The local farm machine repair dude died unexpectedly almost two years ago. He was my age when he died. Gives a person pause for thought that fact. Anyway, back then I made the decision to do all of the servicing and repair work on the small farm machines we use. I sure miss chatting to the dude though. But on the other hand, I’ve actually enjoyed all the machine work. It was also interesting to discover that it’s much cheaper to do all the work here, even taking into account holding heaps of spare parts plus acquiring the many tools. Who knew?
In the very late 1980’s, and early 1990’s it was not uncommon for people to repair their own vehicle. Economics pushed me in that direction. Need a new timing belt installed on the little old 1 Litre / 61 cubic inch Suzuki Jimny four wheel drive? (and to think serious people suggest I haven’t changed over the years!) No worries, I’d pop the bonnet, grab the technical service and repair manual, and slowly work my way through the job. Far cheaper than getting someone else to do the work. But more importantly, in doing that work, a person gets a feel for how machines are disassembled, and then reassembled, with hopefully nothing important looking left over. Always a risk.
It’s no great stretch to do all the servicing and repair work nowadays. There’s no technical service and repair manuals for these machines, but there are enthusiastic folks on YouTube, for which I’m eternally grateful. There was just one machine I wasn’t really excited about servicing and repairing. Sandra has a great fondness for her Razorback mower. In fact, now I think about it a bit, I can’t recall the last time I was allowed to use the machine. Hmm. Anyway, it’s Japanese built, super tough, and made for hard work on steep land. It’s perfect for here, but would be absolute rubbish on a golf course. I’ve been heard to say: “Is it really a good idea to rip up the paddocks?” Only to hear the practised retort: “Aerating the soil”. Yeah, whatever.
As a fun side story for those with an interest in obscure Australian horror films, the name ‘Razorback’ may be a reference to the 1984 horror film in which a giant boar (the razorback) terrorised a whole bunch of people, some of whom were involved in the pet food industry. What can I say, it was acceptable in the 80’s…
That’s the machine I didn’t want to have to service and repair. It’s a complicated beast of a mower. After the local farm machine repair dude died, the business continued on for a while. Now the gates to the business are locked, and who knows what is going on in there. I needed to get new blades for the mower, and it’s not like you can purchase them on eBay. So I phoned up the distributor to see how the situation rolled. The distributor refused to sell to retail customers, fair enough, and it turned out the nearest dealer nowadays is an hours drive to the west of here.
Fortunately that dealer would take the parts order over the phone. A few days later the parts arrived into the store. So, a few days ago we drove for an hour through the delightful countryside. It was a lovely late winters day. Cold in the shade, but when the sun hit your skin, you felt some decent warmth. Eventually the car was parked at the shop.
Inside the small factory like space, it was cold. Foolishly, thinking I’d only be a few minutes, I left the woollen jumper in the car. The parts order was exactly as it should have been. I’d taken along with us our spares parts, so that we could make a comparison with the new ones. Always wise to be prepared for a spare parts mess up. We do keep some spare parts here, and when those get used, or are required to be, we source replacements. Saves being inconvenienced by dodgy supply line issues. Oh yeah, the are parts coming in, but it will be, I dunno, maybe a month or two away. Sure.
As is sometimes the country way, the owner of the store was up for a good chat. It’s a way of sizing up people that he’d have to deal with, and we’d ticked several ‘good’ boxes already such as: Punctuality, as in turning up when we said we would; Being aware of the prices upfront so there were no misunderstandings; and also taking the time to ask questions, talk and actually listen to how things worked. Being in the same distributor network for several brands of machines, he also used to know the now deceased local farm machine repair dude.
During the course of the hour long conversation, he happened to mention that he’d recently also had serious heart health issues. The dude was at least ten years younger than I. Gives a person pause for thought that fact. The health mishap story was part of the larger conversation. Seems to me given how things were rolling, repairing small farm machines was a stressful business. Over the long years of conversations, I’d gleaned the reason for this sad fact: it was because of the many things that customers carelessly do. However, we also spoke about all the good things going on in life, like surviving serious heart issues. I reckon he’d used that dire experience as an opportunity to wind the stress and aggravation back a bit. It was a really good chat. Had a nice lunch at the country town too. Oh, the hardships…
Observant readers will note the rather lethal looking brand new pink blades have now been attached to the mower. Replacing them was a very simple job, although there were some other more complicated items on the machine which required servicing. All up about three hours was spent working on the machine, and then it was ready to go. It’s a beast. Here are the old blades:
Sandra was providing company during the work, and candidly she was a bit tetchy with me at one point. What was going on there? Turns out, her dad died a year or so back, and she’s slowly coming to terms with that, but also the implications that there’s no inheritance. The old bloke received an inheritance from Sandra’s grandfather, and he blew it, all of it. Nice for him. My lot didn’t do any better. Gives a person pause for thought that. But you know, emotions to the side, what it means in practical terms is that we’ve gotta keep on working, and for as long as we can. Acceptance means that for all the dog acts a person has to face, there’s still a lot of good things going on in life.
This week we’ve had some glorious sun, but far out the nights have been cold. Most mornings, frost freezes the grass. It’s crunchy when you walk around.
Some of the garden beds get covered in a layer of ice. Mulch and aged compost seem to attract frost.
There’s not all that much to say about the work done this week. We were back down at the forest edge just cleaning up the century or so of loggers mess. Now that we have some strong sunlight, the Stihl electric chainsaw could be hauled out. That little 3hp machine is good for cutting the small to medium sized (around a foot in diameter) logs into discs which can then be split at a later date. It feels good using the power of the sunlight to do that work. Plus it’s a quieter machine than the noisy two stroke biggerer and powerfuler saw.
There’s a bit of a story to those electric chainsaws. For a start, they were purchased as run-out items. They’re old though and so were priced as if they were second hand. Nobody appeared to want them, although I couldn’t quite grasp why that was the case. The electric chainsaw had a friend too, so we bought that as well. They were really cheap, and very well made. Even runs the same size chain as the biggerer saw. There’s something of a mystery there.
I’ve got a theory that Sunday afternoons in the Australian bush are ‘the’ time for a burn off. It’s remarkably constant. As a Sunday rolls on, you get to see more and more fires dotting the landscape. By late afternoon it looks like Mordor. Makes sense too, better than facing a truly massive life threatening fire come the summer months.
I’m not actually sure how a burn off fire can produce so much smoke, but it’s common enough. With some exceptions, most of the fires we run are quite hot, so the fuels burn fairly cleanly with not much smoke. Here’s one from a few days ago (not a Sunday).
I’ve been surprised this year at how some of the damp forest materials have burned so easily. Gives a bloke pause for thought as to how the summer will be. Still, we’re nearing the end of the work we want to do on that project for this winter. Maybe another day or two will see the job complete. It’s hard work, which is why few people want to take it on, and the government does such a poor job of it in State Forests.
One of the local birds has been a bit naughty of late. It’s a pied currawong (like a very large raven) and has somehow learned to knock the Pomello’s off the tree so that the fruit falls to the ground. The bird can then peck through the thick rind and get to the grapefruit-like flesh at it’s leisure. It’d knocked this pomello from the tree in the next photograph. It was an overly ambitious choice of fruit for the bird. Sometimes we all over-reach.
This week’s video was about how to save money by making very tasty home made toasted muesli.
Onto the flowers:
The temperature outside now at about 11am is 6’C (43’F). So far for last year there has been 595.2mm (23.4 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 591.0mm (23.3 inches)
Yo, Chris – I occasionally look at the local obituaries and death notices. If on any given day, if all the deceased are older than me, it’s a good day. 🙂 If there are a lot that are younger than me, a not so good day. 🙁 I often wonder what did the younger folks in. Obituaries are not often forthcoming, with cause of death.
Ah, the good old days when vehicle repairs were fairly simple. Even me, Lew the Un-Mechanical, could do some basic maintenance, and could identify the parts of most combustion engines. Shade tree mechanics could tinker an old wreck, back to life. Now, you need a degree in computer science, and very pricey diagnostic machines.
Sounds like you had a nice visit, with the machinery repair dude. Also, another point in your favor. You didn’t charge in like a crazy person, grab the parts, and run. Not in a hurry can be a positive.
Is everything Barbie pink, these days? 🙂 Even mower blades?
There’s something satisfying about crunchy grass. And ice on puddles. Was there a frost? Wasn’t there a frost? You know there was a frost.
That’s funny, about Sunday burning being an Australian national pastime. As far as the smoke goes, I’m sure you know that usually means wet or green something or other. But I also thought, people probably also burn their rubbish. And gosh knows what that would contain, that sends up clouds of smoke.
That’s a rather cheery fire, you have there. And the photo is really nice.
The muesli video was very good. But I have a few quibbles. You might have mentioned that pipitas are also known as pumpkin seeds. And, how do you store your muesli? How do you serve it up? Do you heat it a bit, and pour milk over it? Or just cold and power through. So many questions … 🙂
Succulent flowers are so interesting. One wonders what evolutionary stress sent them in one direction or another. If you had Vinca, it would be flowering, about now. But, best kept in a container. It can run all over the place. And form thick mats. I’ve decided to put some in the hanging petunia basket, just to dress it up a bit, during the cold season. Lew
Hi DJ,
There was a reply in last weeks blog, but just in case you missed it, here it is again!
Hi DJ,
Your weather sounds quite horrendous, especially the smoke, but I’m glad to hear that today was cooler. 30’C is quite nice weather really, except for the smoke. Things are slowly warming up here and I was even buzzed by a bee today. We continued on with the forest clean up work today in the cool sunshine, and I’m a bit startled at how readily the fires are taking for this time of year. Hmm.
Sugar versus High Fructose Corn Syrup, hmm. Which will win the battle? Look, probably best minimising your exposure to either, but it’s interesting to note that the two have differing chemical structures and please correct me if I’m wrong, but the corn one has two lots of the hydroxymethyl group molecules bound, compared to sugar’s one. I’m talking way outside my area of knowledge, but that kind of stood out to me. The funny thing I note is that when I look at old timey videos, the people kind of mostly have my body shape which is long and lanky. Anyway, I can’t speak for others in this regard, and seriously try hard to eat a lot of what we can grow in this environment with highly mineralised soils. When a person outsources their food, they have to accept what is produced for them.
Oh yeah, ain’t no surfing opportunities in Paris, so why not Tahiti? That’s what I reckon. 🙂 Was it good and competitive? Pah, sharks are equal opportunists and will happily take Australian surfers as readily as they will your countrymen. In a wetsuit, the shark probably think we’re seals.
Shucks! Man, I thought with your summer weather you might be on the money with growing melons. The same experience you and your lady had was about the same as what the Sandra and I achieved. And it took the Black Summer of 2019-2020 – our best harvest ever, although not good for other parts of the continent.
Interesting, and respect for the folks on the Colville Rez doing that work. And oh yeah, you know why not many folks want to do such work? It’s physically very demanding, and after so many years it’s a total mess. Honestly, I’m not fussed about it all because as time goes on, the work will get done. The energy of the people as well as the land are all tied up together. There are some really dry adapted oak trees which provide massive shade, like the Algerian Oaks, and they’d work well. My observations of the 2009 fires were that those oak trees stopped fires, and although the fire facing side of the tree was scorched, the tree bounced back just fine.
Oh my! I do hope that the weather cools and the rains return for you and soon. Big fires can also be something of a crapshoot depending on conditions and topography. But usually, if you know the winds and the topography, you can tell where it will go.
Yeah, that’s the thing with rain. If you have limited rain, it works best if the rain can soak into the soil and move into the sub soil. But if it arrives in one, or two, or even three big storms, and then washes away. Not good. I should do a video on how we deal with storm water because we set up a lot of systems to handle the worst sort of weather err, four inches of rain in an hour. Years ago we had a big wake up call in the form of a minor landslide. Nobody wants one of those.
