place’s own rules don’t allow for a resident to ever be restrained. They won’t even let people have wheelchair seatbelts, and they sometimes fall out of them. I am still going over there anyway.
I like Pigface, but don’t see his features. Thanks for all the flowers!
Pam
Hi Lewis,
Talking about debt in any meaningful sense is kind of like encountering one of your country’s rather large bears, but with poop stuck to it’s fur. Not only will the bear possibly cause serious injuries and/or death, well, as you’re slowly dying and watching whilst an arm is removed so that it can be used as a chew toy, thoughts may pass the front of your dimming mind, like: What’s that smell, is it me, or the bear? And also perhaps more importantly, was it a truly good idea to go roaming in the woods today? So yeah, debt as a subject, is kind of like that.
And yup, I so agree with you, loose talk of donned jumpers and lowered thermostats produces the same sort of political outcome: Death by predator. Alas, you and I both know the truth that they’re wrong and woollen jumpers and lowered thermostats are a pretty decent response to decline.
Oh yes, it is a rom-com. You’ve simply proven that one good turn deserves another. What’s the trailer for that film like? Wow. Yes, lot’s of explosions and ungentlemanly behaviour. It was hard not to note that the author Ian Fleming was involved in the caper. Plenty of grist for the mill, as they say.
Hmm, so he is. Looks like the actor is somehow involved in another instalment of the Robocop franchise. Good to hear that the film is ‘under review’, although you’d hope they nabbed the more recent film of the same title? Are they even up for bribes in such hallowed places? Dunno about you, but the chocolate would work with me, although one would hope that it’s good chocolate?
Thanks for laughs, and you’ll know for sure that we’ve completely run out fresh ideas when an anomaly forces the Editor and I to do a ‘musical and dance’ episode. 😉 The sheer thought of doing a musical episode gives me an attack of the vapours! Hey, talk about good incentive to come up with new ideas?
Lewis, it’s a personal failing! Actually, back in the day going from the hippy dippy school to the more English than the English one, a dude had to learn how to tie a tie. I’m sure there’s still muscle memory in there from repetitive tying over those years. One thing you learn at a place like that is how to wear a suit in a casual manner. People give themselves away in all sorts of ways, and you can tell from a distance when folks are uncomfortable in suits.
Hey, I might need those toes… 🙂 You were the one who alerted me to the fact that the footwear could be made from old car tires. People are truly ingenious.
The Latin name for the pom pom poppy plant. I’m at a total loss as to what it could be.
Dress standards were higher back in the day, yeah. Dunno about you, but I’m constantly amazed that many folks dress as if they’re heading to the gym. I’d heard of someone suffering from ‘contempt of court’ for their choice of clothes and overall deportment on their day in court. I believe the judge may have taken umbrage at the huge ‘F C U K’ logo emblazoned over their chest. Always wise to enter that world with a demeanour of awe, they’d like that.
That’s not good at all. I guess the soft furnishings may have to be removed? Possibly a dog would have alerted people to the demise of the owner? Dogs are good like that. Speaking of coroners, there’s been a big murder case in this part of the world recently, a pair of older campers dead. Interestingly, there’s a rumour being floated around that the bloke charged for one of the murders used to allegedly live around these parts. The rumour involved the demise of the neighbours at the time he lived there. I remember the incident at the time. There may be a pattern. It is all a bit eerie. Always pays not to annoy people, because you never truly know what the consequences will be.
Do you reckon the apartment will have to be fixed up?
Hope your chat at the pub was good, and that H and Peanut were on friendly terms?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Pam,
That’s a tough question, and frankly it’s a bit hard to know. One school was more fun, the other was far less fun, but prepared a person to work hard within a hierarchical structure. Unfortunately, I’m wired a bit like the two Kelpie’s in that I have my own thoughts on matters. I’m sure you’d understand. Anyway, when commands are given, there’s a bit of hesitancy whilst the wisdom of the command is being assessed, then I’ll kind of respond, but also do things my own way. Does that work, sort of, maybe, I dunno. 🙂 It’s probably not what ‘they’ want.
Pam, that’s really sweet, and yes, both are required as you’d know.
Ha! The truth is Sandra is doing the hard work behind the scenes with the videos. I’m a word guy, but when needed I can ad-lib for like say, 10 minutes. Honestly, it was hard ensuring that no fingers were lost in the cooking process whilst chatting to the camera. Does worrying about losing fingers make it doing three things at once (talking + cooking + not losing fingers)? We must do something to ensure this multi-tasking news does not get out. Truthfully, I’ve been working for years to get across the idea that ‘one thing at a time’ is the way to go. I am so busted here… 🙂
Far out, plain old is probably more sensible than me getting on my soapbox, although standing on that thing does make a person feel taller. I reminded of the Wizard of Id cartoons with the King ‘stumping’.
Yeah, well the clean up in many ways lowers the damage should a big fire sweep through. The thing is though, it’ll happen sooner or later. Provides motivation. Those two species of bird consume the same feed and are always in contention, but most of the time when there’s plenty of food, they seem OK together.
🙂 Told ya. The cable is scrap metal, but should it be left in the area as a reminder? Has the cable got some sort of mojo?
Err, 33 pounds is 15kg. Right, those can be moved away from the house if needed. Can you swap them out locally, or is a delivery only thing? We’re going down to 9kg / 20 pound bottles. Less risky, and easily available at that size, for now.
A very funny observation. 🙂 That’d be why.
Pam, you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do. During you-know-what down here, there was an awful situation where all the workers were apparently kept away from a home for four days from memory. St Basil’s managers lose fight against giving evidence at inquest into You-Know-What aged-care deaths. Institutions can be stupid, and that appeared stupid to me. There’s risk everywhere, that’s life. But there’s also risk in doing nothing as can be seen in that article.
Hey, I don’t even know why the plant is called that name? Do you know why?
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – There was another article, last night, having to do with credit and housing.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/01/business/adjustable-rate-mortgages-higher-payments
I think anyone who takes on an adjustable rate mortgage is out of their minds. The house always wins.
I read that article about the nursing home, you linked to. As always, some of the side bar articles were equally interesting. I see your on-line book retailer, Booktopia, is in trouble. I also saw another article, that bird flu is making inroads in your state. 1.5 million chickens, culled. Egg prices, etc. etc.. There was a nice photo shot of the Melbourne McDonald’s. 🙂
Yes, an actor playing Fleming has a bit of business, in the film. And, when they threw up the pictures, of the actual historic characters, it mentioned it was an amalgamation of a couple of those people, who inspired Bond.
Well, poop, poop, poop. I heard from the library, yesterday, about “Little Monsters.” Get this. It’s not available in this country, on DVD. No release date, so far, for a DVD version. But it is available in other countries. Maybe, even yours.
Speaking of contempt of court, there was a case recently that made the news here. Some low level offenses, are settled over a video feed. The judge was gobsmacked, when an offender who had been driving without a license, phoned in his defense. While driving. Didn’t end well, for him.
I don’t know what they’re going to do with The Apartment of Death. It was one of the ones, heavily renovated. Less than a year ago. I also don’t know about who’s going to clean it out. Apparently, there was only a nephew, who I’ve seen come and go a couple of times. Somehow, he didn’t inspire confidence, to step up and do the right thing.
We just missed Peanut, at the Club, yesterday. So H survived her field trip, with nerves intact. 🙂
Sounds like you may be dealing with a serial killer. Someone will write a book about it, eventually.
We’re in for a bit of weather. Saturday and Sunday, it’s forecast to hit 98F (36.66C). I’ll be watering morning and evening. Speaking of the garden, the second patch of pumpkins, broke ground, yesterday. I spent a good amount of time, out there, early evening. I dug up the volunteer potatoes. Got about 35, from marble size on up. I also dug up a patch of garlic. One bulb was almost the size of my fist. That’s one that might be worth replanting.
I found out something interesting. There were many little “pearls” clinging to the garlic. Corms. If I plant those, you get a single clove. Plant that, and then you get a standard garlic bulb, with multiple cloves. So, it’s a two year process. Much easier to just plant the cloves.
