People Watching

The summer sun is now setting below the horizon. It’d been a hot day. The guiding mantra: if in doubt, do less, was brought into play during the hottest part of the afternoon. I lay down on the couch and closed my eyes for an hour. Sandra and the dogs likewise napped. At such times, only mad dogs and Englishmen venture under the scorching Australian southern sun. The ceiling fans roared away as they moved a surprising amount of air about each of the rooms. Candidly, sitting underneath the rotating blades can feel a touch chilly. By 9pm, the sun had finally set, the outside air cooled, and we opened the doors and windows to let in the fresh evening air.

Our preference is to adapt to the conditions as they are. Summers are hot, that’s life. Nowadays, the off grid solar power system could handle a small air conditioner to cool the inside of the house. That wasn’t always the case, but we started small with the renewable energy technology, and then worked, upgraded and modified our way to where the system is today. Why push things when adaptation is the easier path?

The house itself was designed with hot summers (and the risk of bushfire) in mind, and the building mostly does pretty well in the conditions. If I’d had my time again with the design, the veranda facing the afternoon sun would be much deeper, and there’d be other changes like a mud room. And maybe a bigger laundry, and also a room which serves as a root cellar. All very handy. When I was a kid, my grandmothers double fronted Victorian era house in the then working class suburb of Hawksburn, had a cool room in the shadiest corner of the property with metal lined timber bins for storing root vegetables. I can still recall the distinct sound of the front gate which had a spring attached to force it to automatically close shut. Simpler times.

The old house had a bluestone cobbled lane way on one side and also at the rear. Back in the day, the horse drawn night-cart drivers removed the households poop. My grandmother used to scare me with stories of the notorious gangsters who used such alley ways to ply their nefarious trades. The name Squizzy Taylor was mentioned more than once, and was spoken in hushed tones with all the dread that could be conjured, despite the gangster being long since dead.

My how things change. It’s no longer cheap to construct a house, and we faced that expense back in 2009. It was so much that we had to build the house ourselves mostly with our own labour. Down under, you’re not allowed to do mains electrical wiring or house plumbing without a license, so we had to fork over mad cash for those services. The mains electrical install bill was reasonable, the plumbing bill was financially ruinous. Oh well, moving on, and it’s worth noting that the suburb Hawksburn where my grandmother once resided, is no longer the working class suburb it once was. Things change, yup.

The other day in the news I read some article which suggested that tourism is responsible for 10% of the world’s carbon emissions. Such stories make me think back to my grandmothers experience. The lady didn’t travel far from home. The cheeky old thing to took me to the cinema to watch the disaster film: Airplane ’77. What can I say? The cinematic aircraft crashed into the ocean. At the time such possibilities were unknown to me: What do you mean that aircraft can fall out of the sky? Such horror films can create a lifelong dread of flying. Heard it said elsewhere that: ‘Tes flyin’ in the face of nature! Spoiler alert, the plane was re-floated with only a few special guest deaths who probably had it coming to them.

They never had a car either at that old house. We’d walk to the nearby Prahran market and buy whatever fresh food was needed. It was exciting when the SSW supermarket chain opened up a nearby store, and in those days, the produce was sent home in paper bags mostly contained within the metal and vinyl wheeled shopping jeep.

Never had much to do with her husband, which was my other grandfather. Frankly speaking, I didn’t much like him despite his enviable stamp collection. He’d worked for the post office all his life, and been something of a collector. Possibly his social reticence had arisen because he’d been exempt from WWII and likely received plenty of community backlash. Upon his retirement from work, they went on a cruise, and that was about the only time they travelled far from home.

Anyway, reading that tourism article gave me a spooky insight into the future. Sooner or later, the sort of careless travel people expect now, will be curtailed. The combination of reducing discretionary income, higher energy costs, and overall societal decline, will force the change whether people agree or otherwise. The pollution aspect of the story is hardly a concern for most people. Despite the realities of pollution, that story gets used as the only allowable and acceptable discussion point.

Thinking about our own situation, Sandra and I could actually travel more, but that means doing more paid work in order to pay for the hefty costs. Not keen, and home is pretty good. To be honest, I enjoy the paid work that is done to keep mad cash flowing into the coffers, and the small businesses we work for all get a good deal. However, I’ve never really grappled with the hard question: How much of that work do I really want to do? Dunno. Seriously.

We do look at regular costs so as to see what can be cut back on if needed. A few years ago the nice gas company began charging a small quarterly rental fee for the two bottles (which we’d originally supplied them with). Each quarter the costs rose, and we use very little Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). So we pay the costs, even if we don’t use the energy source. It’s now at $65 rental for each three months for the two cylinders. Additionally, the 45kg / 100 pound bottles each cost $200 delivered. It’s getting to be an expensive option and the costs are adding up. So, we’ve decided to get rid of them from our life. One bottle was removed a few months ago, the other will be removed shortly.

One gas bottle down, another to go. And good riddance!

Postscript: The final gas bottle was picked up about an hour ago.

Of course, we can use solar derived off grid electricity for cooking, but there are gas hoppers installed, so we’ll probably connect up small swap and go bottles (which are readily available at $32 each for about 8.5kg / 19 pounds). The quarterly rental fee will cover two bottles, and that’s more gas than we’ll use. Hot water is the big user of gas in the in-between weather. When the sun is shining the solar hot panels produce toasty hot water. During winter, the wood heater warms the hot water as well as the hydronic radiators. Can’t do much about the sun, but as you’d imagine, we take firewood very seriously indeed, and fortunately have access to thousands of trees, many of which are handily already on the ground.

This week, we put in two and half work days and have now filled up the firewood shed with next years supply of cut and split firewood chunks. By the time the stuff will be used in maybe late March, the timber will be at around 13% moisture content (yes, we do have a moisture testing meter), which is perfect.

Day one this week, the firewood shed is rapidly filling up
Day two, we almost got there, but not quite
Day three, and two hours of work in the hot sun finished the job

All up it’s taken about maybe seven or eight days of work over the past month or so, to fill up the shed. Once the job was completed I then gave the log splitting machine a major service and clean, because it now won’t be needed for a few months.

Another cement step was poured earlier today on the new concrete staircase leading up to the courtyard from the sunny orchard. It’ll be a useful staircase. Very soon, we’ll have to cut a path through a garden bed towards the top of the set of stairs. At the moment due to the thick vegetation, we’re uncertain where the level of that path actually is. Hopefully we are close!

Another cement step was poured earlier today in this concrete staircase

One of the terrace garden beds is failing in the hot weather. Trying to work out what was going on, we had a good look around the area at other similar garden beds which are working. Here’s one that is working and has beans, tomatoes and roses.

Happy beans and roses in this garden bed

Turns out, the rocks on the downhill side of the above garden bed not only reduce evaporation, but they are also retaining soil. So, with those lessons in mind, we decided to begin adding a rock wall to the downhill side of the failing garden bed.

A rock wall has been added to the downhill side of this failing garden bed

Over the next week or so, I’ll begin topping up the soil in this failing garden bed. In future growing seasons, the area will hopefully work better.

In the above photo, you can see the grape cage. Inside the cage, we grow a mixture of ten different grape vines which are dual purpose for either table (fresh eating) or wine making. An hour was spent weeding the enclosure, and pruning the vines.

Inside the grape cage

Earlier this year, four of the vines produced a decent harvest. This year about seven of the vines are now sporting little clusters of developing grapes. Hopefully they mature and are tasty!

A tiny cluster of developing grapes

This week, the big harvest has been raspberries. Each day, Sandra is picking a plastic container of juicy ripe berries.

I’m holding the container, but Sandra did the actual work of picking them

The berries are stored in the freezer and when we get enough of them, and the weather cools down so the kitchen doesn’t over heat the house, a large batch of raspberry jam will be made. For the record, the freezer is now close to full:

Not much space left in the freezer

There are stored frozen strawberries, raspberries and bread crumbs derived from home baked fresh bread. But not much room is left.

In breaking produce news. Here’s what one of the garden beds of raspberry plants now looks like:

Roses one side and raspberries on the other

During winter, those raspberry canes were all hacked back to about a third of their current height. Then every second year cane was removed (which was about two thirds of all canes). It’s easy to tell which are the second year canes, because they’re generally thicker than the first year canes. The hard pruning work has produced an excellent harvest. Also the thornless blackberry plants were also given a super hard pruning at the same time, and the results have been remarkable. In prior years with both plants, we’d been way too easy on them.

The blackberries are also promising an excellent harvest

The many pumpkin, squash, zucchini seeds chitted and planted out last week germinated in about three days. There are now heaps of seedlings, and I will have to thin them. I’m not entirely sure that the melons and cucumber seeds have germinated, but we’ll see what happens as the week goes on.

Plenty of zucchini, pumpkin and squashes have germinated

The pears and apples continue to grow in size this week, and I’ve noticed that the local parrots are being so helpful with the thinning of the fruit trees. Fortunately there is a lot of fruit on the trees.

A yummy pear with a cluster of apples to the rear

The silverbeet plants have all gone to seed this week. We’ll collect some of the seed and get them re-started again before the cooler weather arrives next year.

The silverbeet plants have all gone to seed this week

Despite the hot weather (and it will get much hotter tomorrow at 40’C / 104’F), the grass in the shady orchard is still looking quite green and lush. How it will look after tomorrow’s scorcher, is anyone’s guess.

Ollie poses in the shady orchard

Last weeks bull kangaroo looked like a true force of nature. His little side kick, is far less formidable and looks more like the friendly Skippy the bush kangaroo.

A youthful grey forest kangaroo enjoys the facilities

I’m on very good terms with the local family of magpies, and the other day I noted they were all sunning themselves on the Triple J FM antenna.

The magpies also enjoy the facilities

If I may geek it up for a moment! I made the 5 element Yagi antenna years ago, and it’s tuned and aligned to the precise frequency of the national youth broadcaster. You need such things when living in a problematic signal area.

This weeks video shows how to assemble the tiramisu dessert:

Tiramisu easy making part three adding all the ingredients together ep 29

Onto the flowers:

The Japanese maple has just flowered and the large olive tree is flowering this week
Foxgloves are enjoying the cooler conditions in the fern gully
European poppies happily self seed in some of the garden beds

The temperature outside now at about 11am is 27’C (81’F). So far for last year there has been 929.0mm (36.6 inches) which is the same as last weeks total of 929.0mm (36.6 inches)

48 thoughts on “People Watching”

  1. Hi Lewis,

    Thanks for the article on your health profit system. The ever alert part of me wonders why hospitals are not for profit when they appear to be targets of private equity firms. Like how does that even work? Are we talking about tax free surpluses versus taxed corporate profits? I smell a problem there.

    Oh my, that’s nasty about the avian flu in Idaho. Mass die offs of bird populations do happen regularly though. To be a bird and able to fly requires tip top high level genetics, and they’re subject to minuscule changes in their environment. It could equally have been that the birds delayed their southerly winter migration due to shifting climate and the sudden transition from warmer to winter conditions – and blew their chances of making it south before the cold weather hit? Candidly it’s hard to know what the underlying causes of the mass die off actually are. Viruses and die offs like that reduce competition for limited resources and the remaining population becomes hardier. As far as worries go, I give that one a low rating for concern, but that’s me. Admittedly a nasty strain could develop, and you know, the survivors will be hardier for the experience.

    It’s worth noting that plagues tend to follow in the footsteps of serious issues with the food supply. The Black plague is a classic example and it came on the back of two years of failed and reduced harvests. People are super excited for those weight loss drugs, but with two failed harvests, you wouldn’t need them.

    Detroit would be a strange and interesting city to visit in the process of deindustrialisation. It fascinates me that I hear stories about houses being scavenged for materials so as to repair the remaining nearby houses. Anyway, I don’t travel far from home nowadays, let alone leave on a jet plane. 🙂 I’m sanguine about my choices, and other folks can do what they want on that front, it bothers me not. It’s like morals and ethics, we as a society have the ones we can afford, and when we can’t afford them, we have something else. Our species is wonderfully adaptable to circumstance.

    Hope the concert was good? 🙂 Have to laugh, a favourite artist of mine has just released a live album, on double vinyl only… 🙂 Do I have a turntable these days? Nope! I can only say that I brought this poop down on my own head selling off the high end turntable and vinyl collection for a song around 2006.

    The eleventh step does have an ominous feel to the words, yeah. You’ve got a flair for these things. Is the number eleven considered unlucky?

    Man, it’s hot here right now, and inside the house at almost 10pm the thermometer is suggesting 28’C / 82’F. At least it’s cooling down now outside. Took the dogs for a walk an hour or two ago and they were gasping in the heat. Bizarrely, the cloudy skies (and it’s been cloudy all day, thankfully) delivered a light dusting of rain whilst on the walk.

    Had to get a new set of tires for the dirt rat Suzuki today. Cost me $700 and the previous set lasted about three years, which is pretty good all things considered (badly maintained dirt roads and stuff). It’s been an expensive day, but with the heat we spent all day inside doing paid work. The super hot conditions caused the pumpkins to grow rapidly today. I’d given them a good water this morning.

    Down below on the forest edge, a couple of kangaroos were a bit tetchy due to the heat and they were having a massive punch up and brawl. Emotions are running as hot as the weather! 🙂 Fortunately, the two kelpies wanted nothing to do with the melee, and Ollie was forcefully restrained.

    Exactly and as usual, the middle ground wins the prize. 😉 Trust me, I’m alert for opportunities, but otherwise render unto Caesar. One can only but do their best, and I could well be wrong in this matter.

    Speaking of winning, I manage to subtly convince the Editor into reading Jack Vance’s pentalogy Demon Princes series. It’s a ripping good yarn and she’s enjoying it immensely. That’s what I’d call a win.

    You worked in the golden era of bookshops, of which I shopped in. I have only fond memories of the huge Borders store that was well stocked and used to open late of an evening. Suits us night owls who like to read, don’t you reckon? Retail would be a tough gig in these enlightened days. Expectations can occasionally exceed reality, it’s only a problem because emotions then run high.

    You got a total bargain with the ham hocks! I mentioned your experience to the Editor, who has a better recent handle on such things and she remarked that her most recent purchase was $18 for one ham hock. Ook! Fuel costs are sort of low here at the moment, probably for the same reason. $6.85 a gallon.

    The remaining gas bottle was picked up this morning. Gotta stay nimble and keep on shuffling, err, I mean adapting to circumstance!

    I respect your belief systems. Yes, it might well be different this time. 🙂 Thanks for the laughs.

    Aww, it’s good that the Club folks are concerned for their own, and that’s commendable. Glad you could reduce the tensions in relation to the overall situation and bring in a dose of reality. Hope Jane heals well and speedily, and is back again to regale you with tales before you know it.

    Hehe! 🙂 Well, it’s a strategy which is sometimes workable. 😉 Good thinking too, and hopefully the Club benefits and the publication takes the lead and runs with it. They need articles too. How did Mr Bill take the news?