Hehe! You did well, and far better than the fictional Hitchhikers cheeky scamp did that proposed the missing ballpoint pen and socks world.
Yes, it’s been remarked upon before that prudent behaviour and choices, never go out of style. Some fuel with added fuel stabiliser might be a good idea as well. And of course, 42 is always the correct number. That’s hard wired into our existence.
Ugg! Here’s a toast to all the cavemen (and of course, cavewomen) out there. We get stuff done. Nuff said! 🙂 Man, I so love that Robert E Howard quote about barbarism being the natural state. I’ve got the complete collection of Conan stories. The book is leather bound and printed on low acid paper. It’s hefty too and would be handy in a bar fight, or for clubbing errant sorcerers over the head. It amuses me to ponder the consequences of that book surviving way off into the future. 🙂
Probably heat and dehydration. During really hot and dry weather, there are a couple of places here where the birds can enjoy a drink and a bath. Of course such places must be out of reach of the likes of Dame Avalanche. Had the magpies following me around all day today.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Man, I’ve heard of people doing that scrolling through the local obituaries. Clearly it is a competitive sport! And glad to hear that you are on the winning team, so far. 😉 Actually, I have to confess (which is always good for the soul) that I do a similar obituary scrolling thing with the very English grammar high school newsletter which arrives once per quarter. And I know what you mean too. What did them in? Could be something to learn there, and each story is a little tragedy – but with no details provided. Sorry, possibly like yours, my brain works in terms of narrative and seeks the story behind the news. Interestingly, the old school mate who died earlier this year, and I reckon his ghost visited us, wasn’t mentioned in the obituaries. It’s not my business to alert the school newsletter to this news given he was the last of his line. Is it? Do you have any advice for me?
Go Lew the un-mechanical! Hey, being able to point to a part and announce with authority that it is such and such a component, well that’s something. Respect. You know what, I look into the crowded engine bays of these enlightened times and ask the tough question: What the heck is that thing? And why would an oxygen sensor be required? Will the engine computer be expensive to replace if it ends up underwater? So many questions, so few answers… Actually the engine bay of the Suzuki Jimny is rather more old school than the average new car. It was designed and built to be simple and robust.
Incidentally, the vehicle diagnostic computers are really cheap these days, and apparently quite good. A truly outstanding one could be had for under $100. Alas, and you may have read the news today, but globalisation appears to be unwinding. Sad, because some of the cheap stuff which arrives is actually pretty good. Like that log splitter we bought which had the astounding claim: “Made with pride in the PRC”. I’ve both looked at and used this machine for a few years now, and can’t argue with the hype.
Thanks for mentioning that as I’d not realised that taking the time to get to know someone was a thing with that encounter, but yeah. Good pick up. Funnily enough, his wife worked in the back office, and she also sort of wormed in and out of the conversation briefly from time to time. It’s very country to be vetted! For all sorts of reasons, I’m very careful with how my reputation is perceived. I still recall over hearing a conversation with a couple of old timers who talked about someone I casually knew who’d made a stunning faux pas in the 1970’s. Truly, that day I knew real fear. Admittedly I’d never made the error of offering assistance to get someone else’s wife pregnant. Possibly such things were acceptable in the 70’s? I’ve said some stupid stuff over the years, but hopefully not that odd.
🙂 That’s so true. The blades are Barbie pink! The Japanese manufacturers must have had some left over paint? The Editor got a good chuckle out of your witty observation, and also rather enjoyed the Wicked Little Lies film.
Yup, it’s hard to miss frost. It’s slippery as well. All of the mulch from that unfortunately had to do so err, wasps and things, willow tree was spread over a section of paddock where the grass needed a feed. In the ice, that was especially slippery.
🙂 We do sports proper like down here, and if it means burning off, well, even Captain Cook noticed the competitive smoke incidents. It is pretty funny isn’t it? But it’s so consistent. You can watch it happening here off in the distance on a Sunday, and as the day rolls on into the afternoon there are more and more billowing smoke clouds. I tend to believe that folks are psychologically gearing themselves up for the work week, whilst marking the end of the weekend with an enjoyable standing around the bonfire in winter feeling toasty warm. Oh yeah, burning tires produce the thickest black smoke, so absolutely I reckon rubbish gets chucked in.
That was exciting. Just took Ollie out to do his business, and there was a flash overhead from some falling space junk. It even made a slight sphizzzz sound, and there was a trail of light behind it which quickly faded. Never seen that before. 9:39pm. Not sure if there is a place to report such things?
Thanks! A bonfire on a cold winters day is a wonderful thing. Spread the coffee grounds and wood ash mixture around the area today. In another week or two, we’ll spread compost around there and seed it up. The Musk Daisy Bushes there look like little oak trees.
I could say that I was keeping the viewers guessing, but that wouldn’t be true. I didn’t think of any of those matters! Hmm. I store the muesli in a plastic air tight container and use it within the week – it seems very shelf stable. Muesli goes into a bowl, freshly cut fruit gets added on top of the muesli. Then yoghurt is heaped on top of that. No milk gets added. Nope, cold and power on through. It’s tasty. Just added those words to the utoob clip, so thanks for the prompting!
Perriwinkle looks great. Hmm. Have to get me some of those. I see what you mean about the plant escapee.
I’m pretty sure that in times long ago, that frozen southern continent, was not so frozen, and sea levels were probably a whole bunch higher. Did you see that the cold air released has drifted north to here? The folks in the big smoke are having one of their coldest winters in decades. A lot of whingeing.
My gut feeling is that if that Atlantic current fails, I doubt ice sheets will appear on the UK coastline any time soon. The excess heat will simply find another way to move north, but it won’t be the same. Energy moves from the heat to the cool, so things will be different. The study was a model, so who knows what variables the researchers plugged into it.
Your weather sounds quite ideal. How’s the tomatoes going? Are they ripening in the sustained warmth? We continued on that clean up work, and I can announce that there is now only one (estimated) day left and the job will be done for the season. And the peasants rejoiced… The day here was quite lovely, although mostly cloudy but at 57’F.
That message about reducing reliance on technology is beginning to get out there, and people adapt to circumstance.
Oh shoot! That was some fancy fast work to process the flat of blueberries stored out of the refrigerator due to lack of space. Good planning, and you must have been busy. Hmm, I notice that about organic fruit as well (not to mention the stuff we grow here is usually smaller). Yeah, I’d consider your local blueberries organic too, although people get very excited about the proper usage (and no doubt license fees) of that word.
Thanks for the cunning idea! Except they’re all dead. Drats, foiled again due to unpleasant practicalities. Lewis, whenever will we make our fortunes? Oh well, back to the drawing board. 😉
I’d have to suggest that long afternoon naps might affect your sleep, and I’ve observed that too. After much experimentation with this matter, I can confirm that for myself, a 45 minute afternoon nap will not affect sleep, but an hours will. Your mission should you choose to accept it… 🙂
I don’t mind runny eggs, although it depends upon where I’m eating. Bruce Willis sage, but blunt advice in that food film tends to sway my decision making there. I’ve been rather ill from consuming a meal of dodgy scrambled eggs and am now more careful with ordering. When I was eating the meal, I thought to myself, Gee these eggs taste a bit funny. Not sure I can laugh about that incident, I’m sure you’ve been there too – like that dodgy meal you had at the Club years ago. That was bad.
Oh yeah, the bush in that part of the island state receives maybe 10 foot of rain annually. A lot of trees and vegetation, not to mention mountains. It rains there a lot, and few if any people live there.
Gene Wilder had an interesting career. How did the film hold up? It was blasted by the critics – harsh folks.
Cheers
Chris
yoghurt toppings- FINALLY sharing the granola recipe I use.
1 kg rolled oats
85 g flour
170 g diced walnuts (I use black walnuts for extra flavor)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon ( do you use tsp measures?)
236 ml maple syrup
200 g butter
optional- raisins to taste
mix dry ingredients
melt butter and syrup to just warm liquid
stir/mix well into dry stuff
spread onto cookie sheets-thin layer is best
toast at 250F/120C for ~20-25 minutes- as long as the moisture has mostly been driven off and the oats are just starting to brown a bit on the edges.
break up, let cool, and store in air tight container.
I’ll watch your muesli video now 🙂
yardwork- I’ve cast a jaundiced eye toward cordless electrical tools, worried about battery life, both while using, and for overall lifespan.
And then we got a Stihl electric string trimmer. Patsy does not like the gas trimmer, so….. While I have issues with the string feed design, this thing is a screamer, whacking weeds with more power than our gas powered trimmer, and surprising how much energy is stored in the battery pack. One could worry about future availability of gasoline just as much as future availability of batteries. At some point, I might need to get the scythe out and actually use it, but till then…………..
The third ingredient for the muesli just doesn’t come through clear on the video. Sounds sort of like potatoes, (close to that in the transcript as well), but they certainly don’t look like that. More looks like seeds of some sort.
And idea for any of the recipes, would be to have it written out in the text that goes with the video.
Yo, Chris – Scrolling through the obits, as a competitive sport? Soon to be a major Olympic Games, event! 🙂
I don’t think I’d inform the old school newsletter (was there an old school tie?), about the demise of a compatriot. Might stir up old ghosts. Or, the living, who could end up being problematic. “Let sleeping dogs lay.”
I haven’t looked at the headlines, this morning. Globalization unraveling? What’s up? I remember the early 50s, when the meme was, “Cheap junk from Japan.” Well, they showed us, didn’t they?
I’m glad the Editor like “Wicked Little Letters.” Besides being entertaining, it showed the hypocrisy and prejudices, of that era. Not that they aren’t still with us.
The Revenge of the Willow Tree. Even though it’s been reduced to mulch, it’s still out to get you! 🙂
When I saw my space junk, I just called the cops. They already had the info, that it was space junk, and not an airliner. I couldn’t hear what I saw. If you did, it might have landed (if anything was left), maybe close by. Of course, might have been aliens.
Thanks for the muesli clarification. Now I can sleep. 🙂 It sounds tasty, but can I give up my oatmeal and four fruits? Which I made another batch of, this morning. I noticed Steve asked if you use measuring spoons. Measuring spoons? Chris doesn’t need any stinkin’ measuring spoons! 🙂
I don’t think the folks in the Big Smoke need to get excited, unless it snows there. Has it ever snowed there? Icebergs crashing into the Thames Barrier. It was 84F, yesterday. Overnight lows in the mid 50s. Forecast for today is 81. Overcast and cool, this morning. Prof. Mass has a bit about monsoons, but it’s a podcast.
I’m beginning to get tomatoes, but on the advice of the Master Gardeners, they really need to be pruned. Better air circulation, and more fruit. I think I’m going to have a few people giving me tomatoes, so, the dehydrator will be busy.
“Slow on the Uptake,” or, “The Penny Dropped.” Sounds like a Victorian melodrama. Some of the batches of blueberries I’ve processed have seemed … very light. Not as many to put in a gallon bag. Well. The berry containers from the Spooner’s fruit stand ($35 a flat) are about 1/3 shallower than the flat ($50) I got from the farmer’s market. So, a rough estimate, no matter who I buy from, I’m paying about $50 for the same amount of berries. I think, as with pizza, I’ve hit the price resistance barrier. Next year, I’ll be mixing blueberries and blackberries, which I can pick for free. I’ll have five fruit oatmeal. 🙂
Woke up at some god awful hour, this morning. I got another batch of blueberries, into the colanders. Then I went out and picked a generous quart bowl, of blueberries, here at the Institution. To start plumping up those light gallon freezer bags. I hadn’t really taken a close look at this years crop. On the small side (it took me about an hour, to pick a quart), but, at least not withered, like last year. The bushes are loaded, and there’s still plenty of green ones, coming on. I do think there may be more competition for them, this year, as a younger crowd has moved in. Maybe. I hear chatter. But will they pick? I may go out and try and pick another quart, tonight.
