Too Proud

From hindsight, the young bloke should have been sacked. But then, back in the very early 1990’s, things on the employment front were a bit loose. You could say that there was a bit of slack in there, yeah. After the young blokes incident, the boss met up with me in a formal meeting. He said something about putting in a more responsible person into the role. Was he talking about me? At only twenty years of age, I was hardly the paragon of responsibility, but then perhaps it is all a relative concept.

It’s been said before that if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Mind you, peanuts are quite tasty, and with a stash of roasted unsalted peanuts in the kitchen, you can make your own peanut butter at home. Super tasty stuff. Yum! However, at the time such taste sensations slathered upon oven fresh home baked bread, weren’t on my mind. Nope. In those heady days of banging garage rock bands, dirty flannelette shirts, filthy jeans all at minimum wage, added up to the inglorious state of being broke. Anyway, low wages are notorious for a certain lack of care and attention, and as I quickly discovered, he’d crashed the work car.

Turns out, it’s probably an economic decision not to risk your own car, but instead take the work car out paddock bashing with your mates on the weekend. For those who don’t know, the possibly very drunken activity involves driving a sedan at improbable speeds around a grassy paddock. It’s all fun and games, until the work car gets crashed into a fence or tree (and maybe even both).

So there he was on the Monday morning of the weekend afterwards.

You look a bit crook, are you alright mate?

Can’t talk. Gotta go see the boss.

Candidly, the young bloke, didn’t look all that well that day. The old timers used to quip that a person in such situations could receive a ‘dressing down’, and that may have happened. Following on from the incident, he was moved to another department where he was less likely to get into trouble. He was also no longer welcome with the regular drinking crew on a Friday lunchtime and after work. Persona non grata thereafter for sure.

That day I found myself transferred into his job, which was running the departments car pool. It was a lot of fun, that job. You’d sit around all day and take employee bookings for vehicles, ensure the things were serviced, repaired and available when needed. Most of the days working there my brain was on auto-pilot. Surely not much more would be expected, I was on minimum wages after all. However, there were some exciting moments when you’d get to test drive the latest model cars. It was very exciting the day when the boxy cars were replaced with the smoother bubble panelled vehicles with flush fit windows. It felt powerful to be at the forefront of vehicle innovation, although frankly speaking, they drove pretty much the same as the earlier models.

My predecessor set the minimum standard for the job – don’t crash the cars outside of work hours. Always hard to explain. Some weekends they’d ‘lead me into temptation’ by allowing me to drive a particular car home on a Friday afternoon. The intention was for me to drop it off at the repairers early on a Monday morning. This was always a ‘Thank you Lord!’ moment. Being on minimum wage, which back then was $230 a week (or a $1,000 per month) income was tight-as, and so the temptation to use the car for err, personal transport possibilities on the weekend was kind of hard to resist. What better way to impress the girlfriend, than turn up in some fancy new set of wheels with free petrol. Just don’t crash the thing.

Somehow, probably through sheer good luck rather than any inherent skill on my part, the fate of my predecessor was avoided. All was good with the world, but on minimum wage it was hard not to be broke, all the time. It was a good thing all my mates were broke as well. Despite the collective lack of mad cash, and the ever present threat of losing your job when one in ten people were unemployed, we had heaps of fun. When funds are limited in an evenly distributed way, people get creative with their entertainment.

Eventually, the fear of being sacked from the job for acts of sheerest stupidity (and probably then some) faded into insignificance, because the entire department was made redundant. Guess we must have collectively cost too much, whilst producing too little. Ironically, the department the car crash idiot guy had been moved to was safe. Fate can sometimes intervene in mysterious ways.

Luckily for me I was able to find work at that time of 10% unemployment. Corporate debt collection is a dirty business, but it paid better than the previous job, as long as I did the work and produced results. Living pay cheque to pay cheque though was a nerve wracking experience, and I had to work very hard to keep a roof over my head and food upon the table. But hey, at least in those days living costs were heaps cheaper than now. Rent was $70 a week, food was cheap, and the only other costs were telephone and electricity, and they didn’t cost much either. All other costs were discretionary.

There are times I conduct a thought experiment just to see how a young person would cope on minimum wage nowadays. For your elucidation, the minimum wage down under is $916 a week for 38 hours of work. $116 of income tax is deducted from that, so they’re left with $800 of mad cash. The city of Melbourne is bizarrely one of the cheaper big cities down under to rent, with the median (i.e. the very middle price) weekly rent at about $590. Other big cities are far more expensive. But then so to are a lot of the other basic costs in these more enlightened times. It doesn’t leave a person with much cash to spare, and you’d probably be looking at any cheaper housing arrangements (along with all of your peers). Things actually are tough, and the whole situation just looks like a car crash to me.

Having run out of stored firewood a few weeks ago, we’ve gotten very serious about the firewood shed upgrade project. The construction site is being cleaned up in preparation, and this week we demolished the smaller old shed which just happens to be in that area. Regular readers will recall that this is the shed which exhibits all of the rust.

This small rusty shed is about to be demolished

The hardest aspect of the demolition job was removing the four solar panels from the steep roof. They’re quite large, heavy and unwieldy, but were eventually returned to the ground without incident.

Once the solar panels were removed, the metal roof sheeting and a couple of the steel roof joists were dismantled and carefully stored.

Where’s my roof gotten too?

The following work day, we removed all of the steel cladding.

All the steel cladding was removed and stored

Most of the steel above the ground seemed in good condition. It was a good thing that the shed was dismantled, because all of the supporting posts were able to be broken at ground level, by hand.

Breaking steel posts – easily

The concrete holding the steel posts into the ground was broken up, removed from the site, and will be used as fill on a garden staircase project. Other than the many tek screws (which are now blunted beyond use) all other materials were saved for future usage.

With the concrete out of the way, the scary old rototiller was then used to break up the soil and flatten out the site.

The scary old rototiller and author begin to flatten out the site

The machine can also be used to spread soil around the area. A final raking neatens the job up, and before you know it, the question forms in your mind: was there even a shed there in the first place?

Looking super neat with plenty of space for a larger firewood shed

There’s still a bit of work to go in order to have the site ready for construction, and another day should see that part of the job completed.

The remainder of the large rocks were brought up from the forest edge and installed on the new rock wall which retains the soil for the line of water tanks. Sadly, we have again run out of large rocks for this project, and so will have to break up some boulders soon.

Construction of the new rock wall below the line of water tanks continued this week

It’s not all infrastructure work around here, the Rabbit WarsTM continued this week. Another mighty blow was struck for the Empire this week as the two alert storm-trooper Kelpie dogs informed me that a rabbit had been hiding in the succulent garden beds. Easily solved, the beds were pruned hard so that no hiding place remained. The rabbits resistance is becoming increasingly nervous.

The succulent beds were pruned hard

Sandra has also bowed to concerted pressure, and agreed to allow for the removal of the spiky varieties of succulents from those garden beds. I did the dirty job, and also removed a deep thorn from Dame Plum’s side flank. Sandra removed a thorn from both herself and Ruby. The plant was interesting, sure, but the reality was far more painful, so it had to go.

The state government appears to have gotten off its backside and conducted a planned burn off in nearby forest. They are very lax about this task, but to their credit this time around the burn was timed and managed to perfection in conjunction with the weather.

The state government did a nearby burn off this week

In breaking produce news, some of the potatoes planted a few weeks ago, have produced leaves.

Potato leaves emerge from the well fed soil

The many sugar beet seeds planted out a few weeks ago, have also now produced tiny seedlings. The seeds come in a cluster, so I may have to thin these seedlings out over the next few weeks.

Sugar beet seedlings pop up in the soil

Another row was planted out with radishes and beetroot seeds, and they’ve now mostly all germinated.

The Radishes and beetroot seeds have germinated well

Regular readers will recall that the Japanese ginger (Myoga) were removed from a raised garden bed inside the greenhouse. I’d not really expected the plant to survive, but sometimes it’s good to be wrong.

Japanese ginger (Myoga) shoots have appeared this week

Some of the earliest berries in the season are the currants / gooseberries / jostaberries, and this week the shrubs are all full of flowers.

This blackcurrant is well along the way to producing yummy berries

Earlier today I spotted a couple of young female kangaroos who’ve been hanging around the farm of late. They’ve both got joeys in their pouches, and one of them was even poking it’s head out and taking a look around.

A couple of female kangaroos and their joeys

This week’s video shows the low gradient path which winds through the shady orchard and ends at the chicken enclosure:

Our off grid home – Oldest part of the garden

Onto the flowers:

The Daffodils and Jonquils are a bright spot of colour in the paddocks
The white Rhododendrons are very showy plants
But for sheer volume of flowers, not much beats the Pears

The temperature outside now at about 11am is 13’C (56’F). So far for last year there has been 706.2mm (27.8 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 699.0mm (27.5 inches)

37 thoughts on “Too Proud”

  1. Yo, Chris – It’s a proven scientific fact, that young blokes decision making part of the brain, don’t fully develop, until they’re into their 20s. If they survive … 🙂

    Young folk, living paycheck to paycheck, will do what they’ve always done. Find an apartment or house to share. Up until my early 30s, I had a pretty substantial run of “roomies.” Most were pretty OK. I wonder what happened, to all those folks?

    Future archaeologists will weep. “We think there was a structure, on this site, previous to the one we found … but we’re just not sure. The removal of the supposed previous structure, was so complete, as to be mere speculation.”

    You’ve been holding out, on us. Is that a bicycle I see, in the back ground of four of the pictures of the shed deconstruction? There must be a story, there.

    Sadly? Really? Usually, you sound like you really get off on breaking up those big boulders. Maybe it’s a difference in before and after. Before, it’s a chore, looming in the distance. After, there’s the glow of accomplishment.

    Sadly, my Dad isn’t still around. He might have had some tips, or pointers, as far as thinning sugar beets is concerned. 🙂 The radishes look off to a healthy start. I just noticed, today, that the area where I let the reddish go to seed (some of which I saved), is sprouting tiny radish plants. They might ride out the first frosts, and produce something.

    Maybe the Japanese Ginger, will be happier, in the great outdoors? Looks like it’s off to a good start. As are the berries.

    The Kangaroos look as though they’re posing for a picture. I’m amazed by your wildlife. Commonplace, to you. Exotic to the rest of us.

    The video was just lovely. But, I almost missed the closing historic montage. 🙂 Next time, you might toss in a bit of dialogue, “Stay tuned for a short historic montage.” Or, some such.

    The Daffodils, Jonquil, and Rhododendron were really pretty. We won’t see the like, for months. Lew

  2. Hi Lewis,

    Yeah, it’s a bit of a wonder we all make it as far as we do what with having to traverse such dangerous youthful years. 🙂 A combination of good luck, not getting caught, occasional chunks of careful consideration before leaping into the fray, and basic divine providence! And I tend to agree with the scientific observation. In some ways, don’t you reckon there is a bit of an evolutionary advantage to have folks that age pushing the boundaries? After all a staid society may come unstuck when the conditions supporting it fail.

    Yeah, most roomies were OK, some were quite fun, and others did my head in. The general mixed bag, as you’ve also experienced. It does make you wonder what happened to some of them, yeah. Tell you what, some of them have tracked me down via faceplant (which I’m not on). They went for the Editor instead. That’s determination. And it’s really weird how they want a friend request – then silence. Is it a trophy? It might be… That platform is a whole world I’m not much interested in. Oh well.

    Hehe! Lewis, my strict policy is to mess with future archaeologists heads. They’ll get ground penetrating radar, or whatever they use way off in the future, and find all the remains of the runs of conduit / pipes or whatever, and it will just present mysteries. Little will they consider the reality was that we changed our minds. That quote man, it was brilliant. Thanks for the laughs.

    Did a shandy day of paid work and then later we got the water tank into position. Alarmingly, I had to climb into it (fortunately claustrophobia doesn’t bother me), but it was a bit of a tight squeeze to get out again. Sheer force of will power pushed my body through the water tank inlet filter hole. We even put a couple of thousand litres of water into the tank. It’s hard to imagine that so much plastic could be heavy, but take it from me, the thing weighed heaps and was hard to move.