    Never written a grant myself, but presumably if there is a ‘for dummies’ book then it could be formulaic? To be honest, I wrote and prepared the application for the house permit. When we bought the land, there was the right to build a house, but no permit to do so. Locals are still baffled at how we got the permit, but I’ll share a little secret with you. Get in a bit closer. That’s it. Answer the f@#$ing questions asked in the application, and treat the council workers like human beings, be timely about responding to requests for further information, and generally give them what they want, even if they’ve asked for it three times already. It’s not hard… 😉 You know all that stuff though. People are so weird and emotive about the entire process, it administration dude! It’s not meant to make sense, or fill a person with comfort.

    Hey, thanks for the link and I’m genuinely surprised to see references to Charlie XCX and the brat summer. Wow, they’re getting down with the kids! The Picasso must be a work of genius because I find it deeply disturbing to look at. Ook! Presumably the marble god would have been relieved to have finally escaped the sewer? That sounds like the plot from a Michael Moorcock pulp fiction book. What is it with the English and surprising finds with digs in car parks?

    Like your theory with the small, but well decorated house in Pompeii. Yeah, nice one. An artist would need something of a showroom, and why not their own home? Plus the artist could have the naughty stuff there, the customer could view the quality of the work and then remark if they could have something along similar lines that wouldn’t quite upset the mother in law?

    Cheers

    Chris

  2. Yo, Chris – I enjoyed your post, this week. A nice walk down memory lane. Or, memory laneway? 🙂 The gate with the spring brought back memories. You always had a bit of a heads up, when someone was about to arrive. There’s probably a gate opening app, these days.

    People, at least hip and with it smart people, are always looking for ways to trim the household budget.

    A full woodshed is a comfort. Now you can sleep, at night. 🙂

    The grapes look promising. Let’s hope a parrot doesn’t find his way in. Or any other critter, winged or otherwise.

    It’s hard not to be a bit squeamish about pruning. LOL. One of the Master Gardeners gave me a stern lecture about pruning my tomatoes. Energy into fruit and not into extemporaneous leaves, etc. etc.. I did prune them, quit a bit last year, and will prune them even harder, this upcoming year.

    It seems like you’re getting more kangaroo sightings, closer in. Maybe not enough tucker or water in the woods? Or, population pressure?

    The Tiramisu wind-up was very good. Although the raw eggs brought me up, a little short.

    The poppies look spectacular. You can’t get much redder, than that. Although your roses are in the running.

    But to your letter …

  3. Hello Chris!

    Expectations… And entitlement…
    The 2020s are already starting to smell a lot of disappointment and disillusionment.
    Here in Europe, two prime ministers have had to step down during the last two weeks (France, Germany) when their parliaments did not accept their slightly less overspending budget proposals.
    People seem to keep getting their goods, even when there is less money coming in.

    As your grandma showed by example, there are many beautiful possibilities to live meaningful lives with less resources, as long as you are not sulking.

    My grandpa bought his first car when he was 50, and never used it much.
    He had a rich and interesting life, travelling to other countries by train and ferry, talking seven languages, corresponding to lots of people. And he kept bees and tended fruit trees his whole life.
    He worked for the provincial administration office in a legal position.

    It is a very important question – how much do I really want/need to work at the paid activity? It can be great fun if not overdone!

    We are starting to prepare for the holidays, and our boys come home for a week or so to the farm. We will cook a lot together. Yum.

    Peace,
    Göran

  4. Hi, Chris!

    But in the winter, when it’s cooler, I say: Do one more thing.

    I’ve always loved that line: “Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.” I expect it has been true often enough.

    So, it’s just a matter of adaptation, because what else is there? You can have this, it’s abundant. Now it’s not, so you can’t have it. I would say that adaptation is only easier in the long run. As you go through it, it can be pretty difficult.

    We built our log house from a kit. Actually, we had a small contractor put it up and we had a plumber and an electrician in, but we did all the finishing work and put in the wood floors. Since we used a kit, I could only make modest adjustments to the floor plan, though I did change a few things. One thing I couldn’t do much with was cross ventilation. We do have some, but it’s not as good as it could be. I have been very happy with the house, though.

    I love to hear your reminiscences of old times. How about that Squizzy? That someone called “Squizzy” could evoke such dread?

    Surely it’s unnatural to fly . . .

    My son uses 20lb/9kg propane cylinders in the greenhouse. For use in our emergency generator we keep petrol/gasoline on hand, though we have rarely used it since our neighborhood’s power lines were buried. Before that (for more than 2 decades) a tree fell on a line and our power went out about once a month. We did not have a generator during most of that time either.

    I would like to have a moisture meter. What I did just get was a “pruning tools sharpener” by Smith’s (since 1886). It’s made of carbide (maybe not “since 1886”) and ceramic. We have a small one for the kitchen that’s great and I really needed something for the tools.

    What nice sizes of split wood you have. Do you have a Yule Log? What a graceful set of stairs; they are quite tall. You seem a little unsure yourself how far they will go.

    How cosy that the roses and raspberries live together, since they are related. Apparently, quite a few fruits are in that family. And thank you for the blackberry pruning reminder. I had better get on it soon or winter will be over and we’ll be having an early spring.

    You are lucky to have magpies!

    That is a beautiful cheese. The whole dessert is beautiful and I know that you are right: “And that is without a doubt the finest tiramisu you’ll ever taste.”

    Oh – Uncle Chris: Last week I gave out my TP totals. My math’s were wrong, as usual. We do have 151 rolls, but it should be 51 rolls per person (I said 50 1/3, I think). That’s about 1 roll per person for a year. Am I right this time?

    The trees are lovely and thanks for the foxgloves and poppies. Aren’t those poppies bright!

    Pam

  5. Chris,

    Thanks for your Australian heat wave versus asphalt article. We had similar happen here at places a couple years back when we hit 46C here. Meanwhile, southish of here on a Washington State highway near the tiny hamlet of Dusty, Washington…Washington Department of Transportation once upon a year decided to experiment with the pavement in that area. Nothing unusual about asphalt experimentation, except that in this case rubber grindings from worn out tyres were mixed to the asphalt. The Dusty area typically hits 40C annually. The extreme heat caused the highway to catch fire. No more rubber in the asphalt trials after that.

    I think I figured it out. Last week you had a photo of one of those huge bull kangaroos. This week you have a photo of a much smaller kangaroo, Skippy size. 🙂 I think the two kangaroos are actually one and the same. The photo last week was of a kangaroo on steroids. This week’s photo shows what happens after the steroids have worn off. 😉

    Also, a prediction. With the new concrete steps. As you can’t see the top of the hill due to the thick plant growth, methinks that you will continue to build steps until you reach a small gully, then build steps down the far side of the gully. Eventually, of course, you will connect the two sets of steps, completing an infamous “bridge to nowhere”. Alaska has one which became somewhat famous. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravina_Island_Bridge

    Good work with the raspberries. Very good work. Congrats on the large harvest. Interestingly, I get to partake of a friend’s raspberry crop this weekend. Saturday will be the carving club’s annual winter potluck. One member grows a lot of raspberries and always brings fresh homemade raspberry ice cream for the feed. This year I will likely “eat dessert first”, then have the main courses, then have a second helping of the ice cream. The Princess (who is doing well), will be in Toppenish, so I will have to eat her share of ice cream, won’t I?

    Squizzy Taylor will get you? Had to gaggle him. What an interesting story! Sounds part Al Capone, part John Dillinger. Hmmmm, maybe a modern Dick Turpin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Turpin

    When I worked at the local university, there was a Dick Turpin who worked in one of the Physical Plant departments. I want to say carpentry, but I could be wrong. He was pretty short, also, which didn’t stop him from telling enjoyable jokes that insinuated that he was the modern reincarnation of the old highwayman. That department “travelled in pairs”. His work partner was also named Dick and he was very tall. Yes, they referred to themselves as Big Dick and Little Dick. And I better stop there, as their remaining repertoire tended to be far from family friendly fare.

    Travelling is so expensive. And it has changed drastically over the past 6 years. A lot of hotels are now chronically understaffed, so are unable to offer all of the rooms in their hotels. Hence, there can be a room shortage. As recently as 3 years ago, the tribal casinos that the Princess and her brother frequent would always have rooms available. Not now. Reservations required, and the earlier you make hotel reservations, the better. Like weeks in advance.

    Cool. Firewood is split and stacked. I bet that’s a load off your mind!

    Today was the first real snowfall of the year. Had about 3 or 4 cm here. +1C so it was wet, sloppy, slippery stuff. It had been forecast for days, so I knew to stay home. Good choice. Wrecks everywhere. Should stay at or slightly above freezing overnight, with highs Tuesday near +4C with rain. This batch of snow should disappear rapidly.

    Tocky ticky? Brilliant. Codes are fun sometimes. I was involved with a nasty internet feud 25 years ago. Finally started writing a lot of poems to the leading adversary. The first letter of each line spelled out the REAL message, many of which were rather graphic insults about the foe. My pals figured it out fast, but his lot were slow on the uptake. I had a lot of fun with that. Eventually the owner of the website figured it out and banished all of us.

    DJSpo

  6. Yo, Chris – The inter-web was very bulky, this morning. The pictures on your post were VERY slow to load. I made a comment, and when I hit the “post comment” button, it just sat there. After 5 minutes, I moved along and did other things. It’s now late afternoon, and things seem to be perking along. That comment might have been lost. If so, bottom line, “Good job.”

    I don’t know about hospitals. Loopholes? I can’t see private equity firms getting involved, unless there are obscene amounts of profit to be made. And, their inner workings are pretty obscure.

    I’m sure there will be testing, on the Idaho birds. But hold tight to your happy thoughts. 🙂

    Over the years, I’ve heard of, or known, antique pickers who headed for Detroit and the Midwest. A lot of architectural details were salvaged out of Detroit. Porch pillars, whole fireplace surrounds, kitchen cabinets, claw footed bath tubs, etc. etc.. Architectural salvage.

    Your high temperatures give me the fantods. Or maybe, it’s the vapors? I wonder what our summer is going to be like. Our high temperature, yesterday, was 45F (7.22C). The overnight low was 41F. Forecast for today was 49F. We’re supposed to have an atmospheric river, over the next two days. There’s lose talk about flooding, but to the north of us, and out toward the coast.

    You seem to be having more kangaroo sightings, closer in. Not enough water and tucker, in the woods?

    Yes, I know we’re spoiled rotten, as far as some costs go. Subsidies, and all. But $18 for a ham hock? Are there hoofs made of gold? 🙂

    Yes, it was the golden age of bookstores. And, a lot of other things. But, I’ve read a few books, and seen some articles, that independent bookstores are on the rise, again.

    Here’s an interesting article about how nervous people are getting, in general.

    https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/16/economy/stockpiling-fear-higher-tariffs

    I’m sure somewhere, sometime, the number eleven was unlucky. Here’s an interesting recent article, about unlucky days.

    https://www.npr.org/2024/09/13/nx-s1-5103766/beware-its-friday-the-13th-dont-say-we-didnt-warn-you

    The Romans has a whole slew of “inauspicious days.” Although it’s a bit murky, as to why some days were, and some days weren’t.

    Oh, Mr. Bill was fine, and thought it a great idea, that I had contacted the newspaper. I think I have a slight streak of Sheldon Cooper, in me. More likely to follow rules.

    Well, I think I’ve picked out my first target, to try a grant on. AARP. The American Association of Retired People. I got their bulletin, the other day, and there was an article about their grants. Oddly, a library right here in our county.

    For years, Toledo, Washington (pop. 631), has thought they ought to have a Timberland Library, of their very own. Never mind that there’s a long established Timberland Library, in Winlock, Washington (distance, 7 miles, or 11km). Library envy? 🙂 About 10 years ago, a band of hearty volunteers banded together (they were given a building. The Club should be so lucky), and opened their own library. Staffed by volunteers and with donated materials. Timberland does have a kiosk, in the building.

    Anywho, AARP gave them about $25,000. There were several other grants, given to community organizations, in Washington State. And, five or so were mentioned in Idaho. It’s not just libraries that get funded. Everything from park benches to hiking trails. Anyway. I’ll give them a whirl, after we get past all this holiday nonsense.

    Maybe the English have a lot of car parks. 🙂 “They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot.”

    The auction posted more pictures for the New Year’s Day Sale. Seven shots, of stuff of mine. Lew

  7. Hi Chris,
    I just finished “Desert Solitaire” by Edward Abbey written in the 60’s about his stint as a park ranger in the 50’s for Arches National Monument (now a National Park) in Utah. One chapter consisted of his lamenting about “Industrial Tourism”. This was just at the time that paved roads were being planned to replace the dirt roads.

    Whoa that’s quite hot and for so early in the season.

    I’m glad to see you’ve given Sandra the credit for the picking.

    We had some icy weather on Saturday – a bit unexpected. It was raining and the temp dipped to just freezing. We were attending a Christmas party where Marty is living at the moment and I kept watching the temperature drop on the way home. Did some sliding as we got close to home. Yesterday and today we had very heavy fog.

    The Christmas party was quite nice though the singer was rather loud. They put on quite a spread. Much of the family came out as well as Marty’s girlfriend, Gwen. They don’t see that much of each other lately. She had a bad fall about a year ago and had pretty extensive cervical spine surgery. She doing pretty well but her vision was affected and she is also a fall risk. One of the staff from her group home brings her to see Marty a couple times a month. Before his latest fall he’d take a cab to go visit her. We did watch wish amazement as she consumed 3 large plates of food.

    Pretty busy week coming up with a significant amount be taken up with Marty. Cecily, my sister, Nora and I are beginning the process of repacking his stuff and, unlike him, labeling the boxes on Wednesday.

    We went out to dinner with some friends and had tiramisu.

    Margaret

  8. Hi Göran,

    France definitely seems to churn through their Prime Ministers. Clearly the job is an unenviable proposition. We had a period down here where the Prime Minister job was a revolving door of characters. After a while, the public had had enough of the instability, and the political parties decided to do better and desist from factional infighting (the preferential voting system was punishing them, whilst sending a strong message to quit the mischief). Politics has been more stable since that decision was made. But whatever, a change of leadership is not enough to alter the fundamental predicaments, however the distribution of pain can be spread more appropriately. All depends on circumstances I guess. How’s things in your part of the world on that front?

    True about people getting their stuff still. But hey, German energy policies make absolutely no sense to me. Little wonder that they are in the process of deindustrialisation. As a former factory accountant, I can assure you that it is no small thing to set up and run a production line – so why let what you already have disappear for ideological reasons? Beats me, an absolute mystery! An occasional commenter here, lives in that country and it would be interesting to hear an on the ground first hand perspective from them. The last news I received was not encouraging.

    🙂 Man, dunno about you, but I’m way too busy to be sulking! Hehe! I’m certain you also know the feeling! Hey, I pruned and strung up most of the jute lines for the tomato vines in the greenhouse today. It was nice to see some decent sized fruit in amongst the mess. It’s looking really neat now. Plus many of the berries were turned into jam and wine. A big day of work.

    Had a nice chat with a neighbour for about an hour this morning. Always nice to speak with people in the immediate area.

