A few days ago, a friend told me he’d lost his job some weeks ago. It’s hard thing on a bloke losing his job, I’ve been there long ago, done that, and even got the metaphorical t-shirt. Felt the feels, as the kids might say. A few people have also told me recently that they’re thinking of selling their houses and downsizing. Heard this morning some news that someone else I’m vaguely aware of lost their job as well. Not much happens, then things happen all at once. Must be something in the water?
Are they all isolated incidents, or part of a larger trend? It’s hard to tell. The official news media barely mentions such incidents, unless the journalists jobs are getting axed, then there is much hue and cry. Cheap debt and low prices have fuelled a lot of activity over the past couple of decades. Now debt isn’t so cheap, and prices are rising. It hardly surprises me that activity is ever so slowly waning. Won’t go out for dinner there. Won’t catch that taxi here. Skip that coffee. Pack a lunch. Those sort of choices get made by people when income gets tight. Heck, nowadays even the dentist pressures me to get an x-ray, just because. Resist the hopefully unnecessary dose of radiation. Saving some mad cash through that method, is a no-brainer! It simply means that other peoples incomes fall, and around and around the wheel of economic hard choices goes, where it stops, nobody knows.
It’s been such a long time since we had a proper recession in this country. I can’t recommend it as a fun way to experience the adult job market for a young person. I learned that the last one in, was usually the first one out. For me, that worked out to beinging made redundant from a previously ‘safe’ government job. Honestly there are still some scars from the experience, and a distinct lack of trust. Sandra had a similar experience at around the same time, but at a much better paying job. Still, you learn some things, like how to survive and get by during hard times. After 27 years of only ever ascending though, makes me wonder if other people even know how to come back down to earth, or realise that you can be forced to do so.
Back in the day, saying someone was ‘down to earth’, meant that they were a practical kind of person who knew useful stuff. They may also have been a master of some of those activities. It was a funny kind of saying because it was meant both respectfully, but also as a put-down all at the same time. I’d like to flatter myself with the belief that I know at least some useful stuff. And possibly I’m a master of a least one or two useful activities. The truth is, on this path Sandra and I have chosen, there’s always more to learn than we can ever possibly take in, let alone master. We’re doing good enough, but I’d hardly be surprised at all to hear whilst taking my gasping final breaths in this here life, someone saying: Yeah I knew Chris, he was a bit of a dilettante. Thanks very much in advance for the unsolicited future and rather brutally candid death-bed opinion. Charming.
We do actually know some stuff. About two months ago, we began making ‘how to’ videos for YouTube, and we’ve sure learned a lot over that short period of time. Just for one thing, it’s become hard to escape the fact that either the platform or the viewers have a preference for short videos (two minutes or less). As long time readers are by now well aware, a brief and concise essay, let alone a short reply is probably not my forte. However, exceptions can be made, and artistic integrity be damned! Cheap viewer statistics on that media platform are now very much in. Heck, I can do that!
After the run of how-to videos we’ve got waiting in reserve are depleted, we’ll go short. Real short. If that’s what they want to see, there’s no reason not to give it to the people. Anyway, short videos are bizarrely less work for us. The other reason for abandoning the original concept, is that there are already a plethora of ‘how to’ videos on the platform. A casual observer might say that they’re over supplied in that regard. In our case, the how to videos will be there more as a proof of competency, if anyone even bothers to concern themselves with such matters.
Over the past few months I’ve read literally hundreds, maybe even thousands of comments attached to all sorts of videos on the platform, just so as to get an idea of what people want out of that service. By and large the impression I’ve been left with, is that people mostly want entertainment by way of a one way connection with the people providing the videos. It’s not at all about the slow discussion of ideas and/or observations. It ain’t even for the pure dialogue. Nope, it’s mostly about entertainment.
Sometime over the next few weeks, we’ll begin maybe with a longer walk around of the farm video, or series of, then every week there’ll be a very short episode with: ‘what did we did around the farm this week’. Simple enough to do, and it will provide the viewers with an entertaining narrative.
The regular long form essay blog is my preferred habitat. Dialogue is where I’m most comfortable. Ideas, news and opinions are best aired, shared and discussed. That takes shared effort for both the author and readers, and it’s fun. It’s not lost on me that the people who drop by here week after week for years, clearly enjoy reading and dialogue as well. The world of video I’m rapidly discovering, is an entirely different beast. Hmm, I still don’t know what to make of that other world, but the thought occurs to me that the societal arrangements in place right now, can change. I’ve seen it happen. And casting the mind back almost three decades to how things were during the last recession, it’s hard to forget that the pace of life was slower, whilst the activity of chatting with friends didn’t cost much at all.
This winter has been significantly colder than previous winters. The firewood reserves suggest as much, although we’ve also been at home more this year relative to previous years. The story the firewood reserves are telling me is that we’ve almost run out, and today is only the first official day of spring. Looking outside you wouldn’t know it. The rain has drizzled for most of the day and a massive cold wind storm with it’s origins in Antarctica, has been pounding the farm for almost a week now. The constant wind is unprecedented and outside of my experience. Truly I’m a bit over the wind, a gust on Saturday night was the strongest the household weather station ever recorded. It’s not usually windy here at all. As I review this essay, I believe there are a 100,000 houses in the state without electricity.
Mostly what’s in the above photo, I’d call kindling. The larger chunks of firewood keep the wood heater burning for hours. Kindling is really there to start the fire of an evening and provide enough energy to get the larger chunks burning. Funnily enough the wind is rapidly drying the decent sized pile of seasoning firewood. That stuff is sitting out in the weather. Despite it all the sun now at least has some warmth. So every couple of days we’ll dump a wheelbarrow or two of that well seasoned and mostly dry firewood into the shed. That keeps it out of the rain and it’s then ready for use. It’s not an ideal arrangement, but neither is freezing when the night time temperatures get down into the single digits.
Regular readers will recall that last week a large fruit tree which had proven to be rootstock was cut down, and the smaller branches were then mulched up in the scary old wood chipper. The mulch was used as soil food for a new large garden bed.
The larger fruit tree branches were this week cut up into firewood sized chunks. They were then brought back up the hill in a power wheelbarrow, and then dumped into the firewood pile. The timber is still very green and will require a year or so to dry out, but eventually the firewood will be ready to use.
The fruit tree stump was also ground out. There’s no point allowing another rootstock tree of that variety to grow in the area. It’s looking pretty neat now.
One of the lessons we’d taken away from this non-fruit-tree in the sunny orchard, is that the area had poor access so it became hard to observe and maintain. The vegetation in that area has now all been cleaned up and pruned, but we considered how to add better access to that area. We decided to commence constructing a new concrete staircase through that garden bed, thus breaking it up. The cement for the first step was poured.
Observant readers will note the use of plastic covering the cement used to make the first stair tread. That is there to protect the surface of the cement from becoming pock marked due to the incessant rain. The plastic also had to be more firmly anchored down because of the strong winds this week. The conditions have been challenging to say the least.
A form of early season Brassica species plant known as ‘Bittercress’ (Cardamine hirsuta) kind of exploded and took over the sapling fenced enclosure. During the week the plant was everywhere and producing flowers. Clearly it was in a good paddock.
It’s all good organic matter. The entire surface area of that enclosure ended up being mowed. Only took a few minutes of work and now the cut plants will provide feed for the soil critters.
Whilst I had the push mower out and working, I decided to munch up all of the vegetation growing on the swale which is just on the downhill side of the sapling fenced enclosure. The swale is a ditch which fills up with water that overflows from the house rainwater water tank collection system. It just helps to get the water into the ground where it is less likely to cause erosion. Anyway, the vegetation on the swale had become very woody and needed cleaning up. It’ll grow back just fine.
Onto the flowers:
The temperature outside now at about 11am is 7’C (44’F). So far for last year there has been 654.0mm (25.7 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 645.6mm (25.4 inches)
Ooohhh – Hairy Bittercress is one of my least favorite weeds. In the spring it comes up everywhere, in amongst all the plants, so I can’t just plow it under. It quickly flowers and makes seeds that aren’t very noticeable, until you touch the plant, and then they explode far and wide. I’m sure you know this.
I’ve never known anyone else to mention it, and it took me a long time to figure out what it was. I’ve been gardening for 50 years; the first 30 years I never saw it, and then suddenly there was one in the garden that I mistook for something else, until it was too late and it scattered those hundreds of seeds all over. For a long time I called it Scattery Weed. I’ll never get rid of it; I’d have to crawl around the garden every day pulling it out, and even that I’m sure wouldn’t do it.
Yo, Chris – I haven’t let go from a job, too many times. Quit quite a few. No matter if I was made redundant, canned (tinned?), or fired, at least for me, there was always a faint whiff of … guilt. Even when the situation was clearly not my fault. Don’t know about other people, but for me, it was there.
I’ve been seeing lots of articles about people scaling back purchases, jettisoning some behaviors, or just saying, “No.” Big companies are moaning and whingeing. The consumers just aren’t playing along! They should just roll over, and keep paying through the nose. There’s a shift between wants and needs.
Yes, you’ve learned a lot about making videos. As, the subtitle programs on offer, are rubbish. I see you’ve conquered that problem, in your latest video. You may want to ask yourself if you really want to cater to viewers, who have the attention span of a gnat, and moan about anything longer than two minutes. 🙂 “Are you not entertained?!” Maybe, if you’d hacked off a finger, while halfing the lemons. Some would find that entertaining. Anyway, this weeks video, is your best yet. A lot of technical issues, worked out. Pity if the two minute crowd lost you at picking lemons.
The Fernglade Bank of Firewood does look a bit empty. Not through lack of effort on the Editor, and your part. I’d always heard that fruit woods, were some of the best, for firewood. But, that may have been referring to smoking and grilling.
So, any plans for the Magpie approved, newish garden bed? Inquiring Minds Want to Know!
I know what you mean about poor access. I never seem to get down to the other end of the property, here. But the blueberries peter out, about there. There are things I’ve noticed that I’d like to ask the Master Gardeners, about. Wonder if they’ll show, tomorrow morning. It being a holiday, and all. There’s a butterfly garden, down there.
The flowers are all lovely. A real shot of spring. I have to laugh at the Forget-me-nots. Some cranky old codger, who lives on the third floor, here at the Institution, planted some a few years back. They have now spread … everywhere. Luckily, they’re really easy to pull out. Though the seeds are kind of sticky. Lew
@ Gretchen – Here (western Washington State) we call it shot weed. I suppose because it shots the seeds all over the place. We have Master Gardeners that come, once a week. Turns out, a large part of the plant is edible. And, they’re part of the Brassicaceae family. Most of those (broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts) we have a problem, growing here. Because of the ravenous Cabbage Butterflies. But they leave the shot weed, alone. As someone recently said, “If you can’t beat ’em, eat ’em.” :-). Lew
Hi Joanna,
There’s not much that will stop Bittercress from – like you also experience – popping up everywhere. For your interest, here the plant tends to turn up in the garden beds and occasionally upon the limed paths, rather than the paddocks and/or forest. Although, who knows what the future may bring in that regard? What I’ve observed of the plant, is that it gets a strong and very early lead on most other weedy competitors, after all, it was flowering on the first official day of spring. Presumably the multitude of seeds won’t be far behind the flowers?
Nod of the hat to Pam, who correctly identified the plant back in 2018. But like you, at the time I was also stumped: What is this thing, and why is it suddenly everywhere? Turns out, the plant thrives in nursery conditions and so the seeds get dispersed from there. Who knew? At least the plant is meant to be edible. Tastes like a very early season rocket, although the green mustard leaves growing now are much easier to rapidly harvest, mostly because they are huge.
Respect to you. There’s always something new to learn about all this gardening stuff, isn’t there?
I’ve given up as well 🙂 , thus the use of the lawn mower just to knock back the flower heads. You’ve got me wondering though, and I’ll keep an eye out when the serious summer weather eventually arrives: Does the summer sun knock out Bittercress, like the other Brassica family plants?
You’d hope the cabbage moth larvae consumes the bittercress, but given that they are wild stock plants, it’s possible that won’t happen. Some of the more wild varieties of that family of plants are better adapted to the cabbage moth horde. One year I had good experience with purple sprouting broccoli and cabbage moths, but the plant didn’t produce that many florets relative to the size of the growing space required. Dunno.
