Back to the past

Another year done. Another one in front of us. Sandra tells me earnestly that I’m not allowed to say to anyone that: “It’ll be Christmas again before you know it!” Such restrictions on my spreading of good will feels somewhat stifling, but then the cheeky phrase was just inserted into the text. Winning! Wise to stay alert around here. And whilst we’re at it, just wanted to chuck in a big ‘Thank You!’ to all the lovely people who read the blog and take the time to comment. Without all of you most delightful people, I’d be talking to myself, and that would be weird. Seriously, thanks for dropping by, and you all make the blog a truly delightful place to hang out.

It’s hard to imagine that we moved into the unfinished house we’d built ourselves fifteen years ago, but that actually happened. Each week since then, we’ve been doing projects around the property trying to make the place productive, beautiful and easy to live with. It’s hard to say whether there was any one week in all those years where nothing happened. Remember the old timer story about the hare and the tortoise, we’re clearly the tortoise slowly plodding away week after week.

In the early days, folks visiting here were horrified at the house and surrounds! Who can forget the cheeky scamp who purchased the second hand refrigerator – he was working for a charity – who handed the $80 mad cash to Sandra before then saying: “Go and buy yourself something nice!” What a charmless man. But then, he also had a point, there was a lot of work to be done. He simply lacked vision.

A few years ago many early projects had finally been completed, and visually the place turned a corner. You could see the appreciation in the eyes of visitors. A small gothic inspired all weather and rat proof chicken run and hen house over there. Wide rock lined all weather paths over here. Fruit trees reaching mature size. Terraced gardens with neat fencing. Aesthetically pleasing sheds. The useful and sturdy looking greenhouse. There was a lot to see. It takes a couple of hours for visitors to take it all in, so sometimes we cut the tours short and head inside for a yummy lunch instead.

We see the place everyday. Some folks could suffer from a feeling of apprehension at all the epic work yet to be done, but Sandra and I just aren’t wired that way – we see what is there, and imagine the future. I can’t show you the future, and long term readers would know that future plans are rarely mentioned. So, with that limitation in mind, I thought it might be interesting to have a look back at some of the projects done during the previous year.

Fourteen months of work was what this huge path project took

By around March, we’d managed to correct the storm drainage, and create a system of low gradient of paths running from the front of the house to the chicken shed (and elsewhere in the shady orchard). It was a big undertaking, and all up took fourteen months of continuous work from start to finish.

Dame Plum makes a casual observation: You humans do a lot of digging!

Every single day we use these paths in all weather. In the earliest days, the path to the original hastily constructed chicken enclosure traversing that same ground, was a goats track. The day the log splitter tipped over on the old track, sure there was some cracking of the sads, but a decision was made then and there to one day create a proper path. Now it’s done, and no matter how wet, any of the machines can drive over the surface, no problems at all.

The path surfaces are a solid crushed rock with lime

You notice things too about the paths. After we applied the crushed rock with lime to the surface, all of the fruit trees on either side of the path began to grow faster than anywhere else. Sure the trees are now eating the path surface, but they also suggested that there was room for improvement with the soil fertilising processes.

Since the health subject which dare not be named of a couple of years ago, we’ve been running out of dry firewood in late spring each year. That’s what you get when we’re both forced to spend more time at home – the cost for heating has shifted onto us. We needed a bigger firewood shed. However, like any shed project here, the first question is: where will this thing be located?

An area of the farm near to the house was being poorly used, so we decided to put the new firewood shed there. Nothing here is ever easy, and a small shed first had to be demolished and a large water moved.

Sorting out a site looks like a bit of a mess, at first

The water tank was moved and the shed demolished. And ever since, we’ve been filling the new rock gabion cages which retain the steep soil embankment. One day, there may even be a second, or even a third layer of cages there.

That large green water tank was topped up today

Hopefully sometime this year, we’ll construct a much larger firewood shed in that now clear site.

Every single year, without fail, the off grid solar power system receives some sort of an upgrade. This year I upgraded a couple of the solar panel fuse boxes with neater wiring and industrial grade fuses. Always best to be safe with this stuff, and fuses are the things that get you out of electrical trouble, when that is urgently needed. No point skimping on the items, and sadly there is a world out there of sort-of-may-work-possibly fuses. There are another two fuse boxes to be upgraded sometime this year.

An upgraded and super neat fuse box for the solar panels

It’s hard to recall now, but Sandra and I spent two and a half months, cleaning up the edge of the forest where the loggers had left a lot of mess. Today it looks really clean, and provides easy access for the Sambar deer and wallabies to the orchard. Sadly, the timber which was so damp that it couldn’t be saved, was burned off.

A lot of burn-offs happened over winter

The loggers mess was on an epic scale.

The remains of these tree stumps, often left upside down, were remarkably heavy

Fortunately, most of the timber actually could be saved. We cut the damp logs into discs, stacked them, and by late December, the strong summer sunshine had dried them out. All have since then been turned into firewood and hauled back up the hill.

Discs of old trees were left to dry in the sun and wind for months

It wasn’t all project this and that, one big change with the plant management was that we began taking pruning very seriously. Thanks to a book recommended by a lovely reader (thanks Claire!) The Pruning Book by Lee Reich, we’ve had the best raspberry year that I can recall. And even the fruit trees appear to have benefited from a proper haircut.

The Raspberries and Roses were pruned very hard
As were the Blackberries

It snowed for the first time in many years. That was an exciting few hours, and the almonds dropped their fruit, however three apricot trees out of the dozen which were in fruit, toughed it out (more on this later).

An exciting event seeing snow!

The area set aside for growing vegetables was expanded by six long garden rows. Four are now growing potatoes, one sugar beets and the other is growing mixed beetroot and radishes.

Dame Plum’s tongue may have grown longer since then

And finally, a new concrete staircase was commenced. It leads from the sunny orchard up into the courtyard to the rear of the house.

This project has much work to be done on it in the coming year

Well, as perhaps the cheeky school kid once wisely said: Then some other stuff happened. Here’s seeing what we can achieve in 2025!

Onto more recent activities: Last week we’d begun fixing up two failed garden beds on one of the terraces. The smaller of the two beds has now been completed. A rock wall has now been installed on the downhill side of the bed, whilst the rock wall adjacent to the path was also upgraded with larger rocks. It’s nice to have plenty of rocks to use on projects.

One of the two garden beds on a terrace have now been restored and fed

The eroded soil in the garden bed was topped up with a decent mixture of stuff. It was hot work mixing up the many wheelbarrow loads of soil feed and driving it up the hill.

A trailer load of compost stuff was brought back to the property

The soil mix was the usual sand + fine woody mulch + mushroom compost + dolomite + garden lime + coffee grounds + blood and bone. It was hot work mixing it up and spreading it around in the strong summer sunshine, and by mid afternoon the heat was intense.

Mixing up the batches of soil feed for the garden beds

The rock wall below the long line of water tanks has been extended this week by the addition of ten large rocks.

The first layer of large rocks is nearing completion

Unfortunately, despite appearances, we’re always running short of rocks. One way of getting additional rocks here is smooshing up boulders into more useful sized rocks – which is hard work. Anyway, a day of that task and we now have about fourteen large rocks waiting to be used on projects.

A day of smooshing up boulders has provided fourteen large rocks for use

And the long line of steel rock gabion cages continues to be filled with the smaller sized rocks created in the boulder smooshing up activity. The cages are being installed on the new firewood shed site.

The long line of steel rock gabion cages continues to be filled

With all those additional rocks, we now have more rocks than available space in the cages. Another cage was made, despite the 38’C / 100’F conditions. Sunday was a hot day, and as I’m typing away at 10pm, it’s still hot.

The author sweats it out in the 38’C / 100’F heat

This week’s video shows how we make these cages:

How we make steel rock gabion cages

Observant readers will note that the second layer of steel rock gabion cages has begun!

A few nice additional touches were made to the LPG gas cylinder stand fabricated last week. Black steel caps were place over the vertical posts, whilst plastic feet were installed at the bottom of the posts so as to keep the steel slightly off the ground.

Looks pretty neat, and sturdy!

Despite the spring snowfall, and several light frosts, three of the many apricot trees managed to produce a crop of tasty sun ripened fruit. This is the first apricot harvest in about five years and the trees have grown about 10kg / 22 pounds of sun ripened super tasty fruit. The best fruit will be used in breakfasts, but most of the apricots will be turned into jam. Yum! It’s worth noting that the parrots harvested about as much again.

Yummy apricots picked from two trees today!

About a fortnight before we had germinated the pumpkin seeds, random plants began growing in the shady orchard. So what had happened was that pumpkin seed going into the chickens feed during the year, ended up in the orchard – and now we have several pumpkins growing in random locations where the chickens soiled bedding was used.

Happy pumpkins growing in the shady orchard

For readers general interest, the nearby large bushfire appears to have been extinguished. It’s in some thick and remote bushland, so that’s an amazing achievement. We took a photo of the burned forest as it appears from here, and unbeknownst to us a fire fighting helicopter snuck into the image.

We got photo bombed by a helicopter – the burnt area is a long line of purple / orange colour

Onto the flowers:

A horehound bug enjoys these yarrow flowers
Lady’s bedstraw has very colourful flowers
Californian Poppies are hardy plants which just look after themselves
The herb Feverfew puts on a good show
The Canary Island Foxgloves are always a delight

The temperature outside now at about 11am is 13’C (55’F). For last year there was 934.2mm (36.8 inches). This year is 0.0mm (0.0 inches)

Postscript: Overnight the weather turned and large storm has dumped over an inch of much needed rain today.

40 thoughts on “Back to the past”

  1. Yo, Chris – You just had to mention You Know Which Holiday. It’s done and dusted. Swiftly put behind us, and forgotten. Like the pain of childbirth. According to reports. Not to worry. Merchants will be trotting out tat, for That Day, soon enough. Probably, along about June.

    I don’t think I’d put much stock in whatever charity that numpty was working for. Smacks of the Victorian attitude that there are the deserving poor … and the undeserving poor. Charity is a pretty loaded word, to begin with. Right up there with “being on the dole.”

    I really like the flagstones you’ve laid down, in the new fire wood shed. They give the foundation a nice finished look.

    Well, if you want to keep the Sambar deer and wallabies at a distance, you might look into constructing a few ha-has. You know. In your spare time …

    https://w.wiki/Cdjk

    They’d probably also keep zombies, at a distance.

    That’s quit a soil mix. But what about stove ash? I’ve written it down for future reference.

    The rock gabion video was quit good. I didn’t realize there were internal baffles. Strengthens structural integrity. I do wish you would have shown a bit of “sewing it together.” You mentioned that, before, and I always wondered how you went about that, and what kind of “thread” you used.

    It will be really interesting, to see what the volunteer pumpkins produce. Might be some whole new, landrace varieties.

    The flowers are, as always, lovely. Lew

  2. Hi Göran,

    Happy New Year! 🙂

    Yes, you know the adults used to tell me, and they had very serious faces so the impression that it was a belief system was all too real, that I could do anything with my life. That sort of vacuous ideological statement does not accord with reality. Other silly pronouncements were made (two of which you heard as well!): Technology will save us; growth is great; and you can’t stop progress etc.

    Respect for earning a PhD. Whatever the winding path you took, it’s a tough long road. Alas, that too was my impression of University. My journey there was ultimately disappointing (I did finish with honours), but somehow naively I’d imagined learning the critical thinking skills you mentioned, and contributing something to the collective knowledge of mankind. All the tutors and lecturers really wanted from me was to answer the question asked. Reminds me of an amusing film quote I recall from who knows where: “You’re not paid to think soldier! And who can argue with such logical statements? Critical thinking was learned outside of that environment, and all you then discover is that you often find yourself butting heads against belief systems which don’t stand up to such tools. Hmm.

    Is this a good outcome? Honestly, I’m not entirely sure. However, I now live my life in accordance with my values and try to exercise what little free will I’m able to wrestle away from all the competing pressures. It’s not as much as you’d imagine, but then that is true for all people, although they may not know it.

    Man, food forests… So we planted a food forest in a cool temperate environment and the rats and rabbits found it to be a delightful place to inhabit. It may work elsewhere? After a few years, we cleared it all away, and now grow vegetables and berries in nice neat orderly patterns. Lot’s of soil feeding. Lot’s of crop rotation. All we learned from this time, and I’d be curious as to your experience, was that there is no such thing as a free lunch.

    That’s a great point, and I can only speak from experience learned in this part of the world. Vegetables are complicated and the growing season is short enough that timing and quality of all inputs becomes critical. Yup!

    Did you know that yesterday, or maybe the day before was the closest point in orbit where the Earth is relative to the Sun? During the summer months down under, because of the elliptical orbit of the planet around the sun, the summer sunlight here is much stronger than what you’d experience during a northern hemisphere summer (when the planet is more distant from the sun). The sun light is intense and will burn your skin if you’re not accustomed to it. Super hard on tourists.

    That sort of temperature change is a bit nuts! Yesterday was 38’C, and today is 11’C with 36mm of rain. Crazy stuff.

    It may not be hot enough here for the particular varieties of Quince that we’re growing. I don’t really know, but what I’m observing of the tree is that they enjoy the hottest weather. Those varieties may not be available in Australia due to quarantine concerns. A few decades ago I met the guy who owned the national quince collection and sold varieties retail. Such a fun day, the guy was a real character.

    We’ve got about five quince trees growing. And the results are consistently poor.

    Cheers

    Chris

  3. Hi Pam,

    Thanks! One tries their best to amuse, whilst acknowledging that occasionally the humour falls flat.

    They do sell the machines in your part of the world, but they’ve got a strange name: Canycom. Must be some sort of Japanese meaning which is entirely lost on me. They make the machines anyway. The US specifications are a bit different from what we see down here, but that might come down to cost savings. The Aussie dollar is no longer what it once was. Ook!

    For your interest, the Razorback is a down under mythical wild boar which is capable of killing humans. There was a 1984 film about the legendary creature, watched at the cinemas in my misbegotten youth. The film trailer is a hoot and I have no doubts (well maybe a few 🙂 ) that the famous director Quentin Taranatino has viewed the full film and enjoyed every minute.