    My grandmother and her husband never owned a car. It just wasn’t necessary, so I can appreciate how your grandpa also had that circumstance. When there were more local shops, people shopped locally, but mostly they did with less – even my other wealthier grandfather did so. He lived quite a moderate life.

    It would nice to have the gift of languages both human and plants, which he clearly handed down to yourself. 😉

    What an astounding question it is. Mr Greer was in fact the person who alerted me to this question with no answer. Many years ago he’d spotted a vehicle bumper sticker which posed the intriguing question: If you had enough, how would you know?

    Hope you have a lovely Christmas / mid winter get together and of course, feast! The food on your blog always looks delicious. 🙂 And let’s not forget, the kitchen is the engine room of the domestic economy – you read it here first. 🙂

    Cheers

    Chris

  9. Hi Pam,

    You’ve got me there with the working in the afternoons during winter. I hear you. Mind you, it was cool this afternoon and so in the greenhouse, I used some jute twine to string up all of the tomato vines. The twine is attached to a strong stainless steel cable which is supported from the roof. Truthfully Pam, it feels dangerous to be this organised with the plants. 😉 And there’s some decent sized, yet still very green fruit already on the tomato vines.

    This evening though, I could have followed your advice and done just one more thing, but there’s been a lot of very long work days recently and my long suffering brain was just not up for that. What I am up for, is a good chat here!

    It’s such a great saying yeah, and doesn’t it paint a picture of the crazy folks as germinated this current civilisation? Is it a good basis for society, who knows but at least they had the foresight to remember the canines.

    Exactly, so true. If there were another way, I’d be championing it from the roof tops, although candidly I’m not sure what that all means. During bushfires inevitably someone posts a photo of a bloke, it’s always a guy, up upon a roof in shorts, singlet and inappropriate footwear, holding a lethargic looking garden hose whilst he attempts to put out spot fires. Makes for good news footage. The efficacy of the blokes efforts? Hard to tell, but my gut feeling suggests it ain’t all that good. But it’s not my place to stop the dudes.

    If there were another way… But yes, the journey through adaption is traumatic sorry to say. I wish it were otherwise.

    Cool! Kit homes aren’t a thing down here. That would have been a very interesting experience to go through. Did all the components arrive on the back of a truck? I can well understand how you were limited with the changes because any of those would have altered the engineering for the house. Cross ventilation was almost perfected in the old timey Queenslander (architecture). I’ve visited some many years ago and was very impressed at how they worked in the tropical hot environment.

    I too am happy with the design of this house, however in the event we have to rebuild the thing, we’ll implement stuff learned. The folks that design these things should know and tell us, but I have an odd hunch about that story…

    Hehe! Squizzy was a funny name, he was probably diminutive in stature like Billy the Kid, and made up for that with a seriously bad attitude.

    Pam, I’m dodging as best I may – and succeeding. I’ll breathe easier when flying is an activity for the jet set again.

    How’s the heating of the greenhouse working out during the depths of winter? Gas is far cheaper in your country than here, despite us being a major exporter of the stuff – we do have to pay for the oil imported somehow.

    Hopefully you or your son gets to start up and run the generator for a few minutes every couple of months or so? Those machines do not like sitting unused. Like me, they were made to work.

    The moisture meters are very cheap on the ebuy or the river. 😉

    Such sharpening tools are handy in the kitchen and I sharpen the knife every time prior to use, and better to maintain the things we already have, than fork out for new stuff. Although metal edge sharpening is a worthy activity and what tool does the job is very much dependent upon what item is being sharpened! A hornets nest of an issue.

    Thanks, and what the heck is a Yule Log? Oh well, things are different down here, and if I set off such a heavy log burning at this hot time of the year, a) the cops would bust me; and b) if the fire spread, as it may, I’d be the most hated person in the mountain range. Neither are risks I wish to run, so yule logs have no place down here. Christmas imagery and heavy feeds when the weather is hot, makes little sense to my brain.

    Are they? Cool. Who knew? Oh, the two plants seem to get along quite well. Just checking in with you, have you had time to prune the blackberries yet? I did some of the tomatoes today, just sayin… 🙂

    The magpies are lovely, and I warn them in advance when the mischievous kelpies are running around doing what they do best – creating mischief.

    🙂 May you get enough time to give the dessert a go. You won’t regret it, although maybe there might be a proper Christmas food coma.

    Your TP maths and casuistry are beyond the comprehension of my poor overburdened mind!

    The poppies are particularly lovely, and long ago I bought a huge packet of the seeds not realising the price, and they now happily live here in some of the garden beds.

    Cheers

    Chris

  10. Hi Margaret,

    Was that a book club book? It’s funny that sort of lamentation of the changes, but the leaf change tourists provoke the same reaction with me. That’s a pretty remote national park he was writing about though, you wouldn’t imagine that it would be over run with tourists? Maybe? On the whole though, if we return to where things were at with energy, resources and the economy as when I was a kid, well, I see no reason that we won’t end up in such a state again with tourism sooner or later. Dunno, it was just a gut feeling thing based on the article about the industry’s impact on global warming.

    Yesterday was the hottest day for about five years now. When we went to bed, the inside of the house was 79’F, and with the cool change and all the doors and windows open overnight, this morning inside was 60’F – and candidly my brain hurt and I was reaching for extra blankets. A huge drop in temperature overnight.

    🙂 Thanks, and we have different areas which we look after. Today I pruned some of the tomato vines and used jute to support the plants trunk to the ceiling of the greenhouse. Sandra made raspberry jam and also some black currant wine. Plus we had to do some paid work, and even managed to squeeze in a chat with a neighbour for an hour. There may be the occasional day off, somewhere. 😉 It’s actually a really busy time of the year. I envy you your winter relaxation time to cosy up in front of the fire with a good book.

    Oh my! It sure is getting colder in your part of the world, and the winter solstice is now only days away for you. Ice on the roads is my personal nightmare because I have so little experience with the conditions. Glad you made it home in one piece.

    Did Marty enjoy you all turning up to celebrate Christmas. How’s Gwen doing with Marty incapacitated? Oh! Wow, they’d make for an at risk of falling couple. 🙂 It’s nice they could get together for the festivities. As to the food, well it can be surprising who is a seasoned campaigner and trencherman. Hope they’re feeding Gwen properly though? Makes you wonder doesn’t it?

    Tis the season for giving, and hope Marty’s move goes smoothly. Probably for the best that he can’t label the boxes, things might get rather random. 🙂

    Are you tempted to make your own tiramisu? And whilst you mentioned you consumed the dessert, what were your impressions? I’ve experienced some ingredient substituting which just ain’t right.

    Cheers

    Chris

  11. Hi DJ,

    Amusingly, the town of Dusty listed two horses plus or minus one amongst the resident count, thus the maybe two horse town label, as distinct from a one horse town. They’s getting airs! Hehe! Good to see that the folks there have got a decent sense of humour. Oh no, you’ve never experienced a fire, until the senses are assaulted by a tire fire. Man, those things burn hot and smoky, and well, the experiment was worth the effort, for now the authoritas know better.

    Haha! Yes, you’re probably right there. Yup, despite the kangaroo working out pumping iron for hours each day, he missed the baggie pickup for the roids and human growth hormones. A sad moment in the marsupials development.

    Thanks for the prediction, and now I’m frankly nervous. Who knows what’s hiding under all that, dare I say it, shrubbery. Hmm, what a story of apparently a woeful business case. Hmm, 50 residents and a $400m bridge. Look, if I were one of those residents, I’d recommend to halve the costs and send a cheque for $4m to each resident. I’d also promise as part of the settlement to never to complain about anything, ever again. DJ, I could be bought for $4m, truly, wouldn’t you like the opportunity to see how you’d feed about the awful imposition of such a cheque? 😉 That’d be two cheques (check) for your household if that assuages any upset feelings!

    Thank you! About half of the harvest was turned into many glass jars of raspberry jam. Yummo! The potluck sounds awesome, and isn’t it great catching up with friends and sharing a good meal and a chin wag? Yes, you are obligated to enjoy your lady’s share of the meal, have to look after team husky. 🙂 Thanks for providing the update too, and it’s good to hear that they’re both doing OK.

    Dick Turpin, please excuse the dodgy pun, was a bit of dick to have written a letter to his brother from a cell. Very funny, and thanks for the story. Yes, I’d also heard it remarked upon long ago that in the series Bewitched Dick York was replaced with Dick Sergeant, and some cheeky wag remarked that you can’t change dicks mid-stream, although I have no idea what they were talking about. All very English isn’t it, this conversation? The stuff my young mind was exposed too on television and at the cinema. Tes’ not right! 🙂

    I’d not heard that, but when you think about it, the situation makes a lot of sense. Tourist towns are notoriously expensive to rent in for workers, but you can get a job, but it’s really hard to get a place to sleep when rents are so high, or unavailable. So there’s a labour shortage.

    Tell you a funny story – when I was a kid, housing was cheaper, so areas were less economically stratified. You’d get a lot more class and wealth diversity in an area. The policy of economically stratifying geographical areas due to crazy house prices, is a loser of a strategy – because eventually people can earn money at a job, and there’s plenty of work to be done, they just can’t afford to live anywhere nearby. Crazy stuff, but nobody asked my opinion.

    It’s nice to get that firewood job done, because it is very unpleasant work to do in the hot summer sun. I physically have to pick up all of the tree discs to be split. Cheaper than going to the gym though! And once they’re stacked, the fiery sun further dries the stuff.

    With that job done, we were able to get onto many of the other things which need to be done at this time of the year, like pruning and stringing up the tomato vines. And Sandra made raspberry jam + strawberry jam + black currant wine today. Been busy! Had a nice long chat with a neighbour though. He’s a good bloke.

    Say, that’s a lot of snow, and also a five blanket night if I may add! Yup, typical winter weather. It was cooler here today, which was nice. My brain hurt this morning after yesterdays heat.

    Thanks for the laughs, and sadly we’ve all been there. I’d be curious as to your experience, but you can’t win such battles! Nice work too with the coding. Things were somewhat looser in the past. Yup!

    Cheers

    Chris

  12. Hi Lewis,

    Oops, sorry about that interweb issue. Actually I’d put the site into maintenance mode at about the time your comment came through so that was probably the cause of the blockage – like a fatberg, but for computer software! Generally I don’t do that, but this morning I was running late and stuff and had to cut some corners.

    Ah, the article suggested that private equity firms had been buying up such not for profit businesses. The suspicious part of my mind suggests that they’re doing something with the surpluses. Out of curiosity, do you even know what the price of a procedure is before undergoing it? I once went to a restaurant which had a policy of not disclosing prices and it made for a nervous experience. Incidentally the sea food platter, they recommended (me a bit naive in those early days) set me back about $100. I never went there again, but nowadays would make a point of asking for prices and then noting them down so that there was no confusion when the bill came around.

    Look, I could well be wrong. See what the tests have to say on the subject. I don’t burn a candle for bird flu story. There are things I can and do worry about, and that just ain’t one of them. If I start seeing dead people in the streets, oh yeah, there’ll be some rapid changes here, but until then. What, me worry?

    Ooo, that’s actually pretty clever hitting those areas for their architectural salvage. In the past with some Victorian era house repairs, we’ve had to track down such materials. Some of the house salvage yards back in the day were really fun places to visit and spend some time in.

    The high temperature yesterday also gave me with an attack of the fantods, and a less practical low level headache. 🙂 The temperature plunged overnight too. Inside the house when we went to bed was stifling 79’F and with all the windows and doors open letting the night time air in, I awoke to 60’F under four blankets.

    Today was cooler and we took it kind of easier. Did a bit of paid work. Picked up a trailer load of compost to spread tomorrow. Had a good chat with a neighbour. Pruned and used jute string on the tomato vines in the greenhouse. The other day I watched a tomato pruning video or two and the plants are now climbing up the jute to the ceiling of the greenhouse. Might not let them get too far up. My hands were a dark green after handling the tomato vines and they still smell slightly of tomato. Some of the older vines even had unripe fruit on them. We’ll see. It’s nice to have a bit of extra time this year to do things properly and try techniques like the pruning.

    Official summer down here starts 1st December. Therefore, it already is summer. Usually by new years eve you’ll experience a 104’F day. They’re forecasting Christmas day to be 82’F which is warm, but not too hot.

    Hope the atmospheric river is not too bad, and that the flooding doesn’t eventuate.

    That’s pretty much it with the forest. The critters live there, but come and eat here. If the forest was thinned a bit, there’d be more food for the critters to eat in there. People wonder why animals are always by the side of the roads. Only a few small areas here are fenced, so the animals can come and go, usually at night. I’ve got a low tolerance for the deer though. Destructive critters, they make the wallabies look good.

    It’s a good looking ham hock, but alas there was no gold there. I don’t believe it was organic or anything special like that. Food and everything else is expensive down here.

    That’s awesome news about the smaller bookshops making a go of it. I bought the complete Jack Vance collection through one such place, and they were really lovely, although I think a book or two was missed. Hmm. I’m getting the collectors jitters, you know what I’m talking about don’t you? Is the collection complete. The reverse in fortunes for such businesses might be a good sign of the times?

    Stockpiling is like buying ammo, eventually you burn through your stores. Then what do you do?

    Ooo, last I checked, I don’t believe I’ve wronged anybody recently, so nah I’m not into any penance. It would upset Friday, even if it were the thirteenth day of the month, and then the patterns for the rest of year just wouldn’t be right. All seems very French, and I loved the 19th century quote about being born on that particularly unlucky day explaining all the vicissitudes and misfortunes of the authors life. Sure it does…

    The Romans had it right in some respects – more public holidays. My by we work hard in these enlightened days. Hey, do you reckon there was a bit of Roman political mucking around for some less than auspicious days of observance?

    Respect. My paid work determines that other people set rules, and I have to follow them. Sheldon Cooper may have appreciated the structure which rules provided him because that allowed his brain to consider other more lofty matters. I don’t know for sure, but I’d imagine that the characters personality type would become dismayed when rules were not being followed, because well, he then had to cogitate about the transience. Just a hunch, what do you feel about the subject? It’s quite interesting actually to consider how people are motivated.

    Good shot with the hunting of the grant! May your pen of substance, skewer the flesh of the spoken about, yet rarely seen, grant! The Club would appreciate the assistance I’d imagine. A free building would be awesome.

    Hehe! That’s funny, and so true about the car parks. It’s a small island, and the entire landmass is about the same size as this state but with fifteen times more people. I’ve visited more populous parts of the world, and it can be very confronting for my senses.

    Good stuff, and that free advertising for your goods. Hope you net a good price for the stuff. And also, respect. You know. 🙂

    Cheers

    Chris

  13. yagis- I got my ham radio license a few years ago, just one of those things that retirees with a prepper inclination do. ( also went storm change with a brother a few years ago, and thought it would be a good way to keep abreast of fast moving situations while driving at high speed).