Then I did a lot of just general weeding, and clean up. Hacked back the grapes, took out a few more fennel plants. Weeded the communal strawberry bed. Cut some dead leaves, off the Horseradish. I was tuckered out. Had chopped up fried eggs, with rice. There was a handful of chives, that I chopped and threw in. Tasty. Went to bed earlier than usual.
I read a bit more of “A House Restored.” About the restoration of The Loring House, 1702. I won’t be able to finish it. Due today, and there are people waiting. But, the bits I read were interesting. The author mentioned that in 1702, “Builders had constructed the house from the six main materials of the pre-industrial age: wood, plaster, iron, stone, glass, and brick.” He used those materials, to restore the house. Sometimes, sort of apprenticing himself to masters of the old crafts.
Holiday, tomorrow. Whoopee. Lew
Chris:
Yes, it is legitimate to count worrying about losing fingers as multi-tasking. I don’t even know if I can do one thing at a time.
Yeah – the Wizard of Id! Neat!
We can swap the LNP cylinders out locally at several places.
No – I’m asking YOU why Pig has a Face. Or rather, where is his face?
I couldn’t read the St. Basel’s article; too close to home. Which is why I check on my mother every day, and they know I am going to check on her every day.
Pam
@ Marg:
I forgot to write to you last week. I am so sorry that Marty is having what sounds like new, and extra, troubles. You have always done so much to help him. I know that he must be upset and confused by the changes. You are in my thoughts and prayers.
I admire President Carter, and Rosalyn, too. I always thought that it was great to have a “peanut farmer” as president. He’s still alive and 99, as you probably know.
Pam
@ Pam and @ Marg,
Another Jimmy Carter fan here. The older I get, the more I appreciate him as a person and what he tried to do as president.
DJSpo
Chris,
I totally get what you’re saying. Nobody likes someone who speaks truth. Then if you extend that into speaking probable future scenarios, people reach for the nearest pitchforks to poke you with. Didn’t Cassandra run into something similar during the siege of Troy? Human nature really hasn’t changed that much, has it?
If I were in charge of something serious and big, I would have at least 2 or 3 advisors who were NOT in lockstep with my view on things. We all need to hear opposing and often unpopular opinions. Heck, I’ve learned more from thinking about opposing ideas than from sitting in the echo chamber listening to me agree with myself!
So, spend some $700 to get all the equipment. Then learn how to use it. Then get the old employer to hire me as a consultant. Fat chance of that! And then I’d be required to occasionally go to the old office. Maybe when pigs have wings. So, no, I guess I won’t be doing that old project. Oh, and the people who wanted it done are no longer there either.
42 million terrabitsles of data sounds a wonderful upgrade. Where do people get such things? I pay like 42 gadzillion Altairian dollars for an adequate speed connection that is nowhere near 42 million terrabitsles. 😉
Coo! You’re in the wrong place at the wrong time. Always. I mean, you could probably say, “It’s Tuesday and the sun is shining” only to find that the person you said that to needed it to rain on Tuesday or else the bank would take their house.
Dunno about an avian upgrade. Sounds more like an avian invasion. Or maybe the magpies were on vacation and the crows were house sitting for them?
This morning’s walk was almost a nature walk despite the paved streets. Squirrels were involved in playful antics. Many squirrels, many antics. It’s also the time of year that the linden trees smell wonderful. Ravens sounding off today, no crows. Maybe my crows are visiting your normal magpie area?
I heard that a house about 5 km from here was struck by lightning. 11 fire fighting vehicles showed up. Saved the house. Some damage, but it could have been worse.
I noticed that raspberries are ripening. Some of the lettuce is nearly ready to pick. Some of the rocket IS ready to pick. As Lew said, tomorrow is a holiday. Maybe we’ll have some backyard harvest to celebrate.
Ya know, I come here to read the articles, not look at the pictures. Definitely Not to read the captions to the pictures. (Says the man who has often enjoyed the pictures and quoted the captions) 😉 Your dodecahedron joke actually IS good. So, I will rename the New Olympic Sport: Modern Dodecahedron Wrestling, aka Treeroot.
Forgot to mention…my typical trimming tool for smaller branches is simply some DJ powered “giant scissor” hedge trimmers. Sometimes I use one of the DJ powered pruning saws. The brush cutting chainsaw is for slightly thicker or tougher limbs. Or for when I’m feeling rather more lazy than usual.
Not hot yet…but the evenings are taking their sweet time cooling down. After it has cooled down enough circa 2:30 a.m. I have been opening up the house and using window fans to suck in cooler air. Until then, it’s the heat pump in air conditioner mode. If the upcoming heat wave is similar to what we’ve had the past 15 years, it will not get cool enough outside at night to aid in cooling the house.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Fingers are kind of important to daily life. Today I was operating the log splitter, whilst keeping an eye out for Ruby who was dancing around the edge of the forest. Doing those two tasks at the same time was quite the challenge for my brain. It’s not my natural inclination to multi-task. Ha! That’s funny, and I so hear you about that. 🙂 It’s very naughty, but I know of people who muck around with their phones whilst they are driving. For the record, I can’t do that, and have troubles working the phone correctly even when the thing is given my full attention. Such skills may be beyond us.
Oh, and Ruby was mostly well behaved today. Except, Pam, she rolled in a very stinky wombat poop and ended up smelling rather rank. So I grabbed some sawdust and rubbed it in her fur (and dealt with the situation later – she now smells of chemical flowers). Not considering the full implications of the situation (looking out for fingers and wild Kelpies) I began smelling this odd smell. It took my overloaded brain a few minutes to register that the wombat poop stink was now on my leather riggers gloves. Thanks for that Ruby. Dogs huh? 🙂
Ah, you call the gas cylinder fuel LNP. Right. Fun fact: That acronym just happens to refer to the opposition political party down under, and so we have to differentiate the two concepts by using the acronym LPG for the same gas fuel source to which you call LNP. A digression! The smaller bottles are easily sourced and replaced down here too. The much bigger ones are quite expensive and there are a lot of rules involving moving them around. People use the smaller ones for camping purposes, although it is a lot of energy in one little steel bottle.
I see. Apologies, the entire discussion was back to front. Basically I have no idea as to why, however a person can look up what others have to say on the subject. … … Well that was weird, some people can see a pigs face in those flowers. I don’t, do you?
Exactly, and Pam, I’m so happy to hear that you understood the subtext. I would do no less, even at personal risk. Dunno about you, but trust in my world is hard won. Respect.
Cheers
Chris
@ DJSpo:
That is how it happened with me. I didn’t pay that much attention to Mr. Carter – or to any politics for that matter, though my grandfather was a mayor and Congressman – until I was much more mature.
Pam
Chris:
Dogs will be dogs. Ruby was sure that she smelled heavenly.
I called it LNP because I thought you called it LNP. We call it LNG here. Language is so interesting.
You know: “Plain old” is soothing. We need soothing.
Pam
Chris:
Okay. I have looked at umpteen flowers of Pigface. No pigs. It is also known as Ice Plant and Angular Sea Fig. No ice. No figs. I will grant you that it may have angles, or possibly live by the sea.
Pam
Hi DJ,
That’s right, Cassandra was cursed to tell the truth, but nobody would believe her. It’s a pretty nasty outcome, and sadly one can only surmise that the young lady in question was right to withhold her favours from Apollo given the outcome from the gods wrath at being thwarted. My thinking in the matter is a bit softer in that sooner or later the god would have become bored, and maybe that outcome may have been worse for Cassandra? Look at how Henry VIII dealt with the lady’s in his life. Not good. But yeah, we’re the same sort of people we were a couple of millennia ago.
Good to hear, and that’s kind of a healthy approach with projects. And exactly, we do need to hear opposing views and unpopular opinions. It’s only in these brittle times that actual free speech is suppressed. Hey, dunno about you, but I always ask myself the question: Yes, yes, but are they right? 🙂 I don’t really know enough about many things to form any sort of coherent opinion on those particular matters. How could I, I don’t know anything about that stuff? Sounds like some sort of circular loop…
Oh well, the entire work video idea for you has been sunk in the past. Hmm. It is perhaps true that your time was not wasted on the thing? Management fads, we’ve all suffered from our fair share of those things.
Hehe! How good was the concept of the Altairian dollar! Douglas Adams clearly had a solid grasp upon the unrealities of economics.