    Your son is made of tough stuff to be doing all of those activities. Alas you’ve hinted at a universal truth though – when living on land, there’s always something need doing. Just between you and I, and I’ve no doubts you’d be onto this already, but keep a close eye on him to make sure he doesn’t overdo things. Guys can do that from time to time, as can anyone really.

    🙂 One can only but do their best! Can you believe that after 100’F yesterday in the shade, it was 52’F today and rained all day long. An inch and half of much need wet stuff fell out of the sky – and the peasants rejoiced, although they were mildly confused by the sudden change in climate. Not to worry, we’ll maybe repeating this cycle again next weekend. Oh goodie!

    Hope you enjoyed the flowers today, and I was particularly fond of the Canary Island Foxglove photo with all the background blurry detail.

    Cheers

    Chris

  4. Hi DJ,

    It’s all very complicated! Hmm. So are you suggesting that a persons perspective on the crucial measurement number of 42 when it comes to snow, depends upon the quality of their snow shovel? 🙂

    Well, at the very least, if the snow had fallen consistently for many days and weeks, then there is no need to renew the gym membership. Of course, here I do wonder about business opportunities for attaching a certain husky to a harness and then somehow channelling the canine might into a workable snow plough arrangement.

    Our fortunes here may just be made! Although, now I consider the matter further, would two or more huskies introduce uncertainty into the now combined snow shovel team? And would the feed and dog treat costs be covered by the income? Look, maybe we might have to ditch that as a bad idea and get back to shovelling. Drats, foiled again.

    Hope the carving catch up was fun and enjoyable. Yup, that’s a lot of white crap on the ground to deal with. How did the car go in all that snow and presumably ice?

    Snow is rare enough that both Sandra and I would cancel other plans. Far out, today the weather roared in from Antarctica and dumped about 35mm of rain here and dropped the air temperature down to 11’C. I’m sure yesterday was 38’C in the shade. My head hurts. Oh well.

    Would 42mm of snow stop you from a favourite brekkie at a certain diner? We bravely ventured out today for a coffee and discovered that dust had turned to mud. Ook!

    Cheers

    Chris

  5. Hi Claire,

    🙂 When the temperature in the shade is 38’C and the inside of the house peaked at 27’C late last night, the loose talk of your snowfall sounded pretty nice to my reading ears.

    How’s the snow going today?

    The weather turned early this morning, although at midnight it was still 25’C outside. The winds swept around from the south (and that big frozen continent to the south of here) and today has now stabilised at 11’C. The slow drop in temperature was accompanied by 35mm of rain. Should warm back up tomorrow, and it will surely feel as if we’ve suddenly been dropped in the Amazon jungle.

    Can you imagine what the poor pumpkin plants are making of this temperature change? Tonight I feel a bit chilly actually.

    Glad to hear the wood heater is roaring away and keeping you both warm on such a cold snowy day.

    Nice work letting the warmer air out to the three citrus plants on the covered in veranda. That’s my experience as well with citrus trees, Meyer lemon is the most cold tolerant and just shrugs off some appalling weather. If I may suggest, the Pomello (which is a cold tolerant yellow grapefruit) seems equally hardy to the cold. If one of the two other trees come to an unfortunate end, I’d definitely try and hunt a Pomello down. Fruits really well too.

    The elliptical orbit of the planet means that a day or so ago, the Earth just passed the closest point to the Sun. I tell you what, the sunlight was fierce on that day. It’s got an interesting white glow to the light. Not fun.

    Still, the plants need the energy to grow.

    Cheers

    Chris

  6. Hi Lewis,

    I know! I know! It was wrong to do so and go and mention that holiday again, but surely society is to blame? Yes, when it comes to pain you do hear such stories, and we can only but look on in wonder and naivety and hope we’re not involved in the hurting part of the story. Someone once remarked to me that passing a kidney stone hurts bad too, although I have no personal experience with either matters. Without some adventurous person to run the pain experiment in all instances, then provide objective ratings, how are we to know the truth? Like that intrepid bloke who decided to get stung by all manner of Australian insects and then rate the results. The local bullants performed admirably and put in a good result for team Fern taking the third spot! I’m sure you’d have some equally unpleasant critters in your part of the world, maybe?

    Down here, they get onto Easter chocolate displays about now. Some clever bloke two millennia ago noted that religious observances make for good business, although truthfully he didn’t appear to be much of a fan.

    The Editor was seriously annoyed by the charity bloke, and let’s just say that he made an unfavourable impression. It was a strangely judgemental thing to say, given we were in work gear constructing the house and not wearing our Sunday best. You’ve said it before, and will get no argument from me, people can be strange.

    Being broke generally has very little to do with morals and/or virtues, but it does make for a good story for some and allows them to sleep well at night. 🙂 During the recession of the early 1990’s with 10% unemployment and many hands competing for the same available jobs, it was pretty brutal. I took whatever work was going in order to keep a roof over my head and food upon the table. Some of my friends were not that lucky, and they struggled making ends meet. As it was, the competition and threat of unemployment kept wages low, and so even though you were working, you’d be as they say, one broken refrigerator repair bill away from not eating. It wasn’t so bad for me, mostly because I’d been poor as a kid living in a single parent household, and reigning in expenditure to fit your income came naturally. Basically it means doing without, but can you imagine trying to communicate that level of austerity to people who’d never previously experienced a single day of economic hardship in their lives? I tend to believe that sort of disconnect and lack of experience, is what is driving the loose spending I see going on around me in the community right now. Given what I’m reading about the economy and the future, it doesn’t seem like a bright idea to me. But it also keeps the velocity of money going which is no bad thing either. It’s really getting down to the game of musical chairs, and nobody ever knows when the music will stop. For all I know, it could continue for a while to come. Dunno.

    Thanks! Oops, the flagstones were removed so that we could drop the height of the soil. Oh well. The new firewood shed site allows for a much larger shed than the existing one. How good does the row of gabion cages look?

    The ha-ha’s are a good idea and would make an imposing fortification. The wombats would be most seriously annoyed at losing their easy access to the orchard. Would they adapt to a wombat ladder sort of like one of those reservoir fish ladders for the salmon? I’ve seen ha-ha’s in very old gardens and the Victorian era garden designer Edna Walling used them. They used to be a bit of a thing way back in the day. The last few paragraphs of the link on the subject mentioned personal injury lawsuits… But yeah, probably work a treat for zombies, but maybe not the fast climbing ones in World War Z – not much would stop those. I still don’t get why all the singing and chanting in that scene…

    Ah! Thanks for the reminder. Yes, stove ash is good, I just don’t have any at the moment. Mind you, after the 100’F yesterday, it’s now 50’F and an inch and a half of rain fell today. The solar power system recorded about 45 minutes sunlight for the day, which is frankly not enough to run an industrial civilisation. Oh well, nobody asked me.

    Oh yeah, the internal baffles really hold the steel cage together. You could see in the video right at the end where we’d used rock gabion cages to construct a service pit for working on the ride on mowers. It feels safe working under the machines knowing all those rocks are propping it up.

    Ah, sorry it was a very hot day and that aspect of the cage construction was missed. Basically steel wire is used to thread the two panels and baffles together just like sewing a hem. All of the external joins receive two complete runs of wire, and there’s usually three sewn loops per two inch by two inch square. Generally I work with a three to four foot length of strong wire, any longer is cumbersome. Does that all make sense?

    The cool weather today didn’t favour the pumpkins, but mind you at midnight last night it was still 25’C / 77’F – it was an uncomfortable night. However, the vines appear to have enjoyed the big drink of water today.

    An interesting question about the fracking and earthquakes! NSW region celebrates victory in keeping coal seam gas exploration out of its backyard. So, no fracking there apparently. A lot of mines though. One does wonder where the water would even come from to even do that fracking trick – it’s an arid landscape. The cost would be phenomenal, so the decision probably at a wild guess came down to the economic feasibility and not the lack of coal seam gas.

    But oh yeah, that frozen continent is interesting in that it’s warming. The ice on the sea holding back the glaciers on the land has apparently been floating away of late. And it’s got active volcanoes too, so who knows how they’d respond to some plate flex? Well, at the least it sure will be interesting. I’m happy the frozen land sent me an inch and a half of summer rain today, so we mustn’t trash talk the cold continent. 🙂

    I was thinking about mushrooms today and Dame Plum. I’ll keep a sharp look out to see how the fungi grow in the now suddenly damp and warm soil conditions. Probably they’d do well, as you note.

    We turned about half of the apricots into jam this afternoon. Had a more leisurely morning due to the uncomfortably hot sleep last night. The birds were singing up a storm this morning at first light because of the rain. Nice for some… True, you don’t often see apricot jam.

    Yikes! Sorry to hear about the uppity prices at the new-ish veg store. One has to be flexible in this day and age. Oh my! At first I read your comment as if you’d written flour, but not so! You wrote oats, and my oh my, that is cheap. I’d pay more than double that price per pound for oats. Never found any weevils and/or other bugs in rolled oats, but mixed grains can be (dare I say it?) a mixed bag. Not fun finding all the webs from weevils and pantry moths – and the bag wasn’t even opened.

    Your weather is on the up, but this time of year is often a two steps forward, one back, kind of experience. Hope you and H enjoy some walks in the winter sunshine. Should be more settled again and warmer for the next few days here, then Saturday looks like another repeat of the weekend just past. Cycles huh?

    I see what you mean about that writing style method, but it is an interesting way to write a narrative, and styles, voices and perspectives can be mucked around with at the authors discretion. Style is important, as are many other aspects such as dialogue, but the most important aspect of a story for me is – does the story engage my attention?

    My head is swimming with the toothy undead nocturnal beasts at the moment, and a film may tip me over the edge… 🙂 I’ve seen quite a few of those films on the list. Fun stuff. Thanks for mentioning them.

    I think we’re on the same page there. The auction serves the purpose of price discovery, so you get to find out exactly what an item is worth. And the big money paid for some items makes little sense to me either. Some people have more dollars than sense. The concept of ‘worth’ though, I’m not entirely sure what it means – the auction results suggest that it means what someone will pay for it, but I can see other definitions to that word. Dunno.

    Good stuff, and I’ll have a look at the books release date which is late May. Looks like Holly is back! Happy days.

    School definitely skipped over any interesting and quirky characters, although Australian history would have been full of them due to the convict transportation biz. The well adjusted, probably stayed safely at home. 🙂

    Cheers

    Chris

  7. Yo, Chris – I keep forgetting to mention, I saw one of those Japanese trucks we were talking about. Maybe a Kei? Someone dropped someone off at the Club, and they were driving one. I stumbled on a website that sells several brands, here in the US. My, they’re inexpensive. Though I’m sure taxes and licensing fees, run the total cost up. Lenocracy at its finest.

    Keep blaming society, and you’ll end up bleeding out on the floor of a convenience store. 🙂

    Kidney stones? No thanks. Every once in awhile, someone down at the Club struggles with those. Sometimes, surgery is involved. Though micro, these days. Sometimes they break them up with sound waves. I’ll pass. But not pass a stone.

    Both you and I have been through hard times. But, you’re right. Most people don’t have a clue. I picked up a book at the library, the other day. “They Just Need to Get a Job: 15 Myths on Homelessness.” (Brosnahan, 2024.) I’ve got a couple other books, on the go, so, it might take me awhile to get into it.

    Funny. When I read your line “wombat ladder,” I immediately thought of that scene in WW-Z. All that singing and chanting? Religious fanatics.

    Yes, your description of sewing up the gabion cages, makes sense.

    I’m happy to hear you got some rain. The heat, not so much. Our high yesterday was 52F (11.11C). The overnight low was 45F. Forecast for today is 48F. We’re forecast to have four nice days. Overnight lows will be chill. Forecast is for 29F, tonight. We really haven’t had any good, hard frosts. I wonder how that might affect “bad” insects, in the garden, next year.

    That was an interesting article about fracking. Interesting that the mail outs for public comment, either arrived just before, or even after, the call date for public comment. Might be the same people that work in your department of motor vehicles. 🙂 Sometimes, public outcry works. I just read a little news blurb the other day. Which US state capitol isn’t overrun with big box stores and fast food joints? There’s only one. Montpelier, Vermont.

    Price discovery on what an item is worth. I also think it depends on time and place. And even weather.

    Someone donated $40 for the Club pantry. So, I went shopping, last night. I went a little light, as we’ll get a food box, on Wednesday.

    Bear with me. This next bit might be a bit complicated. First off, epistolary novels or style. Interesting to explore that, a bit more.

    https://w.wiki/Ce6x

    And then, I had an Australian dream. Happens, from time to time. Can’t figure out why 🙂 . Last night, probably because I was feeling a little guilty. I felt I gave your this weeks post a bit short shrift. It was late, I was tired. How does one comment on so many major projects, over so great a period of time? The Editor and you work very hard, and never stop. So, the dream. I’m in a bookstore (which I’ve never been in before), talking to someone I’ve never met. Also, an employee. We’re killing the few minutes before opening, and I’m telling them about my Australian friend (which I occasionally do.) And, there are occasional scenes of Australia. Although why you’re growing corn and other veg, on a barge on the Yarra River, I’ll never know. When you mentioned in the blog post that you had built the house 15 years ago, I occurred to me that we’ve been doing this daily back and forth, for probably 10 years. Which I mentioned to whoever I was talking to.

    Then I woke up. And had a pretty full blown, idea. A book. In the US, it would be published as “My Australian Friend.” Down under, it would be published as “My American Friend.” Hmm. Graphics for the cover: might even have both titles, and you turn it to read it one way, and then turn it again, to read it another.

    So, of course you’ve archived ten years worth of comments, right? 🙂 And then I wondered if the chapters would run chronological, or maybe by topic. Anyway. Just another one of Lew’s crazy ideas.

    I happened to think, of a book, told in an epistolary style. “84 Charing Cross Road.”

    https://w.wiki/Ce7w

    As I remember, both the book and movie were quit good. Lew

  8. Hi Lewis,

    Alas the current model Kei cars are I believe not street legal in your country due to crash test hurdles they can’t quite leap. However, I understand the earlier models are available to import and register. It’s good to hear that someone in your Club has caught onto the sensible choice. People get so excited about electric vehicles, but I can assure you the Kei cars use very little fuel. The Suzuki Swift dirt mouse (which is not available in your country) can travel almost 435 miles on a tank which is just slightly under 10 gallons. And your Club member may discover that lighter cars use less consumables like tires and brakes etc… Basically, such vehicles are a good adaption to an energy constrained future.

