A few days ago, rugged up in a woollen jacket, beanie and alpaca scarf, with Dame Plum and Ollie in tow, he headed out on a walk. Up the wet road in the dusky twilight. It was cold and the wind was blowing the trees around. The winter rain hadn’t let up for most of the week and we were all keen to spend some time outdoors. Even at a good distance from the house, you could hear the generator chugging away. The fossilised sunlight energy in the petrol made up for the lack of sunlight.
It’s not usually windy in this protected part of the mountain range, however the wind was blowing in from the south west that day. And the strong gusty winds shook the trees around and back and forth. Ollie asked me if the wind was likely to drop a tree onto the power line which was hanging like a string above the road. A fair concern. Swoosh the leaves sang, accompanied by the occasional clacking and groaning sound. The three of us ploughed on.
Further up the road we were passed by a beaten up looking green sedan. The three of us had stood to the side of the road and let the car sail past. Lost was my first thought. There are only two houses on this dirt road, and the car sure wasn’t owned or driven by the neighbours. A year or two ago a TV program did some big competitive house build reality show in the area, and it amused me to hear the complaints of a lack of Uber eats. The car clearly wasn’t on an urgent food delivery mission.
Curious to see what the person in the vehicle was up to, Ollie and Dame Plum were forced to pick up their pace. The walk had been interrupted, and so back home we headed. What? Why was the beaten up green sedan turning into my drive way? Speeding our pace a bit more, brought us closer to the house, but still up on the road. “Hey!” I yelled in a voice of command. The dude had gotten out of the car and was walking around the front of the house. Clearly he’d failed to notice the ‘Keep Out’ sign.
Hearing the command, he visibly jumped and began walking up the driveway towards the road to greet me. Walking towards each other, he received the advice: “Don’t get too close to the dogs.” Ollie did his best menacing face number two, whilst Dame Plum, just did her best Dame Plum, which can be a bit scary for the uninitiated. Conversation was held at a discreet distance.
“It’s cold. Your house looks like it could use some weather stripping.”
Had we really cut our dog walk short for this rubbish? “Nah man. The house doesn’t need the stuff, it’s fairly new.” Then quick as a flash, with sales reluctance firmly at the forefront of his mind, the guy asks: “How do you heat your house, gas or electricity? We could do a deal for you.” Unsolicited sales offers annoy me, and so a ‘get lost’ reply was in order: “We heat with firewood. You’re not likely to be cheaper than that.” Defeated we said our goodbyes, and the beaten-up green sedan left the property.
Except it was a big lie. Firewood is not cheaper than gas or electricity. If you have access to the trees and can blithely ignore the cost of the machines, consumables, storage and fuel, a person can pretend it’s cheaper, but it isn’t. Turns out, the whole question as to why would we even bother producing our own firewood, is much deeper than it first seems.
Since we’ve had the YouTube channel, it must be some sort of weird setting with that software, but on my dashboard there are now promoted videos with the titles of: ‘why I live rurally and/or alone’. For research purposes for the blog, I sat through a few of them. The production was amazing, and the videos usually were of very appealing looking young ladies, staring off into the rural distance, walking their dog through an idyllic setting, enjoying a cup of herbal tea, riding a bike through roads lined with wild flowers, and sometimes the young ladies even stop to take the time to sniff the flowers. Why am I now getting these suggested videos? These stories are just so not me.
All the same, it did get the old brain into gear thinking about the issue. The other morning, three hours (and two cups of coffee) were spent in the kitchen producing things. One task was done. Onto the next. Then the next. It was quite a fluid experience, and all the while the brain cogitated on the story: why do this stuff?
The world is full of stories, and the question of why, is also a story. Back in 2008, I’d climbed the corporate ladder for twenty years, and eventually held a senior position with a lot of staff reporting to me. I was a responsible person. So responsible in fact that my hair was receding and my sleep was disturbed. Thoughts of work matters spilled over into my out of office hours, sometimes into the wee hours of the morning. I was deeply miserable.
One morning before work, sitting in the bath with my head held in my hands, Sandra asked me the hard question: “What are you doing?” Women know things, and so we had a long discussion. That’s how we ended up living here. That however doesn’t answer the question as to why we’d be producing our own firewood. Turns out, we both enjoy being productive, even when it’s hard work. And it sure beats the shit out of having to turn up to do a super responsible job.
Earlier in the week, some of the strongest winds in the past couple of years hit the state. The winds weren’t too bad here, but even so there was quite a lot of tree damage which will have to be cleaned up. It would be fatal to be hit by some of the branches which fell on those couple of windy days.
Most trees eventually fall over, the question usually is: when will they do so? In the surrounding forest there’s plenty of loggers mess left to clean up, but the trees in the forest do also naturally topple over. Here’s one on the forest edge which fell many years ago because the root system had weakened and split.
It’s easy to tell what is the loggers mess, mostly because it looks out of place. The root systems may be up in the air, or there are no holes in the ground where the trees root system only once was. It just doesn’t look natural. Here’s a good example of an old felled loggers tree which we are harvesting firewood from.
Usually the loggers trees have cores which are damaged. Presumably the trees were used as saw logs, and the rotten cores would wipe out their value.
It’s hard on the chainsaw cutting up trees with rotten cores, because the chain blunts quickly upon encountering the rot. But I’m not fussed about sharpening the chains. It is what it is. And eventually once the rotten core dries out, it’s still good firewood. We produced a lot of discs which will be split into firewood chunks a couple of weeks time. At the moment, the paddocks are too wet to move the split firewood. There’s a big probability that we’ll rip up the paddocks, so they need to dry out a bit before that splitting and hauling work gets done.
The loggers mess is sometimes intriguing, and most of it bears the scars of the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires. There are a lot of dead tree stumps dotted about. They absolutely refuse to decay into soil.
Every now and then I become enthused with energy to clean up that mess. The stump grinder gets dragged down into the forest edge, and for a couple of hours the machine hammers away at the hardwood tree stumps. It’s not a quick job, it’s about the smallest stump grinder you can buy, but all the same, the job gets done. At the end of the work, the sawdust is mixed in with the soil. In a year or two there will lush plant growth.
On Sunday, after almost a week of thick clouds, winds and rain, the sun shone. It was really nice to feel the warmth of the winter sun on your skin.
The kitchen is a bit of a power house when it comes to production. Earlier this week we mixed up a batch of home made olive oil soap. It’s good stuff, and puts the commercial products to shame.
We use a few trays of silicon based moulds for the soap.
We’ve also begun a sake (Japanese rice wine) experiment. A few years ago, the yeast balls (an Asian dessert) used to inoculate the boiled rice and begin the sake fermentation process, bizarrely failed. We’d been using them for years to make sake, and somehow, I’m guessing the formula changed, and thereafter each batch failed. Every single one of them. What’s worse was that the wine had received glowing reviews from people who know about such things.
However, being the crafty, resourceful and productive people we are, we decided to try our hand again at making sake, but this time go back one step and eliminate the mysterious yeast balls. We are making a video about the process and there are still a few weeks to go, but the indications at this early stage is that we maybe back baby!
One of the three processes uses the mysterious yeast balls, and the observant reader may guess which it is!
I’ve failed to prune the raspberry canes, and today noticed that one of them seems to be in the process of producing a blossom. That is remarkably early.
When we first moved here it was common knowledge that citrus trees would not grow in this mountain range. Perhaps the common knowledge was wrong, didn’t apply to this particular location, or the climate has since shifted. Another mystery! The mandarin which was stripped of fruit by the European wasps (Yellow jackets) earlier in the year, is now again full of fruit.
The pomello (a grapefruit variety) is another hardy citrus tree which, whilst not quite yet ripe, has had a couple of heavy fruit fall from it’s branches. We’ll test them out because they’re probably quite tasty.
Here’s our video for this week showing what we’re eating from the garden.
Onto the flowers:
The temperature outside now at about 11am is 10’C (50’F). So far for last year there has been 573.8mm (22.6 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 512.4mm (20.2 inches)
Chris,
Remember, I had drunk the kool-aid of that weird church. However, two events that in retrospect were huge in making me reassess had occurred. By the time I was part of those teen camps, the rigid obedience was being sorely questioned by me, but internally. So I’d do things different with the teens. One such event: early morning Bible study time, aka indoctrination lesson time? It’s chilly, everybody is sleepy and a deer walked to within 3 meters of us and started eating. I got my group to remain quiet and still. Watching the deer that close was a much better lesson for the day. I would do several things like that. As you noted, I am more lose in those regards. It just took me awhile to realize that.
The St. Joe is spectacular. Or it was. Been years since I’ve been there. I hear that it is getting overly used now. I spent a lot of time up there for several years, many canoe trips. Those trips with the teens were a lot of fun and somewhat more laid back than the other camps they had.
You may be onto something regarding life on the Rez when the dominant culture starts to recede. I haven’t spent enough time thinking on that to be coherent.
There may be early descriptions of the Yakima River country. I’ve not looked for any in particular. I’ve seen some descriptions of the Spokane River from early settlement days. The river flow gets very low in the summers. Dams can control it, and in the Spokane Valley the aquifer adds water to the river at places. One description from circa 1850 said that the river was so low that there was hardly any water in it at the waterfalls downtown. That changed when the outlet from its source at Lake Couer d’Alene was dredged regularly. Nowadays, people think we need to have the water flow in the summers the way it was before the settlements started, let it have its “natural” water flow. I suggest at that point that we quit dredging the outlet to the river and see what happens, adding that “surely the Natives didn’t dredge it!” As you can guess, not a popular thing to say.
Your succulents in winter look much healthier than my succulents do in this summer. Hit 42C today with 12% humidity and 15 km/hour winds. And hazy skies and some smoke seeping onto the ground level. I’ve been using the air purifier for two days now.
My ancestors sailed across oceans in dragon ships. They sacked Rome, toppled empires and forged kingdoms. I ventured outside this afternoon, felt the heat, said “ooof!” and hastily retreated indoors. Pah! Civilization has made us soft! Although I AM having trouble imagining my Viking and other northern ancestors being very active at 42C.
Didn’t you know? “Keep Out” signs on private property are being increasingly viewed as “optional”. 😉
Heating with wood. Interesting take you have about it’s not being less expensive than electricity or gas or what have you. Living where there’s an abundance of trees and firewood like you do, on the surface it appears that it would be much cheaper. People forget about the time involved. Time purchasing equipment. Maintaining equipment. The backbreaking labor involved and the volumes of time it requires. Maybe it costs less for you in dollar terms, but the other factors must also be considered. I discovered here, not living on 20 or 40 acres of trees, the cost of heating in dollar terms was very nearly identical whether we used wood/oil furnace mix, all oil furnace, or only gas furnace.
I had a similar series of conversations with the Princess. We eventually decided to cash in a lot of investments and apply them to the house principal. Then we made triple payments. I made a chart at work, taped it to my wall. It listed each and every month that we had left until the house was paid off. Once a month, I’d cross off the appropriate line. Once it was paid off, I felt a LOT better about the job…I had the freedom to leave and find a lesser paying job if things got too bad. Having that freedom was all I needed, and I began to cope with things better. AKA I was no longer playing their game of mortgage payment, invest like crazy to get rich, be stuck in the rat race, etc.
You know, I’ve watched a lot of sci-fi futuristic programs and movies. Many dystopian movies, too. And read similar type books from many authors. There were a lot of commonalities in them. Television and radio commercials, what they were advertising and how they were worded is one commonality. I have been seeing advertisements that are similar to those of the dystopian movies. Recently, I have had a 30 second advertisement show up (when ads are supposed to show up) during my Welsh lessons on my phone. (I’m too cheap to pay to be advertisement free.) It had the dystopian AI “person” and voice. The voice sounded robotic. Just like in some of the movies. IT was bizarre.
Next thing you know, I’ll need a taxi for something. One will show up. It will be the “Johnny Cab” from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Total Recall”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWgrvNHjKkY
DJSpo
Yo, Chris – Alpaca scarf? Ohhh. Fancy! 🙂 I thought it was a typo. Being the land of cheap, fast, and out of control, we only spell woollen, with one “l”. Not even the spell checker, likes it, with two Ls. Had to go two falls out of three, to get it to accept the double “L.”
That’s funny, about the complaints that there is no Uber Eats. Sometimes, you hear people, who move up to the arse end of our county, where the towns are less than a hundred people, complain that there are none of that Very Big Coffee company. You know they won’t last long.
Here in the Land of the Gun Crazy, pulling a stunt like that dude, would be likely to get him shot. Prowling around in the twilight, like that. It happens. Frequently.
That’s funny about the U Tub videos, of fantasy rural life. Sort of like the products, that claim to be “natural,” or “organic,” that always have a red barn on the label, a contented looking cow, butterflies, and a big yellow sun. That video I mentioned, last night, tries to dispel that kind of thinking.
I’ve got to hand it to The Editor. She knows how to pick her moments. There you are. Naked and defenseless. Hmmm. Might make a good title for some reality show. 🙂
Looks like you had a bit of wind. More firewood, without having to cut down a single tree. A small bit of the work, is done.
Pictures of sunlight, on Fern Glade Farm, look a bit strange. It’s been so long a winter, for you.
So, why do you wait several days, to pour the soap into the molds? Inquiring Minds Want to Know!
I envy your citrus. I watched the video. Top form. The only comment I’d make is, I couldn’t quit catch the species names, of some of the produce. Maybe, slow down and enunciate. Take the names of the plants, for a test run, before making the video. Just a suggestion.
Succulents are such hardy plants. We have several, here, that ride out our winters, quit nicely. Even though ours our a tad more fierce, than yours. Lew
Hello Chris,
What do you think about the man in the green sedan? Did he look like he dressed up to sell stuff? Or was that just bs talk to hide other intentions? Did he give you a leaflet or something? Mysteries in the Mountains…
Energy sources… What is cheap? Talk is cheap.
We mainly heat with wood, and now we get to know more and more people around our place who have woodlots with plenty of trees that have to be thinned in the winter. All the firewood we need, if I take down the trees and bring them home.
I could also just lean back and use the electric heatpump system and do much less work. From a $/h perspective, probably smarter.
But as you said, stories drive the meaning of life.
Last week, I think you mentioned oats. Several of our friends in Germany roll their own oats. They purchase 25kg bags of oat grains and roll the oats just before use. It smells great.
Some have hand flakers, some use electric flakers like this one:
https://hawos.de/en/product/futuria-e1-grain-flaker/
Maybe something for you?
It is on my own wish-list for next year… 😉
Looking forward to a soap-making episode. M and me have been talking soap forever, but never got started.
Also a sake-episode would be on my wish-list.
Schooling and critical thinking are definitely not the same thing. I have listened to the podcast series of Tyson Yunkaporta of Sand Talk fame, and he has quite some unusual perspectives about schools and learning. I reached out to him to ask for some details from the book, and got a friendly and informative answer. Clever dude with many encounters with challenges and learnings in his life, which he generously shares. I think he learned most of his thinking outside of schools.
Regarding money and enough; I met with an interesting guy from Denmark, with the nondescript name of Anders Andersen, who works for a foundation that is helping transition farms to organic and ecological methods. They are mainly funded by people who have too much money and don’t know what to do with the dough. Mainly people in retirement, middle class, who want to support a better food system, but who don’t know where to start.
When I worked in Industry, nobody ever talked about earning enough. Everyone who spoke about their desires wanted to earn more, buy a bigger house, faster car, more exclusive vacations. (I felt more and more alone and alienated. Did you ever read anything by Jakob Lund Fisker? Another clever Danish dude, who looked into living lightly on the land.) Anyways, many “middle class” people end up with too much money and no friends at the end of their careers, looking for something to do with the dough. Do you see that over at your side of the world too?
I am so much happier now that I have more time to do real work, meet real friends and family. Hermit life is not my thing. Stress is there, sometimes, and sometimes the work is physically hard, but the work is always meaningful.