Hoping that your garden was productive this growing season and that you’ve enjoyed a bountiful harvest.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
You piqued my curiosity in relation to the library ‘discard’ book which now resides in the bookshelf. Interestingly it was not marked as ‘discarded’ and was purchased long ago. Thought you might be interested in a photo (hopefully the book was not pilfered long ago?):
I’ll be curious to hear your professional opinion.
Public monies can be a real problem. The volunteer groups I’d been involved in over the years, always had dramas surrounding the fund raising efforts – not to mention handling thereof. Some people used such resources as a political football. I’ve never seen the subject handled well, mostly because the leadership was poor.
Such silly bureaucratic antics does make for fun stories, as long as we’re not on the wrong side of that narrative.
Man, that’s my exact response nowadays. When did you say the crowds are not there? If you observe the flow of people, patterns can be ascertained, and hey, that means enjoying the ocean in the winter months. There’s some energy in the winter storms aren’t there? Mind you, the wind has been feral here today and the forecast snow did a total no-show. In other parts of the country there’s been a lot of damage from the storm.
Happy Labor Day public holiday! Professor Mass notes the cooling trend for your region. Tomorrow will hopefully be stable, although there is a risk of an early morning frost and that is not good for all of the early fruit trees. Oh well, there’s always next year, but we’ll see how it goes. The wind is meant to pick up again on Wednesday…
The Heretic film did seem pretty intense. Lewis, that show would be like total catnip for you. Have you learned any foreign derived tricks of the tat trade? And does the story portray the trade realistically?
The cheeky scamps to try salting in order to sell off worthless land for profit. I’ll bet it’s happened quite a bit, but the old timer miners had a pretty good nose for geology and might recognise minerals out of place.
The Breex gold saga sounded fascinating, and hopefully none of us were involved. I must say, it is a very difficult thing to chop off your hands and feet, then jump from an airborne helicopter, and expect to survive. Ah, some people may take being fooled rather personally. Probably not the smartest move to annoy such folks. How had I not heard of this matter before? Probably had my own dramas in those days but I keep my nose clean, consequences being a thing not to be dismissed lightly. Just went on to reading about that crypto Bankman-Fired guy who is now apparently residing in the slammer. People can get quite emotional when the bucks are huge, and they’ve gone missing.
Did the weather cool down in your part of the world? Hopefully Peanut was not in the audience for H’s meet and greet?
Me neither, one or two times I’ve been sacked, but mostly it’s a resignation situation, but only once during the recession was a redundancy where you get a payment to go because the employer is winding up. I can understand the whiff of guilt, but mostly if I’ve come to that decision, then there is a sense of relief at having finally let go. In the top end of town, the jobs were often heavy on responsibilities, and dunno how other people cope, but that weighed me down after a while. They do have a lot of trouble getting people to do that work. And sometimes man, you know, you do your best, and it’s good, but is the effort sustainable? Dunno. Not much a person can do about that.
Really? Haven’t seen that spin on the situation. But what do the companies expect? If you want people to purchase stuff sold, paying minimum wage might not produce that outcome. And absolutely, people are reassessing needs and wants, and also I’m guessing that there are a lot of people now assisting their children to make ends meet.
Far out! It’s 39’F outside, drizzling and gusty. I’m sure I’ve experienced more unpleasant weather, but right now the memories have been superseded by the present reality!
Yeah, that was the subtitles I actually keyed into the software. Have to laugh: How much does artificial unintellignce know? Let’s find out. It’s not as good as keying in the spoken words manually. True, but it depends what the outcome is as to whether you’d want to hook such fish. That’s very funny too, yes and I still haven’t watched the Gladiator film. My education has truly been rubbish to have missed that film. Actually I’m not certain I’d want that particular crowd who hanker for blood. There’s only so much blood to go around you see. Hehe! Thank you so much for saying that, and I’m learning fast.
That’s probably the case with fruit woods, they do impart a nice aroma to meat smoking from what I’ve heard. Actually I’ve never tried that preservation method, have you? We’ve got heaps of firewood, but it’s not stored under cover. Need a larger firewood shed, and hopefully that will be sorted out over the next six months.
The new garden bed is growing ornamental camellias. I’m thinking about maybe planting some tea camellias in there, but I’ll have grow some from seed stock just to get varieties that can deal with cooler conditions. They grow the plant up in Scotland, far out. And your part of the world would be ideal too. You just have to get the right variety.
Yeah, if you can’t access an area, you probably won’t. 🙂 You read it here first! And are the blueberries continuing to produce? They’re amazingly productive plants. Did the master gardeners turn up?
I’ve heard that cranky old bloke knows a good plant when he sees one, and it’s blue! 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Is it a discard? Maybe yes, maybe no. 🙂 Besides circulation figures, condition is also taken into account, at least with hands-on weeding. I notice there seems to be some grease or water stains, along the edge. Maybe no pages falling out, but does the binding feel loose?
The beach in winter, can be really interesting. Due to storms, interesting flotsam and jettison show up. But, you have to watch for rogue waves and logs that have gone astray.
I see Prof. Mass, has gone all art historic. 🙂 I don’t know about a cooling trend. The high yesterday, was 81F (27.22C). Overnight low was 61F. Forecast for today is 73F. Looking at the forecast, we’ll have a couple of cool days … and then back to 92 on Thursday. With high temperatures through the weekend. Late yesterday afternoon, we started getting a cooling west wind. Felt quit nice. Your storm seems very long in duration.
I don’t know if “The Madam Blanc Mysteries,” reflect the foreign tat trade, or not. But the main character knows a little, about a lot of things. There was another antique British mystery series, years ago. “The Lovejoy Mysteries.” They were a lot of fun. Lovejoy was a bit of a rogue. And not above being a bit shady.
I hadn’t heard of the Breex Gold Saga, either. Con artists and grifters. As with the poor, they’re always with us. 🙂
Muffy (the artist formerly known as Peanut), is usually there in the mornings. I usually hit the Club in the evenings. So, they don’t run across each other, too often. Mr. Bill, our club manager, changed the name. Due to some wags changing Peanut’s name to a technical and scientific term for a certain … male appendage. 🙂
The Japanese have a word for it. “Karoshi.” Translated as “overwork death.”
I’ve never smoked anything, but my Dad frequently smoked fish. Usually, salmon. Nothing better! Most of the hardware stores, around here, sell smokers. In all sizes. They’re pretty simple, and not very expensive. Mostly.
A camellia bed will look quit pretty. They grow well, around here. We have a couple at the Institution. And the house we had in Portland, had an enormous camellia, next to the front porch. I thought the Siberian Tea plant, might suit your needs. But, a trip down the rabbit hole reveals … no caffeine. But, herbal and medicinal.
I picked another quart and a half of blueberries, this morning. While it was still cool. Most of the Master Gardeners, showed up.
I finished the biography of Anna May Wong. All things considered, she did pretty well, for herself. Though a lot of her goals weren’t realized, due to racial prejudice. She had a lot of potential, that wasn’t tapped. I’ll have to start paying more attention to my coin. The US has started issuing quarters, with famous American women, on them. And Ms. Wong, is included in the lot.
I started reading “A Field Guide to the Apocalypse: A Mostly Serious Guide to Surviving Our Wild Times.” (Aktipis, 2024.) Parts of it are very amusing, which was the author’s intent. In transit to me is (finally), “Pompeii: The New Digs.” Mostly discoveries I’ve already read about, but, it will be interesting to see actual footage. Lew
Hi Lewis,
I appreciate your honest, and not entirely soothing / reassuring analysis of the situation. 🙂 Oh well, I bought the book in good faith long ago and there the matter shall rest, or at least that will help me sleep better at night – that’s the plan at least. In that sleep regard, I made a rookie mistake last night. With thoughts of the forecast frost (which didn’t happen, but then neither did the snow yesterday) before heading to bed, I stacked up the firebox with firewood. In the early hours of this morning I was very over-hot and it took a while to cool off and get back to sleep. The house was way too hot for comfortable sleep. Oh well, lesson learned…
Last night we watched another episode of Clarkson’s Farm and I must say that it’s an honest and humorous view into the economics of broad acre farming. It got me wondering though about the wealthy family I used to work for and how their epic farm was going these days. Public knowledge, it was sold off last year. There was something sad about that. We’ve discussed before about how unwise it is too look up ‘how are things going nowadays’ on the interweb, and just proves the lesson was not previously learned. Hmm. Hopefully better luck remembering not to do that next time! 😉 That’s the plan anyway.
Yeah, the beach in the winter months is a beautiful, but also a wild place to visit. A young bloke was washed off rocks a day or two ago by a rogue wave.
Professor Mass is branching out there, and the artistic comparison to the actual clouds was quite apt and worked well from a narrative perspective. Your temperatures sound really nice to me. At least today the wind died down here, but fear not, it is forecast to make another encore performance tomorrow. Lunchtime Friday should be near to the end of the winds.
Wouldn’t it be a pre-requisite to know a little about a lot of things if you worked in the tat trade? I mean, the subject matter would be broad and cover many eras and artefacts. Hehe! There’s always something a little bit shady about second hand goods, e.g. the book previously mentioned. 🙂 Part of the colourful background don’t you reckon?
Grifters is such a good word which isn’t part of the local lexicon, but it deserves to be – after all, they’re around.
In my opinion, the name Muffy is lesser to that of Peanut. A dude’s just gotta own such taunts and innuendo if he wants it to go away. It would simply make everyone blush if proof were demanded! There is something to be said about the ‘yeah, whatever’ response to foolishness. Takes the sting and wind out of the sails. People soon forget and move on to the next thing, maybe.
Spare us all from Karoshi, and for interest I looked up the wikipudding page on the subject to see the vox pop. The map of deaths per 1,000 population is quite instructive as to planetary wealth distribution. Youch!
Me neither, and other than smoke cured meats, I can’t say that I’ve ever encountered smoked cured salmon. Sounds good. The guys of the big shed fame have a smoker, but I don’t recall tasting any of the smoked meats. From memory, they may have used oak from discarded wine barrels.
Yeah, camellia’s and rhododendron’s both enjoy similar conditions, and they’re a bit feral here, as they probably are in your part of the world. Interesting, I’d not encountered that Siberian tea plant, and the seeds are available down under. Hmm. I was aiming for proper tea, albeit a cold adapted variety (which is a bit hit or miss). It’s hard to imagine, but they really are growing adapted varieties of proper tea in Scotland: Tea Gardens of Scotland. If they can grow them there, it should be a doddle in this warmer climate, or yours for that matter.
Good to hear that the master gardeners showed up, and that your blueberry coffers are almost complete. It’s funny, but at this stage of the year, the bottled fruit from last summer is fast running out. Most of the remaining stored pumpkin is beginning to rot, and the final zucchini’s went about three weeks ago. The lean time of the year.
I thought that given the times, the actress did very well for herself and had a long career, but I agree, she was in many ways thwarted by the system. Becoming established in Europe would have done her no harm either. The lady even spent three months performing in Melbourne, as you do just prior to WWII.
Oh my! Hopefully this apocalypse survival guide is not something I’m lacking? Is it full of good advice, or is the book leaning more on the humour?
The footage of Pompeii will be excellent and I hope they don’t dwell on the err, tourist additions.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – What might sooth you conscious, is if you look up the library on-line, check their catalog, and see if the book is still listed. I once sold a book, on-line, and it had some stamps from a military outpost library in it. The customer, was concerned, as you were. I checked, and the outpost (and library) had been decommissioned, years, before.
I also had problems sleeping, last night. I made the mistake of reading through all the verbiage Little Mary Sunshine churned out, after the meeting. LOL. There was a note not to dump your cat litter, on the grounds. There was also a note that they are to discontinue the free wi-fi. No other details. Such as, a date? They’ve been threatening that, since I moved in. I’ll check with the night manager, and see what the real skinny is.
That’s sad about the farm. I suppose they’ll build a golf course, and surround it with high end condos. Or, one acre plots.
The high yesterday was 68F (20C). Overnight low was 57F. Forecast for today is 75F. On the rise.
In the tat trade, most people are generalists, but some specialize in this or that. And then, within generalization or specialization, there are gradations between low status stuff and high end of town stuff.
