The taming of the wilds

Most nights the dogs and I go for a walk. They can do their business before heading off to bed. Three dogs sleep inside the house, and at times, despite the notable inconveniences of sharing a house with canines, good work gets done. Like that time years ago when Sir Scruffy woke me up in the wee hours of the morning. A dodgy bloke was lurking around at the top of the driveway. Suspicious behaviour at that hour of the night. Other local houses and vehicles were robbed, but here thanks to the dogs, Ollie the muscular looking Australian pig hunting dog and I scared the guy off. He made a hasty get away, but was eventually caught.

So there we were the other night, walking around in the dark. Dame Plum the boss dog alerted me to some funny business going on in the sunny orchard. A persons eyes acclimate to the dark. A dogs senses are far beyond the best efforts of a human. Best to trust those. The torch was switched on, and sure enough the canine was right. A couple of sets of eyes were bobbing around, lurking among the fruit trees.

Were the eyes deer I wondered (no eye deer?) Nah, the bright pin pricks, two shiny sets, one ahead of the other, were way too low to the ground. You could see the lack of fear as they skulked between the trees. Foxes, perhaps a vixen and her cub. It was about time they turned up and got to work.

Between the foxes and the owls, the rabbit population on this property at least, has dwindled in recent weeks. I’d almost gotten to the point where the rabbits were about to unintentionally provide some target practice. This year, there are a lot of rabbits on the land, and in one of the nearby townships, the rabbits are in feral numbers. The biological controls relied upon for many decades are apparently diminishing in their effectiveness. The rabbit population is booming, but not here.

Plenty of people leave poison bait out for rabbits and foxes. That’s all very well until something consumes the poisoned carcass and then becomes ill, and soon likely very dead. It’s kind of counter intuitive to poison creatures that consume carcasses like the owls and eagles do. The birds will happily kill the pesky critters you don’t want hanging around a rural property, and the best thing is, they do that work for free, unless they’re poisoned that is.

We don’t generally use poison here. The only exception being if rats somehow, despite my best efforts, get under the house. It doesn’t usually end well for the cheeky and adventurous rodents. The decomposition stink is epic. Then you have to find the dead stinky rat body and haul it out from under the house. Not a fun job. Best if they didn’t get under the house in the first place.

Finding some sort of balance with all the forest critters here is difficult. This afternoon it was heart breaking to watch one of the local parrots high up in an apple tree, hard at work. One claw was hanging onto the branch, whilst the other plucked a juicy apple. The clutched foot brought the apple within reach of the colourful birds beak. A chunk was sampled. Clearly the sample was not to the parrots liking. The unripe fruit was tossed to the ground. No need to pay for fruit tree thinning work here… Yup, finding balance is sometimes difficult.

Friday, in between doing paid work, we headed north to visit a local orchard which grows and sells sun ripened fruit. Most fruit you can buy in supermarkets and fresh food markets is picked unripe. The stuff has to travel, and if ripe and soft, truly, the fruit would never arrive. The downside is that there is usually little to no flavour. However, this orchard is an exception, and being north of here, their growing season is both longer and earlier. Their apricots ripen weeks before the fruit here. Grabbed 10kg (22 pounds) of very tasty early apricots for bottling and jam making. Yum!

It was a hot day, and by the time we made it home again, the feeling of lethargy took hold. The summer sun was shining with force. So before getting back into paid work, the couch looked super comfortable. What did it matter if the eyes shut for half an hour or so? Woke up to discover the blue skies had disappeared and the air was grey and ominous seeming. Was that rain? There was no rain forecast. Hmm. What was going on? Opened the door, took a sniff of the air, and smelled acrid bushfire smoke. It was pretty thick outside. Not an ideal situation, and there was all that paid work yet to be completed.

It’s been remarked upon before that where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And such was the case.

As the winds changed direction, the smoke lifted. It became hard to ignore the fire going on north of the nearby township of Bullengarook. The property has a view of two mountains, one of which is Mount Bullengarook, the other is Mount Blackwood. And in between the two was a huge column of smoke rising from the forest. That’s not meant to be there…

Hot windy days are not ideal for a burn off in the forest

Not an auspicious beginning for three weeks holidays from paid work (once the final lot was done for the hot day), yeah. You could see from here that the winds were pushing the fire away from this direction, so I finished the paid work. Towards the end of the day as the sun was setting, the fire had doubled in size.

Yeah, I’d say that was bigger in only a few hours

At night, the burning forest produced an eerie red glow where on previous nights there was only the darkness of the forest.

At night the flames were visible from here

For Saturday and Sunday, the country fire authority has chucked huge resources at the bushfire. During the daytime, you could hear the helicopters and see them as tiny little white and orange dots zipping backwards and forwards from the fire to a nearby reservoir, then back again.

The fire is down, but not out

The fire has been dampened down somewhat, but is by no means out. And this week of Christmas looks set to deliver some rather hot and windy weather. It’s a day by day thing, but truly, it would far better to reach some sort of middle ground where the forests are better managed in the first place. Our society wants to do that job on the cheap, and this is the outcome. Fires like the one I’m watching unfold now kill, rabbits, foxes and owls alike. We can do better than this.

The hamlet of Cherokee is just on the edge of the warning area, but the lines are all very arbitrary

Despite the fires, hot weather and stuff, work continues around the property. The tomato vines in the greenhouse had in previous years grown a bit feral. This year with a little bit more time on my hands, I decided to experiment and see if tomato vines are easier to manage if instead of sprawling, they are allowed to grow upwards towards the ceiling of the roof inside the greenhouse.

Beforehand, despite the tomato supports, the vines were a bit of a mess

The many timber roof joists of the greenhouse now support three stainless steel cables. They run the length of each raised garden bed. From the steel cable, jute string hangs down to the ground level, and the central trunk of the tomato vines are carefully wrapped around the twine.

How neat do these tomato vines look now?

It took a days work to hang two steel cables and string up two garden beds of tomato vines. Now with the infrastructure in place, the job will be easier in future years. Another days work finished the job off for the third raised garden bed.

All very neat

There were quite a lot of as yet unripe tomatoes already hanging off the vines.

How good do these tomato trusses look?

The three garden beds also received a decent soil feed mixture of: mushroom compost + fine woody mulch + sand + coffee grounds + blood and bone meal + garden lime + gypsum + dolomite. If the plants are not happy with that feed, I don’t what will motivate them to grow faster and produce better!

A trailer load of mushroom compost + fine woody mulch + sand was brought back

The video this week shows the work with the tomatoes:

Organic Vegetable Gardening – Growing Great Tomatoes

Regular readers will recall that we’ve been constructing a new concrete staircase leading from the sunny orchard up into the courtyard. The staircase is near to a dead end path. The plan is to connect up the path and the new staircase. However, the vegetation was so thick that we were unsure whether the eleventh step on the staircase was at the same level as the path. So a hedge trimmer and chainsaw was used to cut through the vegetation. Then we could see – another step had to be added.

With the thick vegetation gone, we could see that the new staircase sits a little bit below the path

Another cement step was poured and now the path and staircase are about at the same level.

A twelfth cement step was poured

A lot of jam making was done this week. Raspberry jam was made from all of the collected fruit. A small batch of strawberry jam was also made using the alpine strawberries stored.

Raspberry and also a small batch of strawberry jam

A dozen large bottles of apricots were processed in the boiler (canning in US terminology). The remaining fruit was then made into a batch of super tasty apricot jam. It’s nice to see the shelves of preserved goods filling back up again.

Cutting up 10kg / 22 pounds of apricots is not a quick job

A batch of olive oil soap was also prepared and is now in the process of mixing into a consistent emulsion – which usually takes a few days. In recent years, we’ve sped that mixing process up by using a whisk which is only ever used for the soap making purpose.

Olive oil soap making at it’s finest!

In breaking produce news:

This year has produced the largest Anzac peaches we’ve ever grown. These things are amazing looking, and they’re a white fleshed cling-stone variety. The varietal name suggests that the plant variety was developed in Australia. We’ll consume them in breakfasts and they’ve got a good flavour.

Anzac peaches, yummo!

The Babaco in the greenhouse has been delivering tasty fruit for a couple of weeks now. Don’t believe the hype, those plants are intolerant of frost and will only ever grow here within the greenhouse (which is not heated).

These Babaco fruit taste like lemon sorbet

The apricots on the trees, are almost ripe. It’s exciting, mostly because for the past four summers the weather has been unfavourable for the tasty, yet early in the season stone fruit. It is worth noting that the Anzac peaches blossom later and are faster growing.

I see yummy fresh fruit goodness!

The pumpkins and zucchini have grown well this week, and they particularly enjoy hot weather and respond with lots of fresh growth.

Pumpkins and Zucchini, fans of hot weather

Onto the flowers:

Sage Officinalis likewise enjoy hot and dry weather
The herb Feverfew is a bit weedy here, but also a very handy plant
Poppies are growing strongly in one garden bed
These Geraniums are stunning and the insects love the flowers

The temperature outside now at about 11am is 10’C (50’F). So far for last year there has been 931.6mm (36.7 inches) which is the same as last weeks total of 929.0mm (36.6 inches)

37 thoughts on “The taming of the wilds”

  1. Yo, Chris – Fox in the hen house? 🙂

    Now that I’ve got the proper name for the fire, I’ve read a few articles about it. Seems it was started by lightening. I wonder if it will drive animals, before it? You may see all kinds of interesting (and, one hopes benign) critters passing through your place.

    I saw the map you used, in several of the articles. If it’s not to invasive, or revealing, in which general direction from Cherokee is your place?

    The tomato video was very good. I think you might get a lot of comments on it. Everybody has their own opinions on the “right” way to grow tomatoes. It’s like a comment you once made on bee keepers. Ask five beekeepers a question, and you’ll get four different opinions.

    Staircase looks good. Now you have direct access to an out-of-the-way part of the orchard. A veritable super highway. 🙂

    The raspberry and strawberry jam looks yummy. And now I have a craving for apricots. Looks like you’re going to get a bumper crop of quit a few different fruits.

    The flowers, as always, are beautiful.

    I ran across an interesting recipe in a magazine. Ms. Stewart’s “Everyday Food.” The recipe is for pumpkin-chocolate tiramisu. I think you’re one (or two) up on Martha. She didn’t make her own mascarpone cheese, or the lady fingers. She went with what we used to call “store bought.” What a slacker! I’m sure yours tasted better. Lew

  2. Hi Lewis,

    The errant fox may attempt to break into the hen house, but if the rats have zero luck in that endeavour, the fox has even less hope. 🙂 Steel and concrete are pretty difficult materials for such critters to surmount. So, with less easy prey, the foxes have gotten to work on the rabbits and have done some good work. In the past week I’ve only seen one very young rabbit that the dogs flushed out, but it got away from them. Rabbits are very fast.