Peace,
Göran
Hi Göran,
Yes, the guy looked like he was genuinely doing door to door sales. Part of the reason I told him about the firewood was so that he stopped wasting his time in this area. The winters are relatively cold here, and people who decided to insulate and weather strip their houses, have long since done so. What’s interesting is that I’m hearing that electricity plans are becoming increasingly obscure. But this far out on the end of a ‘single wire earth return’ mains electricity connection, a household is unable to draw big and sustained currents.
He had product and brochures in his hands, but I took a no-nonsense but friendly attitude with him, and he could read the room and promptly left.
Have wood lot, will have firewood. 😉 Respect to you for establishing the relationships necessary to have access to such a resource. I know of some people who do similarly to you, but just between you and I, nobody has ever asked me, but people do scour the roadsides looking for harvestable firewood. The electric heat pump is actually cheaper. But then, the question becomes: How much are your time and the methods of exchange actually worth?
No way! What a good idea to flake ones own oats – and purchase them in bulk unprocessed. Thanks for mentioning this, and yet again my brain has been blown away. Hmm. I’ll be guided by your experience in this regard. Please do keep me informed. 🙂
The sake episode is a few weeks away, but I reckon we’ve sorted out the process. I’ve watched videos making the process look excruciating, and trust me, if it looks like a protection racket, it may well be. The problem I’ve had with providing instructions to other people with this high value drink is that every time there are newly introduced efforts to complicate things. I’m truly left mystified by that! Olive oil soap (or any fat) is super easy to make. We just made a batch last week without filming, so that maybe two or three months away, but we’ll get there. And, it is a superior product to what you can usually purchase. Good if you have dry skin, and winters are hard in that regard.
Well done, and I’d not thought to reach out to Tyson. Hmm. He’s a smart bloke, and I really enjoyed delving into his world and world-view with the Sand Talk book. If memory serves me correctly, it was you who recommended it?
Exactly! That’s it. And my experiences have been much the same. The vast majority of people want to earn more. Few people care to explore the option of spending less, whilst trying to work out how to do more. It makes absolutely no sense to me either. Haha! That’s funny, but whenever I give retirement advice, I never mention money. It’s always three quick points: Friends; Hobbies; and Purpose. Hmm. Oh yeah, I see such things occurring too. The technical description is perhaps: Provisional Living?
Yes, meaning = purpose. Friends = connections. Work = hobbies. Respect! 🙂
There was a craze of planting Monkey Puzzle trees here in the Victorian era. Candidly, many of those trees are nearing the end of their lives, and I’ve seen a few of them looking quite ill, and one or two were horizontal. Never good! The Bunya nut trees were also planted around the same time, and the large ones I’ve seen in this corner of the continent are usually quite tall and healthy looking. You wouldn’t want to be hit in the head with one of the nuts! Last year we harvested some of the Bunya nuts from a nearby botanical garden and roasted them up. They were quite good, although had a different taste to say Chestnuts or Hazelnuts.
Goran, it is a truth universally acknowledged that some people will plant the most preposterous trees in smaller town gardens. Talk about expensive to remove decades after planting. And you’d hope there were no electricity lines nearby… No trees within falling distance of a house is my view on such matters. And an old timer once astutely said to me: They never get smaller.
Your summer sounds lovely, and is particularly good after the previous challenging summer weather.
Well that’s new. Pickled walnuts are outside my experience. Are they tasty?
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Life is in the living, and I’d have enjoyed your deer watching class. You’ve just kind of proved that there is a time for reading and cogitating, and another for observing and cogitating. Rigid structures are a I dunno, form of western culture. Nature is rarely rigid, and can sometimes send surprises, produce, and yet at other times, shocks.
Ah, unfortunately that is sometimes the case with commonly accessed natural places. I’ve heard that the four wheel drive only tracks up in the more easterly alpine parts of this state are heavily used, but as a young bloke I could head out there for days and not see anyone. Good chill out time for the brain.
It was only a wild guess, but the thing with centralised systems is that they take an awful lot of energy to maintain. And in decline, controls slips.
Hehe! Well that’s the thing with re-establishing natural systems. Everyone gets offended and has their own hobby horse and/or axe to grind. There are reliable accounts that most of the rivers down under used to seasonally flood and thus add to the fertility of the land. One of the things the early European settlers did, was to remove the debris from the rivers which caused the pressure build up and semi-regular flooding. The water moved away from the areas faster. And the land fertility declined as a result, not to mention the soils dried. I’ll do a video on the water systems here sooner or later, but we try to get every drop of rainfall into the soil.
Oh my! DJ, that’s horrendous weather, and hope any fires stay at a respectable distance, and that the air purifiers assist your household. Some years you can taste the burned vegetation when just walking around. Dude, other than mad dogs and Englishmen, nobody is very active when it’s 42’C in the shade! The Vikings would have wilted in the heat, or at least ended up sunburnt.
The Keep Out sign is a legal response to a legal problem. I’d as soon as not have it, but if it’s there, and trouble brews, the sign has some ramifications. But then if the trouble is bad enough, the sign won’t matter.
That’s a good point in relation to the economics of firewood. Purchased firewood is generally produced with much bigger machines and so there are economies of scale there. It’s hard to know the quality of what they’re selling you though, and a moisture meter and a good understanding of the tree species can assist with that – but who takes the time to test the stuff sold to them? Plus purchased firewood generally turns up in a dump truck and ends up in a pile. The firewood shed is not free… I’m of the belief that many of the things we do here are high quality, but I do wonder about the economics of the situation. On the other hand, I enjoy doing the work and if you completely ignore the capital costs, and have the equipment already, well other than labour and some consumables, it’s pretty cheap. There is a school of thought which suggests that capital can be used so as to provide a flow of future stuff.
Hey, that was my game with the move here too. Reduce debt servitude and thereby wangle some freedom. And I’m guessing you add the same weight that I do to the option, but the freedom to walk away, is a very powerful thing. The only problem we had there was that the building standards suddenly changed after the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires where a lot of people died, and the house ate nearly all of our accumulated buffer. Since then we’ve had to rebuild it and do things around here when we could afford to do them. It focuses the mind wonderfully, just like that chart you had taped up to the wall. I’ve been wary of debt since the wheels suddenly became unglued for me in the 1992 recession we had to have. I’ve never trusted that on the mad cash front, that tomorrow is just like today. Au contraire, things can change.
Beware the robots and AI, you’ve seen the films! 🙂 How’d it end up with ED-209 in the Robocop film? Far out that boardroom scene has stuck with me all these years later, and I have a woeful visual memory.
Hey, I loved the Total Recall film. I must say, many of the authors books turned into better films than they ever were as books.
It’s strangely warm here tonight at 9’C.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
What do spell checkers know anyway? Let’s find out! 🙂 Man, the number of words I use that the software doesn’t know is just weird. And I use an Australian based dictionary. I do sometimes wonder how alert folks such as yourself will handle the local spelling of words, and the ‘ll’ in the word ‘woollen’ is British English spelling, apparently. That’s an amusing take on your country, and I must say the recent events over there are being talked about here.
Yes, exactly! Those folks are totally doomed! 🙂 Like how hard is it to purchase a proper coffee machine and learn how to use the thing? Far out, you’d think that they’d landed on Mars the way some folks go on about the lack of amenities. My prediction: They’ll survive less than two winters… And cows fart, and the grass gets long before it sets seed.
Does it? The door to door sales dude would have to be very unlucky for that to happen to him. But neither should he have driven down the driveway and park outside the front of the house. Such things are not usually done in the country, unless prior arrangements have been made. I recall with some amusement the day the Jahovies turned up on out-reach, and Ollie and I were outside just walking around and minding our own business. Talk about a hasty retreat to their very large and expensive looking vehicle.
That’s funny, and you’re right, it is a fantasy. I’d not thought of them in those sorts of terms. Hmm. I’m surprised by the sheer number of views the videos receive, and wonder what people get out of them? Dunno really. You can live up rurally and not do any of the work the Editor and I do, but then I guess that choice reflects the economic times. And as I mentioned to DJ, it’s been my personal experience, that economic times can suddenly shift and without much warning. Maybe things will change on that front and people will begin trying to produce stuff again? I’d like to see that happen. Good to hear the video tackled that odd problem of an obscured lens with which to view the world.
Speaking of such matters, the sun shone, and it also rained today. We did some paid work, but also headed down below to the forest edge to continue the clean up work. It’s looking good, and I reckon another day’s work will finish that area. The weather forecast is all over the shop, so trying to determine when that next day will be, is not easy at this wintry time of the year.
🙂 There’s years of firewood waiting to be processed, and just laying on the ground. Felling trees is not within my skill set, although I’ve watched a lot of technique videos and could have a stab at the work. Hopefully safely, if required. It’s dangerous work, as we’ve discussed before.
It was a pretty cool photo that sunlight filtering through the Douglas Fir, next to the huge Eucalyptus tree. There were seven days last week (at least that is my general understanding of the situation!) and six of the days were thick with cloud and rain. Thanks for saying that because it has been a very cloudy winter this year.
Candidly I’m pretty excited about the citrus trees as well! Thanks for the feedback on the video, and yes I should slow down a little and that would also assist with the enunciation. I’ve gotten the Editor to agree not to add in story additions during the middle of filming. My brain struggles to re-arrange the narrative that quickly, although I assume a person gets better over time with practice? Dunno.
Yeah, succulents survive snow and frosts, or at least the varieties growing here do – and likewise at your place. Truly great plants.
Lewis, I tried really hard to hold my breath whilst rebooting the computer 15x to counter act the crowdstruck software issue, but each time I tried I passed out through lack of oxygen to the brain. And then was it 3x, or only 2x the machine rebooted. Look, forget about it, and we’ll go with your computer voodoo idea as it seems easier. 😉 Ah the conspiracy theories are rollin’ on in. Always fun, and who knows, they might be right! I heard some disgruntled goobermint folks suggesting that crodstruck might have to cough up some mad cash as recompense. It may happen too.
90’s is getting a bit warm, but since it’s winter down here, I’m struggling with the entire concept. 81’F is almost perfect weather. Did you end up getting some rain? Get this, it 50’F outside and close to 11pm. Strange.
A lot of people live east of tornado alley. My experience of the minor tornado was that it appeared unconcerned with the mountain topography. You’ve got bigger mountains along the east coast though? They may be a physical barrier to how far east the range could extend. Maybe?
Don’t you ever wonder about the ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’ stories with extreme tourism, like travel to near Earth orbit, or climbing up Mount Everest? I’d read that there was allegedly a punch up on that mountain, possibly due to frustration at delays because of the sheer volume of people doing the climb. You wouldn’t catch me there. When we travelled to Nepal, we picked a long walk that was off the beaten track – you get to see more of the country, dramatic scenery and people.
Hmm, you know I’m of the opinion that re-establishing factories to produce stuff that people want locally, is not a cheap endeavour. Much easier to have retained what was there, even if it was running at a loss. That’s called prudent, but people want cheap. And yes, trade makes for dependencies. What did everyone expect? Beats me.
That was my thinking too with the too much fibre issue. It can produce an unsettled and sometimes err, let’s be polite here, err, gassy outcome. There’s middle ground and hope you’re feeling more settled today? I know it sounds woo-woo, but a tiny bit of ingested activated charcoal powder may assist how you feel, although it can apparently soak up some medicenes.
Hmm. Thanks, and that’s good advice about the directive.
I liked how they cleaned the footage up as well, and it was well done. Not too over the top. The footage of the animals was amazing. The bloke really had a good eye for photography. The Ermin was stunning, I’d never heard of such a critter before. It looks a bit like a Quoll.
Building off grid cabins in Alaska seems to be a bit of a thing in some of the videos I’ve watched. And yeah it would be hard work! 🙂 I noticed the people seem to be selling them off, then moving onto the next project. You’d think that the winters would be pretty cold there, and I noted some folks live in that part of the world for six months on, then six months away. A very interesting part of the world.
I agree about taking a more constructive lens to views of the future, and in fact I hold a belief that the social arrangements will in many ways improve. People can only act like what my grandfather called most people (me included) because they can use their mad cash to keep them at arms length. Things are different when you have to rely on others, and that’s called community. And it ain’t all that bad, and probably sure beats consumerism. Just like the old Aliens trope how when you’re in space, nobody can hear you scream – when you’re broke, nobody’ll see you consume, because you’re broke. 🙂 I’m being funny, but it’s also true.
There’s plenty for folks to do. It’s a bit Fight Club, but I tell concerned people I speak with to make soap. It’s not hard, and it’s a good way to begin the slow process of learning how to produce again. Those skills are considered low status in these enlightened days, and such folks are wrong to believe that.
The rotten insects. Hope you dealt harshly with them? The Suzuki Jimny dirt mouse car is actually a Kei class vehicle in Japan, but they make the wheel axles wider for overseas markets. It’s a small car, and they used to sell those Kei-trucks down under. Not a bad response to dwindling resources and escalating fuel prices.
Cheers
Chris
@ Lew
If constipation is the problem, try eating 4 prunes a day.
Inge
Yo, Chris – Some people seem to think “Keep Out” signs are a suggestion. 🙂 At their peril.
There’s very little sympathy or tolerance, for people whinging about the lack of amenities, in those there hills. 🙂
Anyone, with any grasp of the etiquette of country life knows, the front door (which sometimes led to the front parlor), was only used for ceremonial occasions. Having the vicar, to tea, or whatever. My mother mentioned, a farmhouse they lived in, in Minnesota. That had a front parlor. That’s where they hid the union newspaper. 🙂
So, whence comes the rural fantasy? I thought about it, a bit. Of course, there was the whole Romantic Movement, in the early 19th century. The Alcott’s and Brook Farm and Fruitlands. The author Hawthorne even wrote a satire, about it. But, even going back further, the Romans had a large chunk of “bucolic” writing. Roman gentlemen farmers (assisted by bevies of slaves) who spent time in the country, away from the hurly burly of the city. Going back even further, in some cultures, I think there might have been a yearning, to return to the Garden of Eden. And, if not that specific paradise, quit a few ancient cultures had ideas of some sort of a rural paradise. I wonder … going back to the shift from hunter / gatherer to farming, if there wasn’t some yearning to return to the older, simpler ways. There’s probably a dissertation, somewhere in there.
Yes, politics, over here, are getting pretty “interesting.” Last night, I sat down to fill out my voting form. State and local primary. In this state, we have a primary election. The top two vote getters then go at it, in the general election, in November. We’re sent a voter’s pamphlet, which is non-partisan. For some races, it wasn’t much help. I spent a bit of time, on-line last night, trying to make sure I wasn’t voting for some crazy person. 🙂
It was 75F, yesterday. A steady 57F, all night. The forecast for today is for today is 75F. For the next week, the forecast is for a few degrees, above or below 80F. Prof. Mass has a post about dry, July.
Speaking of dry, the second Australian film (series?), “The Dry,” popped up on the libraries “on order” list. It’s on my hold list. Ought to show up, sooner or later.
When I get up in the morning, and have a chat with H, I always seem to be a bit mush-mouthed. I have to consciously enunciate, to get the old tongue moving in the right direction.
Speaking of H, the building fire alarm, went off, yesterday. I swear, the flashing lights and blaring alarms, in our apartments, drive every thought out of your head. I cautiously stuck my nose out the door, and could smell smoke. So, shoes, pants, wallet, truck keys, go-bag , dog… It turns out, the Inmates were grilling on the covered patio, which is directly below my apartment. It’s just off the community room. So, the smoke from the grill, entered the community room through an open door, and set off the alarms. The fire department showed up. Our poor, put-upon night manager was out shopping. Had to abandon his cart (trolly?) and race back here. Then had to go and start all over again. H spent the rest of the day, in her den, under the bed.
Oh, dear. I should have provided clearer instructions. Maybe pictures … You don’t have to hold your breath, when “holding your mouth right.” Here’s a pretty good explanation: “It’s literal, although it’s a joke. When people are doing something that requires concentration or strength, they’ll often screw up their mouth and possibly their tongue during the effort. If the effort was unsuccessful, someone might say that they weren’t holding their mouth right, i.e. they should have used a different expression.” I was surprised to find out that it’s often used in fishing situations.