Didn’t seem to dawn on Mr. Bill, that “Muffy” is a name that can also be loaded with innuendo. 🙂
That was an interesting article on tea growing, in Scotland. Mentions of micro-climates and walled gardens.
I loaded up the dehydrator, with cherry tomatoes, this morning. Note to self: a quart and a half bowl, is not enough. I had to run back down to the garden, and pick some more. I saw a doe and two fawns, on the back lawn, this morning. I’ll have to scatter around some more blood meal, and hope for the best. I’ve got five or six ping pong ball sized pumpkins, on my vines. They’re at the stage where if they’re not fertile, they’ll fall off. The first zucchini blossom, opened.
The apocalypse book is pretty good. When talking about a generic apocalypse, she often refers to a zombie apocalypse. The ZA. Apparently, the author’s even had some pod casts on zombies. Maybe written a book? She makes a good point. Throughout history, humankind has been faced with one sort of apocalypse, or another. We’re all descendants of people who survived those apocalypses. So, getting all Darwin, we’re selected to survive. With a little planning, and luck. Maybe. So, lighten up! 🙂 The author can be quit funny. While discussing the many types of apocalypses, facing us now, under the heading of “The Smartphone Apocalypse” she has this to say: “…and hacking into peoples’ dopamine systems with tiny overlords that we willingly carry around at all times, in our pockets.”
I watched “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” last night. Well worth a bowl of popcorn. Cool explosions, burning villages and a flood. What’s not to like?
Interesting article on land movement.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/02/us/rancho-palos-verdes-power-outages
Many famous people, have lived in the Rancho, over the years.
I see New Zealand is joining the crowd, and trying to cut down on the tourists. They’re upping the cost of the tourist tax, and the cost of a tourist visa. Those who can afford it, rejoice. As it keeps the rabble out. 🙂 Actually, sounds like the increase will be used for crowd control, and upgrading infrastructure. Lew
Hi Chris,
You suggested last week that the heat might do my garden good. Sorry to say, no. I am guaranteed to have more than enough heat to mature summer crops. What I am not guaranteed to have is enough rain to keep from going into drought due to the heat, and that is the problem now.
In July we had 10 inches of rain at our house; in August, only 1 inch. We need 3 to 4 inches of rain each month during summer to keep moisture in the soil.
We have municipal water service, but it costs money to irrigate. We have some stored water from rainfall, but not enough. But I will have to use one or both this week in order to keep the autumn crops growing and to keep the summer crops producing.
It’s cooled down enough we have to keep the house closed so it doesn’t get too cold, but it still hasn’t rained, and no sign of rain anytime soon.
Claire
Chris,
I have a variety of brushes to use on Avalanche. I even have two of those “mitts” that fit on the hand and act like brushes when I pet her. She despises them all equally. I use a brush with wider bristles that are almost spikes. It gets the loose fur out quickly. It is wonderful on the clumps and matted fur that occur on her back flanks and rear. I can get gobs of fur out with this in a matter of 5 or 10 minutes.
As your flowers are beginning to bloom, ours are slowing down. However, a neighbor has a third bloom of roses in her yard. We walk by that house daily on our walks and I enjoy the color.
We had some carving friends stop by yesterday. We have two short sets of steps coming from the sidewalk to the house. One of the friends leaned against the railing/banister on the lower set. The railing sort of fell out of the concrete. Fortunately, friend didn’t fall. The railing was moved to the other yard. Dunno what I’ll do with it yet. It had rusted out right on the surface, so a thin layer of concrete will fill where it had been. I really don’t need a railing there.
A thunderstorm rolled through this morning. A lot of noise and a dabble of rain. It was just large enough to bring in a lot of dust, which the rain dropped to the surface, along with some smoke. A bit icky outside today with the dust and smoke. And today should be the “coolest” day of the week at a mere 30C. Supposed to hit 37C Friday and Saturday. “Normal” is about 25C.
One of the New Mexico cousins stays in touch with me. Her older sister has worked for Intel for over 30 years. They will be laying people off soon, a lot of people. Older cousin decided to take early retirement. The fact that her husband has a great job helped with the decision. I’ve heard other reports of companies reducing staff. I can see interest rates getting reduced in hopes of avoiding a recession. Sooner or later a recession will occur, for the obvious reasons of climate change, peak oil, etc.
“Down to earth”. As in practical, knowledgeable, calm, grounded, boring. Yes, a compliment with an insult tossed in for good measure. My primary motto is “accept, adapt, move on”. A secondary motto is “boring is good”. Excitement can be overrated. I like being down to earth. And boring.
Colder than usual winter. Excess wind sucks more heat from the house. No wonder you’re getting low on firewood. At least the wind is drying enough newer wood to help out. You seem to be needing twice the firewood that you did a few years back?
A downy woodpecker visited the crabapple tree today. Although they are here all year, I usually don’t see them until maybe November. I often hear them throughout the year, though.
Downy pecks the tree
Crows caw
Ravens croak
Husky sleeps
Peaceful
DJSpo
Hi Claire,
Oh my, oops! Sorry, but I forgot that you have very well drained soils, and that particular circumstance is way outside of my experience. Respect, as I’d have no idea what to do if faced with your soils and would probably try and incorporate a huge volume of organic matter and completely throw the mineral balance out of whack – probably favouring potassium. 🙂 At a guess! And you and I know what would happen to the produce then. Yikes!
By way of comparison, the soils here are more correctly described as a volcanic loam, so they tend to hang on to water. Your 3 to 4 inches of rain would be well received, but also create a very challenging environment for plant roots during the growing season. 10 inches though is the whole next level of problems though, unless the soil is super well drained like yours.
I hear you about that predicament. It also alters the economics of home grown produce and introduces who knows what chemicals via the water. We only have stored water and so have to be super-frugal with its use. Some dry summers I can assure you that the storages are barely enough, and there’s no plan B on those years.
If the wind holds off, at least evaporation will be much reduced in the cooler conditions you’re now experiencing.
If you’re anything like me, screen time is limited, but there is a rather intriguing broad acre farming series from the UK which is quite interesting in that the farm owner experiences pretty much all the stuff you and I also have to deal with – except the economics make even less sense for the bloke. If you get a chance, I recommend the series: Clarkson’s farm, for a comedic but also serious view into how things look at an even larger scale. Plus his side kick (now farm manager) Kaleb, gives the wealthy owner what I’d describe as a ‘what for’.
Hope the rain returns for you both soon, and that your fall garden is bountiful. Spotted the first self seeded tomato plants today, or are they chillies? Dunno.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Dame Avalanche clearly knows her own business, and that means no grooming of knots from her coat! Good luck, and (note to the husky) it won’t work girl, those knots are being removed one way or another. 🙂 Many years ago a friend showed me some sort of halter device he’d purchased so that he could brush the knots out of his terrier dog. As a side story, the dog was actually a bit of a terror and got into a lot of mischief, but seems to have been born under a lucky star because the dog lived to a ripe old age. Anyhoo, getting back to the grooming halter. The thing looked alarming, it even had some sort of chain, so me being me, said it looked like some sort of torture device from the fourteenth century. Never saw it again, and clearly the dog did OK. Some dogs just don’t like being groomed, but I’m yet to own such a cheeky scamp.
The other night I watched a brief video of some dude who had a pet wolf somewhere in Europe – as you do. So the wolf is comfortably reclining on what looks like pretty comfortable bedding, and the bloke starts telling the wolf off. Holy carp! The wolf pulled what I’d describe as ‘Mardy Bum’ face number six with lots of bared teeth, growling and a sudden lunge. Surprisingly the bloke was unfazed and kept remonstrating with said wolf, even pointing a finger at sharp pointy teeth. The bloke won the bout, and wolf went back to enjoying the amenities. Dame Avalanche is not that far removed from wild stock.
Ollie and the kelpies likewise get most of the clumps and matted fur from their back ends.
Yeah, the seasons sure are turning and roses are a surprising plant on that front. They’re only just now waking up from their winter slumber (and haircut).
Dude, friends are hard to come by, do try not to kill and/or seriously injure them. 🙂 Oh yeah, that steel worm never sleeps. Even galvanised steel is not up for the job in the long term. Good to hear that no harm was done.
Your weather conditions are not fun at all. Sometimes the summer rain will arrive here from the Indian Ocean up in the far north west of the continent (I’m in the south east). As the storm travels across the inland of the continent, it’ll pick up red dust from the arid lands, and when it finally rains here, you get red mud over everything. 37’C is not nice, and for comparison the warmest day forecast over the next week or so is Friday at 24’C. Stay cool in that heat.
Sorry to say, but the tech sector is subject to diminishing returns just like everyone else, but it is unfortunate for your cousin and I hope that her and her family are doing OK. That’ll probably happen with the interest rates too, and it is very hard to ignore that in your country (and I believe here as well) that interest repayments are near to the annual spending on the military. That’s not good, or at least that’s my impression of the situation. The problem is that mad cash is then even more mis-priced and then that leads to inflation. There are other ways out of the mess, but will they be taken? I think not given the policy choices made so far. And yeah, in the background are all of those other things. However, I’ve lived through hard times and it ain’t all bad, it just isn’t BIG living like people seem to want nowadays. 😉 And there’ll always be room for good chats and a pint and feed. People tend to forget that sometimes the really simple stuff, is the best.
Great mottos! And I’m so with you – how much excitement does the brain need? Not much. 🙂
We’re also at home more nowadays due to economics and stuff. One of the issues mostly forgotten by the remote work arrangements, is that the employee picks up the tab for a lot of costs – like lighting and heating. But we’ve known for the past four years (ask me why?) that our firewood stores suddenly became inadequate. Getting the time and resources to fix that matter is something which is being addressed, right now.
Thanks for the soothing poem. The words were exactly as you concluded. Thanks! I’d worked late tonight.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Hehe! Rather than having a troubled conscience, I was more intrigued by the dimensions of the situation with the book. It’s been in my possession for over twenty years, so it’s probably water under the bridge so to speak. Yours was however a good suggestion and so I jumped onto the catalogue system and my mind recoiled with horror at the search results. As far as I could ascertain, the library did not list one single Jack Vance book. Some dude with a similar name had penned a fictional book about hillbillies or some other stuff, but far out, it’s an absolute travesty. And the search returned like 4,000 hits, not one of which was relevant. Candidly the search results may have had something to do with my inability to know their system, but I would have thought that the system was more intuitive than that. Man, I’m really beginning to empathise with your plight in regards to the catalogues – I honestly never knew what you were dealing with.
Oh no! Lewis, that is a rookie mistake, which I also made. Don’t read or watch disturbing stuff just prior to bedtime, it’ll mess with your sleep for sure. That memo… And losing the free wifi, that’s a total bummer. Had friends who long ago used to steal their wifi connection from their neighbour. Just a suggestion because some people really don’t turn on the security with those devices. The nice telco used to send me a fat bill for that expensive connection every month, now they take the mad cash from my account and force me to log onto their system so as to retrieve a copy of the bill. That’s progress for ya, sorry to say. I’d be sure connections in your country are cheaper than down here. It’s possible your phone can connect up to your computer and provide the interweb connection via a USB port? What did the old timers used to say about kill one bird with two stones?
Did you discover whether the threat to cut off the free connection is real?
Hehe! Maybe, but I’m rather guessing that some rather wealthy interests bought that farm. It’s not close enough to a large town for that sort of outcome. Hmm. The media was very tight lipped about the purchaser. Dunno why? Could have been a wealthy family buying a visa to enter the country and maybe they didn’t want the publicity? A mystery. I’m not comfortable providing a direct link to the sale advertisement, such things are tracked.
75’F sounds really nice to me, and yes, today was again windy. Truly odd weather, but Antarctica exerts some force on the local weather. And it’s been rather warm down on that frozen continent of late. Excess heat has to go somewhere, I guess.
That’s interesting about the tat trade, and it is kind of similar down under. There are just some folks who source and supply tat to err, old money families. You hear about such things, and of course there is a reputation and mojo there. Interestingly, I noticed that the super big farm mentioned above was fitted out by someone who lives over in the more fashionable end of the mountain range and who’s family has such clientele. Not for the likes of you or I! 🙂
Yes, that new name was possibly as problematic on that front as the old name! Hehe! Still he’s your Club boss, and well no point distressing him out so much that he declines the role at future elections. After all, someone may badger you into that role as a karmic punishment. Such things happen you know. But it is a stupid dog name. The Editor hears lots of good dog names at pooch obedience school. I’m very random about dog names, like I’ll look at them for a few moments on first encounter and think: Your name is Ollie, even if the shelter called him Charlie. What kind of name is Charlie? 😉 You’d hope he’d be a fun dog?