Maybe cool, but more like super un-cool! It’s a bit of a bummer being the one to give bad news. And it began as a harmless conversation about the phone.
Possibly so with your crows. 🙂 Sounds like a fun walk, and thanks for mentioning the linden trees as there’s one huge tree growing in the higher reaches of the mountain range, but I’d not known they’d produced fragrant flowers. Squirrels are rather naughty, and hope they don’t have any sights set on your fruit trees? Although such mighty trees are protected by the Husky extraordinaire, Dame Avalanche. A backyard where squirrels fear to tread?
Holy carp man! Can lightning hit a house? Whoa! Freak out. It’s a thing, and happens. The damage here would be a total disaster given the complexity of the power system, but at least there are tall trees around which would (hopefully) be hit first. I’ve had inductance from a nearby lightning strike fry a 4G modem. The twin external Yagi antennas seemed like a good idea at the time…
Yummo for fresh raspberries, and they’d be ripening at this time too down here if the seasons were suddenly flipped on their head. Happy July 4th! 🙂 And may you and your lady chow down upon some fresh garden produce.
Sure, and you totally busted yourself there. 😉 The sport will take off for sure.
Hand tools are really good, and can do fine work. The little Stihl battery hand held chainsaw is my go-to pruning tool, although there are hand tools as well. That machine has been a game changer with pruning so many trees. Hey, you don’t hear the word ‘lazy’ used much these days.
Manual fresh cool night air is how the old timers used to manage things. In hot and humid climates, the old timer houses used to incorporate massive amounts of cross flow ventilation, and it works. Yikes! Hope the nights cool down more than you expect in the coming heat wave.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
That loan news has been a bit of an issue down here as well, but biggerer. In some ways your part of the world does such things better because I believe a person can lock down a fixed rate for the life of the loan. Spare a thought for people down under, not only are the loans all recourse loans (i.e. sticky to the person who signed on the dotted line), but fixed rates are usually set to a maximum of five years, then revert to a variable rate. This of course suggests an arrangement which reflects the needs and wants of the bond markets. Now with the fixed rate loans, I don’t believe that people pay off the principal over the period of time either. So when it reverts to a higher variable rate (ouch!) there is a double ouch situation because the principal also begins to be repaid. Thus the monthly repayments go way up. The process is still playing out down under of people finishing up their fixed rate period and reverting to much higher monthly repayments.
It’s hard to know how it all came to be. I’m of the opinion that such fixed rate, interest only loans for residential owner occupied housing should never have been allowed. I’ve read some cheeky scamp describing such arrangements as a rental with debt. I guess people taking those loans out are gambling that either their income increases enough by the time the five years is done, or that the house has increased in value and they may sell the thing and cash out their profit? Dunno, a total mystery to me mostly because I thought houses were there to keep you warm in winter, and the rain off your head. Maybe I expect too much? 🙂
This article is from last year, but not much has changed: Millions on a ‘mortgage cliff’ as they roll off low-rate home loans and hit a wall of repayments. I have a hunch that parents are now financially helping their children to make ends meet. All very good when you have parents… My lot wouldn’t lift a finger to help the Editor and I when they were alive, and they certainly left nothing. Thus why we are super cautious, but that’s an old timey habit not much respected these days. Oh well, mustn’t grumble.
As you’d imagine, I quite liked Booktopia, but I guess the past tense is a thing. We’ve had a number of big book sellers crash and burn over the years. I’m sure you recall Borders store? I quite liked them too because they stayed open late and were well stocked. Oh well…
Birds get flu every year, it happens. There’s a lot of unusual activity in that industry. Hmm. Wasn’t chicken nuggets part of the sub plot in the film: Falling Down. Talk about having a very bad day.
Dude, this is kind of weird, but I hadn’t heard of that film either. Wonder what’s going on with that film industry?
Oh no! Hey that’s the sort of message I get on utoob for some content which is not for this country. Could be a language barrier thing? It probably is available down under, but refer to previous paragraph.
It’s not just the judge who is gobsmacked by such contempt. It’s kind of impressive that a person could be so err, lacking in discernment. I have to tell the Editor that story. But it points to the bigger issue – don’t poke city hall.
Like the name of that apartment. Sounds like something ripped from a Stephen King horror story. And that hurts, such a waste of resources. It’s possible that there may be backlash against smokers arising from this situation. They may not take them on again.
Lucky for H that she dodged Peanut. Who knows what mayhem could have ensued had the two dogs met? And of course plain ol’ maths suggests that the outcome from begging for food scraps would be halved.
Well, it’s funny you say that, but the rumour appears to have been mooted by a long time author / crime journo who has links to the authoritas. I have a funny feeling that the story got out after the court case ended because obviously it may prejudice the jurors, but perhaps the allegations are in the public interest? Dunno. It’s interesting what’s in the news archives. I remember when it happened as it was quite a shock for the locals: Fatal fire may be murder-suicide: police
Far out, that’s hot. It was 48’F and sunny here today. Then got very foggy and is now pea-soup conditions outside. Wise to water in such weather at both ends of the day. How’s the overnight temperatures for you? Is it a bit cooler at your place with the air con?
Oh wow, never seen corms on garlic. Cool. I presume that the corms are all clones and identical to the parent plant? Are you getting any strawberry runners? Mowers are good for horseradish leaves. 🙂 I sometimes chuck those leaves into salads, and they’ve got some kick to them. Had the same meal for lunch today, but with silverbeet leaves (note, the Editor has become a recent convert to silverbeet leaves!) The heat will knock you around. During such weather we have tablets of rehydration solution ready to go. Always good when needed that stuff.
Bummer, but what fine crafts the author would have learned during the restoration process. Nothing finer than bringing an old run down house back to life. Usually the bones of such structures are good because otherwise the thing wouldn’t have survived for so long. Although I’ve seen some serious damage over the years, and one timber framed Victorian house springs to mind. What a mess.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Pam,
I agree. There are tenuous hints, but it’s a step too far for my imagination to see pigs in those succulent flowers. I’m just not seeing it. A mystery, huh? Maybe the plant has mutated over the years since it was originally named?
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – All this talk about fingers and losing same. I got to thinking about that. Our opposable thumbs might be one of our weakest links. Handy, though they are. 🙂
Yup. Lightening often takes out houses. And barns. Which is one reason why I get nervous, when you mention mucking out your drains, in the middle of a storm. But, there are lightening rods. Invented by our old buddy, Ben Franklin.
Well, the two mortgage loans I carried, were owner carried loans. And, there was a mathematical formula, where each payment I made, a bit came off the principle, and a bit off the interest. And, if I made a payment, beyond my monthly amount, it came off the principal. Of course, I was dealing with older folks, and I think it was more common during their lives.
The few commercial loans I have had, they dangled the “lower payment / variable rate loan.” But I stuck to my guns and insisted on a fixed rate loan. I didn’t encounter much resistance. But that was awhile back. All those loans, I paid off early.
I noticed in the Booktopia article, that part of their problems were due to spending a lot of money on automation. Which didn’t work, very well. Yes, the rise and fall of book businesses, over my lifetime, has been … interesting.
I really liked the movie, “Falling Down.” Life’s irritations piled up, and just drove the guy past the tipping point. A lot of that going around, these days.
Who knows what’s going on in the film industry, these days. Streaming throws another aspect, into the mix. They can’t seem to decide if or when to put out a DVD and how profitable is that? Several of the DVDs I’ve gotten recently, from the library, were just in the theaters two or three months ago. But are also available on streaming. I picked up the new “Ghostbusters” movie, yesterday. Popcorn in my future.
A couple of interesting things. Way back in 2017, a movie called “Bushwick” came out. About a modern American civil war. I wanted to see it, but the library didn’t order it. But, with the popularity of the recent American modern civil war movie (“Civil War”), the library picked up the old title, and it’s in my “to watch” stack.
About a year ago, I remembered a movie I wanted to see, again. Spielberg’s “AI: Artificial Intelligence.” 2001. The library didn’t have any remaining copies. But, it showed up on the “on order” list, and is on my hold list. I suppose the library decided to re-order it, due to all the interest in AI, these days.