I read some more of the supply line book, last night. Interesting. I don’t know if you’ve heard of NAFTA. North American Free Trade Agreement. That was an act, passed back when Clinton was president. The US, Canada and Mexico, have duty free trade. So some companies, rather than on-shoring to the US, are setting up factories, in Mexico. Even some Land of Stuff companies, are setting up shop. Due to trade wars, and supply line problems. They don’t want to lose the lucrative US market. Mexico has a tradition of very strong unions. So, there’s some cultural dissidence, when Land of Stuff companies, discover they can’t run Mexican factories, as they do back home.
There’s been some lose talk, that globalization, is over. Or, at least, changing. Also, “just in time” has been tempered, and it more “just in case.” More parts and inventory, close at hand. Although the author didn’t know how long, or how extensive these changes would hold.
Yes, the wildlife in the Alaskan film was spectacular. Ah, another name for Ermine, is Stoat. The white Ermine phase, has been desired by the nobility, for a long time. You’ll often see references to Ermine trimmed, this or that. Sumptuary laws often restricted Ermine to certain classes. All that white fur you see on King Charles ceremonial drag, is probably Ermine. 🙂
Yes. Community is important. And according to the studies of the Blue Zones, part of living a long and healthy life. People of my temperament, have a problem with that. But I make an effort, outside of the Institution.
The Master Gardeners, were here, this morning. I was advised to prune my tomatoes, to give them better air circulation. Something I will do. I saw Sam the snail, along with Samantha and Darius, out for an evening stroll, night before last. 🙂 Two hummingbirds, were flitting about the garden, this morning. Bumble bees, were out and about. Lew
Chris,
Bingo. Nature isn’t rigid, truly adhering to one major rule: change happens. Watching the deer was the only lesson those three youngsters understood all week. The rigid curriculum designed 6 months earlier, well, umm, ermm, it had literally nothing in common with some of the teens. That was actually one of the events that got me to contemplating that organization and how I (didn’t) fit in it.
You got me thinking about rivers and streams and water and their temperatures. The other major variable here was the fur trade and how the North American beaver population was decimated for the sake of European fashion. Beavers build dams. Dams store AND spread water. Getting rid of the beavers and their dams and the countless hectares of stored water probably has something to do with the river water temperatures also. Add in that the spring thaw is now completed a month earlier than it was 40 or 50 years ago, the water is no longer at ice temperature in early June like it used to be. In other words…there are multiple reasons why the stream temperatures are too high to support salmon and trout in many of these rivers. Minimized shade, warmer water a month earlier, no beaver dams to create deeper and cooler pools are likely 3 big factors.
Sunday night never cooled down. It was still 25C at 2:00 a.m. It cooled to 21.5C at 5:00 a.m. then the sun came up. 39.5C again today with a breeze in the afternoon. Air quality due to smoke was iffy this morning and is deteriorating. Smells like smoke, the sky is hazy at best. Tomorrow will be in the “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” range. It will be a day to remain inside just to be able to breathe. Should be 5C cooler Tuesday.
A Keep Out sign has legal meaning here too. As you said, however, if it is bad enough, the sign means nothing.
I’ve always been debt averse. Having none and having all the big things paid off? Priceless. Include a little bit of a buffer? Fantastic. As you are experiencing, rebuilding a buffer is difficult! Oh, in monetary things that universal law applies as well: change happens.
Mad dogs and Englishmen! I’m glad I’m not English. Avalanche is not mad. Yup, out of the midday sun in this heat is what we do. This evening, still over 35C outside, Dame Avalanche is sleeping in front of the air purifier fan which is in front of the cold air vent, helping the cool to circulate. Smart dog, taking maximum advantage of the cooling system.
And the heat. The Princess is in Toppenish with her brother. It is a few degrees hotter there than here. She texted that his air conditioner quit yesterday evening. UGG! He lives in tribal elder housing, so the maintenance people are supposed to repair it. She texted this morning that they didn’t know when they could get to it. She is staying with him until it has been repaired and she is convinced that he suffered no ill effects from the heat. Meanwhile, they can drive in an air-conditioned car to a cooler location.
I think she has set up the old Viking Air Conditioner for him. Take a block of ice. Put it in say a large roasting pan. Put a box fan behind it. Turn the box fan on. Might not cool an entire apartment, but it will at least blow cooler air on you.
DJSpo
Hi DJ,
Ah, rigid curriculum’s are like battle plans which rarely survive an actual encounter with the Vikings, or those with such blood coursing through their veins. 🙂 If the folks had a less doctrinaire approach, they may appreciate that the divine is everywhere. What’s the point of heading out bush if you don’t take a few moments to stop and take a look around? Wise to contemplate, that can begin journeys, although I have no idea where such things lead. Everyone is different in that regard.
Oh yeah! Beavers would have performed a similar trick to what was going on down under with water courses. Block the flows up, slow them down, allow the waters to move over the land. It’s obvious from hindsight. And European culture fearing floods, never stopped to consider the benefits, so the water was deliberately wooshed away to elsewhere. Taking all the beavers hides was just a different way of clearing the waterways.
But yes, the climate is warming and shifting in odd ways down here too. The question in my mind is always: So, what can be done to adapt?
Oh my! DJ, what a day to get through. Like taking an exam that you didn’t really want to do, but have no choice in the matter. How’s Dame Avalanche coping during the hot spell?
Well yeah, if someone ignores the ‘keep out’ sign and gets up to mischief, that’s a whole different kettle of fish. It’s well understood that miscreants getting up to mischief generally don’t care about such signs. Those folks need to be dealt with differently. A bloke has to be be flexible when dealing with problems. 😉 The sign is there as a response to people who have to care about such things, and have no business being here. There was an incident long ago. Hmm. I won that round, but there are no guarantees.
A truly fine summary of the situation with mad cash, and also a guide to better living. The cynic in me suggests that some of the noisy media part of the cost of living crisis talk could be simplified into: Why can’t we have all the stuff and things we used to have? All the while, there are people struggling to put food on the table, and keep a roof over their heads. And yup, change sure happens. 1992 was a real wake up call for both me and the Editor.
DJ, I can’t say for sure what I am any more. But hopefully neither a mad dog, nor Englishman shall I be. 🙂 Dunno how you’d feel being suddenly transported back to the Nordic countries, but I can’t say for sure I’d enjoy a frozen Scottish winter. The land kind of gets into you. Of course it is my belief that western culture is deliberately trained to be rootless. Oh my, that’s a hot evening.
Oh no, that’s not good about your lady’s brother. Hope the situation can be resolved and he suffers no ill effects from the summer. And hey, that’s a swamp cooler. Nice design! And those arrangements work.
Went into the big smoke today, and got home late. The wood heater is going and enjoyed an egg and salmon salad. Lot’s of fresh produce from the garden (excluding the salmon of course, that arrived in a tin!) Recharges the batteries. Hope the garden isn’t wilting too much in the heat?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Hehe! Yeah, there was some western song from your country with the lines which may have been: we protect this land with dog and gun, and you ain’t welcome son. Sends a strong message, and I think of that line when I see ‘keep out’ signs. But of course, you’re correct, some folks have very porous boundaries, or like to push upon other folks. Can be a risky proposition, and if the wrong characters were involved it could be a way to get dead. Imagine the census collector turning up to a remote property and it was a grow house or a meth lab? Not good. Actually, I did the census collector job once long ago, but in the city. The last time I met someone collecting census data, they weren’t allowed to wander onto rural properties. We had a good chat, but up on the road, and to make the collectors life easier, I contacted the neighbours. Seemed like the least I could do.
Hey, I picked up a work light for the videos. Should make the indoors images a bit brighter.
🙂 Zero tolerance for such lack of food delivery whinges from folks up in them thar hills! A bit under three decades ago we took a week off work to honeymoon around the island state of Tasmania, in the depths of winter, as you do. There weren’t many tourists, let’s just put it that way. Anyway, so we stayed one night at this really lovely old farm settlement (Brickendon cottages very old school, or at least was back in the day) just out of the second largest town of Launceston (which was not all that big). So I asked the lady running the place where we could get some food. Look, I should have been alert to mischief when instead of replying, she then asked me where we came from, i.e. Melbourne. Me not seeing where this was going, she got told the truth, and quick as flash she said: Well, you ain’t in Melbourne now” Yeah, thanks for that. We did find somewhere to eat in town, but it was a chancy thing. I see that farm settlement is now a unesco world heritage site. Who knew?
Exactly! And fortunately most folks don’t know such things because they head to the front door. I’m good with that. You get to sort the wheat from the chaff. Union newspaper hiding!!! They’s socialists dude! 🙂 That’s funny, but probably true. And the parlour was rarely if ever used – and kept scrupulously clean. One of my pet hates is drop ins. I just don’t do drop ins. If people want to visit, make an arrangement. We don’t have a big enough house for a parlour, so you know that means in terms of cleaning up. Whatever would the visitors think if they spotted dogs lolling around on the rugs? 😉 I’m sure you know the feeling?
Oh yeah, the Romantic Movement certainly projected an idealised version of country living, with faeries, red headed nymphs and all. Hey, wasn’t Thoreau at what was it again, Walden farm part of that movement? I always recall that his brother may have succumbed to tetanus from using a rusty razor blade. Best always to wash cuts, and that is one shot to keep up. People can be very casual about germ theory these days. Hmm.
Are you having a state election? Always interesting to listen to candidates, and is it just down here, or there is the mythical 80/20 rule for your lot? 80% common sense + 20% out of space aliens and mind control AI. Such talk kind of scares me a bit, however we’ve got some amusing politicians down here. They do add a bit of colour to an otherwise dull institution. Some of them in the past were quite eloquent and seriously educated whilst being able to throw around words such as ‘scumbag’. You don’t hear that being said these days. It paints a picture.
The wind is blowing here tonight. I’ll have a read of the professors words. The summer weather suddenly flipped to dry here as well for two months at the start of the year.
We went to the cinemas to watch the sequel. Hope you enjoy it, and well, brace yourself, the conditions in the film are not dry this time around. A good preview of the sort of winter I enjoy!
Speaking is an act which involves a lot of fine muscle movement, so that’s hardly surprising. To be honest, I used to enjoy heading out bush for a couple of quiet days in a row. Rests the brain. Meeting an old bushie like the button man would have been navigated, but I’m not sure I would have enjoyed the tricks played upon me. He roams around that area.
Oh my! What a nightmare cacophony. Sorry to laugh, but there is something quite amusing about that smoke alarm episode. How did H cope with the noise and excitement, but glad to hear that you’ve got a plan. Given the Grenfell tower fire experience, always a good idea to leave early. There was allegedly a stay put policy. Hmm. The state goobermint is spending a lot of mad cash removing the cladding used on that burnt building from all buildings. Probably cheaper than any aftermath.
Well, I dunno about you, but I can’t hold my breath that long, and so appreciate your clearer instructions. Thanks! Hopefully the lack of oxygen has not caused permanent brain damage, I’d not appreciate that, but hey would I even know the difference?
Haha! That’s funny and I can imagine such clash of work cultures. It was hard not to notice that the guy in the land of stuff who promoted the 9 9 6 (as in 9am to 9pm 6 days per week workday), appears to have disappeared. Turns out wealth sometimes can be re-educated.
I tend to agree with the loose talk in relation to globalisation. It won’t go away any time soon, but it is slowing down. There are times I wonder if the land of stuff may do some funny business with their own economy in order to crash the west. That’s possible. My gut feeling is that they’d recover faster.
Ah, the stoat. I’d never seen one before. Lovely creatures, did you see the teeth? They looked very sharp to me. I wonder if they had to take the ceremonial fur to the dry cleaners beforehand? Can you imagine getting that job along with the instruction: And don’t f@#k it up! I’m not really sure what that means, but someone must clean the thing. You couldn’t have blood splatter on it or anything like that.
We all make an effort on that front. Man, I’m an introvert and enjoy my quiet time, I get you.
Do you find you sometimes get tempted to plant the tomatoes too close together? Thus the need for greater air circulation, I guess.
Cheers
Chris
@ Inge – Not constipated. Just hard stools. I have been eating 4 prunes, a day. And, drinking a lot more water than I usually do. Which was a lot, to begin with. This to shall pass. :-). Lew
Yo, Chris – I know census takers, here, have been killed in the line of duty. But, a glance into the rabbit hole yields no numbers. I guess they’re playing close to the chest. Wouldn’t want to scare off potential employees. 🙂
I watch some of the “making of” parts, on DVDs. Next you’ll be getting some of those light weight, light reflectors. Maybe you can train Ollie, to deploy them, at the right times and places. 🙂
Sounds like you ran across a “sharp old country woman.” It’s a type. She’d probably put up with a lot of moaning, from folks from the city, in the past.
Well, I’m not high on drop-ins, either. Though the way I live my life, it’s not really a problem. I also have one of those peep holes, to check out whoever is at my door. To come see me, you actually have to plan ahead. Just like the old days!
The state primary is to decide which two candidates, will advance to the general election. THAT will be quit a ballot. State, Federal and several initiatives, to vote on. Sometimes, there are “off” year, elections. State or local people or issues. Every state has a different way of going about local and state voting.
As far as doing research, to avoid the crazies, a few years ago, we had an election for county sheriff. One guy who was running, had no law enforcement experience. His one reason, that he came up with, to vote for him was that he always carried a copy of the US Constitution, in his back pocket. What’s frightening, is that over 3,000 people, in this county, voted for him. Luckily, cooler heads, prevailed.
When the fire alarms went off, H was agitated (maybe because I was agitated), but didn’t bark. She did spend the rest of the day, in her lavishly furnished hidey hole, under the bed.
You beat me to it. Brain damage, due to lack of oxygen. You might not notice 🙂
Yup, the Land of Stuff could really raise havoc, with the world’s financial systems. But, the Powers That Be, put us in that position.
Even given my lack of space, my tomatoes have pretty good spacing. Except the Oregon Spring is, perhaps, too close to one of the cherry tomatoes.
One of the zucchini, and some of the corn, has broken ground. Well, I’ve done everything I can do, to keep the pill bugs, off of them. Spray, Diatomaceous earth, potato traps. Going out each night, and smashing any I see. They made it through, last night. I discovered there are nematodes I can get, that will kill them. But that will have to wait until next year.
LOL. It’s always been in the back of my mind, but your mention of the issue made me think more about it. The economics of my gardening, make no sense. 🙂 But, the flavor, and knowing where the produce comes from, and exactly what’s been done to it, kind of make up for that.
A busy morning, for H and I. I swung by the post office, and sent off my order for next year’s Old Farmer’s Almanac garden calendar. Down to the courthouse, to toss my ballot in the drop box. Then, out to get gas. $4.40 per US gallon. On the way out, I was behind a garbage truck. On a stretch of road, where there was nothing, he slowed, and stopped. What? Then a doe with two fawns crossed the road. Worth the stop. Then we went out to the berry stand, that is at the other end of town. As with last year, they’re not taking the senior veg market cards, as they “don’t have the equipment.” Two years ago, they used paper coupons, and that was fine. But, I bought a flat of berries, from them, anyway. $35, this year. So, I still have $80 in credit, to try and find them somewhere else.
Today is the Chehalis Farmer’s Market. But it’s in the middle of downtown, and parking is a nightmare. I decided to plan my trip, and tackle it, next week. They’re forbidden from selling before 11am. I thought farmer’s got up early? 🙂 So, next Tuesday, I’ll go down about an hour and a half early, try and find close parking. Kill some time, maybe eating breakfast, or checking out the used bookstore, that’s down there. Something.
On our way back from the berry stand, H and I stopped by the Club, for a cuppa. She did her usual meet and greet. That ought to keep her satisfied … for awhile. Lew
Chris,
You and Lew talking about stoats and ermines reminded me of something. Eventually. Too much heat and lack of oxygen for the brain, perhaps… 😉 Anyhoo, one late season archery trip up north, hunting for elk and deer, I found a mild snowstorm in the area I was hunting. No deer tracks. No elk tracks. No nothing, except for an ermine who was running from place to place, then standing tall and sniffing. Then running, standing tall, sniffing. I watched the ermine hunt for an hour, having about the same amount of luck that I was having. It was an enjoyable change of pace watching the ermine, which eventually wandered away. So I returned to the rig, brewed some coffee, ate my lunch and returned home. I figured it was a successful day watching an ermine for an hour.
