It’s nice living in bubble land. The other day whilst reading a book and enjoying a coffee, my ears were taking in the clearly audible conversation of two older ladies. As a naturally softly spoken person, it takes effort to project my voice across space. Other folks, well, they have something of a gift, and may indeed have been Shakespearean stage actors in a past life. What’s more, the hard to ignore conversation of the two ladies centred around the fact that because they existed in their happy retired suburban bubble, they’d not realised how hard some people were doing.
For well over a decade, Sandra has been shopping at a fresh food market in one of the more socially and economically disadvantaged areas of the big smoke. It’s not all that far from here. When I was a kid, there were a lot more fresh food markets, and I remember walking to the Prahran market with my grandmother who was pushing the shopping jeep. We’d check out each of the stalls and buy stuff from here and there. In those days, there was no such thing as a disposable plastic bag, you’d drop the produce into an expandable stretchy bag, fill the shopping jeep to its brim, then walk home again.
Anyway, the fresh food market we frequent nowadays is a bit smaller. The vibe though, is much the same with individual stores where after so many years, you’re known to the stallholders. The reusable bags are a bit different nowadays, but seem to last as long. I’m told by a reliable person that the Vietnamese bakeries in the nearby area produce a most excellent bánh mì, which is a mixed meat and vegetable baguette. So good and definitely worth the trip, although for some odd reason this tasty treat has always been untested by yours truly due to scheduling issues. Hmm.
Recently with grocery prices for basics, you know, things like coffee bricks, rising to unprecedented heights, we’ve been testing different supermarket suppliers so as to see how these items are priced elsewhere. You’d be amazed what a person learns doing that investigative activity. As they say, if you live in the jungle, best to know the paths, and have a decently sharp and heavy machete. You never know when an economic beastie needs slashing.
Whilst Sandra was in the area of the fresh food market, as well as nabbing a decent lunch (which I wasn’t a party to, just sayin…), she checked out a local supermarket which had not previously been ventured into. The prices seemed reasonable, and two bricks of coffee were nabbed at $36 each, rather than the more local price of $48 (for 1kg / 2.2 pounds). It was really nice that behind the checkout cashiers there was a wall of photos of the locals. A form of community art, there must have been at least 150 photos. Isn’t that nice and all community minded and stuff to represent the diverse people living in that economically disadvantaged area?
Except upon closer inspection, the photos were security footage of the nice folks shoplifting.
For all I know, the activity might be quite common. A few years ago I observed a lady, in maybe her mid fifties, shoplifting at the local supermarket. Out of curiosity I took note of the get away vehicle, which was a rather expensive looking large Toyota four wheel drive, an inconspicuous choice given their prevalence in the area. The incident made me wonder what economic circumstances would lead a person into making that choice. None of the possible stories seemed all that great to me.
There’s a lot of hardship out there, yup. The DOGE public service slashing activities of the new US government is probably being watched closely by the local politicians. You can kind of discern that is going on because our heavily indebted state government ($180+ billion and climbing) recently announced they’d sack 5% of the public service staff. A rather arbitrary number which presumably did not include themselves! Candidly, I’d wondered whether they’d taken note of the caning the state ruling party had received at the recent by-elections. As a fun fact, a semi-regular commenter (who shall not be named) lives in one of those areas, and probably has some rather pointed views from the street level.
Not to bang on about politics, but there is an Australian federal election due sometime over the next three months, although nobody knows the exact date. The present opposition party is also looking across the Pacific Ocean at our allies, and has announced similar policies to cut the public service. That biggerer national government is something like $1 trillion dollars in debt (and climbing). Honestly, the number is so huge that my brain has trouble grasping the reality. Unsurprisingly, the slashing policy is enormously popular.
Heck, with such free and easy the-biggerest-spending-of-all practices sending coffee brick prices sky rocketing, I feel like slashing the public service. Probably not a fun experience for the people being slashed (and trust me, both Sandra and I have been on the wrong side of that story in the early 1990’s), but it will cut everyone else some slack. There’s a public service mob which I can think of that duplicates another mobs functions and fees, and I’d happily put them out of their misery. How did it get to this? And are we the public and thus the debt holders, getting value for money?
What sustainable looks like, is living within one’s means. Forecast rainfall for March doesn’t look promising. And with it being near to the end of summer, our water reserves are closely monitored. If we use up all of the water, there’ll be no more until it rains again. Running out of water would be a bad thing. So water isn’t used freely like there’s no tomorrow, because we have to consider the future. That’s what sustainable looks like.
Maybe over the course of this year, we’ll add some more water tanks. Those big plastic reservoirs aren’t cheap though, but they are an investment in the future. When I was a kid, people used to tell me that the only reason to go into debt was to purchase an asset, like say a house. Other than that, they’d tell me to do without, and the old timers were right too. Shame people have forgotten that message because the thing with debt is that it at some point in the future it will come to bite you in the backside. And who’d want to be bitten there?
At the tail end of another summer heatwave, it’s hard to recall that earlier in the week we had to run the wood heater. The outside temperature on the coldest day barely passed 12’C / 54’F. For someone used to the summer weather, it felt freezing. At least none of the plants – even those in the greenhouse – required any watering that day. Then the weather got hot again. My brain hurts!
The final step in the concrete staircase project was poured on a cold day. Unfortunately the soil around the top step has to be built up slightly so that it presents a flat surface to a persons feet. No point creating a trip hazard. We just have to get the soil from somewhere, and that job will be done over the next week or two. There are a couple of options for the location of the ‘somewhere’ source, but we’re not sure yet which it will be. Oh, and there were twenty four steps created for the project.
The rabbits, deer, wombats, or whomever it was, began digging up the potato tubers this week. With that menace in mind, we decided to harvest all of the remaining three garden rows of potatoes.
A garden fork was used to lift the uphill and downhill edges of the soil in the rows. Then we’d sift through the loosened soil looking for tubers. Our best performing variety was King Edward, followed by Kennebec, although the latter variety produced much larger tubers. In total for the four rows, we harvested about 41kg / 90 pounds of spuds, although could have produced a better yield on a number of fronts. There’s always things to learn.
The economics of the story don’t make a lot of sense because at the harvest yield the commercial value of the crop would be about $80. The seed potatoes cost about $42 originally, and the fertiliser for the four rows was around $160. Plus the stainless steel garden fork broke a tine. Mind you, the garden rows were new, and much of the mineral fertility will remain in the soil. The garden fork is a write off though, which doesn’t assist the story. It may have hit a rock or an old tree root.
Anyway, digging the potatoes out of the soil was a fun activity in the cool summer sunshine.
Given the cost of the seed potatoes, next season, we’ll replant the best of this years tubers. In the past we’ve been a bit slack with that selection, but no longer! Our minds are focused. The potatoes are all stored in sealed tubs packed with dry sugar cane mulch. The tubs themselves are stored in a cool and dark location. It’s hard to know if that method will keep us supplied in potatoes during the winter months, whilst supplying quality tubers for next season.
We’ve already begun cooking with the fresh potatoes, and the taste is excellent for all of the varieties we’ve grown.
The four rows where the potatoes were grown were cleaned up and restored.
Next year we’ll probably grow pumpkins in those beds. Always wise to practice crop rotation, which is not something I’ve thought much about in the past. The pumpkin vines will have a lot of room for expansion. The fencing surrounding that enclosure will hopefully be extended in height soon and thus be more deer proof for next summer.
A day was spent mixing and spreading around a trailer load of compost-like material. As usual, a lot of additional bags of soil minerals and a huge amount of coffee grounds were added to make the end product more suitable for vegetables. The power wheelbarrow is used to move the material about the farm, but all of the mixing and spreading is done by hand.
During hot nights, the door to the dogs room has to be kept open in order to let in fresh air. It’s not ideal to have the dogs running around the house at night, so I fabricated a steel barrier to keep them confined to their room. We’d been using the original barrier for a while, but it has some rather sharp edges. I’d not want to cut my hand on the barrier, or have one of the dogs smoosh their face into it. In these enlightened days, people have forgotten basic first aid and vaccinations against tetanus.
The barrier was quite sturdily built and even the steel fly wire is very strong. The edges are just a bit unsafe. So fixing it was a good job to do in the shade on a hot day. The rough edges were cut, and a new end section was welded into place. The steel fly wire was pop riveted more securely. The rust was ground back and then sprayed with metal primer paint.
At the fresh food market, Sandra picked up a large box of tasty plums, and they were bottled (canned) into a dozen glass jars.
We’d also been busily dehydrating the tomato harvest. The hot weather really speeds that process along.
This week’s video…
In breaking produce news:
The triffid like monsters which are zucchini, have begun to grow rapidly in size. One day there is a tiny fruit, the next a monster has taken it’s place.
Many of the grape varieties are slowly becoming ripe. One variety shows signs of a minor fungal blemish, but we’ll see how that turns out.
Onto the flowers:
The temperature outside now at about 10am is 12’C (54’F). So far for last year there has been 95.8mm (3.8 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 94.8mm (3.7 inches)
coffee- funny how it’s turned into a basic for us. As newlyweds, coffee was simply not part of our morning routine. I would drink some at work, since it was FREE, but not at home.Then, when the kids started coming back from college in summers, we found that they “needed’ coffee, so we started the routine. They have all flown the nest years ago, but we are now fully addicted to coffee.
seed potatoes- We save ours for seed as well, and with our root cellar, they last pretty well, in fact often we almost make it till the next crop is ready.
garden- got the seed trays and starter mix out and am planting onion seeds now. They are the first seeds we start in the sunroom.
DOGE- nope, don’t even want to talk about it. Many norms have been shattered, and the Yeats poem has been running through my mind….
coffee part two- What is this about bricks? Coffee here is either loose beans ( which we buy and grind fresh) or pre-ground in bags. Do you call it bricks because some pre-ground is vacuum packed and thus sort of solid feeling?
Hi Chris,
Your summer is like my winter in being highly variable in temperature. At this time of year we are subject to cold intrusions from northern Canada and the Arctic but also to warm intrusions from the gulf to the south of us, depending on the location of the jet stream.
Last week, we endured very cold conditions, as bad as the stretch of very cold temperatures in January, with the coldest morning low on Thursday at -2F/-19C following 3 inches of light and fluffy snow. You may be assured that we were using the wood heater in addition to the natural gas fired furnace, the latter to help ensure that the water pipes avoid freezing. Trust me, you do not want the water in the pipes in your house to freeze. No good comes of that. However, this afternoon the high reached a very pleasant 60F/16C. I took the opportunity to continue with late winter yard clean-up work.
I hope you can store your potatoes for long enough to replant some of them. I found I could not do so, however. It’s too long and too warm from the time they are harvested till when I can plant them for them to survive.
This year I realized that I no longer want to grow potatoes, dry beans, or winter squash. I can buy all of them at cheap enough prices that I cannot compete with farmers. I can’t store potatoes well; we don’t eat enough winter squash for me to set aside the large space it requires; and I can’t grow dry beans at a high enough yield to compete with mechanized growers. Instead, I will concentrate on the crops I can grow well for fresh eating and that are very expensive to buy at a quality comparable to what I can grow.
Speaking of gardening, later this week I will start seeds for transplants. Spring cannot be that far away – I hope.
Claire
Yo, Chris – I think what you call a fresh food market, is what we call a “farmer’s market”, here. Maybe. Some seem more semi-permanent, and under cover. Some seem to be once a week, other’s run pretty much full time.
I haven’t seen it in awhile, but I remember some stores (and bars) would post returned checks. One could redeem them, and get your name off the “wall of shame.” 🙂
Sometimes, shoplifting is just for the thrill. Then there’s plain old, garden variety kleptomania.
The powers that be always seem to want to sack the public service staff, who may be actually providing a service, to the public. The folks in the trenches. Let’s see some of the middle management go. Of course, those are the folks who decide who is going to be made redundant.
I think the stairs look lovelier viewed from the bottom up, than the top down. I wonder why that is? Subconscious fear of falling?
The dog barrier looks a lot better, with the upgrades. More “finished” looking, and less likely to result in a trip to the vet.
The video was very good. Really covered your weeks activities. Potato harvest, steps, plums.
Zucchini is such a magic plant. Tiny little fingerlings, you turn your back for a day or two, And suddenly there are giants.
Your roses are beautiful, and the wide variety of geraniums always amaze. So many different color combinations and shapes. Lew
Hi Steve,
That’s the thing with coffee, when you’re addicted to caffeine, it is a basic product! 🙂 I have to fess up to being more interesting after a cup. How did it get to this point? Probably like your story, one cup at a time. Sandra actually introduced me to coffee, before that I drank green tea, which probably has some caffeine in it.
And yes, by coffee brick I refer to a 1kg pre-ground beans in a vacuum packed brick. The size of the grains is perfect for the espresso machine we use, the Gaggia Classic. Fun fact: commercial grade machines use a finer grind and have a higher pressure boiler. I’ve noticed of late that the bricks now arrive in the same size brick, but now with four compartments – probably because someone asked for more packaging, just because we don’t get enough waste now.
We did look at grinding the roasted beans, but good grinders are not cheap, the cutting teeth wear out, and so it makes no economic sense unless a person is something of a coffee purist.