    I’d not yet come across an explanation as to how the Bullengarook fire began, but yes, lightning is a problem in the forests here. Looking at the fire maps, I’m guessing the ignition point was at the end of a dead end road, and so presumed it was either human stupidity, or an act of pyromania. Sometimes you never find out how these things got ignited – or hear about it on the grapevine.

    On Thursday which is the super hot and windy day, the winds are forecast at the moment to derive from the north east which may push the fire back upon itself. But that’s no guarantee of anything and by the end of that risky day, we’ll actually know what happened. Until then, it’s all speculation. If a fire did head through here, I have no doubts that the local forest critters will hide out here and take shelter. From all I’ve read and heard over the years, the disparate critters play nice together on such days.

    No great secret there. On the map where Cherokee is so named, there’s a red F. That represents the nearby fire station (it’s just above the final letter ‘e’ in the label Cherokee). I’m located two kilometres directly south of there which would be about level with the ‘Mount Macedon’ label on the map. Over the years I’ve had some people track me down via gargle urth maps – as you do when boundaries are a personal issue. They could have simply asked, but no.

    utub is a funny platform in that it seems innocent enough, but a content provider has to pay in the early days in order to gain an audience. Then I’m guessing you have to pony up for sponsors, e.g. ads. At the moment I’m feeling out the algaerythm to see how it all works. One of the videos took off, but I suspect that in the background some rando reported it, and that killed it off through the bonkers reporting process. It’s a professional courtesy of mine to offend – what do they expect? As a provider of content, that whole review process is not transparent at all and the outcomes are unknown. I just called that one about the tomatoes – there is no one true way to grow them, although purists will spend a lot of energy arguing about the matter. I’m trying to work out what is easy for me and a good match for the climate and systems here.

    🙂 Sorting out the paths is a beautiful thing! It’s hard not to notice that inaccessible areas are rarely maintained.

    It’s been a very good growing season so far. Had one of the peaches in breakfast, and they’re tasty. Sun ripened apricots are the whole next level though. Yum!

    🙂 Dude, that’s the secret to a way above average tiramisu. Surely Martha has nothing better to do with her time? Making the lady finger biscuits from scratch whilst also creating the mascarpone cheese from quality heavy duty cream and lemon juice are the keys. Of course Martha is better financed than little old me, and who wouldn’t want Snoop Dog for a friend – the party vibe would go up to 11 whenever he entered the room.

    Funnily enough I spent this afternoon baking lady finger biscuits and then assembling a Christmas tiramisu. The dessert is now setting in the refrigerator, and like a good casserole does, will only get better with a couple of days of soaking up essential pan juices under its belt.

    I’d be curious to taste one of those decades old casseroles which are continuously cooked. I’m sure that they’ve been lovingly attended to over the years.

    Isn’t that interesting. Down here they say to ‘touch wood’ for luck. I’d heard of knocking on wood, but never quite knew if it was the same thing. Frankly speaking, it reminds me of most awful horror movie scenes where the protagonist awakes to find themselves trapped in a coffin. Ook.

    Having a fortune would be handy because there’s one or two machines I’d like to have access too. But was life meant to be easy? Hard to tell really. What’s your take on that philosophical debate?

    Thanks, and yeah your chicken wire trellis would work a treat. I’ve observed super well financed and environmentally conscious folks use lattice made from compostable string – probably hemp if I had to hazard a guess. That stuff would be nice too. Oh well, gives us mere mortals something to aim for. 🙂

    Agreed, and that’s very true. Fertilisers can always be over done. There’s a middle ground there, and it varies with each plant.

    Man, it’s hard to believe that Thursday will be in excess of 100’F. Today on the other hand was positively Antarctic and I’ve run the wood heater for most of the day. Just briefly around midday the outdoors thermometer displayed 57’F, but for most of the day it’s been far colder with intermittent rain. Brr! What’s going on???? Not far off your maximum temperature at all.

    In much higher alpine parts of the continent (still baby mountains compared to your lot) it snowed today: Aussie summer snow two days before Christmas

    A delightful sounding soup – you can see why it left the pantry so rapidly. Makes you wonder when due to prevailing economic circumstances, people will get back to boiling beef bones for the soup broth? That stuff is super tasty, and your recent mention of ham hocks has brought this too my mind.

    Hehe! Go the South Park folks. The evening yawns ahead of me tonight because the Editor went out with friends for dinner. Do I watch the documentary you recommended on food, or South Park? What a decision I have to make here! 🙂

    There are moves afoot in your country to put an end to the time change. It might happen, it’s a cheap fix.

    You know, I’m unsurprised that your palate can handle Vegemite and/or Marmite. To be honest the nutritional yeast you use in cooking (as do we) doesn’t taste all that much different. At some high end food joints, it is acceptable behaviour to pull your bread apart. It’s meant to be consumed that way.

    Hope the store opens soon. And I’ll be interested to hear your reports.

    I’m trying not to bring down the vibe by discussing the fire too much. That’s the goal. Will it be achieved? Let’s find out! 😉

    Cheers

    Chris

  3. Yo, Chris – There are often reports of animals, playing nice, in fire situations. “And the lion shall lie down with the lamb.” From: De Good Book. 🙂 Often used as a theme, in art. Even Currier and Ives lithos had several versions of it.

    Ah. I see. So you’re sort of between Cherokee and Barringo. The same type of people who would track you down on Gargle Urth, are the same ones who will track down a certain photograph to thwart your political ambitions. 🙂 Best do a preemptive apology tour, and get it out of the way.

    Squashing your video might not have been all that random. It’s a way of killing competition. If you want to know about the internal workings of all those internet influencers, ratings, likes and such, well, I watched the “South Park” last night titled “Cred.” It had to do with energy sports drinks and influencers. The underhanded methods used to boost ratings. They descended to a new low of vulgarity and crassness. There was even full frontal male nudity! And not all of it was animated! I loved it! Was well worth a bowl of popcorn.

    Every once in awhile, Martha slips up. Just a page or two away from the Tiramisu was a side bar on how to make Dulce de Leche from scratch. Not that hard, but takes a long time.

    Was life meant to be easy? Well, that’s a whole philosophical can of worms. Of course, there’s my mantra: “Life on life’s terms.” You can also approach it from a “original sin” angle. (Again, from Da Good Book.) So people have been wondering about your question, for a long time. In general, life has its ups and downs.

    Our high yesterday was 52F (11.11C). The overnight low was 45F. Forecast for today is 52F. It’s nice out, today, but the rain and some wind will be back in the early am. That was a great article on your snowfall. Written tongue in cheek. Why summer snowfall? “It happens.” And they turned on the irony quote marks for “…bike park closed due to “heavy snowfall.” Most of the pictures I saw, were what we’d call a “dusting.”

    You always hear about beef or chicken broth or stock. I got to wondering about pork stock. Yup. And there were plenty of instructions for pork stock, made from ham hocks.

    Even though I have developed a taste for Meremite and Vegemite I probably won’t order any more. I sprinkle nutritional yeast on most of my dinners, and it has about the same benefits as the spreads.

    I’m glad you like “Vinyl Nation.” I was surprised that one of the boutique stores is offering a no frills turntable … in colors! I also found the bits about the psychology of collecting, interesting. Speaking of which … the auction finally posted a lot of pictures for the New Year’s Day auction. A lot of my stuff is down toward the bottom.

    https://www.mercuryauctions.org/copy-of-december-1st—jewelry-online-auction

    From the photo of the two ladies and a dog (not mine. But that’s Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein) south, about half that stuff is mine. Or, maybe 1/3.

    The Fenton nativity set, is there. Out of idle curiosity, I did a search on E-Buy to see if one had sold, recently. Lots of partial sets, but there was one complete set that sold in early December for $1,000. The auction folks are really on the ball. You may notice a vase with a bird on it, that looks electric green. Well, it’s a piece of green satin glass. They photographed it under a black light, which reveals that it is what’s called “Vaseline Glass.” Has uranium in it. Highly collectible and desirable. That aspect of the piece, had entirely escaped me. It’s about 12″ tall. Ought to bring a premium price. Maybe. Auctions are a crap shoot. There will be ups and downs. Lew

  4. Hi Lewis,

    It’s an old saying that, but anecdotal accounts suggest that hostilities are put to the side when all and sundry are threatened by natural disaster. Incidentally, from what I’ve heard over the years, the community minded spirit lingers for quite a while afterwards before eventually settling back to the mean. Currier and Ives, producing the earliest memes since 1835! 😉

    Yes, closer to Cherokee though. Barringo is actually much lower in altitude and is in a little valley at the bottom of an amphitheatre. The surrounding hills drain into a large reservoir there which is impossible to see from any road – or from here. It is possible that the water is located in the crater of what was once a super volcano. The water there drains out into a nearby creek – which becomes the Macedon River / Riddells Creek. It’s hard to say who is using the large privately owned water resource there.

    If the bubble photo was somehow found, I’d simply own it. 🙂 Truly I’m annoyed that the photo didn’t make the front cover of the hippy magazine (as were most of the female staff in the office! – one of the ladies told me the story in a chance encounter at a sustainability festival), and so I’m not surprised that the publication which had been in continual print for five decades eventually folded.

    Fortunately there are no political ambitions here! 😉 In the new year I might begin applying to some small farm pudcasts to see whether they want to have me as a guest. Dunno how that will go? Any suggestions? However, you’ve managed to shock me with the South Park revelations, but cogitating upon the matter today, you’re probably right. Because I’m me, I tracked down the numpties who took a swipe and derailed the up, up and away utub video. Turns out they were nobodies with nothing ratings, which truly looks suspicious.

    South Park – the court jester can reveal the underlying truth, and naughty bits! 😉 Hopefully the powas that be can hear, although I very much doubt it.

    Incidentally, I tried to watch the food documentary you mentioned, and utub banned me due to my location down under. It’s a bit weird that, especially given they’re enjoying free content from yours truly.

    Hehe! Martha let the cat amongst the pigeons there perhaps? Never heard of Dulce de Leche, but it looks rich and addictive. The tiramisu by the way ate up about five to six hours of my time over the past couple of days – and a dirty little secret: I’d not made enough lady finger biscuits, so had to make a second batch. Truly Lewis, I’m observing the dessert in the refrigerator and holding back – the gift is for other folks. And the recipe instructions were upgraded and reprinted with the correct amounts for the larger tiramisu.