Another trip, I was near some springs, hoping for an elk to come by for an evening drink. I was sitting, legs bent at the knees and feet on the ground. A mouse ran under my knees. A few seconds later, a weasel was following the mouse. The weasel stopped exactly under my knees and precisely midway between my butt and heels. It sniffed. It sniffed again, let out with a derisive snort, and hurried after the mouse. Another successful day in my book. Being still and quiet in the bush allows for these interactions to occur.
My thinking exactly: how to adapt. Two of the carvers at the club have contacts in Iowa and Nebraska. This year’s weather and flooding is wreaking havoc on the wheat and corn thereabouts. Some of the local orchards have said that they will be closed for cherry, peach and apricot seasons, as the trees started to bud in a January thaw, then the -25C cold snap hit. Many vegetable gardens, mine included, are behaving strangely. One potato plant grew. Half the carrots that sprouted disappeared. The lettuce and rocket leaves all got scorched BEFORE the big heat waves hit. The zucchini is doing okay, although the leaves are getting discolored. No cherries. No chokecherries. No raspberries. So, yes, what to do to adapt. Short term and longer term.
Food on the table and a roof? Mate, Spokane has a very large population of homeless. One guy had been living in his car a half kilometer from here off and on for 18 months. The police chased him away 2 months ago. He hasn’t returned. Being near several fast food places and two grocery stores, I see homeless people walking through the streets and alleys here a lot. Between wanderers with rucksacks, brown and brittle lawns, smoke in the skies, cracked pavement in the roadways and trash fluttering by in the breezes, it sometimes feels rather like the dystopian future is now.
The land DOES rather get into you, right? I’ve moved from Spokane twice. Returned both times. The cold and snow and ice of a Norse winter, or one in the Welsh mountains or in Scotland, wouldn’t bother me. What would is how much further north than Spokane they are…the days are very short for several months. Now, if there’s an adequate supply of coffee to be had I could cope.
Brother’s air conditioner got repaired early Tuesday morning. The Princess will arrive home sometime Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. They both survived it okay.
I’m envious. Fresh produce and salmon. Used to be I could eat salmon like it was candy. Fresh salmon, tinned salmon, smoked salmon, made no difference. Yummy stuff. Then one day I had some salmon followed by nearly instant migraine for 2 days. Ditto the next time I had salmon. And the next. Even a bite can do me in. What I really miss in this heat is a caesar salad with grilled salmon. Oh well, adapt and move on. Tonight’s dinner was a small romaine lettuce and tomato salad with freshly baked bannocks – the flour for the bannocks is 50% grains and 50% garbanzo and fava beans. Turned out tasty.
Today was surprisingly nice outside! The bad air quality peaked overnight. It cooled down, also, very nicely. Slept in, noted that the smoke smell had dissipated, took Dame Avalanche for a walk and got some light outdoor work done. The high of 33C was a relief from the days near or above 38C.
DJSpo
Hi DJ,
Yeah, it’s funny to think that if we don’t take the time to look around in wonder, what we might just miss. Thanks for your stories, and I agree, that was one successful day. I reckon stoats fill the same ecological niche’s that the marsupial spotted quoll fills in this corner of the planet (alas they are no longer found in this mountain range due to the 1983 fires). I’ve seen quite a few of the quolls, but always they were in wildlife refuges. Anyhoo, you reminded me of wandering off on a bush track along the Jamieson river as a kid when camping with my grandfather and his WWII buddies. It was a mid-springtime cold in an alpine area, but in the early morning the sun near to the river landed on some rocks. A rather deadly looking snake was coiled up there. I figured the reptile was slowly warmed by the sun and rocks for the days activities. Obviously, the snake probably knew I was there by smell, but I left it alone, and it had better things to do than pester me. Nowadays I worry about annoying the reptiles through sheer accident, but oh well that’s life here. It takes a lot of effort for them to produce the neurotoxins and so the reptiles don’t waste that effort lightly.
What fine hunters are the weasels. Never seen one, although people do keep ferrets down under, and many years ago near to a science facility in the big smoke where all sorts of things probably go on, I encountered an escaped ferret near to the Maribyrnong River. There’d be plenty for the critter to eat along that urban river, but there’d equally be a lot of problems to overcome there.
Oh, I happened to take note of an article discussing feral cats, plus rabbits and their warrens. Honestly, perhaps it is down under style, but explosives appear to have been used. Rabbit warren ‘ripping’ might be the way to win the war on feral cats, researchers hope. Let’s blow some stuff up, sure. 🙂 An alert person would already know that if the rabbits had a warren on land, and then acted prior to explosives being required. That’s how I reduce the rat issues. There will always be rats, but need we make life easy for them?
Nebraska looks like fun, and they have mountain lions… Iowa was interesting as well, and perhaps a bit greener. My best guess is that Nebraska has the better soils. That sort of experience matches what’s been going on here for the past few years. Early heat, the sap rises in the trees and blooms and fruit set begins, then bam, a cold snap hits. The early season fruit trees are not doing so great on a productivity front, although a -25’C cold snap could possibly be fatal for such trees, not to mention grains, other annuals etc.
Adapt is the way of things, and if you get the chance, I’d seriously would hope you try growing some of the perennial rocket which I’ve tested to survive such crazy hot conditions. Sure, it’s not a brassica, but it tastes the same, and they don’t grow here in the summer months anyway. Plus, grow as big a diversity of plants as you can. Some of them will work out.
Dude, this is the culture in which we have all found ourselves living in. Now I can’t speak for others in that regard, and I can well understand and empathise with how people end up in that horror show where they do. However, watching the mess around me as I grew up, far out, I’ve somehow always known that indulging my darkest life moments would end up badly, so I dealt, cogitated and tried to find balance. But you know, that changes you and requires resources to be drawn down and upon. Say, when you’re the youngest in a household, and yet expected to be the adult, there’s a cost. For me, freedom is now the quiet of the forest and in my own way that’s fierce independence. The flip side is that there’s no assistance if it’s needed. People sense I don’t need it, and maybe even worry they’ll fall short. The land here is a harsh thing, all of it, but it can be fruitful as well. Years ago I read that the indigenous folks believed that a persons spirit is in peril if they don’t look after country – and presumably that means all of the land and everything on, over and under it. That includes people. I’ve got this vague notion that Tommy Orange sees or feels that, because the land is still there for him, even in a city, and in the book he’s writing about how the disconnect is playing out. People after all being just another form of country. I’m about two thirds of the way through, and it’s seriously getting my brain working and cogitating. I’m yet to fully flesh out my thoughts here. Presumably the book had a similar impact upon yourself? Maybe?
Ugg! Coffee is good. If only the Vikings knew of the magic brew, imagine the journey’s they’d have undertaken! But yeah, I’ve travelled far and wide, but always returned near to where my roots were put down.
That’s great news, on all fronts.
Yum! Sorry to hear that the salmon now affects you. A person never really knows what thing will cause them to come unstuck, and I’m with you, the migraine wouldn’t be worth it. Man, I feel that way about MSG. Serious people suggest I’m wrong there, but that stuff hits me hard in the brain. Best avoided, but unfortunately it is widely used.
Out of curiosity, what sort of grains did you use in the bannock bread?
Yay for cooler weather, and some Husky relief and walkies. The wind blew strongly enough last night that it woke me up on several occasions as it smashed against the side of the house. Mountain livin’ huh? 🙂 Anyway, it’s dried out the ground a bit, although there is rain in the forecast for tomorrow morning. Did paid work until almost 8pm tonight. Me tired…
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Such things happen. Over in the eastern part of the state a few years ago, there was a council worker who was allegedly hassling a family over various council related matters, well that didn’t end so well. Probably wise to tread wearily when you’re dealing with someone with nothing to lose. Anyway, when I did the census collection round decades ago, it was at a high rise tower for older folks in social housing. You could well imagine the conversations I had there. Actually, it was a fun job and whilst it tires me out, just chatting to folks and getting paid for it is no hardship. 🙂 The one troubling incident was the ‘dead meat man’. I reckon he died, and nobody other than me checked in on him over the week. You could smell the decomposition from the front door, and as you may have guessed, he failed to fill out his census form. Some people are irresponsible. 😉 Most of the folks I met there were lovely, and happy to have the chat.
Thanks for the idea, but I reckon Ollie is resistant to such training. 🙂 The work light will help for sure. We’re in the figuring things out stage with that project. From hindsight, spending more mad cash on the camera would have been a good idea, but now we’ve got the thing, and you know, budgets aren’t limitless.
What a lovely way to describe the lady, and what, you met her? She put up with no nonsense, but seriously we were just asking where to get some food after dark, and hopefully prior to the kitchen closing. In rural towns, commercial kitchens can close at 8pm on the dot. Fair enough too. They cater to the locals, and not some blow ins like us.
Always wise to be able to check the bona fides for when a stranger calls. And a peep hole in the door is very good technology. The front door here is double glazed, so nothing is hidden, however the glass is protected by a very strong security screen. Always possible to talk through the security screen. But exactly, just like the old days operates here as well. I’ve had people drop in, and far out, I’m busy. But if they take the time to make a prior arrangement, they’ll have my full attention. Have to laugh, I only do spontaneous when people seriously annoy me. Hmm. 😉 Then for some reason which I can’t quite put a finger on, they seem upset by that response. Don’t blame me, blame Sun Tzu – he started it!
Oh my! That’s complicated. I’m often surprised at how full of articles the media is down here about your politics. It’s my belief that this is a distraction technique. Some of the state systems are a bit different, but the voting process is paper based and honest. I’ve worked in counting, and it’s a robust system. Dude, I remember you mentioning the constitutional carrying bloke, and I still feel a touch of fear there. We don’t have an elected sheriff role, such folks are usually state public servants, or federal just like the Eric Bana character in the Dry film.
I’d be agitated too. Reading about the Grenfell tower fire left me feeling somewhat unsettled. But then we’ve got serious bushfire risk here, and that doesn’t trouble me anywhere near as much, although far more people died in the 2009 bushfires than in that UK tower. Interpretation of risk is a funny thing isn’t it, and everyone is different. Dogs are sensitive to the emotional aura of their environment.
Glad to hear that I won’t notice the brain damage. 🙂 If you get any hints that things are a bit off, even if ever so slightly, please keep them to yourself, otherwise I might end up noticing. Wow, this is getting complicated…
Well that’s true, but my gut feeling suggests they’ll sink us, then they’ll bob back up to the surface quicker. You see, they can probably do more with less, whereas we’re all expensive, and if we can’t pay for it, they then might be able to. That’s my best guess at this stage. Every new transaction conducted within the brics area of purview, is another long slow nail in the coffin of the west.
Respect for managing the spacing of your tomatoes. We do better on that front each year, but have a long way to go.
That’s pretty good with those two plants, and I reckon the zucchini will grow slowly, then fast. Interesting, do you reckon the diatomaceous earth was helpful in the battle against the pill bugs and slugs? Yes, nematodes cover a wide variety of soil outcomes. One of the local nematodes has learned to consume the introduced pest Portuguese millipedes, so I see less of them as the years go on. Speaking of such things, they’re always releasing new varieties of dung beetles into the environment. Those critters can do some good work.
That’s it for me. Quality. And if you can taste the difference with the stuff you produce, it has to be better than some flavourless under ripe thing you’ve bought from the local shops that was picked a week or more ago. Leafy greens are easy to grow, but hard to buy. A lot of things from the garden are like that. And also, if I may point out, I’m not entirely certain that mad cash is such a good metric in a comparison because the basic process of price discovery is somewhat a bit off in the market.
An old friend who’s parents were immigrants from Italy in the 1960’s told me long ago his parents no longer wanted to do the big family tomato passata cook up because it was cheaper to buy at the shops. That’s hardly quality is it?
Anyway, I just don’t like puzzles. Hope that makes sense. Who likes doing puzzles anyway? Was that due to the lack oxygen thing we were talking about? 🙂
Good stuff. Farmers almanac and civic duty + cheap gas. Actually, it’s cheaper here too of late. I’m grateful for your election season and the unpopularity of the incumbent. Look, lowering the fuel prices is a vote winner, maybe… I’m good with that, although that’s what I’d say in public. The privacy of the poll booth might just get a more honest and raw response, but don’t tell anyone. 😉 H would have loved every minute of her visit. That sort of thing happens, and they’re selling produce and probably don’t want the administrative hassles. Do you reckon that system is pushing you to spend in a few err, select shops? I had that weird vibe about the system just then.
How do people who work get to the farmers market if it’s held on a weekday? And have you got any idea why there is an 11am kick off rule? It seems kind of arbitrary. Oooo, used book stores. I’ll bet you find some goodies in there?
Did paid work until almost 8pm tonight. Me a bit tired, but enjoyed a very tasty home made pizza for dinner. Yum!
Cheers
Chris
Hi, Chris!
In our rural area, the power lines are all underground except for the main lines along our two-lane highway. It took a long time for that promise to be fulfilled. I have to admit that power outages are now pretty rare. Before burying the lines, we used to have one every month or two. It would seem to me, though, that they would be harder to repair, being underground. It’s funny, but I kind of miss seeing the lines running from pole to pole. It was kind of reassuring – not counting all of the trees looming over them – to actually see where the power was coming from.
I didn’t realize that you only have two other houses on your road. We have eight, which would account for the fact that sometimes it is very hard for all to reach an agreement on neighborhood issues.
I think the fellow in the green sedan was casing the joint.
I am processing tomatoes, cucumbers, and the peppers and cillies are just getting ripe, so I’ll do that soon, too. We have squash, too, but I am not sure how to preserve that. I didn’t much like them dried in the past, but I should try again. There’s a really good volunteer one that seems to be a cross between a lemon squash and a bumpy yellow summer squash.
Were the videos offered to you selling property?
Ah – that’s why we do what we do.
You do have a grand old tree mess. But the spot looks beautiful when you get through with a project.
I have made a note to buy silicon baking molds. We have a gallon (3.8L) of oldish olive oil that I think would be ideal for soap.
What a lovely mandarin tree.
I loved the video with all the fruits and greens, chillies, pumpkins, and zucchini. A friend once gave me pomello seeds, but I never got to plant them. I have never even tasted one,
Your beard and hair are so nicely trimmed. Does Sandra do them?
Thanks for the flowers!
Pam
Yo, Chris – News Flash! This just in. The cost of coffee is going to take a big jump. Drought in Brazil and Vietnam.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cup-coffee-already-expensive-even-110014980.html?
I wonder if the Club will be able to hold the line? It’s been $1 for a cup of coffee, 25 cents for a refill. For a long time. Groups can buy a small pot, for $1 or a large pot for $2. In past, there’s been some talk about upping the prices, but they figured out other areas to trim (raising the cost of snacks, and pop-like drinks), to keep the coffee price low.
“Dead Meat Man” sounds like what happened, across the hall from me, in The Apartment of Death. It happens. Seems like everyone has a story.
We have mail in paper ballots, here. But I think they’re counted by machine. It really varies, across the country. Some places use electronic voting machines. After a few days, I’ll go online, to make sure my vote, was counted.
H has been very naughty and willful. Sometimes, if I have some project, in the bedroom, or living room, I’ll put here either/or. In past, she either sleeps in my chair, or on the bed. But suddenly, she decided she needs to know every little thing that’s going on. Scratching at the door and woofing. And, she usually picks a time, when noise in the apartment building, would not be advisable. But, last night, I figures out a way to display my displeasure. Popped open the door, and smacked the frame, hard, with some rolled up newspaper. It took twice, but she finally backed off. I also went into “P, Oed” mode #3. For the rest of the evening. She was contrite, but will it last? I’m sure, there will be some reenforcement.