I thought a bit more about why the birds don’t seem to bother the blueberries. I think it may be a lack of birds. There were plenty around, early in the spring. But then that pair of ravens, showed up. They’ve seemed to have moved on, but I think they may have killed a lot of smaller birds. It’s a theory.
I ordered the nematodes, last night. After double checking that they won’t hurt earthworms. They’re shipped two day air. Much to my surprise, they didn’t charge shipping!
“Haunted Honeymoon” was silly and fun. No subtitles, though, so I lost some of the dialogue. The song and dance number, Gilda Radner and Dom Deluise (in drag) do, was worth the bowl of popcorn.
I might head down to the Club, late afternoon, for a cuppa. They’re still doing work on the road, which needed it. But they go from 7PM to early morning. There are no detours, unless one wants to drive miles through trackless wilderness. 🙂 They were supposed to be done, by now, but were delayed by that two days of rain, we had. Lew
Hi Andy,
Thanks! Your feedback was very much appreciated, mostly because I’d not even thought about your points. Bring the feedback on! 🙂
I’ve amended the text to the video and will do so in future.
The third ingredient was pepitas, which are a particular variety of pumpkin seeds which produces a lot of green seeds. As an interesting side note, they’re very good for gut health on several fronts. Worthwhile looking into. 😉
Cheers and many thanks!
Chris
Hi Steve,
Respect, and I very much appreciate your granola recipe. You’ve intrigued me with this talk of black walnuts. The local gardening club sold seeds for the trees a few months ago. Proving that the early bird gets the worm, by the time I got around to making the decision to order the seeds, they were sold out. Bummer… There are some really old and truly massive walnut trees growing around here, but I have tried about five times to get one of them to grow here – and killed all of them! Goran who comments here and runs a nut tree nursery in Sweden, suggested that the summer dry periods were the issue with those more traditional walnut trees. Ook! Can’t do much about that, but the black walnuts are much hardier trees. Hmm. How do you crack the crazy hard shells?
We swapped peanuts for walnuts, but you do have the superior variety of nut to add to your recipe. Yum! Also I was very interested in the addition of butter, as that would have the binding effect seen in the biscuit recipes. Nice one. And maple syrup would make a fine taste. So good, and you have local trees for that delectable sugar.
With the way varroa mite is spreading in the European honey bee population down under, I might resort to sugar beets… Nowhere near as good as maple syrup though and you are in an enviable location. I’ve got two of those trees growing here and one is over a decade old. They do very well here, and maybe the frosts are harsh enough to get the sugar flow, maybe… I’d be up for some backyard sugarin’!
Steve, no, but yeah, they’re good! When the batteries are high end, those cordless tools are awesome. Sandra also does not enjoy the two stroke machines because you know, they’re finnicky to start and operate, so I get where Patsy is coming from. Good to hear you’ve got a scythe. The future belongs to those who know how to use one. We’ve got a mains electric trimmer but the cord is a bit risky, so battery is better in that case. But far out, that mains electric powered 3hp Stihl chainsaw is freakin’ awesome. 🙂 If you take your time, there ain’t much it won’t cut.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
We may not get the gold medal in that particular competitive sport, but I reckon either of us would be happy with the bronze. Always pays to have some other person out front in the lead taking the heat for the rest of us. 🙂 Less questions to answer.
Thanks for the advice, and I will follow that. I’d wondered what if anything to do, but wasn’t entirely sure where responsibilities lay in that regard. Yes, there is a school tie, but I don’t hang in the circles where such things would be recognised. The old boys network is a thing, but like any network you have to put effort into it and with benefits come costs.
You make a strong case there with manufactured goods whose origins are the little land of stuff. A fascinating country that one, and did you know that wages there have been stagnant for many years? They differ to Germany in that regard, and perhaps have been able to withstand the economic winds better for countries with little local energy and mineral resources. For both those particular issues which lead to WWII, never really went away. I have a hunch that the Bank of Japan lifted interest rates because the currency was tanking, but also due to social issues. The locals who’d been taking an economic hit with stagnant wages were probably a bit miffed with what the tourists were up to. Hmm. Also the removal of the yen carry trade will immediately reduce the fat mad cash flows landing in the west. I doubt we’ve heard the last of this story. It’ll be interesting to see how quickly Japan’s debt climbs in the future given it’s at something like 200% of GDP. It’s a weird negative feedback loop that situation. Anyway, what do I know? 🙂
The Editor was unsurprised at who the wicked letter culprit ended up being and the reasons. The father was a bit of a monster, and social isolating another person is a mode to abuse. Spare me from troublesome parents! 😉 Pesky critters.
Guess I brought that willow tree revenge poop down on my own head? Honestly, I’m left wondering if the root systems will resprout… I grubbed it out, but is that enough.
I’d never thought about calling the cops about the matter, but they’d be onto such things. Oh yeah, you’ve got that aircraft plant in your part of the world, and heck nobody want to witness an airliner (or chunk thereof) crashing to the ground. I had a search around the interweb to see if anyone else saw it, but nope, doesn’t appear to be the case. Truly I was amazed at how bright the flash was. Nothing at all like a shooting star. That’s true, you can never be too sure about them folks as come from outer space. Pod people I believe, a bloke needs special glasses.
Whatever works for you! Your oatmeal and four fruits sounds pretty tasty to me. 🙂 Hehe! I’m a bit super loose about actual measurements, but the recipes don’t demand accuracy. Who knew there were measuring spoons?
Dunno. Hang on, let’s see what the interweb has to say about the subject… … I’d say photographic evidence is good enough for me: The suprising locations in Australia where snow has fallen outside the Alps. Actually the photos are really good.
The news mentioned a big storm in the SE of your country. Yikes! The term one in a thousand years just doesn’t convey any useful information don’t you reckon?
If you’ve got tomatoes coming in from various sources, I’d say the pressure is off for your own plants.
As far as I can ascertain the situation, the farmers market flats were the cheapest. There is logic to my logic. 😉 And oh yeah, pizza pushes at that barrier. You’d no doubts be horrified by the prices of local pizzas. Pizzflation? Although that sounds a bit weird…
Gawds save us all from early mornings. I respect your stoicism in the face of an unrelenting work load. Lewis, am I detecting a touch of emotional energy in relation to these supposed light flats? 😉
The ravens are doing you a total solid in that regard. Trust me in this, you’d be amazed at how much fruit the local bird population here extracts from the orchards and gardens. And the larger birds are getting smarter at that game. A raven’s gotta eat too.
Hope the nematodes work out well in the garden. It’s an ingenious solution to the pill bugs and may allow you to get some balance. Of course I shouldn’t mention it but the smaller birds such as wrens and robins, would also eat the wood lice.
Actually Dom Deluise got the most praise by critics with the film. Did the Dry II film ever turn up?
Did you make it? Maybe it’s just me, but such road repair stories leave me feeling a bit traumatised after the main road here off the mountain range was blocked recently due to a roundabout construction – mention of which may trigger your good self.
Got home late tonight, so if I’ve written anything stupid, well there’s the answer!
Cheers
Chris
@ Lew
I assume that the Atlantic current is the Gulf Stream. We have been being told for a while that it may reverse it’s direction and that the result would be a way colder climate brr.
Inge
Hello Chris
Re people walking onto ones property. Son came home the other day to discover a woman taking photos of his goats. She was quite oblivious to the fact that she was trespassing. She finally wandered off,
Son reckoned that she was a holiday maker and her accent suggested that she wasn’t English.
Inge
Yo, Chris – Gold, my precious! Gold! 🙂
I figured there’d be a song. ‘Old School Tie.”
https://youtu.be/0e4YHiAJ3Tw?si=ntijLKDTjFpxBife
The American and Asian markets hit a rough patch. But, a late night headline stated that the Japanese market, had rallied. Of course, for a couple of days before the Great Depression set in, the American market also rallied. “One rose does not a summer make.”
Yup. Glad I’m an orphan. Second time, today. And, it’s early yet. 🙂
No, it’s special glasses to detect the lizard people. Or, skeleton people. Whatever they were. With the pod people, it’s gut feeling and bizarre behavior.
The snow article was really great. Especially, the old pictures. The first picture of Hobart, gave me the jim-jams. A truly enormous round-about of death! Negotiating that, in snow, would be, well, deadly! So The Big Smoke does get snow, from time to time. Just often enough to freak everyone out, and reveal who know how to drive in snow, and who doesn’t. Kind of like, here. 🙂
They throw that 1,000 year storm bit, around a lot. Prof. Mass once explained how that works. When Debbie hit land, it was “only” a category 1 hurricane. Which is winds of 74-95mph. And, once it’s over land, wind speeds decrease, rapidly. It’s actually graded as “just” a tropical storm, now. But, it’s carrying a lot of water. That’s what’s walloping people, now.
Here, it was 75F, yesterday. Got down to 52F, overnight. Forecast for today is 75. Due to morning overcast, which will burn off as the day goes on. Forecast to get up to 92, day after tomorrow. Then back to cooler temperatures, again.
It turns out the Pyrex bowl I was using to pick berries, is 1 1/2 quarts. Yesterday, I processed two batches out of the flats, and the berries I’d picked. Oh, my. The whole 1 1/2 quarts plumped up only one bag. I went out last evening, and picked another bowl full. Didn’t take as long. I worked over some bushes at the back of the Institution. It’s on the cool side of the building, and water isn’t quit such a problem. I filled the bowl, just picking from the backside of two bushes. They’re on a pretty steep slope, so it’s where the Inmates can’t get to them. I picked the back, high up, and deep into the bushes. Today, I’ll process two batches (one is already drying in the colanders) out of the flats. That’s the last of them. And, the berries I picked, last night. Then I think I’ll take a breather, for a couple of days. Tomorrow, I’ll sort through the freezer, figure out how many bags I’ve got, and where I’m at as far as fullness, goes.
“Dry 2” is still on my hold list. Near as I can figure, the DVD will be released, the end of the month. Stumbled on a new zombie / comedy, coming out. I don’t know if the library will order it, or not.
https://youtu.be/Y9mPQ1ioYAg?si=rF0hmaZhFwEmXbaU
I finished watching the new, season one, animated “Star Trek: Prodigy.” Pretty good, and there will be a season two, with a lot more episodes. A group of alien youth, flee a prison mining planet. Because they’ve found a starship, buried deep inside the planet. They know nothing about the Federation, or, for that matter, how to fly a starship. But, luckily for them, there’s a hologram on board. Captain Janeway, who was created to train Star Fleet cadets. A younger crowd than “Lower Decks,” and a bit darker.
I just avoided the road repairs. It’s screwing up my social life. 🙂 No going down to the Club, in the evenings. Oh, well. Ought to be finished by day after tomorrow.
According to the tracking, the nematodes should be delivered, today. But the last trace of it, was still in Arizona. And, it’s not “out for delivery,” yet. We’ll see. Lew
sugar vs honey- I know I have been slacking on entries to my once in a while blog, but here was my take on sugar beets:
http://viridviews.blogspot.com/2022/12/sugar-from-sugar-beets-homestead-style.html
cracking black walnuts- yeah, they are not a task to take lightly. It’s work, and the right tool is important. I use this one, and there are also other designs with the stoutness to do the job.
https://blackwalnutcracker.com/Item/BWCSteelii
scythes- It’s the continual sharpening that keeps me reluctant to do a lot at this point. It’s so easy to try to do a bit more cutting before stopping to hone, and before you know it, you are hacking instead of slicing. Once more, sometimes there are no shortcuts.