Smoking is strictly forbidden in my building. There’s a place outside, for that. And the non smoking Inmates take great joy, in enforcing it. A whiff of smoke, real or imagined, and the peasants are out with their pitchforks and torches. 🙂
Interesting article. Murder / suicide, or something else?
Yes, garlic corms would be clones. I’d never seen them on other garlic, before, other than Elephant garlic. Which isn’t garlic, anyway. I looked into it, since Elephant garlic doesn’t have cloves, but is a single bulb plant. You can plant the corms, but it’s still a two or three year process, to get them to any size. According to the rabbit hole.
I don’t think I could get a mower, up over the edge of the half wooden barrel, I’ve got my horseradish in. 🙂 I think my plant is languishing a bit. I looked into it, and I think it needs a shot of nitrogen and potassium.
The author of the book on the old house, pulled off some paneling, and discovered some of the timber framing had rotted out, to the extent that it had vanished. He was madly running around, looking for props, afraid the house was going to fall down on him. 🙂
Well. I got two food boxes, yesterday. And, snagged two from Elinor’s. And another two from down the hall, where someone moved out. It was madness. I had six banana boxes crammed in my kitchen, and couldn’t even get to the sink. But, I got that all sorted. I took six bags down to the swap table, and refrigerator.
There were a few interesting things. All told, I had three, large bags of frozen jumbo Gulf shrimp. I took all those down. Gulf shrimp? All I could think of was oil spills. There were some nice Brussels sprouts, which I kept. Ditto, some of the eggs, butter and cheese. A bag of apples. I took two bags down to the Club, last night. I’ll dole out the rest of it, over the next week.
You might find this article about the Navajo Nation / reservation and electricity, interesting.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/03/us/navajo-nation-power-grid-connection
Someone started moving into Elinor’s apartment. I saw a tall, old dude, but didn’t know if that was the new tenant, or if he was helping someone move in. I saw the Night Manager, later, and he had intel. Yup. That’s the new tenant. I wish I could remember the exact phrase the Night Manager used, but apparently he’s got some mental issues. But is quiet, and keeps to himself. Where the Night Manager got this information, I don’t know, as the guy just started moving in. Well, time will tell. Lew
Hi Chris,
Now that we’re back home after an eight day road trip, I just watched your video. Thanks to you and Sandra for starting a video series showing us what you are doing! I enjoyed the chance to see you in action (and the dogs too) and will look forward to watching future videos. The videos are a excellent adjunct to your blog, as some people learn more readily from watching video than from reading.
While the one planned destination of our trip was Itasca State Park in Minnesota, where we spent last weekend, we took the time to visit other sites of interest along the way. The distinction of the state park is that the Mississippi River begins there, flowing out of Lake Itasca. We both wanted to see where the river begins and to spend some time in the north woods. On the way there, we spent a few hours at the Amana Colonies in Iowa. On the way back, we went out of our way into North Dakota near Fargo and visited a county historical museum with a collection of pioneer buildings from the “bonanza farm” era of the 1870s through the early 1900s. Then we continued driving down the eastern edge of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska as far as Omaha, then turned east into Iowa and south into western Missouri. Finally, yesterday we went to Trenton, MO (north central MO) where my father was born and his family lived till 1930, so I could do some genealogical research and take some photos. More about all of that later, as I am taking it easy for the rest of this 4th of July holiday.
While we were gone, some critter ate *all* of the nearly full grown tomatoes. The only tomatoes left are newly formed. It will be a bad tomato year. 🙁 But it hasn’t eaten the peppers or eggplants – so far.
Claire
Hi Pam,
Yeah, Ruby has some funny ideas as to what smells nice. The dog and I may have differing opinions there. You know, I thought I was being clever grabbing a handful of sawdust and dirt then rubbing the stuff vigorously into the dogs coat. That was not clever at all! One needs to use more than just a few brain cells when dealing with a Kelpie. Within a minute or two afterwards, the stench was permeating from the leather riggers gloves, and hung around for at least ten minutes until the stink was abraded. Dogs… 🙂
Ah, LNG is what they call the fuel when exported. Locally it is called LPG. Is there a difference? Maybe? But probably not. Thanks for the elucidation.
We are of one mind here: Plain old, tells a tale of stability and not too much excitement. I’m into that.
Did you get to see your mum today? Hopefully things were an over reaction?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Claire,
Thanks so much for taking the time to watch the video and provide feedback. The next one is ready to go, and I’d not realised I was so cheeky, but it’s sort of hard to ignore… Sandra is a bit camera shy, but I’ll work her in there over the next few months, maybe. 🙂
I totally agree with you. There are more people wanting to learn by watching, than via the gentle art of writing. Over the next few weeks you’ll see what I’m up to with the coffee grounds as a mineral additive in the orchard, and that should be of specific interest to you. Of course economics always plays a role in such stories. Your words about phosphates, not to mention Steve’s words, are always at the back of my mind. Glad to hear that the very crucial mineral has stabilised at your place too. An enviable achievement.
What an awesome trip and the images of the park in Minnesota are inspiring. Did you get to see the falls? Whoa! I’d take a peek at the Amana colonies as well. Fascinating, and surely you’ve noticed that the ecology changes with time? As a tourist it would be difficult to get much of an insight into that world, but you’re observant so would have seen at least some of the undercurrents there? Did you discover much of note with the genealogical research? Enjoy your fourth of July holiday! 🙂
The rotter! Near ripe tomatoes are a temptation for plenty of critters around here, but usually I aim to out-produce them all. That’s the plan anyway, the rest of nature as you’ve also observed, may have other plans in store. Hopefully there’s still plenty of growing season for your tomato plans to recover?
Cheers
Chris
Chris:
Yes, I saw my mum yesterday. It is a continuing over-reaction. She as no symptoms and no fever, so I asked them if she could be “tested” again. They said not until the 10 days is up as there would be no point since she would still be confined to her room for the 10 days. She is getting restless, so they are going to have their hands full. Good.
Pam
Chris:
Actually, we call what’s what’s in our tanks (cylinders) propane. I shouldn’t be writing. My head is in a whirl these days. And it’s suppose to be 99F (37C) today.
Pam
Hi Lewis,
It’s warm outside tonight. 41’F and cloudy. 🙂 Hardly shorts and t-shirt weather though? Today was at first foggy, then with a side serving afterwards of heavy cloud, and so I just thought, yeah, I’m taking today off work. And mostly that was how things rolled. Had a gourmet pie for lunch and because they were slightly north of here, we sat in very pleasant country beer garden enjoying the pies and warm winter sunshine. Could have fallen asleep there the sun’s warmth felt so nice. Didn’t sample the beverages (it would be rare for me to enjoy a sip at lunchtime) otherwise I would have fallen asleep in the winter sunshine. Came back home to thick low cloud, lit the wood heater, and had a well deserved nap. All up, I’d describe today as being on the very pleasant end of the experience scale.
You’re probably right about the opposable thumb theory of the wielding of tools, but then again, once we’re back to living on the surplus of sunlight energy, things will tone down. It really is all of the fossil fuel energy we’re squandering at an alarming rate, which allows our species to get up to so much mischief. We’ve always been tool users though, and the thumb is part of that story.
Turns out your storm fears are valid. Yikes! Most of the drains I clean out during electrical storms are connected to the earth by PVC pipes, and I don’t believe that material is such a great conductor of electricity. Still, there’s always the ‘black swan’ event which will prove me wrong, and I end up getting zapped by lightning. I’d be deeply unhappy for sure, and most certainly have no plans to come back as the un-dead. Now if a lightning strike hit a nearby tall tree, that would be an issue due to inductance – depending on how close was the hit. An old neighbour who’s since moved out told me many years ago one of his trees was hit, and showed the damage to the bark. Do you get many lightning storms in your part of the world? They’re rather regular here.
Right, hey those owner carried loans are super rare down under, but you do occasionally hear of that. Good stuff, and respect for paying them down faster. And that doesn’t surprise me that the loans were offered by older folks. They were probably looking for the cash flow from you for their asset. Not a bad idea, but they’re uncommon down under from what I understand. I imagine you were very upright in your dealings with them?