I’m sure the Editor, will stay on top of monitoring you for brain damage. She probably has a checklist … 🙂
My friends in Idaho, he’s going in for some minor surgery, today. Got a hernia, in his navel. I keep asking if he gets a choice of inny or outie, but am studiously ignored. Inquiring Minds Want to Know!
Yes, I think you’re right about The Land of Stuff, and economics. They might take a hit, but will bounce back, faster. I finished “The Year the World Ran Out of Stuff.” He mentioned a ploy that The River and The Store of Walls, used. They could hire their own container ships, and ate the increased costs, knowing that it was driving some of their smaller competitors, out of business. The Store of Walls is notorious for that kind of move. They open a store, in a small place (out on the highway) and run it at a loss, until they’ve managed to destroy the Main Street businesses. Once they’re gone, their prices go up.
I don’t know if the Diatomaceous earth is effective, or not. It’s hard to figure out a watering schedule, as, it has to be reapplied, any time it gets wet. Zucchini sprouts were still OK, this morning, but I noticed quit a few pill bugs, on the potato traps. Doing my patrol, last night, I only found four, on the top rail of the raised bed.
I remember you talking about the end of Passata. It’s probably one of those things that rise and fall. Eventually, nostalgia may kick in, and the younger folks might pick it up, again. Maybe, even people who aren’t Italian. The end of folk ways, is always a little sad.
Well, the whole point of the senior discount cards, is to goose up the farmer’s markets. They’re only supposed to be used, there. As far as the schedule goes, who knows? Now whinge about libraries, and the way their hours don’t cater to working people. 🙂
Speaking of home made pizza, Friday is my birthday. The unimportant one 🙂 . Home made pizza is on the schedule. Pineapple and some kind of meat. Fresh Basil from the garden. I was hoping the library would kick out something fantastic to watch. They delivered. “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,” is waiting for me to pick up. Saw it years ago, but it will be fun to revisit.
Well, the first batch of blueberries, have been washed, spun, and are drying out in colanders. Then it will be onto trays in the freezer. Lew
Hi Chris,
It’s good to be productive when you’re choosing how to spend your time. That’s probably not true of many people.
I’m surprised you have solicitors in your neighborhood.
I am overnight at Carla’s as we have to leave at 5 AM for the airport for California to visit my aunt. I’m not looking forward to the flight especially out of O’Hare.
We continue to have quite a bit of rain. 1.5 inches yesterday though at least we didn’t have flooding as areas just to the south have. I hope Doug keeps up with the harvest while I’m gone.
The bees aren’t producing too well so far this year. Haven’t been as many butterflies and other pollinators either. Plants have been flowering quickly and then are done.
Doug is bottling the elderberry mead from last year’s elderberries while I’m gone. The berries for this year will be ready to pick when I get back.
Margaret
Chris,
Abundant rabbits that attract feral cats. Rabbits breed like rabbits. Feral cats breed like rabbits but make livestock ill. Okay, so a solution can be to get rid of the rabbits, denying the food source to the feral cats. How to do that? “I dunno”, said the team leader, “Let’s watch Caddyshack for some laughs.” Later…”Hey”, says the team leader, “Let’s blast those rabbits out of existence!” Where’s Bill Murray when you need him? What could possibly go wrong?
Iowa has experienced severe flooding this year. One of my friends spent a few weeks in Iowa. He’s one of the big Red Cross coordinators. Some of my ancestors lived in Iowa for a generation. Ottumwa. Home of Radar O’Reilly from MASH.
Thanks for the suggestions. The perennial rocket sounds promising. Diversity of plants is always a good thing.
How you are living is a prime example of freedom in my book. And you clearly care for country, the indigenous definition. It takes time to develop the senses needed to do that. Working out in it, like you do, and paying attention are big. It’s that awareness and proximity and thinking again, right? But there’s got to be something within you that guides you into honoring and doing what is right. Not everybody will do that. I was fortunate, living with access to the river, forests areas, having a lot of vacations camping, etc. These types of things can be developed that way, even in the city.
I recently watched “Thunderheart” again. It’s based on events on the Pine Ridge Reservation in the 1970s. One of the main Native characters in the movie talked about “We choose the way of Earth.” This included taking care of the people and animals and plants and rivers et al. That character was played by the Native actor John Trudell, who was involved in a lot of the activities in the late 1960s and 1970s.
The Tommy Orange book had flashbacks to the Takeover of Alcatraz. The Natives started their own pirate radio station there. The guy who ran the radio? John Trudell. The Takeover is often considered to have been successful, in that there were gains made by the Natives, necessary changes. Orange, however, showed the other side of that coin: how many young girls were raped during that event? How many other people got involved in drugs while there? He got those ideas in my head.
Some of the other things you brought up, yes, the book made me think about them. Still cogitating, too. Complex ideas, especially for a people who really don’t have roots like us descendants of Europeans. And complex emotions. Another aspect is that the urban Indians in the story, they were descendants of survivors of attempted genocide. And they were ripped from their reservation homes and shipped to boarding schools and urban areas where they had few or no contacts, friends, family. Trauma renewed. Getting to know the country, earth, land would be extremely difficult in that situation. His second book, a prequel/sequel to the first, got into some of that in the prequel portion. I’m still sorting through these ideas.
I use Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free flour. The grains are tapioca and sorghum. Some potato starch, too. Interestingly, I can purchase the individual grains and ground beans, mix them myself. And it is more expensive than buying the Bob’s Red Mill version! The Princess tried some of it today. “Bland” is the word she used, which I agreed with. Next batch will include a dab of salt, with proper amounts of cinnamon and ginger. That should add a lot to it.
Yes, she got home. About 4:15 this morning. There is a growing and nasty fire on the Rez. It has closed down the Keller Ferry on the Columbia River near Keller Washington. And several roads. At the high point between Grand Coulee Dam and Wilbur, Washington, she stopped and took pictures of the fire. She was well south of and across the Columbia from the fire. It is windy east of the Cascades today. Winds are from the west and southwest. Temperatures still 35C, so not good for the firefighters.
My recollection is that paid work tired me out, too. 😉
DJSpo
Chris,
Almost forgot Wednesday’s Big Adventure. First, the air cleared and it cooled down well overnight. Even got the house opened up and nicely cooled.
Then, Dame Avalanche and I went on our morning walk. We took a turn to the north. Some kids were in the shade playing on a trampoline. A stray dog ran up to Dame Avalanche. I also noticed a guy a few hundred meters north of us, walking toward us, carrying what appeared to be one of those giant and wickedly big Ottoman swords. Trying to avoid the stray (which was actually well groomed and apparently well fed), I was candidly observing Ottoman Sword Guy. He was muttering to himself, occasionally stopping to swing the sword wildly while yelling to get away from him and leave him alone. I then realized that the Wayward Dog was a godsend.
We stopped walking with a parked car between us and Ottoman Sword Guy. As he got nearer, I realized it was wooden, but hefty enough to do some serious damage if you got hit with it. Ostensibly trying to keep the Wayward Dog away, we had some cover from the sword and were in a position to yell at the kids to get inside if the guy went after them. Wayward Dog distracted him, and we passed along the parked car away from him. The kids had gotten totally quiet and hidden. Ottoman Sword Guy threatened Wayward Dog with the sword. Wayward Dog ran off. Ottoman Sword Guy continued southward, away from Dame Avalanche, the kids and me.
We finished the walk with no further adventures.
DJSpo
Yo, Chris – Sculptor Duane Hanson, at the Olympics …
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/23/style/paris-2024-olympic-art
We were just talking about him. Lew
Hi Pam,
Lucky you having underground power lines in your part of the world. Some of the nastiest fires down this way were caused by over hot and overloaded power lines drooping then connecting with vegetation, and on hot windy days, there’s not much stopping those. And that is indeed the flip side of the matter, rectifying wiring problems is probably something of a nightmare. I get that, and did you know that with the wires hanging up in the fresh air – even on hot days – they’d shed some of the heat to the surrounding air. When underground the cables aren’t able to do that, so they have to be much larger, thus more expensive. After the horrific black summer fires of 2019-2020 down under, people began demanding that the power lines be placed underground. Then the initial costings were released, and for some reason everyone went quiet. The bill to do that was huge, and I noticed a deep reluctance within the community to pay. If you ever wonder why we keep a very neat and tidy property, well, what was once, will be again, for the conditions are approximately the same.
The only reason I know about this sort of technology stuff, is because we are off grid, and it took a few years to acknowledge that the system is only mostly good. It was a real wake up moment. So seeing where the power comes from is an instructive moment as well, yes.
Last I checked, there are no outstanding neighbour issues, however, with eight neighbours, that could be something of a problem. You can’t please everyone! 😉
That thought crossed my mind as well about the bloke casing the property. Respect. Thus the friendly introduction to Ollie. He visibly jumped when I yelled at him, and that was something of a give away. I got his number plate too, and when he drove to the end of the road, I observed him making a phone call. Hmm. Such things happen, and I call the dude, clipboard guy. Mr inconspicuous. He learned that day, that there are easier targets.
Yummo! It rained here today, and was cold. Reading about your harvest perked the winter tired spirits up. Thanks! The squash we grow has quite a thick skin and the fruit stores well in a cool dark place until late spring – one not to leave too long! Pam, I’ve never dried a squash either. How does that even work? A mystery.
Yes, beware unsolicited videos offering cheap land. 🙂
Thanks for saying that. The land really cleans up nicely, and in a year or two, it will look even better. I wanted to get outdoors this afternoon (did paid work this morning) to continue with some of the clean up, but unfortunately the persistent rain had other ideas. Oh well. Did more paid work instead.
Oh Pam, that dirty old olive oil is asking to be converted into soap. Have you ever made the stuff before? Honestly, the end product is so good you won’t regret the effort. But yes, firstly do get the silicon baking trays. We’ve got heart shaped trays for the hand soap, and round muffin trays for the more utilitarian soaps (dishwashing). Yes, you read that right, dishwashing. 🙂
Thanks, and the big winds over the past few days have knocked many pomello’s off the tree. They’re quite large and heavy fruits. They taste like a yellow grapefruit, but with a much thicker rind. The rind gets cut up small and fed to the chickens.
🙂 Shucks! You may note that these days there are three short haired dogs? Anywhoo, my theory is, and possibly this needs further testing, but they do say that a person matches the dogs they associate with. In this instance, the facts speak for themselves, and had I say a longer haired dog such as Sir Poopy, the beard would then be longer. The lovely and now sadly departed Sir Scruffy, well he had a raffish look to him, and in those days perhaps the beard was less neat. See, the theory so far is proving to be true. 😉
Cheers
Chris
Hi Margaret,
They used to say way back in the day that idle hands were the devils workshop. And oh my, I learned early on to never complain about being bored. I’m sure you likewise knew how to deal promptly with such loose talk from Carla and Cecily? 🙂 On a serious note though, due to the unusual family circumstance (and you’d have known such things as well after your father died), I recognised very early on that I’d have to work twice as hard just to get ahead. Your familial obligations would have suddenly been quite the challenge, so respect. Like you, I had an abrupt early end to childhood. But no matter, each of us travel a very different journey through life. Candidly, I’m more relaxed these days, and that was one objective.
Oh yeah! You may have forgotten that there are some serious heavy hitters and old money types over in the more fashionable western end of the mountain range where the old hill station gardens can be found. I’m not entirely convinced that they’re to be found in this more central part of the mountain range. However the halo does sometimes extend over the entire mountain range as an umbrella. In many ways the folks living on the mountain are a mixed bag and there is a great deal of economic diversity, which is how areas used to be.
Oh my! That is one early morning rise. Hope you coped with that, and that there was some coffee, tea or whatever. Fingers crossed that the flight was OK. It’d be about three or four hours I’m guessing? Not too long, maybe. I’m a nervous flyer…
That’s awesome weather, despite the flooding in other nearby parts. Dunno, but I reckon the harvest will be more intense later next month, maybe? All the same, there’s always a lot to do living on land.
Thanks for the update on the insects in your part of the world. And despite the varroa mite outbreak issue in the state to the north of here, beehives are still being trucked in to assist with the almond pollination. Hmm. This will not end well. Oh well. The insects would most certainly not be enjoying your wet weather. Last summer, it rained for the entire time the blackberry canes were in flower, and so we produced almost none of those berries. It can be hard on the insects.
Elderberry wine / mead is very tasty, and hope the vintage is a goodie! Yum!
It rained here again today…
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Glad to hear that the weather has cooled a bit. The summer is getting longer in the tooth, so being able to open the house at night to the fresh air sounds like a relief.
Hmm. Your story is rather alarming, and for your info, would not happen down under. The cops would take him in, my gut feeling suggests some mental health issues there. Even knives would get that response. It may surprise you to know that in order to own such a sword, you have to be a member of a club for such things and also be registered. I know you said it was made from timber, but all the same, things can go badly for such a person.
The wayward dog was a good distraction technique.
When living in the inner burbs there was a guy in the local area who clearly had some issues. He’d walk along the footpath up towards the shops yelling abuse to all and sundry as well as nobody in particular that I could observe, and also taking out his rage on the street trees. Spare a moment for any tender saplings planted out when that bloke was around. I’d avoid him on the basis of, err, him being bad news. Instead of getting better like a good bottle of wine does over time, he deteriorated. There was a lot going on there.
Haha! Yes, that modern classic Caddyshack. Bill Murray was the funniest part of the otherwise cringe worthy film. I can almost hear the memory of Bill stating that he’d ‘blow the mother up’. And he did think just like a gopher! The warren destruction photo kind of looked the same to me as well. Ah, some things cannot be un-seen. 😉
They say when it doesn’t rain, it floods, and that is apparently proving to be true for Iowa. Just read a bit about the history of the land there, and all those grasslands and forests used to perform specific functions with water, which are perhaps no longer working so well.
Go Radar O’Reilly. 🙂 I always enjoyed his character, and as someone who knows a thing or two about clerical roles, well let’s just say that Radar was an inspiration. Klinger by contrast in that role was more easily rattled don’t you reckon?
Yes, my gut feeling is that the perennial rocket would work for you. It nicely dies back in winter, so should be able to cope with your very cold winters. You sure get some temperature extremes during a year.
Thanks so much for saying that, and each point you noted is of importance to me. That’s it, awareness, proximity, and getting the brain matter working again is all wrapped up in it. But also there is the ability to consider and implement what works, which may not be what the dominant culture considers. It is possible that they’re wrong. I’ll tell you a funny story – people talk about pollution, like carbon this and carbon that, yet they forget that the first priority is always to look after the land. And if you look after the land, the land will in turn look after you. It’s a mutual obligation thing. How many feedlots are there in Iowa again? No need to answer that. Being an elder means doing what is right, and that’s where I reckon the soul part comes in. How does that sound?
And exactly, to know that there is more than just the city. Cities are massive sinks for resources, and those things don’t come from nowhere. If you’re familiar with the sort of places you mentioned, you comprehend what it means. Sorry to dive into the mysticism, an unfortunate personal problem :-), but the city is the end point in a civilisational journey, it can never be a beginning.
Pine Ridge Reservation, wow. I’m struggling hard to grasp the scale of the social issues there. Not to mention the extremes of the local ecology, and also the sheer stupidity of the of the authoritas – like what happened to the hemp production. I can well understand how things got to a boiling point in the 1970’s. The word fiefdom comes to mind, and that’s another problem. Some punishments are taken too far.
Yes, I’d not heard of that happening at Alcatraz. Beware the utopia, it always has a dark side. The book is mostly certainly putting on display what happens when a culture gets smashed. And I’ve read that trauma can travel the generations, yes, it’s true too, and it’s not like I didn’t witness such things going on within the family unit – whatever that happens to be. To be honest, I’m not all sure how easy it is for people to walk away from their own, and of course also the dominant culture. Where does that then lead a person? Dunno.
Ah a tapioca and sorghum blend. Right. I was wondering what you meant, so that sounds intriguing. I agree with your lady, bread without salt is not good tasting. I tried baking a loaf without salt, and it wasn’t good, and other than the bread (and fresh tomatoes in season) I don’t add salt to anything else. Bread needs salt. When do you intend to do a rebake?