    Today was set aside to construct the new all metal stand for the two smaller barbecue gas bottles now used for the house LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) energy. We use the gas for days for heating water when the sun isn’t shining and yet it’s too warm to run a wood fire. Lots of metal cutting, drilling and squaring up of materials was done. Had to do a few spot welds, just because. The project has been on the back burner for months, but it’s now done, all using scrap metal too. It’s so weird that the annual rental of $260 for the former large bottles is the equivalent of 8x swap and go 19 pound gas bottles – more than I’d use in a year. Clearly the prices reflected an unwillingness to supply the much bigger 100 pound bottles to this location. One must move with the times…

    Thanks and your explanation as to the life experience, kind of matches what I’m observing. Like a roller-coaster… I don’t buy the original sin perspective, although plenty of people find comfort in it. We just are, because.

    Yours are not bad winter temperatures, although I’d imagine it will get colder next month for you? It’s summer, so the folks way up in the alpine areas will be freaking out with the snowfall although it is common enough way up there. Beats bushfires… Yeah, very true, and it does snow more heavily there during the winter months.

    Ooo, true and the soup stock from a ham hock is superb tasting. Spotted an article which suggested that due to cost of living pressures, turkey is out and chicken and ham are in for Christmas roasts. Chicken and ham on the rise for Christmas lunches this year as turkey sales decline. People are very adaptable, and I’ve observed in other countries that legumes such as lentils are the protein du jour! Consuming a roast on a hot day is not as enjoyable as a mid-winter fest.

    That’s why I mentioned your nutritional yeast – it’s pretty much the same stuff and not far off the taste. So why pay more for the imported stuff?

    Thanks for mentioning the Vinyl Nation documentary. It was really interesting and covered everything from the collectors to the manufacturing. I mentioned to you a while back where I’d bought an audio CD which sounds flat. Probably badly mastered, and I got the impression that with vinyl, a lot more care and attention is put into the pressings on that front. Did you note the guy talking about his experience listening to a $300k turntable? Hmm. Probably extreme… But the overall experience of vinyl was being pushed, and yeah, it is an experience.

    That’s some amazing items up for auction. Holy carp! The quality is beyond good. Truly, my mind was stuck on the sheepskin bomber jacket. 🙂 Hope the auction does well.

    What a fascinating form of glassware – uranium glass. I see that weapons manufacture put an end to the industry. In the 1970’s I recall seeing watches which glowed in the dark, presumably some of them had uranium?

    It’s the big day tomorrow. Have you and H dodged the many celebrations and feeds among your inmates? Did you ever discover who dropped off the chocolate?

    Cheers

    Chris

  5. Yo, Chris – Currier and Ives did “cover the waterfront” as far as subjects for lithographs went. Besides sentimental and religious stuff, they did a lot of history and “news of the day.” Great fires, Civil War battle scenes, river steamboat disasters, ships sinking, etc. etc.. Also, a lot of entertainment. There are quit a few of P. T. Barnum’s exhibits. Portraits of famous people.

    Not much current information, on your fire. The most current reports have your fire crews having a handle on the fire … subject to change based on weather. I suppose they’re dipping a lot of water out of that reservoir.

    Well, that’s sad about that food documentary. Maybe it will be made available, later. After it’s shown or broadcast in Australia. I’m sure your Tiramisu will be a big hit.

    Well, if the fire does head your way, the smaller bottles will be easier to bury, or submerge in water.

    I pulled the last gallon bag of rolled oats, out of the food bucket. I hope I have enough left, to see me through the first of the year. Then I’ll pick up another 25 pound bag.

    Our high yesterday was 52F (11.11C). The overnight low was 46F. The forecast for today is 50F. H and I stayed dry, on our walk last night. Though there were a few wind gusts to 20mph about that time. There must have been some rain, later, as the bone meal I put on the garlic has already worked into the soil a bit. Nice and sunny, today. Subject to change on a dime.

    That was an interesting article on the rise and fall of certain kinds of meats. I noticed they mentioned the boneless turkey rolls. I couldn’t find them the last couple of years. I do believe because of You Know What. I didn’t even look for them, this year. When my mother laid out a table for Christmas drop-ins, there were sandwich makings, which included ham, and roast beef.

    People just didn’t (and still don’t) seem to “get” that DVDs and music CDs need about as much care as vinyl. When I get a DVD from the library, that’s been circulated, I wipe it down with alcohol and then dry it with more tissue paper. Some of them are pretty grungy, and, occasionally, I get one that’s so scratched it won’t properly play.

    My Dad had a similar bomber jacket, that he picked up somewhere along the way, during WWII. I don’t know whatever happened to it.

    Radium killed Madame Curie. But they didn’t seem to catch on to how dangerous that stuff could be. A couple of years ago, a book came out (I didn’t read it, but was aware of it,) titled : “The Radium Girls: A Dark Story of America’s Shining Women” (Moore, 2017.) About the mostly women, that worked in factories putting glow in the dark numbers on watch faces.

    Uranium was also used to get red, in pottery glazes. There was a bit of a myth, for a long time, that the red Fiesta pottery was dangerous to eat off of. Actually, it put off less radiation than a watch. Red Fiesta fell out of production during WWII, due to the uranium being used for bombs.

    Cobalt was used in blue glass and blue pottery glazes. You can see quit a bit of it, among the pictures of my stuff. Also hard to get during WWII. Gold was used in glass, to get a ruby red, or cranberry color. If the glass is re-fired, you get a gradation of colors.

    https://w.wiki/CWeH

    I stopped down to the Club, this morning, for a cuppa. Someone was talking to Jane, and I got to say hello, and wish her well. Still in hospital, but sounds pretty chipper. She will be transferred, eventually, to a re-hab, down here.

    The Club is having big doings, tomorrow afternoon, Christmas Day. There will be turkey, etc.. I might go down later. I hope they have a better turnout, than Thanksgiving. Lew

  6. Hi Lewis,

    Those river steamboat disasters on the lithographs give one the chills. The boiling water escaping from the engine boiler would have been err, difficult. Plus in those days people were not attired to swim to shore – even if they knew how to, not always guaranteed. There’s been a lot of drownings this year. When I was a kid, the schools taught all the students (unless there were medical exemptions) how to swim.

    They’re reporting the local fire as contained. The reality is that tomorrow will be hot and the winds will be blowing strongly from the north east, which I reckon will push the fire back onto itself and maybe towards the town of Bullengarook. There’s a lot of dry forest south of there. You really need big rains to put these things out. Fingers crossed that doesn’t happen though, and a lot of aircraft water bombers are being deployed. Fortunately, if nothing happens, the next week of weather is forecast to be cool and calm.

    The reservoir is quite handy and from here you can see the helicopters going backwards and forwards.

    Hope your Christmas doesn’t involve such unwanted stimulation?

    Yum! How good are rolled oats? Tell you a weird thing, the last big bag I bought of rolled was labelled ‘industrial rolled oats’. What the heck does that mean? It’s the time of year to be well stocked up on supplies. 🙂

    It’s hard to know how fast fertilisers disappear into the soil, and it varies here. But the rain certainly washes the finer particles in pretty quickly. Don’t you get the impression that sometimes little soil critters are burrowing upwards to consume the soil goodness?

    Boneless turkey roll is something unknown to me. What is it? For a second there I thought it may have been some sort of pressed meat, think chicken nuggets. Looks like it’s the breast meat. Far out, they’re a big bird to produce a roll like that. I see what you mean about it being used in sandwiches. Is it tasty?

    The scratches on CD’s and DVD’s are hard to explain – mostly carelessness, maybe. But yeah, I’ve cleaned them sometimes using hot water which can remove inexplicable goo stuck to the disc. Hmm. Alcohol is the better cleaner though. One of the benefits of analogue over digital are that such flaws and damage were rarely show stoppers. You can see that on display with digital transmission where if enough data is lost, then everything comes to a stop. Not enough redundancy in the transmission I guess. And surely you’ve encountered discs dancing the funky chicken whilst the laser tries to make sense of the data?

    I like sheepskin bomber jackets, and they sure are warm – and super expensive. Anyhoo, blame the Love Story film! I’ve got a genuine vintage jacket from the 70’s and it’s cooler than I, but warm. One must make sacrifices.

    We don’t give Christmas presents, but donate instead. But spare a thought for those unfortunates born around this time of year! Here’s a combined Christmas and Birthday present… The cheapskates have always been among us. 🙂

    Radium in body lotion and tonic water? And working with the stuff is not good. If that could happen, makes me wonder about the stuff being pushed by big parma. Nothing is ever cost free, and I do wonder about the side effects of mucking around with your bodies metabolism just to lose some weight. Crazy. There was a similar story to the radium, but about with asbestos down here. I remember back in the 1980’s when it was advertised to use as garden edging. The stuff is everywhere.

    Cobalt is an interesting material. The drill bit used yesterday was a cobalt (probably alloy of some sort). Strong stuff and can bite hard into steel. The smaller lithium chemistry batteries use the material, and that’s slowly being phased out. The bigger lithium batteries generally don’t contain any of the stuff, which makes them a bit safer actually. Nobody wants to experience what ‘thermal runaway’ feels like. Not good. Incidentally the Roman glass work was astounding in the brightness of colour. It was like it was made yesterday. Makes you wonder how common such items were in the Roman days, and whether quality slipped along with the Empires trajectory?

    Good to hear that Jane is on the mend, and hope she takes her rehab seriously.

    🙂 Hope you have fun!

    Cheers and a Merry Christmas to you.

    Chris

  7. Hi, Chris:

    Merry Christmas! I’m a little late for you. Thank you for your merry wishes.

    I didn’t remember that you already had gotten Ollie while Sir Scruffy was still alive. Was that burglar occasion when Sir S earned his knighthood?

    I was thinking yesterday how it would be almost unbearable not to be living among these forest creatures, no matter how much trouble they cause, though I can see how I might change that thinking some. They seem like friends, though that also seems impossible. There is a large buck with huge antlers that has been hiding out on our property as it is hunting season and there has been quite a bit of shooting nearby. Somehow he knows that we are not a threat. The other day I came out to start the car and warm it up and he was standing about 30 feet (9m) from it. I talked to him and he just stood there and looked at me, even as I got into the car and started the engine. Then he calmly walked away. I’ve been here for 32 years and I have always talked to the animals when I meet them. Did I know him when he was a lad? It is certainly possible since there is a doe who always gives birth not that far behind our house. Some of the wildlife – even particular birds – I could get to come to me when I called their names since I fed them. Friends, of a sort?

    Those are horrifying photos of the fire and smoke between the mountains. I am wondering, too: When are they going to be more proactive in trying to prevent some of those bushfires?

    Oh, yes – I think your tomato vines will really like growing upward; ours do. We grow them on permanent trellises. Yours are neat, neat, neat – neater than our trellises.