Chris,
Yes, I saw that you had replied at the end of last week. But the repost and reminder was a good thing.
I was working on a lengthy reply yesterday. Then my computer started acting weird. Wonky, even. Without warning, my internet browser shut down and I lost everything I had written. Ugg.
We got rain Sunday. Several hours of it. Maybe 4mm here. It was nice sitting outside, under the patio roof, drinking coffee and listening to the rain patter on the patio roof. It seems as if the intense heat is mostly over now. Just hazy and smoky still.
On the fire front, the fire that displaced several relatives is well under control. The town of Keller is now open for residents to return. It did not burn.
Saw an interesting tidbit today. A few weeks ago there was a 25 acre fire about 6 miles from here. It was at the base of the steep part of “Palisades Park” and also close to several cemeteries. (It was officially named Upper Cemetery Fire). The article interviewed several local firefighting leaders. One month before the fire, thanks to Federal grant money, about 450 acres in that area was cleaned up by firefighters. Dead trees were removed, fallen branches and dead understory were removed. There was very little forest debris on the ground to accelerate a wildfire. The interviewed fighters suggested that the cleanup kept the fire from spreading rapidly and that it was much easier to fight also. So, there is some improved forest management occurring now.
The extra molecules in the corn syrup concerned me also. Minimizing sugar and corn syrup, both, is a good idea. I’ve also seen photos of some of my ancestors. Lean and lanky with useful muscle, like you. Not bulky gymnasium muscle, real functional muscle. They certainly ate few commercially processed foods!
You have ALL the original Conan stories? Respect. That’s awesome. Good stories, those are. I’ve always enjoyed that quote of Howard’s and find it to be very true. Civilization and barbarism are separated by a very thin line.
Dame Avalanche and the birds have an interesting routine with the water and with the yard more generally. The bird water is accessible to Dame Avalanche. She will ignore the birds for most of the time, letting them drink and bathe unmolested, congregate in the bushes and trees, and even search for bugs and seeds in the grass. Until…once a day she will charge the birds at the water, then charge the shrubs where any birds are. Then she will return to her napping. The birds “retaliate” by drinking Avalanche’s water.
That “Razorback” sounds fun. Big Pig takes on commercial dog food. Fun storyline. Would this be the same pig that the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation mentioned? 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wSBC5Dyds8
I wrote the lyrics to that on an old chalkboard at a summer job one day. It was in an area not accessible by the public. Apparently one of my coworkers was offended by some of the lyrics. The boss asked me to erase it. I did. All except the beginning “Share and Enjoy!” I told him that if somebody found that to be offensive, then they were the problem. He agreed.
DJSpo
Hi Inge,
For your interest, and I noted the discussion of ocean currents, but the weather can arrive here from any direction. Makes for a somewhat nervous experience, but that’s kind of what you get living on a small mountain range sticking up above the surrounding elevated plains. Being on an island, I’d imagine your weather would be quite vague and slightly unpredictable as well?
What? Inge, I so feel for your son there, and have likewise shooed someone off the verandah. Apparently they were enjoying the view and hadn’t the slightest notion of what trespass is. Hmm. I’d imagine your sons dogs (Flynn and co) were beside themselves at the audacity of the tourist?
Not sure what your son said, but my response was: Who are you, and what are you doing here? The person visibly jumped at the use of the command language, so I reckon the bloke knew.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Steve,
For a start, your description of sugar beets as a Lovecraftian monster spoke volumes to me. They grow pretty feral here and we had a few volunteers in the years following our initial plantings. Interesting that you couldn’t detect an earthy taste which was my experience of the reduced sugar beets. A friend even took the experiment one step further and distilled the sugars. 😉 You’re lucky to have so many sugar maples in your part of the world.
That nut cracker is a beast of a machine and truly multiplies the downwards effort. Hmm. A good idea that machine, it works like a manual tire bead breaker! Simon who’s blog is on the blogroll grows a Macadamia tree in the big smoke in his backyard and from memory it produced a few nuts. We cracked them in a bench vice which worked a treat.
Steve, man I so hear you about the continual sharpening. I know far more about chainsaw maintenance than any reasonable person should! 🙂 Steel cutting edges are very quickly dulled. It’s funny, but when you think about it a bit, most of the machines on small holdings either cut organic matter, or haul it to some other location. A scythe is no different, but a line trimmer is that much easier.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Ah, tis a sad day when most excellent prose gets scoffed down the maw of a hungry computing beastie. Gone for good too. We’ve all been there. Ugg! 🙂
DJ, so good to hear that you finally got some rain, and over so many hours would work it’s way into the soil. Have you noticed any changes in the garden since the rain fell? I’m always amazed at how quickly plants respond to a change in the prevailing conditions. Spotted the first fruit tree blossoms today: A plumcott (a plum / apricot hybrid – it is always impolite to discuss uncertain parentage, but in this case we can make an exception for the purposes of clarity). The tree has zero chance of producing fruit, but I applaud the sass of the fruit tree.
The sound of the rain is very pleasant in those conditions. Did Dame Avalanche venture out into the wetness? She’d like the cooler conditions. I reckon you’re a bit like here, in that there are six seasons of about two months each. It’s different here as well this past week because the days have been cool and sunny, but with cold nights. Brr!
Speaking of sound, I was awoken early this morning by a 4.1 earthquake. To be honest I thought someone was trying to break into the house what with all the banging sounds. Interestingly I awoke before the noise hit, but I can’t recall any shaking this time around, just the noise whilst the house sort of flexed a bit then settled. Didn’t even realise what it was, until I read the news this morning.
That’s great news about the reduced fire risk. It doesn’t get better than that. And they are talking up your part of the world in relation to land management: Spokane’s Upper Cemetery fire could’ve been worse if crews hadn’t treated the area just one week before.
Good stuff, and I did a bit more of that clean up work today. It would be nice to receive a grant of serious mad cash to do the work, but one must make do as best they may and not grumble. The sprocket on the chainsaw was working hard enough that it err, broke into two pieces. Fortunately I keep spares and fixed the machine in under ten minutes, but then there was paid work to do and so I finished late this evening. Got to enjoy some sun though today, and that was nice.
Yeah, like what do the extra molecules mean in reality? Perhaps the colloquial saying of ‘same, same, but different’, applies here? Serious people suggest that it’s all in my head when I mention that mono sodium glutamate gives me headaches. Sure, if they so, but I won’t touch the stuff because the results are very consistent – possibly like you with your salmon. And telling me I’m making it all up wins no friends.
I’ll tell you a funny story in relation to diet: As a kid, the household was too poor to have processed food of any variety. And from a very early age I did sports and worked paid jobs. Kind of did me a favour in a really strange looked down upon way.
Hey, I read all the original Conan tales – that complete collection book has some serious heft, and I believe that the final few stories were completed by other authors, although it’s only a guess. Read enough of an author and you get a feel for the way they structure stories, run dialogue, and all that sort of stuff. I reckon the final few stories were only in draft form at the author death. He was astoundingly prolific and could really churn out the pages. The great depression was a hard time. It is a very fine line indeed! Let’s just hope that we’re on the right side of things, but that additional Neanderthal genes helps!
I’ll bet if Dame Avalanche doesn’t keep up her vigilance, the birds will be bathing in her drinking water as well – they do that here.
Go I am a Fish! And truly we can only but hope that they weren’t sued. Thanks for the laughs.
Nothing wrong with ‘share and enjoy’ unless… Tiramisu in a bowl. Ollie is the left hand dog. Dame Plum is the right hand dog. Much rapt staring went on. Ollie produced a lot of drool which may be staining the hardwood floor boards. Complex proteins will do that. So we shared and enjoyed, and now the two dogs are sound asleep, but I’d have preferred if there was no sharing! 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Ah yes, thanks for the correction. My aim was too low. Yes, let’s go for gold! 🙂 That’s funny.
You know I’d not come across the works of Peter Hammill and was interested they chucked him into the progressive rock basket. Wasn’t feeling that categorisation myself. After listening to ‘old school tie’, I actually thought he was closer to new wave with punk influences.
It’s funny you say that about those market movements, but I was wondering if after a rally, people will begin unloading their positions again. After all, the Japanese carry trade does not look like quite the sweet deal it only once was. I tend to believe from casual observations as to what is going on in that island land, that social ructions lead to the minor increase in the interest rate. Something had to give, and like how that country has been a forerunner but more polite, so it shows again a preview of the future.
From the Black Friday / Tuesday, rest of the week, whatever, during the Great Depression, it took something like three years between the initial crisis, to the bottoming out. As always, it’s a slow moving train wreck except that the numbers are biggerer, the debt is deeper, and there is frankly less energy around this time around. That looks like less mojo to rebound with to me, but I could be wrong, although probably aren’t. Maybe. I may re-read John Kenneth Galbraith’s book on that era next. Seems appropriate. And exactly about the rose. A lovely observation.
Oh yeah, a parent like the dad in that wicked little letters film would send anyone to therapy. Did you score for the third time in the grateful for being an orphan stakes? Come to think of it, all the parents with my lot are gone too.
Of course, it was the lizard reptile people in the John Carpenter film. I forget. Speaking of such things, I was kind of getting a weird ‘Day of the Triffids’ vibe when that space junk burned brightly in the night sky the other night!
And! And! I was woken up in the early hours of the morning by a very loud banging noise. Turns out we had a 4.1 earthquake. What was weird about the incident was that I woke up just prior to the noise, but couldn’t feel any shaking other than the house sort of settling – as most timber framed houses do on cold nights. Victorian earthquake north-east of Melbourne an ‘aftershock’ from large 2021 quake.
Hehe! The photos of the snow in yesteryear were awesome weren’t they? And such roundabouts are quite dangerous. Best avoided in such conditions if you ask either of us. 🙂 That’s a good way of putting it: Just enough to freak people out. Yeah! It hasn’t snowed here for maybe three years now. If it was going to snow, it would be this month. Spotted the first fruit tree blossom today. A plumcott. The tree has zero chance of producing fruit mostly because the conditions here are very marginal for that variety.
When you guys get big storms, the reports usually hit the local media, but I didn’t see anything on that front. Have you heard anything about that big tropical storm?
Your nights sure are getting colder. And 52’F I’d consider to be on the chilly side of the equation, maybe a three blanket night. The days are slowly warming here, and today was particularly pleasant. Hannah the Kelpie and her owner visited today, and so I instead headed down to the shed to fix some machines which needed repairs. Had a faulty ignition coil on a mower, so replaced that and got the machine going again. Stuff like that. Did a bit more cutting on the final loggers mess tree and the sprocket on the chainsaw broke in half. That was a surprise, but it’s a consumable item. Did paid work in the afternoon and finished up late tonight. Quite a nice day really.
Hey, I notice that too with plants growing in the shade. If they get the heat, they’ll do just fine and yes, they don’t require nearly as much water as those in the full sun. Are the freezer stores looking acceptable? Preserving is a lot of work, but wow, when you’re eating the preserves and the winter weather outdoors is filthy, it’s a good thing.
We are zombies looked like a lot of fun. Oh no! It was apparently removed from the cinemas rapidly. Wonder what happened there? Now Star Trek Prodigy sounds interesting. I’ll check it out.
Ha! I see, yes the road repairs can be problematic on a social front, but it has a similar effect on punctuality. When the detour is almost twenty minutes, that can be a serious problem when it comes to being on time. Actually that’s not too bad so the repairs will be done pretty soon, although hopefully they’re not installing a roundabout? 😉
Did the nematode package arrive in the mail?
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Well, stock markets. I really don’t understand them, but it seems like gambling … and the house always wins. It’s the little people who are hurt. I wonder … do they serve any public benefit? Are they really necessary?