Not good, and those are awful conditions. Is your lady’s brother out of harms way?
Hehe! It happens to most of us. 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Yeah, talk about coincidence, and Duane’s works are disturbingly real. It was a nice touch that the artwork was left to peer out at the passerby and perhaps shock them. I heard in the news that a contingent of federal cops are headed to Paris, presumably on security detail.
Oh my goodness. Not the coffee. Far out. A mug of the stuff down here will set you back about $5, sometimes more, sometimes less. But it’s usually very well prepared and tasty. I’m not really convinced that people will swap a purchased espresso for an instant coffee. When I was younger people used to drink that instant stuff which generally was purchased in the form of a can. Hmm, never tried it myself. My alternative is usually water and/or a chamomile tea. It also interests me that there’s been a massive shift from drinking tea to that of drinking coffee during my own lifetime. It will probably swing back in the tea direction as the economy and peoples purchasing power declines. The article also confirmed to me that possibly commodity traders are making heaps of mad cash, whilst farmers aren’t. That is not what I’d describe as a sustainable basis of business.
Dude, a $1 a cup even for drip filter and/or instant is pretty cheap all things considered. Sorry to say that. Well, in retail talk terms, your Club’s coffee is known as a ‘loss leader’. That’s the technical term, and it’s a workable strategy, although it’s not as if the Club can pressure suppliers on promises of volume purchases. Imagine that?
How’s the hazmat clean up going over there? Hopefully you can’t pick up any of the aroma whilst in the hallway? Makes you wonder what the heck H would be able to smell? True in that everyone has a story, although death has been something which is remarkably institutionalised, just in my lifetime. When I was young, aged relatives generally dropped dead at home. Everyone seemed to cope with that circumstance. In some ways, don’t you reckon it’s worse trying to cover up the whole messy business?
Oh no, what could possibly go wrong there? Probably a whole lot I’m guessing. 🙂 Good luck with that system! You can mail in a ballot early here, but the vote itself gets marked off the electoral roll where all adults are listed, and voting is compulsory and most people turn up to do so. Some folks avoid the compulsory vote by failing to ever register to vote, so they drop off the electoral role. But then, they can’t complain about the outcome. You can also usually vote early, if you have a valid reason to do so, like having to work on election day but that requires going in to a polling place. Dude, it’s all counted manually down here, and there is a chain of command on the physical paperwork. There was some call to introduce machines, but I think most people saw a problem there where there was none previously. Out of curiosity, can you see online whether other people have voted, or just yourself? Look I’m not saying there are dodgy folks out there, but you know a thought just crossed my mind about the possibilities… 🙂
Makes you wonder if what went on across the hall has unsettled H? You never know what dogs can sense, which us mere humans miss. I must say, you sent the dog a strong message there, she’d definitely understand what you meant. You can’t have her barking and making lots of noise in the wee hours of the morning. Dogs usually sleep the night through.
She probably does have a list of things to look out for on that front. If I suddenly turned into a zombie, things would not go well for my newly undead self. Would H make a good zombie dog, if there is such a thing? Like one of those cats in the Pet Semetary story.
Hope your friend is OK there. How’d he end up with a hernia? And some people do have an outie. Possibly it is a thing in some circles. And yes, inquiring minds do want to know.
It’s one of several possible moves. I’d imagine that the land of stuff would indemnify their own folks for the loss, and cut the others adrift. Such things happen. All depends whether a country can afford the consequences. And those behemoths, I do wonder about them. It is very possible that by winning, they lose. After all, you have to have consumers to be able to support the behemoths and if nobody has any mad cash, things will go badly for the behemoths. The great depression kind of had that story going on.
Yeah, thanks for that. I’d only used diatomaceous earth once to put the stomp on a massive plague of pill bugs with the old strawberries. Short term it worked out. The stuff probably gives the soil a good feed don’t you reckon? Ooo, the pill bugs are sneaky little critters, but I am glad to hear that the zucchini seedlings are surviving the onslaught.
You’d hope that the younger folks step up to the plate with those old timey folk ways. I can’t really say for sure how such things will go, because sometimes once they’re lost, they’re gone from memory. And it is a bit sad, yeah. You know, there are times I face having to do a lot of administration simply to keep all of the various life activities rolling along smoothly. I do wonder how other households are coping with such an onslaught of activities? Dunno. And as time gets eaten up by such things, the old timey ways are lost. The cynic in me suggests that the system does not necessarily encourage independence. Something has been lost there.
Happy birthday to you! 🙂 Good to hear that it’s an unimportant achievement. The years do go by, but fresh basil from the garden is a true delight, and you can take a couple of years off the official records merely for having enjoyed such a fine home made pizza! Yum. Oh yeah, Priscilla was a hoot. Pretty funny, and yes, the ping pong scene. 🙂
Go the blueberries! Are you just drying them in the warm summer air before freezing?
Had a quieter day today, which was nice. Pottered around doing this and that. It rained for most of the day.
Cheers
Chris
Chris:
I forgot that some of the fire danger would be avoided with underground lines. Thanks for the reminder.
We finally got some rain.
Is the dishwashing soap a different formula, or just the rejects from the “nice” soap?
What a most interesting beard theory. Perhaps it’s best if you never get an Afghan hound . . .
Pam
Chris;
Was traveling last week, visited with all our kids, who gathered up in the U.P. of Michigan. Still catching up. With being a wet year, the plants are feral, and did not pause while we were gone.
Haven’t read all the comments, so will just comment on our favorite subject- firewood!
I have not pencilled out the dollar comparison on heating options, since to do it properly, it would be life cycle cost of all equipment, other inputs over time. Doable, but a research project, replete with assumptions of uncertain accuracy.
In the end, two variables override- The exercise and business you mention, which as one gets older, it’s important to stay active. Use it or lose it. There is satisfaction in slowly getting a wood shed filled up as well.
The other is the self reliance. For heating, I don’t care if natural gas, propane, or electricity shoot up in cost, or supply disruptions happen at inopportune times. That is hard to put a number on, but a positive nevertheless.
Oh, one more thing- single wire with earth return- that’s a thing???
just googled- wow, not you, but neighbors on grid must have quite the ground rods, and it sounds prone to issues. We are rural, and close to the end of the line, but it was all put in “normally”. This area has only had electricity since 1938. One wonders if it will make the century mark, and yet all seem to think it’s a given forever. heh-heh.
Yo, Chris – Here, I’d say since the 1960s, there’s been a slow shift from coffee to tea. Including herbal teas. Also, more people are shifting to energy drinks and juices. I saw an article, a few days ago, about changes at The Big Coffee Company.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/19/business/starbucks-mobile-orders-third-place
I’ll go without, rather than drinking instant coffee. I must say, though, over the years, it has improved, marginally. Boiling water, also helps. Marginally. The Club uses a drip through the grounds, system. We go through it, so fast, it’s rare to get a truly bad cup. Given our … population, we’re also pretty free with a free cup, if someone is down on their luck.
I haven’t seen the Hazmat people, come and go. Though for a few days, there was some odd looking lock, on the door. Other than the mild odd smell, the day they found the body, I haven’t noticed anything. Who knows what H perceives. 🙂 I have noticed, lately, when we leave the apartment, she sneezes.
Yes, death has been swept, out of sight. At least, in Western society. And, in some odd way, that I can’t quit put my finger on, I think it is to the detriment, of society. I might have a slightly different view, given the little bit of hospice work, I did in the mid 1980s.
I forget what kind of information I have to type in, to see that my vote was counted. If you had someone’s personal information, I suppose you could see that they voted, but not how they voted. There’s always accusations, of bogus voting, usually from the party who lost. There were extensive (really extensive) investigations into that issue. What’s funny is, the very few cases that were uncovered, were people from the major, complaining party 🙂
The thing that bothers me about mail in voting, is, I imagine some patriarch, standing over family members, at the kitchen table, making sure everyone in the household “votes right.”
H can be willful. Like a little kid. And, like a little kid, boundaries must be set, and firmly enforced.
Don’t know why, but I got curious as to if a “Zombieland 3” was in the works. No solid plans, but the cast is up for it, and, the first two made a lot of money.
Navel hernias aren’t as common as garden variety hernias, but I have heard of them. It’s a weak spot, where a bit of the bowel, can poke through. Comes from lifting or moving heavy objects. Ron’s getting up there. Things wear thin.
Besides the things mentioned, as far as the Store of Walls go (and other big box stores and companies), there’s the “part time, on-call,” workers. It went hand in hand with the “just in time” way of thinking. So, you have people, trying to scrap together enough hours, to live on, and really being unable to pick up a second job, as they never know what they’re schedule is going to be. There were some studies done, and a lot of those folks end up on public assistance, of one form or another. So, taxes, end up in another way, of subsidizing those concerns. Things have gotten slightly better, in those businesses, as staffing problems have become an issue, and more publicity.
Henry Ford, for all his faults, figured out that you have to pay your workers, enough, so they could buy your product. When he started paying high wages, other industrialists, went nuts. So, he laid it out, publicly. He had to pay his workers enough, to afford his product. And, also, the higher wages tamped down labor unrest. Something else, on his mind.
Well, my seedlings made it through the third night. I should get out in the garden, tonight, and hack back the grapes … again. I sit the blueberries, in a colander, in front of the A/C. It’s more the air flow, than the chilling. I give them a quarter turn, every once in awhile.
I forgot to mention, I watched a movie a few nights ago, “Relax, I’m from the Future.” Sort of a sci-fi rom-com. It was ok. I didn’t fast forward, through any parts of it. But, I’m glad I didn’t make a bowl of popcorn. There were no subtitles, and the actors were a bit mush mouthed.
I did, however, watch a really good movie, last night. “Wicked Little Letters.” Based on a true story. In early 1920s Britain, a foul mouthed and raffish (you know. Fun!) Irish woman, moves into a pretty staid neighborhood. People start getting vulgar, anonymous letters. She’s blamed, and arrested. The situation was even debated in Parliament. The cast is full of great old English character actors and actresses. Whoops! Everyone is an actor, these days, no matter the gender. Worth a look. I picked up 6 DVDs from the library, yesterday. Reviews to follow.
I tried one of the Oregon Spring tomatoes, last night. One of the ones I had in a bag, to ripen. Cut it into bite sized pieces. Half, I ate “as-is”. Savoring the flavor. The other half, I sprinkled with a pinch of salt and some ground pepper. Texture wise, they were a bit on the mushy side. Tasted like a tomato, though not with a lot of sharp, tomato flavor. Not a bad tomato, but not top of the line, either. On a scale of one to ten, maybe a five or a six. 🙂 Lew
Chris,
Carrying the sword, real or wooden, would be okay here. Acting mental while brandishing it, however, is rather frowned upon. Fortunately, I was able to remain calm, use a parked car as cover, and take advantage of Wayward Dog. Losing one’s calmness in that situation could’ve led to something nasty. If there had not been young children nearby and potentially vulnerable, I would have turned around and hastened in a different direction.
Caddyshack was dumb as. Except for Bill Murray. He made the movie watchable.
Yup, Radar was always in control of the situation, even when he appeared to be in a panic. Things got done. Klinger was clearly not as good.
“Being an elder means doing what is right, and that’s where I reckon the soul part comes in. How does that sound?” Very well said. That entire paragraph.
Ah, but the mysticism has led to an interesting and rewarding discussion.
Leave your land. Leave your family and extended family and everything about how you live. Move to a large city full of concrete and nobody that you know. People who look at you weirdly because you look different. Not being able to participate in all of the events that you grew up with, due to school and/or job requirements. That has GOT to be difficult.
I was going to bake today. However, even Dame Avalanche is suffering from an energy shortage today, although she has more energy than her humans. Air quality is decaying, at least that’s my explanation. Windy and dusty and smoke coming in. At least it is not hot.
Brother is on the Yakama Rez. The Swawilla Fire is on the Colville Rez, several hours to the north of him. The fire has now caused Keller to be evacuated and has also spread northwesterly and westerly into the Nespelem district. Most everything south of Nespelem until almost the town of Coulee Dam, then easterly to the San Poil River, has been evacuated. Very windy, although a change in wind direction today may have rescued the smaller communities south of Nespelem along the Columbia River.
https://www.google.com/maps/@48.0820588,-118.8035979,10.68z?entry=ttu
Hopefully that link will work to get you a view of the Nespelem, Coulee Dam, Keller region. All of the fire action is between highways 155 and 21, southerly and southeasterly of Nespelem.
We have a lot of family in Keller. Friends and family in the other affected areas.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Reduced fire risk is probably the number one reason that anyone, anywhere would take power lines underground. The expense would be enormous, and the cables have to be all that much thicker so they don’t run hot. Cables which hang in the air can lose excess heat to the air so they can be thinner, and that just isn’t the case underground. A truly expensive exercise. But glad to hear your lot have done that hard work. It won’t happen around here, that’s for sure.
Yay for rain in your part of the world! What a relief it must be, and does the air now smell nicer? The summer air following on from rain is just pleasant to experience.
Nope. No reject soap for dish washing here. It’s all first grade stuff. After all, your hands are in the water, and olive oil soap I’ve observed doesn’t strip the natural oils from your skin. I’ll tell you a funny story too about the olive oil soap, the stainless steel sink we wash dishes, cutlery, pots and pans etc. in, is spotless and has a natural shine to the surface.
Oh my! Thanks for alerting me to the hair danger, and note to self: Avoid Afghan Hounds. Lovely looking dogs, and maybe three decades ago I could have pulled off that long luscious locks look, but alas time is what it is. It’s funny you mention this, but here is me at a much younger age with longer hair…
Truly, I looked so naively trusting in that photo, and the Sensei was probably one of the most accomplished martial artists in the country. The thought he didn’t know what he was doing as he was about to throw me, never crossed my mind. 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Hi Steve,
Had to look up what you meant by the terms: U.P., presumably that was Upper Peninsula? What a truly lovely part of the world. The photos on the interweb were stunning. Hope the catch up there was good.
Hehe! They do say that in a wet year the weeds will continue to grow. Hopefully you dodged the occasional Triffid? It’s funny you mention that, but a lot of the machines we use are directed towards chopping and dropping the weeds – a good source of biomass if I may say so. 🙂
Ugg! Firewood is good. Actually the stuff we split a few weeks ago is beginning to dry out. I’ll chuck a photo in for Monday, you can see the moisture. Steve, your research project is beginning to hurt my brain, but can it be done? Yeah. Should it be done, is what you are hinting at! Save us…
I agree with both points: Use it or lose it is real, and the satisfaction of knowing that you’ll be warm when there is a threat of snow at lower elevations is a wonderful feeling. It’s hard to put a price on independence, yup.
Oh yes, that powerline technology has caused some dramas when the cables are running large currents on hot days in thick bush, but it’s cheap. What do engineers say about: good, fast, cheap, pick any two? There’s a good article on the subject here: Single-wire earth return, and interestingly, I reckon most of the neighbours are probably limited to around 5kVA, which is what the inverter in the off grid power system here can provide continuously. The thing is, I know the limit, whilst they may not and probably end up overheating their transformers from time to time. On the other hand, there is decent isolation from the generator, and that’s at least something if there is a major meltdown in the grid. You may wonder why I chose to be off grid here, and that SWER line was one of the reasons.
Your country is wealthier than down under, and some of the infrastructure you enjoy is pretty good. Things are a bit more loose down here! 🙂 Always exciting.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Openly carrying a sword in public, whilst not on your way to a LARP (Live Action Role Playing) event and in full costume, would most definitely get a firm police response. Sorry, but that was a very amusing observation as to the mental state of the bloke brandishing the sword. Things may be a bit different on that front down under, everyone would assume by his actions that there was something not quite right going on, and yeah, well, police response. Probably tasered! The present country began as a penal colony for the English, and so I think people are pretty good with rules and enforcement of such down here. It’s different to your country which places value on the individual. So swords are right out. 🙂 Unless you’re a member of a guild, which I am.