Yeah exactly. If they can grow tea in Scotland, surely either here or at your place would be possible? Mind you, the tea camellia I’m growing is years old and still miniature. Is it worth it? Chamomile is easier to grow.
Oh my, that’s not what you’d expect to find on the back lawn. Such critters are known in my experience to eat gardens and scrape bark off fruit trees. Cute, yes, Problematic, also yes. I reckon the zucchini will be fine. They grow so fast.
Thanks for the tip on the podcasts, I’m always up for one of those. Makes the occasional just under an hour trip into the big smoke, more pleasant. Is that the authors advice: to lighten up? Makes sense, and I’ve noticed that people who keep a cool tool, often get through crisis situations easier – like that baker bloke on the Titanic. I often think of his survival against the odds, and it makes the sensitive person wonder what useful tips they may have missed out.
What a trailer. The film looks awesome. Presumably the lead ape Proximus copped it in the end?
When I first saw your words I thought it referred to a back to the land movement, but no it was physical land movement. Such things happen near to the ocean. Not good. Imagine what the ice sheets on Antarctica can do.
I missed that news from the goings on across the Tasman Sea. They’ve slightly lowered interest rates there too. Hmm, would NZ$100 per person really stop people visiting there? I noticed there was no tax for Aussies and Pacific Island folks. Interesting times, but I do wonder how people are travelling around so much if there are cost of living pressures. That story doesn’t quite stack up to the pub test. When I was at my poorest during the recession of the 1990’s (or as a kid for that matter), I didn’t go anywhere. Expectations seem to be different nowadays, although the situation may be entirely different in your country.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – I guess I’ll lead with the news, first. 🙂 I see there was a big gun theft, from some museum, in Australia. 27 handguns worth $134,000. I didn’t watch the video, so, don’t know where in Australia.
An article about the current state of supply lines.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/03/economy/us-supply-chains-holiday-inflation
And, I started watching “The Dry 2” last night. The mystery sounds a bit like a recent story that was in the news. Beware those corporate retreats!
https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/31/us/colorado-office-retreat-hiker-rescue-trnd
Then there was a woman who worked in one of our major banks. Who died at her desk, and no-one noticed, for four days.
That hillbilly book was written by one of the contenders for vice president, in our upcoming election. And that’s all I’ll say, about that!
When doing searches, you may or may not know to put the authors last name, first. As in “Vance, Jack.” And use quotation marks. Sometimes, it helps. But not always.
My flip phone connect to my computer? Wouldn’t it burn minutes. Yes, I could steal signal, maybe. But there might be security issues.
At least here, real estate purchases are a matter of public record. Which can be accessed by computer. But, probably masked by an LLC, or some such.
Yesterday’s high was 72F (22.22C). The overnight low was 54. Forecast for today is for 95F. We’re under a “heat advisory” for the next two days. Then the week-end, it will be in the 80s. Cooling next week.
I scattered around some blood meal, last night. And chips of Irish Spring soap. Might keep the deer off. I didn’t see any damage, this morning. The tomatoes went through the dehydrator. Apartment smells something like baked tomatoes. Not a bad smell.
I seem to have tapped a rich vein of all things zombie. Sort of. If you’re curious, check out the Wiki page for the author, Athena Aktipis. She runs a yearly conference, “Zombie Apocalypse Medicine Meeting” (ZAMM). Her podcasts are available at “Zombified: Your Source for Fresh Brains.”
Proximus styles himself as Proximus Caesar. He has a human who can speak and read, who reads him Roman history.
We may, or may not get a food box, today. What with the holiday, and all. I was going to go out and pick a large batch of blueberries this morning, but awoke to chaos, of one sort and another. There are two large hot water tanks, up on this floor. One sprung a leak. So, the maintenance man was draining the tank, via a hose (that leaked). There was water all the way down to the first floor. Luckily, mostly effecting stairways and hallways. I see there’s a heating and cooling van, out front. Repair or replace? I’ll nip out later, just to get enough blueberries, for oatmeal. It’s that time again. And, the landscapers were running around with their leaf blowers, mowers and hedge clippers.
Little Mary Sunshine let us know, that garbage pick-up should be about $400, a month. But it has been $1,000, due to overloading the dumpster.
I called, yesterday, to get H an appointment, with the groomer. Nothing available until the 19th.
I did a bit of shopping, for the Club, last night. A couple of bags full. Someone had brought in a whole load of really nice looking cucumbers. I grabbed three. More of grandma’s cucumber salad! Lew
Hi Chris,
Marty is doing pretty well (from last week). No major falls or hospital visits. We’ve set up quite a few services through the county Senior Services. Of course that required paperwork, documentation and hours of evaluation but he’s getting meals, help with showers, shopping, taking him to the store and general cleaning.
As with Claire the rain has mostly stopped here as well.
Doug and I also watched “Clarkson’s Farm” and enjoyed it. That guy has some $$ but used them in a less than typical way. The regulations there were something else and I thought we had it bad.
Margaret
Chris,
While I will hold Avalanche, gently, while grooming her, I won’t use a harness or chain her up or anything. And I’ll brush quickly. Some days her limit is 2 minutes, others it’s 10. Rarely 10. I just read the situation and try not to overtax her.
My youngest New Mexico cousin and her husband had two wolf dogs many years ago. They were about 7/8 wolf and were very beautiful. There was one rule for the female: “until she is comfortable around you, do not approach her, but let her approach you”. The male had that rule and one other: “never look him in the eye. If you do, he will take it as a threat, a challenge, and will try to attack.” Someone in our group once made eye contact with him. Fortunately, cousins quickly noticed the dog’s agitation and quickly defused the situation. This included a scolding of the person who had made and maintained eye contact.
Rakhi the Samoyed, Cheyenne the Finnish Spitz and Dame Avalanche share some common ancestry, none of them being that far removed from wild stock. Dame Avalanche is by far the one who displays this the most. Most as in the most obvious and the most often.
The steel worm never sleeps. Dude, well said! That sounds like the title of a good sci-fi or fantasy book. Another way of saying that entropy always wins in the end. Indeed, the steel worm never sleeps.
Somebody woke me up earlier than usual today. Good thing, too. We got in our walk while it was still relatively cool. And I was able to get in a goodly amount of light yard work. Then it started getting hot. At least the house is cool. Killian and his human want to go for another hike with Avalanche and me. We all agree that it is too hot. Ugh. Forecast says that the hot spell should break middle of the month.
Cousin who is leaving Intel should be fine. They’ve planned for this for a long time and are well set up for this. Apparently, she is excited to start a new chapter in her life. But it does rather appear as if the tech sector employment is about to take a beating.
Thanks for the comment on the mottoes. Also, glad you enjoyed the poem. My creative energies have been at a low ebb most of the summer. This one just popped into my brain, or “jelly” as the Princess calls whatever is between my ears. I’m happy that you found it helpful.
DJSpo
Hi Margaret,
That’s great news with Marty that he’s doing OK and that the services are helping him out. And the paperwork and evaluation hoops are a barrier for you to jump across, sorry to say. A lot of things are like that now.
That’s no good about the rain, but at least the fire risk is much reduced at this time of year for you. For your interest, the same thing happened here in February and March earlier this year – after a very damp summer, the rain simply vanished, but there was a lot of moisture in the sub soil so the trees with deeper roots did OK, the rest of the smaller plants – well they kind of struggled in the suddenly dry conditions. By the end of March, the place was blasted, but the rains did return in April. Weird, and the most recent gargle earth photo was taken in late March after two months of dry weather.
🙂 You think things are difficult at our scale, and then you see what broad acre farmers are dealing with and you wonder how they get by? Of course for the presenter and off farm (and obviously series income) assists, but for every other lesser mortal it’s clearly a tough slog.
An old school local farming contractor (a Kaleb equivalent, and just as cheeky) once said to me that going into farming at that big scale is akin to opening your wallet and throwing mad cash into the air. He was joking, but he wasn’t joking. I’m really enjoying the series too.
Still windy here today. Very unusual…
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Always wise to be calm around dogs whilst doing anything really, but grooming is a great example. The canines are sensitive to the emotional atmosphere of their humans, and respond better to us two legged things when we are predictable and calm. The Editor is observing some dudes (who are surprisingly in the minority at dog obedience classes) and they’re quite aggressive with their dogs and rather than acquiescing to the alpha of the pack, the dogs cower and react out of fear of reprisals. The best dog handlers I’ve seen are very calm people and the dogs know when they get a command, they better listen up and act fast. Dogs know these things, but then they all have their limits don’t they? 🙂 10 minutes is a long grooming session with any of the three dogs here in my book too. I originally thought you meant only a few minutes of grooming. They’d get fidgety after such a length of time.
That’s good advice with any unknown dog. They have to come to you and check you out. I always proffer the back of my hand for a new dog to sniff, and just calmly let each other into the space. Mostly that works, although occasionally I’ve been bitten. Long ago, there was a small unknown Pomeranian who wanted to say hello, and was shaky, shaky, nervous, then at the very last second lunged at me. Took me entirely by surprise the cheeky scamp. Probably had done that trick before I reckon.
Man, some people just push boundaries, just because. If people bring around their kids on visits, I keep an eye on the dog / children interactions because sometimes these small humans have never encountered a dog before, and think they’re a big fluff cuddle toy. I don’t think so, and the dogs hold similar opinions.
The Spitz family of dogs (including Pomeranians) are not that far removed from wild dog stock, and so they retain ancestral memories and skills. Sir Poopy the Swedish Lapphund knew how to round up a herd of deer and send them off to the property boundary. That skill was hard wired, and it was awesome to see in action. But oh yeah, Dame Avalanche is more wild than any dog I’ve ever interacted with. Respect. Incidentally there are no huskies in dog obedience school, which is odd don’t you reckon?
If ever you discover how to keep entropy at bay, our fortunes will surely be made, or at the very least yours will be. 🙂 However the chance that you’ll discover this is exceedingly slim, so we’ve been foiled again. Oh well, back to the drawing board.
Good shot! And clearly your household is still in summer mode four, which is: plans for a hot day! I do that too when the days are pushing the high 30’s low 40’s Celsius. At least the nights are getting cooler for you, as the nights here are slowly warming here. I’ve got the exact opposite problem now, no point starting early as it’s too cold and wet. Although this morning we did have to get up early for the annual check up and clean dentist appointment. Candidly I was a bit mildly shocked afterwards and did a factory brain reset, otherwise known as a nap. 🙂 The teeth are in good nick, but still the experience is not one you’d seek for enjoyment, unless you’re Bill Murray facing Steve Martin in a musical about a malevolent plant.
Fingers crossed that your hot spell breaks soon. You might get to enjoy a mini-spring after that time. That’s the plan, but autumns here (or whatever you call the nice spell of weather prior to the cold wintry season) are getting shorter every year.
Cheap mad cash went away a while ago, and these sorts of things are what then happens, sorry to say. Good to read that your cousin has long prepared for the eventuality. It’s hard to know what the future will bring, but I’d have to suggest that there are a lot of possible change agents and events floating around at the moment. I’d call it a time of uncertainty, yeah.
I did very much enjoy and appreciate your spontaneous poem, and you have a natural flair for such things. Of course the jelly may explain this outcome – always possible and it would be unwise to argue with your lady in this matter! 🙂
Difference of opinions we may have,
Circumstances unknown,
Outcomes uncertain,
The fog of indecision lays across the land,
Like a little lost sheep,
But always,
Always,
Know,
That the Lady of Spokane knows!
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Missed that news about the historic theft. It’s an odd thing that, you’d think it would be easier to simply make them if someone wanted them for nefarious activity? Dunno really, but my first thought upon reading the article was that it was for a collector, although that’s only a wild guess. The car that got torched was an odd choice too. A lot of cameras around these days. I don’t really know that state very well, but looks like that museum is not too far out of Sydney. In other down under news, a very old dairy is possibly being retired: King Island Dairy to shut in mid-2025 after Saputo fails to find buyer for iconic cheese brand. It would be pretty hard to find another job on that island, and the cheese is very good.