    Did the Club member mention anything about the vehicle? I mean, you did notice the machine making an entrance.

    The politicians used to say we were the clever country, but that sounds like a load of baloney to me. We’re an import dependant nation, and they need a reality check. Someone ran the numbers and was alarmed by the results: Australia’s fuel security falling short as ‘war-game’ report, released under FOI, reveals vulnerabilities FOI refers to Freedom of Information – i.e. the release of stuff that goobermint didn’t want people to see years ago at the time.

    🙂 True, but consider the dramatic effect!

    That’s why I mentioned the kidney stones. Not something you want to pass from what I hear. Quite painful apparently and probably best avoided. And I’d heard that too, they use ultrasound to smoosh up the stones – which still have to be passed. Ook! As an interesting side note, small engine repair shops sometimes also use ultrasound machines to clean up organic gunk in carburettors. Just thought I’d mention that, could be useful at a trivia night. Alas, I have to disassemble the contraptions and clean them the old school way using lots of acetone – strong stuff I can assure you.

    I’ll be very interested to hear what insights you glean from the book on homelessness. It’s so weird seeing some dude living rough in a tent in a park in the nearby town over the past month. That’s new around here, but a full time minimum wages job with a single household earner, would struggle keeping a roof over the head of a family. Just not possible any more. Candidly I’m wondering when I’ll come across a hermit up in a remote section of forest here. Dunno. Right now there is a camper in the local picnic ground – that will surely earn the ire of the authoritas.

    Hehe! Another way of considering the World War Z swarm scene was that they brought that poop down on their own heads. 🙂 Why attract trouble? There’s plenty of trouble zombies out there without call attention to one’s self. Man, it was a bit of a Kum-ba-yah gone horribly wrong moment.

    Your winter weather (for now) reads almost exactly like the sort of winter I enjoy. As the month progresses though, I reckon you’ll get days where the maximum temperature hovers around 32’F. It’s all down to thermal inertia. But by February, things will be on the up for you, maybe. Did you notice that there has been some serious climate weirdness? Rare summer La Niña could be forming in Pacific, raising risk of wet weather start to 2025. The forecast and the conditions here, now feel different from only a week beforehand, let’s put it that way. Given you’re on the other side of that ocean story, you might be feeling the change as well? Dunno. Saturday is still forecast to reach 95’F, but then rain. Hmm.

    With the increased chance of rain and hot humid conditions in the immediate future, I began cleaning up grass from around the trunks of fruit trees. Did all the fruit trees in the large citrus enclosure this afternoon, and even mowed the space. They’re the youngest trees and need the most assistance. Wet conditions increases the risk of insects gnawing away on the bark of fruit trees, so best to give them no opportunity. Also made more batches of jam this morning. A busy day. My holidays probably sound completely nuts to most people! Oh well…

    Yes, best not to rely upon the goobermint to supply solutions, for who knows what novel solutions the cheeky scamps may come up with? You too may have noticed that Vermont has an unusual vibe? Probably a reason for that.

    Hehe! I stand corrected, and acknowledge your greater experience. Yup, auctions are all of those and then some. And sometimes the wind doesn’t blow right either during an auction. It’s a real crap-shoot, but if there’s a better method I’m unsure of it. Maybe it’s like what Mr Churchill is quoted as saying about democracy: It’s the least worst option. 🙂

    Wise to eek out the mad cash donation for the Club. There’s plenty of weeks to go before the end of the month. Hope the food box is good.

    Speaking of food, we might dig up the row of Nadine Potatoes tomorrow. It’s an early variety and the vines have about all yellowed and died now. Hopefully the haul is not disappointing? Dunno – let’s find out! The plan is to store them in a sealed bin in straw, and then keep the bin in a very cool and shady shed. Again, no idea how that will work out. More on this tomorrow I guess. It could be a wipe out. Dunno. We’ll move any Globe Artichokes into that potato row, and hopefully the hot weather over the next few days doesn’t kill the transplants, but I’ll have to water them heaps until the rain arrives.

    Werther probably had it coming and he saved us all a bunch of trouble. Probably won’t read that Goethe book. I’m intrigued to know that the Dracula novel is reputedly the pinnacle of the art form. It’s an engrossing tale and thus very hard to put aside. Alas there is work to be done around here! I noticed that the Tenant of Wildfell Hall is also a notable mention, and that too is on the to-read list and sitting patiently in the stack of books. Alas there are never enough free hours for such joys.

    What can I say, I’m a bad correspondence influence, as probably are you as well! Hehe! No need for guilt there, after all, you’ve already commented upon the earlier works during last year – that’s a slam dunk sound philosophy right there. 😉 It’s been most enjoyable too. I reckon, if we counted the time over at Joel’s ‘Of the Hands’ blog, it’d be 11 years easy! There’s always interesting news and events from afar.

    It’s an intriguing idea, and the word count would run into the millions. And all of it would be quality, that goes without saying. Truthfully, gargle ate the first four years of comments. Hmm. Is the old website still around? … … Nope. Still, there are millions of words. It’s not a crazy idea at all, but I’m flat out, so if you can do something there, go hard!

    Hmm, I’ll check out the book. It’s an intriguing proposition, and let’s hope we crack the two decades. Lewis, I’ve got a lot of acquaintances, a few friends, and I count you among the latter.

    Cheers

    Chris

  9. Yo, Chris – I notice on the website I found, for different small foreign trucks, that several had stickers saying “street legal.” Though I figure that varies, state by state. The Club member was just dropped off, by someone driving that truck. Didn’t know much about it. But, it was his boss, so, with a bit of nagging … 🙂

    Is there any country, any more, that isn’t import dependent? Even the Romans, fretted about that. Too much gold flowing east, to satisfy a yen for silks, spices, etc.. Will anyone pay any attention, to Mr. Blackburn? Probably, not. I also noticed in the article that insurers, play a big role. And, the article also brought up the exposure of how weak supply lines are, due to You Know What.

    Given our Medical / Pharma Industrial Complex, if I suspect I have a kidney stone, I’ll head for the nearest motor repair shop. 🙂 I headed out to visit Jane, this morning. Couldn’t find where she was. Given the complexity of our medical “district.” Spent a lot of time driving around, ducked into a couple of facilities (hospice, pediatric care), and was still none the wiser. Finally, due to the traffic bumps in the parking lot, my bladder gave out. Back to the Club, and finally have good directions. I’ll attempt again, tomorrow.

    I bought gas on my way out. Still $4.10 (cash) per US regular gallon. Now that the elections are over, I suppose it will begin to creep up, again.

    Back in June, our Federal Supreme Court ruled on the legality of laws, targeting the homeless. Several cities immediately moved to criminalize homelessness.

    Weather. Prof. Mass declares, “Horse Apples.” 🙂 Our high yesterday was 46F (7.77C). The overnight low was 37F. Forecast for today is 46F. No rain. I see two more big fires have started near Los Angeles. Due to San Anna winds. That was an interesting article about the return of La Niña. I hope I can find one equally good, that will predict our weather. Prof. Mass, might.

    Yes, you’re having a busy “holiday.” But at least it’s what you want to do, and not according to the dictates of business.

    Vermont has always had an unusual vibe. Dating back to before our American Revolution.

    https://w.wiki/9Kp5

    I’m hoping your potatoes will be big and plump. And, good keepers. Here’s a little ditty to speed you on your digging way.

    https://youtu.be/1M9XdkUk298?si=dGYJ6BHExIQaXltd

    Fasten your seat belt. According to Wikipedia, “Tenant” is “…the most shocking of the Bronte novels.” 🙂

    I eat a pretty hefty dinner, but always feel like I want something “more.” And if there’s unhealthy stuff in the house, I’ll eat it. So, I thought about making some biscuits, last night. But wasn’t “feeling” it. I had a tin of cherries, in the pantry. Pretty watery, and not enough for a baking dish, full. So, I mixed in dried cranberries and a bit of corn starch. That goes in a greased baking dish. The top is covered with a mixture of rolled oats, all purpose flour, brown sugar, butter and vanilla. You can use any kind of fruit. Called “a crumble.” I find if I make something like that from scratch, it lasts longer. Probably due to the effort of making it, and, in general, seems more satisfying. No matter if it’s biscuits, muffins, or something like a fruit crumble, it lasts longer.

    I’m still mulling over the book idea. Nothing concrete, yet. I don’t want to be too invasive, on your part. Or, revealing on mine 🙂 .

    The Club is getting serious about buying our own place. They looked at an old gas station, the other day. Turned out the tanks are still in the ground. And still smell like petrol. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) gets involved, and if the tanks have leaked, it gets pretty complicated, and pricey. There’s also a house they’re looking at. A real estate dealer has been lined up, and there are meetings planned with possible financiers. Lew

  10. Hi, Chris!

    Winning! Watch your back . . .

    Thank YOU!

    Can that be true: “Go and buy yourself something nice!” ? Bit of a shock. I wish he could see the two of you now, and the place.

    The long and winding road (s): That was a big job, maybe the biggest. And they are all a joy to behold – and so practical.

    The cleared shed spot is a big job, too, but looks so good (and so flat . . .) with the gabion cages. And I have always wanted to see you make a gabion cage, so thank you much for the video. It was super.

    A fuse box upgrade is no easy job, either, and looks quite dangerous.

    At least we never had loggers, though I guess you could say that they did some of the work for you – if you don’t count the mess.

    Roses, I can prune. They were the first thing I learned how to prune. We can easily say that they are the only thing I learned how to prune right.

    Ah – snow! What we got Monday: 6 inches (15cm) with ice, too. But the fellow we have on call to plow our neighborhood road showed up early and plowed and the state, who is in charge of public roads in the county, did a good job with their roads, also, so – though we will need to wait a bit to take the car out – Mr. Musty the Toyota pickup did a superb job, going into town and even making it down the hill and up the next hill to the back of the property where the greenhouse is – on partly ice. Now let’s mention Mr. Dumpy, the dump truck. Mr. Dumpy always needs repairs and now he needs the much-dreaded O ring. I have administered a lecture to the effect that the very best O ring that money can buy must be purchased because Mr. Dumpy’s whole transmission has to be removed to put the new one in and we know how O rings can be . . .

    Lordy – that’s a lot of water tanks!

    Canycom. Thank you. I will look at them. Razorbacks are the mascot of the University of Arkansas football team, which you would know if your grandmother had been raised in Arkansas.

    Your weather would make me sick.

    Thanks so much for the flowers. So that’s what lady’s bedstraw looks like. And yes – I always love to see the Canary Island Foxgloves.

    Pam

  11. Chris,

    Nice review of the past year. I actually remember a lot of what happened at your place. Amazing, what? What I remember the most however, is the other stuff that happened. 😉

    We actually had a few sunbreaks and a night where the stars were visible for a few hours. It was good seeing the stars.

    Well, driving in 42mm of snow is another one of those relative things. This latest batch from Saturday wasn’t an issue to drive in. It was above freezing. The main roads were mostly bare and wet. Other streets were more sloppy than anything. It was gone from all the roads by late Saturday afternoon. All of the snow had disappeared by Sunday noon.

    Had the temperatures been between -1C and-4C, 42mm of snow would have turned into treacherous compact snow and ice. Those are the temperatures that usually give us the worst slippery snow. By contrast, there’s the severe ice storms that hit huge swaths of the middle parts of our country. Scenes from Kansas and Missouri were highlighted on our news programs here due to how nasty the ice was on the roads.

    The gas cylinder stand looks very good. Your most recent additions to it are necessities in my mind. And they look good.

    I liked the photo of the firefighting helicopter. As a bonus, it showed that the recent fire is out. Good news, that! Inquiring minds want to know, however, if you stood there for days waiting for the helicopter to appear?

    I read today that the cases of rabbit fever in the USA have increased by over 56% in the past decade. Officially, this can spread to humans via infected animals, ticks and other bugs, drinking tainted water. My take is that this is caused by many different and small killer rabbits. In other words, when traversing country that might have such rabbits, keep the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch nearby!

    Thanks for the flower photos. Poppies are always spectacular. The lady’s bedstraw is very interesting to look at. We get a lot of feverfew and yarrow here. They’re always nice for a contrast.

    DJSpo

  12. Hi Pam,

    I know! I know! There are some lovely people for whom I make that silly comment about ‘almost Christmas’ every year, and it produces a good natured groan. It’s become something of a tradition, and candidly one day they might beat me to the pronouncement. There’s a challenge there…

    🙂 I can tell from here that you do your best too.

    True, but after that rather disparaging comment from the dude, there’s basically no place for him here as I tend to hang out with people who whilst being judgemental, they are even handed in that regard. To be honest, since then I’ve taken the approach that it is a red flag when someone new feels free to insult me to my face. It’s just not cricket. Dunno about your experience, but I’ve never seen any good come from relationships with people who do that trick, although I’m prepared to be wrong and such social faux pas are easy to smooth over with a simple apology. Anyway, at a wild guess, such tactics display the darkness of their souls and how they view themselves in the world. Basically there are nicer people to spend ones energies upon.

    It’s a universal truth that those who live on sloping property dream of flat land. Thanks for watching the video and it shows how the gabion cages are made. It was such a hot day for filming at 100’F in the shade. It was hot again today too, but not that bad. Harvested the early potato variety ‘Nadine’ and from about nine or ten initial seed potatoes there’s now a bucket of 9kg / 20 pounds of tubers. Not bad for an early variety. Dug up all of the globe artichokes and divided them up and replanted them in the now empty potato bed. But I’m left wondering, did I get all of the potatoes?

    Candidly, the solar panels can’t be switched off and from time to time, I did get a bit of a mild zing from the re-wiring job. Such low voltage it wasn’t too bad, but ever since there’s been this strange feeling in my brain. Surely it can’t be related? 🙂 Just kidding…

    The loggers did a job thinning out the forest, that’s for sure. I suspect they did the work after the 1983 bushfires harvesting dead trees. Just wished they were a bit neater with that work, but then that’s what cheap land is all about. Ook!