Exactly too, such folks can feed off your lack of calmness. And who knows what then can happen. A friend of mine works in, or more correctly, used to work in, the gritty end of the mental health world. I asked him about confrontations and how to deal with them, and he said that when there is no option you have to try and ask them how they’re doing today. Never had the opportunity to put that advice to the test, and aren’t really keen to do so. You displayed some stoicism and quick thinking there.
Oh yeah, Bill Murray owned that film and every scene he was in. Simon Pegg pulled off that trick in the Star Trek films when he played the role of Scotty the chief engineer.
Somehow the Radar character resonated better than Klinger in the same role. Although from memory, Klinger was in the series far longer. I always liked how Radar pre-empted the commanders orders, and have sometimes used that same technique to startle bosses. Always wise to keep that lot ever so slightly off balance don’t you reckon? 🙂
I agree, there are a lot of obstacles to overcome, and for most people it is too much to ask. But then, and here is the underlying issue, underneath the inability to say ‘no’ to the offerings, is a pressure. It’s there, and I sure felt it. On the other hand, my mental wiring does make such changes easier for me. Change however, is always difficult, but then change comes whether we like it or not. Years ago Sandra and I had a disagreement about the home made yoghurt. She has a science background in microbiology. Hmm. The original bacterial cultures we’d used had somehow changed, and the yoghurt batches failed, repeatedly. Her disbelief that the culture had changed was unshakeable, and so she kept altering all of the methods for making the stuff. After a lot of months of watching this going on, I got a bit err, firm and cut the proverbial Gordian knot, and changed everything about the process. The idea that such a basic product as the bacterial inoculant could become worse over time was unthinkable to her, and so she failed to have that thought. She sees product crapification now with a sense of acceptance. Imagine then what the Medicine Man has to deal with on a cultural level today with individual? What I see for the distant future is that in order to heal ourselves, we’ll have to heal the land, maybe continue as we are until we can no longer do so, or give up. I reckon it’ll get done though, but there’s a lot of pain there, and it will take a lot of years and far less people – and the years will be more than most of us would ever care to imagine.
Ah, sorry to hear that about the declining air quality. Hope the summer season concludes soon, and you get to experience another bout of spring before winter kicks in. We have an outdoor (under cover) oven for such days.
For some reason I’d always had the idea in my head that the Rez was north of Spokane, not south and west. Moses Mountain in the Coleville Rez is showing some signs of earlier fire damage. I’ve seen such places down here, and pine tree fires burn hot and fast.
Hope they’re all OK, and that weather and fire conditions ease.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Oh really? I’d not have guessed that, mostly because the opposite is playing out here with the shift from tea to coffee. Dude, I read the article and my brain had a mild meltdown. Drive through coffee? WTF? How is that an experience, and I’m not sure I’d feel welcomed by a business that placed hard stools for customers to sit upon. Life is way too short for take away coffee, unless there is no choice. Sometimes I observe people (who probably hold serious concerns about the environment) purchasing take away coffee and then sitting down in a café, like how does that work. To my mind it makes me wonder if folks are concerned about cooties, like that weird restaurant the Editor went to last week where food was served out of a poaching bag. I had to ask her to stop talking about the experience because it was making me feel ill.
We’re of one mind here with instant coffee. Another thing life is too short for, and caffeine withdrawal would be over long before the self loathing accompanying such a life decision had faded into obscurity. 🙂 I agree with you based on what I’ve heard of other folks opinions who drink the stuff, and the environmentally disastrous pod (the plastic things) people have probably had something to do with that. We haven’t mentioned the pod people for a while now, so I thought I’d drop in a somewhat relevant note there.
That is exceptionally thoughtful to provide the occasional free cup. I reckon such small gestures make a big difference. My personal feelings in the matter is actually to avoid the occasional grand gestures and instead provide regular smaller gestures. People I’ve noticed soon forget the grand gestures, and if I may dare observe, sometimes there are resentments.
Holy carp! Makes you wonder what the odd looking lock was all about? It’s possible that the apartment is being aired out, except err, soft furnishings probably never recover from such exposure. Oh well. It’ll be interesting in a kind of morbid way, to see what eventually happens. Such incidents make the entire arrangement more expensive for everyone. Not that the people directly involved care. Told you dogs know things.
We had our first major video failure today. Everything was going well, until… The Editor forgot to switch the microphone receiver back on after it went into power saving mode, and then the battery on the camera went flat mid filming. All gone, lessons learned, and a sheepish looking Editor. After that she’d had an afternoon tea with a local, and um, it’s kind of hard not to notice that she’s been socially burning the candle at both ends over the past three or four weeks. Hmm. One must recall not to overdo things, even fun activities.
I like how you put that about the hiding of death to be to the detriment of society. I can’t quite put a finger on that either, but I believe that you are correct. There’s something not quite right about it all. Dunno. Another mystery. I recall you mentioning that work all those years ago. A tough time. Our society has such a weird fear of death, given it is something we all have to go through. It’s kind of like how the Victorian era folks were crazy about sex, but then morbidly fascinated with death. We seem to have gone to the polar opposite. Hmm.
Hehe! Your political system by it’s very nature encourages such potent emotional outpourings. The people want the outrage, it’s kind of a form of catharsis, don’t you reckon? That’s built in to the system. Truly if your country wanted to put all those sorts of election fraud claims to bed, whether they were true or not, there are better vote collecting and counting systems to employ.
Oh yeah, I’d imagine such things go on down here as well, but the polling places are generally pretty calm and chilled out spaces. It’s worth noting, that politicians and their volunteers aren’t generally allowed within a certain distance of the polling places. You still have to run the gauntlet, like who would change their mind at the last minute? Probably gives enthusiastic people (I know a few) something to do on the day that will keep them out of trouble. You never know! 😉 Far out man, I’m probably going to hear about that last comment…
I’ve observed that it is only the more intelligent dogs which push at boundaries. The less intelligent ones push past boundaries, but for those, you can see that it’s an unhappy side effect and not consciously wilful.
Hey, I know why. First, Woody. Second, zombies. Third, a possible trilogy! I ask you, what’s not to like about that?
Dude, I’ll take your word for the hernia info, and I dare not do a gargle search lest the computer largorythms begin doing strange and unusual things to search results. How’s he doing anyway? Have you heard?
I’d not really thought about such work arrangements, but yeah, that can be a problem. Interestingly, I’ve faced such issues in my own line of work. The falling out one earlier in the year would sometimes demand huge amounts of work, and then send not much. To be frank, that sort of inconsistency is hard to manage, and if you tolerate that, well, what ended up happening is hardly surprising. It smacks of a lack of respect, not to mention a significant power imbalance. My fear is that one day, they might call up again and need some work done. You know, getting warm bodies in the workplace is not so easy these days, so yes, that’s what I’m observing as well. How hard is it to be reasonable with staff? For some folks, that is hard. I recall the article on the river distribution place where it was alleged that employees didn’t have time to go to the toilet. Like how does that work?
Extreme wealth inequality breeds such fears.
Go the zucchini seedlings! Do you reckon you’ll get any bunches of grapes this summer? The AC will help dry the blueberries out too.
I’m not fussed with either the label actor and/or actress. Thanks for the reviews and I’ll check out the trailers.
Ooo, you’re in a fun world there. The tomato taste off. They’re not all the same, are they? For fresh eating I’m leaning towards cherry tomatoes these days. The gardening club down here does an annual tomato taste test, and the results are always interesting. Mushy texture is unappealing, but then the powdery ones I reckon are worse.
I just mentioned to the Editor that David Sedaris is touring next February. She usually goes to see his show. Not badly priced either.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Drive through coffee / expresso stands, are all the rage, here. Between where I live, and the Club (two or three miles?), there are four. Plus, a fast food joint, that you can drive-through and get coffee. I don’t know if it’s still up and running, but there was one, in another part of town, that used topless young ladies, to push their product. 🙂
I think the weird lock on the door, of The Apartment of Death, was, perhaps, because they gassed the place. Might have been an insect infestation, of some kind. I don’t think the old guy had much furniture. I do believe he may have been homeless, before moving in here. But I did see some sofa cushions, in the dumpster.
Ah, electronics. They do have their weird little quirks. My flip phone, which was upgraded, and replaced, not that long ago, had an odd quirk. If you turned it off, and turned it on, the ringer defaulted to mute. I always had to remember to turn up the volume, when I turned it on. But, apparently there was some kind of a download, and now it defaults to volume, when you turn it on. My new computer has the “magic” keyboard, and mouse. Magic in that, they’re wireless. But periodically, I get a notice that one or the other needs to be recharged. I just plug it into the back of the computer. But … the port that hooks up to the keyboard, is fine. In such a way that I can still keep working. But the mouse … plugs in on the bottom. So, while it’s recharging, I can’t use it. One wonders if anyone actually tries these things out, before they launch them.
It’s odd people are so adverse to death, and yet go over the top, for Halloween. And, spooky movies. I’ve seen a couple of ads, on line, from the Big Box Hardware store. Which has an outpost, here. They’re pushing their Halloween tat. Can Christmas be far behind?
Of course, Halloween can be traced back to the ancient Celts, a time of the year when the veil between this life and the next, was thin. Even the Romans had ghost stories.
In the business of death, there’s something new. The “death Doula.” I’d heard of Doula in relationship to birth. Not quit a midwife. But while I was watching that documentary, “A Brief History of the Future,” there was a segment on a woman teaching classes in how to become a death Doula. Let’s take hospice work and give it a fancy name 🙂 .
I saw a news report, just yesterday, on some election fraud, back in New York State. A county council position, I think. Six people, all related to someone running for one of the spots. They picked out people off the voting roles, and requested absentee ballots, in the voter’s name. The jig was up, when some of those voters, showed up at polling places, and were told they’d already voted by absentee ballot. The methods of voting really vary, across the U.S.. Everyone seems to have a different idea, about how to have a fair and secure election. And, if their candidate loses, then whatever system must have been tampered with. Even if it was the system that they themselves pushed.
Ron in Idaho, seems to be doing OK, but, it having some, shall we say, “digestive problems.” Of course, that could be due to the anesthetic.
Work ebbs and flows. Some employers seem to have a hard time, wrapping their heads, around that. They want “just in time,” employees, too.
I took a little walk about, this morning, and the zucchini sprouts are still OK. Last night, when I took H out, after midnight, there was something stirring in the bushes. We went back in, and out another way. Something furry, was sitting on the sidewalk, up the hill. It may have been a possum. Or a rabbit. Or, a raccoon. The light right in that spot, was kind of poor. And, I didn’t want to get too close.
There are plenty of grapes developing. But, if it’s like last year, no one will pick them, other than me. And I’ll probably put them in the community room. Four varieties, and they all have seeds.
Another batch of blueberries, in the freezer and ready to bag. Just one more partial batch, to process. I’ll do that, this morning. So, a flat of berries only filled two, one gallon bags. Maybe a bit more. I forget, from year to year, how much they yield.
Yesterday was a “make oatmeal” day. Today is a “make rice” day. I also cooked up some tomato sauce, for the pizza I’m going to make, tonight. A can of diced tomatoes, some Oregano, and a splash of cider vinegar. Why the vinegar? Got me. Just seemed like the thing to do. 🙂 I watched an episode from season three, of “Professor T.” A Brit mystery series. And, the first episode of season thirteen, of “Call the Midwife.” Gave myself a haircut.
Ah! I almost forgot. We get a food box, this morning. I’ll have to deal with that, too. Lew
Chris,
“Unless you’re the member of a guild, as I am.” That explains something. A problem is resolved as a result. The carving club meets in a church basement. There are several signs in the church along the lines of “Please no guns, knives or other weapons.” and here we are with hundreds of knives, literally, at every meeting. Whew! We’re a club, sort of a guild, maybehaps.
“You displayed some stoicism and quick thinking there.” Thanks. Thing about staying calm is that you can hear ideas as they come at you – such ideas as “surreptitiously keep the car between you and Crazy Ottoman Sword Guy. Use Wayward Dog as a distraction.” Also, truly being calm can radiate a sense of calmness, too. Finally getting a handle on this in my old age and dotage, as I was very excitable and far from calm for most of my life. 😉
The final Big Boss that I had really liked Star Trek. I had used the Scotty Principle even before starting work at the County. After he became my Big Boss, it didn’t take him long to figure out that I always overestimated the time I’d need to do a project, then look really good by getting it done in half the time estimated. He said, “I always liked Scotty. I ran my other department on the Scotty Principle, just like you’re doing.” I deadpanned the response, “There’s one major difference. I get the job done; your old department never completed anything.” Yes, another one of those career limiting statements for which I was famous.
Klinger lasted until the end of the MASH series. I was always sad to see Radar go. The show was always funnier when he was on there. And Frank Burns, too. He was always good for the butt end of a joke.
I’ve been in Sandra’s shoes before. “But the science suggests it is supposed to work this way!” Yes, if the science that went into making the product is what you think it was. But if it was changed, standards degraded, to improve the profit margin, then the system changed, and it will NOT work as expected. Learning to accept product crapification was a hard lesson to learn.
Air quality is always nebulous this time of year. It was improved today, but we had two fires within 30 miles of us, both blowing smoke our general direction. Under control, but a bit more smoke again. It has been much, much worse here before.
“The Rez” is used by every tribal group to describe their own Rez. So it can get confusing rather quickly when I simply say “The Rez”. I’ll try to be more descriptive.
Good catch on Moses Mountain and fire damage. We were driving to the Rez (Colville Rez) to a family gathering outside Omak at St. Mary’s Mission. We noticed the first plumes of smoke behind Moses Mountain. This was I think 2015, or else it was 2014. A plow hit a rock, caused a spark, and several hundred thousand acres burned.
Brother could still drive then, so he was there, too. The twin great nieces were maybe 10 and very energetic. They asked brother a question. He told them he wasn’t sure, ask me. They ran 30 meters to me, asked the question. I told them the answer, then had them ask brother a different question. They ran 30 meters to him. We had them going back and forth between us for about 5 round trips before they caught onto our game. Basically 10 wind sprints of 30 meters each got them gasping for breath. Naturally, 10 minutes later and they were challenging all of the young boys to races. The twins won every race. They were fast.
Thanks for the well-wishes for the kinfolk. Not a lot of news on that fire today. According to the fire crews, the next 48 hours will decide the fate of Keller and its surroundings.
DJSpo
Hi DJ,
See, your story displays that there is safety and purpose when acting as a member in a guild. Anywhere else, and for any other reason, you’d be locked up because of that hoard of tools! 🙂
I hear you about that, and am usually very calm. But dude, there are just some folks out there. Hmm. Very trying. But once I learn what they’re about, I can shut off my response to them. But sometimes, very occasionally I get surprised. A nice old local bloke, one day just said some really horrid things at Sandra and I, and he got a response and realised I could be bad news. Afterwards I kept an eye on him, and it was then I noticed the mischief he was getting up to with other people. Look he could have had a medical condition which suddenly flipped his personality, I’ve heard of such things happening, and he wasn’t young. Haven’t seen him for a while. But still, I now know his soul.
Hmm. Proving that age has some benefits! 🙂 I tend to believe that a lot of work environments tend to cultivate an ever so slightly stressed out vibe, which is what you’re hinting at. With my teams I tended to keep things calm, predictable and ordered. They were pleasant places to work. The only issue there was that the few folks above me were always excitable and thrived on that energy. Consistently they wore me down, and other than going off and doing something different – like what I do now – I never figured out how to resolve the dilemma it presented. Mate, I have to laugh when people talk about the folks higher up the food chain as being somehow powerful, competent and omnipotent. Maybe they were once, but those days are done. I always think to myself: Have you met those folks? 🙂 Made a few of those career limiting statements myself! Comes with the territory, but hey, that’s what it takes to get the job done.
Took the dogs out for a walk in the dark about an hour ago, and it was a painful experience. It’d rained for most of the day, and suddenly as the sun was going down the clouds lifted. 1’C outside. Brr! Anyway, there was way too much wildlife out tonight (grabbing some feed after the rain) that the dogs were just pulling on their leads, and I spent much of the walk correcting them. Called an early end to the walk. The humans rejoiced. The dogs were unhappy. Too bad for them.