    The weather was lovely as well. No wind to speak of, nice sunshine and cool air. Conditions may get better, but at the moment we can work right through to sun down.

    Lewis, you used the ‘b’ word. It won’t end well you know. The Editor was in that photo as well, although you (and her) may have missed that inclusion. 🙂 Back to the err, ‘b’ technology you mentioned. There’s a bit of sentimental attachment to that ‘b’ thing. When I was working debt collection, I was broke, so I went without a car for two years and instead rode the ‘b’ around – everywhere. The fundamental problem with that arrangement was explained to me by a very mercenary young lady who remarked that she wouldn’t date anyone without a job, car and a house, no matter how fit. Blunt advice, however it was a home truth. Hmm. Thought about it for a bit, and purchased the slowest and most unwieldy, but super cool car I could think of: The Suzuki Sierra / Jimny. Some loves last a lifetime, whilst the mercenary young lady sought greener pastures. She wasn’t worth it you know, despite the err, presentation. Tell you what though, the ‘b’ in the photo is probably far better constructed than the things released into the market nowadays. One day, I may even restore the machine. Far out, don’t tell anyone… 😉

    It’s true, and I do like breaking up boulders. It’s just that maybe long ago there was the Roman Empire, quarries and stuff. Just sayin. The tools for the work aren’t that different between now and then, except I can just bring in a couple of horsepower assistance now. Everything moves at a crisper pace. Truly, the glow is worth the effort. It’s just in the afterglow you feel a little bit sore, but not for long.

    Hmm, yeah that’s a good point about the thinning of the sugar beets, and I would have appreciated some guidance. It’s weird that the beets grow in clumps, and they seem OK doing that, so maybe I should just take the time and observe what’s going on? Dunno.

    Oh yeah, you may be surprised by the radish plants because they are super cold hardy. Be aware though that here in winter they don’t die, they just sort of end up in suspended animation and neither decay nor grow. Although, you can still harvest them in the depths of winter for fresh salads. Ask me why I’m planting heaps more of those plants now? You might be able to harvest fresh radish in the depths of winter. Hmm. They may ride out all of your frosts, and then some.

    The advice on the Japanese ginger was a real mixed bag. All sorts of claims were made as to cold hardiness, but let’s find out what the reality is. So far the plant seems to be enjoying the great outdoors. It’s tasty, but has a slight onion overtone to the ginger.

    Hehe! The kangaroos would no doubt think that your bears are exotic whilst they were madly hopping away in fear for their very lives. The joey was cool, and seeing the little face poking out of the pouch was a treat. The kangaroos here do the least damage to the orchard, so I’m cool with them.

    Thanks for the video advice, and I always appreciate any and all feedback, and just between you and I, I thought the intro was too long. I still hear Inge advising me to always be concise! Ook! Good advice too. Funnily enough the videos are a bit of a slow burner, but the statistics are telling me that people are jumping on board for the narrative. Visual people want to go along with the story, and that’s surprised me. We went into that format with no expectations and simply tried a lot of different stuff.

    The flip side of low unemployment is that employers have to consider the needs of the employees, and in many cases there is a certain appeal to be had with working from home. But I totally agree with you, things have changed since then. However, you raise an important question: Are people paid for their hours, or the ability to get the job done? I reckon the two-jobs at the same time folks tested that conundrum.

    Hehe! What? There are gradings of such nefarious folks, plus quotas. Who knew? Hardly an enviable achievement. 🙂

    The flooded hospital will take a very long time before it is again put to its intended usage. River and ocean frontage is all very nice and stuff, until the water rises. The photos of the folks being rescued from that building were not comforting, and they looked in a bad way to me. You never really find out how such events work out.

    Farm to table restaurants are a big deal down here as well, and yes the pricing structure presents such difficulties for the common man. Maybe it will work out OK for them in that mobile format, but yeah you may have set the wheels in motion.

    Really? That would disappoint me as well with the film. Fingers crossed.

    It all comes down to a name I guess, and that far north the word ‘hurricane’ doesn’t apply. The satellite image showed some seriously unsettled air behind that north west monster storm. We get those sorts of air masses when storms originate from that frozen continent to the south reaches up to remind us all that it’s there.

    Your winter stores sure are fast filling up (whilst ours are near depletion). I reckon the pumpkins will grow to the size that they can given the climate. At least it’s easy to tell when they’re ready to pick. Do you really want them as big as a soccer ball?

    Koala’s are doing it super tough. The trees here are what koala’s will eat when the going is tough. You see they don’t drink water and so live in the big trees growing along creek beds and also in very damp well watered ground. They’ll be lower down in the valley, and maybe come up here in the summer months if the rains are insufficient. I haven’t seen or heard koala’s in a while – they have a very distinctive call. Mostly they’re struggling because there are too many people on their turf. During you-know-what, I rarely if ever saw any road kill, but now… People don’t care about such things and are always in a hurry. Some of the best soils are along the road verges because the plants get chopped and dropped all the time. Wildlife feeds there. The forests aren’t anywhere near as fertile. It is possible that the vast majority of people simply have no idea about such matters. The place here jumps with wildlife, but then the soils are better, so the feed is better.

    Go H! Those things aren’t free you know. 🙂

    Cheers

    Chris

  3. Hi, Chris!

    Surely no-one – no-one! – would go paddock bashing in a work car. What a very interesting job – for that level – would be car pool monitor. At least you didn’t have to deal with anyone going paddock bashing under your oversight. Sheesh – think of the poor paddock. And with broke mates, well it is consoling to have companions suffering under the same conditions.

    Being younger than you, I can remember rents of about $200 per month and super cheap food, in the border town of El Paso. Luckily, covering the rent did not have to be paid by my measly ($1.50 per hour) wages as a book store clerk as my grandfather had left me a trust fund to cover my college expenses, which was my other occupation at the time.

    That was a nice looking shed; too bad about the rust. But breaking posts is not joke. You really get a lot of use out of that rototiller. I liked seeing the deconstruction. Family photo: Where’s Ruby? Did I get that right? Ruby’s by the impressive water tanks.

    So, it’s been raining here for 2 weeks. I have potatoes in giant pots in the garden, but have not been able to get to them (my mother’s been sick). I hope they have not rotted.

    Thanks for the joey. That’s great – unless he will grow up to maraud the garden.

    That’s another wonderful video, especially with boy and girl vines! I think there is a hen about to leave the Hen Temple. Will the next video be about a chook breakout? The monatge was great for a reference.

    Thanks for the flowers! White is in style.

    Pam

  4. Yo, Chris – Well, it does tend to sort out the absolute morons. Darwin at work 🙂 . Maybe, overprotecting the young is bad for the gene pool.

    I have a faceplant account, as I had to get one to attend a retreat, years ago. And, I haven’t even looked at it, since that time. I keep idly thinking, maybe I should at least take a peek. Who knows, maybe someone has shown up who I’d LIKE to recontact with? Unlikely. Yes, it’s all about numbers. We were talking, recently, about competition. Yes, let’s boost our self worth, by seeing how many empty gestures we can rack up. 🙂 A friend is someone you go out and have coffee with. Present company excepted.

    According to Prof. Mass, DJ may be enveloped in dust, about now. The high yesterday, was 64 (17.77C). Overnight low was 39F. Forecast for today is 67F. I noticed this weekend, that the evenings sure seem long. Now that the sun is setting, just before 7PM.

    Maybe you should take the B word, have it bronzed, and turn it into yard art. Put a basket on the front, panniers on the back, and fill them with flowers. 🙂

    The Editor’s secret is safe. I doubt I could pick her out of a crowd, based on a glimpse of bum and flash of leg. 🙂

    Yes, I’d say salaried people get paid, mostly on a job done, basis. Maybe. Hourly people, not so much.

    The Master Gardeners were here, this morning. They planted a Japanese Maple, and are putting in a lot of Crocus bulbs. They brought in some good soil, last week. Talked about next year’s garden sale. I’ll probably contribute some Capt. Jack miniature Iris, and Elephant Garlic. I weeded my garden, a bit, and about half the strawberry patch. Also, pulled out the Lemon Balm, from under the grapes. Let a little sunshine in.

    Last night, I diddled about, for a few hours. Buried some kitchen scraps. A Tomatillo had fallen over and needed to be staked up. I dug up the Elephant Garlic, and planted some red onions sets. Watered. I lost a pumpkin, yesterday. It just fell off the vine. A smaller one, and I figure it wasn’t quit properly fertilized. Which happens with squash and pumpkins.

    Last night, I ordered a Garlic sampler, from Nichols Garden Nursery. A fine old establishment, that I’ve used, for years. They have two heads, each, of five or six varieties. I also ordered some dental dog chews, for H, off of E-Buy. She’s running low. I noticed on the listing page, that they’re getting a lot more transparent, about location of seller. There were a couple of her chews I could have gotten from Sri Lanka, or Hong Kong. I think not.

    We see a lot of road kill, over here. A real menagerie. You know, there was a road kill cookbook. 🙂 And, I don’t know if they still do it, but not so long ago, if a deer was hit, and fresh, it went to the local lock up.

    I read a couple of more chapters, of the Monet bio, last night. And then a few chapters in another book. “Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II.” (Graham, 2024.) When WWII started, the US had practically no intelligence network or service. Domestic, yes, the FBI. But nothing international. So, it had to be built from the ground up, and a lot of academics were pretty much drafted into service. Survival rate was about 50%. Training was … rigorous. Lew

  5. Chris,

    I’m wondering something. Lew alluded to it. The bicycles. I clearly see 2 bicycles in one of the photos. Are you training for a long ride or something? A triathlon, perhaps, or maybe even the Tour de France? Queen has something to say on the subject of bicycles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GugsCdLHm-Q

    One day on the job, I checked out a pool car. Went out, did the field work, returned. Signed in car. Next day, I was “invited” to talk to the person in charge of our cars and a Higher Up. Turns out that somebody took the car after the workday ended without signing it out, drove it to a local pub, got drunk, drove it at very high speeds through residential neighborhoods bouncing the car off of parked vehicles. They believed me when I said it wasn’t me. They sort of knew who it was but weren’t able to prove it. That person finally was “let go” 8 or 10 years later.

    Another windstorm occurred Sunday. Saturday hit 31C. The high temperature Sunday was 20C. Monday morning it was +3C. Dame Avalanche was full of piss and vinegar with the colder temperatures. No rain in the 15-day forecast, but things should warm back to +26C the middle of October, which is unheard of.

    Looks like I’m going to be a television star. The club’s show is coming up soon. The local woodturning group joins us for the show. Their president contacted a local tv station. He and I will be interviewed in a few days to talk about the show. Free advertising, I guess.

    I will have one entry in the show. Yes, that pyrography project inspired by the Wombats song. It’s not quite finished yet. It will be a scramble to finish it but finish it I shall.

    Monday was hectic. The Princess has her big basket weaving conference coming up. Turns out that “someone” put her tool bag full of her tools into sister’s memorial give-away service. So today that “someone” took the Princess shopping for replacement tools. Fortunately, “someone” had the idea of starting at a certain craft store, managed by a Native American woman. She knew exactly what tools the Princess needed. Although she didn’t have everything, “someone” and the Princess got off to a good start on the shopping venture. Eventual, all of the necessary tools were found. “Someone” also had a spare tool bag in the basement. Turns out it was perfect for what the Princess needs.

    Good job with the evil rototiller. You appear to be unharmed. The bicycles were unharmed. The nearby concrete steps were unharmed. The area was made level. So, the goal was achieved without any unwelcome injuries or damage. Those are all parts of a successful project.

    Thanks for the kangaroo photo. Really cool seeing the joey looking about.

    One of the neighbors had a wonderful vegetable garden. They dropped off a sampler packet for us over the weekend. A few carrots and parsnips, tomatoes, many different types of peppers. Killian’s human has also given us 2 large zucchinis. Plenty of things to sample and dehydrate. Perfect timing, and I’m very fortunate to have such good neighbors.