No third time’s the charm, in the orphan stakes. As I remember. If so, I might have bought a lottery ticket 🙂 .
No worries (or, drama, either.) Well, if you’re struck blind, and hear rustling in the bush, I’d worry. 🙂
That was an interesting article, about your earthquake. Too bad you weren’t up for it. But how do they know it wasn’t a for-quake? Harbinger of bigger and badder things?
https://w.wiki/Ari6
There was an interesting sidebar article, about the world wide computer meltdown. “CrowdStrike Reveals Root Cause of Global Outage.” Not that I understood a lot of it, but it seems a very rookie error, brought everything down. Comforting, no?
LOL. I liked your comment that inquiring too closely into the plum cott’s parentage, wasn’t a polite thing to do. But who are her people? 🙂
Last I heard about the big tropical storm, is that it’s stalled, and dropping lots of water, over Georgia and the Carolinas. Might be my imagination, but it seems a lot of big storms are stalling out, these days. Our yesterday’s high was 70F. Overnight low was 50. Forecast for today is 86F. Forecast for tomorrow night and the next morning, is for “haze.” Does that mean smoke? Inquiring Minds Want to Know!
The last of the blueberries are either in bags, or on a tray in the freezer. I haven’t taken a census, yet. We’re getting food boxes, today. The one’s with the produce. The truck just pulled in, but it takes him awhile to pull it together.
Yes, I’ll be happy when the road repairs, are done. Get some semblance of order, back in my life. Ha! 🙂
The nematodes are “out for delivery” and last seen at 9:42 am, in Dupont, Washington. They ought to make it, today. Lew
Thank you, Chris
for adding the ingredients to the text below the video on YouTube.
Pepitas is certainly a word that sounds close to those others of papitas and potatoes, so having it written out should help more than a few. And they do sound like they’d be a good addition to the diet. I will have to track some down, and it does look like they are available here in Toronto.
Hi, Chris!
Greetings from the land of the gift that never stops giving, that of That Which May Not Be Named. Yes, I have it again and was sick as a dog, but am well on the mend now. Faugh!
I never realized that the farm repair guy died so young.
I think that the greatest stretch of doing the machine repair work is finding the time. So much to do! Every day! You will be pleased to know that as far as car repairs go, the other day I filled up my radiator reservoir by myself. And sometimes I even add my own oil. I can also clean my own windshield wipers. Impressive, eh?
We used to own the entire head and neck of a massive razorback. A business partner of my husband shot it and had it especially mounted for us. He was one of those fellows who travelled all over the world shooting things and them having them stuffed. This hog came from fairly close to our neck of the woods when we lived in Texas. We dutifully put it up on the wall of our tiny living room and even hauled it to Virginia when we moved here, but thankfully, they ended their partnership and we were able to donate the thing to a thrift shop, which promptly sold it to a UVa fraternity. Home at last!
You were SO smart to have taken the original parts with you.
I am so sorry – I did not realize that Sandra’s father had died so recently. Please accept my sympathies. My parents inherited a bunch of money when my mother’s mother died 30 years ago; they spent all of it, somewhat frivolously, from what I could tell. My father left a bit of money when he died, but it has all gone to supporting my mother. I never have expected to get anything.
What a nice little chainsaw. It looks like even I could handle it. I’m afraid that if it lived here it would soon be called Baby Chainsaw, like the Baby Shovel, Baby Sledgehammer, Baby Tractor, and – of course – Mr. Baby.
Just when the firemen thought that they might get some Sunday days of rest, they invented the new sport of Sunday Burn Off.
That fellow with the jersey has one big, beautiful, yellow pomello!
The succulents and the hellebores do indeed deliver. Thanks!
Pam
Hi Andy,
No worries, and as I mentioned earlier the feedback gets put to good use. If I’ve got time tonight, I’ll go back and update the text attached to the Anzac biscuit recipe. The utoob standard generated subtitles is good, but could be better.
It’s long been my belief that other peoples thoughts (such as your good self) pick up on matters that had never even occurred to me. It was a most excellent suggestion which you made. 🙂
Oh yeah, glad to hear you’ve looked into the matter and I’m not entirely certain whether it is the fibre roughage, the chemicals released from the seeds, or a combination of the two, but err, it’s a thing dudes could benefit from. The blitzed seeds find their way into dog food too from time to time. Why not use what benefits nature has provided us with?
With a similar Victorian era background, many of the images of Toronto are surprisingly similar to that of Melbourne, especially the older areas. Except for the winter images of course.
Cheers
Chris
Hello Chris
Yes, being an island definitely affects our weather. The shipping forecast is way more accurate than the general Southern English one.
I don’t think that Son said anything to the woman. He had just returned from walking the dogs hence they hadn’t been there to accost her.
Inge
Hi Pam,
Oh, that’s not good, but glad to hear that you’re on the mend now. It’s going around, that’s for sure. Hope your son and daughter in law are stepping up to the plate and looking after the household and letting you take some much needed time out? Plus, I dunno about you, and it’s probably totally frowned upon in these enlightened times, but when I was a kid and sick with a cold or flu, my mum would whip up a hot tea with lemon juice and the obligatory nip of rum. Knocked me out solid that hot tea, and a good nights sleep can only but help with recuperation. 🙂
Yeah, the farm machine dude was probably surprised as well by the outcome, maybe. There was a well known former cricket player who lived in this area, and he died at about the same age a year or two beforehand. Anyway, that incident really shocked the farm machine repair dude, and we had a few conversations about that, yeah. But I can understand it is hard for people to change their ways.
🙂 Pam, I couldn’t agree more with you about finding the time to undertake the necessary work. Yesterday I had a few free hours and so pulled apart the ignition system on one of the small mowers then replaced the faulty coil. You’re right, such work is not time free. It’s a bit scary to think that everything on a rural property can be like that, but then so too are houses, cars and stuff in the city – nothing is maintenance free. It is impressive to know such car maintenance matters, and that puts you way ahead of the pack in that regard. Years ago I read of a couple of young bloke working on a very remote outback cattle station who died because they were not where they were meant to be, and didn’t know how to engage their vehicle into four wheel drive mode. Hmm.
Hehe! Thanks so much for the story and laughs, and I’d likewise be happy with such an outcome. 🙂
Well, you know you learn such on-hand part comparison lessons the hard way. Sorting out the spare parts has been an interesting learning experience, and has given me a new appreciation for the difficulties farm machine repair dudes and dudettes face. The razorback will be in the next video.
Pam, I feel awful saying this, but I loathed the guy. He was a real piece of work, and I stomped the daylights out of him when he turned his attention onto me. Stopped a lot of dramas in its tracks, but it was too late and I reckon his activities really shortened Sandra’s mothers life. Not what you were expecting to hear huh? Some people…
Well, that has been my experience with inheritances as well, and I would do exactly the same as you in that regard. A person has to sleep with their conscience at night.
You could handle that baby chainsaw easy. 🙂 It’s well made too unlike other mains electric chainsaws I’ve seen. Yes, that was the point of the machine and Sandra uses it (which helps me a lot), but I maintain machine and sharpen the chains as the cost of that assistance. The biggerer less-baby machine was never designed to cut smaller sized logs, and there’s no point wasting them. Hope Mr Baby is feeling well and enjoying his feline perquisites!
Nah, things are different in your country. The state goobermint employs people to do that burn off work. It would be very smart if they got the indigenous folks involved (and paid them for their time), but are goobermints smart?
🙂 Fresh fruit in winter is a thing of excellence!
We cheated a bit with flowers next week, more to come…
Cheers
Chris
Hi Inge,
Thanks and what you wrote makes a great deal of sense to me. I’ve spent brief time on islands, but that’s not the same at all as knowing the vagaries of the climate and different seasons. I’ll bet you’ve occasionally experienced some whopper storms over the years, not to mention flooding like that recent bout which affected the nearby towns? And know from which direction the very worst storms originate?
Lucky you having a shipping forecast which you’ve clearly interpreted for your locale. There’s really no forecast for this mountain range – and the weather varies depending upon where a person is on the range. What I have to do is take a couple of different general forecasts, closely assess the rainfall forecast maps, and then take a best guess approach. You’ll no doubt get a laugh, and we may have mentioned this before, but it’s worth repeating: When I lived in the city, I was oblivious to the weather forecast. What a fine mistake that was! 😉 Living here, reviewing the forecasts is a daily ritual. To do otherwise has proven itself to be a very unwise strategy! Hope you get a chuckle from that?
I can understand how that circumstance came to be. Hmm. You may recall that I suggested to the sales bloke a few weeks ago not to“get too close to the dogs” Hmm. People can be very free with boundaries, when it isn’t theirs.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
That’s been my experience of those markets. We did dabble in day trading for a brief moment of madness, everyone has those from time to time, but yeah it really felt like gambling to me. Not to mention that it served very little useful societal purpose (which you alluded too) other than soak up a lot of the excess mad cash supply. However, my belief is that the mad cash supply has increased beyond the soaking up capacity of such markets, and let’s not forget the impact upon house prices, but that the colander is now leaking enough mad cash water these days, that it’s getting into things like food. Not good for anyone.
Still mad cash occasionally serves some rather useful purposes, and I noted that the glow worms in the state to the north of this one, were given some useful assistance: Wollemi National Park Glow Worm Tunnel upgraded by hand.
Took the entire day off any and all work today. Obviously there are things which needed doing and there is little point in wasting journeys. Yeah, so along the way with today’s expedition (more on this in a second) we dropped off at the motor vehicle department in a town just to the north of here. Whilst waiting in queue to conduct my business there, I got to listen to a lady err, dressing down a young bloke for speeding (only by a little bit, which is not what you do when being tested) on his license test. Gee, the guy got a real earful from her, and candidly I thought the point had already been made by the time it was repeated at volume after the fourth mention. Us other folks in the queue gave each other nervous looks, you know, the sort which suggest that we really hope we don’t have to deal with that public servant. Far out.
Oh well, at least the glow worms are doing OK. Oh yeah, we headed north to have a look at the Victorian era main water channel which wends and winds it’s way through forest. At one point the channel went into a tunnel, and I was wondering if there were glow worms living in there. Had a nice lunch sitting out in the forest, and the day was super chill. Actually on that note, it’s raining and was a bit chilly and windy for most of the day. Brr!
That’s a total bummer about the third strike, because otherwise you’d have won the lottery (and don’t forget your mates, hashtag just sayin’!) and our fortunes would have been made. Foiled again… This is beginning to be something of a pattern! 🙂
Very funny and thanks for the warning! When you think about it for a bit (and I’m not suggesting you do that), but the premise of the Day of the Triffids book was just stupid enough that the story was memorable. I mean, you’ve got dodgy oil companies. Foolish goobermints. Helpless population. Rural idyll’s. Killer carnivore plants. Such an unlikely combination of plot ideas, and yet it somehow works.
Who really knows, until the sequence of earthquakes runs its course? It’s a good question. I’m of the opinion that in this corner of the world, we get a lot of earthquakes every year, but few exceeding 6.0 in magnitude. Of course, the past is not necessarily a good indication of future activity, but it’s more of a guideline.
There was another interesting article on local earthquakes and this one yielded an interesting bit of information: there’s an intraplate tectonic stress fault that runs from NZ’s South Island to Victoria, which explains why Victoria experiences notable earthquakes of a magnitude around 4 to 5 once or twice each year. Nobody told me about that. Here’s the article and there is a good photo of the town at the epicentre (I’ve been to the pub and had lunch there a long time ago): Why Australia keeps getting small earthquakes.