    Roses are such beautiful plants that they’re worth knowing how to prune well. How did you learn that skill? Do they grow well at your place?

    Oh far out, that’s so cold. Brr! Go Mr Musty, and he’s a venerable workhorse of noble lineage – plus super useful. Toyota make excellent vehicles. Mr Dumpy the Cat, well, he works harder doing unnatural things like digging and hauling. Not a job for lightweights. Hopefully the super gooderer o-ring does the job, and that removing the transmission then re-installing it goes smoothly.

    Hehe! With no town water, no well, and soil that drains, water tanks are the lifeblood of the house and garden. Plus you can see at a glance how much is left. Can make for a nervous existence some years.

    Never been to Arkansas, although one hears good reports. And it’s been suggested that the state produces most excellent grandmothers. The world needs more such folks.

    It would be nice if the planet orbited around the sun in a nice neat circle, but alas, it’s an elliptoid, which is a fancy name for a wonky circle. Thus during summer here, and about two days ago, the planet is closer to the sun than at any other time of the year – including your summers. Did I mention that it was hot, and the glare during daylight is a brilliant white which washes colours. It burns! And can cook a persons head.

    It’s a very lovely and useful herb, and I’ve observed the dogs eating it too. Seems to appreciate dry conditions, so it’d do well in your part of the world.

    Cheers

    Chris

  13. Hi DJ,

    Oh, you’re good. 😉 Very funny, and it’s such a great quote that it can’t really ever have been used in an exam, maybe.

    Hey, do you find that the winter night skies are often the clearest for star gazing?

    I’ve got a physics problem for your brain to ponder, if you choose to do so… (cue Mission Might Be Possible theme song!) 🙂 So given the planets orbit around the sun is elliptic and a few days ago we were closer to the big fusion reactor than at any other time of the year, does that also suggest that your winter weather receives more sunlight energy than if the orbit was a circle and the planet was thus further out? Of course the answer may in this case be 42! 😉

    Good to hear that the snow melted by Sunday noon and that you avoided the effects of any dreaded ice temperature range. Such weather events are like receiving the rainfall all day on Monday. How weird is that there are large fires far to the south west of you, and then serious snowfall on the mid to east coast? Well, such weather is never dull. Did you know, that Death Valley is to the North East of Los Angeles? It’s not described as the garden of Eden, nope. I’d not want to experience winds originating from there either.

    I agree, the 50x50mm RHS (rectangular hollow square) steel posts needed the steel capping to stop rain from entering the posts, and the plastic feet keep the steel ever so slightly off the ground, thus keeping the dreaded rust worm at bay. Hopefully the stand has a very long lifespan.

    Nah, the helicopter in the image was pure fluke. There were a lot of them zipping backwards and forwards from the nearby reservoir. It was a bit Apocalypse Now with all the noise of those machines.

    I’ve never even heard of rabbit fever. Ah, the ringtail possums seem to carry the disease down here, and other than the poor little fella that Sandra rescued, the owls eat them, all of them. Rats also have similar diseases too. It’s a wonder we all stay as healthy as we do. But yeah, that Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch can produce wondrous results. Just to remember to add in the ‘three’ when counting to five. 😉

    Both Yarrow and Feverfew are interesting plants with Lady’s Bedstraw is a super hardy plant, and the dogs munch upon it prior to flowering (presumably the protein levels of the leaves are at their highest?).

    Harvested the Nadine early variety of potatoes today, and I’m astounded. From maybe nine or ten seed potatoes, we harvested 9kg of tubers – and probably missed some. They’re tasty, and we roasted one that we’d accidentally smooshed up, today. It’s a tasty variety. My head feels a bit cooked today having worked out in the sun.

    Cheers

    Chris

  14. Hi Lewis,

    Yeah, the states here likewise control vehicle registration. I’m not entirely sure why, but down under, they call such vehicle imports by the inexplicable name of: ‘Grey Imports’. They’re never new vehicles and are mostly sourced from Japan. Long ago I’d heard the story that vehicles in Japan get sold after a few years due to laws and costs encouraging such churning practices, and so many of those machines are dumped on the Australian market. I’ve owned a Japanese Grey Import motorbike a long time ago, and the machine was in excellent condition. Never had any issues registering the motorbike, but like everything, I guess it depends. 🙂 Would you buy one of those import vehicles?

    I’ll be interested to hear how the story plays out. It’s an intriguing choice of vehicle given the predominant culture (which is sort of the same down here – bigger is better).

    Bizarrely, sometimes sanctions forces a country to become less import dependent – produces short term gains, but probably long term losses. A mate of mine is from South Africa, and he’s told me about the coal to liquid program used down there back in the day – it was a ruinously expensive way to produce oil. And it would not surprise me one bit, if eventually coal was converted into liquid fuels. When it happens, remember the ruinously expensive part of that story! 🙂

    I didn’t know that about the Roman’s, but it makes a weird sort of sense. That’s my take on the guys view too, good common sense analysis, probably ignored. I saw that too about you-know-what, and he even amusingly referred to the toilet paper situation from a perspective I agreed with – i.e. there are bigger worries out there than toilet paper. Basically, if the imported oil supply was ever shut down, even for a few weeks, we’d be toast.

    Ha! You’d hope they turned the ultrsonic cleaning machine on the right organ… Ook! But you’ve got a good point there, but would you trust the mechanic? Hopefully the business card said something like: Ford Specialist and all round Kidney Tech dude. 🙂

    Did you have better luck hunting out Jane today, and was she doing OK? It was a decent thing of you to visit her.

    Aren’t they intending to open the Arctic to oil drilling? Maybe the price won’t come down, but even so it couldn’t be cheap to drill in the Arctic circle. I see serious news reports that your country is considering annexing Greenland. Hope the residents don’t mind the shopping malls! But given how the Alaska purchase turned out, it’s probably a cheap buy at half the price. Who actually controls Greenland now? Hmm Denmark, oh well, it’s a big chunk of land and the EU has a very impoverished military. Did you not say that 2025 is going to be interesting?

    Typical, such things happen. Geez it’s a tough society if you have mental health issues, physical issues or economics turn against you.

    On that note, we harvested the very early Nadine variety of potatoes. Obviously, we had no idea they were an early variety, other than the vines all dying off. For maybe nine or ten seed tubers, we grew 20 pounds. And that’s only one of four rows. Hmm. A great crop, but not one I’d want to rely on, let’s put it that way.

    Also in the hot sun, we cleaned up the Globe Artichoke bed. Chipped up the stalks, ran over the roots and over developed flowers with the mower, then tilled up the whole bed. The plan is to give the garden bed a decent soil feed tomorrow and that will be ready to get the winter crop seeds in over the next few days (another storm is in the forecast). Oh! And I divided up any living Globe Artichokes and planted them in the garden bed which had the Nadine potatoes. That’s crop rotation in practice!

    What a lovely euphemism! I’d call it Bull Dust… 🙂 Oh my, those fires are horrendous looking, and did I mention how grateful I am for all that rain on Monday? Hmm. I see the winds for the LA fires originated somewhere near Death Valley. Nice, and not a place I’d like to visit. I do hope that Professor Mass gets around to talking about the sudden out of order La Nina.

    True, and I’m enjoying my break from paid work. Plus we’re seriously getting on top of things this year. The wider area is a bit challenging for the wildlife this summer due to the heat and dry, so I’m allowing the local birds to enjoy the abundant apple crop. I could put the crop to good use, but they need the feed more than I, and I can get big boxes of quality apples for $10 – they can’t.

    The Green Mountain Boys are an interesting group – forming for a specific purpose, then disbanding when goals were achieved. Seemed frightfully competent too. Not a group I’d like to annoy, and I see they went north as well. Oh well, what’s old may be new again.

    Thanks for the song, and Chuck tells a great story. Truthfully, Nadine sounds like hard work.

    Stop it! 🙂 Now I’m wishing I’d read Tenant instead of Dracula. Still, there’s always the future. I’m very much enjoying Dracula, and Van Helsing has just entered the story. Quite a likeable character in a quirky and charming way.

    Well, now you know my little food secret. That’s what the biscuits achieve, and I notice that too. They’re more filling than store purchased ones – and honestly I have no idea why. But I do use oats and there’s very little processed matter in them. By processed, I mean blitzed. I’ve got an odd hunch that smooshed up food with lots of surface area, is probably easier for your gut to churn through than stuff it’s gotta work a bit harder at, like you know fibre. Dunno. Crumbles are good. Yum!

    No stress, your secrets are your own and none others. Incidentally, on that note, you’ll observe that I don’t have a search facility within the comment section. 😉 There’s a reason for that, despite people requesting the facility. Several million words is probably a step too far for the ordinary person to read through. I’m intrigued.

    Yikes! Wise to avoid the gas station. Oh my – imagine being lumped with the repair bill? A house is probably a wiser choice, although you’d hope zoning and the dreaded HOA was a non-issue.

    Might finish that garden bed tomorrow by chucking on heaps of soil feed, but we’ll see. It’s going to be 30’C / 86’F, but hopefully with some cloud. Cooking one’s brain may turn me into a zombie. The general advice is to take the head in such a circumstance, and certainly if I were a zombie, I’d not hold such actions against you. Thought it might be a good idea to clear the air in that matter.

    Cheers

    Chris

  15. Chris:

    My, goodness – 20 pounds of potatoes from 10 seed potatoes is very good! They are early, too. You’ll know if you got them all out when them that is left start a sproutin’ leaves.

    I can’t remember who I learned rose pruning from as it was about 40 years ago, but I think it was my father. They grow well here when they get enough sun (sing that refrain again). There aren’t too many of those sunny spots left because they are all taken up by fruit and veg. And the deer eat roses, also, except for a massive climbing rose, New Dawn, that I planted 33 years ago. I did have other roses, but they were lost when we shifted the whole garden down slope several years ago.

    Mr. Dumpy is a dump truck, not the CAT. You are right in thinking that the CAT is the big earth mover. We bought Mr. Dumpy quite a few years ago. His dump bed has now been removed and replaced with a bed that has metal lockers along each side of it that tools can be locked inside. This is the closest picture to it that I have found. Scroll down to “Marble Series”.

    https://bedrocktruckbeds.com/

    She was indeed an excellent grandmother.

    Yes, you mentioned it was hot. 🙂 Just hold on a bit and I’ll trade weather with you.

    I forgot to mention how intriguing your lemon tree in the snow photo was. We have a situation right now where the lemon trees in the basement are extremely heavily scented from their blossoms, while the woodstove down there is going all the time because of the cold and snow outside. The smell kind of throws me when I go down there (a lot, to shove wood in the fire).

    Pam

  16. Yo, Chris – I saw an interesting article, last night. “Why More American’s Are Gardening.”

    https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/08/economy/fear-of-higher-tariffs-gardening

    The more the merrier.

    Would I buy one of the little trucks? I’d at least give a serious look into them. I hope my life, and my truck’s life, run out about the same time … Or it lasts until I can no longer drive.

    Well, I hope the coal to fuel doesn’t smell as bad as diesel. A few times, I’ve gotten stuck behind someone burning diesel, and have pulled over for a few minutes to let the air clear.

    Second time’s the charm. Drove right to where Jane is, this morning. I smuggled in a tin of beef ravioli, for her. It’s been a running joke, between us, for a couple of years. She looks good, and is pretty perky. And, is chomping at the bit to get home. So, unlike other people I could name, she’s thrown herself into the rehab. Even though it’s rather uncomfortable. She had a small stroke, while being operated on. There was some impairment. But, she bounced back from that.

    After, I stopped by the Club for a cuppa. Then onto where the veg place moved. It’s probably 1/4th the side of the old place. I got my yoghurt, so I’m happy. Swung by the library and picked up a lot of stuff. Including the new “Transformers” movie. It will be a popcorn night. 🙂 Last night I had a tin of the okra / tomato / corn. Doctored up with additional rice, veg, etc..

    That arctic oil will be sold to the highest bidder … and not necessarily go to the domestic market. Yes, I see we’re going to invade Greenland, Panama, and maybe Canada for good measure. Such silliness. Some people have no filters, and blurt out the most outrageous stuff.

    I hope the Globe Artichokes like their new home. Did you get all the potatoes? Of course not. There will be volunteers, here and there. And then you have to decide if to pull them out, or mound them up. I checked out my garlic, this morning. There were a couple of plots that I thought might not come up. Those were the soft ones. But, they’re beginning to make an appearance. Tomorrow will be our last nice day, for awhile, and I might sprinkle around a bit of stove ash.

    Our yesterdays high was 45F (7.22C). Our overnight low was 41F. Forecast for today is 50F. Yes, the LA fires are pretty horrible. The pictures … There was gridlock getting out of some neighborhoods, and people were abandoning their cars. The fire department had to bring in a bulldozer, and bulldozed them off the roads.

    Van Helsing is an interesting character. And it’s interesting how different movies have portrayed him. Often charming, and sometimes downright funny.

    I forgot to mention the crumble also had 1/2 tsp. each, of cinnamon and nutmeg.

    Well, I saw something interesting on our library, new books on order list. “The Mad Files: Writers and Cartoonists on the Magazine That Warped America’s Brain!” (Mikics, 2024) From the catalog: “A mainstay of countless American childhoods, MAD magazine exploded onto the scene in the 1950s and gleefully thumbed its nose at all the postwar pieties. Unfazed by lawsuits, the ire of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI, and the dull-witted scorn of critics and scolds unwilling to get the joke, MAD became the zaniest, most subversive satire magazine ever to be sold on America’s newsstands, anticipating the spirit of underground comix and ‘zines and influencing humor writing in movies, television, and the internet to this day. Edited by David Mikics, The MAD Files celebrates the magazine’s impact and the legacy of the Usual Gang of Idiots who transformed puerile punchlines and merciless mockery into an art form. 26 essays and comics present a varied, perceptive, and often very funny account of MAD’s significance, ranging from the cultural to the aesthetic to the personal. Art Spiegelman reflects on how he ‘couldn’t learn much about America from my refugee immigrant parents – but I learned all about it from MAD’; Roz Chast remembers how the magazine was ‘love at first sight. MAD made fun of stuff that I thought needed to be made fun of… It was one of my first inklings that there were other people out there who found the world as ridiculous as I did.’ David Hajdu and Grady Hendrix zero in on MAD’s hilarious movie spoofs; Liel Leibovitz delves into the Jewishness behind the magazine’s humor; and Rachel Shteir amplifies the often unsung contributions of MAD’s women artists. Several essays are admiring profiles of the individual creators that made MAD what it was: Mort Drucker, Harvey Kurtzman, Al Jaffee, Antonio Prohias, and Will Elder. For longtime fans and new readers alike, The MAD Files is an indispensable guide to America’s greatest satire magazine.” Of course, I put it on my hold list. :-). Lew

  17. @ Lew – I loved MAD when I was a teenager! I may have to check that book out when it hits our libraries. Did you read The Poopside Down Adventure? I still think it was the funniest movie satire of all time.