Thanks for the feedback with the seed potatoes, and that’s encouraging news. We’ll see how that goes here, but given some potatoes went the distance, maybe they’ll last until replanting time, which should be late August early September here, depending on the weather.
🙂 I respect your boundaries there. It’s difficult when change comes so rapidly. Yeats is a keen observer of the human condition.
Oh, in between paid work today, and a trip to the vet for Dame Plum to get her vaccinations, we assembled the chainsaw mill and first cut rail. Exciting times! And hope the thing works, timber is super expensive down here.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Claire,
Oh my, those are some awesome temperature swings, and 16’C would feel rather pleasant after such bitter cold. Spare a moments thought for the plants which would surely wonder what the heck was going on! But yes, I too am feeling a touch battered around by the rapid changes in the weather. Today was cool and sunny at no more than about 20’C. Really pleasant feeling after the short and intense heatwave.
It’s hard isn’t it? And that’s the thing, like with your potentially frozen water pipes, our systems here are also only ever as good as the most extreme conditions they’ll face. Looking at the 28 day rainfall forecast for here, there’s little rain to speak of. Hmm.
For your interest, the natural gas supplies in this state are now I believe facing the awful situation where demand is close to exceeding supply, or has already done so. What to do is an important question, and you know we use firewood for heating and hot water during winter. A few months ago I began the slow hard process of weaning ourselves off the use of that gas energy source – and cost was a serious issue necessitating that decision. Such things are cheaper in your country. The coldest I’ve seen here is -2’C however your winter extremes are way outside my experience. I’d be quailing in fright at the reality of -19’C!
On the other hand, spending the day outside in the late winter sudden warmth would have been very pleasant. 🙂 How’s the soil mineralisation process going? It’s one of those matters I wish I had more time and resources to throw at and can only do my best, which may not be enough.
That’s certainly my fear with the stored potatoes, however some tubers have struggled through from previous years so I’m hopeful in that regard. But until the results are in, it’s all theory. And yes, that is a problem. You have an enviably long growing season in your part of the world. 🙂 It may be that in the future we construct a proper produce and storage shed using the local rock for walls providing thermal mass. If located in the deep shade with a concrete base, such a storage shed might sort of work. A root cellar is no good here because the ground temperature is higher than 4’C over the winter months.
Yes, agreed. Some of this stuff makes no economic sense whatsoever. However with the potatoes there is a story. The last of the local potato farmers are a couple of old blokes. I’ve been purchasing from them for years, and they’re entertaining, but I do wonder about the longevity of that arrangement.
Claire, Sandra fed me over a 100 squashes and pumpkins last season in various meals. 🙂 At one point, it did get a bit much as they’re rather acidic, and so we reduced consumption to a more sustainable level. The mixed baked pumpkin and potato casserole we concocted is very tasty. Yum! But you do raise an important observation – yup, grow what you eat. My mind has very much been focused on this subject for many years now. I absolutely agree with you.
Fingers crossed that spring arrives soon before more such extreme weather. On a balance of probabilities, it seems rather likely. 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Ah, I see. Well, that is a difference. A farmers market here is something held in a rural town about maybe once per month (usually on a Saturday) where the actual producer sets up a stall and flogs produce. Those markets generally travel from local town to town so there’d always one each Saturday, somewhere in the area. The fresh food markets on the other hand are permanent and usually open several days per week to a fixed schedule and are under cover, like in a massive shed. I believe that the stallholders purchase their stuff from the wholesale markets which farmers direct supply too.
The full time farmers markets would be the go-to places in my mind, but how that works out in your part of the world is outside my knowledge.
Hehe! What kind of disreputable person would write a check which was returned? 😉 Checks are on the way out down here, and businesses just don’t want to deal with them, and probably wouldn’t supply anyway. Yup, you guys are always ahead of us with such social and financial innovations, but maybe not this time around. Still, the wall of shame serves a point and sends a very strong message!
Agreed, some people are just a little bit bent and indulge such thefting hobbies. Like that compulsive art thief we spoke about a year or two back – can he stop himself from such activity. Who knows? Still, I was genuinely surprised to observe the middle aged lady stealing the food. She definitely appeared to be Ms Inconspicuous, and there was nothing about her appearance which suggested such nefarious activity. I’ve heard of people doing such activity as a call for attention, or maybe even a cry for help. Dunno, people can be very strange sometimes. And that was one situation where the motives of the individual were unclear to my senses. A mystery really. Maybe I just didn’t want to know the truth of it all.
It’s hard to really know what the local deal was with the 5% reduction of the public service. It was of interest that these job cuts excluded teachers, police and emergency service responders, all of which are paid for by the state government. Dunno, it’s another mystery. It’s possible that the cuts are natural attrition, and who knows what all those people actually do. My general inclination is to comprehend that the err, ‘growth’ which is often talked about, doesn’t make much sense to me if debt as a percentage of overall spending is growing faster. That story just seems weird to me.
Absolutely, the view from the top of the stairs in the images does look rather harrowing, but it’s merely a foible of the camera. They do look better when viewed from below looking up. And yeah, nobody wants to trip and fall down those stairs… Ook!
Thanks for taking the time to watch the video and for the feedback. They’re good fun to make. I might try and add the word ‘free’ to the title and see whether it pokes the algaerythm. Dunno, but the service wants mad cash.
Hehe! Zucchini is a wonder plant. And they store really well too for the winter months.
🙂 Such words are music to my eyes, and the roses are really lovely. The aroma on a warm day is something else. Those plants got a decent soil feed too last week.
It’s as good a theory as any I’ve heard, but the Bond movies never really appealed to me either. The stories were always just too over the top for my tastes. And tech should always be incidental to a story, not a central part of the narrative.
Dude, it’s hard to know what goes on with the postal service down here. Check out this article: Australia Post’s former CEO Ahmed Fahour walks away with $10.8 million pay package. Last time I was paid that much was like, never. I’m pretty sure that last January a fifteen year business relationship was severed with about half an hours notice, yeah. No fault on my part either, it was all just business apparently. Don’t recall a pay out either, just sayin…
I’m not giggling about what is going on in your country. Sometimes however, I get the impression that some basics are so subsidised, that you guys might not appreciate what unsubsidised looks like. It’s pretty hard out there man.
The water here is always going to be something of a problem. The original township was abandoned way back in the day because of water shortages, and now it’s a hamlet with not many households. The challenge of providing the basic services is quite enjoyable to my mindset, but it’s not something for everyone that’s for sure. A few more water tanks can only but improve a resource buffer.
🙂 Err, is medium eggs a reference to the egg weight? They’re sometimes sold down here based on weight.
Ah, I thought Mr Meredith’s face was familiar. He played the Penguin in the Batman series. Quite amusing too. Whoa! The Ernie Pyle plot read as both realistic and intense. Robert Mitchum is like your actors, actor. To impart emotion in a scene without saying anything is a fine skill which few wield.
Ooo, well the weather can be strange and do unpredictable things. It was cool here today, but Wednesday looks set to reach 34’C / 93’F. The lack of rain bothers me, but a dude has to abide. Surge of heat for final week of summer
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Chehalis and Centralia each have a weekly farmer’s market, part of the year. On different days. A couple of side streets are closed off, and the farmer’s set up. Of course the granddaddy of farmer’s markets is The Pike Place Market, in Seattle.
https://w.wiki/DC2o
Yes, when cuts are made, it’s sometimes attempted to go about it through natural attrition. It’s a slightly easier, softer way to reduce your work force. Better PR. Not that anyone much pays attention to that, these days.
There’s a lot of money to be made out of “growth.” Which is why the Powers That Be, get so antsy about any suggestion of slowing, or reversing growth. Not that that won’t happen, one way or another.
Speaking of movies, last night was a popcorn night. I watched the latest Hellboy movie. “Hellboy: The Crooked Man.” It’s the 4th movie, I think. My only reservation was that Ron Perlman didn’t play the part. The actor who picked up the baton, was adequate, but no Ron Perlman. It was pretty interesting. Takes place in 1959, so the thing isn’t awash in smart phones and computers. It’s really a bit of a horror movie, and, there are a few of the walking dead. Takes place in the Appalachian mountains, and the Southern Gothic is layered on. along with a lot of folklore. Worth the bowl of popcorn.
Re: The postal CEO. What does one even do, with that kind of money? I wonder how many times the average postie wage has to be multiplied out, to reach those amounts? Someone has probably figured it out. The way it works, in these modern times, is that CEOs serve on each others Boards of Directors … which set the salaries. No self interest there. 🙂 See also: Golden Parachute. The built in retirement packages, that they get, even if they’ve underperformed.
Subsidized health care, would go a long way toward making up for all those other subsidies we get. What I’m trying to say is, I’d happily pay more for other things, if we had decent health care.
Ah, chicken egg sizes. Depends on where you are. 🙂 Here’s an interesting article, that compares sizes, in different countries. There’s even a chart for Australia. Most US recipes call for large eggs, unless otherwise specified.
https://w.wiki/DC4a
Robert Mitchum was Hollywood’s bad boy, for awhile. There was that mara-hoochie arrest, back in 1948.
https://www.hollywoodsgoldenhistory.com/up-in-smoke-robert-mitchums-1948-marijuana-arrest/
Our high yesterday was 55F (12.77C). The overnight low was 41F (5C). Forecast for today is 53F. Well, the forecast rain over the weekend was a sort of non-event. I only had to wear my boots, once, and mostly H and I stayed dry. We lucked out again, this morning. No rain when we went out, and it just started to sprinkle, when we headed back in. We may see some wind, tonight into tomorrow. 30-40mph gusts. Prof. Mass even mentions the possibility, for us.
I forgot to mention, the past few nights I’ve been hearing a chorus of frogs. Over the winter, I’d hear a single frog, from time to time (different species?). Now, they’ve pulled out all the stops.
Usually, by Sunday night, the swap table for food begins to wind down. But, I thought I’d take a look, last night. Glad I did. The only thing added was … a box of the good Mac & Cheese. I might have it tonight. Jazz it up to make it appear healthy. 🙂
And, lastly, from our “Tech is wonderful when it works” department:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/22/us/utah-red-mountain-lost-hiking-rescue
Oh, and I got a report back, on the lemon biscuits, from my Tasting Board (of two.) They thought they were very good, no adjustment needed. The Club has also settled on a day for the desert auction. The day before St. Patrick’s Day. Which is a Sunday. The Club was going to do something, that day, anyway. I wonder if there will be corn beef, and cabbage. Any-who. I’ve decided to do a dozen (or more) orange biscuits, same for the lemon, and a mixed bag. Lew
Hi, Chris!
My daughter-in-law’s mother is safely back home; I had a very enjoyable week while she was here. She loves gardening and just works hard at everything in general. She helped me clean up most of the rest of the garden beds that I had not gotten to.
It wasn’t till the 2000s that I saw a reusable shopping bag. When I was growing up, where my mother shopped paper bags were the norm. But once I discovered such things, I started making my own. I made my own mesh bags for produce, too, out of some of the garden mosquito netting that I use to cover tomatoes and some other things.
I have just ordered a zucchini called “Cocozelle”. What kind are yours? I have also ordered Ping Tung eggplant seeds. It is a long, thin type. My daughter-in-law says that it was the most common one she saw in the Taiwan markets.
I suspect shoplifting is pretty rampant everywhere. At my thrift stores, one can no longer try on clothes. Too many folks have apparently exited the store with a layered look.
We have two staircases inside our house. Each has 13 steps. Twenty-four steps is a lot!
My neighbor planted broccoli in the fall and it was doing well. A raccoon has eaten it all; nothing but caterpillars eat mine. Does anything eat your broccoli?
I enjoyed the video as always. I think that is a lot of potatoes. I eat, by myself, about 5 pounds of potatoes per week. So divide that lot by 5 and it is enough for a lot of weeks, unless the two of you eat more. And I’m pretty sure that you can just cut off the green part and be okay. That is what I have always done.
Mr. Baby is jealous. He doesn’t have his own room, though he sometimes has barriers when he keeps waking people up. Yes, that is a less than optimal fluffy barrier; good thing you fixed it.
Thanks so much for the flowers. Will any of your roses make rose hips? I like those as a tea; they have lots of Vitamin C.
Pam
Chris,
DOGE? Does not compute. Topic I will NOT discuss in any public setting lest we ALL get in trouble. Heck, I always that the Doge was the medieval rule of Venice.
I could never get potatoes to last much longer than 4 months. I tried dehydrating them once. Found that there was only one way to prepare them once I dehydrated them…Soak them overnight, add them to a stew. Otherwise, well, umm, bleck. They can be cut up and frozen, however.
Challenging others’ beliefs is a sure-fired way to get a rise out of them. And run? I don’t run. I gave up running for Lent one year, forgot to start running again when Lent was over. 😉
I try to remember, when being situationally aware, that there are no sabre toothed tigers. Or Huns or Roman legions to avoid. Otherwise, I think that every squirrel was a BIG THREAT, like a mother grizzly bear with a sore tooth. And I don’t run, so where would that leave me?