    DJSpo aka “someone”

  6. Hi Pam,

    Oh wow, now there’s a blast from the past – that was indeed the job title. Car pool monitor. Sounds like school monitor don’t you reckon – maybe from some hoity toity public grammar school? And from some perspectives, the memories suggest a certain sort of corollary to the very different, yet same roles. Herding cats, although I’m unsure what that means. 😉 I assure you, that paddock bashing smash really did happen, although I was not a party to the err, celebrations. The entire incident left an indelible memory, yeah. I very much agree with you, the thoughtless idiots would have compacted the soils and made it super hard for the already pressed soil critters.

    That’s also the very essence of the issue. When all are broke, nobody realises the full extent of the situation, yet when wealth inequality spreads to unsustainable levels, that’s when people begin to notice. A normal environment can only ever but support one or two Bertie’s.

    Ah, the skies are as big in Texas as they are down here – but what I wanted to know is whether you ever headed into them thar big hills hiking? It’s a dry part of the world for sure. Always nice to have a beneficial grandparent looking out for your best interests. Did you enjoy the college experience?

    The shed sadly looked good (note the use of the past tense), but alas the foundations were rocky due to the actions of the steel worm. Bending a two inch by two inch galvanised steel RHS (rectangular hollow square) is usually preserved for superman, but one must take advantage of photo opportunities when presented with them.

    The rototiller is a most awesome machine, if put to good use. I note that elsewhere it has been labelled ‘evil’, and this is mildly unfair. Plus, total respect for that was a correct identification. Well done. 🙂 You know the secret.

    Oh Pam, so sorry to hear that and best wishes for a speedy recovery for your mother. Two weeks of rain is a gift and a burden all at once. If you work out what that all means, please do let me know? It’s hard to know with tubers and consistent rainfall. The hope is that the skins don’t split and soil critters then take advantage? Dunno. Have you lifted any of the tubers to see what is going on, although you’ve probably got a lot on your plate right now.

    The kangaroos are lovely, and much nicer than the deer. Last night a herd of those critters ring-barked a decade old olive tree and earned a very, very strong response. Sandra is unhappy with the response, but hey, it worked and nothing was injured.

    Hehe! It’s a nice way of putting things is it not? And many thanks for watching the video. They’re fun to put together, and hopefully in a month or two, you’ll have enjoyed a tour of the entire property.

    Well, why yes, the next video will be about the chooks, although none will be allowed to break out. That would be a bad thing given all the predators living in the area.

    The purple rhododendrons are just beginning to flower.

    Cheers

    Chris

  7. Hi DJ,

    You looked pretty closely at the photo to have picked up on that, and why yes, there are actually err, oh man you used the ‘b’ word here, two ‘b’ things. Double trouble for sure. You do realise that people will soon turn up here, we may call them by the correct name, enthusiasts, and demand that I install a bicycle powered electric generators? Not to mention other such ‘b’ technologies. I’ve seen it happen elsewhere.

    Dude, I grew up listening to Queen, and I don’t even need to click on the link to know the song you are referring to. What genuinely surprises me about that rock band is how respectable they’ve become over the years. I’ve read biographies which would test the wokesters intolerance in all sorts of ways. And the lyrics of that song. Naughty indeed! Oh yeah…

    Things were much looser in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. Hmm. Oh my, in other more recent times such acts would be labelled ‘theft’ and there’d be serious criminal consequences. The damage bill would be immense.

    What a wild change in the weather, and it would have been very hard for anyone, let alone any farm animals caught up in such variability. Such changes can happen here too. Very unpleasant. Things can always get worse. Here’s a link to some of the temperature records for the big smoke (+26’C in April would be not out of the ordinary): Melbourne Climate. Of course as it gets crazy hot here, it can get crazy cold in your part of the world. Most of the time the climate is actually pretty nice. By the end of October you’ll be feeling the cold nights.

    Nice one, and this may be the beginning of something big for you and the club? Hopefully you get some new members, and please do let us all know if the link can be viewed over the interweb?

    Can’t wait to see what you’ve come up with in that project. One of the band members now resides in your country, but way off to the south and west of you in the country – you can guess where. It’s a fun song. In real wombat news, a little chunky wombat now resides in the shady orchard at night. It can be quite startling to take Ollie out to do his business and get stared down by a low slung marsupial with a bad attitude. All are kept well separated.

    Good luck with the work, and I have faith that it will be completed in time. Remember to enunciate your words and don’t be tempted to mumble. 😉

    Oh dude, that repeated use of the word ‘someone’ suggests to me that blame has perhaps in this particular case (the others, well, it’s a case by case analysis don’t you reckon?) been properly allocated, and you were totally busted. All now appears to have been mended, and your lady has new tools for the work. 🙂 A clever knave may drop in the suggestion that this was indeed the plan all along… Which may have been your final take in the matter as well given the concluding sentence. Hmm.

    It’s not evil. The scary old rototiller is many things, but that is not one of them. Am I detecting that you’ve had an unpleasant encounter with such a machine in the past? The thing will take your hands and feet off if not careful, that’s for sure. One must be always respectful when dealing with machines that have the ability to cut and tear, and always remember where the pointy bits are.

    🙂 The kangaroos are lovely, and they seem to be here most nights. Mostly harmless, unlike the herd of deer which ring barked a decade old olive tree last night. Not happy with them, and Sandra is not happy with my effective solution which probably elevated adrenalin levels last night. I’ve got tools to deal with the likes of them. Now if they just ate the grass and took occasional branches I wouldn’t mind. Killing a decade old tree is a no-go poor lifestyle choice.

    Nice to have neighbours with productive gardens. Peppers would have enjoyed your summer heat. Are these super hot million+ scoville unit kinda vegetables?

    🙂 I got it! But thanks for outing yourself as the miscreant. We all knew! Hehe!

    Cheers

    Chris

  8. Hi Lewis,

    Your observation about over protecting the young affecting the gene pool is an intriguing hypothesis, which is also probably correct. Makes you wonder if anyone has ever studied such a thing? It’s been my opinion that societies can fail if they become too averse to risk. It used to be taught that life was inherently risky and also tragic.

    Presumably you didn’t succumb to the temptation of logging into faceplant? Many years ago I accidentally really annoyed someone by remarking that: ‘you make time for the things that are important to you’. They may have annoyed me first, but I now forget the details. Anyway, you and I can’t catch up for a coffee and a chin-wag, but hey, I make time for the things that are important to me. 😉 Numbers can be over rated, yeah. I prefer quality.

    Ook! Spokane received a special mention in Professor Mass’s article, and um, err, DJ didn’t mention it. Although the dust storm looked as though it would hit early in the morning, and probably hang around all day given the extent of the storm. In some ways, that’s how a lot of soil fertility spreads about the landscape. We get such storms too in very hot and dry years – usually they can arrive from the centre of the continent, which is a very long way away. Did any of the dust reach where you are?

    Hehe! I’m really trying hard to squelch the whole ‘b’ word discussion. 🙂 Man, surely you must have seen the err, ‘b’ technology enthusiasts on the interweb? It’d make an interesting 80’s era TV show… We need to make an atomic reactor core cooling pond and only have this ‘b’ technology parts. What if we redesign the crankcase and set up this huge wheel driven fan driven by a reduction gear and this here chain? Man, that might just do it!

    I slipped that photo in. It’s a form of aversion therapy for the Editor. 🙂 I have no idea why she’s camera shy, makes no sense to me. What happened to the other leg was something I was also wondering about…

    Went into the big smoke today for work. Got home late, but had an enjoyable coffee and muffin whilst in there.

    Cool! Those are one of my favourite trees. Lovely form and foliage, and so hardy. They even set seed and volunteer here. Are there any growing there already? The crocus should do well in or near trees. Have they planted them out yet? More soil! Good! Ugg! Good to hear that they’re thinking about the plant sale next year. I like lemon balm, but far out it can take over. Mind you, it’s easy to cut back if required.

    Out of curiosity, do you ever much water the proper garlic? Someone asked me about that plant the other day, and I can’t ever recall watering those bulbs.

    Plants which fall over are a bit of a nuisance. Ah, you staked it back up again. I get that. Hope the stake is strong? We used tie-down ratchet straps to bring the Babaco in the greenhouse back to a vertical position. It’s full of fruit which will be ready in another couple of months. Candidly I wanted to chainsaw the plant to just above the lowest branch earlier in the year, but then there’d be no fruit this coming summer and so was over ruled. Oh well.

    Interesting, I’d not known that about pumpkins falling from the vine if not properly fertilised. Anyway, you wont regret the garlic sampler on order. Such a low stress and productive plant.

    Interesting. The dog rawhide chews here have their origins in Thailand. Go figure… Ah, right. Apparently the stuff is not made down under, and as you’d imagine opinions are all over the shop. The dogs like them.

    That’s a good use of a freshly killed deer. Why not? Presumably in your case the city would have had to pay for the clean up, so why not do something useful with the carcass. I’ll bet it’s not happening nowadays? Maybe?

    I really did like the idea of the roadkill cook book, but candidly at this stage, I ain’t hungry enough for that option. It’s amazing how quickly the forest critters will consume a carcass.

    Startled a herd of deer in the orchard last night. Ollie and I cleared them off, but not before they’d ring-barked a decade old olive tree. Not happy. What’s insulting was that they hid down at the forest edge – the torch revealed just how many there were. You could see all the sets of eyes peering back, just waiting for me to go to bed, presumably so they could return. I don’t think so. Thought about the situation for a bit, then grabbed the rifle and let off a few shots into the soil off to their side. That got their attention, and they decamped to elsewhere. The Editor was a bit zinged up after the episode, but what else do you do? We can’t sustain that level of damage to the orchard. Got any suggestions? I mentioned spreading around blood and bone meal, but the rain will wash it into the soil over time. Have you noticed that it works?

    A fascinating book, and I had no idea that the origin story lay there. Makes the sensitive person wonder if the ties that bind are still in place with academia? That’s not good odds, but my the survivors would have been changed. Oh yeah. Are you enjoying the book?

    Cheers

    Chris

  9. Yo, Chris – The upcoming election and hurricane have distracted, a bit, from a real story. Supply line problems, again.

    https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/01/business/us-port-workers-strike-tuesday

    We might not be too badly impacted, as, west coast ports are open. But, I expect there will be a lot of panic buying, of this and that. I’m stocking up on a few things, but nothing beyond prudent. I just hope I can get my banana a day. 🙂

    I don’t know why anyone would be annoyed. I think it’s a very true saying. Although my refusal to get a fancy phone, or stream stuff, or use social media, leaves some people a bit gobsmacked. Oh, I’ll get around to checking out the face-plant, sooner or later. But I’ll satisfy my curiosity, and that will be it. I certainly won’t be checking it, dozens of times a day.

    If I remember correctly, over at Mr. Greer’s, the B enthusiasts got completely out of hand, at one point, and were forbidden from bringing it up, and posts were cancelled. Good for him. You know, you can hook them up, and use them to power a washing machine 🙂 I think I’d prefer a stream and a flat rock.

    I completely understand the Editor’s antipathy to photos. So do I. Of course, there’s my witness protection program, to consider. 🙂 Maybe, the Editor had a whole different life, that you are unaware of? So, why do I feel the same way? Hmmm. Well, I think part of it is, I was never handsome, in a flavor of the month way. And, I certainly don’t need to be reminded of the ruin I have become, in my dotage.

    I don’t think it’s the first Japanese maple, they’ve planted here. Though it’s down at the other end of the property, and I don’t get down there, much. Maybe I need to get out more. 🙂 Being Master Gardeners demo gardens, they have several “theme” areas. The crocus were being planted in the White Garden. There’s a native plants section. A butterfly garden. A rose garden. I don’t know what constitutes the Japanese garden, but I do know there’s some Japanese plum trees, down that way. Quit tasty. If you can get them. Our Night Manager was quit miffed, as he had been watching them … and someone beat him to them. They’re right on a sidewalk, so, I suppose passers-by …

    Do I water the garlic. Hmmm. Well, when I water, they get a bit. Not a soaking. But then, the soil is pretty well drained, and they can take a bit of a shower. There was a steel t-post handy, that I tied the Tomatillo, to. I don’t know what they call it, Down Under, but I use a brown garden twine, sometimes made out of jute. I double it, and use it where needed. Handy stuff. I’ve used it to tie up tomatoes and sunflowers. Also, to tie chicken wire to t-posts.