    Claire

  18. Chris,

    It is a perfect comment to insert in a written exam. It’s similar to what I wrote in a university physics electricity and magnetism exam…”and at this point, it became clear that the answer is 42.” (I likely mentioned this before.) The professor, armed with a great wit and knowledgeable about 42, replied “True, but you need to show your work.”

    Hmmmm, later that school year, I also took a course in astrophysics. There were 3 or 4 of us seniors, plus some juniors and sophomores. Coincidentally, the electricity and magnetism class was covering the same material at a much higher mathematical level. Also, the electricity and magnetism class was about 3 weeks ahead of where the astrophysics class was. So, I was moderately bored in the astrophysics class.

    Astrophysics was also early in the day, so to stay awake, I sat in the back of the class and read the newspaper or doodled or did crossword puzzles. When the astrophysics prof was discussing the subatomic particles known as “bosons”, I naturally doodled some weird looking picture and labeled it “Boson the Clown”. The sophomore sitting near me saw it and laughed loudly, disrupting the class. After class, the prof asked me to sit in the front, quit goofing off during class and be a good example. I complied but then began nodding off during his lectures. The third day of my “being good”, I awoke to hear him saying “And if DJ would WAKE UP!” After that class, he suggested that I return to the back of the room and read the newspaper during his lectures. “After all,” he said, “there are multiple ways to get to 42, and you clearly know where your towel is.” Yes, I still have fond memories of those two professors.

    Which leads to your physics question. I have bad news and good news. Alas! 42 does not actually enter into the analysis or solution of your question. However, you are correct. Earth’s relative proximity to the sun during northern hemisphere winters mostly explains why the Arctic is somewhat warmer than the Antarctic and its relative lack of proximity to the sun during southern hemisphere winters.

    I’ve seen 3 or 4 winters similar to this one since moving here in 1967. East coast gets snow, lowlands in the northwest gets massive rain, northwest mountains (from central California northwards) have above average snowpack. And southern California through most of the southwest is dry as a bone. West coast gets a lot of wind events, and the Southern California Santa Ana winds are more vicious than normal. Rather standard for a “Neutral” versus el Nino or la Nina winter.

    And yes, Death Valley is northeast across the mountains from Los Angeles. It’s in the “low desert” and is well below sea level in elevation. I’ve never been there. However, when we lived in the area, we spent time on Mount San Gorgonio as well as winter camping in Joshua Tree National Park. I’ve also driven through the Coachella Valley many times, this area including the Salton Sea which is also below sea level elevation. Low desert. Hotter than anything during the summer. I found the high deserts of New Mexico to be much more livable.

    We had another 20mm of snow when I awoke this morning. The West Plains had a tad bit more as well as some freezing rain. Lots of wrecks, one of which was nastily serious. It was a good morning to stay in. All of the snow and ice had melted off sidewalks and roads by late morning. Dame Avalanche and I walked to see Killian the Red for a play date at noon. We face nothing but wet roadways.

    I love that scene! The way they bickered about including “three” when their lives were endangered by the Killer Rabbit was priceless. Here’s another joke that involves proper counting. https://hvac-talk.com/vbb/threads/179565-The-Hillbilly-Vasectomy

    That’s a good harvest for those potatoes. Very good. Fried fresh potatoes are hard to beat!

    DJSpo

  19. Hi Pam,

    Harvesting potatoes is a bit tricky and I ended putting the fork accidentally through some of the tubers, so the stored amount ended up being 15.5 pounds. The others were cleaned up and are being roasted and eaten. So yummy! How good are home grown potatoes?

    🙂 That’s how it will surely roll with any left over taters! In previous years we’ve been a bit slack with potato growing methods, and I’ll be very interested to see what the yields are like with the tubers that have been grown here for years. Candidly the vines don’t appear to be as vigorous looking, however they also don’t seem as stressed out during the occasional extreme day of heat, so who knows. Have you grown potatoes?

    Sun, sun, sun, oooo, oooo, oooo, sun, sun! That’s the chorus, the rest of the song is a bit hazy! 🙂 Ook! That’s a good point about the deer and the roses. I guess roses are eminently edible. The deer do try all of our patience, lovely creatures. A stag was grunting at me from the forest edge the other day – we had words, let’s put it that way, and he knew he’d met his match. But then he could have probably waited until I went away… Deer probably know such things don’t you reckon?

    Thanks for clearing up the confusion. So Mr Kitty is not Mr Dumpy nor Mr Musty. Right, clear as mud. 😉 OK, so in the local vernacular, Mr Dumpy would be technically described as a flat bed utility vehicle – or if pressed fro time, a ute with a flat bed tray. Mr Dumpy would be a super handy vehicle, and metal lockers are useful for ensuring that one’s tools and equipment are not nicked.

    🙂 Everyone needs a most excellent grandmother!

    I know, my mind is full of dealing with hot summer weather – and worked outside again today topping up and feeding the soil in the big garden bed which formerly grew the Globe Artichokes. Did I mention it was hot? Thanks, and I’ll take you up on that kind offer. At least the rain has been sort of OK here, I’m looking at scenes of your country far to the west coast, and they’re not good. Hope the rains come soon for the people of LA, not much else will put such fires out.

    Yeah, the lemon tree in the snow is a fun visual. Actually all of the citrus trees made it through that snowfall, which is really weird. I’d given many of them a seaweed concentrate feed before hand, and maybe that helped? Dunno really.

    That’s lovely to hear that your citrus are thriving in the warm basement under lights. The trees are far hardier than you’d imagine, and the smell would be such a pleasure at your chilly time of year. And nice to hear that the firewood stores are plentiful!

    Cheers

    Chris

  20. Hi DJ,

    Truly the exam story is not diminished by repetition! And your witty answer, was responded too by an even wittier reply which dare I say it, was 11 out of 10!

    Man, some days in a persons life, they just hit the jackpot. The 50th anniversary. I’ve travelled across that reconstructed bridge, and it still has a missing pylon. Note the excellent work with the blocks of timber and a large steel wrecking bar: Survivor recalls Tasman Bridge disaster 50 years after ship cut Hobart in two

    Oh that’s a top notch reply to your studious example of the expression of utter boredom! Good to see that the lecturers were in on the joke.

    What? No way, but here I defer to your greater knowledge and must accept that the number 42 has nothing to do, with this problem. Ah, of course, and the Antarctic is of course a continent, and would have far greater thermal inertia so would not cool, nor heat as quickly. One day there may be an ice free Arctic. Not sure whether Antarctica would ever share that ice free fate because some of the mountains there are rather tall (and they at least would remain snow covered), still dinosaurs once lived there, so who knows?

    Good to hear that things in that corner of the world are sort of normal (whatever that means) when such climate events occur. We took a look at the satellite image and you can see the green patch heading north from those central Californian hills you mentioned, but far out, south and east of there is one big desert.

    Ah, I’d not known that Death Valley is below sea level. Well, that would explain a thing or two. 86m below sea level, and clearly in a rain shadow presumably from the Sierra Nevada (and others), can only but produce a hot environment. Dude, the name Furnace Creek is a dead giveaway. Interesting to see that long ago the area was a massive lake.

    Agreed, high deserts would make for somewhat easier conditions.

    Yay for the snow! But was not good for for some unfortunate folks. Well, hopefully Dame Avalanche was satisfied with the wet conditions? Although I’ve noticed that other than hot weather, dogs rarely complain about going on a walk.

    Good to see that the community there knew they were being sent up with cliches.

    Cheers

    Chris

  21. Hi Lewis,

    Go Maggie the gardener. Dude, please forgive me, but the last time I was depressed about an election outcome, was like, never. Hang with me for a second. So you may recall that many years ago I became interested in the integrity of the election results, so what better way to learn, but get involved with the count. And what I learned was that it’s honest. Really honest. So, as an example, I disagreed with the severity of the lockdowns during you-know-what, and they were stricter and longer here than anywhere else on the planet. Yet the following election the people returned the mob which made those decisions, even with all of the mess-ups and fiscal disasters. I keep an open mind about such matters, and just shrugged my shoulders, put the events down to general societal weirdness, and moved on with my life.

    From down here though, it’s really hard for me to discern whether people on the street in your country are having a meltdown, your elites are having a meltdown, or the media is having a meltdown. But clearly there are meltdowns, going on somewhere! 🙂 There’s simply no clarity of discussion, or honest self reflection, but with elections, you gets, what you gets.

    If a person seeks solace in a garden, that’s great news. And surely a bit of quality home grown food produce, exercise and fresh air will improve a persons general state of mind, especially if they’re depressed. What’s not good about that? Absolutely, the more the merrier, and who cares what prompted people to get their hands in the soil, it’s awesome to hear that it’s happening. Such an outcome was always baked into the cake – why people don’t realise that is beyond me. And I did notice that an historian was among the people getting into edible gardening – you’d think that an historical perspective would perhaps guide a practical response?

    Some of those Honda knock-off motors the guy mentioned in the article for his new wood chipper, are actually pretty well made and will last the distance. Hopefully he doesn’t put too many wood chips onto his vegetable garden, but oh well, the world is far from perfect.

    Speaking of such matters, today I finished off that huge garden bed restoration job. Brought back another trailer load of sand + mushroom compost + fine woody mulch and chucked it onto the garden bed. Then added a couple of bags of garden lime + dolomite + gypsum + a big expensive bag of blood and bone meal. Mixing it in was hard work – which we filmed – and by the end in the heat it was a bit sweaty, which sounds odd now that I’ve typed that. Oh well. But the soil err, plant growing stuff, in either garden bed on the terrace is now ready to plant out with winter crops. Getting in early this year. There’s a storm forecast for Sunday, so I’ll get the seeds on the soil maybe late Saturday or early Sunday. Don’t want to put them out too early in case the parrots notice, and eat them all.

    Had a lovely chat today with the local cherry farm lady. The Editor loves cherries, and so we buy them there when in season, and have done so for years. The comparison of other countries and fruit trees was brought up, and err, yeah, down under has a lot of hungry bird life, relatively speaking. Hmm

    Your vehicle has a pretty good reputation – for that year. It was around that date of production that some of the most reliable ever vehicles were made. May have had something to do with the peak of conventional oil production me thinks.

    Ook! Sucked in a bit of those sorts of diesel exhaust fumes myself over the years. Not an encouraging concept given the stuff is reputedly carcinogenic. Yup, we do the windows down thing to clear out the exhaust stink. A wonderfully energy dense fuel though. I doubt civilisation would look like it does today without diesel. Taking the good with the bad.

    🙂 Nice one, and good to hear that Jane is doing well. Yeah, I regularly question people about doing rehab, and well, there’s more often than not, a very low commitment. DJ here set a fine example of what to do with his hand injury. It would be nice if everyone took such matters seriously.

    Far out, that’s serious and Jane is lucky to have survived the stroke. Always interesting to see how people respond to a serious health crisis.

    Hopefully the rent is much reduced for the veg store? Yay for the yoghurt, and it’s a staple here too. Nice and zingy tasting.

    Did the latest Transformers film live up to the earlier instalments? Had a salad for dinner this evening. Oh hey, for lunch along with the bread, we baked some of the home grown potatoes, and they’re so tasty. Yum! Had a thin slice of tasty cheese on fresh bread and then chucked a chunk of oven warm roast potato on top. It’s not gourmet, but far out, can it get any better?

    I hadn’t considered that option, but yes, probably the highest bidder will get the oil. The risk with losing reserve currency status is that perhaps the current account deficit for imports and exports may have to come into some sort of rough balance. As to the other outrageous claims, agreed, filters would be nice, but who knows? It makes for good street theatre, and it may even happen.

    The Globe Artichokes may be settling into their new home, maybe. Time will tell, it’s a harsh time of year for garden transplants. Your garlic would definitely ward away the vampires – you might be onto something there. 😉 I’m wholly unprotected from the undead. Hmm. Might have to do something about that. Good stuff that they’re popping up shoots. Garlic is a hardy plant. You won’t regret the planting of so many bulbs and varieties.

    It was 84’F today, but cloudy so that made the work easier, but by the late lunch of 2.30pm, I’d had enough. On the other hand, the job is done! Yeah, the images of the fire are horrendous, and already the news of the insurers are beginning to come to light. I believe that the Japanese have easier building codes in areas subject to natural disasters, and it’s a sensible response to keep costs down. I do wonder how financial systems based on debt will work when the underlying assets can’t be insured. The problems may even extend into the bond market. Hmm.

    Van Helsing is a good character, and he doesn’t blurt out his fears so as to startle friend and foe alike. I still can’t quite comprehend how the vampires knew Lucy would be an easy target, but the books introduction suggested that all mysteries would be resolved by the end of the book – a strange thing for the narrator to say.

    Yum! Man, the crumble is a great idea, and it fits the food role the Anzac biscuits do here. Does it taste good, and any plans to tweak the recipe?

    What a fun book, on such an amusing topic. I loved Mad magazine. Hopefully the esteemed critics don’t over intellectualise the subject matter? Always a risk. At the beginning of the Jack Vance books is often an introduction penned by a notable author or fan, and they do vary in quality. Some are quite dull. Others recount stories of a drunken Jack Vance at a sci-fi convention in Sweden smooshing the diminutive local author Stieg Larsson, in a taxi cab on the way back to the hotel whenever the vehicle went around a corner. Fun times!