    Anyway, haven’t done much with it since. Built a j-pole antenna, so only access a few frequency bands, but ham is a dying hobby. ( Modern society also desperately wants more frequency bands) Most practitioners are getting on in years, and spend way more money on it than I did. ( I guess most hobbies are that way- spend a little or spend a lot). Anyway, should the need arise, I could contact the few hams that are within range of my small transmitter.

    Did you get a license, or do you not transmit?

    hydrocarbon weaning- wow, respect. We have too much home infrastructure committed to propane that it would be big work ( but not impossible) to lessen dependence. As it is, we try to heat with wood to the point that use is minimal, but still use some during those cold snaps.

    The suppliers here do that same game where they charge rent on the bottle. The prior owners of this place were profligate energy hogs, and had a 1000 gallon (3700 liter) monster. We thought we’d reduce cost and had it replaced with a smaller one, but no, still getting dinged. (We use much less propane of course.)

    lpg- not quite the same as propane. It gets cold enough here that there might be issues with lpg. The refineries here use every scrap of the crude barrel, so I imagine the butane and the trace heavies get used somewhere.

    discretionary travel- I seem to recall you two did some serious trekking/touring in the past. Maybe got that itch scratched?

    While some countries sound intriguing, we’ve decided that there is enough to see and do right nearby for a couple lifetimes.

    Yes, when I look at the recent boom in behemoth sea cruise ship, I wonder if they will get mothballed before the loans get paid off. Or some bizarre floating pirate ship cross between Waterworld and Road Warrior. I’d pay to see that movie. Machine guns and water slides!

    As Dr. Morgan warns, when the wheels come off, discretionary spending will be first and fastest to stop.

    Jealous of the raspberries. Maybe this will be the year we get serious about pruning.

  14. Chris:

    That’s miserably hot, but at least it cooled off some at night. It was 63F (17C) here today and we had the windows open. Yesterday we had the living room fireplace going all day. Speaking of fireplaces: I forgot that you would not look favorably upon a Yule Log at this time of the year. And, in fact, I am pretty sure that one has to have a fireplace for it. We only burn it on Christmas Day, not all the way to Twelfth Night. When I gugled it, it just showed me cakes. Then I found a wood one, just see the photo:

    https://www.norsegarde.com/blogs/lore-and-mythology/the-yule-log-a-time-honored-tradition-of-light-and-warmth

    Now I have a funny picture in my mind of the bloke on the roof in the fire.

    The components of our log house did come on a big truck, but because of the steep and very winding road to our house, they had to be off-loaded to a smaller truck at the bottom of the Big Hill, and driven up bit by bit.

    We had some similar types of houses where I grew up in Texas. It always got up to around 113F (45C) at some point in the summer. That is one of the reasons I am not still there. Winters were mild, though.

    The greenhouse heaters are working very nicely. I think there are two of them. I’m not sure how long the greenhouse is now, as two of them were combined.

    Uh, oh – no-one thought to start it up in awhile. In fact, I don’t think we have ever used this one; it is pretty new. I do know that we gave away the old one recently. Maybe if it has never been used it can sit for awhile?

    Did I prune the blackberries? I did prune a section of them this morning. It looks like that cartoon Tasmanian Devil did them. I have no idea what I am doing, though you did tell me what to do . . . I had a good time, though. I guess the proof will be in the pudding – blackberry pudding!

    Pam

  15. Chris:

    My son says the greenhouse is 145 feet (44m) long (forgot to ask how wide). He is going to put up another one the same size next year.

    Pam

  16. Yo, Chris – I figured you might be tinkering under the hood of this inter web thingy. 🙂 It’s late in the evening, now. Earlier today, I couldn’t get onto your site. Either the pictures didn’t want to load, But the video did. Then pictures, but no video. Then no comments. Well, no drama. I just got on to doing other things, and figured things would settle down. This evening, everything just snapped into focus.

    “If you have to ask the price of a meal (or, a medical procedure, for that matter,) you can’t afford it.” Which seems a bit snobbish. Or, elitist. There’s been some movement, and laws passed, to make medicine more transparent. No surprises.

    I’ll send along the pathologists report, on the dead birds. 🙂 But, yup, all the one’s they tested (quit a few) had bird flu. Pathologists are an interesting and quirky lot. A lot of those mysteries I watch have pathologists as secondary characters. And they often add a lot to my enjoyment of a series. The “Brokenwood Mysteries” (New Zealand) has a Russian woman as the pathologist. She has a yen, for the chief detective. He’s constantly side-stepping her advances.

    Portland had quit a few architectural salvage operations. I remember one, that had a huge stained glass dome, hanging from the ceiling. I always thought if we put some columns under it, it would have made a great garden gazebo. The things that stick in your mind, over decades.

    I’d say you’re suffering from Weather Whiplash. Inconvenient, but not often fatal. 🙂 . Our high yesterday was 48F (8.88C). The overnight low was 45F. Forecast for today is 53F. And, boy, has it been raining. Although there will be a clear spell, tomorrow afternoon. The hydrologic outlook is up. North and coastal might have problems. So far, nothing untoward as to our local rivers. There may be wind.

    Once they got a bit over 4′ tall, I hacked off the tops of my indeterminate tomatoes. Didn’t seem to do them any harm.

    Ah, yes. The collector’s mania. “Complete the whole set!” And once you have, then you need to start replacing volume by volume, until you get an entire set, signed by the author. 🙂 All first editions.

    I think I read somewhere, that toward the end of the Roman Empire, 1/3 of the days were one type of holiday, or another. No wonder it fell. No one was on the job!

    You like contemplating economics. Saw an article today, on stagflation.

    https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/17/economy/trumps-tariffs-stagflation

    I think I read a simpler explanation of stagnation. Something about not enough money, chasing an over supply of goods? Or, do I have that backwards?

    I was just reading more of that book, “Sorry! The English and Their Manners.” It was just talking about the English, and their concept of self. How a lot of them have this idea, that somewhere “out there” is a sylvan paradise, with lots of country rambles, etc.. Which due to population density, really doesn’t exist. Or, at least not in the abundance they imagine.

    I think I do have a bit of a streak of following the rules. When I pick up after H, I often make the comment to her, “Because we’re good citizens.” A certain respect for the commons. Which, occasionally, seems in short supply here, at the Institution.

    I finally got some good intel, on Jane. She ended up being operated on, by five physicians, over 10 hours. There was more cancer, than suspected, but they got it out. She also had a small stroke, while on the table. She’s still in the hospital, in Olympia, but some people have talked to her. She’s got a severe case of cabin fever. 🙂 . And is looking forward to getting back down here, and into rehab.

    Distressing news. My veg store is closing! They have the same landlord as the Club, and finally got priced out of the market. Now, the veg store, is owned by a family owned restaurant, called “Jeremy’s Farm to Table.” They’re not far from here, on the other side of the Courthouse. They put up big tents, in summer, and sell produce from the other side of the mountains. I don’t know how much, but some of the operation will be moved over there. So, my shopping routine is going to undergo some changes. And we all know how much I like change. Lew

  17. Chris,

    Hmmmm, yeah, I guess I could use $4 million. Or $8 million if the Princess also got an identical amount. Dunno what all we’d do with that, but we could find something useful to do with it, I’m sure. Would Dame Avalanche get a siec (Welsh for cheque, pronounced sheck) also? She has 4 legs so shouldn’t she get $8 million herself, under my care?

    Brother in law has a friend who raises bees. I just got a quart jar of honey from his bees. It is very yummy on toast and in oatmeal. Have to make some bannocks to go with the honey.

    Today at 5:00 a.m. it was +1C. It stayed at +1C until 9:00 p.m. That’s when the next storm system hit and the temperature started to rise. Most of the day featured snow early, which changed to the dread “white rain”, that peculiar wintry mix that isn’t snow, but is white little drops of mist that is something between snow and rain. Raining tonight. So, what does one do when it is +1C and dripping the dread white rain? Why, dress appropriately and take the mighty husky for a walk, of course! With some snow still on the ground, Dame Avalanche was extra excited, ran a few laps around the yard before we left, then ran a few more laps for good measure upon our return. Toweled her off, changed into dry clothes, got us something to eat. Naturally, a nap was called for after that. 🙂

    Ah, yes, the famous “2 Dicks are better than one” drama with Bewitched. I remember that well. So I bet you can now guess what the motto of Big Dick and Little Dick was.

    I still prefer using the snow shovel rather than Big Bertha unless the snow is too deep and heavy. I always figured shoveling snow was a cheap way to get a good workout and avoid gym fees. I always enjoyed splitting and stacking the firewood for much the same reason.

    Ah, you’ve caught another reason why I like doing outdoor work and walking the husky. I see and meet and talk to others in the neighborhood. There are some very interesting people of widely varying backgrounds in the area.

    We might have had some snow on the ground, but it was far from cold. At these temperatures, near freezing, the house doesn’t get below 18C at night. One blanket, an extra blanket on my feet, and I’m good for the night. But I’m acclimated, too. 😉

    Oh, it’s impossible to “win” with certain types of people. Facts don’t matter, so it can easily become wrestling with a pig in the mud – the pig enjoys it but you don’t. We called the fracas the Tumshie Wars, led by Dumbnumpty himself. Made some good friends, including several from Glasgow, which is how I got introduced to Lowland Scots language. So something good came of it.

    Well, more than that. Met a distant cousin in the mayhem who turned into a trusted and close friend. We kept in touch until she died a couple years ago.

    Learned later that the deck had been stacked against us. One person made very vile comments about a few of us but was given a free pass by the owner. I did a lot of internet sleuthing and found out who it was. He had a habit of being vile elsewhere, so I quoted something he’d written elsewhere and that shut him down. Turned out that he was the website owner’s son. And Dumbnumpty was a friend of theirs. As you said, really can’t win with that type of thing. If I had spent half the time and energy on something useful, well, nuff said.

    So I really appreciate the type of discussion we have here, no fighting, no politics.

    DJSpo

  18. Hi Steve, Pam and DJ,

    Oh poop, so sorry but tonight I’m cooked. Working late many nights in a row will do that, and this evening work finished at 9pm. The plan is to take three weeks off paid work – the longest break I’ve had in about seven years – from Friday. But there is still much to be done before that time. Don’t get me wrong, that’s all part of life, and you have to roll with the ebbs and flows. Life is rarely smooth.

    But this evening, my brain hurts and the dreaded mid-week hiatus is now in force. I’ll reply tomorrow night, but until then…

    Cheers

    Chris

  19. Hi Lewis,

    The interweb software has been spluttering since the most recent upgrade, so it became necessary to poke around under the hood and find out what was going wrong. Caching apparently. The best brains of IT suggest I pay for cloud flair, whatever that is. Beats me, but I’m guessing it’s another most excellent way to extract mad cash, but it works like a kind of pre-cache, cache, if you know what I mean?

    Not to stress, as you’d imagine I get kind of annoyed with stand over interweb tactics, and have a plan B and C to implement first. Good to hear that from your end, the dramas improved. Hmm. Just upped the computing power devoted to the site, that’ll fix it for a bit. The issue is that the utoob traffic is adding to costs. Oh well, moving on.

    Ha! The saying is probably true, but why step into an unknown country and incur outlandish costs? It’s probably equally true that there are just some folks who are on the take, as the old timers used to say. To be honest, agreed and from my perspective it is a bit snobbish, and if prices aren’t stated or known, they fall into what I’d describe as the land of the negotiable. In the west, we have some sort of weird aversion to the ancient art of haggling, but that reticence will fade with time.

    No worries at all, and there is an outbreak of bird flu to the west of here. The wild birds surely would have brought the disease here by now. Every year I deal with dead chickens and am unfussed by the end point in life. On the other hand, a Silkie chicken in the chook collective, is fifteen years old, and that’s an impressive effort. Life is a crap-shoot.

    Oh yeah, pathologists do great work. One of the long running shows I quite enjoyed was the quirky CSI series centred in Las Vegas. Fun stuff, if you could ignore all the bodies piling up! Ah yes, beware the attentions of unattached pathologists from exotic and far countries. Sage advice! 😉 The tension created by that relationship would add a lot to the enjoyment.

    That stained glass work would have been lovely to see. I’m with you there, sometimes you can encounter unexpected vistas, and they do stick with you. The salvage yards I used to frequent in Melbourne were interesting places, and you’d never know what discoveries would be made. Back in the day, the prices were fairly reasonable too. Bizarrely, second hand materials are now harder to obtain and use nowadays. Building codes are a bit hard on such materials. Look at the sixteen solar panels I picked up for $400, not allowed to be used a second time – as you do. That is so crazy. High tech items are sometimes mispriced.

    Hehe! Thanks for the concern, yes the weather whiplash was survived. And today was another cool summers day. In between paid work, I added a half cubic meter of compost to many of the garden beds. It was a lot of work because all sorts of other stuff was added to the compost and mixed together by hand, or more technically, shovel. You may have noticed that raised beds tend to fall and require topping up? Makes you wonder whether they’re raised or sunk due to the constant falling! 🙂

    Has the wind picked up, and have you avoided local flooding?

    Thanks for mentioning the info about the tomatoes, as I’d wondered what effect that may have had. I’ll stop them from reaching the polycarbonate roof in the greenhouse using your methodology. It’d be a mess to clean up.

    Oh Lewis, lead me not into collection temptation. Hmm, signed first edition copies you reckon? Oooooo! Candidly the finances probably wouldn’t support the hobby. 🙂

    Funnily enough I’m reading a book on that very subject, although it is set in a fictional universe: Wyst Alastor 1716. Very amusing too. The society is very much based on dodging any and all work and as you’d imagine, things go and end badly. Of course I’m enjoying the shenanigans vicariously and have no plans to wind things back. That’s not what I’m here for.

    Well of course basic things will cost more if they’re produced locally. You don’t need an advanced degree in economics to make such pronouncements. It’s a future shift in wealth to those who produce. Anyway, that was my childhood experience, and it wasn’t all that bad. In fact, if I dare point out, in those days with less stuff floating around the landscape, people were much more social. Bowling alone did not arrive in a policy and strategic vacuum.

    The federal goobermunt down here had to fess up today to having spent far more than they said they would – the cheeky scamps.

    🙂 It might be the other way around! And the alert part of my brain, that’s the not the cooked bit, suggests that it is the flip-side of the Great Depression. The underlying problems with the arrangements were papered over, and oiled over, but never quite addressed. Oh well. It’ll provide future historians with much fat to chew upon.

    I’d forgotten you were still reading that book about the English and their manners. Lovely people, charming, and once commanded a third of the planets surface and wealth. Ha! Yeah, that’s where they’d be wrong. To be candid, I’d imagined the same thing of that country too. The mind bubble popped at my end when protesters were doing what they do to protect an ancient forest from development into a petrol station. Awful, except the ancient forest was 10 acres in extent. I can see trees and forest from this eyrie to the horizon. How did things get so bad in that country and nobody noticed?

    Respect, and degradation of the commons is probably one of those many reasons that ancient Rome fell. Standards and cultural values are probably far more important than most people would realise. The main issue is that increasing wealth inequality tends to force people on the wrong side of that story from caring. In the end they simply throw their hands up in the air, and not support such systems. That’s the biggest risk at the moment.