Nice shot too sticking to your guns in that matter. That way you get some assurance, and the risk is spread between the two parties to the arrangement. Mostly down here the risk is shoved off onto the person taking out the loan. What the bond markets may not consider is that the volume of loans and promised future interest, may exceed the value of the underlying assets and future cash flows. Hmm. I reckon that with any strategy, it is possible to fail by pushing the possibilities to their logical absurd extremes.
I’ve not looked into that story, but automation can only do so much. Funnily enough, this week and next week paid work wise are traditionally quiet weeks for us. The financial year finished at the end of last month. But due to all of the automation, we’re working harder than usual to ensure that the systems for everyone we look after, do what they are meant to be doing. Hey, who can forget the claims of the paperless office promised way back in the early 1990’s? You would have seen some things in the book biz, yup. Hey, there’s nothing like first hand experience!
That was my take on the ‘Falling Down’ film as well. Someone annoyed the bloke one too many times. It happens… From memory, the guy was into weapons design for paid work, so you’d imagine he’d kind of know stuff.
That whole movie biz is completely unknown to me. Why go to the effort of spending big bucks on a film, if you don’t know where to market the things? Do you remember the campaign for the Blair Witch Project film, that was done on the cheap, but the marketing was really direct. Holy carp, just checked out the box office takings, and I’d say that was profitable, yeah! A super creepy soundtrack too.
Did you end up watching the new Ghostbusters film? I’d seen the trailer previously, and it looked good. I’ll be interested to hear what you’ve got to say about the Bushwick film. The critics appear to have slammed it.
Yeah, people sure do seem to be all in a lather about AI these days. Has the program done anything new and/or interesting, or is it merely a mirror? That’s what I’m curious to know.
That’s good stuff. Smoking is prohibited indoors down under, but presumably that doesn’t include peoples homes. We do seem to like our rules. It’s also restricted in food areas, which is a good thing, but there is a lot of push back happening in that space. Sometimes a pitchfork is a very useful tool.
Interesting huh? And this other incident has only very recently been in court: Murder in the valley.
Elephant garlic is some sort of leek, from memory, and they set seed here, or the bulbs are reproducing? Dunno. A mystery, but I’ve never seen corms on those bulbs either. I guess it all depends on how soon do you want to eat? 🙂
Unfortunately, that can happen. I was underneath the corner of an old house (a Californian bungalow) and the corner stump fell away. Fortunately the timber bearers and joists were less rotted and the house just hung in the air. An alarming moment, and houses do sometimes collapse, especially when conditions are muddy. I’d do that job nowadays (if required) by ripping up the floorboards due to the lower risk. Some activities are unwise. Did the dude put the props in place in time?
Well, oil spills happen, and the oil has to end up somewhere. You scored pretty well there, and I’d be eyeing off some of that produce too. 🙂
Man, I read the article. Far out, the images told me more than I’ll say here, particularly in relation to health. The thing is, when the average annual household income is $30k, how are those folks going to pay for the electricity? It’s nice to supply the stuff, but is it going to be free, or simply another way to promote further dependency and trouble? I dunno about that one at all. It’s one heck of a complicated story.
Youch! You know your business well enough, but go easy there with the new inmate until you discover what was meant exactly by ‘mental issues’. That description can mean a lot, or not much at all don’t you reckon?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Pam,
Hopefully you can find some time to look after yourself as well, you’ve been through a lot and everyone needs time to heal regardless of all the other things going on. And usually there’s a lot going on, yup. If it ain’t one thing, it’s the other.
You know, the other day I had a heap of stuff on my plate and felt a bit overwhelmed. Set an upper limit on what I would do and you know, made it clear there’d be no more forthcoming from me. Still had to get through all the different tasks first, and some of them were unknown, unknowns. Life sure can throw you some curve balls.
Staying out of the hot summer midday sun, well that’s an easy one to dodge! Weather extremes are rarely soothing experiences. 🙂 You can quote me…
Far out Pam, you’re kind of subject to the rules whether they make sense or not. It’s frustrating, yup. There’ll be wiggle room in there somewhere.
During you-know-what, we were locked down for 262 days all up. A bit of a world record, of a bad sort. Other than one client which was by sheer chance an essential service, I couldn’t get into the big smoke and didn’t see any of my friends for near on two years. But far out, did I make sure I saw the nice folks at that biz. I’m usually upbeat and irrepressible, but towards the end of all that time – when things were still crazy as – after work one day I sat in my car and just wept with the frustration, loss, stress you name it. Then I went home, through the police and military checkpoint where my papers and ID were checked – as you do. By then I was feeling surly. Nice. But what I learned back then: institutions are crazy, yup. It was not a reassuring time.
All you can kind of hope for is that the 10 days of craziness, is just that, and the folks making the rules do the jobs for which they’ve taken responsibility for doing. That’s probably how it will roll.
Cheers
Chris
@Pam
Thanks for the kind thoughts though things haven’t been easy for you either. My sister and I are taking Marty to tour an assisted living facility recommended by our friends who owned the retirement home. He’s had a visiting nurse come in last week through home health care set up by the nursing home. She said he wasn’t safe living alone as did his caseworker. Of course we knew that but he seldom follows our suggestions. We told him not to go out, that we would get what he needs so of course he gets himself a cab and goes off to Walmart after he had told us he doesn’t need anything. He does seem on board for the move but I worry he could be such a pain they would kick him out. However, he does listen to others somewhat better than to me and my sister. He’s autistic so we often don’t know how much his behavior is under his control.
Good luck with your mother. I think it’s just awful they way they keep people in their rooms especially when she’s not exhibiting any symptoms.
Margaret
Hi Chris,
Thanks for the video! Good catch, Ollie. Looking forward to the next one and hope we get a glimpse of the editor one of these days.
I updated on Marty in my response to Pam. He is one challenging guy. The assisted living facility has about a 4 month waiting list and we’re just hoping he doesn’t fall too badly before then. I have two appointments with him this week along with various forms to fill in and documents to copy. Fun, not!
Our friend, Bob is coming on Wednesday for a 5 day visit and we’re having Cecily’s 50th birthday party a week from Saturday so life is too busy for my liking.
Doug just gave Salve a bath so I’m sure she’ll roll in something.
Still quite a bit of rain so I’m thankful to have the task of watering off the list for awhile.
Margaret
Yo, Chris – One of the Master Gardeners said if you rub soil on your hands or gloves, it takes off the stink. I was wearing gardener gloves, when dealing with the stinky palm. The soil treatment seemed to help, but a good wash with soap, did the trick. Irish Spring. That stuff will peal the hide off a ginger. 🙂
According to the forecast, our temperatures will ratchet up to 100F (37.77C), by Monday. Then slowly decline to more sane temperatures. Tomatoes won’t pollinate, above the high 80sF, but, might put on some growth. Around here, lightening storms are pretty rare. And don’t seem to strike much. Maybe because we’re surrounded by hills, and that’s where the action is.
Well, the 4th is over. A lot of money up in smoke 🙂 . When I watered, and walked H, I could taste the gunpowder, in my mouth. When I took H for a walk, around midnight, it was still going strong, but then I noticed a couple of police cars, patrolling, and after that, things calmed down, a bit. It will continue, slowly winding down, for the next week. Luckily, H isn’t bothered much by the bangs. I wondered if maybe her hearing is impaired, but if I say “treat” or “walk” her head snaps right around. 🙂 But I did notice she was more restless, than usual, all evening. But didn’t hide, or anything like that.
Sounds like you had a nice day. Winter mode.
LOL. I’m probably not a good loan subject, as they don’t get much interest, off of me. Due to my early payments. My credit card company probably doesn’t like me either. I have one card and pay it off, every month. Oh, well. They make enough off of other people, that they probably don’t notice.
I’m putting off the “Ghostbusters” film, for a few days. Just had a recent popcorn night, and don’t want to do that again, without a bit of a break. However, I’m watching an English series, “Ghosts.” Which is quit funny. The Americans did another version, but it wasn’t quit as good. I’ve got the complete series. All five seasons. Which I didn’t see the end of. I think the last two got lost in the You Know What shuffle.
By the way, I also picked up another book, the other day. “How the World Ran Out of Everything: Inside the Global Supply Chain.” (Peter S. Goodman, 2024). I just read the introduction. Looks good. But, I have to set it aside until I finish the King.