    You are funny, building a staircase when you didn’t even know where it would end. Twelve steps is quite a lot. The stairs inside my house that go from the first (ground) floor up to the second (first) floor are 13. I think I just realized where my bad luck is coming from . . .

    Small batch of strawberry jam! That’s a lot to me. And apricot jam and soap – you have been extra busy. That’s a BIG measuring cup. I could use that . . . Now, will you be thinning out the pumpkin and squash plants?

    Thanks for the video. Most enjoyable as always. I can see how you’ve done up the tomatoes really well.

    Our sage stays green outside all winter even when it is 14F, which it was last week. I have a vase in the kitchen with parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. All came from the garden except the parsley, which is from the store. I didn’t grow any parsley this year.

    Now, news from my house. On Monday evening my son was in a car wreck. He’s okay, a concussion and a painful neck and he hurts rather all over, as one might expect. He was rear ended on the highway by a work truck. It all started when the car in front of him came to a dead stop – on a highway! – for no apparent reason. My son did not run into him, but the truck behind him was not being so careful. His car is totaled; it looks like one of those accordian things. How he escaped serious injury or death is amazing.

    Pam

  8. Yo, Chris – “The Sultana” was about the worst riverboat disaster, at the end of our Civil War. I read a book about it, several years back.

    https://w.wiki/9cxK

    If the weather forecasts hold, looks like you dodged the bullet, as far as the fire goes. Here, for the next two and a half days, it’s going to be rain and wind. Gusts to 30mph. No flood warnings or watches for our county. Yet. Might see a little action on Friday. Not expected to be major.

    Industrial rolled oats? Animal feed? 🙂 I suppose there are different grades of rolled oats, as with many bulk commodities.

    The turkey rolls come in an about 10″ aluminum roasting pan. You can get all white meat, or a mix of white and dark. Which I prefer. There’s usually quite a bit of gravy in the bottom. Handy for jazzing up mashed potatoes or dressing. They’re pretty tasty.

    We used to see the occasional warped DVD or CD, at the library. Usually, left in a hot car.

    Well, it’s over for another year. I had a quiet Christmas Eve. No ghosts past, present or future, appeared. 🙂 I had an old British movie of “A Christmas Carol” on hold, but, it didn’t make it. In transit. I’ll pick it up on Saturday. I made nachos. Chopped up fresh mustard and parsley from the garden. Reconstituted some of my dried tomatoes. Garlic. And, I cut up some smoked sausage. Cheese on top. Settle in to watch several episodes of “Star Trek: Voyager.” One more season to go, after I finish up this season. Will those poor people make it back to earth? No spoilers, please! 🙂

    I’ll head down to the Club, this afternoon, after the crowd clears out.

    The Romans also made a lot of fairly utilitarian glass. A lot of it came from Alexandria, Egypt, and the Middle East. So, even as the western empire fell, glass making continued in the east, right up to the end of the Byzantine empire. And then the Arabs continued to make glass.

    For some reason that escapes me, the Chinese really didn’t seem to have a robust glass making tradition. Beads and other jewelry. And some cameo glass. I have a couple of pieces, of that.

    https://w.wiki/CXB3

    They seem to have come to glass making, late. Seems to have been a luxury item, limited to the upper crust. And, they had a small upper crust, hence, a small market. Lew

  9. Hello Chris and the Editor,
    I wish you too a relaxing holiday.
    And a good start of the new year.
    Peace,
    Götan

  10. Chris,

    Hope your Christmas was enjoyable and relaxing. Happy Boxing Day.

    We’ve been enjoying actually having a holiday together with a minimum of outside drama.

    DJSpo

  11. Hi DJ,

    Glad to hear that you, your lady and Dame Avalanche had a lovely, and most importantly, sort of additional drama free Christmas. 🙂 Not always easy to achieve with a big extended family!

    Sandra and I had lunch with friends, and they’re foodies so the nosh was top notch. Roast turkey and ham off the bone, plus the ubiquitous salads. I took a tiramisu which may have cheekily upstaged their desserts, but one must lift the bar so to speak. What was your Christmas lunch like?

    Cheers and hope your Boxing Day continues to delight!

    Chris

  12. Hi Göran,

    Wishing you and your family a delightful (and warm) Christmas holiday. Surely snow must be involved in all that?

    Being summer down here it’s quite warm and near on 8:30pm it’s cloudy but still light and 27’C. Today the forest fire risk was almost, but not quite, off the charts. In the west of the state a big fire has burned almost 70,000 hectares. The nearby fire smoked a bit but mostly behaved itself.

    Sandra and I had lunch with friends, and it’s pleasant to hang out, consume good food and talk with people you’ve known for many years.

    Thanks for the well wishes, and may your garden grow well in 2025 and the pesky voles be vanquished. At 3:30am this morning Ollie alerted me to the fact that several large Sambar deer where enjoying the mineraly rich plants here. Hmm.

    Cheers

    Chris

  13. Hi Pam,

    Thank you for the well wishes. And wishing you and your family a Merry Christmas. Out of curiosity, did your daughter in law cook up any exotic dishes for the festivities? Or does your son have the kitchen gift? We had lunch with friends, and they’re foodies so I have it on good authority that the turkey was soaked in brine for many hours before roasting. As a mostly vegetarian, I can confirm that the roast turkey meat was moist to a level of perfection. Yum! Yum! And the slices of ham off the bone were both almost good enough to make me reconsider my personal dietary choices. 😉 Nah, but they were so yummy.

    Actually, on that note, my friends who also grow a lot of produce and raise their own animals for table, and there was a bit of an interesting discussion on that front. I made the observation that after many years at that activity here, we eat what we grow, and grow what we eat. Hopefully that makes sense to you? On that note, I picked clean one of the earliest apricot trees today mostly because the parrots would have done so otherwise. It’s the first ripe apricot and wow, the taste is so good. Picked a small bucket of fruit which is pretty good for a decade old tree – which is still kind of on the young side for that variety of fruit.

    Ah yes, your memory serves you well, and that was the dark morning where Sir Scruffy was knighted for dutiful services to the household. Also I went out the next morning and purchased a rifle. As you’d imagine, it’s a complicated and highly monitored (and licensed) process down here. I’d long held the license to do so, but not felt the need, until then. At moments such as then, you get to fully comprehend just how far away from civilised society you actually are.

    Pam, your words were so timely and beautiful they brought a tear, of course being a tough bloke and stuff, something may have gotten in my eye… Maybe… So Ollie alerted me last night to forest critter mischief at 3:30am and there in the orchard was a Sambar deer which showed little fear. Before reading your words, I was left awake for an hour or so cogitating upon what it all meant and how best to respond. Thanks.

    You know, over many long years I’ve planted an exotic collection of plants, and so it is hardly surprising to find an exotic collection of forest critters. And that brings an exotic level of top level creature (i.e. human) concerns. Yeah. I’ll learn, and very much appreciated your perspective.

    The nearby fire has behaved itself despite me observing some untoward clouds of smoke rising in the hot and windy conditions throughout the day. Alas, in the far west of the state a fire has burned through something like 173,000 acres and is still feral (the Grampians fire). Some heavy rain would be nice. I doubt preventative forest management will occur until the predominate ideology can no longer enforce its will.

    I like the sound of tomato trellis, and locally they sell trellis made out of compostable jute string. Who knew? It’s taken a lot of years of sprawling field tomatoes to get to this point of neat. Not my natural inclinations I can assure you. 😉

    Ook! Yes, some even taller buildings avoid the thirteenth floor. What goes on in such places, we can only guess. And hoping your luck improves. The old timers put limits on such runs of luck.

    Hehe! Pam, the raspberries have produced so well this season that there’s another batch of jam to make. Plus blackberries are now only beginning to ripen – they have higher sugar levels I’m guessing. And I won’t mention that after the recent soil feed last week, the alpine strawberries are beginning to produce again. Alpine strawberry jam tastes like bubble gum – which is a bit weird on freshly baked bread.

    Alas pyrex glass I believe has come into some financial difficulties – but if you spot such a jug, I’d grab it, just my gut feeling there. Not mucking around either.

    Thinning plants causes me pain, and I must get harder here… Do you know the feeling?

    Sage is super hardy isn’t it? And such a useful leaf too. As is parsley. 🙂 I so hear you there. Perfection, what is this thing?

    Oh my! Your son was so lucky there, and that’s a nightmare of a situation. On the country roads yesterday heading to friends, I had a huge Range Rover tail gating me on the otherwise quiet country roads. I slowed to under 40 miles and hour until they cracked the sads and went around. There’s no way they could have stopped if something had happened in front of me. And you know what I spotted on the roads? Another car had missed their turn off, so instead of pulling a u-turn and going back, they decided to reverse down the road – as you do when you are an idiot. Hmm. So, I flashed the lights at other cars driving towards it, and hopefully they slowed down – it was a windy country road. You’re only ever as good as the weakest link in any system, and there are a lot of weak links out there. Hope your son recovers speedily and I’d have to suggest that your luck has indeed turned.

    Cheers

    Chris

  14. Hi Lewis,

    You know, when I was reading about the steamboat Sultana disaster, the little thought kept popping into my consciousness: How much is enough? There were so many things going wrong with that journey. One bad decision after another, and all appeared fuelled by greed. A particularly nice touch was unloading the sugar cargo, and despite being overloaded – why not take on some coal?

    That was my thought on the weather today as well, although in the further western part of the state, the Grampians fire is feral with no chance of control any time soon. Another 15,000 to 20,000 hectares burned there today, to take the total to about 175,000 acres. Man, I tell you though at a few points today I watched clouds of smoke billowing up from the nearby fire. Truly the crews there have done nothing short of an astounding job to contain the blaze in the heat and high winds.

    Fortunately, there’s a run of cooler and calmer weather for the next ten days. Did you and H dodge the rain and wind on your walks? And fingers crossed that the flood risk forecast holds true.

    Forgot to mention about lunch yesterday. So good! Someone had baked chunks of roast potato the old school way. The skins were crispy whilst the innards were soft. When I was a kid, that’s how potatoes were roasted, and presumably that was in animal fat (or the essential pan juices). Forget about chips and fries, that way of cooking chunky potatoes is way much nicer, oh yeah.

    Hmm. Just had a look at the millers website, and they mill edible oats, so maybe it is labelled that way and supplied on the cheap to stop people from splitting the large bag and selling it retail? Dunno. I bought it from my bulk supply folks and hadn’t noticed the fine detail. Casting the searching net a bit wider, I noticed brewers use oats in their mash, so maybe that was the intended purchaser? A mystery. So yeah, your thinking is where my brain is at: Different grades explains the label.