You’ve had some seriously hot weather mixed in with some cooler stuff. Claire has had more of a Spokane winter than Spokane has, other than our 3 weeks of winter. Which just ended, by the way. 25mm of rain the past three days, temperatures around +10C, maybe dipping to +4C at night. Want to know how long 17.5cm of snow lasts under these conditions? Not long at all. It’s all gone, just as if it wasn’t here. Well, the foothills and mountains still have snow, but it’s gone from the lowlands. Supposed to be very windy for the next 36 hours. Saturated ground, now thawed. High winds. What could possibly go wrong?
That view of the Antarctic blast (complete with anemometer in the corner of the picture?) looked good. Nice photo. It’s good to see mist over the distant hills rather than smoke.
Okay, so that staircase is complete. Meaning, the final step was taken, er, poured. It looks good. And I see what you mean about the ground needing to be “raised”. A trip hazard at the top of 24 concrete steps is a disaster begging for a chance to happen.
Dude. I’ve got a garden fork. It has been used, abused, misused and is still doing great. I purchased it in the 20th century. I guess they don’t make forks the way they used to. Dropping a tine like that isn’t supposed to happen.
Watching grass grow is supposed to be about as exciting as watching paint dry. Or watching water boil, as a watched pot never boils. Ever watched zucchini grow? Zucchini doesn’t grow when you’re watching it either. Get your attention diverted for 5 seconds, however, and, well you know that result. Grows from finger size to impossible to carry size in mere seconds. Zucchini.
So I ground up some of my dehydrated zucchini. I added the powdery result to some flour. Added some seasonings and turned it into spoon bread. It worked out well, best batch of that I’ve made. I figured adding it to bread that way hides it but still adds some vegetable matter to the bread.
Those geraniums are spectacular right now. They’re giving the roses a run for the money.
I agree with Lew. The new, improved doggy barrier is a big improvement.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Oh my goodness, lovely visitors who thrive on work in the garden are like a double gift. Lucky you, and so happy for you that the visit went well.
Yeah, that’s what I recall too from supermarkets (as distinct from fresh food markets), the bags in the 1970’s were made from thick paper. And ook! Sometimes on a hot day, err condensation and stuff, and the bottom of the bag would give way. The reusable bags were what was taken to the fresh food market, in a vinyl lined metal shopping jeep. In those days a person didn’t purchase all that much at the supermarkets.
Respect for making your own reusable bags, and we did the same thing, at about the same time. 🙂 The produce all ended up in a four large cloth bags (very sturdy and still in use) which was chucked over the shoulders. Of course back in those days we could walk to the supermarket, but had only a small garden. Nowadays we have to drive, but have a large garden. Wonder what it all means? 🙂
The variety we grow is: Zucchini ‘Black Beauty’ (Organic). It’s an heirloom variety which was developed a century ago. Very reliable. Ah, cocozelle is an interesting looking variety all striped and a bit spotty like a certain freckly dog. Do they taste good?
Pam, eggplant has zero chance of growing here due to the cool (is it really?) growing season. I believe that in your country there are many more varieties than available down here.
I probably live in bubble land and don’t usually see such things… Although I recall that when the farm machinery dude used to be in the original building, that business suffered quite a few smash and grabs. Thiefs would use a large powerful vehicle to smash through the gates and wall, and then loot. A lot of damage, and the insurance stress probably wasn’t good for his health. He did move to a more secure building.
Ah, lucky number staircases! And you’re right, twenty four is a lot. It’s nice not to have to walk all the way around to get down into the sunny orchard.
It’s funny you say that about produce being eaten, but it does seem to be an issue. Might install extenders on the large enclosure to keep out the deer soon. Taking inspiration from your example, the top wire I’ve ordered, is bright yellow. Hopefully the can see the stuff, but what will be, will be. The purple broccoli is the only variety which does well here because it over winters. Cabbage moths are a serious problem, and already they’ve chomped freely upon the early kale (although the kale is unnecessarily early and may only have itself to blame).
I’m honestly not sure how many potatoes we eat each week. Dunno, and the pumpkins will soon be ripe. Agreed, it is a lot of weeks, although, the harvest could be bigger and so there is next year. Thanks for mentioning that bit about the green part, as I was wondering…
Mr Baby would surely rule the roost if he was to stomp a solid paw over the fluffy collective. Dame Plum would acknowledge the intellect, and rat cunning, and want to form an alliance. Has Mr Baby ever shared his house with a dog?
Thanks! And the barrier was sprayed with gloss black metal paint, and it looks very cool.
I’ve not tried making rose hip products, but it is on the to do list. How do you preserve rose hips?
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Isn’t Dodge a brand of vehicle? You see a few of those RAM 1500 err, utes on the road, and having one in the rear view mirror reminds me how small a Suzuki is. A wall of metal. Must be expensive to run.
Thanks for letting me know how the potatoes last in your area. It’s hit or miss isn’t it? The variety we’ve grown for years does seem to last, but the yields are low. Dunno. I suspect with all of these different varieties there are pluses and minuses. My plan is try a lot of different varieties and see what works – something will, maybe…
Very wise, running is very hard on the knees, and it’s probably not an ideal sport for blokes after a certain age. I think I told you this before, but I gave up distance running at the first sign of knee trouble, and there’s plenty of other activities don’t you reckon? At least not running, you don’t have to annoy people either. Think of the benefits!
Dude, you’d be amazed at how plenty of people I know seem to lack a certain sort of situational awareness, but it could also be the caveman in both of us. Who’s to say otherwise?
Man, not to whinge. OK, I am whinging. It’ll be 34’C tomorrow and 35’C next Tuesday. I’m done with summer. I feel much better now, what were you saying again? 25mm of rain is awesome, but yes, the snow won’t last long under those daytime temperatures. Watch out for branches and trees in those winds – that’s my thinking as well.
It is indeed a wind speed meter. 🙂 There are plans to fix up the ground level at the top of the steps so that it is a flat walk onto the staircase.
The dropped tine bothered me, and because it is stainless steel it’s not repairable. In the centre of each tine is a a steel rod to provide support for the softer metal, but it’s a bad idea full stop. I must track down a more durable fork.
So that’s what’s going on with the zucchini. It’s not right, but all the same I think I’ll just turn my back on it and look the other way.
Thanks for the info. Hmm. Back in the day it was more common for other ingredients to work their way into bread as a filler and flour extender. The zucchini stores pretty well up until about early spring. But I’d not thought of dehydrating the stuff. At the moment that machine is running hard most days on the tomato harvest.
🙂 Despite the dry and heat here, there’s a lot of flowers at this time of year. The plants are growing due to the reduced (down from Extreme) levels of radiation from the sun.
The barrier scored a coat of glossy black metal paint yesterday. Looking flash!
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Man, that’s ideal for a farmer’s market. Yeah, it kind of has to be weekly, otherwise people won’t get into the habit of shopping at such a place with the producers (or presumably direct from farm resellers). The way things rotate with those markets down here from town to town, it works out to once per month. Mind you, that might because there aren’t that many local small producers. Always possible.
Oh my, you’ve mentioned that market before, but 10 million annual visitors. Whoa! That’s popular. I note that the traders in the Queen Victoria market in the big smoke have gone on strike. Queen Victoria Market stallholders on strike for first time in market’s history. The err, greens and other progressive councillors in that central area got rid of car park spaces in and around that area, so I don’t go there any more. Used to be street meter parking and there were always plenty of spots, but no longer. We shopped at that market for many, many years.
Natural attrition is a good way of cutting head count, but sometimes some public service roles have become so unappealing that they’re losing people anyway. I know some teachers, and that’s a rough occupation, and sometimes the parents can be worse than the kids.
I know, but perhaps our leaders don’t comprehend that money is a claim on wealth, rather than actual wealth itself? Dunno. They probably do though. When I was a kid, being a millionaire was an amazing achievement, nowadays the median house price for some cities down under is pushing up against that number. A million sure doesn’t buy what it used to. I get the growth story too, but my gut feeling suggests that over my lifetime, we’ve been in decline. My mother, and presumably my good self, would have been seriously struggling if we were in those same conditions, but nowadays. It was a struggle, but at least there was an owner roof over our heads and meals upon the table.
Ron Pearlman has a great face for Hellboy. A consistent actor with a decent work ethic.
Beats me what a person would do with so much mad cash. I suspect that they get bored, and then get up to mischief. Plus there’s mansions and luxury yachts which seem to be a thing. None of that holds any appeal. Yes, the golden parachute is something I’ve not enjoyed, mostly I’ve heard: Don’t come Monday… 🙂 Heck, it might be just me who hears such things? Mr Greer had a good saying about mad cash, and it was: Money makes a good slave, but a bad master. Hmm.
Maybe if your health care system shakes off some of those bureaucrats, it might actually become affordable? With the constant expansion of the money supply due to excessive deficits, inflation was always going to be a problem, somewhere in the system. It’s housing in this country, and health in yours. Hard to say which is the better path.
Hey! We do eggs bigger down here!!!! Thanks for the chart info, and it’s fascinating.
Oooo, 1948 would have been not good for someone to have been caught with that whacky tabbacy. Seeing the underside of society in that experience probably fortified his acting skills, because he would have known how things rolled. Thanks for the story. Impressive.
Go the frogs! And that’s a great sign for the overall health of the garden. Not to whinge, but it will be 34’C / 93’F tomorrow. I’m seriously getting over summer. Oh well… Grin and bear it.
Nice score with the Mac and Cheese. How do you gourmet it up to become a Pasta alla ruota!
Oh my gawd. People follow their phone GPS devices here too, blindly. I’ve had people argue with me about the device, and somehow that stupid machine which sends people to strange and unexpected places, has higher authorita. Oh, Darwinian, maybe…
That’s awesome news, and a solid result. Hope the sale goes well for the Club.
Cheers
Chris
bubblier land- funny how our technology’s enabled us to build our own personal bubbles, so we become all the more unaware of the wider world in an era of supposed exponentially more information. Funny how that works (bubblier was a typo, but decided to leave it).
tail wagging the dog- I said I wouldn’t discuss, but if this is the distraction, what are we being distracted from??
coffee part three- We aren’t exactly coffee snobs, but our son is. I’m embarrassed to say he has a touch of the hipster in him. Anyway, he gifted us a grinder that would meet his standards for when he is visiting. Is rather noisy, but works fine. Don’t ask me how to adjust it.
water- yes, add those tanks! The two IBCs I used to gravity feed the new greenhouse worked great, but we only had a few plants the first year. I have the room to daisy chain more if needed, so will monitor usage this coming summer.
Yo, Chris – That was quit an article about the Queen Victoria Market. A few things jumped out at me. “…apply for funding and rent relief.” More paperwork and hoops to jump through. Electronic or paper. “Administrative fees.” It sounds like the lenocracy and bureaucracy at work. Those vacancy rates are worrying. I’d guess someone has the grand idea of filling all that space with boutique shops and stores that might be more palatable to the tourist trade. Also sounds like the “Friends of the Market” are pretty toothless. Pike Street Market was “saved” due to a real push by their “friends” group. A sad situation.
Yes, teachers have a tough row to hoe. Mostly, not all that well paid. And, supplies are often in … short supply. We hear many stories of teacher’s pulling money out of their own pockets, to cover the necessary. And then there are the parents … and kids. Kids these days seem aware of their “rights,” And, often play that card. Attempts at disciplining a child, and the child might call the police, and accuse the parent of abuse. I hope the little blighters enjoy their sojourn in the foster care system. But, they don’t think that far ahead.
I don’t know how I settled on the amount, but when I was a wee small lad, I always thought making $1,000 a month, and I’d be happy as a hog in slop. Inflation really wasn’t a “thing” until the gas shortages, in the early 70s.
Ron Perlman is quit the actor. He doesn’t appear to “live large,” and pretty much picks and chooses the rolls he wants to play. Generally, indy productions with really interesting parts.
Oh, I was made redundant, once, and down-right fired, another time. Otherwise, I pretty much left jobs on my own steam. Fired or made redundant can be quit a shock to the system.
An interesting twist to the shot CEO healthcare exec. Other than that he was on his way to a shareholders meeting. Turns out his company is being investigated for some pretty hefty Medicare fraud. Somewhere along the way, we ended up with a “for profit” system. Bureaucrats, investors, shareholders, LLCs. It’s not a healthy situation 🙂 .
Speaking of eggs, I saw an interesting article about one of your birds, yesterday.
https://www.cnn.com/travel/cassowary-worlds-scariest-bird-australia-intl-hnk
Imagine the size of an omelet. A drum stick could feed a family of four, for a week.
Looking at Robert Mitchum’s bio, he was already well acquainted with the underside of society. His life trajectory was pretty much like my Dad’s. Leave home at an early age, ride the rails, do a stint in the CCCs (Civilian Conservation Corp.) A not uncommon story for that period of American history.
Our high yesterday was 53F (11.66C). The overnight low was a steady 45F (7.22C). The forecast high for today is 50F. It was really nasty, when I took H out for her midnight stroll. Rain and wind. Not as windy as forecast. A few gusts around 20mph, but mostly, around 15mph. This morning was a lot nicer. Just a few splatters of rain, and not much wind.