    Cheers

    Chris

  22. @ Claire – Well, given it was 60+ years ago, memories are a bit hazy 🙂

    I do remember that I thoroughly enjoyed the movie satires. And the back covers that looked fairly benign, until you folded them in such a way that more “interesting” pictures emerged. Lew

  23. Yo, Chris – Well, politics aside … I tend to just ignore the politics and go with the intent of the article. That more people are growing food. Maybe it will give them an appreciation of small farmers.

    Speaking of food, we got a box, yesterday. Glad to have it, but it was a bit … lackluster. The bag of veg was just some potatoes and apples. The usual cereal, milk, gallon of apple drink. Not much protein. One can of salmon. A pound of pulled pork, that should have been refrigerated. There was a big bag of those individually wrapped fancy sandwiches. They took up a lot of space. The last two items went straight down to the refrigerator, in our community room. Oddly enough, two tins of apricots. Peanut butter. A two pound brick of “cheese.”

    I went down to the warehouse like grocery, last night. Where things are on the inexpensive side. There were no eggs in our box, so, I had to buy some. $8 for a dozen.

    Speaking of eggs, I got back the “Best American Food and Travel Writing of 2024.” There was an essay on eggs. The current fixation of cage free / free range eggs, with bright orangish yolks. Turns out, some farmers feed their chickens marigolds or turmeric, to get that color.

    Always satisfying to get the restoration and preparation, done. Then you can get down to the nitty gritty of getting stuff planted.

    We had a cherry tree, at our house in Portland. We always got some, but the robins also got their share. 🙂 We also had a plum / prune tree.

    I heard today that Jane will be going home, in a few days.

    I think the new digs at the veg store are owned by them. They also own a restaurant (for years), one of those “farm to table” places. The veg store has been incorporated into that business.

    Well, the Transfomers movie was OK, but not what I was expecting. It’s the origin story. But all animated. I also watched a documentary, from Australia. “Beyond the Wasteland.” It’s about the fans of the Mad Max movies. They seem to concentrate on the first two films. I didn’t know it was a “thing.” They have conventions where the movies were filmed, not that far NW from you. Not only are their Australian fans, but people come from France, Italy, the US and Japan. Some create replicas of the cars and motor bikes, from the movies. Or, collect memorabilia. Lots of cosplay, involved.

    By the way, my friend Kenna and her boy / friend, sat in on an online Australian AA meeting. Didn’t participate, but just observed. Not sure which city. She thought the accents were just “lovely.” 🙂

    Our high yesterday was 52F (11.11C). Overnight low was 41F. Forecast for today is 48F. Sunny with scattered clouds. Not much to tweak in a crumble recipe. I did up the spice. The recipe calls for only 1/2 tsp of cinnamon. I added the nutmeg, in an equal amount. I also warm it up, and put a dollop of plain yoghurt on top. Some people put on a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Just about any fruit can be used, but some can be a problem due to high water content. Sometimes Jello is added, to firm things up.

    “The Mad Files:” Here’s more from our library catalog …

    Publishers Weekly

    Mikics (Stanley Kubrick), an English professor at the University of Houston, brings together vibrant reflections on Mad magazine’s legacy from an impressive roster of fans and former contributors. His introduction describes Mad’s beginnings as a collaboration between comics publisher Bill Gaines and illustrator Harvey Kurtzman in the early 1950s, its heyday in the 1960s and ’70s, and its “long slow decline” from the 1980s through its final publication in 2019. Among the more scholarly takes is New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik’s argument that the irreverent magazine’s popularity in the 1950s reveals how that decade, the supposed paragon of conformity, enjoyed a more heterogenous cultural mainstream than commonly acknowledged. Most entries are more personal, such as Maus cartoonist Art Spiegelman’s comic that recounts how he begged his mother to buy him his first issue of Mad when he was seven (he became hooked, studying the magazine “the way some kids studied the Talmud”). Selections from former contributors brim with behind-the-scenes hijinks (in a yearslong prank, Gaines convinced a gullible stockroom employee that he had an evil twin brother), and fond appreciations from the likes of Roz Chast and R. Crumb attest to the magazine’s widespread influence. It adds up to a surprisingly multifaceted look at a beloved magazine. (Sept.)

    Lew

  24. Chris:

    It’s well nigh impossible to get them all out of the ground undamaged. If you use them, you can count their weight. I always grow some potatoes; some years good, some years bad.

    “Sun, sun, sun, oooo, oooo, oooo, sun, sun!” I think it’s going to be a big hit!

    “a ute with a flat bed tray” – I’ll buy that. Thanks!

    Pam

  25. Chris,

    Agreed, the electricity professor’s answer was an 11 out of 10. Easily. I had a good laugh about it. Hmmm, I still have a good laugh about it.

    He was a new professor at that university the year I graduated. His first lecture, he said, “And God said Maxwell’s equations, and there was light.” The entire class erupted in laughter and looked at me. I was in the back row, of course. He looked a bit confused, but he continued on. After class I followed him to his office. I said, “Sir, look.” Then I turned my back on him. The back of my shirt read, “And God said”, then it wrote out the actual Maxwell’s Equations before continuing, “and there was light.” He then understood, we had a good laugh together, and began discussing other useful things that he had found in India and then at Columbia University, things such as 42, towels, etc. He fit right in with us and the astrophysics prof, who had also read Douglas Adams’s books multiple times.

    If Antarctica becomes free of ice, signs of what ancient civilizations will be found there? Or will the ice have ground it all into powder?

    That desert south and east of Coachella Valley also continues north. It is connected to the deserts of eastern Washington, eastern Oregon and continues up to Penticton, British Columbia in Canada. And it’s all connected to all the other desert areas in the USA, as well as being connected to the deserts that cover much of northern Mexico. As is true of Australia, there is a huge swathe of North America that is one big continuous desert.

    Supposed to get another 2.5cm or so of snow overnight. Or maybe before noon Friday. By this time next week, we are supposed to get very dry and have temperatures drop to the -9C range for a few days, the coldest so far this winter. I’ve been enjoying these days of +2C with lows of -2C. Every day. Easy to be acclimated that way. 😉

    We’ve been busy this week. Then the Princess spent today watching President Carter’s services. I did odds and ends in the house, had to run an errand so I could avoid erranding in the snow tomorrow. But tomorrow should be a good day to walk Avalanche. Snow. Husky. Walk. Fun stuff.

    DJSpo

  26. Hi Pam,

    Ah, many thanks for the confirmation that it is difficult to lift potatoes from the ground without damaging some of them. It’s pretty hard on the soil too, as a side observation. Technically, we could suggest that the potato extraction efforts are intended to also aerate the soil as an unintended side benefit!

    Not sure what you do with damaged potatoes, but those have been thoroughly washed and will be cooked and eaten over the next week or so. I’d be curious to hear your opinion of the storage method used for the good potatoes, but they were placed in a sealed large bucket packed in dry straw. The bucket is being kept in a shed which is near to the chickens and never receives direct sunlight due to tall trees and stuff. If you have any suggestions for better storage methods, please don’t hesitate to let me know.

    It’s hard to know if the early variety will be viable here. Given they get planted out again in late winter / early spring, hopefully some tubers last until then, but who really knows. Dunno. A mystery.

    Do you buy in new seed potatoes, or re-use last seasons? Buying in new seed potatoes doesn’t make a lot of sense economically, unless the yield on re-sown potatoes is greatly reduced over that of purchased seed potatoes (which I find difficult to believe, but could be true). Again, I’ve got no idea… 🙂

    Don’t you reckon the lyrics: “Here comes the sun, And I say, it’s all right” would make for a good song as well?

    Yes, the local vernacular sometimes distils complicated descriptions into plain talk! For your info, most people would call the vehicle a ‘ute’, but I think in your country they’re referred to as ‘trucks’, although that word down here means a much bigger vehicle like a lorry or a prime mover.

    Took the day off any and all work today!

    Cheers

    Chris

  27. Hi DJ,

    Isn’t it a fortunate experience to come across people who like to teach with humour, and also share our deep sense of the absurdity of existence – not to forget the utter complexosity (I just made that word up, but it more or less defines the substitution of the unknowable with a sort of workable model which more or less makes some kind of sense) of attempting to explain any of this stuff? Students always take a subject matter in more deeply if they’re engaged and enjoying themselves. Nothing at all wrong with silly jokes, and many an assistant accountant over the years has scored an accurately thrown clop to their head with a tasty chocolate. Did anyone complain? I don’t think so man.

    Dude, I began reading about Maxwell’s equations and truly my head began this weird sort of internal thumping sound. Look, I’d have to suggest that they’re not good for my blood pressure. Comprehending charge density versus that of current density is of course describing different states, and here there is no disagreement, but! What if the electrons were at an entirely different party? What then?

    A mate of mine is an electrical engineer and one day he began explaining to me that electrons don’t actually flow, they kind of bump each other along instead in excited atomic level states. It’s too much for my limited brain who has to kind of figure out how to use all this stuff to keep the lights on! A man’s gotta know his limitations, to quote Dirty Harry. 🙂

    Ha! Possibly the Antarctic continent, which has always kind of floated around the bottom of the planet in it’s vagary, may only ever get partially ice free. Ah, the studies tend to confirm this belief, and it is notable that in the northern hemisphere the minimum and maximum glaciation is biggerer probably due to being further away from the sun in orbit during your summer months so less energy maybe, but that’s only a wild guess.

    I’m pretty sure that there was an Alien – Predator franchise film involving exactly that scenario you mentioned in Antarctica. Whaddya mean it wasn’t a documentary? 😉 Personally my thinking is not that big, and I always wondered what settlements were lost when Doggerland went under. It’d be a big stretch of the imagination to pretend that no humans lived there.

    It’s massive and you can see that the desert in your country is relieved by significant mountain ranges – which is something we don’t really have. The Great Dividing Range down under is hugely long and stretches from the top of the east down to here, but low enough that storms can cross east to west etc. Although admittedly, it is drier west and north of the divide. And that’s another weird difference, the deserts here are more arid lands than true desert.

    Did you get the snow? Oh far out, that’s cold. Hope you, your lady and Dame Avalanche stay warm in the cold snap. Yup, that’s my experience too, -2’C is not really all that bad if properly attired. That’s as cold as it ever gets here.

    Sorry to hear about the loss of that great bloke, he meant well, and was an astounding orator. A true loss, and an opportunity for genuine change, lost.

    It was 31’C here today, and not too bad, although I took the day off any and all work. Had a gourmet pie. Late this afternoon it was still about 29’C, but Sandra and I took the dogs for a long walk. They loved it, although Dame Plum stands in the water bowl when she gets home so as to cool off. A sensible response. She’s got the hiccups tonight due to being too greedy with a rawhide chew.

    Hot again tomorrow, but then some late rain.

    Cheers

    Chris

  28. Hi Lewis,

    I get that and was merely pointing out the absurdity of the expressed opinions, which have been heard spoken aloud even down here. Makes me wonder who’s thoughts those people in the article are actually expressing? Hmm. Oh well, not to worry and moving on, but if that’s what it takes to get peoples hands in the soil, it’s a great use of the political numpties and their general tomfoolery. 🙂

    And small in farming, is beautiful! It’s amazing how productive us humans can be given the incentive. The whole ‘get big or get out’ story I reckon has even come to bite the big growers in their backsides – hopefully you’ll get to enjoy the Clarkson’s Farm series sooner or later? Where better to look to see what works? The past, but of course.

    Took the day off any and all work today. A gourmet lamb and rosemary pie was consumed. An afternoon nap was had. I even slept in this morning. Man, I’m beginning to feel sympathy for the vampires on that front! 😉 Not really, they stay up way too late after my preferred bedtime doing who knows what the undead do. But are they having fun?

    It’s still warm today, at about 88’F, which is not too bad at this time of year. Even if I don’t appreciate the heat, the plants do, and they’re growing. The parrots knocked off a tree, two ripe red plums which I picked up and brought inside. It’s a good time of year for produce.

    Bummer about the food box, and err, pulled pork in need of refrigeration is perhaps a meal for others with stronger constitutions – so much extra surface area with that meat. Hmm. Did you keep the can of salmon? It’s good stuff. Tis the season for apricots, not sure why that would be in your country, but canned stuff is a handy preservation method. Do you intend to try them? We turned most of them into jam, bottled a dozen large glass jars (canning) and are fresh eating the rest. I reckon the season is done for that stone fruit, and plums will be the next up.

    Far out man! Wow. It’s not often that you pay the same amount dollar wise as us down here for stuff, but eggs are expensive and that’s about what they cost here. We tend to purchase the free range, or at least cage free pasture eggs, and they’re about $10 to $11 a dozen. The gardeners in the article are correct, food costs are on the up, but it’s hardly explained by tariffs, yet.

    That’s an ingenious strategy with the turmeric and marigolds. 🙂 Whatever will they think of next? Probably good for the chickens as well. It’s possible that increased feed costs explain the prices you’re seeing? Dunno. Anyway, you can tell if the egg is high protein if the albumen holds together a bit more jelly like, as distinct from running rapidly across the surface of the frying pan / skillet.

    Exactly! In many ways, garden beds aren’t much different from raised beds, and dig around in the soil for long enough, and you’ll see that the plants have consumed it (or the soil has compacted or eroded). The soil is hungry as are the plants, and so resetting them and giving them a good solid feed sets you up for the next crop. Plus it’s good to be getting the systems here ready to go early this year. It was a bit painful to have such large garden beds producing so little.

    Well, the birds have got to eat too. 🙂 Makes you wonder what they eat when there are no handy fruit trees growing in the area… Those are good fruit trees, plums are a favourite.

    Glad to hear that Jane will be released in a few days. Hope her support network pitches in and helps out. Has she said anything about reducing the work load in the garden or with the animals at her place?

    Oh! Well that would be different, and animations can go places that the more usual camera derived format struggle with. The Mad Max fandom is all news to me too and I hadn’t known it was a thing either. From the footage I reckon they went up to Silverton in New South Wales where the second instalment was filmed. The original film was filmed not all that far away from here. The fans looked like they went to enormous efforts.