    Oh my! Jane is made of tough stuff, and may the stalwart get back to the Club to regale you with tales of survival.

    Lewis, that’s awful and a real loss. Such things are happening here too, and you may recall my regular visits to cold stores an hours drive north of here to obtain such produce? I truly feel your pain, and likewise dislike change. Sorry to hear that, and hope you work something out.

    Just choked on a piece of chocolate. What an inglorious way to go… What did he die of again, oh that’s right, inhaling a freddo frog.

    Cheers

    Chris

  20. @ Steve C – you commented “Yes, when I look at the recent boom in behemoth sea cruise ships, I wonder if they will get mothballed before the loans get paid off.”

    Not just behemoth sea cruise ships … my husband Mike and I had paid to go on a river cruise on the American Queen steamboat this past July, until the AQ’s holding company turned toes up and went Chapter 11 bankrupt on us. The holding company had expanded their offerings of river and lake cruises just before the pandemic (bad timing). The only reason we got our fare repaid is that cruise companies are required to take out a surety bond to cover all the fares paid to them, and we only got the repayment last week – the bankruptcy was announced last February. Between then and now we received massive amounts of paperwork sent by lawyers to all of the companies’ creditors, most of whom, other than fare-payers, will receive pennies on the dollar. We also had to file lots of paperwork to document the fare we’d paid. I know who made money off of the bankruptcy …

    Hi Chris,

    Happy summer solstice! Congratulations for making it through the heat wave intact, and for filling the Firewood Bank of Chris with deposits. The interest rate for your deposits in the FBC is way above anything even a disreputable lender would pay you!

    We used some of our own deposited firewood last week when it was cold and we were both home to enjoy the heat and keep the wood heater fed. My, but it was pleasant to enjoy radiant heat rather than the forced-air heat from the natural gas furnace. No disrespect meant to the latter as it provides a needed service for half of the year, but it cannot compare to radiant heat. Our heater has a large window in front so we can also enjoy watching the play of flames as the wood burns. We’ll be burning more wood this winter as we have a lot of downed wood from large limbs that fell in the neighbors’ yards to process and deposit into our firewood bank, necessitating our taking withdrawals out of it. Meanwhile, our natural gas utility will sulk from lack of ability to charge us for the gas we didn’t and won’t use. Too bad, so sad for them.

    You had asked awhile ago if we’d moved the citrus trees onto the front porch aka the greenhouse – yes, I moved them there back in October, in case the first freeze occurred before it did. All three of the trees have a good-sized crop of fruit. The kumquats aren’t ripe yet, but we are harvesting and enjoying the Meyer lemons and the Bearss limes. I will need to heat the porch instead of moving the lemon and lime trees into the basement this year and from now on. Their continued growth and my continued aging has intersected such that I am unwilling to risk injury to them or myself to drag them into the basement during our coldest weather, when the porch drops below freezing if we don’t use supplemental heat in it. It’s only four steps into the basement from ground level – most of it is above ground level, as is typical of basement of houses the age of ours – but that’s more stairs than they can easily negotiate at their sizes. We can open the windows from the house to the porch and operate ceiling fans on the porch, which should serve to heat the porch enough to keep it from freezing. On sunny days the porch makes up for this by being warm enough to open the windows and front door to let its heat flow into the house.

    Claire

  21. Yo, Chris – BIG NEWS! THE RETURN OF DEXTER! Now, the article I read was pretty garbled (probably written by an AI), but as near as I can figure, there’s going to be a prequel to Dexter titled “Dexter: Original Sin,” and then “Dexter: Resurrection.” You heard it here, first. Maybe.

    I’d just like to stop and say, I sure appreciate the time and money you put into this blog. A pre-cache, cache? Sounds as wildly inconvenient as dual authentication. Let’s just add more layers of complexity. Seems like a good idea. What could possible go wrong? I keep getting pop-ups from Gargle wanting me to upgrade my mail, or, sign up for their something or other sign in something, for other sites. Maybe if they told me how it would benefit me? Or how they think it would benefit me. And then I could decide if to partake in their bells and whistles.

    Haggling is still alive and well, at flea markets. And, in the tat trade. Though it used to irritate me, that I put a fair price on things, and then would have to add to that, to build in a “haggling cushion.” If I went to a flea market, and walked into a booth where nothing was priced, I’d generally turn right around and move onto the next booth. There was generally a great deal of ground to cover, and I just didn’t have the time.

    The garden beds might fall and break a hip! 🙂 I already pretty much know which beds I’m going to have to buy bags of garden soil, for. Digging in kitchen scraps helps, but doesn’t quit do the job.

    You may remember the pictures of indeterminate tomatoes I passed on, where very long ladders had to be used, to harvest.

    And once you have all signed first editions, then you have to start replacing those, with “association copies.” Those are not only signed by the author, but signed to someone of interest. Say, Vance inscribes a copy to Bradbury or Asimov.

    All three times I walked H yesterday, we got very wet. My socks and shoes were soaked. I should have broke out the rubber boots. Last night, there were wind gusts to 32mph. Not only water falling from the sky, but blowing off the building and trees. The high yesterday was 52F (11.11C). The overnight low was 50F. Forecast for today is 54F. We have a clearing patch, today. Sunny, right now. And maybe another on Friday. Still no flood warnings for our local rivers.

    You know what you’re here for? Let us in on the secret 🙂 .

    I just read something where a Roman writer (Cicero?) was poking fun at people who had lavish “farm” villas. And had to pack food for when they visited them.

    Most of the veg I got from the veg store I can probably get from the discount warehouse-like grocer where I mostly shop for the Club. Although it won’t be as local, or as fresh. My locally produced yogurt, is going to be a problem. Unless they move their dairy case down to their other digs.

    When I was down at the Club, yesterday, two people each donated me $20 for the pantry. Tis the season. So, I went shopping, last night. Spent $70. We’ll get another food box, on Friday.

    Talk about shrinkflation. In past, Little Mary Sunshine and the Institution would leave a small shopping bag of mostly carp, outside our doors. Most of which I put on the swap table. Junk candy, maybe a gift card. Useless tat with a holiday theme. Well, this year, there was just a small tin of Danish butter cookies and a plastic candy cane full of green and red something or other. And, a card …

    You may remember that when the new administration came in, they wiped the building of any religious symbolism. And, usually this time of the year, we get a reminder memo, to stick to reindeer and snowmen. Well …

    I ran into the night manager, last night, and told him I was (tongue firmly in cheek) DEEPLY offended by the card. Didn’t even get a trigger warning. It had an angel on it. I told him it was a slippery slope, and the next thing you knew, we’d have a nativity scene out front, with live animals. He said H could join the menagerie. “Yeah,” I responded. “The dog in the manger.” :-). Lew

  22. Hi Steve,

    That’s a great idea getting your ham radio license, and it’s something I’d like to do at some point in the future. As you’d imagine, there’s a local club for that activity. A future project! There’s something quite enjoyable about constructing your own antenna, and alas mine is a receiver only Yagi. It works very well though for the particular frequency that it is attuned to and directed at.

    A friend of mine who is an electrical engineer, tells me jokingly, but also with a straight face, that antennas are the electrical equivalent of black magic!

    Just trying to get ahead of the curve with weaning ourselves off the LPG. Theoretically speaking, if we’d used 2x 45kg (100 pound) LPG bottles during a year, the cost would be $660. And the rental costs only ever ascend. Not a fan, and so we’re doing something different.

    Wood is your friend for heating, and is probably the most renewable fuel of the lot.

    It’s really hard to know, but down here they mix propane and butane then pressurise the stuff and call it Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). Filling up a large gas tank like your original one would be financially ruinous. 🙂 Ook!

    But of course! We’d travelled a fair bit of some of the rough back roads of Asia, and once went to Peru. But the thing is, realisation dawned on me one day – do lots of super stressful paid work and splurge it on travel, or do less paid work overall, forget about the travel and dodge the stress. It was what I call a no-brainer decision.

    And that is my view on the world as well – there’s so much to see locally, why go further afield?

    Hehe! What a great idea – The Sea Warrior! 🙂 Spruik the idea to the right folks, and your fortune may be made!

    Thanks so much for introducing me to the author. His world view is coherent, and mostly I agree with the observations.

    You won’t regret the time spent on pruning and thinning those canes.

    Cheers

    Chris

  23. Hi Pam,

    Oh poop! Looks like Christmas day will be hot (with a hot overnight too) at 91’F. Oh well, it is summer and that’s how things roll. Today was not hot, and quite pleasant actually. Did a quick dash into the big smoke to finalise some stuff there. There was a list and route all marked out in advance… 🙂

    Wow, that sort of temperature would be quite warm for winter here. Like you’d I’d open the windows and doors to let in the fresh cool winter air. Always nice to air out a house I reckon. But yes, a Yuletide log going badly would make me the most hated person on the entire mountain range. Not a risk I want to run. Traditions are worthy of being upheld, but some can have serious consequences – like that one. Not good.

    The log sticking into the open fireplace was very impressive and would require other chunks of timber at either side in order to remain lit. In the image, it was the kindling and smaller chunks which did the heavy lifting of keeping the big log alight.

    🙂 No seriously, the bloke on the roof with a garden hose is an iconic Australian archetype. Let’s see if I can find a photo… … Second photo in the article. No disrespect to the people involved, it’s probably something better done earlier in the incident.

    That’s clever thinking using the second smaller truck to move the house materials. We weren’t allowed to make the roof trusses of the house, so bought them pre-made. As you’d imagine, they turned up on a crane truck. The driver came down the driveway cabin first. Unloaded the timber roof trusses. Then couldn’t get enough traction to reverse back up the driveway (no weight over the back wheels). So he had to reload the timber onto the back of the truck, reversed back up hill, then unloaded the stuff on the road. I was a bit naive, and the stuff he left on the roof was the timber which should have been on the ground, and the stuff on the road, should have been on the roof. Hmm. Anyway, like you did, we navigated the difficulties.

    113’F can happen here, but it’s pretty extreme and the worst year was 2019-2020 summer when 10 days exceeded 104’F – and three of them were consecutive… Ook.

    Pam, I have total greenhouse envy. Respect and may your sons business go well.

    🙂 Well, it’s a gamble really not starting the generator up. You know, maybe it is just me, but I test these systems, just in case.

    Honestly, I read a very good book on the subject of pruning, and recommend it highly because it provides simple diagrams (which I find helpful). Other than that, like you, I’m making this stuff up as I go along. However, I can now confirm that pruning berry canes is an activity which is worth your time.

    Yummo! The blackberry harvest gets turned into jam here. But the thought of pudding over the winter months is making me salivate.

    Cheers

    Chris

  24. Hi DJ,

    It’s only fair that we be given the opportunity to splurge such wealth just to see exactly what would happen. 😉 To be honest, like you, I’d also struggle disposing of so much mad cash. Cheque down here is the lingo for Check in your country. Incidentally at a restaurant, we don’t ask for the check, we ask for the bill, a check being something you receive which provides mad cash. A bit of a local difference.

    Dame Avalanche surely would also require the funds, but maybe not double, but I like where you’re going with that. Can you imagine the beef jerky she’d order? Mate, hope you’ve got room for a B-Double truck load of dog chews. Don’t blame me here, that’s what the noble husky said she’d order.

    Yummo! And bannocks is a very traditional treat, which I’ve never tasted. There’s something really good about quality honey. It is possible that some commercial stuff gets watered down with sugar syrup. It’s not easy to tell either.

    Far out, you know you’re close to the winter solstice when you have such non-existent temperature changes. I won’t mention that right now outside it’s 68’F. Quite nice. Next Thursday is forecast to reach 40’C again. Poop!

    You can’t say that your good self and Dame Avalanche aren’t taking advantage of the conditions! We walk the dogs in such temperatures of course without the snow, and honestly, they don’t seem to mind one bit. Recovery nap is a fine idea, and truly I could have done one myself this afternoon. Alas no rest for the wicked in a past life folks. I’ve been really good though – guess that isn’t the point! Hehe!

    Far out you can have fun with the language. And the English shows I grew up watching were rather bawdy, and quite silly, but in a fun way. Might dodge your offer to guess there! 😉

    Exactly. I was discussing this very issue with my neighbour. He has a machine which can move large rocks, and whilst there is a touch of envy, like you with the snow shovel, I’ve got excess energy to expend. So whilst the ability is there, why not keep on using the old body. Dunno about you, but I get the impression that there is an element of use it, or lose it to the ageing process.

    Back in the day, way back, when we lived here but both did far more paid work, some winter nights we’d get home from the big smoke late, and not be able to get much heat into the house through the wood heater. The heat curve with that machine follows a logarithmic curve. But late at night, and you’re tired and the base temperature inside the house is low, well. One morning I woke up to discover that it was 12’C inside, and much colder outside. Five blankets is barely adequate in such conditions.

    That’s a great saying about the pig and mud. Fun stuff, and so true. Some folks I’ve met do feed off the emotional content of others, and they’re a bit like vampires really. Best avoided.

    What a surprising set of twists and turns in that story. And to make good friends out of an interweb war of the words, is a pretty epic outcome. I’d say you won that round. Sorry to hear of your loss from all those years ago. Like Lewis, I’m not much of a fan of change, but change bothers us whether we like it or no. What else do you do?

    Hehe! You know… 🙂 And we’ve all been there. The first time I encountered interweb trolling was a deeply troubling experience, which I soon got over. We all get better at handling such things.

    Thank you, and your words are greatly appreciated.

    Cheers

    Chris

  25. Hi Claire,

    Happy winter solstice to you as well, and respect for the work you do. Tell ya what, today was a ripper day of glorious weather at 86’F and no wind to speak of. Just the thing to get a bit of sunshine to recharge the body’s batteries. Spread around some coffee bean husks, grounds and miscellaneous organic matter on a patch of land which badly needs the soil feed.

    And! This year I’m doing the tomato vines very seriously. Most of them are now climbing up jute string. Might let them climb about 8ft, then pinch them off. Not sure yet. Plus they’re getting a most excellent soil feed. It’s nice to have more time this growing season to spend on making the property productive, with mineraly rich produce.

    Looks like next Thursday is also forecast to reach 40’C, although that can happen up to 10 times during a summer. Thanks, and the currency took a dive this morning, the goobermint announced the extent of their overspend yesterday, so yeah, firewood is looking like a solid investment! 😉

    Firewood is a lovely heat source, and doesn’t overly dehydrate the air like many mechanical forms of heating does. But I agree, appreciate what you have access to, is a wise path.

    Hehe! Well done you and Mike! 🙂 We tried throttling down our gas usage to not much at all, and they upped the quarterly rental charges in response. Drats, foiled again. Is your bill purely usage, or a combination of connection fee and usage?

    Most excellent timing, because from memory, your October was sort of warm-ish. Good stuff too, and there is nothing finer on a cold winters morning, than picking and consuming fresh citrus. Oh yeah, being able to move the trees easily is very much a factor which can’t be ignored. No point getting injured moving heavy citrus trees.