The import article was good, but my take away is that wholesalers (and presumably manufacturers) are now holding far greater inventory than before, and that is an investment which has many costs for the business. You’ve gotta keep the stuff somewhere and be able to access it when you need it, plus it changes the business model entirely by making purchasing that much more of an expensive proposition. Bigger imports simply cost more, merely to provide a supply buffer that was once free.
The last time I was offered to go on one of those corporate retreats was, never. 🙂 Long ago I was forced to go to the Australian Open tennis and told to be nice to the other corporate folks. Anyway, it was 100’F I was forced to wear a suit, the sun was horrid, and the lunch catering was a hot meal and beer. It was a stupid waste of time and I couldn’t have given a stuff who was playing, although everyone else seemed excited. Probably not wired right for such things, but hey, at least I didn’t get lost coming down a mountain… 🙂 It is my belief that corporates have way too much mad cash to spare when they can do things like that sort of activity. But then, I wasn’t much good with prolonged meetings either, and people seemed rather excited by the prospect of those things. How were you with meetings which go nowhere fast? 🙂
PS: I liked the second film, but thought that the first one was better. Small town intrigue, I get that, but working with those folks, yeah, nah, and as Norm from the show ‘Cheers’ once famously quipped about his lady, “can’t live with ’em, pass me the beer nuts”. There’s a reason I moved to working with small business. 😉
What? No way. I’m checking that out. That story is messed up. Like it defies my imagination that anyone could possibly work in a cubicle near to a dead body and not check out where the smell is coming from? A dog would have worked that out on day one. That workplace probably needs some dogs roaming around each floor. You could call them support dogs, but really they’re there to ensure that all of the employees remain in the land of the living. I’m really struggling to get my head around that story, it’s kind of nuts.
Whatever will they think of next? Last I checked, the author Jack Vance died in 2013, and I don’t remember any stories or books about hillbillies. Surely a person has to be alive to be a contender in your elections? Hehe! Just messing around with you… 🙂 Couldn’t help myself, blame that dead at work for four days employee situation you mentioned. What I want to know, is do they have to pay her estate overtime and for the Monday and Tuesday – she was actually there at the workplace.
Thanks for the tip and that probably would have assisted my use of the catalogue. My efforts were clumsy at best, and I believe they don’t have a single listing for the author, so that’s the answer, I guess.
Oh yeah, but it depends what your plan is. Down here the plans are flat rate + a data allowance. The bigger the monthly data allowance, the more expensive the plan. I’ve noticed the plans are usually on a use it, or lose it basis. But I wouldn’t think about the wifi issue until you know for sure they’re going to shut it down. Did you get any updates from the night shift manager? Is he doing OK?
It’s all a bit mysterious down here on that front, but one can pay for a property title search I guess. It’s all digital now, and I’d hate to think of the dramas where transactions get hijacked and funds disappear… Not good, you hear things and stories. Back in the day you used to settle property by physically meeting up in a bank, swapping a bank check for an updated property title. Easy.
That is rather unpleasantly warm. Hope the nights were cooler? And also that you didn’t have to run the dehydrator? It does smell nice, yeah, although I use the dehydrator outside the house.
The deer are beginning to annoy me. They ate the bark off an olive tree today. It doesn’t look ring barked, but it was a close thing.
Thanks for the zombie news from afar! Ah, looks like the zombies finally got them because new episodes seem to have ceased sometime last year. A shame.
Oh! I forgot to mention that the trailer included scenes from Australian forests. Those were eucalyptus trees, or I’m, as the old timers used to say, and this could be appropriate given the Planet of the Apes film, a monkey’s uncle. Hmm, the old phrase seems to have escaped being cancelled, along with this blog. This is a good thing, and I noted the books in the trailer. It’d be a precarious role being a tame human for Proximus – he seemed to have a hair trigger response to personal criticism.
Hang on, wasn’t the holiday earlier in the week? Anyway, did the box arrive? What a lot of drama, it sounds like mayhem at your place. Those tanks down here get installed with overflows, or at least the one in this house does. Leaks from within the roof would be a pain – and I’m seriously dreading the day the tank thing needs replacing. Might have to rethink the hot water system then. I noticed an article suggesting that we are soon to become a natural gas importer in this corner of the country. The other parts of the country are major natural gas exporters, but that supply has been promised elsewhere. I doubt that they’d be happy to take the hit to their supplies.
You’ve mentioned before that the overloading of the bins happens when people move out, one way or another. Remember the days when bins were tiny little metal contraptions? We’ve progressed a lot since those care free days.
Interesting. It’s always intriguing to see how easily appointments can be attained. Went to the dentist for the annual check up and clean this morning, and the Editor only booked in a few days ago. It was hard to ignore that there had been cancellations.
Go the salad! 🙂 Just the meal for hot weather. Had rice, vegetables and egg for dinner this evening.
Cheers
Chris
Hi, Chris!
Things are tight for everyone that I know. We are all being very careful – well, at least most of us are.
No, Chris – you are not a dilettante. You do know a lot and you are only trying to help people. And speaking of lemons, what a relaxing and informative video. Thanks. So gratifying to see that rich, yellow juice appear from only Chris power.
I am hearing that we may have a colder winter here this coming season. I think we’re ready. I know that we have enough firewood and the greenhouses (from a kit) for the figs are almost all put up.
That’s a lot of nice mulch. That magpie is a scene-stealer like Plum (was that Plum in the lemon video?).
I actually love bittercress. We get lots of it, starting about now, and it grows until the end of spring. I eat a lot of it, and the chickweed that grows at the same time.
My favorites – forget-me-nots! And daffodils! And plum blossoms and rhodies and cherry blossoms. I don’t know any box elders, but they have neat tassels.
Pam
Yo, Chris – That’s sad about the King Island Dairy. I do hope a buyer can be found. And, who is Saputo? At least it doesn’t sound like some LLC. But, I wonder. Were they making a profit, but not enough of a profit? According to their corporate overlords. When they closed the bookstore, that I was managing, here in town, that was the situation. We were showing a profit of 16%. But corporate wanted 22%. And, there were a few other issues. Such as, at that time, there was no, or little computer support, in this county.
I also wonder if inventory tax, plays a role? In having more “just in time” sort of set ups. Inventory tax really varies, from place to place. At least, here.
Another article on our dollar stores, and hard times.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/04/business/dollar-stores-walmart-low-income-consumers
The dollar store I use, is Dollar Tree. They seem to be really cutting back on the tinned food. I asked the clerk about it, and he said it was due to the holiday. But things were looking thin, in the food department, even before the holiday. That chain went to a dollar +, for awhile. Mostly, $1.25. I remembered to look at the recipe, this time, and was still paying $1.25 per tinned good, which is fine.
Meetings that are going nowhere? Once they seem to be winding down, I leave. I was the first to bail out of the tenant’s meeting. All the points seem to have been covered, minutes would be sent out, and it got to the point of just nattering. I have better things, to do.
I’m not sure if I’ll be able to watch “The Dry 2” or not. So far, a great deal of it takes place in the dark. I think I mentioned my portable DVD player, is having some issues, with that. I’ve jacked up the brightness and contrast, to the max. But, I found the manual, last night, and will see if there are any other remedies. If not, I may have to order a new player.
Well, the guy across the hall in the Apartment of Death, mellowed for at least four days. They’ll probably charge the woman’s estate, for clean-up. 🙂 Rumor has it, that it cost $10,000, to clean the apartment, across the hall.
What might work with a library catalog, is if you find an entry for an actual Jack Vance book. Then, click on the author name, in the catalog listing. Sometimes, then only books by “that” Jack Vance will show up. Sometimes, that works. Although there may be some dross mixed in. But sometimes, it makes things more manageable. The operative word is sometimes. 🙂
I haven’t seen the night manager, about the wi-fi. And wonder if I should mention it. I have a feeling, that in the past, when they mentioned doing away with the wifi, it was a ploy to get people to move to a commercial provider. I mentioned it to one of the Inmates, and she thought the wifi had already been disconnected. I’m still using it, though some of the details are a bit funky. A highly scientific and technical term.
People here do title searches, when buying property. Just to make sure there aren’t any leans, on a property. But I can look at county tax records, which record who owns properties. There are even photos from above.
The high yesterday was 82F. Overnight low was 54. Forecast is for 95F, for the next two days. I’ll be watering early morning, and evening. I was going to pick blueberries, this morning, but watered and hauled three bags of groceries, to the Club. I’ll probably pick, early tomorrow morning. I put my dehydrator on the stove top, and turn on the fan. Thus, it doesn’t heat up the apartment.
The library got a new DVD copy, of an old movie. “Pleasantville.” Just as much fun as I remembered. Squabbling teenaged siblings are zapped into the TV world of the black and white 1950s. A “Father Knows Best / Leave it to Beaver” kind of world. Made popcorn, and called it dinner.
I also watched two episodes of “Pompeii: The New Dig.” There are three episodes. It’s mostly about an excavation, of what was probably a really high end house … until the earthquake of 63AD. It was in the process of becoming a more commercial property. There was an enormous bread oven. But no on street sales point. So, it was probably a commercial bakery. That’s the house where they found all the construction material, stacked up. Not mentioned in the previous articles I had read, was that the workman dropped their tools, and ran. Probably. And the tools haven’t changed that much, in almost 2,000 years. A pick ax, is still a pick ax. 🙂
They also had several interviews with the fellow who’s tracing refugees, from Pompeii. Trying to get a fix on how many people lived there, and may have survived. They figure the population was between 20 and 30,000. But through all the excavations, only 1,200 victims, have shown up. He made an interesting point. Judging from wheel ruts, Pompeii was full of wagons, carts, horses and mules. But very few have been found. Fascinating (to me) stuff.
The boxes were so-so. This is the one, that should have produce in it. Nada. Other than a pound of shelled walnuts, and lots of different kinds of dried beans, nothing fresh. There was two large boxes of cereal, and shelf stable milk. A gallon of apple/fruit drink. Those take up a lot of space. A pound of frozen ground beef. A pound of cheddar cheese, and a two pound brick of the other cheese. The stuff that looks like cheddar, but won’t melt. Eggs, butter. Four bottles of that Ensure, stuff. One tin of mixed fruit and two tins of pears. Two tins of salmon. A small jar of peanut butter. A bag of tinned veg. The only things I kept, were the eggs, walnuts, and a couple of tins of diced tomatoes. The dried beans, tined pinto beans and Ensure, I took down to the swap table. The rest I took down to the Club. Lew
Chris,
Yes, calmness around dogs is hugely important. Very necessary in so many situations. The grooming sessions are typically 2 to 4 minutes. I think there has been one of 10 minutes, maybe 2 others greater than 5. Don’t want to stress poor Dame Avalanche too much.
My experience in doggy school mirrors that of the Editor – very few men get involved. I have no use for anyone who bullies their dog. Doesn’t need to be that way at all. I’ve always gotten a lot further with dogs via trust and love and mutual respect. I think you’ve mentioned before that when you yell at your dogs, they look at you like you’ve become crazy. So true.
I’ve only ever seen one husky at doggy school – Avalanche. There used to be another husky in the neighborhood that we would see on our walks. I chatted with the human a few times. He said that consistent work and training with his husky FINALLY came together when the dog was about 3 years old. Happened almost overnight, he said. That is exactly what I observed with Dame Avalanche. Just before she turned 3, she suddenly began acting like a dog rather than as a flighty trainee. Hence, in classes she was rather the “party girl” and disruptive with a short attention span. She badly wanted to socialize rather than learn. The teachers said that her behavior at class was normal for huskies and that I had the correct approach – patience and calmness. I’m not sure I’d take another husky to doggy school – it was very hard on both of us and on the other class members.
If I found a way to keep entropy at bay, be sure that I’d get an ironclad patent for the process. I’m not sure that we finite beings are meant to have such knowledge, however. “Change happens” is a fundamental law of the universe, which implies that entropy is a fundamental part, also. If we could void entropy, would that mean that nothing would ever change?