    Ooo, I’d go for the mixed meat as well. Interestingly the roast turkey almost had a slight roast chicken flavour to the meat. But I was wondering whether that was due to the birds feed err, before it was sitting in the large roasting tray. You’d have been impressed with the kitchen and shelving for cooking related books. Alas it would have been impolite to have dodged the company and buried my nose in the book collection! 🙂 Trust me though, the temptation was there…

    Gravy = essential pan juices. Nothing finer for roast meats.

    Please excuse the black humour, but CD’s and DVD’s die in hot cars… Never seen one of those myself, but a car environment on a hot day is a hard place for electronics.

    Well done you dodging all those pesky ghosts! I wish ghosts did not bother me in my dreams, and have never figured our a way to send them packing to elsewhere. Have they nothing better to do than bother us all? I’ll be very interested to hear of your opinion of the old version of the story? I thought you were a bit dodge on the author Dickens? And won’t of course ever mention that other book he wrote, because you know, revenge is a dish best served cold and stuff! 😉 And you know my weak literary spots.

    Nachos are a solid festive meal. Had salad tonight, which it being boxing day and stuff kind of explains itself.

    Did you make it to the Club? And any sign of snow on the horizon in your part of the world?

    It’s cooling down here now, and at 10pm is almost pleasant outside.

    Those Jesuits traded souls for technology, the cheeky scamps. Actually the image of the Peking Glass looked really sturdy.

    Yes, their Empire was a very different beast with a much smaller aristocracy. Probably why it lasted longer and the eventual fall wasn’t as splatty!

    Man, I’m so grateful we dodged that fire bullet today. What crazy – but not out of the realms of summer weather today.

    Cheers

    Chris

  15. Hi Chris,

    Glad that you and Sandra had a merry Christmas, and I’m still in time to wish you both a happy 2025!

    Mike’s family’s Christmas celebration is always on Christmas Eve. It’s at his brother’s house, less than an hour’s drive. The usual good time was had, with chili for dinner and many different kinds of snacks contributed by various people. Mike and I spent most of Christmas Day by ourselves, as usual, although our neighbors who are good friends stopped by for about an hour to catch up on each others’ lives. Most of what we ate was leftovers from the past several days – it’s just as good as when we made it.

    No snow here, which is typical for Christmas. It rained lightly starting the night before and the light rain continued part of Christmas Day and into today. It’s been foggy off and on as well.

    After I finish up with some other small projects, I’ll start looking at last year’s garden yields and what I have left in seeds so I can decide what seeds I need to order. I also need to work out the seed-starting and planting schedule.

    @ Pam – I’m glad your son wasn’t badly hurt in the accident! Cars are made to go accordian in crashes; that aids in absorbing the energy so the passengers get less transmitted into them than otherwise would happen. It’s impressive, and gratifying, that the safety engineering worked so well with the other vehicle being a heavy work truck.

    Claire

  16. Yo, Chris – And, in news of the world … Some director named Nolan is going to film “The Odyssey” with a star studded cast. Filming hasn’t begun yet. Also saw an article about your version of Big Foot, Yowie in the town of Kilcoy. Poor Yowie has been made sexless, as some wags kept stealing his willie.

    There’s a big cat (Lions, tigers, cougars, etc.) sanctuary, near the town of Shelton. (Who knew?) That’s on the west side of Puget Sound, about halfway between here and Seattle. They’ve lost almost half of their big cats, in a short period of time. Bird flu.

    And, if you’re wondering what to do with a surplus of parrots, there are some dinning tips in this article on what the Romans ate.

    https://www.cnn.com/style/how-ancient-romans-feasted

    I’m relieved your fire is beginning to settle down, and become less of a threat. It’s amazing how threats like that settle in the back of the mind, and how a feeling of relief and lightness come to you, when the threat is reduced. When I moved out of the flood plain, it was an almost physical lifting of concerns. Concerns I didn’t really know where there.

    Well, H and I have been getting wet. It’s a matter of degree. Always wet, but sometimes more or less. The high yesterday was 45F (7.22C). The overnight low was 48F. High yesterday was 50F. We’ve had wind, but judging from Prof. Mass, it’s far worse, further north. We had an overnight gust that hit 35mph, but mostly it was gusts in the mid to upper 20smph. It will continue to be windy today. With possible forecast gusts of up to 48mph. Snow? Not in any forecast I look at. Someone mentioned they’d seen a forecast for snow, but there are a lot of bogus weather apps, floating around. And I wonder if the person was even looking at a forecast for this area? I’ll stick with our National Weather Service (www.weather.gov). Prof. Mass seems to think they leave a lot to be desired, but, at least they’re usually in the ballpark. No major flooding concerns, as yet.

    The lunch sounds very nice. But an alert host would have given you a 10 or 15 minute romp among the cookbooks. Maybe set a timer … 🙂 There was a bit in the Julia Child documentary I watched, of a neighbor rhapsodizing on how Julia prepared her potatoes. Years later. They must have made an impression. Ms. Child would score chunks of potato with a fork, to enable the pan juices to soak in deep.

    Oh, I like a lot of Dickens. It was just that one novel, that one teacher spent an entire school year, beating to death. I’m sure she had been teaching the same novel, in the same way, for 30+ years. Really didn’t have to think much about lesson plans.

    I finished off my beans, tomatoes and rice, etc.. last night.

    I ran down to the Club about 4:30, yesterday. The town was quiet. Not much traffic and empty parking lots. Nice. I didn’t hear a count, but the turn-out was a lot better than Thanksgiving. There was food left, but not much. So the supply pretty much met the demand. I chatted with a few people I hadn’t seen in awhile. Lew

  17. Chris,

    Your Christmas sounds fun. The weather was cooperatively between storms, so I was able to get Dame Avalanche out for an explore. Then it was put some red potatoes in the Ninja pressure cooker with a pork roast. Pork sandwiches, red potatoes, carrots, celery and olives made for a nice meal. Plenty of leftover roast for more sandwiches. I had found a small pecan pie that was perfectly sized for the two of us.

    Boxing Day has another windstorm which has been in the forecast for several days. 40km per hour sustained with gusts approaching 75 km/hour in town. The neighbor has never really impressed me with his thinking ability. Yes, that does, indeed, mean that his Sir Skeletor has once again blown over and lost its head and an arm.

    The extended outlook suggests maybehaps a few snow showers on New Years Day. Otherwise, above average temperatures with spells of rain. I’m guessing more wind eventually. Cliff Mass pointed out
    sometime this past autumn that we are in a “neutral” weather pattern, neither El Nino nor La Nina, and that these historically give us a LOT of winter windstorms. Amazingly, this agrees with what my forecast was for the winter – we might still get 4 to 6 weeks of winter, but it will be a rather late start. For now, it feels like typical March weather.

    My morning coffee outdoors was interesting today. The wind had a constant roar. Higher gusts sang in the power line wires and whistled around small branches and twigs. Half of the patio was wet, as the wind was blowing the rain under the patio roof. I rather enjoyed this, as it was a wonderful reminder that Nature is much more powerful than us mere mortals.

    My favorite squirrel was in the yard yesterday. This one has reddish-brown patches in its otherwise grey fur. It is also much more attentive as to Dame Avalanche’s whereabouts than are some of the other squirrels.

    I must also express some disappointment with your latest staircase. TWELVE steps? Mate, with some prior planning, perhaps this could have been that SPECIAL staircase that goes to 11! 😉

    DJSpo

  18. Hi Claire,

    Spent today with friends as well and most excellent lunch was consumed whilst a very good chat was had by all. In this instance, the friends are a bunch of free thinking individuals and what a fun day it was. Mind you, as in introvert, I love social activity, but now need some time out to recharge the batteries. In this instance Sandra and I may hide out in the forest for a few days doing work around the property! It’s all good.

    And best wishes to you and Mike for 2025 as well. 🙂

    Claire, this loose talk of proper chili sounds like the perfect mid-winter meal. Yum! Always wise to turn up with the gift of food at such occasions. And good neighbours are a true gift.

    So do you get your snow next month and into February? Christmas day here was hot and sunny. Yesterday (boxing day) however was not quite, but almost off the charts for fire risk (super hot and windy). Woke this morning to the stink of acrid bushfire smoke.

    Respect! Such schedules and planning suggest to me a person that knows where the garden and produce are headed. 🙂 Might pick up a trailer load of compost-ish (whatever that stuff is) material tomorrow myself. Of course minerals will be added into that purchased stuff. Once you know, you know of soil mineral deficiencies.

    Cheers

    Chris

  19. Hi DJ,

    Ooo, glad to hear that both yourself and Dame Avalanche dodged the rain storms. Could use one of those wet climactic events here, so please don’t hold onto all of them? It’s not much to ask is it? So you intrigued me and I took a look at whatever is a Ninja pressure cooker. Looks like some sort of cyborg, and hopefully the machine treats you better than the many fictional portrayals of robots behaving badly? Put the pork away, you have twenty seconds to comply (said in best ED-209 voice). Never used a pressure cooker before. There’s just a bit of hesitancy from me about those kitchen machines exploding. I’d not be inclined to experience such an epic cooking-fail. You on the other hand appear to have mastered the technology and are producing decent sandwiches and reaping the benefits, master!

    Oh my! Your wind, well you can keep that and also the extreme gusts. Not a fan. Hope things settle down soon in your part of the world. The really big fire in the state far to the west of here (The Grampians) has burned through 80,000 hectares and I can smell it here. Yesterday was hot, and the wind speeds were higher than the numbers you mentioned. Oh well… Sir Skeletor has to keep up the scares for the long run. Nobody wants to know a Johnny-come-lately skeleton. 🙂

    Yeah, the weather bureau down here is also suggesting a run of not quite La Nina, but neither is it El Nino conditions. Neutral years happen. Lucky you to be dodging the worst of winter cold, and hopefully the season eventually turns up. Just between you and I, and I’ll say this quietly, but so far the summer weather here has not been too bad. I’ve experienced worse.

    If I may say so, wind is partly the consequence of warm and cool air masses smooshing together (that’s the technical term) – or high and low air pressure systems doing likewise. So your warmer winter season is unsurprising in that it is windy.

    Who doesn’t love a good storm? Your Viking blood would have been stirred by the thought that the long ship and crew was in peril on the high seas. Ancestral memories being somewhat hard to shake. My blood may have been stirred at the thought that the coffee might have been spilled in your swirling winter maelstrom out there on the patio. Fortunately neither of our fears were realised.

    A clever squirrel to know that its real risk is the Husky looking for squirrel meat.