That was an interesting article, “Murder in the Valley.” Oh, my, a mistress. That added a certain amount of … spice, to the case. Well, we’ll never really know what happened, unless the Button Man was lurking about, taking it all in. And spills the story.
No, the house didn’t collapse. There’s quit a bit, on-line about it. “Loring House, 1702.”
Well, the boxes were ok, but, per usual, no tinned soups, stews, chili or pastas. No fruit other than pears. Lots of pears. But, all in all, the pantry shelf will look good, into next week. Funny how things go. Last month, the swap table was awash with a wheat flake cold cereal. I took quit a bit of it to the Club. But this month, no cereal. Probably because, this months cereal was a highly sugared something or other, that would appeal to kids. But, between all the boxes I snagged, I have 6 boxes to take to the Club. And, usually, we each get one jar of peanut butter. Rarely any on the swap table. This month? I picked up 6 jars of the stuff, and left some behind. I’ll take it down to the Club, a jar at a time. If I take down three, someone will take all three. Maybe. I have no proof of this, but people being people …
Oh, I’ll keep my distance, from the new tenant. As I do with all new tenants.
Saw another interesting article that has to do with A/C and electricity.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/04/climate/heat-waves-air-conditioning-climate
A/C is all well and good, as long as the electricity stays on. Lew
Chris,
None of my time was wasted working on the work video. Zippo. I always claimed that higher priorities had hit my desk. Much time was spent thinking of creative ways to avoid the video. They eventually gave up on the idea.
Dame Avalanche has been enjoying the indoors with her people. When she goes outside, she assesses the yard. Bees and birds and squirrels. Whatever is there, she chases once to remind them that it is her yard.
She keeps digging deeper at her favorite spot. She can lie down stretched out in her hole. Standing in it, her shoulders barely clear the top of the hole. So she even stays out of the wind. A few days ago a fly flew through her hole. Well it flew into it. Eyes closed, she reached up and snatched it out of the air. Had a little nap time snack in the dog cave.
Meanwhile fire season is here. Air was noticeably hazy today. Fires in the central part of the state from Toppenish northward to the Omak area.
Knowing how many tall trees are near the house that got hit by lightning…I would guess that some type of antenna was hit. One of those “don’t try this at home” questions. Two adjacent metal towers…one comes to a point, the other to a large metallic ball. Which will likely get hit more often by lightning? Which will get hit with the larger amount of electrical “pop”? Hint: the answer is NOT 42 Altairian dollars.
Cross ventilation is your friend. On the nights that don’t cool, the AC will cool us to 21C. On the cooler nights the southern rooms have open windows. The northern rooms have window fans that suck air from the southern windows through the house then out. Enhanced cross ventilation. I grew up with that.
DJSpo
Hi DJ,
Nice dodge, and clearly you had to implement all of the 42 ways to dodge the work video strategies. 🙂 I’m in awe. Making the videos here has been quite the learning experience, but we’re doing that for fun. Work is a different matter. Would your work have allowed the fun element to sneak into the their idea of a video? You broke their spirits. Respect.
Dame Avalanche was bred for cooler climates than your summers, although much further north than you has had some mighty hot extreme weather over the past couple of years. So, yeah, inside for all three of you and out of the sun seems like the wisest of wise choices. The birds are not bothered by the gentle Ollie, but far out those two Kelpies will also chase any and every bird known to mankind, and even some that aren’t known. I won’t mention the PetroDragonic. The birds are given advanced warnings that the Kelpies are on the loose. The other day Dame Plum did a flying leap and triple turn whilst lunging at a magpie and it was a close call. Could have won a gold medal for her performance, and the magpie learned a valuable lesson. I’m sure Dame Avalanche has taught hapless critters valuable lessons as well, but it’s kind of an escalation and the critters will no doubts learn to perform equally daring raids into the husky Dame’s backyard Kingdom.
Hehe! Dogs will dig. Don’t you wish you could somehow channel that energy into something useful? Like say, Dame Avalanche this here sewer pipe needs replacing. Can you dig down 600mm, 200mm wide and along that line for 10 metres, or at least that is what the map says… 🙂 It’s probably cooler in the ground for her.
Not good. Have you got your air filter going for the smoke particles? It looked like smoke today, but was instead sheer humidity.
Hmm. Are both metal towers connected to the ground, or is one of them insulated? Man, I don’t know what the emoticon for crazy face number four is, but you’ve piqued my interest. At a wild guess I reckon the ball would be more likely to attract the lightning mostly due to the greater surface area. Go on, what’s the answer? You’re leaving us all on tenterhooks.
That’s what we do as well on hot nights, minus the window fan of course, although we use ceiling fans and have no air conditioning. The power system could run one, but do I really need to flog the batteries hard in order to feel comfortable? Possibly not such a good idea for the batteries. Man, I grew up with that arrangement too, and it was occasionally hot back in the day as well.
Incidentally, the dogs won’t let me open their door at night (which fronts on to the coolest aspect of the house), because all the forest critter activity sends them loopy. A bloke needs his sleep more than getting that cross flow cooler evening air advantage… 🙂 If I had to re-build the house, let’s just say that I’ve learned a thing or twenty! Fingers crossed it doesn’t come to that.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Margaret,
Thanks for watching the video, and we’re learning a lot about making videos. Ollie is a natural when it comes to catching food, so for that matter is Dame Plum. They can calculate trajectories and have co-ordinated their jaws to ensure that the food opportunity never goes to waste. Have I mentioned the cheese tax situation with the dogs? It’s weird, but they know the exact moment the little plastic container which the block of cheese sits in (super yummy cheese too, and of a light yellow colour – the orange cheese in your country kind of scares me, sorry!)
The Editor is behind the scenes on that project, but I’ll get her in front of the camera sooner or later. It’s hard to believe, but she’s gone all shy on me with this. We’re learning a lot too, and have decided to make the videos shorter and more punchier. People are busy, and there’s a lot of content out there. 🙂 Might even do a walk around of the place over several episodes.
Far out, the overnight temperatures have been cold to freezing of late. A lot of ice out there in the mornings… Brr!
Marty probably has his own opinions on the world and how things should work, and you and your sister are there for him when he needs it. Even if he thinks he doesn’t.
Was paperwork ever meant to be fun? 🙂 Your former employment might have suggested an answer there!
Margaret, you’re an absolute saint, or something like that. 😉 5 day visits would be way too much stimulation for my brain! Hey, wasn’t the old rule about guests suggesting that the 3 day mark was about right? Hope Cecily’s birthday goes well and that everyone enjoys themselves. Oh my, are you hosting that as well? Yes, I agree, too much, but life is like that, and no doubts you’ll enjoy every minute of it, then seek some quiet time.
Go Salve, and may she avoid skunk stink. Seems only fair don’t you reckon? I can assure you that wombat poop is aromatic in a very bad way. It took about an hour handling damp firewood rounds and then splitting them before the stink left them. Thanks for that Ruby!
You’re having the almost perfect summer with that regular rainfall. It doesn’t get better than that, and hope the garden is growing well. The weather bureau down here is forecasting a wet spring, with the rain commencing Monday night. It was sunny today. The sun was nice. Ook!
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Man, it’s like 34’F outside and the clear night sky is full of stars. Nary a moon in sight, and you can see the band of the Milky Way. So I took the camera out to see whether we could take a photo. Hmm. Need to go back to the drawing board. Those night star field photos are seriously hard to take. Ook!
Thanks for the advice from the master gardeners, and that’s kind of how the stink dissipated from the leather riggers gloves. But yeah, next time I’ll rub even more dirt and sawdust onto them. We were splitting firewood, and the aroma abraded over time. What a relief. Early on I was troubled that I’d wiped my face with the gloves or had stepped in some unknown natural material. Stinky wombat poop and naughty Kelpie. A wicked combination.
Ah, Irish Spring indeed. 🙂 A ginger can’t use such detergents lest they end up with eczema! Strong stuff. It may have been called Palmolive Gold down under, and had a rather natty advertising campaign from way back in the day. Imagine this: A couple. A tent. Camping. GF sends bloke out to wash because he stinks. Advertising was simpler back in the day. The catch line may even have been: Don’t wait to be told, you need… Clearly the dude did need to be told, for the facts speak for themselves.