Factory resets are very important. I fully appreciate them. Princess’s brother, who is older than both me and the Princess, calls them “senior naps”. I tend to fall asleep in the dentist’s chair until the exam starts. Funny thing…I didn’t mind visiting the dentist when younger. The older I get, the less comfortable I am at the dentist office.
I never saw that malevolent plant musical. In fact, I didn’t know what movie you were referring to. So I decided to gaggle it. Alarmingly, I typed “Bill Murray Steve Martin” without the quotes and immediately the first “suggestion” was, and I quote, “Bill Murray Steve Martin Dentist”. Was gaggle reading over my shoulder when I was reading your post about dentists?
They’re saying another week of heat. The next 3 days should be the worst. Then they say “cooler and wetter than normal”. For several months. I’m not sure I’m buying into that. Time will tell.
Nice. The Lady of Spokane DOES know. 😉
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
I’m hearing such stories too, although I’d have to suggest that people have a funny idea nowadays as to what is an essential item, and what they need to own so as to get by in life. It’s hard really to know where all this is headed, but as things get tighter, I’m guessing (but don’t really know) that we’ll find out exactly what the essential things really are. But until then, who knows? One of the advantages of a bit of age, (and presumably this is also the case for you?) is that you can see that once in our youth, things genuinely were different.
Hehe! Thanks for saying so. 🙂 As to helping people out, I’d hope so and try to lead by example. Incidentally, it’s all very exciting, but I began another rock wall project today. There’s a row of water tanks on the downhill side of the long machinery shed, and I’m adding in a line of very large rocks so as to retain the soil there. When full, the water tanks weigh rather a lot, and the biggest tank there is now on a bit of a lean (although the other tanks are just fine). Over summer I’ll bring the leaning tower of heavy water tank back to vertical.
Do you bring your lemon tree inside for the winter? Or am I mis-remembering that?
Pam, I reckon it is a big call that you’ll have a super cold winter. Forecasting that far in advance is a little bit science, and a lot of art. Wait and see how it goes, you never know. They make all sorts of long term predictions about the climate here, and honestly, I live in a state of constant befuddlement as to what next month will bring. Already there are self sown tomato seedling popping up in the greenhouse, and that is so early that my head spins.
Nice work with the greenhouse for the figs. Hope it works well, and most kits I’ve seen are really good. Stopping the winter winds from getting to the figs will be just one benefit. I’ll be very interested to hear of your experience with the greenhouse as the wintry season gets under way in earnest.
Nah, that’s Ruby and she’s happily chomping away on the lady’s bedstraw herbs at the base of an olive tree. Ruby has floppy ears, whilst Dame Plum’s ears are more upright. Although is it impolite to mention such things? The dogs graze around the garden.
Chickweed is great isn’t it. 🙂 The plant crawls through the beds here of leafy greens and so it gets included in the diet when picking other plants.
Forget me nots are such lovely plants, and there is quite the mass of them in one of the garden beds. Not sure how they appear at your place, but here they help re-start garden beds and generally produce good soil where they’ve grown.
🙂 Acer negundo, the box elder, boxelder maple, or whatever you want to call the plant will probably grow very well in your part of the world. The tassles are lovely.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
That’s about what the dogs here will also tolerate when it comes to grooming of their coats. They get a bit unsettled if the time goes beyond such limits, so Dame Avalanche is certainly not on her own there.
The Editor is enjoying doggy school so much that I offered to take Dame Plum down, and yeah, well, now the Editor is training Dame Plum every morning – and the dog was already good, but is now getting even better. Saves me the hassle. But I am absolutely with you there, bullying a dog is the act of a very weak person. Incidentally I was no different with the staff who reported to me over the years in workplaces: calm, consistent, communicative and firm. Can’t say that the higher echelon’s gave me that response, and that eventually wore me out, so I just went off and did something else with my time. Dogs make pretty similar decisions. 🙂
Interestingly, that is what Sandra is also observing at doggie school, sometimes the people who need to be there and learn, aren’t there. My neighbours have a husky and there are times I find their dog in my garden. What are you doing here? And I use a voice of command on the male husky and it now knows me well enough to respond. The kelpies will run from the husky and want to hide in the house, and fair enough, they’re half the size. I’m just glad that Ollie has not ever directly interacted with the powerful dog. Such a dog is a responsibility, as you know, and as I know too about Ollie. He’s too big to be running around doing whatever enters his mind.
Actually, Ruby was pretty similar early on to Dame Avalanche with the doggie school. I wouldn’t worry about it too much and would recommend doing it again should the need arise for you because socialisation is all part of the experience. No doubts Dame Avalanche, not to mention Ruby, had to come down a peg or three in the world and realise that there are other dogs and people out there. It’s a hard blow for a dog’s ego to realise that they’re not as special as they thought they were. At least that is my take on the situation.
Hehe! I liked the way you put that, ‘we finite beings’. I’d never quite thought of the situation that way, but yeah, I guess our experience and journey reflect the universe which we live in. Even stars eventually die, although some become other things which our brains can’t comprehend. Dunno about you, but life would quickly become rather dull if nothing ever changed and entropy was defeated. I’ve read sci-fi stories long ago where that was the premise, and that was enough to convince me of the down-sides.
Dude, you’re on fire with such prescient comments! I prefer the term ‘factory reset’, mostly because nobody knows what is meant by that and so much judgement is avoided. I’m so with you there. It’s an uncomfortable and invasive experience and perhaps my tolerance levels for such things has lowered as the age has increased. An inverse relationship perhaps?
It ain’t just you, I also get some odd coincidences on this ‘ere information super highway, so like the old timers used to quip: It ain’t paranoia, if it’s true!
Exactly, and that was what I also mentioned to Pam. How accurate are long term forecasts anyway? Indicative, maybe, but reality will be something else altogether. That atmosphere, ocean and land stuff has too many variables to call an exact future forecast. Weather forecasts are a form of simplification which is why accuracy improves the closer to the day.
Started a new rock wall project today. The largest of the line of water tanks (5,000L or now full at over 5,000kg) has settled a bit and is leaning slightly off vertical in a downhill direction. A bit fluffy sub-optimal if you ask me. First, retain soil with large rocks, then re-vertical leaning water tank. That’s the plan anyway. Reality may be different, we’ll see.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
That island has bizarrely been in a drought of late, and it’s hard to imagine how an island sticking out of some rather rough water could be in a drought. But that’s a good question. It looks like a Canadian mob. Who knew? Sorry to hear that about the shop, but it’s been my observation over the years that head offices don’t come cheap.
The dairy produced some really good quality cheese. Interestingly, a few months ago I’d read that during the drought on that island, the cows were being fed seaweed due to the lack of fodder. Not a bad idea at all. All the same, dairy production is hard on the land and soils.
I’d never before heard of an inventory tax. Wow! Move to another state if the business was required to maintain a large inventory. We do have some odd taxes down this way, like a payroll tax for mid sized and up businesses (over $600k annually from memory). Last I checked, a small percentage of the salaries and benefits paid to employees was paid over to the state goobermints as a tax. It never made much sense to me because like paying people salaries is generally a good thing. Much like holding inventories is a good thing. But yeah, unusual arrangements have been known to create dysfunctional behaviour.
The strategic mistakes reported upon in the article looked not very good to me. I tend to believe that businesses should perhaps stick to their core products and services when times are tough – that’s asking the hard question: Why does anyone patronise the business? Fancy expansion plans are not particularly what I’d describe as being conservative, as in wanting to conserve something of the business. And they’re are a bit of a gamble in difficult times.
The thing is, the bigger retailers have been known to cliff their suppliers in order to wage margin and price wars against competitors. Such actions eventually put even the suppliers out of business, they have to make mad cash too. And around and around it all goes, where it stops, nobody knows.
Man, I’ve also seen shortages from time to time down here too. It’s never good to see, but inflation is merely another way of implementing the idea of: rationing by price. If my understanding of the Great Depression is good enough, I believe that there were items to buy on the shelves at the time, it’s just that unemployment was so high, and people couldn’t afford the stuff on the shelves.
Like your style with just getting up and leaving the meeting once it’s wound up. Hadn’t thought of doing that, but it would work and leave an impression.
Let’s be blunt then, the first film was better. Sorry to hear about the DVD troubles, that’s not good at all. Has your new computer got a DVD player? They have them as portable devices to connect into the USB port.
Oh that’s so no good, and I see what you mean with the name of the apartment. And you mentioning this recalled to mind the discussion of the census round we did where we had to collect the form from the ‘dead meat man’. Clearly he was not going to be completing the form. Oh you’re cheeky, no way, how bad would that look to charge the estate with the clean up bill? But then it happened with the Titanic band’s uniform bill sent after the sinking. Repealed due to popular demand, it’s a bit outrageous to have sent the bill really given that the band members apparently all drowned.
Hazmat clean ups probably don’t come cheap. You’d have to have a strong constitution to work in that business.
Thanks for the good advice, but I couldn’t even find a single book by the author and so gave up. Last evening I spent about an hour trying to work out what some obscure electrical item was called so that I could order a few. Sometimes (!) finding out what obscure items are called is the hard bit with searches, but then with the solar and farm machines I have to order unusual items online. It’s not like there are bricks and mortar stores carrying such items.
Get Funky! Clearly you are funking it up, because you’re connected to this information super highway thing. Providing free wifi would be a nightmare because the routers have a limited number of connections available, and you’d get people trying to connect in their watches, phones, fitbits, refrigerators – you name it, and there may be whingeing when connections aren’t available.
Oh yeah, title searches go on here too for property transfers, debts etc. That’s standard, it’s just gone all electronic, and there are some occasional bouts of weirdness with that system. Lien’s, caveats, covenants and encumberances, all present issues, hopefully you’re not involved! 🙂
That’s a good idea with the kitchen fan to remove the dehydrator heat and smell.
I missed that film, yes, not all is as it seems in Pleasantville. The trailer was pretty funny. Unlike the 50’s sensibilities which may or may not have existed as depicted, good tools never go out of fashion. The basics with tools were figured out a long while ago.
Speaking of tools and working, we moved a lot of rock today. Me tired. Began placing large rocks to shore up the clods on the down hill side of the long machine shed. There’s a row of water tanks there, and the largest has titled a bit off vertical, and that’s probably not all that great given all the tanks are linked and water finds its level between them. Anyway, sure up the downhill edge with rocks and then back with soil and then right the water tank when it’s empty during summer. You’ve got me wondering now, whether future archaeologists seeing all the stone work will pronounce that the are was set aside for unknown ritual activities? 🙂
The horses and carts may have been fast enough to get away. Maybe it was really only the people who refused to go until way too late, who copped it?
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Seems like anything that moves, is taxed. And a lot of things that don’t move 🙂 Once upon a time, in different countries, there was a window tax. A lot of people bricked up some of their windows, just to avoid the tax. One of the “Madam Blanc” mysteries, revolved around finding a treasure, related to a bricked up window.
My little flip phone offers one rate. But by the time all the taxes are added in, it’s about $10 more. Next time I get a bill, I’ll list them.
Most companies are into growth, growth, growth. Shareholders demand it. And, other companies and Wall Street think less of you, if you don’t show much growth, or if the growth is modest. So, some Wonder Boy or Girl in corporate, comes up with some idea, to increase growth. Do they ask the employees in the trenches, or, parish the thought, their customer? Of course not.
No, my new computer does not have a DVD player. The old one did, but that part of the hardware eventually bit the dust. Probably, because of dust. I should have put a piece of tape over the port. 🙁
Fiddling with searches, can be frustrating. Especially if you don’t know the exact name of the item. Even when you have a fairly straight forward term, it seems like all kinds of unrelated junk gets thrown in there. Or, the search engine decides it knows better, offers up something totally unrelated, and it’s like a brick wall, you can’t get past. “Did you mean…” No, I didn’t mean. I meant exactly what I typed in.
If I have it figured out, we have three routers, in the building. I get the best reception, from one of the routers, but it seems like the search for wi-fi always defaults to one of the other two, with weak signals. But, I can select for the better router. Lately, it’s been hard to hold onto that signal, and it slides (?) to one of the other routers. There’s also a small icon that tells me how strong the signal, is.
The Leaning Water Tower of Fernglade Farm. Soon to be a major tourist attraction. 🙂 Best shore it up, as best you can. Now that, apparently, you’re living in earthquake country, you could get quit a bit of slosh. A highly technical and scientific term.