Oh yeah, Frank Burns was a monster, and please save us from the likes of him. 🙂
I felt for Sandra and let her down gently, but far out the belief was a problem for the household. It’d been months since I’d had any yoghurt, and I watched way too many litres of ruined milk going to the worm farm. The yoghurt was assisting my eczema and so I eventually put my foot down. Oh man, I see you went through a similar learning journey. What do you do? We’ve been through the exact same situation lately in relation to the making of sake (Japanese rice wine). For years Sandra (you know, industrial food microbiology boss stuff) had made a superb drop, which had been lauded by others. A couple of years ago it bombed out, repetitively, and mojo was lost. A bit of gentle urging to take things back one step prior and try all over again was taken. More on this tomorrow.
Ook! Hope the air clears for the three of you soon. Heavy bushfire particulates is no fun to experience.
No stress, your explanation as to ‘The Rez’ was clear, and now I know. Man, I recall in terms of stories, and it just helps build a picture and feel about other people. It’s not lost on me that the reservation lands were less desirable either. Still, sometimes you have to work with what you’ve got. Humans are pretty clever on that front, but it depends on overall carrying capacity in the present ecological state. Too far one way is dependency, too far the other is encroachment. That is a complex problem, but here energy is the key to the story, don’t you reckon?
Oh my! That happens down here as well, and we have what’s bizarrely called a ‘Total Fire Ban day’. It’s a poorly named description because it also includes doing stupid machine based work where steel can strike rock and cause a fire. I’d heard stories of tractors setting off fires behind them, and the operator being blissfully unaware. On those declared days, the operator would be in a lot of trouble.
A fine way to use up the energy. Thanks for the laughs! But of course they were fast, they’d been well trained. 😉
Such fire news reaches our media (for obvious reasons). Hope your kinfolk remain unaffected and that the weather cools and the winds ease. They’re even reporting fires over the border north of you, as well as in the two states to the south. Isn’t summer exciting?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Drive through coffee down here, for your comparative purposes, is exceedingly rare. Without a statistically valid sample of the available brews, how would anyone know which drive through coffee was the best? And as being someone who knows something about the production of a decent coffee beverage, I’m left wondering, how do such places manage the throughput of customers when they’d be busy? You’d hope that microwave ovens weren’t involved, but I have an odd notion in my mind. Is it art, such activities? Pondering such mysteries may keep me awake into the dark hours, although probably not. The ladies would sadly freeze during your winter months and that wouldn’t be right at all. Surely this would be a workplace safety issue? 😉 You’d hope the ladies were paid enough for their efforts. I think I’d be awkward and uncomfortable when purchasing a coffee at such a business. As a gentleman, I wouldn’t know where to rest my eyes, thus the discomfiture.
Insect infestation! There’s a lot going on in that apartment of death across the hall. Best you’re not involved is my thinking, and if H takes a run for it (hopefully whilst on the lead), I’d quickly follow her get-out response. Could be bed bugs? I hear that they were something of an issue in that currently feted European city which is in the news a lot these days. Sports…
Wireless keyboards and mice are a bit of a pain because of the internal batteries. Far out, what you describe with the mouse recharging is a bit of an odd arrangement, yeah. Not how I would have arranged things, but then I prefer wired keyboards and mice for computers. Hey, too bad if it was a work computer? I can’t work, the mouse battery has gone flat. That would be time to go and get a coffee. 🙂 Speaking of which, I actually did have a take away coffee today, but when in a group a person must bend with the winds. Had a lovely chat about cyber security, and last weeks crowdstruck dramas were spoken of. Good to know people, who know about stuff like that.
Halloween is months away, what the heck? Although, now you mention it, you can start to see chocolate easter eggs very early in the new year. It doesn’t feel very Christmas-ey here tonight. That time of year is usually hot and occasionally stormy. Outside it’s 34’F and mildly breezy, so it feels freezing. There is a chance of snow maybe tomorrow morning, but it depends. Hardly Christmas like weather at all. 😉
Well that’s odd. I’d heard of a birth doula, but not a death doula. Kind of makes a weird sense though as there is a doula present at the beginning and end. Do I really need to look up what such a person does? OK, curiosity has gotten the better of me. Candidly I began reading about training and certification, then my mind began floating away. Is it a good idea? Maybe. But like you note, it looks like hospice work, but given a fancy name.
Aren’t those New York state folks allegedly naughty! Honestly, those sorts of arguments just never arise down under, so I have no idea what to make of them. But you’re right, it’s a long and continuing problem. One of the primary issues in that story is that processes have to be comprehensible, auditable, and fair. But even more importantly, they have to maintain the perception that they are all three of those points. And it’s at that point that my mind floats away… If the perception issue was dealt with by robust comprehensible, auditable and fair systems, you’d never hear a single hoot or grunt about the subject. But that doesn’t happen. I hear such arguments and think to myself: Well is it so? To me, and I’m an outsider, all that braying kind of looks like a feature of the system.
Yikes! Food is so good that ‘digestive problems’ surely couldn’t be a good thing. Hope Ron recovers soon.
Speaking of food, we had a baked pumpkin and potato casserole for dinner this evening. It’s a spin on the recipe from your part of the world. The surface of the casserole is covered with bread crumbs, then glued up with some mozzarella cheese. The whole lot gets baked in the oven, and I tell you what, it’s a good way to eat pumpkin.
Wow! Yes, of course. Just in time employees. Hmm. There is a power imbalance in that story. Was that kind of your experience in the library system?
Good to hear the zucchini sprouts had survived the pill bug onslaught. I’d not want to encounter in the dark a raccoon or one your rather toothy looking opossums. Was H’s heckles raised?
My experience with grapes is that they tend to have seeds, but I’m only in the early days with those vines. Hey, you could make grape seed oil from those fruits?
Your chest freezer is filling up, and you’ll enjoy those berries when in the colder months of the year. We’re still enjoying plums and apricots, although by September the stores will have run out. Go on tease me, how warm did it get to today? And I forget how much all this stuff yields as well, mostly because the output is extraordinarily variable from one year to the next.
How did the birthday pizza turn out? Home made tomato pizza sauce is kind of excellent. Yum! There was a discussion about vinegar today, and turns out my dislike is in the minority. Ook! I blame it on the super sniffer nose abilities. That’s my excuse anyway, and I’m sticking to it. Hope you enjoy your day, and that H is on her very best behaviour.
Was the food box any good?
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – I’m sure The Editor, will enjoy David Sedaris. He needs to stop touring, and write another book! Maybe he’ll write a book about touring? I like his books, but find some of his essays fall a little flat. But not too often. I guess you can’t hit it out of the ballpark, every game.
Which drive through is best? I don’t think most people give it much thought. Not everyone has as much sensitivity, to coffee, as you do. 🙂 They just want a cup of mud, that will wake them up. Given that article on “The Big Coffee Company,” I’d guess other drinks are on offer. And probably some baked goods, too. Price might play in, as to the selection of a coffee stand. I’d guess they have expresso machines, maybe even like the one you have at home. As far as the young ladies, keeping warm, a certain chill in the air, probably keeps them a bit on the perky side. 🙂 Wages may be low, but, we’re a tipping culture, you know. Imagine the energy expenditure, to keep the ladies at least, minimally warm, in winter.
I think there’s been problems with insects, in past, here at the Institution. But it’s usually fleas. Have never heard of bedbugs. I had a silverfish, in the bathtub, last week. Don’t know where that came from. So far, just the one. Occasionally, I have problems with fruit flies, but deploying vinegar traps, takes care of them. There was the tiny beetle outbreak, due to a sack of flour I hadn’t taken properly care off. I beat them back, and there hasn’t been a reoccurrence.
Speaking of insects, our night manager, spotted something unusual, in the gardens, the other day. He even got some good pictures of it. A giant wasp. No, not that one. The Great Golden Digger Wasp. I’d never seen one. We are in their range, which is vast. Luckily, they are not aggressive, and the males don’t even have stingers.
Yes, the engineering on the “magic” mouse, could have been better. This computer doesn’t have all that many ports. Something, a lot of people complain about. When I ordered it, I specified that it had a real keyboard, and a real mouse. None of that futzing around with a … whatever it is. Ball?
Actually, your weather is about what ours would be like, around Christmas.
Well, yes, my substitute library job was pretty much “on-call.” But due to other substitutes lack of … flexibility, I made it work, for me. Or, I made the system work for me. Also, as I don’t have a life, it worked. Just for poops and giggles, I happened to check out the library job listing, the other day. Guess what? Substitutes are coming back. A couple of things I noticed. It’s a perpetually open position. And, it says strictly no more than 16 hours a week. So no way they can weasel their way into benefits. As I did. I got lucky.
The zucchini sprouts, are still ok. I started looking into nematodes that target pill bugs. And, they exist! Arbico Organics carries some. I’ve dealt with them, a little, before. Pricey, but when I consider how much I’ve spent on the spray, and potatoes, well, it’s “cost effective,” as they say.
H did a bit of barking, and straining at the leash, when the mystery beasty showed up.
Well, I’ve been cooling it, on the weather report, a bit. We’ve had an almost perfect summer, other than that short period of heat. And, I don’t want to make other people feel bad. There’s rain in the forecast, for Monday and Tuesday. Prof. Mass has a post about it. But since you asked, yesterday’s high was 79F. Overnight lows, were in the low 50sF. Forecast for today is for 78F.
Your dinner sounds quit tasty. Well, I turned 75, yesterday. Made a huge pizza. The recipe I have for the crust, is for two 10″ crusts. I have this heavy duty commercial aluminum pizza pan. Don’t know where I got if from, but I’ve been dragging it around for years. It makes a 16″ inch crust. The pan also comes in handy for things like putting blueberries, in the freezer. 🙂
So, tomato sauce, then I grated two kinds of cheese. Swiss and cheddar. Garlic and fresh Basil, from the garden, and a few tomatoes. Chopped up chives. Pineapple and some chopped up turkey Polish sausages. Pretty tasty. I ate half of it. I’ll save the rest, to have cold for breakfast, tomorrow 🙂
Then I settled in to watch “Priscilla: Queen of the Desert.” Just as fun and mad as I remembered.
Well, the food box delivery was a bit of a mess. I saw one of the caregivers, early in the morning. She mentioned that the food box, had been canceled. I checked the big monthly calendar, downstairs, and sure enough, it said, “Rescheduled.” Why? Rescheduled to when? Typical lack of transparency.
And then, a food box, showed up. Frozen mini pork breakfast patties and smoked cheddar sausages. Meat? What kind of meat? I’d have to read the fine print. Six butter croissants, an individual piece of cake, a mini pack of broken biscuits, a dozen eggs, a pound of butter “product,” a box of breakfast cereal that would appeal to small children, a bag of dried pinto beans, and an assortment of tinned veg and fruit. I took some of it down, to the swap table. Managed to scrape together 3 bags to take to the Club, this morning. Lew
@ DJ – I also hope that the fire threatening the Rez stops before it does any more damage than it already has. Our air is whitish from some of the smoke coming from the fires out West. Anything that gets into the air can go anywhere.
Claire
@ Lew – happy birthday! Your homemade pizza sounds delicious. When it cools down here, Mike and I need to team up for our version.
Claire
Hi Lewis,
Thought you might be interested in this. The closest nearby town was in the news. There’s some great photos of the area, and you can see the road I take (towards the end of the article) leading up into them thar hills. Of course, what’s going on there is a bit hard to take… Quite bucolic. The other bits, not so much. The main road through town is a single lane with strip shops on either side, and at school drop off and pick up times, it’s mayhem. But doubling the population…
Gisborne residents fear ‘terrifying’ pace of growth as council pushes for protective town boundary
Still, the photos are nice.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Claire,
What a fun film! And many years ago I was speaking with someone who had only ever worked in academia. The person made an astounding comment along the lines of: The skills I’ve learned in academia will be invaluable in private industry. Well, it’s a theory! Thanks for the laughs. 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
I like how your brain works, but if David is writing a book, he may not tour, and then the Editor would be missing out. Man, I can’t win here! 🙂 Actually, he didn’t tour down under last year, so maybe another book is on the cards? As to your observation, ain’t that the truth! 🙂
Oh my goodness. Lewis, seriously, they’re missing out there. When coffee is done well, it’s a silky smooth beverage which hits all the right notes. Of course, I freely admit that perhaps I’m taking things too far. But here I can actually blame society, and get away with it, because the standard has been lifted over the past three decades. It was the Italian immigrants who introduced coffee culture to Melbourne, and it’s taken seriously. Cup of mud would never fit the bill, so to speak. But yes, I also noted that the big coffee blue sky co was expanding the offerings to customers, and tea, baked goods and energy drinks were on offer.
The machines they’d use are higher volume and also slightly higher pressure. My friends of the big shed fame have a commercial machine, and it’s good. As an amusing side note, a few years ago I observed one of the dudes and his dad having an err, serious discussion, as to why the dad was altering the programming of the commercial coffee machine. Always lovely to observe functional families and it was very good natured.
Ah well, such things with the ladies are known to happen. In those sorts of working conditions during winter, heating is a serious matter, and energy ain’t cheap. So yeah I agree, tips and additional cost will probably go towards covering the additional fuel costs? Are they ahead, or behind in that business, hard to tell really. Honestly, early in the morning, I’d simply want a good coffee, prepared well. My needs are simple. 🙂
I can see that with fleas. The first house we bought many long years ago was infested with fleas, and I wasn’t a fan. It took us a couple of days to work out what was going on, but we were really young. Have you ever encountered that? Put the cat and dogs outside, went to work, and bug bombed the house. Probably took years off my life being exposed to the intense insecticide over the following weeks, but far out, my legs were itchy.
Proving a dude’s gotta be handy with a camera. What an interesting insect, and it feeds it’s young on grasshoppers. What’s not to like about that.
Actually the lack of ports thing is the same on my laptop. A bit frustrating really. I guess they expect you to purchase a powered USB hub so that additional devices can be connected up?
What? Oh, I’d not realised that. I guess your winters are relatively mild, except when they’re not – and the same thing could be said about here. It’s funny to be in a sort of similar climate zone on a different continent.
Your experience is good, and I tell people that they have to know the system in order to work it to their advantage. Expecting the system to fit around their personal requirements, rarely works. Well, warm bodies to get work done are in short supply. And honestly, unless you have heaps of mad cash to burn, how do you make a 16 hour max per week job work for you if the hours are more or less random? Is the income enough to survive upon? I guess it does no harm if they ask, but reality may be otherwise.
What do other folks say about the nematodes versus pill bug ultimate fight challenge? The nematodes here eat the introduced millipedes, but some still get through the gauntlet. It’s a good idea though, your garden would lack predators. I’ll be interested to hear how it works out.
Go H! Good to know that she is onto things. Dogs know stuff.
Really? I can understand your concern, but the weather is the weather and people make the choices as to where they’ve landed. I had to cogitate a bit upon your paragraph over the day, but honestly, if you’re having a good year weather wise, well what’s wrong with that? The best harvest we’d ever produced was the Black Summer of 2019-2020, but in other parts of the state, that was a total disaster. Things have been otherwise here, such as say, during the awful 2008-2009 summer. Life is a crapshoot, and maybe we should celebrate the small wins?
Congrats and it’s a venerable age. Hopefully you have learned wisdom over the years, and set a standard to which we can only but hope to aspire to? That’s the goal, anyway! 🙂 Happy birthday. And what a fine celebratory meal. Oh yeah, those heavy duty pizza trays are good. Some industry outlets are open to the public, and they sell those trays. Good stuff. The thought of the polish turkey sausages are making me salivate. Yum!
It’s a mad film for sure, and yes, the ping pong scene was memorable. What a fine skill, always guaranteed to provide shock and awe.
That’s a mess with the food boxes. Yes, do you really want to consume the mystery meat? Could mean anything, wise to grab the glasses so as to read the fine print. It’s my understanding that croissants wont stay fresh for long, so err, dubious with that offering. The Club would appreciate the supplies. How’s the pantry moving these days?
Cheers and better get writing!
Chris