That’s getting hot, and perhaps a bit uncomfortable really. Hope the return to more saner temperatures doesn’t take too long. And that’s it isn’t it? The tomato vines will grow, and any fruit that’s already been produced will ripen.
It’s the same here, except I’m up in the mountains in that situation. It’s quite common, unfortunately, and can sometimes start fires in hard to get to places. The benefit of being up in the mountains is that the hail is usually very small, but at lower altitudes for some reason the things can be like golf ball and car destroying sized hail. Not sure how the glass on solar panels would hold up to such a pelting. Probably not good.
That’s funny, and you’d hope that none of the fireworks kicked off a fire anywhere? Fireworks in January here would probably earn a massive community and police reaction due to the fire risk. It’s weird isn’t it how some dogs are freaked out by such noises, and others like H don’t really care, or maybe are only mildly concerned. H’s hearing sounds fine to me, and you could charge big bucks for dog hearing tests doing that! 🙂
Yesterday was pretty chill, and you need to take days off from time to time. Today was different, mostly because it was sunny and even slightly warm at 48’F. Nice. We spent most of the day splitting and hauling more firewood, and then shooting a video on the coffee grounds.
The video work is interesting, and we’re learning how to use the equipment properly. What is interesting is that it appears from looking at the statistics, that people want to see shorter videos. Not all, but plenty do. Might have to start shorter and punchier, then see where it goes. Dunno.
Respect and I do no differently. I’d have to suggest that this is the opposite of what the lenders want from you and I. You’d hope they don’t notice, until you want something from them that is. Best not to want anything from them. Better that they need something from us.
Cool, no hurry. Bill Murray and Dan Akroyd both make an appearance in the film. Seems to have done well at the box office. Oh, I remember you mentioning the American version of that Ghosts series. A massive series binge fest, well that’s what the kids might call five seasons of viewing! 🙂 It’s funny how some series don’t translate as well as the original. The Editor enjoyed the northern European version of the TV series ‘The Bridge’ over the UK-French adaption. Darker apparently.
Hey, it’s good to be the King! Or at least in the world of that author. I’m reading one of the many Jack Vance books in the collection. Yeah, you know, an authors collected works takes a while to get through. I reckon there’s still a dozen books there waiting to be read.
It’s odd to have such a case where for one reason or another (or multiple reasons), none of the parties involved evinced feelings of sympathy. That’s not to say that the whole thing wasn’t a giant tragedy, it was awful. Hmm. And last I checked I’ve never been even remotely involved in a double shooting and fire incident. For one person to be even allegedly involved in two such incidents does kind of seem like a possible stretch of the imagination.
I’ll have a look at the restoration videos. Always interesting to see how people go about such activities.
A bit early for pears, maybe depending on how far they’d travelled. A mystery. That’s one fruit which ripens off the tree, but judging when to consume them is a bit of an art form. The window is only a couple of days. That’s a good haul for the Club and I’m sure will be appreciated, as would the peanut butter, although we make ours from roasted unsalted peanuts and so there is no preservatives and/or oils. The stuff goes off in around a week. It doesn’t rain, it pours is what the old timers used to quip.
Man, I’m getting like that too nowadays. 🙂 Is it age, wisdom, or the knowledge that good relationships take time and effort? Dunno.
Oh yeah. Thanks for the article. Like, how is hanging even more electricity hungry uses say, electric vehicles, off a system apparently struggling to meet demand already? Doesn’t make much sense to me. But that’s my take on the world too. It’s good, yeah, whilst the power is on. Dunno.
Cheers
Chris
Hello Chris
I am really shocked that you have to pay a water and sewage bill when you don’t get the service. I don’t have to pay the sewage part of our water bill as I don’t get the service.
Now to your video. Lew’ s comment was perfect. I will be slightly less kind by saying that you were a bit wooden. So yes, more eye contact, some smiling and generally be more with the viewers. Shorter is also a good idea. This is a bit unfair as you have just started and were probably somewhat tense. I would like to see Sandra do one.
Inge
Yo, Chris – I think there are some tricks to getting good pictures of the Milky Way. Or, special equipment. Time lapse? LOL. Guess we’ll just have to settle for what we see in National Geographic magazine.
The Gold soap is a different brand, from the Irish Spring. Same effect, though. Objecting to Dude Stink, is a Chick thing. 🙂
90F, yesterday. 93F forecast for today. They’ve revised the forecast, down a bit, for Monday and Tuesday. But a degree or two, on either side of 100F, isn’t anything to write home about. I watered this morning, and will water again in the evening. For the duration.
Didn’t see anything in the news, about fires started due to fireworks. At least, on this side of the mountains. One guy started a fireworks fire, over on the east side of the mountains, and was arrested. Even though things are heating up, I think our wet spring has helped keep fires down.
If all goes according to plan, I think I’ll watch the “Ghostbusters”, tonight. Review to follow.
True crime stories, seems to have overrun a couple of channels. The same ones that are big on reality TV. Near as I can tell, not having TV, so to speak, even a couple of the weekly investigative news programs, now wallow in true crime, instead of more interesting fare. A learning / educational channel and a history channel now have nothing to do with learning or history. Unless it’s a historic crime. Really kind of sad. Caters to lowest common denominator. Bread and circuses.
The pears came in a kind of fancy plastic bag. I noticed a bit of rot, on one. I wouldn’t eat the peanut butter we get in our boxes. I splash out for the good stuff, that’s only peanuts, and a bit of salt. A lot of the stuff we get in the boxes, is like that. I put it on the swap table, or take it to the Club, and figure it’s their look-out.
Another interesting article on electricity. This one having to do with what a sinkhole AI is.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/05/opinions/artificial-intelligence-electricity-grid-demand-kuntz
I’ve also read that Byte coin mining is also electricity intensive.
I spent some time in the garden, last night. The patch where I cleared out the potatoes and garlic. Threw on two bags of good garden soil, and half a bag of composted chicken poop. Scattered a bit of wood ash. I’ll toss on some blood meal tonight, and call it good. Ready to plant, whatever. I also buried some kitchen scraps. Interesting. When I dug down a few inches, the soil seemed … sandy, to me. Oh, well, if I keep pumping organic material into the soil, that ought to level out. Lew
PS: Mr. Greer is calling for topics for the extra Wednesday. I haven’t read through all the comments, yet, but someone tossed out the history of the Catholic Church. I actually groaned, out loud. 🙂 I tossed out food in a declining world. Growing, processing. Whatever. Don’t these people want to eat?
Hello Chris,
What a good idea to make videos, sharing your experiences, with the angle of saving mad cash. As the debt-mountain that was referenced this week is inflated away, us normal people will have not much mad cash to spend. The last three years have seen a general price increase for food ingredients at +30%. It sounds like inflation to me. But what do I know?
I suspect that the best cash saving move is the flour-tub in the video. That you purchase flour/sugar/coconut in bulk and move to tubs is a cunning tactics that you could hint about in upcoming episodes.
Browsing through the other comments, I could share some gas-nomenclature: LPG = Liquid Petrol Gas = propane, as Pam wrote.
LNG = Liquid Natural Gas = methane. Both are traded internationally.
(Side note: Russia is richly endowed in methane and propane. Sounds like a winning hand to me.)
Here, the summer is half sun/half rain, which is great for our trees. The hoop houses are full of produce and small trees, and smell great. Last year I had a dill plant set seed and disperse, so there are gorgeous volunteers everywhere. A good weed.
Looking forward to the next video installment!
Peace,
Göran
Hi Göran,
Thank you, and there’s a new video up as of only a few minutes ago. We’re going to stick to the super practical with this stuff. Hey, prices are up here too. There’s a whole bunch of problems from energy, to money, soil mineral depletion and pollution, you name it. It’s a target rich environment out there, but I’ve given up my soapbox. Hardly produces a positive outcome, does it? And yeah, given what people tell me, how can either of us know much? 😉 That’s the beginning of wisdom, apparently!