    That’s horrible, about the deer. When I read about their depredations, I dropped a loud f-bomb, out loud, that startled the dog. Might be time to invite the neighbors in, for a good cull. Does the blood meal work? Well, all I know is, when I keep it consistent, we haven’t had deer problems. And this year, I added chips of Irish Spring soap, which is also supposed to be a deterrent. Remembering to reapply it, after watering or rain, is the trick. Though I put it, on the top of the raised bed walls, and it does last a good long time. Blood meal can be bad for dogs, and I’ve always got to keep an eye on H, as she’s pretty sneaky about trying to eat it. Also, a three pound bag of the stuff, has jumped from $5 to $15, in just a couple of years. But I don’t have to apply much.

    WWII proved that gleaning out information from unlikely sources … making connections between seemingly unimportant sources, can have a great deal of value. Something the more traditional intelligence services poo-pooed, at first. After the academics information, really helped in the invasion of North Africa, they finally sat up and took notice. These days, I think academics are a given part of intelligence operations.

    I picked some green beans, tomatoes, parsley and garlic, out of the garden, last night. Added a can of black beans. Etc.. Tasty and colorful. Which is what I shoot for in a meal. The colors, the colors … Opps. Having a flashback, to the 60s. 🙂

    I’ll probably do another round of tomatoes, in the dehydrator, tomorrow. Today was one of those days where oatmeal and fruit AND rice had to be prepared, on the same day. And now, lunch. The nuker is getting quit a work out.

    Oh, weather. Yesterday’s high was 68F (20C). The overnight low was 41F. Forecast for today is 73. I’m hearing that some of the outlaying areas are getting night temperatures, in the upper 30sF.

    I had to swing past the credit union, this morning, to get some walking around money. Early, but the traffic was heavy. Seems there were a lot of trucks about, dragging flatbed trailers, behind them. Some loaded, some not. I almost mixed it up with a huge 18 wheeler, on its way to the Store of Walls, in the Roundabout of Death. Turns out if I go through the window, with an actual teller, instead of using the Automatic Teller Machine, the $300 limit for cash, does not apply. So I was able to get my usual $400, and will not have to make another trip down that way. Swung by the Club to have a cuppa and a calm down. Lew

  10. Hi Lewis,

    The local view of the strike is a bit more nuanced than the article you linked too, and included some of the text from the union boss’s words. And there are equity issues at the core – who reaps the benefits of the escalating profits? How a US dock workers’ strike could have flow on effects for Australian shoppers, as experts warn shipping impacts will be ‘quite severe’

    Which reminds me that earlier this week I was extolling the virtues of being able to resolve difficult problems, and celebrating when things went wrong. If everything were simple then my job could be replaced with robots. The automate everything folks are perhaps so self absorbed with their own concerns, that they forget that in order to earn an income, there must be someone with the spare mad cash with which to purchase whatever it is they’re selling.

    It’s interesting you mentioned shortages, because in last weeks super market run, there were many bare shelves – and they were local items too. After you-know-what, like you, we also maintain some stocks. Seems only prudent. Pah, lady finger bananas were entirely absent in the run, and so we dropped expectations to the more usual cavendish variety and the very first one I cut open this morning had the dreaded fungus. It’s not fair you know… 😉

    Lewis, I’m so grateful it’s just you and me this evening. Today was a shandy of paid work, and work around the farm. Finishing at almost 9pm and so is very, very hard to explain, and me a bit tired – so please excuse any lapse of the generally accepted etiquette. The water tank was filled. The over flow pipe was installed in a deep trench which I had to dig. And into the trench was thrown a couple of water pipes and also a 12V electrical cable in conduit. Plus, did I mention that we split some large rocks in that area? No, oh well, we did. Some work days are inordinately long. The minutes of life are short, and probably shouldn’t be wasted. And the weather was remarkably pleasant today.

    Thanks, and honestly I can’t now recall where I first heard the saying, but it may have been from a former housemate / roomie. I could live without the fancy phone, but alas, the goobermint demanded – get one, or get out of the profession. The screen is too small to use just say for example: Someone you know (not mentioning names here! 😉 ) sends you on an interweb rabbit hole. The screens are no good, and respect to you for avoiding them.

    I recall that memorable ‘b’ moment at Mr Greer’s website. Dude, it was feral. And I don’t need to be told a second time as to where things could go. Yeah, the stream and rock would work easier. In India my clothes were washed by that method, and they were returned super clean.

    Yes, the witness protection program can be a bit of problem with photos. And yeah, maybe you’re right – there’s probably all sorts of stuff going on that I’m unaware of. 🙂 I hear you man, and age does weary us all. It’s funny you say that, but I always did better at pubs (where you could at least communicate with another person), than clubs which were so loud as to be entirely based on visuals. You play the hand you’re dealt. On the other hand, I’m of the impression that after a certain age, nature does not want us hanging around, and so every single day after that achievement is a joy. At least we’re both sort of coherent! 🙂

    Have you noticed that a lot of garden designers tend to favour white flowering plants? I’m sure they’d be outraged, or offended by the riot of colours here. That’s their problem. And that’s unfortunately the generally accepted risk with planting fruit trees next to the sidewalk. It could equally have been the birds and/or squirrels? Over the past five years or so, I’ve developed quite the appreciation for plum fruit of whatever origins.

    Interesting, and thanks for confirming my suspicion of the garlic plants. I’ll mention that to the person who raised the question. The ones here used to grow in very well drained soil. Nah, the stuff is called jute and twine down here as well. It’s handy stuff, and I got the grape vines to climb up such material in their early days. The material breaks down too which is good don’t you reckon? Always easy to lose a chunk of the stuff here and there. I use the stuff for the tomatoes to climb up as well, not to mention generally restraining the feral plant.

    Hope H recovered from your F bomb? It ain’t just you! Tensions have been slightly elevated here because of that incident. The Editor doesn’t want me responding in that way because of the sheer noise of the rifle at such late hours of the night. There’s no restrictions on me doing do, as long as it is safe – i.e. if anything goes wrong then things will go badly for me. Ook! We had a ‘well what do you want me to do?’ conversation this morning. Turns out neither of us really know what we are doing with this issue. Obviously this is a new issue with the deer and we’ll have to navigate it and work out how to repel them from the orchard. I’ve never seen them ring-bark a decade old tree before, that’s new. That stuff is very expensive down here as well. It’s a bit cheaper in bulk, but still, blood and bone meal will be around $3/pound.

    I’d not previously been aware that academics are involved in such activities, and certainly it casts such things in a new and interesting light. Who knew that was going on? I reckon the Editor would have done well working for that lot, and when much younger she was very close to applying for a job with them – which a person can do easy enough. Whether they’ll take you on is a whole different matter. She’s got a bit of a gift for doing very well in aptitude testing, way beyond my efforts in that regard, although sometimes the big picture gets lost there. It is very good to be able to hand over complex problems though and get a different perspective.

    Hehe! Life is way too short for bland food. Tasty and colourful is an enviable state to reach. Those goobermint experiments, aren’t they the gift which keeps on giving! 😉

    Some days in the kitchen are like that, but it is the engine room of the domestic economy, and the place where great savings can be achieved. It just takes a lot of work.

    It’s going to be warmer here tomorrow. 77’F, not that it is a competition, but the weather batten really is being handed over. Speaking of such things, the dreaded lost hour will strike this coming weekend. Do I really need to lose an hours sleep? Sleep deficits are real you know.

    Oh my gawd, the roundabout of death almost lived up to its name. Stay strong, and stay alert, which clearly you did, unless your comment came from ‘the beyond’. It’s been remarked upon elsewhere that the dead rarely make for pleasant company, but please don’t take that as an offensive comment! 😉 That’s the case here (without the drive through), but the other week I was actually at the teller. It was crazy as man that they’d run short of notes, and makes no sense. Maturity is not blurting out what was on my mind: “You’ve got just one job!” See, I can do mature and didn’t speak my thoughts on that occasion.

    Glad you were able to settle the rattled nerves and enjoy a good companionable cuppa at the Club.

    Me sleepy…

    Cheers

    Chris

  11. Chris:

    We are hard on Bertie, aren’t we?

    I don’t know about the potatoes, it’s still raining and expected to do so for several more days. I have to save my potato-digging-in-the-rain energy for helping my mother. She’s a bit better; thanks for asking. Five or six weeks ago, the powers that be decided to tear up the two-lane highway that I take into town every day. I mean, they drove some kind of ripping-up machine and scraped the asphalt off of 5 miles of it, both lanes – and then left it. After all this rain, it is even worse and now the 8 inch deep potholes that formed are full of water so you can’t tell how deep they are. And there is no verge, this is a very hilly area, with drop-offs and ditches on one side and bluffs on the other. What on earth could be going on?

    I did sort of enjoy college, but I had to leave after 2 1/2 years because I got sick. Luckily, I never needed a degree.

    Sure, I hiked into them thar hills, though at El Paso, they are actually pretty big mountains. Neat stuff, lots of Indian artifacts. And rattlesnakes.

    Deer are not nice. I swear they sometimes growl at me. I know when they see me , they raise their tails in an offensive manner. And they ate all of the squirrels’ acorns, except that then some other oak trees started dropping them and so there were plenty. But one of the biggest oaks, a very old, very large, white oak tree, hangs over my bedroom, and this is the biggest year for nuts that it has ever had. It drops them by the hundreds all day and all night (especially night) and, though the attic is very well insulated, it sounds like a constant barrage of coconuts.

    Add another insult – one of the stinkbugs that ate all my squash just ran across my laptop. It, and its hundreds of friends, always try to move inside for the winter where it’s cozy and dry. Mother Nature has it in for me at the moment.

    I love the Rhodies! They are, however, part of Nature, so maybe you’d best keep them to yourself right now. They might bite!

    Pam

  12. Hi Chris,
    We’ve had that experience with deer. Had to put sturdy wire fencing up around the trunk. Good luck with thwarting them.

    Back to no rain but it’s cooler and overall not too windy. This is the time of year we had 5-10 minutes to where ever we’re going due to slow moving farm equipment. Even with the rain the amount of dust that’s kicked up during harvest is amazing and not in a good way.

    The pigs left for their one bad day this morning. Doug worked hard to avoid the battle that typically ensues getting them into the trailer. He put the trailer flush up with the open gate to their pen and put their feeder into it for the last couple of days. They went in and out to eat and this morning when he gave them their favorite, acorns, all four just walked right up the ramp and into the trailer. He and his helpers take them up and then turn around and load his friend’s four pigs. It’s a guy event so I’m waiting here to hear how the unloading and loading went. Sometimes they don’t want to get out of the trailer.

    Cecily is on a 10 week trip just traveling around so far mostly in the southeast of the country. She had booked 3 nights at a motel at the edge of Smoky Mountains National Part on the North Carolina side. When the hurricane forecast she left a day early to avoid the storm and good thing she did. The motel had a river on one side and mountain on the other. Some of the main roads she took are still closed and cell phone service is minimal. Anyway so she’s safe and sound.

    Margaret

  13. Yo, Chris – That was an interesting article on the port strikes. Always good to get a perspective on the news, from outside whatever country. The BBC is pretty good, at providing another slant.

    I am amazed, at how many people are oblivious to the port strikes. I suppose, what with the hurricane, election, and Middle East, that news is a bit lost in the shuffle. Or, if they see a headline, just think, “Well, that’s the east coast. Won’t affect us here!”

    I went shopping, last night. A few things for the Club (we may get a food box, today. Maybe.) and stuff for me. So, I started out at the grocery outlet store. I was falling a bit towards the 42 rolls of toilet paper mark, so picked up a 12 pack. Plenty on the shelf, and I didn’t notice any price increase. Picked up a bottle of olive oil. That will probably come through an east coast port. I got the last three bars of 82% chocolate. I still have 2 dozen in backup, and have been able to fill in, as I go along, to keep those in reserve. They usually don’t have the liquid washing soap, I use. But, there was an enormous jug. I grabbed one.