I did up the Mac & cheese, last night. I tossed in dried tomatoes, frozen peas and broccoli. Chopped up a stalk of celery and some mushrooms. Garlic. Diced up a couple of those hot dogs (the shame, the shame 🙂 . There’s enough left over that I won’t have to think much about dinner, tonight.
I’ve been looking for a good paper map of eastern Lewis county. I’ve checked the sporting good stores, and there’s none to be found. I might have to take a look around, on-line.
Last night and this morning were real “household administration” days. I completed most of the paperwork for my housing recertification. Lots of digging stuff out of files, making copies, downloading a statement from the state retirement system. I plugged in as much of the banking information, as I could figure out. During which I “only” had to go through the dual authentication, three times. But, my average checking account amount, and value of my CDs, if I cashed them in today, escapes me. Took about 10 minutes, for the nice young teller to figure it out. I have one more easy piece of paperwork to do, and I can slip it under our building manager, Little Mary Sunshines door, tonight, and get her off my back.
I also realized, last night, that I hadn’t gotten H’s license tag, this year. Get it in January, and it’s $5. Late fee is $10. Even though I played the daft, poverty stricken, old duffer card, no mercy was shown. I made a note on this year’s calendar, on the last day of the year, to get that done on time next year. Roundly verbally abused H, for not reminding me. Oh, well. This year’s tag is blue. Matches her smart coat. Lew
Chris:
This is my first time trying Cocozelle zucchini, so we’ll see. What’s with all these vegetables changing color, or at least stripes and freckles? Next thing you know we’ll have yellow or purple tomatoes. The bright yellow wire is going to be something to see; literally, I hope.
Mr. Baby has never shared a house with a dog. Considering that he is friends with a possum, they often spend time on the front porch together and Petey the Possum ate Mr. B’s dinner the other night, I think Mr. Baby might get along fine with a dog. Of course, it has to be the right dog . . .
I’ve only dried rose hips, the way I do my herbs, on a plate or tray inside the house (not with a dehydrator). Right now I have some bought ones because our last remaining rose bush produces very few – and the deer usually get them.
There is a sign at the beginning of the dirt road that leads to our house after a mile. It says that there is going to be a meeting about the zoning of the big farm behind us. Rumor has it that the owner is asking for a zoning change to allow him to divide the farm into lots and sell them – or the whole farm with that change – to a developer. The zoning was already changed about 25 years ago to allow several 21 acre lots and those were built on at that time and they are nice neighbors. However, a whole development is another thing. It would mean lots more tax revenue for the county, so I imagine the Board of Supervisors would find it appealing.
Pam
As a Mainer who lived briefly in Kennebec Co. Maine, I too grew potatoes the several years I lived there – tho I can’t remember the variety. I had to deal with a Lot of potato beetles – I hope you don’t get those.
In Maine, it’s cold enough in winter, you can overwinter potatoes if you have enough of them – pack them in wood shavings and put them in a cool place that doesn’t freeze. Any left in spring can be planted for the next year’s crop – as you’re going to do.
I agree with cutting off the green part of potatoes – have done it and eaten the rest of the potatoes for years with no ill effects.
Chris,
Yes, Dodge. Cars, trucks, vans, etc. Dad owned a Dodge van when I was very young. It ran well until we were on long trips. Then it broke down somewhere in the middle of the journey. Every single time. And those newer RAM trucks are huge. I’d really dislike getting hit by one of those in either our Subaru or the Honda.
A variety of potatoes is good. Once you figure out which works best in your soils, you’ve got it made. And your idea of crop rotation is a must with potatoes.
Yes, exactly. Not running is good. Running is hard on the knees. Annoying people takes too much energy, unless it’s one of the folks who are annoyed by the mere fact that I’m alive and breathing. 😉
I agree with Steve. Get more water tanks. My observation is that your annual rainfall varies year to year. The amount that falls in the dry season appears to vary between meager and moderate. The last thing you need is for there to be a big enough drought that you are unable to keep trees alive or grow enough vegetables to live off of. Too much water is better than running out.
No branches fell in my yard due to the wind. However, half of the roof blew off the neighbor’s oldest metal shed. It is stuck in the shrubs between our two yards. I told them that the shed would fall apart in a windstorm someday, but they tend to ignore my prognostications, usually to their detriment. Oh well. I tried.
The dehydrated zucchini is easier to eat if the rind is peeled off before dehydrating. I’ve dehydrated quite a bit with the rinds still on. This gets ground in the blender and used as flour extender. The stuff dehydrated after peeling gets added into stews and a lot of omelets.
With the snow melted, the yard is visible. Hmmm, the snow was hiding dog poo. Now that it’s not hidden, I have a task set for me. Unlike one of the neighbors, I will take care of this myself. Apparently that particular neighbor is rolling in extra cash, as the family has hired a professional dog poo picker upper company to visit once a week and clean up the poo from their 15 pound dog. Yes, two adults, a 17 year old and a 7 year old, and they hire a service to clean up after their dog. I don’t have that kind of cash to burn.
DJSpo
Hi Eileen,
Welcome back, and I never got the soil testing done due to economic factors. Some things in your country are really cheap, and that’s one of those. There’s nothing like a local extension service down under. For the basic local testing price, I could easily obtain more than a few cubic yards of compost-ish stuff and add a huge quantity of additional minerals to it which I know is lacking in the local soils. It’s a difficult sell those soil tests.
Respect! And isn’t it a small world? 🙂 Oh my! Please do keep those potato beetles in your part of the world, although you’d be amazed at the bird life here, so pest insects have never been a problem. Years ago a locust plague swept through this mountain range. The insects had wreaked havoc in the fields surrounding the range, but once up here the insects were utterly destroyed by the magpies and kookaburras. It was a bad day to be a locust here I can tell you…
Now Sambar / Red deer, on the other hand, have browsed the leaves of the potato vines down to the stalks. I hope they felt sick. I’ve managed to grab enough materials over the past week to extend the height of the fencing of the large enclosure and will get that job done soon.
Thanks for the advice. I don’t have a ready supply of wood chips and so substituted sugar mulch (which is a very fine dry mulch), but otherwise have packed them as you suggested. They’re also stored in the coolest location on the property. The previous years crop made it through to replanting time, but until I’ve tested out the various varieties of potato, I can’t say for sure what will work. But am inspired to hear that saving seeds is possible.
🙂 That makes two, and I’ll try exactly that and cut off the green sections of the tubers. Thanks.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Pam,
Like you, I just keep trying different varieties of plants to see what reliably works. It’s awesome that we have the opportunity to select from a world of seeds (well maybe not down here, but still, there’s a lot) and run the experiments. You know, I thought you were kidding about the purple tomatoes, but no. Apologies for that. We call those tomato varieties: black tomatoes. But I can see the purple hues. Pam, even worse, one of the most popular varieties down here is known as the Black Russian! Then there’s the Siberian melons… Whatever will the notables think? 😉
Yeah, I worry about that too. All of the marsupials will travel through, or under a fence, but the deer are outside my experience as to how they’ll react. I’ve now got the materials for extending the fence against the deer, and that required 330ft for each run – they’re sending me broke! Oh well. There’ll be two runs of wire. The top will be yellow PVC coated wire, whilst the next wire run down is stainless steel. If the worst happens, and it probably will (deer have a lot of body, and tiny little heads) I’ll take responsibility and sort out the mess. But until that happens… Fingers crossed. I think the yellow and stainless steel should stand out, but who knows.
Go Mr Baby and Petey! Cats can be really lovely and I have nothing but fond feelings towards them. But of course, it would have to be the right possum too.
Sandra tells me that there was another Bull Arab dog at dog obedience club tonight, but a girlie dog. And Ollie was sniffing when she returned home and Dame Plum was jealous. Ah, the canine machinations which go on.
Ah, many thanks for that. Hmm. We dry chilli’s the same way, just on a plate in the kitchen, and they dry just fine. Oh my! Pam, I’m getting vicarious stress for you at the thought of deer consuming your roses. Whoa! I’d read that every part of a rose plant is edible, but I’d not realised that the delightful plants could be eaten – if you know what I mean.
Sorry to hear that about the request for the zoning change. It all depends such matters. Just out of curiosity, why ever would a whole development even get off the ground out of town too? Getting the infrastructure into a rural area, let alone sloping land is mind bendingly expensive. It may happen, but I do wonder if there will be buyers for the blocks.
One of the weird things I heard after buying this block of land 18 years ago was people asking me if intended to subdivide the land. It wasn’t locals either, but people I knew in the city. It’s not possible to do here unless you hold more than 100 acres.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Hey, cars that are lemons, are actually a thing. Very rarely, but some vehicles just aren’t right from the factory for one reason or another. Like you, I tend to stick to the Japanese brands and they have a well earned reputation for quality and it’s other half: reliability. What happens in other countries manufacturing processes is a mixed bag.
The mechanic I spoke to who replaced the clutch in the dirt mouse Suzuki a year or so back, had some rather pointed things to say about vehicle longevity from various countries, and I read things. Hmm. In case you were interested, the replacement of the consumable clutch has gone rather well since then.
In other countries with fewer road rules, they say that ‘might is right’ and dude, you just get out of the way. Hang on, I do that now too! 🙂
Thanks, as we’ve been a bit slack with crop rotation, but no longer. I can actually see the difference in the yields. Oh well, sometimes you have to learn things the hard way. I really did try and avoid that practice, but no.
Ha! That’s funny, but yeah how come people get annoyed and we ain’t done nuthin! 🙂 Yes, sad to say, but such easily triggered folks walk among us.
That’s my thinking as well. Tomorrow will be warm again at 29’C, so we dig. Best to start the excavations flat site for the new water tanks whilst we need the soil for the stairs project. There’s a water pump on order, and that’ll top up the house water tanks from the existing reserves way down below the machinery shed (the long line of water tanks). The forecast rainfall for the next 28 days is not looking promising. I try to ensure that all the water systems connect up, but I’d not envisaged a few months this dry. And yes, like the anti-deer tool ‘three-oh-eight’, better to have and not need, than need and not have.
Well, all you can do is advise, and no more than that. Then you gotta do the storm cleanup. Is it bad with the crumpled roof there?
Ah, I see the zucchini rind is easier to consume than grind into flour. Good fibre that stuff.
Haha! I see, that had not occurred to me that as well as yellow snow, you could get brown melt lumps. How did the poo fossick go? Hopefully the undersides of your shoes avoided the worst outrages. And is Dame Avalanche looking at you funny after all that work?
DJ, the parrots do that work for free! Who does have the mad cash for such activities? It baffles the mind.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Steve,
Bubblier land works for me, and maybe you’ve coined a phrase there? Mr Greer once made the suggestion – a long time ago if I recall correctly – that data and information were two different things. People collect both data and information like Smaug the not-so-friendly Dragon in the Tolkien fable, but do they know how to shell a walnut, or hundreds of them? I don’t think so man. Our abstract notions of how things should work are currently differing from how they actually work, and people are freaking out.
But like you when faced with that story, I just get on and do what needs doing.
That’s a very good question. And right now I’m seeing a lot of rhetoric being thrown around, and hopefully some good comes from it all. What was being done in the past was unsustainable sorry to say.
Hehe! Well done to your son, and the hipsters are cool. 🙂 Hey, I looked into a proper coffee grinder, and those things are expensive and a decent electric one here will set you back about $600. A friend had an amusing experience with his hand held coffee grinder now that you mention the settings. Hmm.
My friends of the big shed fame, well one of the fathers has a background in hospitality. I like the guy and over Christmas lunch we yak for hours. Anyway, he reprogrammed the coffee machine, of course there was a commercial espresso machine. Emotions were elevated, yup – but I just sat back and was amused to watch it all taking place.
Thanks! And yes, will do. Just trying to get my head around just how big a tank we can handle – probably 8,000L is the maximum and two of them. Might begin digging the site tomorrow. We don’t muck around.
IBC’s are pretty decent, although in the strong UV sunlight here the plastic breaks down and cracks. Had a friend years ago who used to use the tanks for aquaponics. He knew a lot about fish, but in some ways it is a precarious system which you don’t want to get out of balance – but wow, does it work or what?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Hmm, you know, having purchased at that market for many long years, you got to hear the stories from the traders as they got to know you. For some weird reason, the authoritas moved the stalls around at one stage after them being in the same spot for sometimes decades. I’ll bet the authoritas didn’t volunteer to have their own desks and offices moved regularly. I dunno man, but it’s a big central site and the presumably the land value is a problem, or perhaps even a constant source of temptation. The possibly ideologically based decision to remove or limit the street parking near to market made it super hard to shop there. Of course there is a big commercial car park (over a cemetery I believe), but you have to pay and that further reduces the economics of the experience.
Interestingly, the guy I know who used to work as a teacher told me that often teachers would be asked to do far more work than was actually required, and he said that part of the job is learning to say ‘no’ to such requests. You hear stories of being over worked from people in that line of work. The kids can be pretty physically aggressive too from what I’ve heard. Hmm.