I don’t understand much about the Crowdstruck drama either. And hadn’t even noticed it was a problem until I read about it in the papers. A friend in that industry was telling me that it was unwise that the software update was released on a Friday, but more importantly he made some rather pointed and unflattering observations about their quality assurance testing. Hmm.
That’s a good question about the plumcott, and for once I’m stumped for an answer! 🙂
I agree, the word ‘haze’ could mean anything from smoke to pollution, or maybe one of those temperature inversion things. Or ‘purple haze’ – that used to be a thing in the late 1960’s. But yeah, we likewise (like you did maybe last summer? I now forget the details) get some systems which just stall and don’t go anywhere.
Good to hear that the blueberries are now done for the season. Always pleasant to complete a task which goes on for weeks like that one.
Is there really such a thing as order in one’s life? Oh well, we can only but try, can’t we?
Good stuff and did the nematodes land today? And did you get them into the soil?
Cheers
Chris
Chris:
That was a lovely muesli video. I enjoyed it.
I never had a tea with rum, though the gentle, kindhearted lady who was my grandmother’s housekeeper, and helped raise my mother and then me, strongly recommended such a thing for restless babies, once I had one.
Yeah, but in the city one generally pays someone to fix everything. Of course, that’s not everybody.
I am trained on older vehicles like Mr. Musty the Toyota pickup; he’s almost 40. There were many more before him. When my daughter-in-law showed me how the new-model car that she had rented worked, I liked to have fainted. I don’t think I could drive the thing.
I understand. I have some of those same relatives.
Pam
Yo, Chris – Another article on another dodgy aspect of the stock market.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/07/business/yen-carry-trade-stocks-nightcap
Not that I’ve thought about it much, but I didn’t even know Glow Worms were a real thing. Although, why not? I’ve never seen them, but in our midwest we have lightening bugs. That was a great article! And, of course, there’s even an old song …
https://youtu.be/OUF2sV7tNwQ?si=W6KpiepXafxfZ3Mk
You’ve heard it here before: Civil servants are neither civil, nor do they serve. Little Mary Sunshine, our building manager has a bad habit of repeating herself. I’m laying in wait. Practicing my lines. “You’re repeating yourself. Not very professional.” 🙂
That sounds like a lovely day out. Will there be pictures, of the Victorian era water channel? Or did you also give the camera, a day’s rest? 🙂
Seems like anytime there’s a slow news day, here, they trot out articles about how the Cascadia Subduction Zone, off the coast, is going to yield “the big one,” and kill us all. The article you linked to was a lot more … restrained, and interesting.
Here, the high yesterday was 81F. Overnight low was a steady 55F. Forecast for the next two days is for 91F. I better water the garden, morning and evening.
Oh, the blueberries are far from done. I’ll be picking a quart and a half, at a time, here at the Institution. To round out the “light” gallon bags. I saw Jane, at the Club, last night. Score! She has blackberry bushes, out at her place. If I mix blueberries and blackberries, next year, I’ve got a source. She just recovered from her THIRD round of You Know What.
Nematodes did NOT show up, yesterday. As near as I can figure, they’re sitting in a truck, up in Dupont. 🙁
We got a food box, or rather, two, yesterday. And, I managed to snag the couple of boxes from down the hall, where someone had moved out. This is the Commodities boxes, with, sometimes, fruit and veg. Potatoes and carrots, mostly. But the only difference between the boxes was, one had a small package of “Tapas.” Which appeared to be three small wedges of different exotic cheeses. Unfortunately, there was mold. Binned. But the other box had a small bag of three or four lemons. Hmmm. Wonder what I could do with those. Other than that, a pretty standard box. A pound of frozen ground beef. 2 large boxes of some kind of oat cereal (looks like Cheerios) and 2 quarts of shelf stable milk. A big jug of nasty looking orange drink. A jar of peanut butter. 1 or 2 pound bags of dried pinto beans, green peas, lentils and walnuts. Four small bottles of “Ensure” which is a nutritional shake for old people. Four packs of individual yogurt (Strawberry). Butter, eggs and two kinds of cheese. The usual 2 pound brick of processed cheese product, and a 1 pound pack of cheddar, which doesn’t look too bad. 2 one pound boxes of spaghetti pasta. And, as far as the tinned stuff goes, all the usual suspects, of fruit and veg.
Now for something fun, from the Wonderful World of Archaeology. A Greek mosaic, made up of three colors of pebbles.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/archaeology-ancient-greek-mosaic-found-with-hybrid-human-animal-spirits/ar-AA1ohkZe?ocid=socialshare
Not bad, for the 4th century B.C. I think it has a great sense of movement, and a real mischievous feel to it. Lew
Hi Lewis,
The yen carry trade is only part of the issue. One of the ways you guys were reducing your inflation was that the US dollar was strong against the Japanese Yen. So if you guys (and us for that matter) bought stuff, from the islands of quality stuff, well it would be relatively cheap. Spare a thought for the Japanese people a moment, they were getting clobbered and not just for a year or two, but wages have been stagnant there for a decade, or more. So, the dude / dudette on the street was going broke and working like a dog.
Now, that would have been OK, except westerners began heading to Japan on holidays in vast numbers because the exchange balance was very much in the favour of the west. That drove prices up for the locals. I don’t believe the hordes of tourists was part of the larger economic arrangement, perhaps why we can’t have nice things! 🙂
Anywhoo, from a distance what you see is domestically the Japanese authoritas moved to protect the locals, by raising interest rates. This strengthened the exchange rate, but appears to have made a hash of the yen-carry-trade err, scam.
There are waves and waves of repercussions from this point onwards. Stuff from Japan will be more expensive. Returns for the investor class in your country (and here for that matter) will be lower. The poverty imbalance is shifting west, not that many have thought about that side of things.
As a country, Japan has little in the way of energy and/or material resources, and so they really had to improve their exchange rate. There’s a fine balance between how much stuff a country can sell to the rest of the world to pay for the things which it requires from overseas in order to make the stuff that other countries want to buy. It’s a circular problem, which is unwinding, in a circle – thus the waves I mentioned.
It’s complicated.
Cheers
Chris
Chris,
The 4mm helped for maybe a day. This sandy soil needs the rainy season to arrive before things really start to thrive. It’s still very dry and the wind has returned, leaching more moisture out of the soil rather rapidly. At least the nights are longer, the temperatures are no longer blistering, so when I do water things the benefit lasts a bit longer than it did a month ago.
Dame Avalanche stayed under cover during the rain. Well, until I ventured out to sit under the patio roof. Then she wandered the yard, through the bushes and got a good soaking. She actually enjoyed getting toweled off when we went indoors, an activity she used to loathe. Perhaps she has learned that it is always a good idea to know where your towel is. 😉
Yes, that sounds about right…6 seasons here. The length of any season can vary from 6 to 10 weeks, but there are 6 usually definite seasons. Oddly, there are occasional years that seem to have 8 seasons that roughly coincide with the solstices, equinoxes and the days halfway between. But by far most years have 6.
I’ve heard that Montana has 3 seasons: snow mud, dust. The Alaskan interior, by contrast, has 4 definite seasons: early winter, winter, late winter, next winter. I even had a shirt that said that, so it must be true.
Earthquakes and noise. Shake, rattle and roll, too. I may have mentioned that an earthquake when we were visiting rellies in California threw the Princess out of bed. One spring and summer, Spokane had a series of very shallow earthquakes, a few hundred metres deep, most around a 3 on the Richter scale or a bit less. These all were announced by a loud noise, sometimes a whooshing, sometimes sounding like a freight train travelling through the house. Poor Thordog the Irish Wolfhound mix. He was very sensitive to and alarmed by any loud noise. That year was exceedingly difficult for him.
Yes, you found the exact article I read about the Upper Cemetery Fire. I read it on the local rag’s website, the Spokesman Review. I get one free article a month on their site. I’m glad that article got picked up and reposted for larger audiences.
Yesterday got hectic. Killian’s human needed my help with a few things. One of these entailed a small engine repair chap coming by to look at her snow blowing machine. A wheel was acting wonky. Turns out a bushing got fried. Unfortunately, the axle, bushings and transmission are sold as a single unit on that machine. A new unit costs almost as much as a new and identical machine. Then we had other things that needed attention.
Meanwhile, the Princess went out to a local casino and visited with cousins and a lot of Natives from all over the northwestern USA. There was some type of cultural class there this week. She spent hours visiting with people from eastern Montana. Naturally, this meant that I had a list of chores to do after Dame Avalanche and I got home from Killian’s.
MSG is bad news to some people. We had lunch at a Chinese restaurant for today’s Lunch Date Thursday. I can handle that amount of MSG, but if I were to eat there several times a week? Not a chance that I would escape unscathed. Headache City is what the result would be. Just because most people don’t react to it does NOT mean that your headaches due to MSG are, well, only in your head. :0 uggg, I should have given a Bad Pun Warning!
I remember the poor days growing up. And some as an adult. The less processed the diet, the more affordable it was (and is, usually). Unfortunately, in this country, there are what are called “food deserts”. These are areas, usually in lowest income regions and poorest parts of large cities in which there are no local stores that sell any fresh foods of any type. Only overly processed packaged foods are available. Not a good thing.
Fascinatingly, when Dame Avalanche is chasing other birds from their water or from the bushes, well, some enterprising birds nip in from another direction and drink and bathe in her water bowl. There are times also when she is totally immersed in an outdoor nap and the birds are sucking both their and her water sources dry.
Tiramisu? The proper phrase is Enjoy! There is no sharing of tiramisu. It is too good and precious and rare.
I noticed you and Lew talking about the stock market and crashes, etc. For complicated reasons, long ago a relative asked me to manage his and his wife’s 7 figure investment portfolio. I did so for many years. I was very good at it. One of their heirs asked me to continue managing his half after his parents had died. I did so for about 10 years, then quit. Once upon a time I understood how the stock and bond markets worked. However, I got increasingly antsy after 2014. In 2000, the entire USA stock market had roughly 8000 stocks, roughly 7000 of which were in the “Wilshire 5000” index. By 2014 or so, there were something just shy of 4000 stocks in the entire USA stock market. Due to the plethora of retirement account options available for the middle and upper classes, more money was entering the investment markets in 2014 than in 2000, yet the money was chasing less options. And the stock market keeps going up…the fundamentals that I learned at an early age were being, and still are being, grossly violated. Bonds were paying interest rates that were less than the understated official rate of inflation. I could no longer invest someone else’s money for them if I no longer understood how the system was working. So I quit. My current investment strategy for myself is to try to find the gold that the Nibelung’s tossed into the Rhine.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Thanks, and I appreciate your lovely words regarding the video.
Your grandmothers housekeeper was onto something there, and truthfully if I get a bad cold and/or flu, a herbal lemon tea with a nip of rum probably doesn’t just settle restless babies. Although, I’m not sure exactly what I mean there, maybe.. 🙂 Hope you are feeling better today.
Well that’s true about life in the city. We kind of missed that memo, thus why a lot of time and effort was spent in restoring old Victorian era houses. Many folks prefer the cosmetic sort of fixes which look good but soon fail. I really ensured that the structural faults were corrected, and that they’d not happen again – any time soon at least. Some of the things I’d seen in those houses were quite odd, like not leaving enough air gap under the timber floors, and so all the structural chunks rotted away. One notable timber floor was held up by six layers of stinky carpet. Not right, and certainly not good. A truly revolting job to remove all that stuff.