    My gut feeling is that the kumquats and lemon Meyer will be fine on the porch if kept out of the winter winds. Not sure about the third citrus. I’ve read of a reputable lady in the state to the north of here, who swears that her lemon meyer trees survived a -9’C frost. Now that’s cold weather I’d not experienced. Visited her farm too, it’s an amazing place.

    Cheers

    Chris

  26. Hi Lewis,

    Go Dexter! I’ve alerted the Editor to this surprising turn of events, given he was shot and presumably dead at the end of the 2021 series? You mentioned long ago that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle left a slim opening for the curt famous detective, if the fans requested enough. Makes me wonder if Robert E Howard didn’t rip the name for his famous barbarian from the English author?

    Thanks! Appreciate your kind words. Yeah, I upped the computing power for the interweb site, and I’m not seeing a great deal of difference to loading times. I reckon the most recent update slowed things down. Dunno. Simple generally works, as long as the pesky interweb nefarious folks find easier picking elsewhere, so there is a minimum amount of stuff to do to achieve that. A bit like driving a vehicle with a manual gearbox! 🙂 And for much the same reasons…

    To be honest, I’m really surprised all those click yes, or don’t use the software / interweb site / whatever, aren’t challenged as to their validity. It’s not like you can negotiate with the vendors of the stuff.

    Ouch! Well I’m guessing that the flea markets / antique markets don’t really allow you to set the going price of an item if haggling is the cultural norm at those venues. I’d do exactly what your solution was, and add some fat to the prices so that people can whittle them down a bit. What else do you do? Presumably with the new years auction, you set a reserve or starting price? euby is not bad on that front and you can have a look around to see what other vendors are offering.

    And that’s the thing, haggling is only considered free, because people aren’t valuing their time appropriately. Opportunity cost is a real thing, and one concept the economists got right.

    Ha! Let’s hope that they don’t fall. That’s funny in a dark humour kind of way, but yeah, all very true. It’s been years since I’ve dug in kitchen scraps, but there is a lot of water in them. Bringing in more organic matter here just keeps continuing. In my travels today I picked up more garden lime + blood and bone meal. When I was adding the mixture to the raised beds in the greenhouse yesterday the smell was starting make me feel mildly queasy. The aroma of stinky dead animal product on a hot day, is a notable experience. Years ago I used to work down the road from a rendering factory which presumably makes blood and bone meal from abattoir left overs. Handy stuff, just doesn’t smell all that pleasant – although admittedly dogs have vastly different opinions in this regard.

    Ook! Using a ladder to pick vine tomatoes is a probably not going to happen here. It’d be easier than picking hops flowers when using the old timey stilts – something I’d lack the competency to use.

    Lewis! Noooooo! But on second thoughts, the association copies sound very interesting. Maybe. No! Stay firm Chris, avoid temptation.

    Bummer about the encounters with the rain on three separate occasions. It does sound a lot like gumboot weather, yup. Hopefully the walks were more pleasant today? It was 86’F and just a really nice day here today. Headed into the big smoke in order to pick up supplies and just run general errands. Had a take away lamb and rosemary pie for lunch which was enjoyed sitting on some grass underneath an old cherry tree. Looks like next Thursday (in a week’s time) will crack the 40’C / 104’F mark. Not a fan.

    Hehe! It’s no secret, I must work. And work I shall. 😉

    Oh that’s funny, and possibly so true. Yeah, really great villa and farm, shame there’s nothing to eat. They deserve being laughed at.

    Hopefully the yoghurt supply does move somewhere you can still buy the stuff. Although, I can’t imagine that whoever is producing the stuff, will want to lose the income. Err, I know it’s another thing, but you can make good yoghurt easily enough.

    It’s a nice time of year, and very thoughtful of the members to donate some mad cash for a good cause. And also for you to give your time to obtain the produce.

    Candidly, it’s amazing you even got the card and other stuff. Are Danish butter cookies the same as shortbread finger biscuits? Candy doesn’t really appeal to my palate. Just tastes like sugar to me, probably because that is the biggest ingredient.

    Makes you wonder though, are angels specific to Christianity, or are they more widely distributed than either you or I know? But yes, that is pretty amusing repartee. Good stuff. Would H sit still that long for all of the adoring inmates and their immediate family members to observe the nativity scene?

    Cheers

    Chris

  27. Hi Chris,

    No “Desert Solitaire” wasn’t a book club book. I picked it up at the bookstore.

    Are you taking time off during the holidays?

    Marty thoroughly enjoyed the party. Gwen is always concerned about Marty as he is about her. He said she doesn’t use her walker and to myself I’m thinking that’s the pot calling the kettle black. The group homes feed everyone well but it’s not unhealthy food. Gwen always takes advantage of sweets or junk food.

    We got the best news yesterday while repacking Marty’s stuff at his apartment. He is able to stay at the nursing home until his spot opens up at assisted living. That is a huge weight lifted as I was at a loss of what to do I’d that hadn’t been the case.

    As I have a gluten intolerant I only had a bite of the tiramisu. It was yummy but not something I’m likely to tackle.

    That’s quite the load of raspberries. I had some of my frozen ones in yogurt yesterday.

    We’re getting a couple inches of snow today but in a week’s time it’ll be well into the 40’s.

    Margaret

  28. Yo, Chris – Near as I could tell, from the garbled article, someone else will play Dexter in the prequel, but Michael C. Hall will play him in “The Resurrection.” I’m sure other more well written articles will appear, the closer we get to “the event.”

    Last night I started watching a two part documentary on Leonardo da Vinci. It’s by Ken Burns. One of his few forays outside of American history. It’s quit good.

    Well, the inter web. There’s no one to talk to … by design. 🙁 . I suppose I’ll have to do some searches, to find out what’s really going on.

    Oh, I did a bit of haggling at flea markets. But I wanted a price sticker, to indicate some kind of a starting point. And, sometimes, from the price stickers you could tell if the dealer was wildly optimistic, as far as price was concerned. The thought that often crossed my mind, in those instances was, “I guess they want to be buried with the stuff.” I also often got the feeling that booths with no price tags were sizing you up (based on the quality of your footwear, or something), as to “what the traffic would bear…”

    I’ve noticed that not that long ago, blood meal was pretty pungent. Not so much, these days. My head no longer snaps back, when I open a bag. I’m just waiting for them to start adding floral fragrances. Coming soon to a garden center near you 🙂 .

    And then there’s copies of books from the author’s own library. Often indicated by a bookplate, and maybe a signature.

    Well, we’re back to scattered showers, again, rather than a constant fire hose. All walks yesterday and this morning were dry. Looks like we might get a bit wet, this afternoon, but not late night. Yesterday’s high was 54F (12.22C). The overnight low was 39F. Forecast for today is 55F.

    I used up the last of the sweet and sour pineapple Spam. I mixed some more celery and garlic into the rice, and then spread the thawed SSP&S over the top. Tasty.

    Sure I could make my own yoghurt. I’ll get right to it, after I finally get around to committing to sourdough. 🙂

    I stopped by the Club, last night, to see how much of that $70 worth of tinned food, was left. Well, all the tinned meat was gone. Some of the fruit. Most of the stews and soups. We’ll get a food box, tomorrow. For that food box, we sign up on a sheet, down in the lobby, monthly. I noticed last night that it usually runs a bit less than a page. It was up to a page and a half. I hear our local food banks are running low. It occurred to me, just this morning, that people are spending their money on Christmas tat, instead of food. Well, I guess what other people do, is their business.

    Are Danish butter cookies the same as shortbread finger biscuits? Got me. The butter cookies come in tins, and are often in holiday shapes. Snowflakes and such. The tins used to be pretty good sized, and those are still available. But I’m seeing more of the mini tins, around.

    I guess as far as stagflation goes, I’m more interested in what it looks like, on the ground. In other words, how will it affect ME?

    Too bad H isn’t a male. As far as a nativity scene goes, lifting the leg creates more of a visual statement, than just squatting. Lew

  29. Chris:

    Oh, that poor bloke on the roof. What was he thinking? It looks more like he ought to be out of there rather than standing on the roof in the smoke with a trickle of water.

    What a horrible delivery disaster – from the beginning, to the aftermath. We had only one disaster that I can remember during our house building effort, when the fellow who was digging something with some kind of heavy equipment (forgive my precise details) turned the thing over on our slope and its windows all smashed. He was in it at the time, but was okay. I missed the whole thing (boy, was I mad) as they had sent me to the hardware store.

    Yesterday I went back out to prune another section of blackberries. After viewing the previous day’s handiwork, I was rather disappointed at how they looked, so I decided to take a more cautious approach from then on. But the proof will be in the pudding next summer.

    Is there such a thing as blackberry pudding?

    Pam

  30. Chris,

    Aye, check=cheque=siec. Hereabouts at the restaurant we say check. Or bill. Or tab. Somehow everyone knows what is meant. When the tab is dropped off, I often exclaim, “Oh, you shouldn’t have! Thanks!”

    Dame Avalanche told me much as she told you. Truckloads of chews. Truckloads of beef jerky. She suggested that she’d also like a truckload of dried squirrel, but I told her that she would have to provide her own squirrels for me to dehydrate. When she began to sulk, I reminded her that we had not yet been awarded that grand sum of free cash. She quickly went in search of squirrels to bring me.

    Wednesday broke the cycle of unchanging temperatures. -1C when I fell asleep Tuesday night, +1C when I awoke Wednesday to hear things crashing about outdoors. The windstorm had hit with gusts peaking at 90 km per hour, directly on the heels of an additional 15mm of rain overnight. No damage here, but rather hazardous driving. Trees and branches fell elsewhere in the immediate region. Temperature achieved a high of +12C.

    Young neighbor drives a rural route for the postal service. A roofing company delivered supplies for her new roof a week ago. The wind blew the plastic off the plywood. When she got home from work, I meandered down and we covered the plywood and weighed it down with some bricks I had. She mentioned that driving her route had been challenging that morning.

    Make you a deal. Maybe we can confer with the local Weather Beings, yours and mine, get them to converse and maybe keep both your and our weather about +15C during the day. A few warmer spells for drying firewood, helping fruits and vegetables grow, etc. But nothing too extreme in any direction.

    Most of the properties here are 50 feet wide, 122 feet deep. House and maybe an outbuilding or 2 fit on the lots, maybe some trees. Mine is the normal depth, but 75 feet wide, aka a lot and a half. What I’ve noticed on these sized properties is that it takes the folks with leaf blowers nearly the same amount of time to pile leaves as it takes me with a rake. Mine is quieter and I get a very nice workout, too.

    Hmmm, 12C indoors might mean I add an extra blanket. In my book that is a perfect sleeping temperature. But I like sleeping in snow caves, so, well, yeah, I’m not entirely normal about sleeping temperatures. 😉

    Yup, those emotional vampires are best avoided. Interestingly, I was pondering this idea from an entirely different direction recently. It’s not always possible to avoid them. Then it’s a matter of not reacting to them. It’s the emotional reaction of others that empowers them. Took me a long time to learn that and even longer to be able to put it in words.

    One of the neighbors bought a 4 meter tall plastic skeleton, put it in the yard for Halloween. Skeleton has eyes that glow eerily. In his classic case of “wisdom and forethought”, the skeleton’s box was discarded. Halloween came and went. November came and went. Skeleton then had some overly bright Christmas lights added, strung between its hands. Then came the latest windstorm. Sir Skeletor promptly blew over, probably the noise that awoke me. One arm dropped off, the head flew off into another yard. So I guess our part of the area DID have a casualty from the wind. 😉

    DJSpo

  31. Hi everyone,

    Just a quick note. Things have gotten strange here today…

    Some moron probably lit a fire in a nearby township on this hot and windy day, and yeah as you’d imagine the fire took off. Crazy stuff.

    Here’s a high resolution image of what it looks like.

    www.ferngladefarm.com.au

    It was the last day of work too before three weeks of holidays, which began early, and finished late. Oh well, nobody said life would be easy.

    Cheers

    Chris

  32. Hi Margaret,

    Ah, thanks for bringing this most excellent sounding book to my attention. I’d missed it completely, but will grab a copy. 🙂 As you’d know, true pleasure is a good book, and that one you mentioned goes to very interesting places. My holiday plans include reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Sandra read the book months ago and has been urging me ever since to read it.

    Today was my last day of paid work for three weeks. Yay! Hip, hip, hooray! Not that I am ungrateful for the work I do, it’s just that because of the folks that dig the dog act on me earlier in the year – after getting them through their summer holidays – I have not had a break from paid work of more than a week and half for maybe six or seven years now. Me tired on that front, but have plenty of energy for work around here and of course the blog will continue, unless we get burnt out.

    There’s a large and out of control bushfire burning to the west of here. Check out the photo above in the comments. That’s a high resolution photo and you can click on it to blow it up in size and clarity.

    🙂 Good to see that both Marty and Gwen are concerned for one another. I shouldn’t laugh about your comment as to the ‘pot calling the kettle black’, but yes it’s an age old human condition that story.

    Margaret, sorry but hope you appreciate the lighter side of the entire situation, but the old saying about something about herding cats, comes to mind. 🙂

    That’s like the best Christmas gift ever. Sometimes the universe provides and you all got seriously lucky there. Hope it puts a smile on everyone’s dial?

    Oh total bummer, I’d forgotten about your gluten intolerance, and well, tiramisu is not the health food of the nation, let’s put it that way.

    Thank you! And we’re harvesting that many raspberries every day, and have been doing so for long enough that there are now 22 bottles of raspberry jam. So nice. Picked the first ripe apricot today. The flavour is superb. Yum! And how good are winters when there is the taste of a distant summer and yoghurt. 🙂

    Hehe! Snow there, bushfires and hot weather here. All par for course…

    Cheers

    Chris

  33. Hi Pam,

    That’s an excellent question, and truly, it’s hard to know what the bloke was thinking? Possibly, and here is pure speculation, but I reckon he was secretly worried about zombies. Don’t laugh, clearly he was thinking to himself – there’s no way the zombies will get me here on this roof, and the singlet and garden hose will deter them for sure. We got this ‘ere zombie thing sorted out.

    Far out, jokes aside, there is actually a large bushfire burning to the south south west of here. Today was hot and windy, and that’s sometimes what happens when idiots and forest fuels combine. Truly, we’re only as ever as good as the weakest link. There’s a high resolution clickable photo of what it looks like in the comments above. For a while there earlier, smoke was everywhere here. Sent a photo to the news service so we’ll see if they pick it up and run with it.

    Oh my! Your story read like a disaster where fortunately nobody was injured. Diggie diggie machines are very top heavy and uncertain on slopes. Hmm. The plumber left his little four tonne excavator for me to use – with his blessings – and when at the controls I realised how precarious on the slope these things are. Yes, I’d have been rather grumpy too at the unnecessary risks being taken. Hopefully there was much in the way of contrition?

    The local earthmoving guy had a monster sized diggie machine, and a great deal of experience in the area. Never once did I feel that he was an at risk fluffy. But I’m very cautious with everyone else. Plus all of the machines we’ve accumulated over the years, were designed and made with steep ground in mind. People take risks, as you’d know. Best to not be involved.