Well, the kids have to be careful what they ask for, although I’ve never heard of that happening down under, but it might not be publicised I guess. Parents can be rather demanding too from anecdotal accounts. Back in the day other than my grandfather, nobody concerned themselves with my schooling. Probably that wasn’t a normal experience, but back then parents did seem kind of less, hmm, expectational as to results. But then it may have been the social circles I hung with. At the disadvantaged school, they were just happy if you turned up. Interestingly I don’t recall too many problems there with the kids.
Back then, $1,000 a month was good money and it would take you a long way. That’s not far off the average weekly income down here. Actually no it isn’t, the number is double that. Who knew the average income was $100k per year? Someone is making mad cash somewhere.
Inflation was about 17% in those mid 70’s oil crisis years. I’ll bet that frightened the authoritas. It would have troubled me. Do you recall prices rising fast in those days?
That’s an intriguing strategy for an actor, and it’d probably pay the bills too. Clever.
Surely you jest? Probably not, but it was a witty remark about the health care system. You’d hope those big businesses were taxed properly? It’s a fine balancing act to manage patient care against the profit motive. What would distress me about becoming stuck in your healthcare system is that you wouldn’t necessarily know the extent of the charges up front. There’s something a bit shifty about that behaviour, and few other businesses could pull that trick.
Hope to never encounter a cassowary, and there’s a strong possibility that this will be a likely outcome given how far north on the continent they live. Some people around the area do keep emus, but the flightless birds prefer the drier grass lands where they can run – they’re fast. Back in the day, ostrich farms also used to be a thing which kind of looked a lot like a ponzi scheme, but what would I know? Yeah, it’s a big omelette. 🙂
I’d not known that about the actor, but it would broaden a persons perspectives, and the Great Depression was no easy walk for most people. Sometimes running away could relieve the financial burden on a household.
Good to hear that the wind in your area wasn’t too bad, and that the weather has improved today. I survived the hot day, and as usual worked late tonight. Oh well, mustn’t grumble.
Work of course pays for many useful things, and I put a water pump on order. I have to get the water reserves from the long line of water tanks attached to the machinery shed, up to the house. And that requires a water pump, which I don’t have for that location. I was talking tonight to a neighbour about how dry it is now and we agreed, water reserves are dwindling. I watch that weather forecast morning and evening. We’ll see how it goes.
Total gourmet Mac and Cheese you’ve made there. I noticed you studiously avoided the fancy name I used yesterday for the meal! 🙂 Had a pasta, parmesan cheese and leafy green concoction for dinner this evening. Quite tasty. Yeah, how good is it to have decent leftovers for the next meal. Yum! Don’t you reckon part of the art of cooking is meal planning and preparation? Working out how to extend meals across days is a skill. I’m still a bit in awe about those permanent stews you mentioned that had been cooking for years, and sometimes decades. Probably super tasty and full of essential pan juices.
Is there a map shop in the nearest big city? There used to be one in the big smoke and you could purchase the topographical maps for an area. I believe the entire continent has been plotted out. Those maps were super handy when driving in the alpine areas in the eastern part of this state. Oh no, the business may have closed it’s doors. Ah, the maps are still sold for the state of Victoria as VicMaps. You might have an online mob in your part of the world? I’ve got the maps for this mountain range, quite interesting too.
Nice work, and did you end up delivering the completed paperwork? Sometimes I get the impression that the online banking systems down here are actually pretty good compared to what people get in other parts of the world. Although, as a result we have less branches… Ook!
Oh no! Your charm here is under question, and the results are not good. Better luck next year, and it is always unwise to expect flexibility from adminstrators.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Yup. It sounds like the Queen Victoria Market is under property pressure. The same thing happens around the Seattle market, from time to time. Lots of luxury apartments and condos that want to crowd in. “Puget Sound and Olympic Mountains view.” But, often, so much “affordable” housing also has to be provided. Although one person’s idea of “affordable” may vary, from anothers.
Sounds like someone is trying to pull a maneuver, that is quit common in TV land. If you want to kill a series, just start moving it all over the schedule. Change up the times and days. I’ve seen that happen with a number of shows. Shuffling around vendors in the market, and fooling around with the parking is another version of that.
From what I hear, teachers at all levels are more and more overwhelmed by onerous administrative tasks. Drowning in paperwork. Less time for the fun stuff, such as, actually teaching.
There’s a series that’s been running for a few seasons, that has attracted a lot of chatter. “Abbot Elementary.” In the interest of Cultural Literacy, I may have to check it out. 🙂 I think my library carries it.
I see the new Nick Frost comedy, has hit the libraries “on order” list. It’s safely on my hold list.
Other than the price, and availability of petrol, I really don’t remember prices rising. During the oil crisis. I’m sure they did, but it was a long time ago.
Here, Big Business tax keeps getting reduced more and more, with every passing legislature. The current spending bill, which is winding its way through Congress Critter Land, has another reduction for their taxes. At the expense of things like subsidized school lunches for poor kids. And other supplemental food programs for poor folks. Medicaid will also take a big hit.
Seems there’s always some new get rich quick scheme, involving animals. Ostrich farms was just one of them. The list is long.
Our high temperature yesterday was 50F (10C). Our overnight low kissed 32F (-0-C), a couple of times, but not in any consistent way. Forecast for today is a high of 60F. If it holds, we haven’t seen that, in a long time. We’re supposed to have a couple of pretty nice days.
I suppose if you want a fairly green oasis, in a fairly consistent manner, it’s more tanks and a water pump. I’d guess you’re already mulling over the pump placement, and housing. Needs must.
I added half a green pepper, to the left over gourmet Mac and Cheese, last night. It was use it or lose it time. 🙂 Just made it a little more complex and bulked up the left overs, a bit. I’m not long on planning evening meals. It’s more free form. But my oatmeal and fruit is an ongoing thing. Every three days, I make up a batch. So, for two days, all I have to do is hack off 1/3, heat it up, slice bananas on top and add some cinnamon and almond milk. I never get tired of it.
Oh, if I do enough searching around on-line, I’m sure I’ll be able to come up with some paper maps. But I’d rather just walk into a sporting good store, and buy a paper map. Gee, back when I was working in bookstores, we always had maps, or map books, of local areas. They were a steady source of income.
Yup. I slid my yearly paperwork, under Little Mary Sunshine’s door, last night. I do hope it’s all in order. If not, I won’t hear about it until we get right down to the wire.
Oh, my credit union has a pretty good on-line service. Anything to avoid the round-about of death. But I do wish they’d do something about their dual authentication kicking me off after a very short period of time. And then I have to go through the whole irritating process, again. Lew
Chris:
My favorite kale is White Russian. And I have some seeds coming called Early Russian Cucumber. I already have seeds for Ukrainian Slicing Cucumber. I don’t believe in taking sides.
I don’t suppose that Ollie would like to go to obedience school now that his girlfriend (maybe) is there?
Such a developement is going to be costly with wells and septic tanks; I can’t think what else rurally speaking needs to be done. Some of the land is not too steep and has been cow pasture as long as we’ve lived here; no trees to cut down. The fellow that owns the farm has 200 acres and is wealthy (or certainly used to be; you ought to see his 10,000 square foot house).
Pam
Chris,
You nailed the reason that the Princess and I keep buying Japanese cars: how they are constructed still seems to be very good. Young neighbor had a used Toyota RAV4 (same class vehicle as the Subaru Forester and the Honda CRV). It developed serious problems and was replaced with a newer RAV4. She says it is great. The mechanics I’ve had for the past 30 years all agree that Toyota, Subaru and Honda are the best vehicles built.
“Might is right” on the road? Oh, yeah. It gets that way here on occasion. Hereabouts it is thought by one crowd that those of us who own Hondas and Subarus, etc., are godless Commie jerks. The stereotype of people who say that drive oversized and overloaded pickups with a certain group’s political message somewhere on the vehicle. After the national election last November, I spent two weeks fearing for my life from the oversized pickups who were driving as if nobody else existed on the roadways, some of the drivers aiming especially for foreign manufactured vehicles. Would’ve totaled my car and done little damage to theirs.
Something I’ve concluded in past years… Those who have political signs in their yards or on their cars, or other decals on their cars…I think that the signage says more about the person than the actual message that the verbiage contains.
Glad you’re already seeing positive benefits from crop rotation. It’s always nice when there’s such rapid confirmation that the change was the correct one. I see that you’re already sold on the addition of more water tanks, another change that will be easy to confirm.
We hit +14C today. A far cry from the recent -20C low temperatures. I wore a thin flannel shirt and had to roll up the sleeves. It was almost suntan weather! Supposed to be warmer Friday and Saturday. Not atypical for Spokane changing from early January weather to late March weather in a week or less. Like your forecast, however, little rainfall expected during the next 2 weeks at least.
That shed’s roof isn’t in hideous condition. It will just take a little bit of muscle to shove it out of my shrubs and back to their side of the fence. As the shrubs were thick enough not to break, the roof is balanced on the shed and the fence, so it will simply take some pushing, no lifting involved. That will occur after I get the “Essence of Avalanche” cleaned up. Can’t get to that part of the yard without stepping in “something”.
So, yes, you can guess that I didn’t get to the dog poo cleaning today. There were a few other chores that were higher priority. The biggest one? On the trip Princess just returned from, her Honda wouldn’t start after filling it up at a gas station. She has one of those portable battery jumper thingies, so she and her brother got the car started. One of the battery posts had a lot of corrosion on it, likely a reaction to the severe cold weather. I got out an old toothbrush, made a paste with baking soda and removed the worst of the corrosion. The car will go to the mechanic Friday, get the rest of the corrosion cleaned up, the battery and charging system both tested. Better safe than sorry.
Precisely. The zucchini rind is high fiber but hard to chew when dehydrated. But ground up? Can’t even notice that the rind is there. I figure that is a sneaky way to add fiber and vegetables to the bread.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Does that variety of Kale survive your winter months (apologies if I’ve already asked you this question 🙂 )? Actually we grow a very similar looking variety which is described similarly but as red, when in fact the leaves go purple with cold frosty weather. It’s an absolute winter staple crop here, and the taste of the leaves become sweeter the longer the leaves are exposed to the winter weather. Presumably your white varieties do a similar trick.
That’s an important question about Ollie, and it is one I too wonder about. Do you think that the two Kelpies would be upset to see their mascot, Mr Gangle Freckles, flirting with some other Bull Arab girlie? Pam, she’s all legs and tail and stuff! 🙂 For the record, he’s sitting on the couch behind me nursing a rawhide chew looking rather comfortable and just to emphasise the relaxed nature of the canine, he ripped out an epic belch. Dogs… He may not be fit for polite company.
Makes a person wonder how many houses your areas water table can support? Such things are not an unlimited resource and folks used to living in town may not appreciate the seriousness of limits. But yes, overflowing septic tanks are a problem. Hmm. The neighbour over the road and immediately above us is selling their place and I may have read that they installed a new septic tank, maybe I forget such details. But a year or two ago, you could smell when they were doing their laundry and sometimes even the aroma of poop. People can be careless when they don’t suffer the consequences.
Just trying to get my head around why anyone would want to live in a house which is over five times what I enjoy, and no clear answer was popping into my head. Maybe the person is small in other ways and they’re trying to compensate? Truly, it’s a mystery to me and maybe I’m just super practical because I wonder about the sheer effort of keeping so much space clean.
Hey, we dodged work and played hooky today. Went to the cinema to watch the latest instalment of Bridget Jones diary, and I was probably the only dude in the place. What can I say, I grew up as the only guy in an otherwise all female house and am clearly house broken to chick culture. Will I ever recover? Probably not! Hehe! Everyone has to be slightly irresponsible every now and then.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Those are all pretty good brands, and if I recall my manufacturing history correctly, in about the 1980’s the Japanese got seriously into the concept and application of incremental quality improvements. The Datsun 1600 I owned (and you also had experience with) which was produced before that time was already excellent, quality just got better. You guys don’t get Suzuki for all sorts of reasons, but I’ve never met a Suzuki engine I didn’t like – including on motorcycles. They just work, and the Kei car class appeals to my frugal nature (not sold in your country).
It maybe true, you might be a godless commie jerk! 🙂 But then, by that logic, so am I, although I’d not ever vote for such left leaning parties again. Man, the day in the mid to late 1990’s where I stood as the rare western tourist in the killing fields in Cambodia and saw with my own eyes just how far ideology can be taken, really rocked my world. Utopia is a nice thought and all, but taken too far can result in an extraordinary body count, and there my little brain was that day witnessing the outcome and trying to shut out the ghosts. They were not quiet the cheeky scamps.
If I may offer this little chunk of advice. Years ago I read an intriguing quote, although for the life of me I can’t recall where: “Driving down the highway of debt in an oversized four wheel drive!” Trust me in this, what you are experiencing is only but a moment in time, and soon it shall pass.
A friend of mine last year hung out with a group who protested outside a house with such signage, and lots of it. By sheer coincidence, I was aware of this house, and suggested to my friend that the dude had some serious mental health issues and it would be best to leave him alone. My friend told me that he’d not attended that rural protest, which I was happy to hear. Down under, people are largely apathetic despite calls to arms to display such signage. You saw it happen with the recent referendum (a proposed change to the constitution which fizzled) and afterwards that signage quietly went back to where things used to be – no signage and/or flags. I dunno about you, but the predicaments cannot be resolved, although I will freely admit that the continual loss can be shared better. One of my neighbours does sometimes fly a pirate flag, and he’s OK.