    🙂 Glad to hear your friends enjoyed the local vernacular spoken in it’s purest form. It’s funny how the accent is spoken continent wide, there just isn’t the local differentiation. You can definitely hear that in your country. I tend to find the PNW accents the clearest sounding to my listening ears. When I was a very young kid, the news readers used to put on a sort of fake English – Australian accent. It was all very strange.

    Nice weather you’re enjoying for winter. What a huge country you live in. Is there some sort of polar vortex about to hit the eastern half of your country? I’ve heard some oblique references to that weather event.

    Art Spiegelman’s quote is a very New York thing to say! Quite amusing, really. So has the book arrived yet, or is it still on hold?

    Another hot day tomorrow, but then for something different, it will be hot and rainy on Sunday! We’ve got both sorts of weather! Better than fire weather though. And the plants are growing strongly this year.

    Cheers

    Chris

  29. Yo, Chris – If you want to get your potatoes out of the ground, intact, you have to go at it like an archaeological dig. Soft brushes … dental picks … 🙂 I wonder if, this year, the inmates here at the Institution will grow more veg, and fewer flowers? Probably, not. I sprinkled stove ash around my garlic, last night. My timing was good. We had rain, overnight, and I see this morning that most of it has been washed into the soil.

    I had rice with half a tin of black beans, and half a tin of diced tomatoes, last night. I chopped up some mustard leaves and parsley, from the garden. Garlic. Broccoli. Rice. Tasty.

    Judging from the comedic vampire movies I linked to, I’d say vampires have a bit of fun. 🙂

    I took the tin of salmon, down to the Club. I’ve been working up to making a salmon loaf (never done it, before.) I have a recipe in my recipe box, that I was just looking at, the other day. And I have a few tins in my pantry. Maybe, this weekend? I kept one of the tins of apricots, and, eventually, will have them for desert, with yoghurt, some evening.

    I suppose the cost of feed (like everything else), for chickens, is up. But most of the price increase is due to the millions of chickens, slaughtered, due to bird flu.

    And, from our “Seemed like a good idea, at the time. What could possibly go wrong,” department. Two of the numpities that live out at Jane’s decided she needed a ramp, down to her bedroom, in the basement. Well. The ramp is so steep that it’s cut off access to Jane’s bedroom, the laundry facilities, and, a second bathroom. Just for good measure, also took the rails out, so you can’t even haul yourself up and down. They’d better get the stairs back in place, before Jane gets home, or, there will be hell to pay. 🙂

    A lot of the Mad Max festivities also happen in Clunes. Where Max’s car was finally wrecked (Broken Hill?), has become a sort of archaeological dig. Fans looking for souvenirs. Brushes, dental picks and metal detectors are deployed.

    In past, I’ve read that the PNW is one of the most accent-less parts of our country. Not much to pick us out from the crowd. Other than that we’re accent-less.

    Our high yesterday was 54F (12.22C). Our overnight low was 41F. The Forecast for today is 49F. When I took H for a walk, around midnight, I stepped into the hall and it felt subarctic. Someone had thrown the window wide open, at the end of the hall. I closed and locked it. I thought we’all inmates, here at the Institution were well past hot flashes. 🙂 I saw a good article, about out the La Niña, and how it might effect us, last night.

    https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/09/weather/la-nina-winter-spring-forecast-climate

    Probably won’t be too long before the library receives its copies of “The Mad Files.” I see it was released in early September.

    Saw an article about a new Star Trek movie, coming out. “Star Trek: Section 31.” That’s the CIA / Deep State wing of star fleet, that are occasionally up to no good. Stars Michelle Yeoh. There’s also a TV series coming out, “Watson.” I don’t know. Takes place in current time. Sherlock is supposedly dead, but has endowed the doctor with enough mad cash to set up some kind of a medical research / hospital facility. Whatever.

    I read a really interesting article about how the Getty Villa, was saved from the fire. That’s the museum that’s a replica of a Herculaneum seaside villa.

    https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2025-01-09/inside-the-dash-to-save-the-getty-villa-from-the-palisades-fire

    I hope you can see the article. They’ve been pretty proactive, all along, planning for such an event. Lew

  30. Chris:

    I am no way the person whom you should ask about storing potatoes. First of all, I never grow all that many even in good years, so we eat them fairly quickly. Secondly, we store our potatoes – store-bought or home grown – in our dishwasher, so as to have them convenient. The extras (10 pound bags at a time) sit in the basement in a metal filing cabinet. We have all sorts of odd things sitting around . . .

    I buy in some potato “seeds” and I also just cut up some from the grocery store that we didn’t eat. I think the specially bought ones from the farmers’ co-op do better.

    “Here comes the sun, And I say, it’s all right” – I’d buy it. Oh – I did.

    “Dude, please forgive me, but the last time I was depressed about an election outcome, was like, never.” That reminded me of something I read about an old fellow in one of the Balkan countries – wish I could remember which. Someone asked him about how he coped with the frequently changing national government, control being tossed here there and everywhere. He replied that, as he saw it, each time he just learned the new name of his country (that was always changing, too) and just went on with his business. You just work with whatever and whoever is there. Sadly, I can’t remember his business either.

    Pam

  31. Chris,

    Yes, having some physics profs with humour made it much more interesting. Learning is easier that way.

    Hmmm, yes, the electrician is probably correct about electron flow. The mind bender that still bothers me? Remember the single slit and double slit experiments where a photon is shot at a slit and it goes through the slit and appears on a screen? One school of thought in physics says that the photon might not actually go through the slit(s) and that the photon that appears on the screen might not even be the same one that was shot at the screen. And that it doesn’t matter because the results on the screen support the theory anyhow. I’m pretty sure that I disagree with that school of thought.

    And if Maxwell’s electrons were at an entirely different party? Well, ummm, most of us are never invited to that sort of party, are we? 😉 It all just means that at the quantum level, the infinite improbability drive is in charge. 42.

    The practical application is to assume that electrons flow through the wires and design accordingly. It’s a close enough approximation that has worked for a long time. Also, in my photon and slit example…assuming that the shot photon is what goes through a slit and appears on the screen is good enough. It works and it’s moderately understandable. So that’s how knowing my limitations fits into this.

    Very good. IIRC, your idea about maximum glaciation is correct.

    We watch that particular Alien versus Predator film as often as we can find it. I think the Princess recorded it to our DVR once and won’t delete it. Not that I blame her, as it is an enjoyable movie.

    Yes. The snow. It did arrive late in the morning. Maybe 15mm. Then it got above freezing and all the snow melted off of the streets and sidewalks. It never got warm enough for those hard surfaces to dry out, however. Then the temperature dropped and we got a nice dusting on top of what by then had turned to ice. Very nasty driving conditions beginning at 5:00 p.m. Not that we were planning on going anywhere.

    Sorry about your heat. Ugh. Dame Avalanche will step into her water bowl or the big water thingy I have for the birds when she gets hot. That has got to feel good on the feet. So I’m not surprised that Dame Plum does the same thing.

    DJSpo

  32. Hi Pam,

    It was really pleasant to have a relaxing day of no work (which excludes the day to day stuff that has to be done regardless – no escape from that lot, is there?) Anyway, it was all very calm. Then, well, expect the unexpected here. A family of about five or six deer could be seen late at night munching around the forest edge of the sunny orchard. Woke up this morning to discover a very huge deer (the Sambar can reach 350kg / 770 pounds) happily munching away on the six foot tree fern (the plants are edible), which is not all that far from the front door. The herbivore was absolutely unconcerned, so Ollie and I shooed it off back into the forest at about 6am. To say the deer look put out by our combined antics, is an understatement. Sadly I may have to send a strong message to the deer to tone it down a bit. The wildlife are welcome here, but the damage the deer are doing lately is way too much to be sustainable. It takes ten to fifteen years to grow a decent fruit tree, and they’re destroying them in a single night. By comparison, the wallabies are little angels, those cheeky marsupial vandals. I’ve never seen such damage before.

    Pam, that’s totally ingenious storing potatoes in the dishwasher. The insides of the machine would be insulated, cool and dark. What a great idea, although hopefully you’d keep guests out of the kitchen in case they switched the machine on – which is a policy I tend to follow here. Guests tend to be catered too, so no need for them to be in the kitchen.

    Ah, the local farm gate dudes sell potatoes in around ten pound bags too (at a dollar a pound I may add). They’re good taters, and I’ve been buying them from the dudes for a long time. The bag is a good size for the kitchen. As a fun side story, the two old timers are amusingly scurrilous gossips and I thoroughly enjoy the chats whilst exploring the history of the area. I’m sure you know such folks in your part of the world?

    Hmm. Thanks for your experience with setting out of your potato starts. The deer decided to nibble on the potato vines last night…

    That makes two of us! 🙂 Such a lovely album, every song hit the right note.

    🙂 Thanks for the story. It’s a cultural failing of Australians as a whole. Politicians sometimes lose sight of the general state of apathy in regards to their actions, and the population generally sends them packing on the next vote should they become too boisterous. There’s a base expectation that they do their jobs, or else. The old Balkan bloke makes a fine point, and then gets on with his life. You know, we’ve travelled a bit in Asia, not necessarily cities either, but the countryside, and most people we’ve met – even in the aftermath of the most horrendously war torn countries – just want to get on with their lives.

    Cheers

    Chris

  33. Hi DJ,

    We’ve all been under the tutelage of sub optimal teachers, so it’s great to experience good conditions for learning. And last I checked, nobody ever suggested that learning shouldn’t be fun. 😉 A long, long time ago Sandra worked in an office, and one of the jobs was putting up the Christmas decorations. And truly she was told to be more serious about the activity – like how un-fun is that attitude? Some people…

    Truly, the discussion on the flow of electrons went way over my head, although there was much nodding and serious thoughtful expressions observed. However, I agree with your take on the way these things most likely work, after all, it’s been my observation that electrons flow across the path of least resistance from high voltage to low voltage. I tend to believe that these things move over physical space because that can be measured in time and the results observed. But the sub atomic level knowledge is not my friend, and I’m way out of my depth! 🙂

    I know, the lack of invites is palpable! It’s awful isn’t it? Still, I’d probably feel a bit awkward and uncomfortable at such a party – and may even turn the invitation down. Have to laugh, a friend once invited me to a child’s first birthday party, and it was madness. Never again! Finally I tracked down my other friends who were hanging out in the garage drinking beer and talking rubbish. That was a relief, I can tell you. Dude, the noise level was 42 on the dial!

    Absolutely. Your explanation of the practical applications of the experiment is what interests me. How to get these photons reaching the ground at one part of the property, into the batteries as electrons in a distant location. Then make them do fun stuff. Sounds easier than it actually is!

    On that note, I keep a look out on ebuy from time to time to see if anybody is selling off second hand items. Nabbed a couple of locally made solar to battery charge controllers on the cheap. Hopefully they work well, but if not I can send them off to be refurbished, maybe… Good to have spare parts these days. Yup!

    Have you had to get Big Bertha out yet, or is it all gym work shovelling? Actually I’ve got this idea that maybe Dame Avalanche in a harness might move some snow?

    Spent hours today cleaning up some wild blackberry. Hot work, and it takes my mind off the deer problem. Dame Plum has rolled in something interesting smelling too. Hmm. Always stuff going on.

    Awesome about the film, and it’s good, yeah. Your lady has excellent taste in films! I’ve had a fondness for that particular film too as I’d watched it with a group of mates when visiting my friend who passed away during you-know-what, but apparently of a heart attack. It happens.

    Whoa! What nightmare conditions. That’s good news that you had no plans to travel in the icy conditions. Man, I still recall the horror of having the old Suzuki Dirt Rat spin around suddenly and face the wrong way when we hit ice a few years ago. Rather a decent drop off the side of the mountainous road too. Always wise to engage four wheel drive in such conditions. Your Subie would handle the ice pretty well I’d imagine?

    Dogs! They know how to keep their cool. 🙂 It should never have been cool for cats, the song would have been better: Dogs are just cool.

    Cheers

    Chris

  34. Hi Lewis,

    That’s funny, but you’re right. 🙂 Dental picks! Nice one. And I clearly lack the patience for such work, probably like that bloke at the Troy digs seems also to have suffered from. Ook! Once the fork loosened the soil around the potatoes, the hands (wearing leather riggers gloves) sifted through the soil. I do wonder if some deeper tubers were missed. Oh well.

    Makes you wonder if the inmates will do so with the edible gardening. You’d hope so. I’m not fussed, because eventually deprivation of one kind or another will get more people into gardening. It’s not a skill set a person can learn quickly, but hunger can focus the mind wonderfully, so who knows?

    It is funny how quickly all of these soil mineral additions disappear into the depths of the soil. And ash is really quick to do that here as well. I’ve made the joke before that you’d imagine this place would smell of used coffee grounds, but no. Timing with the seasons and weather is everything too, and you get better with practice, plus maybe keep a garden diary – an even better practice, and one which we’ve implemented this season.

    Speaking of which, we got all of the kale and mustard seeds into the restored large garden bed today. It was quite warm, and I watered the seeds into the soil so that they’d get off to a good start. Tomorrow will be down right tropical here they tell me: Eastern Australia braces for weekend of flooding rains, thunderstorms and a heatwave. Yay for us! Ook… It’s candidly hard to know which condition is worse.

    Yum! How are you enjoying the fresh mustard leaves? They’re a good winter leafy green crop here too (note seeds planted out today). Some of those winter crops get better tasting with frosty weather as the plant produces sugars to reduce the freezing point.

    Of course, sorry, and thanks for the correction. Yes, vampires can be a fun lot, and the facts suggest as much. 🙂

    What is a salmon loaf? Hang on a sec… … How did I miss this tasty morsel? Might try it in the winter months, it looks like that sort of hearty fare to keep you warm in the guts. Yum! I’ll be interested to hear what you have to say about the loaf if you decide to bake it.

    Oh yeah, feed costs are way up. Bird flu is meaning that lots of chickens are getting killed. Commercial egg producers are quite accomplished at that task. Hmm. It’s a dirty business in my opinion. The oldest chicken in the flock is fifteen, and she’s from the original batch. A tough old bird.