    I know, I know. DJ, I’m letting the team down there. With twelve steps now on the new staircase, the rest of the month is totally ruined. True. Fortunately there’s not much more to go of December. Here’s hoping that for all of us, January is a good place to be.

    Cheers

    Chris

  20. Hi Lewis,

    Didn’t the Coen Brothers already do a remake of this epic adventure in the O Brother where art thou film? If it’s shot for imax theatres, makes you wonder how it will look on the little screen?

    What a story of intrigue! Is the Yowie real, or not real? Can the mythical beast continue existence without err, crucial bits of anatomy? And who did chuck the statue into the lake? We may never get to the bottom of the many mysteries, and that might be good for tourism.

    Unfortunately, it is a sad truth that disease can spread between different animals. And before consuming rabbit meat, probably not a bad idea to check the liver for signs of Myxomatosis. Big cats may be less fussy in this instance. Did you know, that along the south eastern coastline mosquitoes are somehow transmitting a possum disease to human hosts? Concerns flesh-eating Buruli ulcer is spreading after cases in Batemans Bay. There have been cases in the big smoke. Lots of ways to go wrong.

    Those Romans sure knew how to party! I must say that the finer details of the article suggest to me that I am far from competent to join in at such festivities. Sad… All that vomiting would surely have damaged their teeth? The stomach acids must eventually damage the tooth enamel. And it’s hard to know whether parrot tongue was a tasty dish, or merely a Roman novelty? Actually, something caught a parrot the other morning, and I know not what. Might have been a hungry Kookaburra. Feathers were everywhere in one small section of orchard. Wasn’t the dogs, they were with me. Another mystery.

    That’s a great way of putting things. Yup, glad the local risk has reduced, and far out I woke up this morning and the house stunk of acrid bushfire smoke – which blew in hundreds of miles away from the Grampians fire (which is still not anywhere near under control). Made for a fitful sleep I can tell you. Oh yeah, living on a flood plain would produce similar feelings of stress during forecast flood weather. There are few if any guarantees in life. Incidentally, the Grampians fire far to the west of the state is about the size of Singapore. It’s big.

    Far out, looks like the winds headed north of you into British Columbia and spared you their worst. Man, I’m so with you there about forecasts, stick to trusted sites and of course individuals such as Prof Mass who know their stuff. You hear wild talk down here too. Quite a few times over winter, snow was promised, but the forecast temperatures were too high. The thing with weather forecasting, people rarely recall the multiple correct calls – instead they focus on the flops. For here I look at multiple sources and pick a middle path through them. Like what you said, the approach has the benefit of working.

    Hehe! Man 15 minutes would be handy to peruse the book shelf, but it prompts the question: Where to start? You who knows far more about libraries than I ever will, where would you recommend making a beginning in that 15 minute time frame? Hey, how’s this for a bad joke: An egg timer perhaps? 😉 Sorry about that groaner.

    Had another lunch and a long leisurely afternoon chat with friends today. So good to simply talk, eat and chuck around ideas. Good fun. However, I’m at heart an introvert, so whilst I enjoy social activities, my brain gets tired… To be honest, I don’t really know how extroverts do what they do socially. 🙂 It’d burn me out. Maybe they struggle with things that come naturally to me? Dunno.

    Yum! Yum! Well cooked potatoes are good, but not everyone can prepare them in that manner which Julia would no doubts have mastered. Alas, some folks should not be allowed in the kitchen, fortunately I don’t hang with such folks.

    Dude, I get where you are at with that novel. Man, I read the first two pages maybe a year ago and internally my brain was screaming at the author: Stop all those freakin’ binary comparisons. Enough! You’ve belaboured the point…

    As you may imagine, I didn’t get past the second page, and can only suggest that spending an entire year on the book is a form of child abuse. The thought occurs to me that you were unlucky to encounter a teacher with a special interest in the book who could focus her mind to that end. It just wouldn’t have been very interesting when there are a world of books out there.

    🙂 Had salad for dinner this evening. Ate well at lunchtime, let’s put it that way! One must reach for balance.

    Good stuff, and nice to hear that the Club visit was not too much, or too little, but just right. Always nice to chew the fat with people you know well.

    Cheers

    Chris

  21. Hi Chris,
    Wow. Fernglade is really producing. The steps look great and will surely make it easier for you.

    The fire in the distance has to be quite disconcerting. We’ve had a lot of fog due to warm temperatures for this time of year, rapid snow melt and very little wind. We were all glad that the fog waited until all the Christmas travel was done.

    Sounds like you had a pleasant Christmas with good food. Our Christmas Eve was the usual zoo and very noisy but lots of fun. It starts early, 4PM, so we can get home at a reasonable hour. We are the farthest at an hour away. My daughter, Carla and SIL, Ritchie stay overnight each year and we have a leisurely day. Cecily arrived around 1 PM for Christ mas dinner and she stayed over. Doug said last night that he really enjoyed the quiet night without cooking and guests but I suggested that if you don’t have the other type of evening you won’t appreciate the quiet ones as much.

    The logistics were such that we were unable to get Marty to Christmas Eve this year and he had said he was fine with it but when my sister, Nora, and her son visited him on Christmas Day she said he was quite down and not participating in the activities that he usually does. I’m going there today and am hoping now that Christmas has passed he will be more back to normal. We will figure out how to get him out next year when things are more settled (hopefully) with him. He’ll have his own small apartment and can decorate it which was another thing he missed this year.

    After this period of warm temperatures it looks like the thermometer will be heading down for quite awhile.

    Margaret

  22. @Pam

    How awful for your son! From the sound of the accident he sure was lucky. It is unbelievable what other drivers do.

    Margaret

  23. Yo, Chris – Must be something in the water … or the air. A movie was released in early December. “The Return.” And, it’s about Odysseus. I haven’t heard a thing about it.

    https://youtu.be/aOQQ45ddYdk?si=bYrMy1tACxm8kf3J

    Don’t get me wrong, I think “Oh Brother Where Art Thou?” was a great film. And well worth multiple looks. But I doubt a great deal of the movie going audience knew it was based on “The Odyssey.” No swords or sandals. 🙂

    Are you going to take up Yowie hunting as a new hobby? Careful. It could become an obsession. 🙂

    Mosquitos. Seems like poor planing. Really, what are they good for? Although I suppose their larvae provide some tucker for aquatic animals. There was a sidebar to that article, with a recent report on your fires. Near and far. Sounds like things are getting a bit better.

    The Romans did know how to party. Although I’d say that kind of behavior was limited to a small, hedonistic upper crust. Though the giraffe haunch, in a Pompeii sewer gives one pause … I’d say the less well off were holding onto any calorie they could consume. Their teeth were usually pretty good, given about the only sweeter around was honey (and, fruit). Although there was a lot of dental wear given the grit in their bread flour.

    Our high yesterday was 52F (11.11C). The overnight low was 43F. Forecast for today is 49F. Nothing startling in the wind department. A few gusts in the low 20s. I got to thinking, when I walk H, we get wet. There’s only less wet, or more wet. Though we hit a patch this morning, where there was no rain.

    Books are in cases, floor on up. Usually, about 3″ wide. Usually 6 shelves of books per case. You start in the upper left hand corner, peruse the top three shelves of two cases, then squat down and peruse the lower three shelves of two cases. Start again in the upper left corner of case #3. You have to wing it, with any other configuration. But it’s usually left to right, top to bottom. And, yes, I was actually thinking of an egg timer. 🙂

    That teacher was coasting to retirement. As I remember, she only had a year or two to go.

    Since my veg store is “in transit” I ran down to the cheaper warehouse grocery, last night. I got some apples, celery, a green pepper, and, they had some Shiitake mushrooms. I forgot the bananas 🙁 . I had a can of okra / tomatoes/ corn and added celery, mushrooms and peas. Garlic, etc., for dinner. Tasty.

    Speaking of movies, I think I’ve mentioned “Galaxy Quest” is one of my all time favorites. I ran across an interesting article about that movie, and fandom, in general.

    https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/25-galaxy-quest-celebrates-fandom-160119043.html

    It’s also about how geek culture has changed, over the years. I’m surprised they didn’t mention “the Big Bang Theory.” I think that really contributed to making geek culture, more cool.

    I received my first seed catalog, yesterday. From Nichols Garden Nursery, the family owned outfit, south of Portland. I’ll probably do an order, mid January.

    Well, it’s that time of the year, again. Royal warrants proffered or withdrawn. I see Marmite, Cadbury Chocolates and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream have lost their warrants. I wonder if it affects sales, at all? Maybe my Marmite jar will become collectible, as it still has the royal sticker on it. Lew

  24. Chris:

    My that turkey does sound delicious. No, we just had mostly our ordinary vegan (except for me; I had chicken), GF food for Christmas. We don’t often have desserts, but we did make a pumpkin pie and cookies.

    I was glad to see the age of that apricot tree. Our fruit trees are still young and I think I expect too much from them.

    You are welcome, but it is you who tells the most touching stories.

    Thinning out plants, big or small, hurts me, too, but I think it is mostly because it seems future productivity lost, which is not actually the case or the plants not removed would not say “Ahhhh!”.

    My son feels a good bit better today, thank you. You are one of the few people – like myself – who flashes their headlights at oncoming vehicles when there is a hazard in these long, winding roads with the blind curves, and the drop-offs.

    My daughter-in-law’s mother is visiting, so I may not have time to get back for a bit.

    Pam

  25. Chris,

    I was very leery of pressure cookers. The one my mother used was difficult to use and was scary. Very scary. And intimidating. My friend used a Ninja and raved about the meals he was getting from it. I researched it and realized that the technology for the pressure cookers has changed. It’s surprisingly easy to use. Dried beans with a ham hock are the very best I’ve ever had anywhere when pressure cooked in the ninja. The Insta-Pot brand does similar things and is also easy to use.

    ugh. That’s a big fire in your Grampians. It’s always harsh when you can smell the smoke from the distant fires. ugh. At least that closer one seems to have gotten controlled.

    No wind today. More rain. Then the rain was supposed to quit in mid afternoon. Instead, fog rolled in, bringing with it a persistent drizzle. Dame Avalanche and I walked in the foggy drizzle anyway. I’ve always rather enjoyed walking in fog and foggy drizzle for some reason. Twilight. Winter. Fog and drizzle. Something nearly primal awakens in those conditions.

    I like your very technical term about wind – smooshing together. It describes the process extremely well. 🙂

    Believe me, my Viking blood was also stirring at the thought of some of the coffee getting sloshed onto the ground by the wind. Not a good thing, that idea. Gratefully, the coffee remained unsloshed as you surmised.