Yes to both, and I’ll order the water tanks sometime next week. It’s hard to know what the future has in store, but if we run out of water, that’s very bad indeed. Right now, there’s probably 50,000L left, but who knows when the rains will return?
Might dig the site for the water tanks tomorrow. Man, we dodged work today and went to the films instead. Sometimes a person must embrace the truly irresponsible, occasionally it doesn’t hurt. And today was a lot hotter than the forecast suggested, so sitting in the air conditioning in the middle of the day was very pleasant.
Those are my overnight low temperatures. Hmm, the climate batten is being handed over, so look after it, and you know, I will check for scratches and dents upon the return. Any dents and you might get that delivery of ferocious ‘drop bears’ into your forests, just sayin. Things will never be the same again, so fix those dents and scratches properly! 🙂
Hehe! Hope you don’t break and fork over mad cash for the post winter dog poop detectives in order to speed up the restoration of the neighbours storm damaged shed roof. Would they accept a bill for the clean up? The local parrots would never allow such a situation to occur.
Those car batteries have a lifespan of around five years, and being chemical reactors the cold winter weather is no friend to them. Below freezing is problematic. Your super cold winters and salt would be hard on them, and truly I wonder how the lithium chemistries would cope – probably not well although I’ve read that some come with heat mats which would probably slowly drain them. Best to stick to lead acid car batteries for starting, lighting and ignition purposes. Long ago, I believe those car batteries used to last longer.
🙂 Nice work with the bread additives.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
The market is I believe about 17 acres in the city. Hmm. It’s a large target I’m guessing. I guess it all depends upon how long a view the folks in charge take. I read that the lost dogs home large site which is not too far from there is also under I believe compulsory acquisition orders. Apparently they want to build a medical thing there or something like that. Makes me wonder where the lost city dogs will end up? Growth isn’t always good, and I do wonder with all of the current economic shenanigans and upheavals going on, are there going to be buyers? And yeah, agreed, what exactly is meant by ‘affordable’?
That strategy for moving series schedules all over the shop first came to my awareness with the Star Trek Voyager series. I’d long been accustomed to watching the Star Trek series at 11pm on a Tuesday night, then before the series finished, they mucked around with the timing and scheduling. Had to go to the video shop (you remember those? 🙂 ) and hire the remainder of the series to find out what happened. The thing is, all the mucking around of the scheduling just made me go off and do something else with my time.
Years ago I used to know a lady who worked for a big corporate and managed the businesses ‘hot desking’ facility. That’s a strategy which feels me with horror, and I note that the lady never applied the remarkably transient philosophy to herself. Hmm. She also appeared rather mean about peoples reluctance to be moved around. Keeping people off balance is a strategy which you see employed sometimes, and it’s not nice.
Hey, you know what nice is? Taking the day of work, that’s what. Just couldn’t be stuffed working today and went to the cinema instead. As a bit of wife maintenance (and because I not so secretly enjoy the series) I took the Editor to go and see the latest Bridget Jones film. Why anyone would make such a tear jerker of a film is beyond me, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and probably something fell into my eye, maybe… 🙂 A fun day.
Went to the local post office this afternoon to pick up a package for the Editor and she’d been clearly not paying enough attention to the prefill address system for an interweb order. Hmm. Much mirth on my part ensued, along with some good natured ribbing. We now have to collect this order from another slightly further away post office tomorrow before the item disappears. It was spare parts for the coffee machine, and imagine losing that machine! Lewis, one day I’ll have to face caffeine withdrawal. It’s true.
Yeah, that’s the story I’m hearing too – the administrative burdens of teaching have become untenable. Interestingly enough, a similar situation is brewing with our profession. The administrative demands are going through the roof, but at least we have some fat with which to provide a buffer against going loopy. I hear stories from people I know who work in the trenches in the same profession, and they’re not happy tales.
The series sounds intriguing, but with a lot of interpersonal conflict. Hmm. Dunno.
Get Away looks utterly nuts, but I laughed at the trailer. Nice to hear that it’s safely on your list, and I can’t wait to hear what you have to say about the film.
Fair enough. Inflation in those days down here was running at 17% and I imagine that it was noticeable, but I was just a wee toddler and probably more worried about soiling my nappies. My gut feeling suggests that sooner or later, we’ll get to find out what big inflation looks like. Unless government spending can be cut, and soon.
Yeah, well when economic pain is not spread evenly in a society, the peasants get restless.
Deer farms used to also be a thing. The more I speak with locals about the old days, the more I learn. There were at least four deer farms in this area, and now I’m dealing with the consequences of that practice.
Far out, that’s a cold overnight, but soon we’ll be handing that warmer weather batten over to you. The riot act was read to DJ about handing back the batten in good condition, but no need to repeat the battalions of ‘drop bear’ threats again, just sayin… 😉 It was 30’C / 86’F here today and quite a bit warmer than the big smoke – all rather unfair really. It’s meant to be hotter there and cooler here. For some odd reason, the 28 day weather forecast this evening is now showing signs of rain later in the month. Fingers crossed.
I’m not too fussed about the ground cover plants dying off in the summer months. In fact, that gives the fruit trees less competition so it’s no big deal, I just have an odd hunch that we might need more water stored as a buffer for worse conditions. And a site for the new pump has already been chosen.
Peppers can become mouldy, yup. And I quite enjoy the mild peppers in dinners, and try to avoid spicy food at night times just because it unbalances good sleep. Dunno why that happens to me, but it just does, so best avoided. Fair enough about meal planning, I believe the Editor has a vague idea maybe two or three days beforehand about that issue. I do breakfasts, and like you have consumed a similar start to the day, albeit toasted muesli, fruit and yoghurt for most of my life. It’s just nowadays I make the muesli and yoghurt plus a lot of the fruit comes from here. Right now the grapes are getting much closer to becoming ripe. Yum!
Agreed about the retail experience. There’s something more pleasant about perusing the shelves to see what offerings there are. Buying online is very much a matter of knowing what you want beforehand.
Fingers crossed that the paperwork is all in good order and answers the questions being asked.
Right, well that is interesting. Double authentic system gets used here, but rather than for logins, it’ll be if you do anything – a text message will be sent to your phone with a code. The software does log you out if there has been no activity after a certain time.
Speaking of software, I learned that wundows 10 is nearing it’s end of life in October. The nice folks want an annual subscription if you want to use it after that date. The hardware on my computer – despite being no slouch – does not support that software. Nice one, and it boggles my mind the corner I’m getting pushed into. Sun Tzu has some thoughts on that approach.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Our lost dog shelter, which was a ways out in the country, was going to be moved to the (very convenient) site of where my credit union used to be. That plan was shelved, and now it’s about to open as an overnight shelter for the homeless.
Oh, I do miss video and dvd rental stores. Although I always did think they needed to get a high school kid in a few afternoons, to alphabetize the sections. 🙂 I watched a pretty good movie, recently, about a video store. “I Like Movies.” It’s a 2022 Canadian comedy / drama. In one rather funny scene, the district manager is telling a young new hire that in ten or fifteen years, he to could move up to management. Little did they know …
Hot desking does not take into consideration a basic human foible. We’re territorial. I think I’d drag along a few small things to make a space “mine.” Maybe a family photo (if I had a family), a small house plant, etc.. 🙂
I think I saw the first two “Brigit Jones” movies. Or, maybe I just read the books. Being in the book business, at the time, I felt I should have a grip on what all the hoop-la was about. I’m about done watching season two of “Funny Woman.” That’s the Brit series, set in the ’60s, about a young woman from the provinces, who goes to London to be a TV comedian / singer / film star. I see there’s to be a season three.
I see “Abbott Elementary” is a comedy mockumentary. I do love a good mockumentary, although no one has done it as well as Christopher Guest’s series of films.
Mink farms, ostrich farms, llamas. Poor animals! They were all, more or less, Ponzi schemes.
Our high yesterday was 55F (12.77C). Our overnight low was 34F (1.11C). So, we didn’t hit 60F, yesterday. We’re taking another run at it today, with a forecast of 63F. We’ll see. Better be careful threatening DJ with a Drop Bear. There’s all kinds of interesting carnivores, we could ship you. Our very toothy, cranky and omnivorous possums, if nothing else.
When I refer to green peppers, in food, it’s usually Green Bell Peppers. They’re pretty mild. We can grow them, here, but they’re pretty iffy. And usually, quit small.
Speaking of the gardens, as I was leaving this morning, I noticed that the landscapers had butchered all our blueberries, out front. A real scalp job. I reported it to our building manager, Little Mary Sunshine, when I got back. She was not pleased. I also dropped e-mails, to a couple of the Master Gardeners. There is to be the yearly blueberry seminar, here, on the 15th of March.
Sometimes, buying on-line can be a problem. I’d like to buy some heavy duty plastic grocery bags. But figuring out the “weight” is a crap shot. Our state has done away with “single use” bags. Some merchants still use the have duty bags, although some states are closing that loop hole. I swear, good grocery bags are like gold, and I seem to always be scrambling to keep some in stock. Some merchants charge an 8 or ten cents fee, which I’m more than happy to pay. Ten bags for a buck? That’s a bargain in my book.
I got gas yesterday, and a US gallon of the regular grade was $4.10. Going up. There’s idle chatter about eggs hitting $12 a dozen. As I drove past the farm feed store, yesterday, I noticed that they’re having a meeting about bird flu, tomorrow. I don’t think we have any commercial egg farms left in this county. But there have been some reports about the flu, in small domestic flocks.
Even though I was “active,” my credit union web site has kicked me off in as little as three minutes. And, if I went to another part of their website, to, say, get a percentage, I got kicked off. 🙁
I got a book from the library, called “Tech Agnostic.” I don’t think I’ll read it, as it’s a bit too deep, for me. But, in the introduction the author made the point that tech has infiltrated all parts of our lives, and there’s no going back. That won’t end well, either.
I made the French toast, last night, to satisfy that itch. Eggs, almond milk, a bit of nutmeg, orange juice and vanilla. Some of it was slathered with organic honey, some with the current / cranberry jam I made. Tasty.
There was a cat, wandering around my hallway, at 8am. H didn’t bark, but let me know something was up. I reported that, too. Last night when we went to beg, before I fell asleep, H was clearly having a bit of a nightmare. So, I reached outside the covers, and stroked her a bit, til she calmed down. I don’t think she even woke up. A few minutes later, it happened again. Once again, I applied a comforting hand, and that seemed to do the trick. I do wonder about her interior life. Lew
Chris:
I grow Red Russian Siberian Kale, as well as the White Russian. The red is somewhat more reliable in very cold weather, but they both survive the winter here and pop back up in the spring, even growing some throughout the winter.
Actually, I am pretty sure that Mr. Freckles is a confirmed bachelor and has no need of a Mrs. Freckles. Not that she would mind the belch. It would probably make her swoon, as would any occasion that he happened to roll in some deer poop. Dogs don’t like polite company.
Ook. The farm touches the boundary of our property. That’s my water table. Double ook. The big house is all about status. You and I don’t worry about that. And don’t worry about the fellow keeping it clean – he has a housekeeper.
I’m afraid that you enjoy chick flicks more than I do. At least you probably get to view a lot of chicks – if that’s a plus.
Pam
Chris:
Have I mentioned that my son is replacing our entire roof? It is the original roof from 1992, which someone else put on. Amazing that it made it this long. But, lordy – what a mess. The whole front yard and backyard are covered with debris from the old roof and it is my and my daughter-in-law’s job to clean it up. It’s kind of scary, too, as that north side is three stories high and over a concrete terrace. I also helped at the beginning of this project when there was still ice all over that north-facing side of the roof by holding a hose with hot water on it.
Did you and Sandra put on your own shingles and underlayment?
Pam
Hi Pam,
Oh my! Your son has some courage, and hope he uses a harness just in case if the weather is disagreeable. I tend to stay off the roof during the winter months due to the very real possibility of falling off from a height.
We weren’t allowed under the local building regulations to undertake the roof plumbing work – that had to be certified by a person in the trade otherwise we’d never have gotten the final completion permit for the house. By the way, shingles are not used down under probably due to fire risk. The closest equivalent would be ceramic roof tiles which are kind of the same, but they leak an inordinate quantity of air.
We used corrugated steel sheets on the roof. The roof design here is rated for half an hours direct contact with serious fire without structural failure. The bushfire building codes almost sent us broke. We did the carpentry for the roof, but the plumbers had to lay down the fire blanket, mineral wool layer around all of the edges and then attach the steel corrugated sheets. It’s an expensive roof – something of a sheep in wolfs clothing, because nobody knows it’s anything special. Oh well.
Hopefully whilst your roof is being restored, you get the chance to add in useful things like vapour barriers and insulation?
Yeah, you piqued my interest with the mention of the white Russian kale variety, and it looks like a fairly recent new variety. The older purple / red whatever, is not far off a weed given how tough the plant is. And the variety shrugs off the worst of the winter weather here.