I watched the last episode of “Pompeii: The New Dig.” More, please! So, they had excavated the bakery, and front house. Which seems to have been a house converted into the business end of things. Another house, next door, was converted into a fullery. Also, owned by the same man. Then they got into the house, behind the businesses, where he lived. Lots of luxury, there. And, under a stairway, they found some charcoal graffiti of two gladiators. They figures out the name of the fellow. Due to some initials, here and there, that they connected to an election notice. He was running for the second spot, in the Pompeii civic government. They speculate, that the huge bread oven, was used to make bread, to be given away, and buy votes. 🙂
It was 93F (33.88C), yesterday. 57F was the overnight low. Forecast for today is 95F. Tomorrow, we’ll be back in the 80sF, with slowly declining temperatures, after that. Prof. Mass thinks this will be our last heat wave. I walked the dog, watered the garden, and picked another quart and a half of blueberries. All before 10am. I feel so productive, I think I’ll take a nap. 🙂 Blueberries are all washed, spun, and drying in colanders. Looks like I can pick another round of tomatoes, tomorrow, to dehydrate. No rest for the wicked … or at least the minimally naughty. Lew
Chris:
I mustn’t throw stones. My essentials are not necessarily someone else’s essentials, until you get down to food and shelter, and then even that varies.
That’s a bit scary about the leaning water tank. Those things are darn heavy. I’m glad to hear that you are building another wall, though I don’t see how you are going to straighten the tank up unless it’s empty.
Oh, yes – the bitty lemon tree comes inside for the winter. I believe Claire has one on her porch?
I never noticed the ear difference on the dogs. I guess I’ll assume that bedstraw is tasty, though by that measure, cow poop is, too.
Pam
Chris,
Amazing isn’t it? Dame Plum is reasonably well behaved yet is getting something from formal training. Dogs really respond well to it, although some are on a delayed schedule like Dame Avalanche was.
You gave a great summary of my career experiences: treat staff and coworkers well but be treated poorly by management. The Big Boss eventually quit having section meetings. He’d ask a question like, “How did you guys figure out what to do and how to do it? I never told you.” One younger person usually replied in a scathing tone, “You ignore us. DJ takes care of us and teaches us how to do things.” He didn’t like hearing that, but on the other hand, he took the credit for how well his staff was doing. 😉 I figured that if I taught new coworkers how to do their jobs, it eventually meant less work for me to do.
I have thought at times, for many hours, about what life would be like without change. Ugg! It’s really not a pretty thought. Like you, I’ve also read sci-fi stories about just such things. Horror stories is what those are. Imagine that you are at the very worst moment of your life. The invention that stops change and stops entropy is found and implemented. You are stuck at the very worst moment of your life forever. That’s where my thinking always went. This thought just occurred to me though: if change ceased to happen, would that mean that time stands still?
Yes, the visits to the dentist. Inverse relationship is a good way to put it. Or maybe “Familiarity breeds contempt”? In fairness, my dentist is very nice and does a great job and really likes the Princess. So maybe “inverse relationship” is the best way to say it.
We had a rock chip in the Honda windshield. I called up a rock chip repair company. They sent someone out today. Chip got repaired before the windshield turned into spider webs and cracks.
Do I have this right? Pisa has a Leaning Tower. Fernglade has Tilting Water Tanks. Your farm could become a tourist attraction.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
There’s a long history there and I appreciate the feedback. But of course, and thanks, so say no more! Incidentally, I recall way back in 1980 when Billy Joel released his seventh album, Glasshouses. And there he was on the cover of the vinyl LP trying to look all tough and scary in blue jeans and a black leather jacket (very Mod if I may say so) holding a rock about to throw it into a wall of glass of some uber modern architect designed house. But if you look carefully, really carefully, you’ll see a reflection of the musician in the glass, and the sensitive person wonders what is actually lost if the rock is thrown? Thus proving the old saying about: ‘those who live in glass houses’.
Everyone’s idea as to what is an essential varies, and I absolutely agree with you. Even after the dust settles, that will still vary.
We continued work on the new supporting rock wall today. Boulders were broken up, and further large rocks were then placed on the new rock retaining wall. Me tired. The water tank when full (as it is right now) weighs over 11,000 pounds. Once the water tank is empty in summer, it will be far easier to right up back to vertical.
That’s my understanding as well, yes the tree lives on a sheltered porch during very dry spells. And wise to pull yours in out of the cold winter weather too. Would you risk it in the new greenhouse this winter? Some citrus trees can cope with a little bit of snow, but sometimes in your part of the world, there is a lot of snow and cold winds. The snow they seem OK with, but not the cold winds associated with such frozen weather. Reminds me of the coffee shrub which once thrived here only to succumb to a brief snowfall. It didn’t last, but for a while there it looked like a good mad cash crop.
The dogs are both from the same litter and so look very similar. When first we got them, it was touch and go to work out which dog was which, but now I know. Can you imagine the trouble identical twins would get up to?
Pam, you mentioned the poo. 🙂 More to come on this story…
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
It is amazing, and Dame Plum is the smartest dog of the three, so once the wilfulness barrier (husky = 3 years just sayin’, you know what I’m talking about 🙂 ) was broken through, she’s decided to get with the training program in earnest. Spare a moments thought for Ruby who displays signs that she’s not entirely comfortable with the home grown competition.
In many ways, it’s a bit like someone being let near a chainsaw, in that firstly it wouldn’t be a bad idea if they knew what they were doing with the thing. Dogs are about as challenging. To be honest, I’m very lucky that the biggest of the dogs, Ollie, in that he has such a gentle personality. He’s been bred for hunting, and he’d be a serious handful if he was focused, which thankfully is not the case and was probably why he was at a shelter. For your interest, of the three dogs, he’s the one that has known hard times whilst stuck in shelters, but he’s also the most grateful to enjoy the conditions here. We got the kelpies at twelve weeks and they’ve never known a bad day in their lives.
Ah, DJ, you and I may have been most excellent Lieutenants leading the troops first hand through direct knowledge and mostly by example, but would we be good Captains? I tend to think not. 🙂 My experiences over the years communicating with boards was not reassuring. The accounts team mostly always ran well, but the air in the upper atmosphere just seemed somewhat stale to me.
And I couldn’t agree more with you – and for the same reasons. It’s easier to train for the actual experienced conditions, rather than have them fail because of general flummoxing because training was on some other (possibly very abstract) matter altogether. Yup, less work to do in the long run. 😉
Incidentally you may have noticed that we have a policy here of continuous improvement? If systems on the property aren’t working, let’s do something about them!
Yeah, the last such story I read was the British sci-fi author Peter F Hamilton’s Void trilogy. Very entertaining, and um, well this kind of sums up the issues faced: where perfection is achieved, so that nothing else is left to strive for and the human race in the Void has started to devolve. Makes a lot of sense, except the Void also managed to suck in so much energy to achieve that useless end that it was in danger of swallowing the entire galaxy. Had to be thwarted.
You’re probably right, and most people want Groundhog Day to be the best, but that day for all sorts of reasons, might really suck. Ah, change and time are only marginally related or am I off the mark here. 😉 And you think I’m only half asleep, and that’s only a quarter true. You always chuck in these physics meets philosophy issues and then my brain begins to hurt! Hehe!
I dunno about that, like you I also have a great respect for the dentist, but for some reason now seem to find the visits more uncomfortable than previously. Still, a new adage could be coined here: It’s easier to go, than not go! You heard it here first. See, your dentist is a nice person too. 🙂
Good to hear that the glue on the laminated glass works. It’s hard to forget broken vehicle windscreens where the glass is delaminating. Not something I’d do, but people sometimes try to save money in unusual ways, then spend it in other unusual ways. Such acts confuse my brain.
On the other hand, I do like how your brain works though, and am trying unsuccessfully to work out how to charge a toll for the privilege of seeing the leaning water tank, but the practical ways escape me. Alas our fortune has yet again escaped us both. Oh well, back to the drawing board.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Just took Ollie outside so that he could do his err, business. It’s pretty dark and the night sky is looking full of stars. Anyway, in the orchard it was hard to ignore the thump, thump, thump of a wallaby fleeing away in fright. I for one am glad that the wallabies appear to have kicked the ‘shroom habit and are now responding correctly to the very real threat that the big dog is to them (although he is never allowed off leash at night). He’s a funny dog, it was such a sunny day today, and we working way down below on the forest edge breaking apart boulders. I left Ollie nearby in the fenced citrus enclosure where he could amuse himself and enjoy the sunshine. Anyway, at one point I looked up to see what he was doing, and the dog was on his back with his legs in the air wriggling around and sliding down the slope. He looked like he was having fun.
We sure do pay a lot of taxes from our earnings, but the funny thing about it all is that the powers that be seem to spend even more mad cash than they bring in each year, thus bringing inflationary ruin upon all of us. Seems unwise to me, but it’s hard to forget historical instances of Kings squeezing the peasants in order to pursue personal interests. I remember that window tax, yeah and you reminded me that many years ago I met an old bloke who lived in a two story Victorian house which was bordering on a small manor. A lovely looking building which we were admiring, and I ended up in a chance conversation with him. So I asked why the second story had not been painted, whilst the first was (or maybe it was the other way around, I forget). He didn’t seem like the kind of guy to skip on maintenance, and he told me – although I’ve never confirmed it – but at one time the local council decided to tax maintenance efforts for buildings with more than one story. He could have been lying, but he seemed genuinely aggrieved, so I kept an open mind as to that possibility. Dunno.
I’ll be curious to hear what those taxes are when next the bill turns up. Most purchases down under have a flat nationwide 10% goods and services tax applied to them. It’s rather an ingenious strategy because it turns every single business in the country, into a tax collector. Magnifies the effort so to speak.
I also didn’t really understand why that strategy for diversified sales growth was attempted, but like you say, nobody consulted me either. What I wanted to know was, did the person who promoted the apparently failed strategy, get sacked, promoted or sidelined?
As someone who works in and with small business, I get out into the trenches and muck in. In many ways you get to experience the raw nature of the beast in all it’s myriad forms, but I can comprehend why most of my profession does their best to hide away in an office. I just don’t agree with that approach, and many of that lot appear to be looking down their noses at me. I really don’t what to make of the situation.
Bummer about not having a DVD player, although I was perhaps overly subtle – which is something of a personal failing 🙂 – so I’ll be blunt: You can get really cheap DVD drives which plug into the computer. Most computers don’t come with DVD players nowadays, and bizarrely we had to retrieve a very old file (not accessed for 25 years) from a 3.5″ floppy disc a few months ago and, so got a portable drive for $15. Who knew the things were even still being made? And the file was able to be retrieved, to me, that was the most amazing part of it all. Truly for a moment there, I thought it would be our version of the Mars Viking rover mission tapes incident.
Fear may be the mind killer, but dust kills far more mechanical and electrical items. 🙂 I mentioned to you a few weeks ago when I took the computers apart and got the air compressor onto the guts of the machines. Talk about massive quantities of dust bunnies. How’d they ever get in there? I’m sure you’ve seen such things in the days you restored tat? Ever find any treasure, or anything really interesting buried deep and hidden in a piece of furniture?
Yeah, that’s exactly what happens with the searches where you don’t know what an item is called. There are plenty of strategies for sure, and you probably know all of them. But sometimes as a random search I’ll type in what I think the item is called, then switch from text to images in the hope that someone else has misnamed the item. Incidentally the item I was looking for, for over an hour yesterday I discovered was called a ‘pole filler’. Go figure, it’s an electrical item, but sounds rather like I dunno, gyrating humans in a gentleman’s club.
Ha! Oh man, what a nightmare of a wifi problem, and that actually also happens to me at some workplaces. Far out. Hmm, yeah, a bit of a nightmare. I feel your pain there, and prior to the current set up, we used to get signal black spots inside the house. Made it hard to work, that. It’s a bit of overkill now, but there are three routers in the newer system (one big and two drones) and they all think they’re one. Prepare to be assimilated! Your lot could probably do the same, but the redundancy of having three different sets of signals is no bad thing. Have you ever had signal there, but were still unable to connect? Could be a power saving setting on your computer – sometimes the computer switches off your wifi service to save power if it detects no internet activity for a set period of time (like when you are typing away). That will certainly disconnect you from the router. I force the things to stay on all of the time regardless whenever the computer is switched on. Let me worry about the power usage.