Mr Musty has reached a venerable age, and could only have gotten there if a) the original bones were good; and b) Mr Musty has enjoyed the care and attention which befits a noble steed of good lineage. 🙂 I hear you about that, the Suzuki Jimny dirt rat has an auto headlight function. Somehow the makers assumed that people were perhaps too stupid to switch on the cars headlights at the right setting. Anyway, the unasked for function messes with my head because it involves an additional click turn on the headlight switch – which makes no sense to my brain. Yes, an attack of the vapours is how such interactions roll…
Yes, it is far better if such folks are elsewhere. And now they are beyond the pale. The stupid thing about it all is that none of it need be the way it was.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Ah, I’d not appreciated (or had forgotten) that you enjoyed sandy soil. Good drainage which reduces plant diseases, until you don’t want decent drainage because the prevailing weather is too dry. Your days would be getting shorter now, and glad that there have been no really seriously major fire incidents near to your town. Are the plants doing OK with the watering? I’m curious to hear how your dry land grasses are growing.
So true, every adventurous spirit needs to know where the towel is. And as Dame Avalanche grows in both stature and wisdom, she’ll get to appreciate that being allowed indoors when the weather outside is filthy goes more smoothly when said canine is towelled down. The dogs here enjoy being towelled down on cold wet winters days.
The four season model does not fit well here either. Six seasons more closely follows the rise and fall of the UV energy from the sun. With the first days of moderate rated UV this week, outdoors feels completely different from the bitey winter cold of only a fortnight ago. And the almonds are beginning to produce blossoms, plus I noticed a bee flying around today. I agree, the climate is far more variable than western culture suggests, and that is perhaps why there is often much wailing and gnashing of teeth when the weather goes awry? Eight seasons some years is also a reasonable observation. You may have experienced weeks when the weather does an abrupt change to a different state?
That’s funny about both states, and probably very true. Man, the winters would get to me in Alaska, and you resided there for a while too. Seriously, how did you cope with the winters when the day was so short? Or were the long summer days worse?
Oh yeah, I remember that earthquake story. Hmm, 5.9 is bad, but being thrown out of bed is the sort which makes the structurally sensitive person wonder if the building will soon collapse. Ook! Dogs know things, although unlike Thordog, the fluffies seemed unconcerned that the house was shaking around. I couldn’t entice them to exit the house… I’d not experienced the whoosh sound, it was more of a very loud and deep banging. A bit of a worry to experience when you reside on the side of a long extinct super volcano. Hopefully it remains so.
It was a good article and pointed a good way forward to reduce the incident of large scale fires. The cost was a bit eye watering, and just to blow your mind, that work was once done down here over the entire continent (every single square metre) on a rotational basis apparently between three and fifteen years (with forests being on the fifteen year longest rotation). The effort the indigenous folks went to, boggles my comprehension. Finished the work for the season, and after two months plus a week of effort, it’s looking good. Alas, I now need to move on, knowing there are years of work ahead, and hope for the best.
Noooo! We’ve all been there when it comes to spare parts. Go generic, go replacement, or go quality design and build in the first place. Holy carp, I just discovered that the replacement sprockets on the two electric chainsaws are very hard to get in this country. Ook. Had to buy spares from the UK. Oh well.
Ah, the work never stops, which is a good thing, and I hear that you run a tidy ship there. 🙂 You’d hope the rumours are true! I get the casino’s as a source of revenue for the rez, but I get very weirded out by such establishments. My grasp of the finer aspects of statistics leaves me feeling very uncomfortable at one’s personal financial prospects. Hope the catch up was good for your lady.
A very funny pun, yes. Quite good.
That’s funny too. The birds probably know far more about Dame Avalanche’s activities than the dog does. The birds here mercilessly tease the dogs, but sometimes they cut the margin for error too fine.
Nah man, the dogs enjoy some of the tiramisu as well. They’re not fussy.
And that’s the thing. My experience of day trading seemed a lot like gambling and that was in the very early 2000’s. Hmm. Why are these prices going up and down? A good question. A decision was made in your country, and here as well, where a portion of peoples earnings was redirected into all manner of err, investments. Not running businesses, but financial investments. You know, I get the why of that, as excess mad cash has to spirited away from the world of consequences (goods and services) lest inflation run away, but there is the larger question of social utility in all of that story. Are we better off as a society by doing this activity? When I was a young bloke, people who retired from the workforce (if they lived all that long afterwards) lived quite austere lives. One of the immediate implications of the end of the no-brainer-until-it-was-a-losing-deal yen carry trade, is that the boring and reliable earnings from interest rate arbitrage, are now done. It will be interesting to say the least, to see what the impacts of that will be.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Yes, I was aware of the recent ructions in the financial markets and wrote a brief explanation (from my perspective) in an earlier comment to you today. Basically, less income to go around, in the west. I’ll be interested to see whether other folks begin unloading their positions next week. It costs a lot to buoy the falling market.
Oh yeah, glow worms are real. And if I dug a hole into the side of the hill, or a root cellar, I could probably get some going. Presumably the fly larvae used to live in caves before us humans made convenient railway tunnels? Yah! Those crazy Germans and their operas. 🙂
Lewis, that’s really good. I’d heard that observation before, but based on what I saw going on in the roads department office, there was little civility in that interaction. Glad I wasn’t involved actually. Dude, you are like super bad to come up with nifty sayings to really annoy the daylights out of that person. 🙂 About a year or so ago I told someone who was annoying me, and very agitated, to relax. Well, truthfully, the exact opposite occurred and they got even more agitated, but at least the person stopped annoying me. It was like an explosion. Some people are really wound up over nothing.
Yes, there will be photos of the water channel and tunnel. Those Victorian era folks sure knew how to make infrastructure which was quite easy on the eye. One of the things I noticed were the ‘no swimming’ signs. It was my impression that getting into the water in the fast moving channel would be a persons final act of foolishness. You’ve raised an important matter! Does the camera need a day of rest? Not sure. 😉
It’s always impressive to find things to worry the population about on an otherwise slow news day. Earthquakes, tick. They’ve been talking about that big one in your part of the world for a while now, and it may happen, but then they sometimes talk about volcanic eruptions in this corner of the world as well when news is slow. Are either possible yes, does anyone know when they’re due, nope? Anyway, knowing about such a thing in either case (unless you can flee for your life in good time) probably won’t help you if you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Those are some hot days, but at least the nights are now cooler. 55’F makes for pleasant sleep conditions. It was sunny, but again cool today. And we finished the clean up work for the season. There’s always more of that to do, but there are other projects demanding some attention.
I chucked a new sprocket on the chainsaw yesterday, and whoa! The difference is amazing. I’d not considered that the tiny little consumable item could produce such a marked difference in performance. This evening I went hunting on line to find spare replacement sprockets for the electric saws and discovered that they have to be purchased from the UK. Ook! Expensive. Ouch. Oh well, mustn’t grumble…
Lewis, if you’re good with the seeds, sun ripened blackberries are very tasty berries. Glad to hear that Jane recovered from you-know-what. I’ll tell you an odd thing I’ve noticed about that, but on a purely random and possibly statistically meaningless sample size, it appears to me that the more preventative treatments that people received, the more likely they seem to have multiple occurrences of you-know-what. It’s odd that. You rarely, if ever, hear mention of you-know-what in the media down here nowadays.
The images of DuPont were stunning, really quite lovely. But how did the nematodes end up there? Kind of went past your part of the state. Ah the vagaries of freight.
Good shot collecting those extra boxes, and I know you’ll get them to a good home, err pantry. Mouldy cheese is very unappealing, wise to bin the stuff. Lemons can be used in home made salad dressing – we do that. Or have you considered making a hot lemon tea (black tea + lemon juice)? Dude, I’m really scared to look up to find out what Ensure is, although the name is a dead give away. Gargle already skews search results.
The mosaic was pretty good, and a little bit cheeky, and I agree with you about the mischievous nature of the Satyr’s. Presumably that is the origins of the English word: Satire?
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – I’ve always been fascinated by Japanese culture. Although not so much in their finances, which I don’t understand in the first place, and would take up a lot of room in my head 🙂 . I don’t know if it’s still the case, but I do remember that they are a nation of savers. That was made easy by the availability of postal savings accounts. There’s been some lose talk, here, about setting up such a system. I doubt it. One can buy postal money orders, which criminals work in one way, or another.
Seems like there’s always a lot of drownings, here, in the summer months. A couple of years ago, some teenage kid jumped from a bridge into the Chehalis River. The water was so cold, he went into shock and drowned. There’s been a lot in the news, here, about Death by Selfie. 🙂
https://w.wiki/Asi8
The field of Darwin Award contestants, it getting very crowded.
The high, yesterday was 90F (32.22C). Overnight low was 59F. Forecasts for today is 87F. There’s a bit of haze, and an air quality alert. But I can’t smell smoke in the air. That’s supposed to clear out, this afternoon.
Speaking of ordering stuff on-line, I ordered my 25 pounds of dried cranberries. Free shipping, same price as last year. $125. The blackberry seeds do bother my teeth, but cooked in oatmeal, they’re not as bad. Keeping a floss pick handy, helps. 🙂
That area around Dupont has really built up, over the last few decades. Spill over, from south Tacoma. And, Fort Lewis / McChord airbase is quit near. The nematodes came by air, so, I’d guess they landed at SeaTac airport, and were trucked south to Dupont. Where there is a large FedEx distribution center. Where I figure they sat on a truck, for a couple of days. I received them, late yesterday afternoon. Interesting. They’re soft little pearls. Per instructions, I scattered them, just before sunset and gave them a good water. Watered them again, this morning, before the sun got too high. Fingers crossed they’re still viable.
Lemon juice can also be used in bean salad. Might finally get around to making some. After I get around to making the cucumber salad.
Origin of the world “satire.” There’s a lot on the word, but I did find this: “The word satire derives from satura, and its origin was not influenced by the Greek mythological figure of the satyr.[7] In the 17th century, philologist Isaac Casaubon was the first to dispute the etymology of satire from satyr, contrary to the belief up to that time.[8]”
The Inmates are in charge of the asylum!” We got our monthly newsletter, from the Front Office. There were several concerning things in it. I knew our Night Manger, is taking a weeks vacation. He’s had it scheduled, for quit awhile. But at the same time, Little Mary Sunshine is flying off to a week long conference (Las Vegas.) Let’s hope she doesn’t come home with You Know What, as after the last conference (San Francisco.) But a couple of days after she gets back, she’s called an all tenants meeting. (Super spreader event?) 🙂 “…I will be speaking about changes in the HUD housing projects that will be taking effect soon. We will also be discussing the NSPIRE standards that HUD rolled this year in preparation for our REAC Inspection that should take place around October…” I hear they’re still going forward with that madness, that nothing can be within 6′ of a heat source. We’re going to lose a lot of useable square footage.
I watched a new-ish movie, last night. “The Fall Guy.” Quit good. A lot of comedy and cool explosions. Worth a bowl of popcorn. Had a can of pears, with yoghurt and prunes, after. Lew
Hi Lewis,
Yeah, it’s a fascinating culture. The book you recommended to me many years ago ‘Just Enough’ on the day to day life in Edo era Japan was a real eye opener. I enjoyed the book immensely, and compared to western cities at the same time, the systems there were the whole next level (and then some) comparatively. Obviously there were still a lot of troubles, but what civilisation is ever trouble free?
Dude, thanks for the laughs. If you’d stated that you understood the finances and economics, well, I might doubt your sanity. 🙂 The whole point of all of the arrangements, is that you’re not meant to understand things. That’s a feature. As far as I can comprehend matters at the most basic level is that, individuals, or people acting in groups, are meant to produce things that other people want to purchase. The rest of it, that’s some other stuff, but the basic level is the most important, and it’s being neglected.