    Then I went down to the dollar + store. Picked up a few things for the Club, that won’t be in our food box. Condiments, mostly. I was asleep at the switch, and almost ran out of cinnamon. They had none. Unusual. I stocked up on dish soap, even though I’ve got a good supply. So, it was back to the grocery outlet store. I got the last four bottles of cinnamon. Also decided to pick up another bottle of olive oil, and a gallon of white vinegar. Part of the problem is, you don’t really know where this stuff comes from. Some of it.

    Speaking of supply lines … and small places with big consequences. Hurricane Helene just about wiped the little town of Spruce Pine, North Carolina, off the map. Population, just over 2,000. But it’s one of the few places in the world, where pure quartz is mined. That stuff is necessary to the manufacture of solar panels, microchips and semiconductors. They don’t know yet, what state the mines are in. They’re cut off from the world. Prof. Mass has a post on why the hurricane was so bad, in North Carolina.

    Bananas haven’t become a problem here, yet. I did a search, the other night. “What fruit is the nutritional equivalent of bananas.” Results were all over the map. Nothing … definitive. Potatoes are close (a vegetable, I know), but somehow, potatoes on my daily oatmeal does not appeal. 🙂

    That was quit the days work. Two or three days work, actually. You might have spread it out, a bit. But you know best.

    Internet rabbit holes? Probably the same guy that “misplaced” the Spokane princesses tools. 🙂

    Who is coherent? I resemble that remark. 🙂

    White gardens. Not to be confused with white parties. Though I suppose you could have a white party, in a white garden. For some reason or another, people decided a long time ago, that white equaled purity. White bread, white rice, white flour. Who knows why. Although in some cultures, white is the color of mourning.

    The first couple of years I moved here, the trellis I had was jute. Had to replace it, every year or two. Quit the job. The new hog wire trellises, are so much easier to deal with.

    Blame Dizzy. “You’re shooting Bambi’s mother!!!” :-).

    Read some more of the Monet bio, and the spy book. Intelligence analysis really wasn’t much of a thing, before WWII. It really sort of shook up the military establishment. The powers that be, were all enamored with “pinpoint bombing,” which wasn’t very pinpoint, at all. Why try and bomb a tank factory (and, miss, anyway), when you can sabotage softer targets, that provide parts for a tank factory? And saboteurs were so much cheaper, and could throw sand in the works (sometimes literally), using items found around the house. So, how to find these small parts factories. Well … phone books.

    I went out and picked more tomatoes, this morning. Between those, and what I had in the refrigerator, there’s another load in the dehydrator. One more to go, after this one.

    Yesterday’s high was 73F (22.77C). The overnight low was 45F. Forecast for today, is 63F. We might see a little rain, at the end of the week. Lew

  14. @ Pam,

    There sure are times when Nature appeasr out to get you. Those times are NOT fun at all.

    When were you in El Paso? Were you attending UTEP? I was at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces 1985-1986. Spent some time in El Paso. Spent more time riding my bicycle wherever I could while avoiding the numerous and large rattlesnakes.

    DJSpo

  15. Chris,

    Oh, yeah okay, I fess up. We had dust, although the visibility in town wasn’t too bad. The farmland areas west of here, especially between Ritzville and Moses Lake, had near zero visibility. We just had to shut the windows as the dust caused the air quality to be unhealthy. It wasn’t anything too out of the ordinary in town.

    I know where the Editor’s second leg is. Obviously behind the visible leg. You can almost see a part of it. The Princess clued me into that idea and argued the point quite well. Using physics, yet!

    Pam’s musing about El Paso took me back to my Las Cruces days – 45 miles north of El Paso. High desert, as El Paso is about 3,900 feet elevation, Las Cruces maybe 4,100. Many mountains, few native trees, unless you want to count the yucca plant as a tree. The area has ties to a lot of “old west” history. Billy the Kid was imprisoned in Mesilla, just west of Las Cruces. The jail is still there. That is the jail Billy broke out of only to be hunted down and killed by Pat Garrett. Pat Garrett, meanwhile, eventually settled in the hamlet of Dona Ana, the town where I lived. He died in a gunfight also. I lived cheaply in a furnished trailer for $175 per month, all utilities included except propane, which was an additional $25 every 6 weeks. Something to build the mood for the area… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8DxHhZVTKw

    Those Melbourne temperature records were a sight to ponder. There’s some wicked hot weather there.

    Once I know about the interview link, if any, I’ll post it here. Hopefully getting tv exposure will help attendance and maybe garner a new member or two.

    We’ll also have a “Memorial Table” at the show. Our oldest member, one of the founders, died in April. Another member who had helped run the place and “adopted” newbies died in February. Third, one of the best carvers in the region, one of our members, died over this past weekend. I may be president, but he truly ran the club – he was the heart and soul of us, and the primary force behind organizing everything. Unfortunately, many of the things we need for the show were in his care. We’re scrambling trying to get them together. Being who I am, there ARE contingency plans just in case.

    It took me one guess to figure out where the Wombat singer lives. Surprisingly, the City of Angels isn’t much further west than we are. In fact, most of Washington State is west of Los Angeles.

    Scary tools equal evil tools. By definition. Too easy for a finger or toe to get lopped off. Not a good thing. Now a machine that must be respected is not scary and therefore isn’t evil, at least until it starts removing human body parts. ;0

    Ummm, okay, a brief “lesson” in modern USA terminology. The skies are big in Texas. However, “Big Sky State” is one of the unofficial state slogans for…Montana. It’s on their car license plates, even. Of course, Idaho used to have “Famous Potatoes” on their license plates, even though the Moses Lake, Washington area produces gobs more potatoes than does Idaho. And the official state slogan for Texas is “Friendship”. Having been in Texas on numerous occasions and having spent much of my spare time in Montana, and time in various other plains areas, if you’re on the prairie, the sky looks big.

    Oh, yeah, Wahington, “The Evergreen State”. See how much these slogans mean? Over half of Washington is a crispy brown for 2/3 of the year.

    The neighbors put a note in with the veggies they give us. Allegedly, the peppers are mild. I’ll have some for dinner tonight and if they’re NOT mild I’m sure you’ll hear about it. ;0

    Anyhow, things are about to get exceedingly busy. I’ll check in when I can.

    DJSpo

  16. Hi Pam,

    Yeah, maybe we are a bit hard on Bertie. In many ways he is an intriguing character because he appears to have much wealth, but little power. And if I had to provide Bertie with some unsolicited advice, it would be to avoid the scheming aunts. I’ve never encountered such a fearsome critter in the social and familial wilds, have you? At the top end of town I worked for a very well to do family, and if I may posit the opinion, Mr Wodehouse made Jeeves look very casually competent and super relaxed, but I can assure you the truth is perhaps otherwise. Pam, there were times when certain actions made me swear like a sailor, but never in front of the family. You’ve done, what? The experience kind of spoils the fun of Wodehouse stories for me at least. That sort of crazy stuff, err, happens.

    Glad to hear that your mother is feeling a bit better, and that you’re not over doing things. Digging potatoes in the rain is not an enjoyable experience, and at such times the tubers have to look to their own interests.

    Oh no! What a civil works total disaster. Look, it probably all seemed like a good idea at the time, and the asphalt munching machine was ready to go. Why not do the whole job in one hit? What could possibly go wrong? Five miles could produce and extraordinary quantity of heavy oils and gravel sorry to say. Hopefully the rest of the job was not subject to some weird contract dispute. Five miles of road is a lot of materials.

    Bummer that you got sick, but good for you that the experience wasn’t necessary. And it’s especially good that you weren’t saddled with the debt. I know of people who’d taken on the debt and not completed. It’s part of our life experience to navigate our own paths don’t you reckon?

    Oh my gawd! Please do keep rattlesnakes in your part of the world, but then at least they let you know in advance that they are there. The deadly snakes down here are stealthy. A friend of mine was bitten by a rattlesnake in your country.

    On the other hand, deer are not our friends. If Charlene the white squirrel were alive, she’d have put a hex on the pesky deer, but alas, squirrels nowadays are lesser, maybe. But then, if it’s raining acorns, do the squirrels have to do anything about the deer? Maybe not, and they’re possibly saving up their energies for the next season. An intriguing hypothesis…

    Oooo! Just out of curiosity, why are they so named: stinkbugs?

    There’ll be more Rhodies to come this week. It’s rhodie time!

    Cheers

    Chris

  17. Hi Margaret,

    It’s hard to really describe the emotional state upon discovering that a herd of deer killed a decade old olive tree in one evening. If I had to suggest, the herbivores made a poor impression with that act. 🙂 Thanks for the err, good luck, and I hear you about that. At this stage, the rifle seems to be the most effective deterrent. The herd sure knew what that sound meant, and haven’t been back since.

    One of the local farmers had a couple of young blokes up camping about two weeks ago. Clearly they were setting up to do a cull, and maybe the deer had been scared over to this part of the land? Dunno, but usually the deer don’t hang around here like they were the other night, and I do not leave water out for them just to encourage the animals to go elsewhere where things are easier.

    There’s no season on deer here, because they’re well established and have no natural predators. I’m now having to check the orchards earlier at night so as to appease Sandra who doesn’t want me shooting at much later hours – annoys the neighbours you see.

    Glad to hear that the weather is turning to fall, and it sounds pretty nice. Hehe! Slow moving agricultural equipment is how we all eat!!! 🙂 Have to laugh, because what you wrote is also very true. It happens around here in harvest time as well. Allow extra time.

    The cars here are likewise covered in mud. One day, the sun will be shining gloriously, like today, and the next day will be heavy rain. Either way, dust, mud, or both seems to be the results. I don’t even know when to clean the cars any more…

    Your pigs lead a blessed life, and I’ll bet they taste good. Yum! There’s nothing finer than home raised pork. Such work is bloke work nowadays, yup, although not for any good reason. It wasn’t all that long ago historically where such work was done on the farm – and processing an animal which you’ve raised is an extraordinary amount of work.

    Margaret, I wouldn’t want to get out of that trailer either, pigs are pretty clever, and they’d know what was going on.

    Go Cecily! And that was smart getting out early. The hurricane was epic. It’s funny how they haven’t had a low number of hurricanes this season, but wow, the season ended with a bang. I’d have left the area as well.

    Over the past month or so, I’ve been putting together firefighting equipment. Better to get the stuff now and not need it, than need it and not have it. This year has been wetter than average, and they’re forecasting a wet summer, but we’ll see how things go. Dunno.

    Cheers

    Chris

  18. Hi DJ,

    Confession I’m told is good for the soul, although I’m on the fence about that old adage, but in this particular case, the satellite imagery suggested that the dust reached your fine city. You were so busted there! We got the evidential proof! 🙂 Wise to close the windows, no good would have come from letting such dust into the house. It’s not a bad form of soil remineralisation, so your garden soils would appreciate the feed. We get huge dust storm arriving from the arid lands in central Australia, and it’s a red dust. Gets over everything, and often enough is followed by rain. You just hope that there is enough rain to not turn all the dust into a red mud – which does happen from time to time.

    Today’s important question: Given the dust storm, when do you clean the Subie and/or Honda? 🙂 There are times like now, that I give up cleaning the car – it’s not worth it because nature has other plans in store for mud and dust.

    I reckon your lady is correct as to the missing leg situation. Still, we don’t really know the truth of the matter, do we? So I went to the source of the mystery and asked the hard question: “Look at this photo. Where’s your other leg?” Of course I have higher resolution photographs and was able to zoom in to no better conclusion. Sandra’s response? She laughed, remarked that ‘it’s a gift’ and walked off. What does that even mean? You see what I have to deal with here! 😉

    Ah, high desert, hot days and cold nights. As you note, those are hard conditions for plants, excluding perhaps the indestructible yucca’s. Nice harmonica leading into mariachi’s and guitar. I see, the young maiden led him astray and perhaps hearts are not won by eliminating the competition, just sayin’. To be honest, she may have organised the events to err, get rid of both blokes. Such things have been known to happen. If he’d not ended up the sad way he had at the end of the song, my best advice would be not to ever annoy her, or things may end unexpectedly badly. A much more romanticised version: Billy Joel – The Ballad of Billy the Kid.