    Dame Avalanche was sleeping in the other room. A news item came on featuring a sled dog team from Utah, all the dogs being foster dogs or rescue dogs. At the first sounds from the huskies, Dame Avalanche came running in to watch the telly. As soon as that news item ended, it was back to her nap. Smart dog. She’s very picky about what she pays attention to on the telly.

    DJSpo

  26. Hi Margaret,

    It’s nice to finally begin seeing some output from the fruit trees. A few days ago an apricot tree was picked clean and provided a bucket of tasty sun ripened fruit. Yum! Most of that was made into apricot jam this afternoon, but some were left for fresh eating. There are a couple of apricot trees yet to ripen too (later varieties). The raspberries in particular have been off the charts in terms of productivity. The winter pruning and thinning of the canes plus heavy soil feed has convinced me this is the way to go with those berries. The blackberries are slowly ripening now, which is as expected. They too enjoyed a heavy pruning and feeding in winter.

    Yes, the nearby fire is alarming, but the fire crews have done an amazing job and for now have contained the blaze. Other parts of the state far to the west have not been so lucky, although the winds are forecast to be calm for most of the coming week.

    Glad to hear that you and Doug did not have to drive through foggy conditions to Christmas celebrations. Down here, people can be reckless driving in foggy weather, and presumably the same is true in your part of the world?

    It is a universal truth that lots of chatting cannot be achieved, without lots of noise! 🙂 Sounds like you experienced that! At your time of the year it gets dark early so that was thoughtful that the event kicked off early. Sandra drove the hours drive home on Christmas day, and for that I was thankful. All very true what you mentioned to Doug, and yup, a person takes the noisy with the quiet – and so enjoys both.

    What does your gut feeling say there? Mine suggests that Marty perhaps is sulking, although at this distance it is hard to know. Fine is usually code word for: fine but under sufferance. How was he with you?

    That’s the depths of winter for you, and it is usually colder after the solstice. A bit of gratefully received rain fell here an hour or so ago. The coming week will be cooler, but dry. Next weekend will be quite hot. That’s how it rolls at this time of year.

    Any seed catalogues arrived yet? Spring is not far away.

    Cheers

    Chris

  27. Hi Pam,

    Go the chicken! As a mostly vegetarian (i.e. veg here, but no difficulties elsewhere) chicken is a very tasty meat. And pumpkin pie and cookies sound like desserts to me. 🙂 One must make exceptions for the mid-winter feast.

    Apricot trees are slow growing, although I could be in a marginal area for them though. You got the brain working, so I went back and looked at photos. Some of the fruit trees in that area were planted out as very small trees, way back in 2008, however the rest were put in the ground in winter 2010. Ain’t just you there with expectations. The better soil feeding regime over the past three or four years has helped a lot.

    Thanks! 🙂

    All very true with the thinning of plants. Sadly for me many years ago I’d long believed in super intensive plant production. Dunno where that idea even came from. Observing the plants growing over the years, plus economic realities, has disavowed me of the notion that intensive planting can work well. It’s just hard to shake the belief. The plants do say such things. 🙂 A relief for them not to be crowded in.

    Oh my! I’m so glad to hear that your son is on the mend. What a year you’ve had, and I admire your stoicism and support and concern for other people. Hope your daughter in law is pitching in and pulling her weight at this time, and can give you the time and support you also need. These are the sort of days which make character. And your son has learned a valuable lesson.

    Pam, there can be a lot of just around the corner problems here with the roads too. Most country drivers flash their lights to alert other oncoming drivers as to road hazards, that’s the country way down here. Unfortunately, sometimes you and I will deal with people from out of the area, who don’t get it. And tailgating on narrow country roads is idiotic. Even if you can clearly see the road in the distance, are people also staying alert for potential tree and animal interactions? Hard to say, but usually country drivers do.

    During the health subject which dare not be mentioned, I rarely if ever saw any road kill animals. And what does that tell you?

    We’ll all still be here, and the visit comes at a difficult time. Maybe it will work out for the best.

    Cheers

    Chris

  28. Hi DJ,

    🙂 It’s intense living in the past… The old school pressure cookers with the rubber o-rings (I reckon we’re on some sort of theme here in relation to those mechanical seals 😉 ) that could easily be squooshed incorrectly onto the pot rim sort of seemed like a system destined to failure. And over time it was not hard to notice that just like a caught out misbehaving politician, the rubber cracks under pressure. Yes, what could possibly go wrong with setting off a barely vented steam boiler in the kitchen? The new designs I’d not heard of, and so appreciate your review and will look into the matter. Your description was suggestive of very tasty food outcomes. 😉

    From time to time over the past few days I’ve watched smoke rising from the nearby fires. Less than two hours ago I spotted a plume of smoke. That’s enough to suggest that the fire is contained, but not out. Truly the weather conditions on Thursday were horrendous (hot and windy) and it’s amazing the local fire was contained. Looks like the next ten days will be more or less calm. Even a little bit of rain fell here a few hours ago: 3mm. Gratefully received. The forest smells very nice after the rain. Over in the west of the state, the fire growth there has slowed, thankfully.

    What no snow? Hehe! Yeah, we get the foggy drizzle in winter here as well. I don’t mind it either, the soil gets a drink and you don’t get too wet. Dame Avalanche would possibly want to walk in all conditions! The dogs here are not sensible about that desire either. Did you notice that the fog muffles the background noises? Sound plays funny tricks in that weather.

    Thanks! One thing you get to realise about living in a mountain range is that competing weather systems don’t play nice together.

    Agreed, it would be outrageous for the wind to knock your cup of coffee out from your hand during a particularly forceful gust.

    Thought you might enjoy this article about a couple of hardy souls who for scientific reasons decided to set up a permanent weather station at the highest spot on the continent in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century: The wild tale of Mt Kosciuszko’s short-lived weather observatory. A crazy idea.

    Go Dame Avalanche! Yes, dogs are wise to the calls of their fellow pack mates and peers. Man, you should have seen the Kelpies watching the: Muster Dogs show. Such a lovely show too.

    Cheers

    Chris

  29. Hi Lewis,

    Thanks, and agreed, something is going on for ‘hero, sacrifice and return’ stories to be made for the public. I guess so, but does it matter if the audience fails to appreciate the larger basis of the story, and absorbs the err, interpretation instead? Candidly the wife was hard work. 😉

    Good question! I’m not sure that Yowie’s were active in this area. Bunyips on the other hand are a safer bet, and who knows what lurks in the dark and misty valleys in this more southerly corner of the continent where human feet rarely tread? Thanks for the words of advice, and I’ll try not to become obsessed. It’s hard…

    Have to laugh, things sure have changed. Maybe a year or two back I was reading a fictional novel set in the mid 1960’s in that big state to the south of you. A minor sub plot was a sheriff and a young hippy chick who had bowls of water in her yard – something to do with energies, and I didn’t quite rightly understand that bit. Anyway, the other locals were complaining about mosquitoes breeding in the bowls of water and the sheriff advised her to chuck some DDT in them as a solution…

    Today was cooler and the winds were calm. We even had a little bit of rain, about 1/9th of an inch. It’s not much, but was gratefully received. The rest of the week looks warm but still, leading up to another hot day. That’s summer for you. Containing the fires is easier in such weather.

    That’s a good point about the giraffe haunch remains found in the Pompeii sewer. Dunno about you, but I’d be disinclined to attend such an historical event – not likely, but we’re talking theoretical here – just on the basis that the risk of offending one of the nobility would have dire consequences. I’d imagine that some of them were quick to anger. Whoa! I’d not considered that aspect of stone grinding of bread wheat flour, but yeah now that you mention it that would be a problem. So obvious. No doubts us more enlightened folks in these latter days are consuming probably heaps of microscopic chunks of carbon steel.

    It’s been remarked upon elsewhere that one facet of life in your corner of the continent – is rainfall. 🙂 It takes rain to sustain rainforest, and aren’t there some of those in your part of the world? Glad to hear that you and H dodged the rain today. When it rained here this afternoon, I took the dogs out into it for a brief while, but sure enough they soon wanted back inside when the rainfall rate picked up.

    A 15 minutes timer screams ‘eggs’ to me as well, so thanks for that amusing addition. Right, I’ve got this: left to right, top to bottom. All very clear, but should a person be swayed by book covers and their art? That would slow me down, and do I believe so. The cover art was my number one concern with the Harry Potter series. It just didn’t convey a level of…

    So wasn’t read. Have I missed out? Probably not. As you’ve sagely mentioned before, always something else to read. Unless you are forced to read a certain book.

    Man, I’m so sorry, but you got done there with that teacher and relentless focus upon the book. Probably hadn’t prepared any other work for you lot. At High School English was my worst subject. It’s hard to say whether it was taught poorly, or I was a poor student, or both. Frankly speaking (please excuse the unintended pun there!), given the standard of written expression I’m exposed to in day to day life (and the lovely people here are all very well spoken and can express their thoughts clearly in words) the standard of education in that skill appears rather dire. Lewis, there is a part of me which wonders whether this outcome, is a goal of the education process. Hard to say really. Hmm.

    Sounds like a fine hunting and gathering of stuff experience, except for the bananas. Almost flipped out yesterday. Lady Finger Bananas at one of the local supermarkets was $14/kg ($6.36 a pound). Ouch!

    Did a bit of hunting and gathering today myself. The recent currency dump of the local dollar, suggests to me that prices will rise soon. Petrol already went up despite the refined oil products already being on shore and probably paid for. Things gonna get ‘spensive.

    Such a fun film! And thanks for the article. Yes, what if we’re right? Hmm. It’s funny but yesterday we talking about who had worked retail. Of course I mentioned Tandy… I actually really enjoyed working retail, and in those days, the only angry customers ever were those who’d arrived after the shop had shut on 12:30pm Saturday lunchtime. The boss would send me out to tell them to ‘get lost’. The law in those days was very strict about such matters.

    How great are seed catalogues? Have you poured through it yet, or will you leave that for a later time closer to placing the order?

    What? This is news to me. Holy carp! So what chocolate is going to get the Royal seal of approval? I like Lindt, but it’s hardly British is it? Or even part of the larger Commonwealth. Hey, you know what I’m thinking here – something organic. Yeah. When I was a kid, that mob used to make the claim about a glass and a half of milk in every something sized chocolate block. I don’t reckon that their stuff tastes the same nowadays – I certainly don’t believe it melts as fast as it once did. Not the same, although it may well be me?

    Cheers

    Chris

  30. Hello Chris,

    Great, but a tad too short, video on tomatoes in your greenhouse.
    I used to twist the jute twine around the tomato plant to keep it upright, but that makes some damage where disease creeps in towards the end of the season.