If your head gets too full, well there was that Michael Ironside 1981 Scanners film which may provide some clue as to where things may be headed – please excuse the exploding brain pun (my use of the word ‘headed’, sorry it was bad so thought it may need an explanation). Now I’m a bit worried because my brain is somewhat full of ….. arrggghhh! Ollie, stop that scanners business right now! Man, that was close. What were we saying, oh yeah, the Japanese population apparently doesn’t invest overseas, although there was some recent push for that. Weird things can happen when people do that, like how all those UK folks were investing in Iceland in 2008. Not sure that ended well. When a country’s external debt was seven times GDP, something has gone horribly wrong, somewhere or more probably a whole lot of places. Articles on the fallout from that Icelandic crisis show that people can get through really troubling economic times, but in the aftermath they wont be living flash lives that’s for sure. Fortunately neither you or I do, so it will be business as usual for us. Not sure how everyone else will cope. Hopefully all this did not fill your brain? 😉
Oh yeah, that happens here too and a person needs to judge the tides before jumping from bridges into water – especially head first. There were just a lot of bad calls in that list of selfie deaths and extreme injuries. It seems to be something of a universal calling which crosses national boundaries and cultures. Hmm.
Nice overnight lows, but the daytime temperatures could cool a bit. How’s all this heat affecting your tomato ripening? Did the haze finally clear away in the afternoon? Today was sunny, calm and really quite pleasant. I began cleaning up all the forest mess close to the house which fell in that wind storm about two months ago. Looking at the work ahead of me in that cleanup, there’s maybe four or five days before it’s done. Oh well, there was a bit of breeze later in the day and I had to be careful the smoke and embers were blowing away from the forest before adding on new material. And the fire crept over the ground a bit, which is very unusual for August.
Good score with the cranberries. Those floss picks eventually arrived, so that would help with the seeds.
What? The photos of DuPont were idyllic. I guess that’s marketing for you. Ah, I see Seattle has extended southwards. That makes sense. Right. You really are close to Mount Rainier and Mount St Helens! Man, I’ve never seen a nematode package. Have you noticed any changes with the pearls today?
Summer is the time for salads! And good to see you’re making some use of the lemons. Tomorrow’s plans include juicing a hole bunch of lemons. Lemon juice is one of the few things we preserve using the freezer.
Hmm. The general gist of the word satura was that it was a rudimentary Roman musical comedy theatre skit. Of course I’d thought that the title of the Satyricon had similar origins. Lewis, my brain could be in danger of exploding here. Was Isaac making the controversy up simply to be contrary?
Oh no, it’s party time. 🙂 nspire and reac as acronyms are very suggestive don’t you reckon? I’d be inspired if people just did their jobs, surely it is not much to ask for is it? But reac sort of suggests that that the policy may provoke a reaction, but what does it all mean for you? Is that six foot from a heat source? Can you remove the heat sources? Thinking back upon the specifications for wood heaters, the clearances weren’t that big. Did you ever discover whether there had been an incident to cause this sudden change of policy?
Watched the trailer and I particularly liked the dog. Lots of fun stuff. Good to see the food stuff is working for you. Hey, we did a video on home made yoghurt today. Not quite finished though.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Yes, the book “Just Enough” sure was interesting. I still have a copy of it. Mr. Kunstler often states, that the Japanese will be the first to “go medieval.” Time will tell.
Well, I haven’t put enough thought into the stock markets, so my head would explode. But I think there was some brain leakage, out of my ears. Had one of those mornings where I was forgetful and disorganized. And it’s early yet! 🙂
From what I read in that book about supply lines, investors hold corporations in thrall. They’re only interested in next quarters growth, and bigger and better dividends. And should they slip, corporate heads will roll. Never mind the front line workers, or the quality of product.
I had an interesting experience, yesterday. My old scissors, that I had for decades, snapped in a couple of places, right across the handles. They’re the scissors I use for opening shrink wrapped cheese packages, frozen vegetables, and even occasionally in the garden. So, I went to the general purpose store, next to the Club. I could only find kitchen scissors … but then further down the aisle, all purpose scissors. Stainless steel. They were Fiskars, I had been led to believe, that they were a Scandinavian company. Finland, in fact. But when I was checking the package to see if there were any instructions as to keeping them sharp, I noticed a made in the Land of Stuff label! So, I looked up the company. Veeery interesting.
https://w.wiki/At9R
Speaking of the filthy rich, apparently, they’re getting nervous. Or, at least, as the article points out, it’s a case of oneupmanship.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/07/style/underground-bunkers-super-rich
Soon, the devices that take selfies, will come with warning labels. Which will entirely defuse any liability to the companies. 🙂
Yesterday high was 84F (28.88C). The overnight low was 59F. Todays forecast is for 81F. Prof. Mass has a post, that we’re getting into a cooling trend, next week. Maybe even some rain. Although I couldn’t tell if he was talking about the Puget Sound area, or all of southwestern Washington. Yes, the haze blew away.
I picked four, good sized Oregon Spring tomatoes, yesterday. They’re a bit green, but, otherwise, the bottoms may rot. They’re in brown paper bags. The cherry tomatoes are ripening, but not enough yet to fill the dehydrator. Other peoples tomatoes, are beginning to show color.
My pumpkins are blooming their big orange blossoms. Interesting plants. The first blooms are male blossoms. Then, the female blossoms will appear. I have a theory, based on no evidence 🙂 that this is so, because the male blossoms will habituate pollinators to visit the plants.
The nematodes came in a round plastic container. Very damp, and looking like small white pearls. But, fairly easy to spread. Once watered, they turned a blue / gray color. They’ve been watered three times now, and have mostly disappeared. Fingers crossed.
If you look at a nighttime picture of the U.S., from space, the east coast is a solid urban corridor, from well north of New York, into the south. The stretch from north of Seattle, to south of Portland, is really lighting up, also.
I’ve got cucumbers and onions, sitting in salt water, in the fridge. I’ll make some of Grandmothers harvester salad, later today. Heavy cream, cider vinegar and pepper. I’ll probably eat off it for three days. 🙂
Good on you! I hadn’t made the connection between the word “satire” and “The Satyricon.” Not knowing Isaac, I have no idea what his intentions were. 🙂 Someone always takes a contrary view.
I’m hoping the NSPIRE end of things, is just a change in mission statement. Which will be a lot of sound and fury, bureaucratic gobbledygook, signifying nothing. The Reac part of things is the inspections, to recertify the building for HUD funds. According to chatter, the 6 foot clearance is still on. Hoping Little Mary Sunshine comes back from the conference, with better news. Not holding out much hope.
I saw flying cows, last night! 🙂 I watched the old “Twister” movie. A lot I had forgotten. The new “Twisters,” (plural) is still in the theatres, so, a couple of months before the library gets it.
I see some tourist, old enough to know better, carved initials and the date, into a fresco in Pompeii. Moron! Oh, well. He was caught, and there will be fines, and perhaps jail time. The cost of repairing the fresco. Good! Lew
Hi Lewis,
The level of detail provided in the book gave a real insight into how a mostly closed city would work. It was very clean, orderly and industrious, plus it was hard not to notice the Samurai class were hard up for a buck. 🙂 Things were as they should be if sustainability was the genuine goal, and there was very little, if any waste. The copy of the book is sitting in the bookshelves, some books are heavier than their physical weight. Mr Kunstler is onto something there, and I can imagine worse futures than the technology and societal arrangements of Edo era Japan. That’s it too, all fallen civilisations revert to a dark age, but the details are elusive, until they’re known.
The word ‘speculation’ pops into my head whenever those markets are forced upon my awareness. It’s a personal thing, and you’re clearly following the wiser path of not trying to make sense of the obtuse and unknowable. But hey, when the zombies come clamouring for my brains, all they may get here is splatter as the result of putting too many brain cells towards that particular abstract subject. Your more whole zombie experience may be entirely different! 😉
Hope the morning cleared for you, and err, coffee may assist?
Investors do have that short term ‘always ascending’ focus. It’s something of a wider societal illness. One of the sub plots in ‘The Big Short’ book dealt with that particular story. It’s not good. Investing can also mean making decisions and actions to benefit future generations.
That’s not good with the scissors. Hmm, I’d thought that was a decent brand. Hmm. The question to my mind is: Why would the company always seek more?
Oh my, those are some impressive bunkers. But far out, weren’t the Roman villas in Britain simply like a moth to a flame for the err, hungry mob? The first thing I thought about with the high rise was el-cheapo drone, and why would anyone want to work in such a place? Eventually the food would run out, let alone the energy. They look like vanity projects to me.
Hehe! It’s possible. I’ve heard that you guys have warnings on car mirrors about the objects shown in them. If faced with reading the warning, my overloaded brain might neglect to watch the traffic! But yeah, signage is a legal response.
The season batten is soon to be handed across. Your weather sounds really nice, although it was sunny and briefly 62’F today. Warms your bones. And there’ll be an inspection of the batten which we might provide the acronym FUCT, although I’m not really sure what that means. 🙂 Good to hear the haze moved on.
Your theory is pretty good, and I’ve noticed that many insects are taken in by the pumpkin flowers. They’re pretty reliable. Are you growing small, or larger pumpkins? The fruits develop as fast as zucchini’s.
Ooo! Hope the nematodes fill their gobs with your resident pill bug population. I’ll be very interested to hear how the experiment works out. Agreed. Fingers crossed. You know, sometimes you just have to do something.
Sustainable growth on a planet with finite energy and resources, is a concept which makes absolutely no sense at all.
Yum! Does the salad get better tasting as the days go on? Hey, we made a batch of apple cider vinegar today and I had to touch and handle the scoby. A very unpleasant sensation, but one must make sacrifices from time to time.
What does Isaac know anyway… 🙂 I still get a giggle from the thought of medieval clerics having to reproduce copies of the Satyricon. I’ll bet their killer rabbit drawings in the margins were up to a bit of mischief that day.
All we can but hope for is that some common sense eventually prevails. Of course there may be widespread non-comformity with the new regulations. Such things have been known to happen.
What? Oh yeah, those cows were in the air. Possibly the creative NSPIRE for shark-nado. Nuff said, although I’m not sure where that comment came from! Apparently the new film is doing well.
The word foolish does not quite capture the thought processes behind why someone would graffiti an ancient site, but sadly, as the article suggests, such things happen. It can get worse.
Cheers and better get writing
Chris
Yo, Chris – I’m winding up the book on the fall of different civilizations. It’s funny how often it was caused by succession crisis. The template seems to be, succession was in question, and civil wars, etc., happened. Neighboring kingdoms saw the chaos as an opportunity to swoop in and pick off the weakened state. More often than not, it was a case of too many claimants (all those multiple wives), than a problem such as Augustus had, with too few heirs.
“Speculation.” A fine old word, one doesn’t hear much, anymore.
“Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.” Hmmm. I thought that would be something from that great quote machine, Willie Wigglesword. Nope. It’s from that other quote machine, the Bible. But often misquoted or mistranslated.
“Objects May Be Closer Than They Appear.” Yup. It’s a real thing. Warning labels on products, to avoid liability, can get pretty “out” there.
Our high yesterday was 81F (27.22C). Overnight low was 59F. Forecast for today is 72F. And, most of the rest of the week will be mid to low 70s. Nice for us humans, but I wonder about some things getting ripe, in the gardens.
I picked another quart and a half of blueberries, yesterday. Mostly, from the backside of one bush. The pumpkins are what they call “pie pumpkins.” They are usually around 6-7″ in diameter.
The salad was quit tasty, and the cucumber and onions, crisp. It will gain flavor, as it ages.
I wonder how the manuscript for the “Satyricon” managed to survive down through the ages. A glance down the rabbit hole doesn’t provide many clues. As one professor states: “…the transition history of the Satyricon is extremely complex.” Rather an understatement. 🙂
Last night I watched Spielberg’s older movie, “AI.” Well worth a bowl of popcorn.
When reading about the moron, at Pompeii, your grandfather’s favorite epithet came to mind. :-). Lew