    Oh yeah, 46’C is something else. Not fun, and some years you can enjoy at least ten days in excess of 40’C. Hmm. Still, it doesn’t get anywhere near as cold over winter as your part of the world.

    Hope the interview goes well and smoothly.

    DJ, I’m so sorry and please accept my condolences for the loss. Hope you’re doing OK? Sometimes you go to bed and everything is OK, then the next day you wake up and discover during the day that you’ve been volunteered to be the new Elder. Of course, nobody is ever prepared for that, and all we can ever but do is our best in that new role. Plan B’s and C’s are comforting things, yeah. Wise, see you’ll be fine.

    There’d be an appeal to live there in that city, but I’d not enjoy the experience, mostly because it would be too big for my brain to cope with. I hadn’t realised that longitudinal issue, and thanks for the correction. Obvious from hindsight.

    Fair enough, and I treat most tools as scary – even the ones which can’t take a finger and/or toe, or even both all at once. Tools by their very nature amplify our efforts. Thus the danger inherent in all of them. Even battery drills have incredible torque these days. The other day I was cutting a hole in that metal box and the circular bit locked and instead of it turning, my arm took the brunt. That was interesting, hmm. Oh well. How’s your fingers going nowadays?

    Ha! That is funny. Hey, they used to label vehicle registration plates with the catchy line: “Victoria, the garden state”. Yeah sure, it’s a big call for much the same issue as your state in high summer and/or drought. Then it got changed to: “Victoria, the education state”. Is it? Nobody asked my opinion there… Probably these labels are thought up in the big cities.

    So were the peppers mild? It is worth noting that the definition for the word ‘mild’ can mean vastly different things. Mild compared to the dreaded Carolina Reaper? It’s only half as bad, but that’d still be beyond my competency, although I can’t speak for your experience in these matters.

    It was a glorious day here today, and after a lot of work yesterday, we spent the day just pottering around doing this and that. All very pleasant. Thunderstorms and damaging winds here tomorrow. Ah, the good and the bad, all in equal amounts.

    Cheers

    Chris

  19. Hi Lewis,

    It is interesting isn’t it? Different parts of the world can share the same news stories, but from completely different angles. And if you read enough, you can start seeing all the lines of self interest emerging from the primordial murk. 🙂 Unions don’t tend to get too bad a rap down here, mostly because working conditions were pretty bad before they flexed their collective muscles. Although, it’s not a free pass, and that lot can take things too far. Every element along the entire power and control system needs checks and balances don’t you reckon? None should be automatically trusted and there’s nothing at all wrong with a healthy level of scepticism. And no system is perfect. Of course the unions are heavily aligned with the (in most states and territories) ruling Australian Labour Party. I used to be a rusted on supporter of that lot, until you-know-what. They took things too far here, although I may be in the minority in that belief as they were returned to power in a landslide victory the election following on from that time. Beats me, so I simply let the matter go and moved on with my life.

    Life is pretty complicated for most folks, and they don’t worry about such issues as major hurricanes and port strikes, until the supermarket shelves are empty and gas rises in price. They notice then. Funnily enough, the quarterly rental for the gas cylinders turned up today. You pay $200 (maybe more?) for a 99 pound bottle of gas when it’s delivered, but you also pay a quarterly rental fee for each cylinder of $41.10 a quarter. We’re getting rid of using gas, the cost is crazy. It’s far cheaper to not use the stuff, and if you do just use the small bottles you can pick up in many different local suppliers. Heaps cheaper. And we barely use any gas anyway. One bottle has already been returned, otherwise the rental would have been $82.20. Far out. It’s been an intriguing exercise to try and work out how to use all of the energy before the next quarter rental fee turns up. But I’m done with that lot. Well, that’s the plan anyway.

    Did the food box turn up? Always wise to ensure that the optimal answer number of 42 is respected, and adhered too. 🙂 You may be getting deliveries of olive oil along the west coast originating from around here. Prices for olive oil have gone through the roof. An almost 10 pound tin of the stuff (good quality) will be around $60+. Yummo! Choccie. Good to have a stash of that stuff, it can keep a person going for weeks, although my experience suggests a persons palate can be challenged by too much chocolate. On multi day walks, towards the end, you know you need the energy boost, but chocolate bars can get tiring.

    Ah, interesting. For your interest, we began purchasing spices in bulk a few years ago. It’s heaps cheaper, but like everything, you have to store the stuff somewhere. Actually we were doing a bit of a clean up today, and discovered an old neglected keyboard synthesiser. Plugged the machine in and it worked really well and made all the appropriate noises. Just for a lark I had a look at what people are selling them for on ebuy, and holy carp – the thing is worth some good mad cash. We’ll get that listed soon, and in the background I could almost hear you whispering… The madness of collectors is our friend! Still, things are notably only worth what people want to pay for them.

    It is an interesting question isn’t it. Where does all this stuff come from? So I found out about white vinegar a few years ago that some is made locally, but much more arrives from India. They of course purchase coal from down under in exchange, and hopefully the trade books all balance out somehow.

    Oh my! That town. Yikes. There’s an awful lot of quartz on this here planet, but nones as pure as the stuff sourced from around there. It’s funny how a lot of this stuff is super reliant on really complicated supply lines stretched all over the world. It’s absolutely nuts, but there you go. Hey, old computers might be ‘in’! But manufacturers insert chips into all sorts of stuff, not to mention the other items, like the solar panels you mentioned. It defies my imagination that such high tech items can ever be thought of as rubbish, and not put to re-use even when they work perfectly. Crazy stuff.

    I believe that around the time of the potato err, hunger situation, plenty of folks on that small island were deriving 90% of their daily calories from the humble spud. And of all of the hundreds of varieties, they grew just two and unfortunately both were susceptible. Anyway, like brekkie pizza, so too was brekkie tater a thing. Truthfully if I were hungry enough, I’d go the brekkie pizza. 😉 Please don’t tell anyone…

    Man, spreading the work out is all nice and stuff, but sometimes you just kind of get on a roll and go with the flow. By way of contrast, today was a day of pottering around doing this and that – like being roped into the clean up. Made myself a bit scarce after that, and sheds are good places to decamp too. 😉 The weather was truly glorious here today. No wind, just warm sunshine and 73’F. I’m sure there are finer days, but it felt good. Proving that good times are paid with hard times, tomorrow will bring thunderstorms and damaging winds… I dunno, I just kind of live here…

    It won’t be long until I’m asking you whether there’s the risk of any snow in your forecast!

    Yes, that gentleman has most certainly inspired more than his fair share of interweb rabbit holes! All in a good cause of course. 🙂

    Hehe! That’s funny. Hey, how about this: coherent is the plan, reality may prove to be otherwise.

    I’d not heard of a white party before, but given current unfolding events, it’s probably a good thing not to hang out at and attend such things. Too rich for my tastes. 😉 For all of those people involved, it may be the colour of mourning.

    Ah, hog wire, we call that welded mesh. It’s good stuff isn’t it? Very useful, and in the right wire gauge you can make steel gabion cages.

    Oh that’s good, and yes we shall call Dusney by the proper name: Dizzy. All makes sense, and everyone’s happy and joyful until Bambi and company eats the entire fricken orchard! 😉 Just proves how good a proper marketing campaign can be.

    How obvious they’d use the phone book to discover the supply chains. Quite a clever bit of thinking there.

    Hope the dehydrating tomatoes smell nice. We’re having almost the exact same temperatures, although tomorrow will be colder, and perhaps wetter.

    Cheers

    Chris

  20. Chris:

    Bertie certainly defines the “idle rich”, but his heart is in the right place. But no backbone, of course. I read Wodehouse for the unreality; a nice change from daily life. My family had servants and they were treated like family. One was given a car, one had his surgery paid for, and their children were helped with college. And the last remaining one came to my wedding, as a guest.

    As for that pesky road: I am glad that I complained to you here. Apparently they saw my comment, as they have proceeded to start paving it.

    Now, why would anyone name something “stinkbug”? They stink – big time! Especially when they move into the house for the winter.

    http://extension.msstate.edu/newsletters/bug%E2%80%99s-eye-view/2019/brown-stink-bug-vol-5-no-11

    Yay – it’s rhodie time!

    Pam

  21. Yo, Chris – And, in news of the world (circa, 65 million years ago), the dinosaurs might have been done in, by a one / two punch.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/asteroid-killed-dinosaurs-not-alone-091534145.html?

    It’s interesting Pam mentioned the bumper crop of acorns. We’re having same, here. The squirrels are demented. Hmm. Maybe that’s why the deer haven’t been around our gardens. Besides the oak on our property, there’s quit a stand, upslope, the other side of the Boy Scout lodge. Maybe I should get a truffle pig? Of course, he or she would be an emotional support animal 🙂 DJ is … misinformed. 🙂 The Washington State motto, at least west of the mountains is: “Won’t Rust.” 🙂

    DJ is right, about losing elders. It happens in a lot of groups, and knowledge is lost. Somewhere, I read the results can be “Like a library burning down.” When I cautioned my buddy Scott, about getting some help in, for his projects, I told him we had lost enough old-timers, this year.

    I come from a long line of union folk. Back in the day, they were really necessary, to provide workers, with some forms of protection. Still do. But, I agree with you. They can be a really mixed bag. In this county, the knee jerk reaction is, all unions are bad. Even the teacher’s unions.

    “…using energy before the next quarter.” LOL. There’s an old saying: “Use it or lose it.” I heard a couple of comments from the Master Gardeners, about using up their budget, before the end of the year. Might be where the mad cash for the Japanese maple, came from. A lot of government agencies, are like that. Use up the budget, or next time you’ll get less. Because, obviously, you can get by on less.

    Yup. We got a food box, yesterday. Or, really, two. Not much in the produce section. Six nice baking potatoes, some very sad looking carrots (which will be headed to the food scrap bag, for the garden.) And six nice looking nectarines. That are so hard, I think they were strip mined, somewhere. I’ll have to look into how to best ripen them up. A pound of frozen ground beef. A pound each, of butter and cheddar cheese. A dozen eggs. A two pound brick of the processed cheese that won’t melt. Two boxes of ersatz Cheerios cereal and two quarts of shelf stable milk. Two pounds of walnuts. A two quart jug of some kind of grape drink. Two one pound boxes of elbow macaroni. A two pound bag, each, of dried pinto beans and split green peas. A one pound bag of dried lentils. Tins: one each of salmon, pears and chili. Two each of peas, corn, kidney beans, fruit mix, and black beans. Four bottles of that Ensure nutritional drink for old people.

    I kept the eggs and cheddar cheese. I’d have kept the walnuts, but I have plenty in my pantry. So, I split those into “snack bags” and take them to the Club. Every thing else will go to the Club, or down to The Institution’s swap table.

    I haven’s seen any olive oil from Australia, in the stores. Probably limited to high end yuppie stores. I used to see some California, olive oil, but it to has disappeared. Oh, I pretty well manage to limit myself to two squares of dark Lindt chocolate, every other day.

    The high yesterday was 64F (17.77C). The overnight low was 37F. Getting down there. I hear there was frost, last night, in outlying areas. But still nothing, in-town. Forecast for today is 69F. Rain is in the forecast, for early tomorrow morning … and through the day. Then back to nice weather, again.

    I ran another load of tomatoes, through my dehydrator. I’m giving them another couple of hours, this morning. Just to make sure they’re nice and crisp. I’ll do the last batch, tomorrow.

    Was wondering what to do in the garden, this evening. Maybe finish weeding the strawberries. There’s some garlic that needs to be separated, and replanted. But, voila! The garlic sampler showed up, today. Two cloves, each, of six different varieties. But where to plant them? Space is tight. I’ll probably favor the soft neck, varieties, as they store better. Lew

  22. Chris,

    Yahoo! I finished my project for the show. Photo sent.

    The fingers. The severed and repaired middle finger is doing well, I guess. Some days it is about 90% or more of “normal”. Other days it’s not as good and has some tingles. The best days are getting more frequent slowly. I think it has something to do with not healing as fast at age 64 as when I was 24.

    The ring finger on the same hand is the one that has had that “Viking Hand” issue. I remember the surgeon once telling me that the ring finger will have sympathy pains and symptoms until the middle finger is back to its best. What I am observing is that as the middle finger has improved, so have the “Viking Hand” symptoms of the ring finger. In fact, those symptoms have only been apparent once in the past 6 or 8 weeks.