    Hey, I did that with apricots for breakfast! Pretty tasty stuff. It’s a good combination of flavours what with the sharp apricot and the tangy yoghurt.

    Oh no! Maybe the folks at Jane’s didn’t realise that ramps have to be navigable? That one sounds like a slippery slide at a water park though. Hope they restore the less challenging stairs in time, or maybe work out an entirely different arrangement.

    The interweb is sometimes amazing. And thanks for mentioning the town of Clunes, which incidentally has a book fair you’d enjoy, it was also a scene from the original film – thus your observation. Man, I’ve lived near plenty of the places where the film was shot. There’s a super nifty description of all of the places. The nearest to here is Sunbury (which is the closest big outer town): Mad Max – 1979. I believe the car was finally wrecked at Silverton which is very near to Broken Hill, although it’s hard to know whether that actually happened, because I recall seeing the vehicle at a shopping mall in the early 1980’s. Was it a fake? Looked real enough to me.

    Well, the accent, it’s a difference, but it does make the sensitive person wonder what is exactly meant by accent-less? Dunno really. It’s funny though, I don’t hear my own accent, although I’m well aware of how Aussie accents sound.

    Noooo. It’s a truth universally acknowledged, that those who don’t pay the heating bills, are the most careless with such details! I like fresh air in a house, but there are sometimes when a line must drawn, and you discovered that – it’s like you say, a bit subarctic.

    Interestingly, did you notice in the article that down here the weather bureau has made the decision not to flag seasons as El Nino or La Nina alone, because there are other complicating factors to the local climate? Apparently the media has been latching onto simplistic interpretations of what the climate drivers portend! Thanks for the article, and the lady in the lead photo looks like she might be an evil doer from a Batman film – it’s hard to know what is hiding under all those layers. Anyway, it appears as if the next three months for your corner of the country will be err, moist. You’ve said something about rust and moss before, and I don’t doubt you! I’d be happy to see a bit more rain in this corner of the world, although it would be disingenuous to claim that it’s been an extreme dry season – I’ve seen far worse, this one is not bad at all.

    That Star Trek film should be different, and anything which just recounts a good tale is OK with me. And! I always knew that the Star Trek universe was some sort of quasi military dictatorship, why else the folks at Section 31… 🙂 Hmm, secrets to hide there for sure. Michelle Yeoh will be pretty good to see in that film.

    To be honest, the character Sherlock read to me as if he was a rather unpleasant individual. Sure he cleaned up at the end, but Dr Watson was much more err, approachable. Oh my! Now I’m deeply troubled. Turns out more than a few people on the interweb believe the good fictional detective to be either a sociopath at best, or a psychopath at worst. Serious people are discussing this subject!

    They did amazingly well to save the museum, and the word, ‘prepared’ was used. Respect to them. You may wonder why I spend months of effort each year cleaning up?

    Cheers

    Chris

  35. Hi Chris,

    Yup, it’s been a wet winter here. 8.5 inches of wet snow with some sleet mixed in last Sunday through early Monday morning, then another 2 inches of wet snow yesterday. Here’s math for you: 8.5 inches of wet snow + one 71 year old + one 67 year old + one 100 foot long driveway + 2 shovels = hiring two neighbors much younger than us to shovel the driveway after I spent a half hour shoveling a shovel width’s path from the side door to the garage, which is 50 or 60 feet long, and Mike spent an hour shoveling the snow off of the ramp from the back porch door to the kitchen door. The two neighbors bearing shovels fortuitously appeared just as I finished the path to the garage and was looking at the driveway in despair, trying to gauge how many hours it would take us to get it shoveled. After we agreed on a price for the neighbors to shovel the driveway (one in her late 30s or early 40s, the other a teenager), it took them a little over an hour to clear the whole driveway. A very impressive job, and I doubled the pay we’d agreed on, knowing from experience how hard it is to shovel that much snow off of the driveway. Yesterday’s 2 inches, on the other hand, was easy for Mike and I to shovel ourselves. At least the sun is shining today and it’s not too cold, near freezing.

    Claire

  36. Yo, Chris – I see (taste?) venison in your future. 🙂 . The guys from the Big Shed would probably help you “process” an animal. And would probably welcome a good chunk of the meat.

    I’ve also gotten a lot more disciplined about a garden diary, this year. I used to keep notes on legal pads … that tended to get lost in the shuffle. Now, it’s an actual bound volume of blank pages. Oddly, most of the garlic I’ve planted have been hard neck, which don’t store as well as soft neck. I’d eventually want to replace the hard neck. Right now, it’s a 4 / 2 ratio.

    I let some of my mustard go to seed, and it’s pretty well taken over my stock tank bed. It’s blooming, by the way.

    According to Prof. Mass, we’re in for a pretty dry week. Maybe, two. There will be stuff to do in the garden. Our high yesterday was 50F (10C). The overnight low was 41F. Forecast for today is 47F.

    I saw this interesting article, on Antarctic ice cores. Which ought to push our planet’s weather history back, a couple of million years.

    https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/10/science/antarctica-deep-ice-core

    That was an interesting article, about your upcoming weather. I also found the sidebar article, about an Australian citizen, killed in the LA fires, to be sad. They’re estimating that 10,000 structures have been lost, so far. Homes and businesses. A bank, a hardware store, a Micky D’s. A synagogue, a branch of the Pasadena Library. Schools. I saw another article about the Getty Museum, which also mentioned they’d put in a large water tank. Next up. Mudslides.

    You can also make salmon patties, or burgers. Last night, I made Never To Be Duplicated Chocolate / Expresso / Orange biscuits. 🙂 I started off with the vague idea of making chocolate chip cookies. I rambled through several cookbooks, looking for a good recipe. Most had walnuts, and I just wasn’t … feeling walnuts. Some demanded sifted flour. I have a flour sifter, somewhere, but didn’t feel like digging through all the cabinets. I didn’t have any chocolate drops, but did that stop me? Of course not. I did have a partial package of chocolate expresso drops … but not near enough to make the biscuits, on the package. Sooooo. First off, you’re supposed to melt butter and some of the chocolate drops, in a double boiler. Double boiler? Well, I think I have one … somewhere. Used broken up Lindt bars, for the chocolate. 20 second bursts in the microwave, worked just as well. And, I needed cocoa. Didn’t have the brand they recommended, but did still have some kind of yuppie stuff that came in a long ago food box. Then came the chocolate drops that you mix into the dough. I used the small remainder of the expresso chocolate drops, and broken up Lindt bars, for the rest. I was out of vanilla extract, so used orang extract, instead. The dough was quit stiff, and hard to stir. Here’s the original recipe …

    https://www.providence-hotel.com/recipe/chocolate-espresso-cookies

    Any-who. The ended up pretty tasty. A bit messy, as, I think the Lindt chocolate has a lower melting point.

    I made the observation that Jane’s ramp, will make excellent skate boarding.

    You might have seen not a fake, but a replica of Mad Max’s car. It’s what some of the fans do. Replicate the car, down to the smallest details. There are also miniature replicas.

    Ms. Yeoh played a major role, in a recent Star Trek series. “Discovery.” The movie is a spin off.

    Sherlock Holmes was also a junkie. Needed a good 12 Step Meeting. Which was actually the theme of a recent TV series, “Elementary.” Which was quit good, I thought.

    I got the recent copy of the AARP (American Association of Retire People) magazine. It had some interesting statistics, about using written checks. In 1993, 19 billion checks were written. By 2023, that was down to 3.1 billion. Bill payment by check, is only 8%. It’s worse for purchases. 1%. Although 19% of purchases were in cash. There was also an age breakdown, that was interesting. Only 7% of the 18-24 year olds, use checks. But, in the 65+ age group, 69% used checks. Check fraud due to mail theft was clocked at 280,000 incidents in 2020. And 680,000 in 2022. Lew

  37. Hi Claire,

    That is a lot of snow! And thanks for the maths problem too. 🙂 Glad you and Mike were able to employ the assistance of the neighbours, and I reckon they’ll be helpful again in the future. Candidly I do wonder at what point the older neighbours around here will come seeking my help with tree / firewood issues. Not sure how things are rolling in your part of the world, but here the local population is ageing, and I’m not seeing younger folks moving in due to property price woes. It’s possible things may change on that front.

    Well done, and you can dump that fictional gym membership after the 2 inches of snow was cleared. Not as deep, but it would still be no easy task.

    Lovely winter weather. It rained here today, quite heavily at times, and right now it feels quite tropical due to the humidity.

    Cheers

    Chris

  38. Hi Lewis,

    It’s an option with venison, but first I have to arrange some things, tomorrow actually. One good thing here is that as a private land owner, there is no season, no bag limit, no permit and few restrictions other than using an appropriate gauge – only on my property though. If they escape to the neighbours, they’re off limits unless I have prior permission. Basically deer have no predators down here other than humans, and they’re huge – it’s like having feral horses in the orchard. How’s 770 pounds working for you? The deer the other day was remarkably large and well fed looking.

    Yeah, the Editor was very much of your mindset with lots of small notes, and it was always organised. It’s better though, like you say, for a proper diary – or one list to rule them all! I’d not known that about the differences in the variety of garlic types, and it’s always good to grow what you can eat, and more importantly, preserve.

    Mustards are great plants, especially during the winter when there are no cabbage moths hanging around making a nuisance of themselves. Makes life easier. Blooming is pretty late, but then your winter is sort of warmish some days given the temperatures you’re mentioning, like it gets here sometimes during winter. They don’t grow much, but neither do they die.

    Professor Mass made a suggestion as to the ignition point. Down here on such days, they switch off such high risk grids and no longer push past the fault point. The interesting thing about power lines is that as electricity flows through them, the wires heat up, then being metal, they sag and may come into contact with vegetation and/or other wires. People may complain, but switching off the lines is the least worst option.

    It rained here today, quite heavily and the gauge recorded half an inch, although the rain was a bit less over towards the official online gauge I report. Much appreciated, although it is quite humid here now despite the cooler evening air. The big smoke got more rain, around an inch = mayhem!

    Thanks for the articles on the ice cores, and hope the researchers discover something interesting and useful. I see they enjoyed the work so much that they’re looking for new places to drill – and possibly the funding to do so. They all looked happy.

    Yeah, the bloke appears to have had some medical issues which would have made such a volatile situation so much more dangerous. You’d think you’d be safe in an urban area, but no. That city is so dry, I’d not want to live there. We’re hearing of 10,000 structures lost as well and that probably is an estimation, and sorry to hear about those specific buildings, particularly the library. My gut feeling suggests that much of that area won’t be rebuilt. And that is exactly why we have independent reserves and systems.

    Yup, sorry to say it, but you’re spot on. Mudslides are a problem when the rains do return. That happened in the south eastern part of the continent during the Black Summer 2019-2020 of fires.

    Hmm! Yummo! Sounds like innovative kitchen thinking to me. 🙂 Holy carp dude, you took those biscuits to the entire next level. I approve of all changes and substitutions and am now drooling. Sifted flour is only necessary when you want the biscuits to be super light and spongy (e.g. tiramisu), forget about that – biscuits you eat should have enough heft that they stick to your ribs and cure the hungus.

    Yeah, Lindt chocolate would have the lower melting point, but then makes up for that by adding points for extra flavour.

    What do the skate boarders call such tricks again? Ah, the ramp could be used for grind tricks. Jane may want to collect a fee for use, and that may go towards the installation of a less problematic ramp. Just a random idea…

    It could have been a replica of Mad Max’s car, but it sure looked cool, matt black paint and all. Plus the twin huge fuel tanks out the back. As a novice revhead in training, I was dubious of the super charger set up, but occasionally a person must not let reality get in the way of recounting a good story. It’s hard to know really what made the film so enormously popular. What’s your take on that?

    Lewis, there are times I wish for more free time to watch new and most excellent Star Trek series, then other moments in life I wonder whether I’m working hard enough. Possibly the truth lies somewhere between those two points, but where is the question! I’m yet to resolve the conundrum, and so I work now so that I can slack off later – the world of course needing more slack. Any advice?

    What? No way. I’d missed that detail in the Hounds of Baskerville. Little wonder the good detective was annoying, he was coked up and probably a bit jittery whilst being massively over confident. An enviable state which I have no intention of joining.

    I’ll bet the AARP folks didn’t advise to follow the good example of the fictional detective? 😉 Sorry, cheeky… Checks are on their way out down here too. However! The mention of the increasing incidence of fraud is one of the hallmarks of mania. I noticed the local news used the ‘B’ word today in an article. B of course refers to the word bubble, and we’re not talking about fortunately long lost articles here. I wrote about the plural form, if that makes any difference… 😉

    Cheers

    Chris

  39. Yo, Chris – LOL. Of course the deer look well fed. They’re eating all your stuff. Gun those suckers down. And use or barter at least some of the meat. Social capital?

    I’m hoping I can have enough garlic on the go, that I don’t have to buy any. It’s getting so expensive. I didn’t know cabbage butterflies would bother garlic. Something is munching on mine. But not too much. I wonder what?

    Our high yesterday was 48F (8.88C). The overnight low was 37F. Forecast for today is 44F. I wonder if we’ll see any refugees from the fires, up this way. There’s at least two large housing tracts, on the go. Oh, I think that burned over land in California, will keep being developed. But by the super rich. Bigger and more lavish spreads. But perhaps more bunker like architecture. More hardened, against fire.

    Yes, I went pretty nuts, I the kitchen, with the chocolate biscuits. Gonzo. It was fun. I took some to Kenna, yesterday, and she and her chef friend will give them a taste.

    Why do some people really like the whole Mad Max thing? Well, as Mr. Greer has pointed out, a few times, some people yearn for the End Times. The Apocalypse. No rules. All those people who irritate them, gone. They always think they’ll survive. Because they’re the “good people.” Whatever their definition of “good” is.

    Oh, I think you work more than hard enough. And I do hope that at some point, you get to slack off, more. Although “slack off” is, perhaps, not such a good way of looking at it. Time for a different kind of enrichment? Somewhere I read where very few people, at the end of their lives say, “Gee, I wish I had spent more time at the office.”

    I’ve been hearing about bubbles, for awhile now. Housing, of course, Used cars. Credit. Student loans. There’s probably more out there. Lew

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