Pam, I was mildly worried about Mr Gangle Freckles and loose talk of lady Bull Arabs. 🙂 The two Kelpies have the big dog under their paws, and that’s where he shall stay. But yes, dogs enjoy the most revolting stenches – you’ve not encountered the heady aromas of a fresh wombat scat, but the dogs here have, and I can’t recommend the experience. I’d imagine that skunks are rotten smelling when they fire their glands at an unsuspecting canine victim.
It’s everyone’s water table in your area. That’s what bothers me about the folks around here with wells (we call them bores) – how much are they taking from that resource? And I truly don’t know. With water tanks you can see straight away how much is stored.
Well that’s one less worry that the bloke has a housekeeper. It’d be the never ending job, and who wants that! 🙂
🙂 What can I say – I’m a sucker for a rom-com.
Today was warm again at 86’F, and so I threw in the towel and just did all of the life’s admin tasks instead. Have to prepare the talk too.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Your winter extreme weather would be quite hard on the homeless, so good to hear they’ve getting somewhere to go, presumably it’s a short term stay option place? At least your credit union is still in town, the local bank branch closed a year or so back, and the nearest is now half an hours drive away. Not what I’d call close at all. Although you do have that roundabout of death to navigate. I’m not a fan of two lane roundabouts in that people try to undercut turning drivers. Such road infrastructure adds an element of excitement, I don’t need.
It was hot again here today at 86’F, which is not too bad and the nights are cool, but I’m feeling a bit hot-weather-worn-out. Anyway, it’ll be cooler Sunday and Monday, so I flipped the days around and today did the work I’d planned to do those days. Yay! Finished late and even managed to get a long dog walk in, but yeah, those days are now free to do some outside work.
The water pump turned up in the mail today. Hopefully I get some time next week to install it on the long line of water tanks. But we’ll see, there’s lots of details to that work. Still, with a dry-ish March forecast, I need to pump some of that water uphill to the house system.
Incidentally, with the ongoing warm to hot weather, the pumpkins are growing at a stupendous rate. Almost as scary as zucchini triffids…
Hehe! There was a bit of whimsy employed with the arrangement of titles in an old school video shop. 🙂 Makes you wonder if the purpose of that was ensuring that customers perused the shelves?
Oh that’s funny is a kind of sad way. Reminds me of Simon Pegg’s employ pep talk in the consumer electronics shop whilst zombies ravaged outside.
Exactly, hot desking works for big corporates, but not for people. I’m of the belief that it’s a dehumanising process so that employees comprehend that they’re a work unit – and might be replaced. Not a fan of that strategy.
It’s a pretty funny series, and in some ways reminds me of a Wodehouse escapade, but perhaps one notch lower in the social ladder. Nobody in the film seemed broke to me. 🙂 And truthfully, the actor Hugh Grant stole every scene he was in – he made me laugh. The Editor quite enjoyed that Funny Woman series, although of late she’s developed a taste for Scandi Noir, which I just don’t get. The dark winters in such northerly locales seem to send people very loopy.
Yeah, the series Abbott Elementary was described as a mockumentary. Who can forget This is Spinal Tap? He’s a versatile dude. And the Princess Bride is a through and through cult film.
Ostriches and Llamas can be consumed, but mink? I tend to think not. It surprised me at the time when such things where big that nobody seemed to have run the numbers. What do you mean the salesfolks lied?
The weather in your part of the world is slowly warming. Did it make it to 63’F today? It’s pretty cool outside here now, and you can hear the crickets. Far out, I don’t want to see those toothy critters running around the mountain range. Oh my, what a lot of drama that would be. There’s already enough things that can kill a person in these parts of the woods.
The same thing is true here with the bell peppers. The growing season is just not hot enough for those fruits.
Have you heard anything from the master gardeners about the great blueberry trashing of ’25? Some folks should not be let near sharp cutting equipment, and the more I learn about pruning, the more I can see it’s a bit of a skill.
It seems like free plastic bags were replaced with those heavy duty paid for plastic bags you mentioned. I’ve never accepted or paid for one. You know, sometimes I get the impression that all this disposable plastic is a side use for the lighter fuels extracted during the search for heavier more industrially useful fuels like diesel. Something has to be done with the stuff.
Fuel costs seem to be on the up here too. I filled up the dirt rat today with petrol which was $1.959 per litre – or a $1.96 per litre in more normal language. That works out to $7.45 a gallon. I tend to use as little of the stuff as possible.
$12 a dozen for eggs is not unknown of down here. Years and years ago, they were standardly about $5 a dozen. Feed costs are on the up, oh yeah. Serious people keep saying that inflation is under control.
Oh no! That’s a bit fast for kicking a user off, but presumably people use such banking systems on public computers, so maybe what you’re seeing is a response to the lowest common denominator.
What does the author mean that there’s no go back? That’s a big call in my books. What goes up, can go down. That sort of thinking won’t end well, nope.
I’ve never had French toast, but the description sounds epic. Yum! Had a simple lunch today of freshly baked bread, tomatoes from the garden and a chunk of cheese. Pretty tasty.
Was the cat mystery resolved? The dogs seem to have some active dreams don’t they? And yes the canines here can slip back into the same dream if not thoroughly woken. I get the impression that not all of their dreams are pleasant romps through the fields merrily chasing rabbits. It is something to wonder about what goes on in those heads. They’d have nightmares for sure.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Poor mules! I saw an article, yesterday, about the cuts to our National Forest Service. Pacific Northwest impact. Published in our local newspaper, but lifted from the Portland newspaper.
https://www.chronline.com/stories/federal-cuts-hit-pacific-northwest-national-forests-bringing-bleak-time-to-us-forest,376097?
I also saw a forest-y article from your part of the world. Kohala poop sniffing dogs.
https://www.cnn.com/science/dogs-koala-poop-conservation-australia-c2e-hnk-spc
The shelter will just be overnight, and … oh, heck. There was an article, yesterday.
https://chronline.com/stories/lewis-county-night-by-night-homeless-shelter-is-almost-ready-to-open,376011
We broke the 60F barrier, yesterday. Our high was 64F (17.77C). The overnight low was 41F (5C). Forecast high for today is 61F.
I worked in the garden, for a couple of hours, last night. Sunset time is now about 6PM. I generally go out before sunset as, it’s mostly quiet out there. I buried some kitchen scraps and did a lot of weeding. Not necessarily in just my bed. There’s an old lady, in a wheel chair, who has a plot next to mine. Basically, it’s mostly her caregiver, who does the gardening. The Shot weed is in bloom. Best root it out, before it spreads to my bed. I checked out a few things in the gardener’s room. The Master Gardeners were not pleased. about the blueberries. They’ll stop by this weekend, and check things out.
Your plumbing system, let alone your electrics, boggle my mind.
I finished watching season two of “Funny Woman,” last night. There will be a season three. I just can’t warm to Scandahovian Noir. And half my tribe comes from that part of the world.
Can llamas be eaten? 🙂 That’s a tease. A fellow I knew had Llamas. His wife also wove with the wool. Well, one of his llamas broke a leg, and had to be put down. Being a frugal and pragmatic sort of guy, he dressed it out and feasted. He happened to mention that, at the local Llama growers organization. The horror! The horror! That’s what happens when you turn an animal profit center, into pets.
I don’t think I’ve ever used a plastic bag, for a single use, in my life. I’ve got one I use for toting things back and forth to the garden. If I donate books to the library, or used bookstore, they go in a bag. I usually take bags shopping, and use them to haul stuff to the Club or home. Garbage can liners. The smaller ones that you pack veg in, I double, and save my kitchen scraps, in the fridge. Into the garden they go.
No French toast, down under? It’s also great with apple butter. 🙂 The ingredients I mentioned, you wisk it all together, until it gets a bit bubbly, in a bowl. Then I take a fork, and put a slice of bread in the bowl, making sure it’s well coated on both sides. Into the frying pan, it goes. First one side, then the other. Sometimes, a bit of butter goes in the pan. People use all kinds of topping. Powdered sugar, etc..
Had a healthy meal, last night. Parsley, mustard greens and dried tomatoes, from the garden. A stock of celery, with plenty of leaf on the top. Garlic, mushrooms. Seeds. Some broccoli. A can of Garbanzo beans. Tasty. Lew
Chris:
Yes, he always wears a harness. It is wrapped around the chimney, I think. Here’s hoping the chimney holds.
If you have a steel roof, it will probably outlast you. Our “barn” (it is really just a big shed) has a steel roof.
I’ll bet that wombat scat isn’t any worse than all the other poops around here. And we have neighboring cows, so there is always ample opportunity to put on some of that perfume. We had one dog who was mesmerized by skunks. He got sprayed on three different occasions before he finally gave up that sport.
Pam
Chris,
Today turned into Poo Removal Day. I got 2/3 of it done in 2 hours, then the sun was going down and the light was getting iffy. As the bottoms of my shoes began the adventure AND finished today’s adventure as a Poo Free Zone, I decided to quit for the day. To be continued in another day or two.
Yeah, I never have and never could vote for such parties. They are too far out there and the utopian ideal has never worked out in reality. They always end badly.
Thank you for that quote. Yes, the price of a new oversized four-wheel drive is approaching what I paid for my house. Something has to give. That is entirely unsustainable.
Somebody in my neighborhood sometimes flies a pirate flag. I’ve never seen or talked to that neighbor, but I appreciate the flag.
Meanwhile, less than a kilometer from here, a guy has had a 12 foot tall blow up political figure in his front yard. Some teenage boys recently walked by that house after school. Owner of the house yelled at and cussed out the only kid who didn’t look of northern European descent, cursing at him to go back where he came from. Kid is a Lakota Indian. Maybe he is supposed to move back to South Dakota? Since that incident, the blow up politician has mysteriously sprung a leak and become deflated. One of the neighbors mentioned the event to me today when Avalanche and I were walking near there. I file that under the heading of the signage says more about the one with the sign than what its message is.
There are times when hard outdoor work Must be avoided. It is a necessity, especially when it is too hot for too long. Breaks from the work and getting into a cooler setting are good.
We had 2 consecutive days of 16C weather. Sunny. Warm. Started on my tan. 😉
Yes, I’ve had more car batteries fail in the extreme cold than during any other kind of weather. The electric vehicles really don’t work well in those conditions here, either.
Dame Avalanche got worn out this afternoon. We had a long walk. Young Neighbor was outside, so we visited with her for a few minutes, which got Dame Avalanche excited. Later on the walk, a lady who has seen us walk by was outside with her puppy. Hoping to get the puppy socialized with other dogs and humans, she invited us to visit through her fence. The dogs had a grand time playing through the fence, the humans had a pleasant visit. Treats were given to both canines. Then Avalanche was very active while I was cleaning up poo, afterward wanting to play hard (meaning she ran around while I pretended to maybe chase her). Twenty minutes of that and inside we came. Naptime for the happy husky.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
My experience with brick chimneys, and presuming yours is a properly mortared and laid brick chimney (especially if it’s worked for decades with no issues), is that they’re usually pretty strong. Years ago, and you may not recall this, but there was quite a robust discussion here in the comments on the subject of igniting the creosote in the chimney in order to clean the gunk out. Locally that act usually results in intense fires, and it’s not something I’d do, but everyone is different. My understanding is that it eventually weakens the mortar joins.
🙂 Pam, I’d like to think so too about the roof, but it’s hard to really know because the steel corrugated sheets are part of a larger fire resistant roof system. If the entire design is put to the test and survives a bushfire, well then we’ll know for sure! One of the reasons I watch the unfolding insurance story closely is because if insurance ever becomes a problem, I’ll have to put my life on the line and trust that the house was designed and constructed good enough during a bushfire. Most people down under living outside of a town run that risk, and even some cities aren’t safe from the risk, like the 2003 bushfires which were very deeply into the nations capital city of Canberra. Ook!
Agreed, and like the toothy opossums (although yours sounds delightful), please do keep the skunks to your part of the world. Some dogs learn slowly.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
That’s some fine poo removal work. And quitting this task before your luck ran out was a smart move. A lesser person may have stuck it out for just one more chunk, then regretted the decision as the failing light hid that last little unseen frozen poo, which obviously the sole of the shoe encountered. You and I both know that hubris leads to nemesis, and that would have been case had luck been pushed too far. Respect.
Respect! 🙂 Man, I used to vote for the left leaning Greens before heading rurally and learning what the word ‘sustainable’ actually means. Truly I was naive, but nowadays the depths of incomprehension are known. They truly lost me the day I heard a senior person in that party calling for less active forest management practices, particularly back burning. Look I’m not a fan of the scale and intensity of the burns the government does, but on the other hand that activity is better than doing nothing. Hey, sometimes it makes me wonder whether the policy makers have even stepped one foot in a forest, let alone spent any time in such an environment. They might not have you know. Yup Utopia – was actually a fun computer game on the old Intellevision game console (fun fact).
Politics as practised, is grubby, and that’s life.
Hmm. I wonder such things too. A Ford Ranger down under will set you back I dunno $60k without accessories. How people afford that is an interesting question.