    Oooo! There’s nary a better way to learn, than by doing. 🙂 And yup, when I’m freezing myself silly during the depths of winter, the news of your super awesome blackberry harvest will be music to my reading ears, whatever that means.

    Pam, stop it! 🙂 Hehe! Reading about various blackberry pudding combinations has now caused me to hunger for such tasty treats. Yum!

    Cheers

    Chris

  34. Hi DJ,

    Hmm. In these days of worker shortages, often in a restaurant or pub, you have to settle your tally at a bar. Many places now, don’t provide a tab to folks who are unknown to them, and they’ll request payment prior to the meal being served. I get that. You’re very cheeky with those words, and I’m always invariably polite with the folks serving me food and/or drinks. The dodgy ‘onion soup’ scene from the Fight Club film comes to mind, and is a good guide to better living through humility! 🙂

    Far out man. Today has been officially deemed super crazy. Did a lot of very good paid work, and that’s it for three weeks – although I’m not counting, maybe… 😉 Snuck out at around lunchtime to head north to visit the cold store and orchard folks I know up north to pad out the Christmas supplies. Came back, and some idiot had ignited a big fire to the south south west of here. Say, where’s all that smoke coming from? Checked the location, topography and winds and guessed that things will be close, but hopefully no cigar. Did more paid work. Early start, late finish, too much stimulation for my poor brain. Truly, something, something, bad in a past life!

    Oh, there’s a photo higher up the comments as to what it looks like. Submitted another image to the news and it’ll be interesting to see whether they publish it.

    Three weeks break now! Yipee!

    DJ, we’ve created an expectational husky monster here with this loose talk of free millions. Just wondering whether Dame Avalanche offered to assist with the processing of the many squirrels and also the smoking of the meat. Every husky knows that meat is improved by the preservation art of smoking.

    Whoa! Those are some super powerful wind gusts. Do you ever get any tornadoes in your part of the world? That would be a warm winters day for here, but right now it’s not far off that outside at only 14’C.

    A very kindly and neighbourly act to do so. Sometimes bad weather can happen at your house, and you’re elsewhere. I recall coming home one day from the big smoke to notice that a single tree was smoking way off in the forest. Well, a lightning strike had set it off and everyone was scurrying around trying to find where the tree was – you could only see it from a distance, and the forest is thick. A local crew eventually found the fire and put it out.

    I don’t think they’re listening man… 😉 Doesn’t hurt to ask though, although did you take note of the costs for the service?

    Hehe! Ah, the dreaded leaf blower monster. Like you, I use a leaf rake because they work better, other people, well some folks just like the noise and power of the machines? Dunno. I do have a mains 240V beast of a blower machine, but use it to clean the dust off all the other machines after use. A truly astounding cleaning tool. But for leaves, not so much.

    Nice to have some extra space. The front boundary here is a bit over 90m wide. Yes, thanks, could be better…

    Ha! I’d forgotten about the snow caves, and truly your lowland Scottish heritage combined with Viking blood is probably the key to your immunity from any forms of cool feelings. My lot were a mix of lowland and highland, so I’m just plain old confused about the temperature, and appreciate the extra woollen blankets.

    Exactly! Could not have said it better – don’t feed the trolls and vampires. Pesky creatures, and yes, best avoided. There’s no cure for them you know.

    That’s awful, so you’re saying that the wind killed a skeleton? Well I never… Life can be surprising!

    Cheers

    Chris

  35. Hi Lewis,

    The article on hazelnuts (filberts) did not surprise me one bit. The local folks were great traders over vast distances, stewarded the land, and also spread around useful plants. The more I learn over the years about such activities, the more naive I now realise my former beliefs (based on very little) were. Think about the indigenous quarries I’ve shown photos of in the past. The scale is epic, and for a quarry, the area even looked attractive. It seems silly to believe that the local folks wouldn’t have used the resources to hand and adapted the environment to their ultimate benefit. If I may dare say it, they probably had less abstract worries than us more enlightened folks! 😉

    Thanks so much! That’s some super cool news. Another Dexter, before and after, apparently. And yeah, how does Dex come back from the dead? I was thinking all day about how Sir Arthur could bring back his annoying AF protagonist Sherlock Holmes? Truly, Dr Watson did all the heavy lifting in the cases and was charming, Holmes, not so much. I support the naughty fictional folks who pushed the character off the ledge. He had it coming.

    Very good, but alas there is little time for considering the wonders of the ancient art world. Dude, some idiot let off a fire not far from here. It’s bonkers big. And I’m already tired. Oh well.

    Got up super early and did some very good paid work. There are times when one is moderately pleased with their efforts and today was one such day. Snuck out at lunchtime and headed north to pick up some juicy sun ripened and very tasty apricots. Hopefully we’ll make some jam and bottle the others in a day or so. It was a hot windy day, so got back home and had a nap. Awoke and looked out the window to see a grey haze. Thought it was rain, but none was forecast. Hmm. Is that smoke smell? Holy carp! As the smoke thinned I could see a huge fire not too far away. Unfortunately there was hours more of paid work. And yeah, something, something, bad in a past life. Finished late, and the winds are pushing the fire slightly to the side of the mountain range, and are forecast to do so for the next few days. Oh well. There’s a photo of what it looks like further up in the comments.

    What? I’d never thought of the interweb being that way, by design… The cheeky scamps. Automation will end badly, eventually when it is cheaper to do things using human labour.

    Went out before and may have got some good night time photos of the fire. It was bright enough I’d not realised the sun had set. Ook! Submitted one photo to the news. It’ll be interesting to see if they run with it. Dunno.

    I see, yes, I very much agree with you there. Are the vendors shysters, or will they be mountebanks? Labelled starting prices does tend to reduce the scope of such pesky folk. And that is so true, that even big corporates pull that trick: what will the market bear indeed.

    Interesting about the blood meal. You know, that’s something I’d not considered, however the bag of stuff I used the other day, had a far higher phosphate percentage than I usually see. Hmm. That’s the stuff that stinks badly, like off lamb chops, although the smell has settled down a bit today. Could be a decent deer deterrent?

    Hehe! That’s funny about the floral fragrances, and you might be right. Some of the stuff already gets dyed, but I avoid that. What kind of story do you have to tell yourself to buy that dyed stuff?

    Stop it!!! Hehe! Thanks for the laughs, they’re very much appreciated tonight. Look, to quote you, that collectors way leads to madness. 😉 I’m just not going there.

    Your yesterdays high is about the same temperature it is here tonight. After a hot and windy day, now it’s quite cold with the door wide open to the night time air. The Editor popped her head in a while ago and remarked upon the fact that I was wearing a woollen jumper. It was not very nice what she said, but yeah, she’s got a point, I guess. They do say that revenge is a dish best served cold!

    Like your acronym. But will it sell?

    What do you mean you haven’t mastered sourdough bread? Hehe! I haven’t either, bakers yeast is pretty good stuff actually. Honestly, isn’t it all a question of: where do you stop with all this stuff? When I think about the sheer breadth of experience the old timers had, well it’s a bit humbling really.

    That’s a lot of demand upon the Club pantry. Did I mention I spotted a guy sleeping rough in a tent in a nearby park. That’s a first around these parts. Did the food box turn up, and was it any good?

    I dunno either. Probably are though, butter cookies have a certain shortbread taste to them, although there’s a pastry base made of shortbread. A bit thicker and more dense than puff pastry. Sometimes they use the stuff for pies, and it does hold the liquidy contents together better. But is it as good as puff pastry? I don’t think so, it’s different.

    Beware the snowflakes. You read it here first. 😉

    Agreed, and it ain’t just you. I worry about how things are playing out as well. Those who are nimble and prepared tend to do better than folks that are caught off their guard. That’s known.

    Oh no, you are so going straight down for that one! Whatever would the notables think of some dog cocking his leg upon a nativity scene? I’ll bet it’s happened somewhere too. Everyone loves a farting or humpy dog.

    Cheers

    Chris

  36. Hi Chris,

    What a dolt to start a fire on a hot, dry, windy day. I hope it stays away from your place! Not that you don’t have procedures and infrastructure in place if it does get close, but it’s better to not to have to use them.

    Happy vacation from paid work! I know you and Sandra will enjoy seeing nearby attractions, and we will enjoy the photos and stories about them that you post.

    It’s windy here, but cloudy and cold, 32F. No fire risk, but not good for people living rough or those who can’t afford to keep their homes heated.

    Claire

  37. Yo, Chris – Well, my Christmas wish, for you, is that the fire move in any other direction, than yours. Not an auspicious start to your vacation.

    Last we saw Dexter, he was bleeding out in the snow. Maybe the cold slowed his metabolism enough, that a flicker of life was preserved? It’s a theory. All those mass murders in slasher movies, seem to always make a return. They may be down, but they’re not out.

    Good to hedge your apricot bets. In case the parrots get greedy.

    I usually wear a disposable glove, when scattering about blood and bone meal. That stink just doesn’t want to wash off.

    According to Prof. Mass, we’re getting a huge atmospheric river, for Christmas. Isn’t that special. Our high yesterday was 52F (11.11C). The overnight low was 43F. The forecast for today is 56F. H and I have managed to stay dry.

    I finished watching the Da Vinci documentary, and then watched one on Julia Child. While eating a bowl of popcorn. With cheese! I got to wondering if Ms. Child had anything to say about popcorn. She did: “Sometimes, all you need is a bowl of popcorn, and a good movie, to turn a day around.”

    She was pretty egalitarian. One of her favorite nibbles was Gold Fish Crackers. And, she wasn’t above grabbing a meal in a fast food joint. Including Micky D’s. She thought the early organic food movement was snobbish and elitist.

    Keep an eye on those folks sleeping rough. Turn your back for a minute, and you’ll have an encampment. Here, our police and health department are leaning pretty heavy on the homeless. I saw a book on the library’s new list, “12 Myths About the Homeless.” I put a hold on it.

    I was complaining to our night manager, about the Christmas card that was left in my door. He teased me that he was going to leave a card a day, from now til Christmas. So, I decided to do a preemptive strike. I left him a card, this morning. Unsigned, of course. It’s an Edward Gorey card. A very Victorian looking gent, dressed for the weather, is dumping a fruit cake through a hole in the ice. 🙂

    Someone left a bag with a chocolate and a dog chew in it, last night. Not appreciated. They’ll end up on the swap table, tonight.

    The food box, just arrived. A bouquet of flowers, was preferred with the box. I graciously declined. They didn’t look edible. We got a dozen eggs! A pound of butter product. A pound of good ground beef. A cardboard individual blackberry pie and chocolate chip cookies (swap table.) A bag of sourdough biscuits. I might keep those. Maybe. A box of cereal, a jar of peanut butter. The rest I haven’t looked at, too closely. Tins of this and that, some dried pasta. Some kind of dried beans. Not a bad haul. Lew

  38. Chris:

    The word “fire” gives me chills. I don’t want to think of one so close to you. There is a rural volunteer firehouse quite near to us as the crow flies; about three times as far by road. I heard the sirens the other night and listened until they were out of range. There a quite a few house fires in my county every winter, so even without wildfires, some unfortunate folks still get burned out. I saw your excellent photo. I hope that the news source you sent it to appreciates it.

    So zombies have a terror of singlets and hoses? I am now prepared, at least with the hose. I gave my last singlet away not so long ago.

    You sent me down the same slip ‘n slide – I just read a hundred year old recipe for a blackberry pudding. Those were the days. And only 7 or 8 more months to wait.

    Pam

  39. Chris,

    Let me assure you, before making cheeky remarks to the restaurant staff, the Princess and I have built good rapport first. Rule 1: treat staff well. Rule 2: build rapport. Rule 3: Cheeky remarks ONLY if most excellent rapport has been developed, and even then is optional.

    ugh! Last thing you need is an idiot playing with fire in the heat and wind. I’ve probably told you about some of our local area’s notorious and similar episodes. Happens every year without fail.

    Vacation! Party on! I actually got out for a celebration today. Killian’s human got a big promotion and pay raise at her paid work. She took me to a local favorite eatery for burgers and brews. Unfortunately, the Princess is still with her brother and couldn’t attend in person. But she is happy for our friend, also. It’s a well-deserved promotion and couldn’t have come at a better time.

    Tornadoes? Yes, sometimes. We’ve had several tornado warnings even in the city over the years, but nothing near the urban area has occurred. Most years a funnel cloud or two land, usually on the “west plains”, well, west of town. There have been maybe 5 or 6 documented category zero tornadoes touch down between Moses Lake and Spokane. These mostly touch down and rapidly dissipate.

    On the skeleton front. Neighbor mostly put it back together. However, the right forearm is missing. There’s a zombie-like aura around the skeleton now. The holiday lights that had been draped between the hands now rest on a plastic tarp near the skeleton’s feet. Oh well. Skeleton zombies at Christmas.

    Costs? You mean the weather deities don’t do things to help us for free, just because they’re always so nice and predictable? 😉

    Other neighbor’s roof was completed Friday. Took two days for an entire rebuild. Small house, but still impressive.

    And Killian’s human was over early today, before news of her promotion arrived. She held the ladder while I investigated my gutters. (Neither she nor the Princess want me playing on ladders while unsupervised.) Yup, a lot of leaves at the usual places. Unfortunately, even with days in the 40s, the leaves are all frozen to the gutters. We’ll need multiple days over 10C with bright sun before those will melt loose.

    DJSpo

  40. Hi Pam,

    The fire is pretty unsettling and next Thursday forecast is for 38’C / 100’F, but weirdly the winds have their origins in the NE, which may blow the fire into thick forest, but away from here. I’m looking at the forecast very closely. Thanks for the kind thoughts. 🙂

    That’s the thing, bushfires are far beyond the average persons experience, yet house fires are actually quite common. Back in the day, in Victorian era houses, the kitchen used to be way down the back of the house where if things went badly due to cooking fires, the main structure of the house was sort of a bit removed. And in old Victorian era terrace houses I’d worked on, they’d have fire walls between one building and the next. That historic old Great Fire of London looms large even today in the building of cheek by jowl dwellings.

    🙂 Yes, some houses around here are notable for their annual chimney fires – and I’ll say no more here.

    Pam, I’d have to suggest that the singlet terrified the zombies. You could equally argue it was the shorts and thongs (what in your country are called flip flop shoes) that scared the zombies off. But either way, it’s an iconic pose for the extroverts who walk among us during emergencies. Is it effective? Candidly I hold some strong views, but it may be great marketing? Who knows.

    Wise to have given your last singlet away recently. Now you’re safe from the fashion constabulary. 🙂

    Sorry for that, but isn’t it amazing what you can learn on such journeys? Every day now, the blackberry harvest gets that little bit closer to picking. Yum!

    Today was feral with work. Me tired. In the greenhouse, I finally got around to running the rest of the tomato vines up jute string. Some of them have nice looking – yet unripe – trusses of tomatoes. Also cut a path through the garden bed vegetation from an existing path to the top of the new set of concrete stairs, and discovered I have to add one more step. At least it was cooler here today.