    This year, I learned from the most resourceful intern Jane, to use clips instead. The clip is a c-shaped plastic tool that snaps hard around the twine and has a big O-shaped part around the tomato stem. The trick is to place them just under a leaf, so that the leaf-stem will carry the weight of the plant.
    Here is a link to the ones I purchased:
    https://www.lindbloms.se/odlingstillbehor/vaxtstod/clips/23mm-clips-bindklamma-i-plast-100-pack/
    I guess you can find something similar in your place.

    It was quite easy to un-click the clips at the end of the season and I will re-use them next year. According to the intern, they last around 10 years.
    I used them for tomatoes, cukes, chilis, physalis. Cukes were the most excellent, since the weight of the cukes was carried by the clips.
    Plastics, I know, grrr, grrr, grrr, but still useful. When to say yes, when to say no, who knows?

    Tomorrow we head off to my parents for a few days of New Years, combined with 80th Birthday dinner. Lots of family.

    Peace,
    Goran

  31. Yo, Chris – Oh, I guess I didn’t make myself clear. If the audience fails to appreciate the larger basis of the story, and absorbs the interpretation instead, it’s still a great movie and well worth a look .. or two. One thing I thought about all these new interpretations. They all seem to take place after the journey. So, no CGI sirens or Cyclops getting his eye gouged out.

    Maybe that wasn’t a Koala you heard up in your woods … 🙂

    The hippy chick’s bowls of water in the yard, sounds pretty new agey. She was probably making “moon water.” Yes, it’s a thing. Spring and summer, I’m always on the lookout for any standing water, around the place. I thought of another use for mosquitos. Bat tucker.

    Our high yesterday was 50F (10C). The overnight low was 46F. Forecast for today is 50F. No flood warnings or watches. DJ hit the nail on the head. “Persistent drizzle.”

    I wonder if they’ll find other bits of the giraffe scattered about Pompeii? It was probably killed in their arena. I suppose there was a system, for selling on animals killed in their arena. Maybe even a lottery for choice bits. Carbon steel with a side of plastic bits.

    For a proper quick survey (the clock is ticking … or the sand is falling), you’re only looking at book spines.

    Yes. Closing times. Shoveling the customers out. Most of the places I worked in (malls), closed at nine. About ten minutes of, we’d plunge the store into murky darkness. “Are you closing?” “No, we’re testing the fluorescents.” 🙂 As I closed the front gates, I often noticed one or two people, racing up and down the mall and throwing themselves into any open doorway. And then there were the bars I worked in. Most bars would set their clocks ahead ten or fifteen minutes. The penalties for running over time could be quit severe. in the case of bars, the ploy was to turn the lights up to a blinding level.

    I did a quick survey of the seed catalog. (Set the timer.) It’s always a struggle, settling in to do an order. Aspiration vs reality … mostly, space.

    Food ingredients aren’t what they used to be. Nabisco, where my father and brother worked is a good example. Back in the day, Nabisco only used grade A commodities, to make their biscuits. Flour, sugar, cheddar cheese, chocolate, honey. Whatever. By the time my brother retired (he was a dough mixer), he complained that it had all been reduced to a giant measuring cup of some kind of brown sludge.

    It’s often remarked among us old timers that the commodity cheese we get now, isn’t anything like the old days. I don’t know what they’re doing to it that’s different, but it doesn’t want to melt. You can’t make a decent toasted cheese sandwich out of it.

    I don’t make much stock. I don’t really know why. But last night I made a couple of quarts, out of one of the smoked ham hocks I bought. It was interesting. My old BC cookbook (Betty Crocker, circa 1965) had no recipes for stock, at all. My “Joy of Cooking” had instructions for chicken, beef and even vegetable stocks … but no ham. But, there were plenty of instructions, on line.

    I’ll use the veg that I strained out, on rice, for dinner tonight. I’ll save some of the fat, that floats on the top, for the cornbread I’ll make for New Year’s Day. I’ll freeze up most of the stock, to use in other things. I want to use it to test out those Scarlet Runner beans. Lew

  32. Hi Goran,

    Thanks for the feedback. My natural inclination is to make longer videos, utub favours shorter. What do you do?

    Interesting. I’d not considered that the jute twine will damage the tomato stems, and will keep a watch for that.

    The tomato vines die off about late April / early May anyway due to frosty nights and a lack of sunlight, so they succumb anyway, but as you wisely note, no reason to speed that process up!

    I’ve seen those clips used elsewhere and had not considered them for this purpose, but will definitely observe to see what actually happens here as the season goes on. You have to be careful not to over wind the vines around the jute twine anyway.

    Plant diseases just aren’t as big a deal down under. Now voracious forest critters and hordes of hungry birds, those are a problem. 🙂

    Man, in previous years we’ve let the tomato vines sprawl (one of the benefits of lots of space) and using the twine is a big step up on previous years. I don’t believe it will work as well with cherry sized tomatoes, but the larger fruiting varieties will surely benefit from this new climbing arrangement. You can see the improvement already.

    Yeah, plastic, I hear you about that. The stuff is everywhere.

    Wishing you and your family a delightful New Years!

    Cheers

    Chris

  33. Hi Lewis,

    Oh yeah, I see what you mean. In some ways it’s not a bad way to go with a retelling of the epics via a different approach. When the viewer eventually comes across the actual epic, the arc of the story line will be familiar to them. Dunno. The sirens in the Coen brothers version had an other worldly presence to them. Brings to mind Monty Python’s classic anarchist quote from the Holy Grail film: Dennis the Peasant: You can’t expect to wield supreme power just ’cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!

    And Cyclops, spare us from ever having to encounter such a force of nature. The monster would have looked weird and out of place in the Coen brothers adaptation! 😉 Hehe!

    Yeah, maybe it wasn’t a koala? Never considered that, now there’s something else to worry about. Hopefully it is not one of those scary drop bears instead. Horrid things. It’s not safe to go bush walking alone these days.

    That was the general vibe of the water bowl arrangement. The sheriff was quite taken with the hippy chick and I had the impression that a relationship had formed, but the book was written in the 1960’s so the details were alluded to, rather than specified. Moon water? Ooo, it is a thing, and people swear by the efficacy. Bat tucker is right, and the local marsupial bats flit around in the rays of the setting sun gorging upon insects.

    Your winter weather sounds a lot like winter weather here. Although you get those occasional extreme cold events. Makes you wonder if those are increasing or decreasing in frequency over time? The recent extreme hot days here, have been notable because they are cloudy. Not a bad thing because it reduces the force of the summer sun on such days (can add 15’C to the official temperature recorded in the shade). 22’C / 72’F here today and it was so nice.

    Hauled rocks back up the hill and placed them on the down hill side of one of the garden terraces. The dogs have been running backwards and forwards on the edge of the garden bed (and terrace) and plants are now not growing in the soil there. Hmm. Plus on the other side of the terrace the Globe Artichokes have played out. We’d had them growing there for maybe six years now, and well, crop rotation is real. So we’ll clean that failing bed out as well and plant something different.

    On a practical note, you’d have to have a pretty big kitchen to cook up a giraffe haunch, don’t you reckon? Probably better the giraffe was killed in the arena, than eaten because it had become ill and died. Culturally such things go on today, and it’s a bit like winning a meat tray at the local sporting event.

    As to the carbon steel chunks and plastic, you’re probably right there. The stuff doesn’t go elsewhere.

    I know! I know! Time is ticking away, and 15 minutes is a tough schedule. The art work or general presentation of the offerings on the book spine, also have some visual appeal.

    Very funny! But yes, some folks don’t get the hint do they? Always wise not to over stay one’s welcome, well that’s my general philosophy, but then I’ve been on the other side of that social arrangement – as have you. Down here, bars usually call ahead of time for ‘last drinks’. In the past, the rule was that the customers could stay, they just couldn’t order. But then staff have to go home too, and it’s usually very late into the evening.

    Far out! Brown sludge ingredients might be efficient, but they may also obscure undocumented and mysterious ingredients. You may wonder why we make as much food as possible from scratch using raw materials?

    Yeah, you started me wondering about chocolate with the talk of cheese not melting. Hmm. Same, but at room temperature. You’re probably right there. The tasty cheese (a vintage cheddar, but the variety is called ‘tasty’ down under) we purchase melts in cooking, or on toasted sandwiches.

    Hmm, pork bones make for very tasty stock. How did it turn out? Split pea and ham hock soup comes to mind. Your meal creation sounds super tasty, and I don’t believe that you’ll be disappointed. You know, years ago we used to eat a really low fat diet, and it left me with dry skin and eczema. Can’t speak for most people, but I need fat in my diet, and now eat butter, drink full cream milk, use olive and grape seed oil, and add a chunk coconut oil to my fruit and toasted muesli breakfast each day. Skin problems disappeared with the change in diet. Man, I just do whatever works on that front. Probably horrify people with all that stuff.

    Cheers

    Chris

  34. Yo, Chris – Monty Python. The gift that keeps on giving. 🙂 Watery tart. That’s great. Maybe the Cyclops was a one eyed pirate … and the encounter with him was, mmm, embroidered upon?

    They emperor Tiberius had some seaside digs near Naples. There was a seaside grotto, that was tricked out to be a Roman party venue, for activities we were talking about. It was decorated with all kinds of sculpture groups, related to The Odyssey. Note the top one. Ouch!

    https://w.wiki/CZe3

    There are strange things out in the woods. Teddy Bears … picnics …

    Our high yesterday was 52F (11.11C). The overnight low was 45F. Forecast for today is 46F. When I look at our three day weather history (taken every 15 minutes, when things run to schedule), there’s all kinds of columns of figures, most of which I don’t pay much attention to. But, I noticed we haven’t had any wind, to speak of, since yesterday afternoon. Our “relative humidity” has been running 100% … for days.

    I always check store hours, before setting out. And I don’t show up more than a half hour before closing. And since I Dude Shop, I’m in and out. I had to go to the warehouse grocery, to rectify forgetting the bananas, late yesterday afternoon, on the way to the Club. I’m not used to shopping there, at that hour. Seemed mostly populated with “hip and with it” young folk.

    Room temperature. I’ve always wondered. Whose room? 🙂

    The strained out veg from the ham stock, over rice, was very tasty. I added in some garlic, peas and broccoli. Sprinkled over with some cider vinegar.

    Well, Julia Child was quoted as saying “With enough butter, anything is good.” And all the butter she used, didn’t seem to hurt her. She lived to be 91. During the filming of her series “Baking with Julia,” she used 753 pounds of butter.

    https://www.mashed.com/1207314/julia-child-used-almost-800-pounds-of-butter-in-one-of-her-tv-shows-alone/

    There’s an amusing bit about having a rose named after her. Lew

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