You and DJ were both stirring me up about the major tourist attraction, and yeah, nah, that won’t happen – if I can help it. That’s the plan anyway. But point taken about the earthquakes and that thought hadn’t even occurred to me. Hmm. Anyway, the rock wall has commenced.
It’s kind of amusing to consider graffiti from almost two millennia ago. And if anything proves to me that we’re the same people today as we were back then, it was that example you gave about the bread. Yup. The details have changed, but have we?
Dude, that’s hot. I won’t mention that it was sunny and in the mid 60’F degrees down here today. That’s the problem with getting up too early, although hot day exceptions have to be made. Nicely put! Yes, I can see that, minimally naughty!
Cheers
Chris
Chris:
Well, I’ll tell you who’s lost: Joel’s fleeting image (though not his album cover) and – unless he had made a deal with the glass house owner – his freedom. Or at least, since he is Someone Special, a good chunk of his mad cash.
Oh, you’re going to empty it, or it will have gone to empty through usage.
I think there may some other citrus that will be the guinea pig in the winter greenhouse. The greenhouses are on a slightly SE facing slope which is part of the bigger N slope, so I guess time will tell.
I like poo stories if they involve composting – or bears.
Pam
Yo, Chris – I meant to mention, it looks like you’ll be doing a bit of bush whacking, to get that stairway where you want it to go. It’s a jungle, up there! 🙂
Seems there’s a few movies, out there, that have to do with having a day, on repeat. Saw one a year or two ago, that had to do with a time traveling tanning bed. Really! It was called, “Meet Cute.” Quit funny, with a bit of a sinister streak. Good cast.
The wallabies kicked the ‘shroom habit? They must have found a meeting. 🙂
We have a sales tax, here. Some states don’t. And, there can be a county and local (city) tax, on top of the state tax. They’re a hassle, for small businesses. Depending on business volume, they can be monthly, quarterly, or yearly.
I’ve heard stories, of people allowing their property to run down, so they won’t have to pay as much property taxes. Then there’s the guy, here in town, that bought a small old cemetery. Built his large, fancy house (with view!) within the boundary of the cemetery. Cemetery land is not taxed. Neither is his house. There’s occasional grousing about it, but, he’s part of the old boy’s network, so, gets away with it.
When business plans don’t work out, I’m sure minions are thrown under the bus. Always handy to have a few minions, around.
Sure, I could hook a DVD drive, up to my computer. But, sit bolt upright in front of my computer, to watch a movie? Or recline in a leisurely manner, in my big comfy chair with the portable DVD player, perched on another chair, next to it? By the way, I sat down with the manual, last night. May have found a few buttons to try, to see if I can clear up the darkness problem. Not that the manual was that forthcoming. Pretty sketchy. But, worth a try.
Can’t say I ever found real treasure, in old furniture. But, a few interesting things, that were worth small amounts of money. Decks of old playing cards (there are collectors), post cards (ditto). A handmade golliwogg. As I remember, that brought a bit, but, less than $50. I always check old books, for money. Never found any, other than a stray dollar bill, or two. But, interesting bookmarks, postcards and old photos.
It’s quit the fad here, right now, for ladies of a certain age to take pole dancing classes. As a method of exercise. I have a friend at the Club, who is taking classes. And one of the caregivers, here at the Institution. Ax throwing, is also a current fad. Fun for the whole family.
We’re getting a lot of smoke, from the Oregon fires. Prof. Mass talked about it. But, it mostly seems to be staying aloft. He also said yesterday will be our last really hot day, of the year. Yesterday’s high was 90F (32.22C). It was still quit warm out, when I took H for a walk, at midnight. Though I don’t know what the overnight temps were, as, our local weather station stopped reporting, about 7PM. Started up again, this morning. Who knows why? Forecast is for 87F, today. With decreasing temps, over the next few days. Maybe rain, next Wednesday.
As you know, I generally avoid highly processed food. I forgot to mention, there was a two pound bag of Alaskan, wild caught Pollock fish sticks, in our box. I do have a weakness for fish stick sandwiches. So, I went down to the grocery outlet store, and bought a loaf of pretty good bread. I also wanted some tartar sauce, but they had none. But they did have a small jar of sweet pickle relish. So I mixed up some plane yoghurt, the relish, a squirt of horseradish mustard, and chopped garlic. It was a reasonable facsimile. With mozzarella cheese. Had three, as the bread slices were small. Had yoghurt and prunes for desert … just to keep everything moving along. 🙂
I also needed some almond milk, and half and half dairy, for my cucumber salad. They were out. So, I’ll visit a friend at the Club, tonight, and then head to the expensive, independent grocery store.
I walked the dog, watered, and went to pick blueberries, for my next round of oatmeal. I was on the upper path / ramp, where the blueberries are. I became aware of three (!) black cats, on the lower ramp, staring intently at me. So, I checked the symbolism.
From what I found, seeing three black cats is a powerful sign of good fortune. Evokes the triple goddesses, maiden, mother and crone. Fertility, creativity and wisdom. And that I’m attuned to the spiritual world. I’ll take it. :-). At least they didn’t cross my path! Lew
Hi Pam,
Oooo, it’s almost like a Stephen King tale where the stone throwing, into a clearly post-modern glass wall, ends up with some unusual curse! But yeah, the reflected image would be lost for sure, and maybe even a touch of the soul as well. A dangerous occupation that, throwing rocks at glass walls of post modern houses. And I absolutely agree with you there in your analysis: Hope the check is good for the full cost of the repairs and/or impairment, otherwise you be going to see the constabulary.
Yes, that is the plan. Usually the rainfall in the warmer months is deficient enough that the 5,000L (or 1,315 gallon) water tank empties and thus it becomes light enough to bring back to vertical. At the moment I couldn’t budge the thing, and even a crane would have difficulties. Best not to waste the stored reserves.
I’ll be very interested to hear of your experience with the, dare I say it, sacrificial, citrus trees in the greenhouse over the winter months. It’s marginal here for those trees outdoors, so any additional information can only but help all of us. From what I hear, they dislike the winds more than the freezing temperatures, but you’re putting that theory to the ultimate test.
Oh, there’s a poo story alright, but please do keep your bears in your country. I wouldn’t sleep properly knowing they were happily roaming through the forests down here looking for an easy feed – i.e. my good self. Pam, I’ve seen the videos of how the creatures act and am uncomfortable to say the least!
Better get writing!
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Yours was an astute observation, because that is exactly what happened – bush whacking. Took about twenty or thirty minutes to knock down all of the vegetation in that area near to where the stairs are going to travel. It was a bit of a job to hack a path through the jungle, actually, but it got done.
Groundhog day was my favourite, although the English film ‘About Time’ is also right up there for that genre. Any recommendations from your repertoire? Yes, meet cute was a good film which I also enjoyed, and who knew that the term stretched back over the ages to Romeo and Juliet?
You can only hope so. Those naughty substance abusing marsupials. At least their thoughts appear to be more cogent after the months of meetings. 🙂 It’s done good.
Oh my gawd, navigating a maze of county, local and state taxes, not to mention federal, would be like walking through a minefield in that you’d want someone who knew where the mines were laid. Makes you wonder though, at what point do fines become taxes?
No, look, call me superstitious, but as a kid I watched the Poltergeist film and from that moment onwards developed a simple strategy: Don’t build dwellings upon recent cemeteries. He can have the local tax free lifestyle for all I care, but the ghosts won’t ever rest. Nope, it all seems like a good idea, until the day the Poltergeist arrive.
That minion thing incidentally happened to me earlier in the year: It’s just business, they told me as the crush bus approached. Yeah, sure. Fortunately I’m of a nimble disposition and rolled out of the way prior to the big wheels crashing on down. Always pays to be fleet of foot.
Thanks for the explanation as to your computer DVD reluctance, and I get that. Movies are meant to be an enjoyable experience, although I can’t truly say that was the case with the Poltergeist film, and being able to reach the ‘stop’, or even the ‘pause’ button on the computer keyboard would have beaten the daylights out of the benefits of a comfy recliner chair. Just sayin… Any luck with the settings on the machine?
Really? You’ve always suggested that there are ready collectors for tat, and I’d not realised it would extend to sets of playing cards. Presumably the full set was discovered? The golliwog would have been an interesting find. Probably would have been cancelled these days, but I remember those dolls/toys way back in the day. It’s interesting you mention that about the post cards, because we’ve also found those in second hand books where the previous owners had used them as bookmarks. Always interesting to see the past.
Yes, I’d heard of that form of exercise and it seems like hard work. Lewis, there are times I’d like to harness all that the energy output from gyms and such other activities, and use it to haul rocks back up the hill. Would it hurt? Maybe. But would something productive be achieved? Absolutely! Is it too much to ask? Now practising axe throwing could come in handy. Back in the day they used to practice knife throwing, and as a skill, that’s hard.
Oh no, looks like by Monday the Oregon smoke will be veering in an easterly direction towards DJ. Much of my summer months are replete with the acrid scent of bushfire smoke. It happens, and after a while I sort of adjust to the stuff, but aren’t a fan. There are better and more appropriate times of year to burn off. Speaking of which, it being a Sunday, I had a burn off today. The flames were intense, but the drizzle stopped embers from lodging high up in the tree canopy. A professional hazard of the Sunday down under activity.
Yum! Fish sticks are very tasty, although as you suggest it is probably not all that wise to check the origins all that closely. Sounds like a nice meal. Having sliders for dinner this evening. Yum! Good to hear that you are considering the bowels, one must avoid too much cheese and/or cheese like product.
See, you’re flexible too. Sometimes you just gotta pay full price, and then some. Was that independent store well stocked?
Thanks for the information on the symbolism, and I can’t ever recall seeing three cats, but you on the other hand have been visited by lady fortune, or more correctly the ladies of luck – which sounds a bit odd put that way. Well, a dude has to know how to walk in all worlds, including that of the spirit. You don’t see too many cats up this way, maybe that itself is a portent? I’m troubled now… 🙂
Cheers and better get writing, oh my gawd I’m so late tonight. Blame the video…
Chris
Yo, Chris – Bush whacking: Did you deploy your second best zombie killing machete? I just had a cartoon vision flash through my head. A machete in a glass cabinet, with a sign saying, “In Case of Zombie Apocalypse, Break Glass.” 🙂
Get back to me on the wallabies recovery efforts, after they have a few years under their belts.
The guy who used the cemetery scam, is (was?) a local radio talk show host. Who set himself up as a paragon of rectitude and right thinking. He had a nemesis, though. Some guy that drove around in an old beat up truck, with signs on the sides saying what a fraud Mr. Rectitude is. I don’t know what the story was, there. But he was around, for years. Free speech, and all
Yes, I heard that “It’s just business,” during my time in the tat trade. When I was hustled out of an “antique mall,” where I had a space. The owners wanted to combine two small spaces (mine included), and charge more money, for the combines spaces, than the two singles. Or, something. It was OK. I had other spaces in other malls, on the hustle.
I didn’t get around to testing some of the other buttons, on the remote control. Had some other things going, last night.
Playing cards and other card games can have some interesting art work. Cue, GGA (Good Girl Art.) 🙂 Deltiology: the collection of post cards. I think some things are collected, because you can have a vast collection, in a small space.
Looks like we have a fire burning in the SW corner of our county. To add to the smoke, from Oregon. It’s called the Huckleberry Ridge Fire. It’s on timber company land, so, so far, no structures in danger.
It was 82F (27.77C) yesterday. Overnight low was a steady 61F. Forecast for today is 79F.
Went back to a sensible dinner, last night. Rice, garlic and tomatoes and squash from the garden. A can of garbanzo beans. With a little cider vinegar sprinkled on, tasty.
Yes, I made it up to the independent grocery, last evening. After a cuppa, at the Club. Found everything I needed, but the prices … There was an article in the local news, yesterday, that the new Winco store’s walls are going up. Photos. No opening date, yet. I’m looking forward to it. It will really change the retail grocery landscape, in this county.
Time to walk the dog, and then get out and pick those tomatoes, so I can load the dehydrator. No rest for the wicked, or at least naughty. Lew