    So the fingers are both getting better. Thanks for asking. Appreciate it.

    Yes, wisdom says to have contingency plans. We’ll get the show put together just fine, only differently than before. The carver was a master carver, meaning he was expert in at least four different carving categories. He was also a good mentor and a good friend. We were the two who got there very early to set up tables and brew coffee for the meetings. Gave us a lot of time to talk. I’ll dearly miss that. He told me nearly two years ago that he had a serious health issue. As a result, I’ve been cherishing those times together more than before, as well as learning as much from him as I could. The Princess claims that he was grooming me for the day that he wouldn’t be there. So, I’m happy for the times spent with a good friend and saddened that another close friend has passed. In other words, I’m coping and moving on. Thanks for asking about this, also. It helps.

    DJSpo

  23. Hi Pam,

    Rabbit Wars continued today, although technically I’m not fighting the rabbit resistance, I’m merely cleaning up the garden beds and ensuring the super-fast critters don’t get a chance to create a warren. Truly, it was hard work and looks very messy right now. The area will recover though.

    That’s my thoughts as well. Bertie was never a monster who deliberately set out to cause misery for others, he just failed to set boundaries on his meddling aunts and um, he was also at risk from the aspirational eligible young ladies whom circulated within his orbit. A nice set of problems to have if you ask me. I on the other hand am busy fending off the rabbits, and like the rats, they may be smarter than I. 🙂 Fortunately the Kelpie dogs are like the very helpful Jeeves, and so they direct my best efforts.

    At the turn of the twentieth century such work was remarkably common place, and of course long stints of employment would have been more commonplace where everyone recognises and respects a well established relationship. It’s only in these more enlightened times that people are treated like disposable work units.

    I’d like to believe that the reach of the blog extends to such heady places as your local roads maintenance folks, but candidly I have some doubts! Still whatever works, five miles is a lot of road to backfill.

    Yikes! Pam, please do keep such smelly pests to your part of the world. Not much down here can consume tomato leaves.

    Cheers

    Chris

  24. Hi DJ,

    Well done, and I’ll be very interested to see how the project turned out. You can always drop me an email if that request is not too presumptuous?

    Truer words were rarely spoken, and age does tend to slow the healing process. Still, good to hear that slowly bit by bit, the fingers are recovering, somewhat. Tingles are as you’d know, nerve damage. Out of curiosity, have you again taken up the gouging tool which was the cause of the injury?

    Isn’t that interesting? Makes you wonder why the improvement in the injury also produces less issues with the Viking Hand. It is notably difficult to wield a battle axe when the middle finger retracts towards the palm.

    Respect for finishing the pyro lemon to a knife fight project, especially with your background hand issues, and I hope that it is well received by the group.

    It’s impressive that your friend managed to continue with the group, be your friend, mentor and assist with setting up of meetings for a couple of years whilst having serious health issues. I remarked the other day here that people make time for the things which they believe are important to them.

    My thinking is very similar to your lady’s fine thoughts and such things happen. He knew where things might go on that front. It’s always lovely to have people who are masters in their field to take us lesser folks under their wing. All we can do from there is but our best, don’t you reckon?

    Your circumstances inspired me to contact the old school network to let them know that my old friend (whom I hadn’t seen for years, but popped into my awareness days after his funeral) had passed away earlier in the year. They send out a quarterly publication about such things, and reunions and stuff. I don’t usually do things like that, but something you said got me thinking about the subject. Dunno. Life can be strange like that, don’t you reckon?

    Cheers

    Chris

  25. Hi Lewis,

    There are bad days, and then there are horrific days like when the 10km wide chunk of rock hit the Earth at high speed 65 million years ago. Worrying about missing your morning coffee, or lost hour due to the time change over, would be the least of your concerns on that sort of a day. I’d not previously heard of the follow up chunk of rock, but such incidents can be a bit of a ‘thing’, mostly bad news.

    Anyway, you sent me off on an interweb rabbit hole, and there’s some seriously big-as craters on this continent, and others. Not good. You’d imagine that as the solar system ages, such incidents are less likely to occur, but then there was that massive chunk of rock which passed by a few years ago which had been on an interstellar voyage. It had a funny name, hmm, oh that’s right: Oumuamua

    Turns out that there was another such object first identified by an amateur astronomer. Those things move pretty fast.

    It’s been remarked upon elsewhere that deer keep their own counsel, but I agree with you, the plentiful acorns would make for heaps of feed. No need to raid your gardens. Do they grow truffles in your part of the world? They do around here and the things are feral big. And yeah, like the state motto. So true.

    Well that’s the thing, when knowledge and experience is lost, it’s gone, and us lesser folks are left to haul upon the ropes of existence, and do our best to take up the slack. Traditional elders are in very short supply in our culture. I’ve been very lucky over the years to get to know a few, but otherwise, I’m blindly working my way towards the future, one blunder at a time. 🙂

    Ook! Hopefully Scott’s projects don’t produce such outcomes, that would be a bad thing, I’m guessing.

    Speaking of blunders. It was quite the error to plant wormwood in the garden beds. Super woody, and very hard to remove. Provides almost perfect rabbit habitat. Anyway, cleaned up another garden bed today and found four rabbit holes. Had the Dame Plum and Ruby assisting me with the clean-up work, but the rabbits decamped. I’m rethinking the garden beds now that rabbits are a possibility, but first I need to get the plants started off all over again.

    Watched a massive thunderstorm roll along the freeway and railway line which runs in the centre of the valley off in the distance. Quite an impressive showing. A little bit of rain fell here, but that was well before I woke up this morning. Today was cloudy, but quite nice.

    I’ve got no problems with unions either, but yeah they can overdo things and demands, but then so too can the err, owners of production. Seems like a human trait if you ask me. I’ve noticed that response from various comments with origins in your country. It’s worth noting that err, owners of production tend to get together to arrange things as well, so there is some hypocrisy going on. A common human trait getting together to arrange things.

    That was exactly my thinking. Use the energy, or lose it. The costs are crazy and seem to only ever be getting worse, so we have to do something different. And as you’d imagine, we’ve got a plan. 😉

    I’ve seen that ‘spend it, or lose it’ budget situation where public funds are the origin. That sort of thing is probably why I now work in small business. We’d call that prudence (if holding back on the expenditure), savings. Interestingly I found a self seeded Japanese maple today. Might move it. They volunteer in this mountain climate and area.

    A true mixed bag of produce – some good, some not so good, like those carrots. Yuck! That’s funny, but yeah, strip mined. You probably already know, but they pick them green so that they travel. A sun ripened nectarine doesn’t appreciate travelling far, but oh my, they taste good. Those were one of the fruits which set my off on this journey now over two decades ago.

    You know I mildly scared of the cheese which won’t melt. Doesn’t sound like any cheese I’ve ever met. 🙂 Was the Club pantry stripped bare towards the end of last month?

    Oh, yeah, probably. Aussie and Californian olive oils have a good reputation for a reason. I’ve heard some odd stories about the stuff which derives from the old world.

    Lewis, Lindt chocolate is very good indeed. Yum!

    Did you end up getting the rain? They’re promising heavy rain here tomorrow. Ook! I’ve got stuff I want to do outdoors, but oh well. It’s a busy time of year here, and I have to cut the rapidly growing grass away from all of the fruit trees.

    Wise to crisp up all the tomatoes. How do you cook with them? They’re very tasty, and I enjoy them particularly during the winter months as an addition to dishes.

    Are you getting much fruit from the strawberries? And more importantly (just because I have no idea) are you taming the runners?

    Garlic fortunately doesn’t take up much space in the garden.

    Cheers

    Chris

  26. Chris:

    You are also putting up a defensive fight in the Rabbit Wars. I think Sun Tzu would approve.

    Pam

  27. Yo, Chris – I can’t link to the article, but you might find this interesting. “How a Mass. Man Grows Pumpkins That Weigh Over 2,000 Pounds.” Something for me to aspire to 🙂 Not! I wonder how they taste?

    There’s a cool meteor crater, in Arizona. It fell during the Pleistocene, about 50,000 years ago. There probably weren’t people on this continent, yet, but plenty of mammoth and ground sloth, around. Now that was probably a bad day, for an extended area.

    According to a quick glance down the rabbit hole, there are three types of culinary truffle, found in western Oregon and Washington. But it isn’t what I’d call a well established industry. I don’t see them on offer, anywhere. I’d guess, our mushroom hunting industry, is so well established, and lively, that truffles haven’t become a “thing.” Give it time.

    Have you read “Watership Down?” 🙂

    The high was 68F (20C), yesterday. Overnight low was 41F. Forecast for today is 60F. Did we get rain? Oh, yes. It’s raining puppies and kitties, right now. But, looking at the weather radar, there’s a break coming up. H doesn’t seem very interested in getting off the bed. OK, by me. She might linger long enough, that we both don’t get soaked.

    You might find this article about the greening of Antarctica, interesting. Yes, yes, I know. Once upon a time, Antarctica was as green as Ireland. 🙂

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-looked-images-space-see-090038882.html?

    Here, it was the timber barons, who colluded to bust up labor organizing efforts. Their efforts … linger.

    It’s almost as if, in some sectors, being prudent and having a bit of a reserve, is punished. Hmmm. Perhaps that is why maintenance funds, for some projects are lacking.

    The Club pantry didn’t seem to be as hard hit, the end of last month. Oh, sure, the usual disappeared, pretty fast. Tinned meat and soups and stews. Tinned fruit usually moves fast, but there was apple sauce, right on through to the end. Plenty of pasta and white rice. Tinned veg got a little thin, but there was always something on the shelf, to eat. People are also bringing in their excess garden produce. Mostly, squash and tomatoes. Some apples.

    During the winter, I throw a small handful of dried tomatoes, in whatever “Rice and….” I’m making for dinner. And, if I make a pizza, there’s always some, on top.

    I worked in the garden, last night, for a couple of hours. I got two kinds of garlic planted, and finished weeding the strawberry bed. I need to pick up some more good “dirt” and then I’ll start moving some strawberry runners, to more fertile areas. See if I can fill in some of the blank areas. They are still producing a few strawberries, which I think could be improved, by working on the soil, some more.

    Well, when you only have about 100sq feet of garden, and eat 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, a day … space is tight. :-). Lew

  28. Hi Pam,

    The kelpies are obsessive about the rabbits, yet lack the practical skills which Sir Scruffy and Sir Poopy were able to bear on the problem with almost casual ease. Dame Plum comes closest to those two. Of course, there may now also be more rabbits since those carefree days. Dunno. We’ve decided today to remove all woody shrubs from the garden beds – and that should put an end to the rabbit mischief matter.

    But Pam, it’s weeks and weeks of work before that job is completed. Oh well, mustn’t grumble.

    Moved about four rhubarb plants today to better locations – in the rain. All of this work on the garden beds is quite good because we’re beginning to get some new ideas about how they should work, look and be maintained here.

    Hope your mum is feeling better today.

    Cheers

    Chris

  29. Hi Lewis,

    Despite the incessant cookie demands and paywalls, I read most of the article about the super massive pumpkin and dude. It was the moment where I read the line ‘about seven hours per day of work’ for a month and half to produce the monster fruit, that my mind finally comprehended what it was dealing with. The dude would know everything there was to know about producing monster pumpkins. And I mean every single thing.

    Yah, avoid such challenges if at all possible! 🙂 Who even has seven hours per day for such work? How could a person cook such a monster sized fruit? I can’t imagine that it tastes good, that thing was bred for size. If the bloke put his mind to the tastiest pumpkin ever, I reckon he could achieve that.

    Speaking of which, we’re having potato and pumpkin casserole for dinner this evening. Yum!

    The crater in Arizona is very impressive. That Colorado high plains desert would be a very difficult place to live nowadays. The mammoths and ground sloths in the area wouldn’t have stood a chance that day though. No way.