    There may be a nearby fire, yet life goes on. It happens…

    Cheers

    Chris

  41. Hi DJ,

    Thanks for clarifying that form of interaction. Nobody wants to experience an onion soup moment, and you are far too wise to expose yourself to such a risk. 🙂 Sometimes my humour falls flat, or far from the mark, and so nowadays I’m just polite with a side serving of sort of vagueness. Like an absent minded professor, or that kind of vibe. I might have mentioned to you that I got into a discussion with a young lady about hats of all things – at her instance a month or so ago. Anyway, it was all going well until I felt very uncomfortable when she started chucking in comments such as ‘my partner this’ etc. Backed off and just went about my activities. Dunno.

    Yeah, it’s funny how such annual things roll, and I’m unsurprised that the same thing happens in your part of the world. Some people are just bad eggs. There was an actual convicted fire bug living in a town to the south of here. Such a pain because every hot and windy day, bam. Eventually the guy was caught and charged, and suddenly the fires just stopped. In one of the states here, such convicted people have to report to lock ups on hot and windy high fire risk days.

    Still, if the forests were managed better, even if a fire took off, it wouldn’t be the big drama it is nowadays. As a society we do such preventative and forest maintenance matters on the cheap, if at all. I wish it were not so.

    Thanks man! 🙂 Three weeks of holidays began this morning. Did heaps of work around the place. Cut a rough path through vegetation to the new concrete staircase (and found I was one step too short). Also finished off the greenhouse work by running another stainless steel rope from one end to the other. Then hung jute string from that and got the rest of the tomato vines climbing up the stuff. Plus fed that third and final raised bed inside the greenhouse. Me tired. It was a big day, and the fire lurks in the background of my mind.

    Congrats to Killian’s human! And you scored really well with the burgers and brews. Go on, what sort of burger do you order? They put a slice of beetroot in burgers down here, and it’s an enhancement, although opinions can vary in this regard. Were there good chips as an accompaniment?

    Ah, the tornado conditions are similar here, random, usually way out of town (i.e. once here), but usually lightweight experiences all things considered. Usually here they bring a lot of rain with them. We could use such a weather event here right now.

    The skeleton has transcended the usual Halloween display, and become something far more sinister. Well, at least that’s my take anyway, and your words about sniffing zombie-esque essences from the display sot of suggests that things are not as they should be there. Out of curiosity, does Dame Avalanche take notice of the display and growl? Dogs know things. 😉 But yeah, it does make an interesting commentary upon all things Christmas.

    Hehe! Yes, always wise not to either pester, and worse, annoy, the old ones. And whilst it doesn’t hurt to ask, maybe, probably, err, maybe not without the costs being clearly negotiated, a refusal to comply with ones wishes should never offend.

    Two days for a roof is pretty quick. Are we talking tiles here, or corrugated steel sheeting? Someone local has a copper sheet roof, and you’d think the rainwater might have traces of copper sulphate crystals?

    Wise to have a wingman with you when working at heights. The only thing I’d offer here is that the person on the ground should not distract you with digressions, no matter how interesting. Ask me how I know this? 😉 Fortunately the fall was not from a great height.

    Cheers

    Chris

  42. Hi Lewis,

    Thanks for the article about the unfortunate cougars, and please do not bring such forest critters to this country. The feral domestic cats have grown in size over the many long years, so no doubts one day they’ll also be cougar sized. But why hurry such adaptations? Yikes! The unfortunate thing about the article, which was quite in-depth, was that the cougars suffer far more from their interaction with us humans, and the population of the big felines was described as in-bred. No wonder the poor cats are eating sick birds and/or carrion.

    Thanks for the lovely and very practical Christmas wish, and fingers crossed, that’s how the story plays out. Well, maybe we’ll be fine, maybe. I’m looking closely at the forecast wind direction and air temperature for the next week or so. It’s not reassuring.

    But you know, life goes on. Discovered that the new concrete staircase requires yet another step, that makes twelve, which is an auspicious number. Cut a path through the thick vegetation to the top of the staircase, and the difference in levels was obvious. Might pour another step tomorrow.

    Also, in the greenhouse I added a stainless steel cable which runs the length of the shed and sits directly above the uphill raised garden bed. Then hung jute string from the cable, dropped the string down to the ground and began getting the remaining tomato vines to climb up it. I can’t recall growing tomatoes this way before, and it’ll be interesting to see if it’s effective. They’ll probably grow to about six or seven feet in height, then I’ll top the vines off.

    It’s a really busy time of year for such work around the property. Might make some apricot jam tomorrow. Yum! And yup, the parrots are greedy.

    That’s true, now you mention it, we didn’t see a dead Dexter, just ol’ Dex in a lot of snowy bullet riddled trouble. The kid might regret not having taken a second shot.

    Hehe! Blood and bone meal stinks, but is very good for the garden soils. Forgot to mention that I also topped up the last of the three raised garden beds in the greenhouse today. Created quite the interesting odour.

    Some folks are just lucky to enjoy decent rainfall over Christmas, although a foot of the wet stuff is not really what you want to experience. Looks like the rain will head south of you. They’re getting drenched up in Queensland. Hmm.

    Man, I had to look up what exactly is a Gold Fish Cracker. It’s a thing, although I bet they’re tasty? It’s possible that there is an element of that snobbish story continuing today. Better to eat well from a garden with mineral rich soils, than rely upon claims of organic this and that. You may note I take the soil mineral replenishment seriously, despite it being financially ruinous down here.

    Maybe the homeless guy will get moved on. I know from history, that during the Great Depression, the authoritas continually moved people on, it’s in our culture. It’s really hard to know what goes on in this council area, but a while back I read in the local paper that there are plenty of people ‘couch surfing’, which is technically homeless. I doubt there is much in the way of support services for such folks in this area. I’ll be interested to hear your take on that book.

    Go the pre-emptive Gorey strike! Nice shot too. Nobody wants to be on the wrong side of a hole in the ice. 🙂 Actually I recall that awful scene in the Damien Omen film of someone getting stuck on the wrong side of the ice. For that narrative the concerns dealt with by the most naughty character, seemed all very petty. Did you ever get around to watching the recent remake of the Exorcist?

    Lewis, you might have a secret admirer! 😉 Although I’d be a bit wary about the quality of chocolate. I can never forget the dodgy employer who purchased out of date and stale chocolate to give to their customers one Easter. There was a lot going wrong with that employer. Now I don’t trust free chocolate, unless of course I know the person who is giving the gift.

    Nice to have the gift of good grace, and I’d have also declined the flowers. Hey, they tell me that many parts of the rose are edible, but is it as good as a food box, and we both know the answer there – it ain’t! Eggs are in short supply at your time of the seasons, so that’s a good score. The box doesn’t sound too bad, does it. The folks must be feeling like it is the season to give.

    Had potato salad for dinner, plus two boiled eggs, some grilled asparagus and a small chunk of tasty (aged cheddar) cheese. Yum!

    Cheers

    Chris

  43. Yo, Chris – Fingers crossed the fire stays away from your door. Do they name the fires, as they do here? If you look a bit, there are news articles beginning to appear. Is it in the Grampians National Forest?

    Even with tomato cages, and lashing them to a near-by t-post, tomatoes tend to collapse under their own weight. The pruning helped, a lot.

    Next week, I’ll probably hit my garlic with some more bone meal. Give it a rest, and then maybe some stove ash. I want nice, big garlic, next year!

    H and I got wet, this morning but not too wet. I finally broke out the boots. Vacuumed them out to make sure there weren’t any spiders, or plasticized dust bunnies, in the toes. We may get a bit of wind, today into tomorrow. Forecast is for gusts in the mid 20s, mph. The high yesterday was 55F (12.77C). The overnight low was 41F. The forecast for today is 52F. Maybe less rain, evening and night.

    Speaking of veg and nutrition, I watched an interesting new documentary, last night. Ruth Reichl was the food critic, for the Los Angeles Times. And then the New York Times (she’d go to restaurants, in disguise. Wrote a book about it.) Then she was editor of “Gourmet” magazine. When You Know What started, it became pretty obvious how fragile our food system is. So, she started talking to a lot of chefs, food producers and ranchers. The trailer is about 2 minutes. Blink and you’ll miss it, but one farmer, to raise some extra income, is running his goats and chickens, at a solar farm. They pay him the same amount they’d pay in weed killers.

    https://youtu.be/sJVPgyrJXkc?si=emnwSS_ZmGE0wyv5

    There are people doing positive things about the food supply. I just don’t know if there are enough of them.

    I had to think about it, but, yes, I did see the sequel to “The Exorcist.” I guess it didn’t make much of an impression, on me.

    I managed to take two bags of groceries, down to the Club, last night. I’ve got two more to take down, this afternoon. Someone had brought in some tins of really good soup.

    I had a tin of garbanzo beans, for dinner. I picked some fresh parsley and mustard greens, out of the garden. Added some of my dried tomatoes and garlic. Tasty.

    Our library sent out a newsletter, with their circulation figures. Last year, they circulated a million and a half books. And, two million digital titles. For a grand total of about three and a half million items. I suppose DVDs are in the digital total. Well, I did my part 🙂 .

    I saw an article last night, that there’s been some problems with two-factor authentication. As I predicted. Seems to only affect people that use smart phones and texts. Hackers from the Land of Stuff got into the telco systems. Millions of accounts compromised. Lew

  44. Hi Lewis,

    Thanks, and yes I’m crossing my fingers and touching wood also. Looks like the winds will be favourable (for here) on the super hot and windy day coming up of Thursday, but time will tell. That day will be a problem. Internally wit the authoritas the fires get named, but usually the media refers to the point of origin, and this local one appears to have begun in the nearby hamlet of Bullengarook. The weird thing about this fire is that from here, I’ve had a birds eye view of the goings on for the entire event.

    The Grampians are a national park, and the mountains are slightly higher than here, it’s also notable for being almost the most westerly location on the continent where ferns thrive. Haven’t spent much time there, mostly because it is a four to five hour drive away, but I recall an awe inspiring mountainous landscape. For some reason the rainfall there this year there has been lacking, unlike here which is above average.

    I’m also observing that with the tomato vines, prune off the sucker arms and the plant doesn’t sag so much under the weight of vegetation. The vines have been in a little bit of shock with the heavy pruning, however, they’re beginning to entangle themselves around the jute twine. Hopefully the stuff is strong enough to last the season? Maybe. The stainless steel cable attached to the roof timbers should be fine for many long years. It was one of those activities I knew needed doing in earlier years, but never had the time – until this year.

    The general consensus suggests that additions of blood meal for your garlic will produce excellent results. Honestly, blood and bone meal is a truly amazing soil food for hungry plants. And the sort of plants which our species have come to rely upon, love that stuff. Stove ash is pretty good too, and I waste none of that stuff. With cooler conditions and a little bit of rain forecast tonight, we’re running a burn off in the corten brazier. There’s almost no end of fine forest fuels here, and the ash will make for excellent fertiliser. Best to burn the stuff off before the hot weather arrives.

    Towels here are yours and H’s friends as the Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy recommended to be prepared where ever you travel, with a towel. Oh my! Imagine putting on a rubber gumboot only to discover an over wintering and possibly deadly poisonous spider? Not good. A smart move on your part. I usually turn them upside down and give them a good whack before putting them on. Might not dislodge a determined spider though.

    Tomorrow will be cold with a high of 18’C / 64’F, then things will warm up. Quite a lot actually. Beyond 100’F, then settle back down to some more normal summer weather.

    Thanks for the link to the documentary, and it looks great. If things are quiet tomorrow night, I might watch the full documentary. I’ll tell you a little secret, the summer grass is greener in the shade of the big solar panel array.

    And that’s exactly what I wonder about too. Look, when needs warrant, things will change on that food front. It’s not a complicated story. It’s like when my old friend of Italian heritage told me that his parents didn’t want to do the big family tomato sauce thing because it was apparently cheaper to buy the stuff at the shops. You can only take such an approach, when economics dictates that the story works out. Hunger and deprivation will sort the entire mess out.

    Yeah, I vaguely remember speaking with you about the sequel of the Exorcist film, and like what you said, if the memory didn’t stick, it may not have been important.

    Ooo! That’s a fine addition to the Club pantry, and hope that in this most festive of seasons, the top notch soup is appreciated? Out of curiosity, what sort of soup are we talking about here?

    That does sound tasty, and we’re going for a sort of similar-ish meal this evening, minus the garlic but with falafel’s.

    Good to see that you’re doing your bit, and that is a big number for the circulation of items. Great to hear that the library system is being used by the community.

    Ha! What a fine joke that is. Actually, with the two factor authenticater, I prefer the off line variety which relies on a very long and complicated key, which isn’t stored online. What do people expect? Convenience in the world of computing, is often next to hackliness. You read it here first! 😉

    Man, it was another crazy day of intense work here today, and I’m running so late now this evening. However, we did take the time out to grab a most excellent sausage roll and nab a lamington which we shared (with the dogs) with coffee later in the day. But other than that, it’s been work, work, work! 🙂 It’s a busy time of year, let’s put it that way.

    Cheers and better get writing!

    Chris

  45. Yo, Chris – Here we say “knock wood” for luck. If you can find any wood, in our highly plasticized world. Bird’s eye view? You can sell tickets. Your fortune is made 🙂 .

    Being out of the weather, the jute twine should last awhile. I can’t tell you how nice it is, to have the trellis with the pig wire, that the Master Gardener’s put in. Though where I grow my tomatoes, it’s t-posts and chicken wire.

    I probably won’t hit the garlic with any blood meal. From what I read on line, they don’t like too much nitrogen. Or if I do, very lightly.

    Looks like H and I are going to get wet, today. Oh, well. Tomorrow we’re supposed to get a bit of clearing. Yesterday’s high was 52F (11.11C). The overnight low was 45F. Forecast for today is 51F.

    The soups were a good national brand, with an “organic” line. Beef broth with lentils and other veg. It was gone in 24 hours.

    Last night, I fried up four of the eggs from the food box. They’re medium size, and H gets a bit. Chopped them up and mixed them in with rice and some veg. I think tonight is going to be a popcorn night. I picked up a new South Park DVD, yesterday. Titled “Cred.” Something about sending up internet influencers.

    Well, we’re past the solecist. The days will start getting longer, although you really don’t notice it much, until the time change jump.

    I tried some of those sourdough buns. They’re about 4″ across. I still have some Vegemite and Marmite to use up. So, I split them in half, smeared on some butter and spread, nuked them for half a minute. Tasty, but … I went at them with a serrated knife and they were so tough, that it wasn’t a matter of cutting them apart. It was literally tearing them apart. With great effort. Pretty tasty, though.

    I saw in the newspaper, that the new big store everyone is waiting for, won’t be open until summer 🙁 . I thought, given the progress on the building, that it would be soon after the first of the year.

    Gee, I wonder what you’ll write about, tonight. 🙂 Lew

Comments are closed.