That’s a good idea, and yeah we’ll add that to the list of videos on purchasing stuff in bulk. That plastic tub used to go with us to the local bakery (long ago when we purchased bread). They’d chuck the bread loaf directly into the plastic tub. One day I exited the bakery and was pounced upon by the transition town folks promoting the idea of a ban on single use plastic bags. Seems like a good idea. We had a short discussion on the bread loaf in the plastic tub, and that idea had not even occurred to them. People still use single use plastic bags, and that conversation was fifteen years ago.
Far out! Thanks for mentioning this matter. Hmm. Seems like propane has more energy by volume than methane. We use propane fuel, or LPG.
And yeah, if you’ve ever looked at the Battle of the Bulge in WWII, you can see how attrition on the battlefield plays out. It’s all there. My gut feeling is that lot will win that war, barring a black swan event, and even then…
Thanks for your most excellent blog update. 🙂 Dill is a good weed.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Inge,
When that water bill turned up out of the blue many years ago, the locals were incensed. Sadly, the validity of the bill was challenged in the court system, and it was upheld. It goes up every year too. It’s so weird, but as they say you can’t fight city hall.
It’s good to hear that you incur a lesser charge from your water authority. It’s a bit of a joke really, but providing any of your own infrastructure is not cheap, and the stuff still has to be maintained.
Oh my goodness, it looks like we’re about to enjoy two very wet weeks of weather beginning tomorrow evening. Should be interesting. The house reserve water tank (about 9,000 gallons) is still empty.
How’s your summer growing season weather going?
Many people are upset by negative feedback, and that does not describe me. 🙂 I learned how to speak in public to crowds by fronting the entire senior school (at the more English than the English grammar school) and presenting the weekly cross country running sports results. If you can survive such a hostile and critical no-filter crowd like a bunch of High School kids, well it can’t get worse than that!
Your points are both well taken, and I am aware of this lack. What I’ve observed of others with large number of subscribers is that the camera is held much closer to the face, and also the lighting is better. We’re learning as we go and you should see some improvement as the weeks roll on. It’ll be a fun journey.
Absolute respect. I was wondering if anyone would pick up on that tension. I’d had the story idea locked into my head and then Sandra started intervening at the last second and adding in her own bias and ideas, and this threw me off my game a bit. We’ve now come to the arrangement that her ideas need to be presented at an earlier stage. My mind has to juggle around the story and presentation of the narrative. If an idea is lost, so what?
She’s a bit camera shy, although time will wear that hesitancy down. I’m with you, she has to get in front of the camera, even as a bit player.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Haha! It’s ever so slightly out of focus, but we nailed that photo of the night sky. Of course, I’ll appreciate your views on the photo. Just between you and I, that sort of photography is in the too-hard basket. But every once and while it doesn’t hurt. My brain has been filled with camera technical issues these past couple of weeks, and bizarrely that kind of helped with the star photo. Mostly, I’m just a hack with this stuff and will give things a bash and see what happens. 😉
Hehe! Dude, National Geographic magazine articles probably take a thousand photographs for any article in the hope that at least some of them will work out! My view on the world of digital SLR cameras is that the older film 35mm cameras (which we used to use) took consistently better shots. But then I guess they had to be, developing rolls of film could send a person broke. Digital encourages a person to take many more photos than they actually need. We delete about half of the photos taken each week. And only a few of the star photos actually worked.
Hehe! Oh yeah, chicks get funny about caveman stink. Such things are known. Either of those detergent based soaps will strip the essential pan juices of my skin and probably leave me with eczema. I realise in Fight Club soap was made for a specific reason, but we make olive soap because it is simply better.
Those sort of weather conditions do demand watering morning and evening. It’s sad to watch tender annual vegetables wilting in the midday sun, but cavemen growers must harden their hearts to the plant suffering. They bounce back once evening sets in.
He’d be arrested down here too, but the neighbours might have something to say about such fireworks foolishness at the hottest and driest part of the year. When I was a kid, you could buy fireworks at the local milk bar (corner store equivalent). Things were a bit looser in those days… Good to hear that the fires have been few and far between. Wet summers are good like that.
I look forward to reading your review of the film.
You’re right there, and it does sensationalise a sordid underbelly of our society. It’s not my usual M.O. to dwell upon such matters, and only mentioned the ongoing dramas because it was so close to home. It is a bit of a distraction technique used in the media. Look at these awful happenings over here…
Well pears do rot, and in many ways their ripening process is part of the fermentation process going on within the fruit itself. That’s the only way a pear can become ripe sitting on a kitchen bench. The art form is to know when to consume the super tasty fruit. Either side of that point and the fruit is disgusting.
🙂 Dude for the past decade I have been consistent in my critique of the electricity system. The article more or less called things as they will end up being – rolling blackouts. Plenty of other countries do that already, and people deal and get on with their lives. It’s not hard. They both require a lot of energy. The question in my mind now is: who is currently paying those bills? I pay for the server for this website, but how can ai be so cheap to use? The story makes no sense, and for all we know, the thing could be run at a massive loss? Dunno.
That’s a heady soil feed, and your plants will love it, except maybe the peas and beans – they’ll have issues with such soil feed. But that’s the sort of stuff I’m chucking around here. If soil phosphates can be improved, it’s a job that needs doing.
I’m groaning at that suggestion too, and it’s a bit hurtful given Sara’s experience with that lot and recent events. Man, someone once told me that their kids believed money came from a machine in a hole in the wall. I’m of the opinion that plenty of adults are utterly clueless about the origins of what they put on their tables. How’s that bread bit ended up in the bread and circuses story? I dunno.
Had a really weird learning experience with one of the chainsaws today. Man, you think you know lots about the machine, then it throws you into the world of uncertainty. Hmm. At least today was again sunny and very nice. The rain will kick in Monday night and looks set to hang around for almost a fortnight. How does that work?
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Re: Your video. Maybe if you threw in a little soft shoe? 🙂
Digital vs analog. We’ve been here, before. Lacks a certain … richness and depth. Though I must say, some of the pictures you’ve posted, here, are calendar worthy.
Well, I threw on the blood meal, last night. Buried some more kitchen scraps. I’ve got a slight buffer zone, between the enriched soil and the beans. I planted two more Sweet Basil, and two Cayenne peppers, that have been languishing in their pots. One of the peppers has a small pepper, on it. I also wrangled the tomatoes. Every once in awhile, one must make sure no stray branches have moved outside the tomato cage. Usually, I break a branch, or two. But, like your chainsaw, always something new to learn in the garden. Though my discovery is a small thing. If the tomato plant, hasn’t had water for awhile, and is a bit droopy, the branches are a lot more flexible. No broken branches, last night. I noticed one of my cherry tomatoes has little green nubbins. Those will get ripe, heat or no.
Now that the pill bugs are on the run, I’m seeing a few earwigs. Which are also bad news. Harder to kill. Those little fellows move fast!
Yes, fireworks have been a bit “toned down” from the good old days. Not that there aren’t illegal stuff, available. Brought in from less restrictive areas. I saw a headline, that some guy was killed, as he blew a firework off from the top of his head. Seems like there’s one of those, every year.
I watched the new “Ghostbusters” movie, last night. Worth a bowl of popcorn. This one is subtitled: “Frozen Empire.” I think I slightly prefer the last one, “Afterlife.” But maybe, not. Six of one, half a dozen of another. The last one, moved out of New York, and to the Oklahoma hinterlands. Introduced a lot of new characters, and was kind of a relaunch of the series. In “Frozen Empire,” it’s back to New York City, and, the firehouse. But, it had a lot of new secondary characters, who were very interesting. If you watch them, I think you should watch “Afterlife,” first. Not that “Frozen Empire” doesn’t stand on its own.
True crime, close to home, is always more interesting. It’s why I read the police blotter, in the newspaper.
Oh, well. As far as topics for Mr. Greer’s blog, my very unkind response is: “Fine. Starve, while you philosophically contemplate your navel.” And, when I think about it, there’s plenty of other blogs out there, your own fine one included, that I can get the information I’m interested in.
Here’s a brief summary of the Roman corn (grain) dole. It’s the bread part, of “bread and circuses.”
https://w.wiki/AbKG
91F, yesterday. Forecast to be 96F, today. No rain in our forecast. Sounds like you can send us some. Lew