    Well that was interesting. Apparently the truffles in your part of the world are meant to be non-toxic, and a few are foraged for consumption. Being down under, I’m always concerned that any harvested native mushrooms and/or native truffles are probably going to be seriously bad news. Things seem easier in your country on that front, although around these parts the deliberately planted black truffles produce some of the largest in the world. Usually they’re packed and shipped off to Europe. I’ve tasted local black truffles and they’re OK, but put it this way, I’m not racing out to try them again. Hey, deliberately growing and harvesting truffles for the export markets might end up being a ‘thing’? You never know. People harvest wild mushrooms around these parts, but they always stick to pine forests where the varieties are known.

    Good question, but there was no way I was going to read the book and/or watch the Watership Down film. Art Garfunkle singing the song bright eyes was enough for me to know that the film would end badly. Presumably you’ve read the book? 🙂 What’s with making animal films end badly for the protagonists? You always knew Old Yella was gonna cop it bad in the end, no matter how many good deeds done along the way.

    H was very sensible to delay her sojourn and promenade until the break in the rain was evident. The dogs here exhibit no such common sense. Mind you, neither do I! Four rhubarb crowns were relocated – all whilst it was raining heavily at some points. Ended up getting quite wet and a little bit muddy. Moved a couple of ferns as well. One of them was a bit close to an area where the Editor sprays the paths so as to keep them free of grass and other plants. The poor fern was looking rather unwell, and hopefully enjoys it’s new spot.

    Thanks for the article about that big frozen continent. How cool are plants? And it was hard for me to ignore the line that the newly established plants there were somehow invasive species. I’d call them opportunists, instead. If a person takes a bigger perspective, way back in the day, dinosaurs lived on that continent, which suggests that it can get far warmer than what it looks like today. As probably can Greenland as well. And the continent is around the same spot on the planet as way back then.

    Presumably the timber barons didn’t go the distance either? But yes, some cultural change can become incorporated into the mess of society, and sometimes not for the better.

    Dunno, but presumably the culture tends to rely upon economic growth and advances in technology in order to meet future maintenance costs? If mad cash and physical wealth was stashed away in order to meet future obligations, our society would look very different. I’m guessing many things are only affordable because we ignore the future.

    Thanks, as I’d wondered about the club pantry what with it being harvest time in your part of the world. Food would be at it’s cheapest right now in your annual cycle. That’s all a guess of course, and I could be wrong. It’s good that members are bringing in their excess produce for the pantry. Nice work.

    Yeah, that’s how we also cook with the dehydrated tomatoes. Chuck them in for a taste of summer at that cold time of the year. Some of the tomato seeds planted in the greenhouse have germinated. Yay!

    You found that extra space for some of the new garlic cloves. 🙂 Happy days! Raised beds do kind of demand extra soil feeding, not to mention compost and soil. Strawberries are a mystery to me, so please do keep me updated on your observations. They seem to produce more berries in less fertile soil, but the dirt has to also have enough fertility for the plants to grow and produce – it’s a fine balance.

    🙂 Growing space is tight for everyone who gardens. But yeah, some spaces are tighter than others.

    I’m losing an hour of sleep this evening. Already I feel the sleep deficit, and it hasn’t even happened yet! 😉

    Cheers

    Chris

  30. Chris:

    Times have changed since the days of those two chivalrous knights. Smart idea about the woody shrubs.

    You seem to have as much rain as we do.

    My mother is still quite a bit under the waether.

    Pam

  31. Yo, Chris – Hmm. I didn’t run into any cookie demands, or paywalls. Guess I’m living right. 🙂

    Another interesting article, about … ants. Ants who farm. Remember ant farms? I had one, when I was a kid. Offered for your entertainment and edification. 🙂

    https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/04/science/ants-fungi-farming-asteroid-study

    You’d need a chain saw, to cut up that huge pumpkin. I’d bet the grower probably makes a tidy living, from selling the seeds.

    Speaking of seeds, and plants. Here’s an article about the revival of a thousand (about) year old plant, that has gone extinct. Might be good, to have around.

    https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/03/science/biblical-tree-ancient-seed-tsori

    Night before last, I had a craving for junk food, for dinner. Didn’t even have anything good to watch, but made popcorn, with cheddar cheese! There was left over popcorn. Drizzled peanut butter on the top, and ate it with a spoon. Back on track, last night. Rice, with squash, peas, garlic, carrots and broccoli. Later, cut up two of those nectarines, that were getting ripe, and had those with yoghurt.

    Although, on reflection, that Nick Cage movie “Pig” was about hunting truffles, here in the Pacific Northwest.

    For a real rip-your-heart out animal story, nothing beats “The Yearling.” Deer, again. It was from a 1938 novel, by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. An interesting and eccentric person, in her own right. It was done as a movie, in 1946. Starring Gregory Peck and Jane Wyman.

    I haven’t even got to the new garlic, yet. I was planting Elephant garlic, and a mystery garlic that I had neglected. I noticed that the tomatoes have really slowed down, from ripening. Lack of sunshine, I guess.

    The high yesterday was 59F. Overnight low was 48. Forecast for today is 67F. Foggy this morning, but it will burn off, later. More rain in a few days. Prof. Mass has a rather disturbing post. I’ve been through a few blows, over the years. But nothing like our Columbus Day Storm, back in 1962. I’ve wondered, from time to time, if I’ll experience something similar, in my lifetime. Might be this winter.

    Discovered that our local veg store carries bulk peanuts. Unsalted, toasted, in shell, for $3.50 a pound. Might have to pick some up, and give your peanut butter a whirl. Lew

  32. Hi Pam,

    I miss those two stalwarts, but you’ve gotta somehow work and live with what you’ve got. And in other ways the current lot of canines are better. All the echiums and wormwood plants will be removed over the next four weeks or so. It’s a big job, and creates an enormous mess of the otherwise pleasant looking garden beds. Oh well.

    Late this afternoon I potted out eight seedling volunteer Japanese maples, and those small trees will form the new backbone of the garden beds (replacing all of the woody low to the ground growing species). In a couple of years time, the whole lot will look pretty good, but right now, there’s a need for a big rabbit busting reset with the arrangement of plants.

    It’s been wet of late, and glad you’re now getting some rain – and a new major road. There’s a weather phenomenon down here known as the Southern Annular Mode. The name means nothing, but when the mode is in negative (like right now), storms from Antarctica push further north than they otherwise would. There’s only ocean between here and there, so when the big old frozen continent decides to exert authority, you get to feel the results here.

    Fingers crossed that your mum recovers soon and speedily.

    Cheers

    Chris

  33. Hi DJ,

    Hang on a second, a red ribbon is second place. That’s a fine achievement in my book. Clearly the judges are unaware of the noble lineage of the humble wombat? 🙂 The werewolf looked great, and I liked how the overall design worked out as well. If you are OK, I can upload a high resolution image of your work for the lovely people here to admire?

    Sandra and I enjoyed your TV appearance. Man, I’d have been a little bit stressed out, especially given the circumstances which you mentioned. Good to hear that some new local folks turned up to check out the show.

    Oh, have you got the three clubs together for the show this weekend? Dude, you’re busy as.

    Cheers

    Chris

  34. Hi Lewis,

    The evil computer ferrets had it in for me for sure with that super massive pumpkin article. The website demands were many, the refresh browser button handed over the text, two paragraphs at a time. There are ways around such gate-keeping. It’s possible that because you’re on the fruit computer company that things are easier for you?

    I’d not known that ants kept fungi gardens inside their nests – and tended them. But it makes a weird kind of sense, because ants can also farm aphids on the citrus trees. The aphids suck the sugars from the leaves, and ants apparently consume the aphids or an extract of the aphids, and the arrangement leaves a sooty mould (a fungi) on the leaves. The trees by and large don’t benefit from the association, but that’s life. And yup, I do recall those ant farms with their Perspex clear sides. Hope the ants don’t escape!

    Ah, of course, the notoriety would lead to the sale of pricey seeds. Makes a person wonder if there is a theoretical upper limit for the size of an individual pumpkin? I’m aware that trees can’t get much bigger than the giant Sequoias or the Eucalyptus Mountain Ashes due to the physics of pumping water high up into the tree canopy. Unless the trees somehow develop a more efficient way to life ground water into the canopy.

    It sure is an interesting plant, and I’m genuinely amazed that the seed is still viable for germination. Miraculous plants like that one can probably be harvested to extinction – which is probably what happened. It looks like an unassuming tree, a bit like the Tree Lucerne (tagasaste) variety, but I’m no expert and the seeds were quite large.

    We all get that craving from time to time. 🙂 Bummer about the lack of a good movie or series to watch. I won’t mention Carson’s Farm again because, well, you know. It’s good though, and would have filled the viewing hole. You went hard with that wicked combination of food stuffs. Had a gourmet pie for lunch today, myself. Must be something in the water? Likewise, rabbit food is on the menu for dinner this evening – hope it doesn’t affect the writing, but it might! Hey, did the nectarine taste any good and had it softened?

    Exactly! Although I’d not seen the Nick Cage film on truffle hunting in your part of the world. The film has had nothing but praise.

    Skipping over the you-know-the-ending-will-be problematic for the deer, the author was a very interesting person. And the book is notable. Hmm. The author enjoyed her quiet time and sure seems to have upset some sections of the neighbourhood at the time. Oh my! Gregory Peck must have been very young at the time of the filming? Apparently not.

    Oh no! I thought you were planting out the new varieties of cloves. Lack of sunshine is certainly what slows plants growth at your time of the growing season. Usually by the end of April (your October), the summer crops are done and the days aren’t cold, but neither are they what you’d describe as being warm. On the flip side, I swear that the rhubarb crowns I relocated yesterday have grown over night. And yes it rained earlier this morning, but the afternoon was quite nice, although cool.

    Potted out eight Japanese maple seedlings which I found growing around the place. The plan is to grow those instead of the woody shrubs (Echium and Wormwood) because those are all getting slowly removed over the next few weeks from all of the garden beds. The rabbit situation is a pain.

    Hmm, the local mob are not yet calling a weak La Nina this year, but Professor Mass does have a reasonably good feel for your weather. Fingers crossed that the big blow does not eventuate. The satellite photo of the 2016 looked kind of like a monster cyclone.

    Yum! Yum! Hope you try the home made peanut butter option out. It’s good.

    Cheers and better get writing!

    Chris

  35. Yo, Chris – I forgot to mention our time change will come, the first weekend of November. Sigh. There will be complaints, in the media, for a couple of days, and then the whole topic of ending it, dies. Want to win an election? Promise to end the time-foolery.

    Every once in awhile, some really, really old seed is resurrected. I think there was an extinct date palm variety. And, wheat from an Egyptian tomb.

    Rawlings also wrote a cookbook. “Cross Creek Cookery.” I have a first edition, packed away, somewhere. I don’t think I’ll get much for it. The lower edge had been pulled on and off a shelf, so many times, that the cloth binding wore away to the internal cardboard. Also, it has a whiff about it, of either wood or coal smoke. Still, it has a certain “cool” factor. As in, “Ain’t it cool!” 🙂

    When I start planting the new varieties of garlic, I’ll start with the soft necks, first. In case I totally run out of room. According to what I read, they are better keepers.

    I bet your Japanese maples will be quit stunning, once they get established. We have a native maple here, called a vine maple.

    https://w.wiki/BSc5

    Some of the varieties can be a bit invasive. Some people consider them a bit of a “trash” tree. More brush than tree. But in the fall, quit pretty.

    The high yesterday was 66F (18.88C). The overnight low was 43F. Forecast for today is 71F. Plans for this morning is to walk the dog and load up the dehydrator with tomatoes.

    Last night for dinner, I had the usual rice and veg mix. I put a little cheddar cheese, on the top, and sprinkled on some cider vinegar. For a bit of extra zing.

    Night before last, I checked out all six nectarines, and picked out the two softest ones. By last night, one had begun to go moldy. But, had two other ones with yoghurt. They have a mild nectarine flavor, nothing like a tree ripened fruit. Texture is ok, but a bit mealy toward the core. Overall, nothing to write home about. Though one shouldn’t look a gift nectarine, in the mouth. :-). Lew

  36. Chris,

    Yes, the photo of my pyrography is yours to post or whatever you want. Thanks for the votes of confidence!

    DJSpo

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