Go the pirate flag, and hopefully the person is an amusing and mostly harmless sort. But they might also want to be left alone. I wave to the local flag flying dude, and he has an interesting knowledge of such symbols. Some even get flown upside down when appropriate. Always stuff to learn that’s going on all around us. Hey, don’t you sometimes wonder what you’ve missed out on noticing? 🙂
Massive blow up dolls in the front yard are just asking to be deflated. Such a giant waste of plastic and energy, oh well. Man, I don’t believe that people even think that far ahead and such wishes tend to backfire on the wisher person. You’d hope the guy isn’t disappointed with reality?
The weather here is not that dissimilar to your part of the world (tomorrow and Monday at least, then it will get hot again). 19’C and a 60% chance of 1mm of rain. Fingers crossed the rain falls. If the weather conditions are right though, might try the chainsaw mill tomorrow on that leaning tree which eventually fell over.
Good to hear that the tan is developing.
I really do wonder how electric vehicle batteries cope with extreme cold temperatures. Presumably the batteries have a low wattage heat matt, but still that would be a drain.
Ah you’ve described a lovely day for both of you. Happy husky, even happier human. Life’s good!
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Man, the cuts are going to be a real poop show of a total mess. That’s rough about the forest service and the mules. Instead of getting better, this is all going to get much worse. Dunno about you, but there are days I wonder why the pain wasn’t taken way back in the day when it would have been a much smaller cost to bear. And it wasn’t so here we are today. Whatever else a person can believe, the debt story was unsustainable – I believe much of the recent debt of the last few years was placed with bonds which had short maturity times, like only a few years, so they’ll mature soon and have to be repaid using the current higher interest rates compounding problems upon problems. The projected interest payment curves, look like a mathematical representation of a healthy batch of yeast chowing down on a block of sugar in solution. And yet, you’re absolutely right, some of the debt went to support the mules and forestry workers. Sad, but didn’t you have a conservation corps way back in the great depression? No doubts the idea will rear its head again when the time is right.
Thanks for the article on the koala sniffing dog, and looking closely at the scat, I’ve seen those only recently near to a big tree and presumed it was a possum. Hmm. A timely and much appreciated link.
Good to see that your city is working with the Salvos to get the shelter up and running. You can sort of understand why belongings would not be allowed to be left there during the day.
Whoa! That’s some positively toasty weather. Hope you and H enjoyed it, from my perspective such temperatures are rather nice. Actually tomorrow here is forecast to reach 19’C / 66’F, so we’re getting closer to handing that climate batten over. Not to worry though, from Tuesday onwards the heat returns. You’ll be amazed at how dry the ground cover plants are looking this week. So far the trees seem to be doing OK, so there must be some groundwater. Presumably the dead grass reduces evaporation of the water held in the soil?
🙂 I get that, and the quiet moments in a garden are most pleasant. One of the benefits of working at odd hours when compared to our fellow man. Oh! Bittercress seeds. Yup, absolutely agree with you there.
Hope the blueberries are recoverable from their extreme buzz cut.
We are of a similar mindset here. The Editor likes Scandi Noir and that’s nice and stuff, but please just keep it away from me! 🙂 No doubts I’d go psychotic too if I’d experienced such cold dark northerly winters. That’s what the locals seem to be up to if the number of shows are any guide. Positively dangerous living. Fortunately, heading up there isn’t a likely possibility, so no worries on that front.
I’ll bet that Llamas are tasty. Had an Alpaca steak in Peru, and those are very close relatives to the Llama, and it was good and tasty. And yes, very wise, don’t give cute names to the livestock, or allow kids to do so. That’s how you end up with pet livestock. Betsy the cow is probably super tasty butchered properly, aged and cooked to perfection. Yum!
Respect. No point wasting plastic bags. Those things take energy to make. All great uses.
I’m sure the discerning gastronomist can find French Bread somewhere, but I don’t hang out at such places. Not for any good reason though, just never noticed the offering on the menu. Oh my goodness that sounds intensely rich. Did Julia Childs ever attempt French Bread, I’ll bet the lady did.
Ah, and the healthy meal balanced things off nicely. Sounds good. Had home made pizza for dinner this evening, which of course is a vegetarian pizza. Quite tasty too. The toppings were a collection of seasonal roast vegetables.
Went into the big smoke today for the talk on the current economic situation. I’d spent the past few weeks gathering data from here and there for the talk. There was a lot of discussion, which I tend to encourage, as long as it doesn’t get out of hand, waffle or go off-topic (too much). Like those mules you mentioned with the forest service, it’s a dark topic right now.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Yup. CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp). My Dad did a stint. Some of the food assistance programs are on the chopping block. They’re trotting out the public assistance work requirements, again. The idea being that the “able bodied” (who decides?), must work for assistance. Of course, child care (lacking or expensive), is never taken into consideration. There are disabilities programs, but getting on them can be quit the ordeal. They’re like insurance companies, in that they reject all initial claims. And the backlog for hearings is pretty daunting. I once worked for a lawyer, whose entire caseload was disability claims. I’ll never forget the case of a woman, in a wheel chair, who had both her feet amputated. She was initially denied eligibility. Interestingly, the lawyer never lost an appeal.
Social Security is being reduced by closing field offices. We have one in this county. It’s where most people go, to sign up for their social security. As the website is very glitchy. I see us descending (though we’re most of the way there), into a Kafka or “Brazil” (movie), type of bureaucracy.
Fern Glade Farm Koala Reserve. 🙂 I remember you thought you’d heard Koala, up in your patch. And there was that visitation, by the poor little fellow on a dark and stormy night.
I wonder if the shelter will manage to make it off the ground, and stay running. It was mandated by the government. And that may change. I read that one of the DOGE targets is funding for the homeless. Which mostly comes through HUD (Housing and Urban Development.) By the way, that sporty looking fellow, in the expensive kicks, in the background of some of the pictures is Shawn Swope. One of our country commissioners. He really dislikes the homeless, and wraps it all in a cloak of “accountability.” Besides the local Sally Mae, there’s some consulting firm from the other end of our state, involved. As Swope didn’t trust any of the local agencies who deal with the homeless, as … dependable. Probably because they’ve gave him a lot of grief, over time. 🙂 “Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” Which actually referred to newspapers, back in the day.
Our high yesterday was 63F (17.22C). The overnight low was 37F (2.77C). The forecast for today is 61F. Rain might be coming back, late tonight. I worked for a couple of hours, out in the garden, last night. One of my guerrilla garden patches, containing two kinds of garlic and some iris. It was like performing very delicate surgery, to get the weeds out, but not disturb the other stuff.
One of the Master Gardeners stopped by, yesterday. MJ (Mary Jean), a retired nurse, and about the most even keeled person you’re likely to meet. It turns out she’s leading the blueberry seminar, this year. Part of that is a demo on pruning. Her comment was, “Well, I’ll have plenty of examples of what not to do.” 🙂
In Finland, they keep their sanity with lots of booze, and tango. Really! I even saw a documentary, about it. The Japanese are also into tango. Not so much from the darkness, as other issues that bother them.
French bread vs French toast. This is French toast …
https://w.wiki/DFkj
What passes for French bread in this country, well, a Frenchman would turn up his nose. There might even be a lot of yelling and wild hand waving. 🙂 Julia Child did crack the code. But it was an ordeal. Hundreds of test runs before some kind of success. That book I got, “In Search of the Perfect Loaf,” really delved into trying to replicate some bread products. His Holy Grail was a rye sourdough. I really think a lot of it boils down to terroir. And, ingredients which might be impacted by terroir. Right down to whatever minerals are in the water.
As a sidelight, during a period where the French didn’t sign on to one of our adventures in the Middle East, there was a movement to rebrand French toast and French fries, as Freedom Toast and Freedom Fries. All silly, and impacted … nothing. I had a co-library worker who was absolutely giddy at the prospect. Bordering on hysterical. There was a wild gleam in her eye that made me take a step (or two) back.
I’m sure your economic talk went well, and I wish I were a fly on the wall. So, I suppose you got the question, “Then what are we to do?” How did you field that one? I was talking (e-mailing) my Idaho friend this morning, and had to refresh myself on the concept of “psychology of previous investment.” Hmmm. That was coined by Mr. Kunstler, and even has a Wiki-hoopy listing. I checked out if “Lenocracy” showed up in a search. Nope. It should. At least with this whole DOGE thing, a lot of bull***t jobs are going to bite the dust. Maybe. By the way, my Idaho friends are selling their house, and moving again. Into half of a duplex they own.
Prof. Mass was all for DOGE, but had to back peddle a bit, due to the execution. “No, that’s not what I meant, at all!” Be careful what you wish for.
H is a sly, but sometimes pragmatic little dog. She gets half of her dental chew (Treat!), after our morning and midnight walk. If she finishes her dinner. Didn’t eat your dinner? No desert! Every other night is a kibble only (no extra added attractions) night. As was last night. So, she didn’t eat her dinner. Usually she caves before bed, but didn’t last night. So, no chew for her! We went on our morning walk, and when we got back, dinner was till untouched. I waited her out. Finally, I was at the computer (in the room Formerly Known as Bedroom), and she came to the door and gave a yip. Yup. She had eaten some of her dinner. So, she got her chew. Lesson learned? Probably. Until the next time. 🙂 Lew
Hi Lewis,
Those were great programs that did a lot of good during a very hard time. I get the impression that such things will be needed again in the not to distant future, but could be wrong. Where did such ideas come from? Well… There used to be, and I believe still is an insurance policy which was called something like ‘total permanent disability’. Basically if you qualify, things are probably not good. However, there was often a clause which allegedly cost a lot to have included. It was something like: a person has to no longer be able to perform their original employment. Sounds innocuous, but say your feet were amputated in an industrial accident, so if the clause wasn’t in place, well the theory was that you could work as an office clerk with no feet, so no claim. Why even have the policy with such potential wiggle room, is my thoughts in the matter.
Sometimes a person needs to lawyer up, but then wait long enough and sometimes claims and actions can simply disappear and remain unresolved. It being hard to go to court when a person is dead.
Oh yeah, closing those offices is a nightmare for people having to engage with that system. Hmm. How’s the phone service for that mob rated? A few years ago I spent 15 minutes on the phone with the local mob sorting out a two cent matter, which incidentally was in their favour. It was one of those super-weird is this really happening moment.
The Brazil film is genius, no getting around that, but the Kafkaesque storyline would haunt my dreams. A few times I’ve toyed around with the idea of watching the film, but always I hold back. It hardly surprises me that the website is glitchy – that would be a feature I’m guessing?
You mentioned years ago about the tar paper shacks of the great depression, and it’s long be known to me that during a time of stagnation or decline, someone’s gain is another’s loss. The modern monetary theorists were right, but also wrong. They kept saying that huge deficits didn’t matter, and for a long time that held true, but now it’s a problem. Makes me wonder if they’ll come and retract their claims? Your most recent federal government unwisely chose to finance the deficit with short term bonds for some reason only known to themselves. Those things will mature, soon, being short term. I may whisper the unspeakable word here: Default. Yup. You really need locals to address and adapt to local problems, but you just hope greed isn’t a factor in that story because that will end badly.
Spring is fast arriving in your part of the world, as autumn is here – whatever that means. The warmer weather would feel very nice to you and H. It was a cool and cloudy day here today, and I finally fired up the chainsaw mill. Ripped up a 11.5ft log into large, heavy and useful chunks of timber. Being hardwood, the job is slow, but then building materials are very expensive these days.
Respect to Mary for the stoic response to the blueberry pruning weirdness. At least it sounds as if the course will go ahead.
Removing weeds does take a deft hand and sharp tools to avoid damaging the root systems of plants you actually want to grow. And it’s a never ending task, but I don’t mind the activity.
What? Tango in Finland? My mind has now been blown, and to think that there are bohemians in Helsinki. Good to read that the feet generally stay close to the floor during such exercises. The English band Pulp produced a most excellent song which was later covered by William Shatner: William Shatner – Common People. Yup dance, drink and copulate because there’s nothing else to do… Amazed that they exist, and they burn so bright.
Lewis, the photos of the French toast left me feeling a touch queasy in the guts. But terroir is absolutely a real thing and it all boils down to the varieties grown, the soil they’re grown in, the care and attention received, and the climate. Making harvested produce taste great, is a real skill on so many fronts.
Well, when the French spies sunk the NZ ship, the Rainbow Warrior, French restaurants faced a significant economic backlash down under. Apparently that lot used to let off a lot of nuclear weapons in this part of the world, but then so did the English and people were less upset about that. I feel for the servicemen sent into the area after the detonation. Hmm, an act of cruelty.
Actually, nobody asked me that question. Yeah, makes you wonder why? But then I’m also unsurprised by that. To actually retreat from the goodies requires the acceptance of considerable loss – and who wants that? But yes, the decline of bulldust jobs will be a major issue over the next year and then forever after. We can’t afford such mischief.
Professor Mass is paid from where again? At least he has an opinion on the subject, but truly it makes no difference, sorry to say. There’s no easy way to force loss on a population unaccustomed to that frame of mind. Man, I’ve been dirt poor and got through just fine, but how other folks will take that notice is an issue I wonder about.
Go H, and stand strong Lewis. Dogs will mess with you on that matter, but like you I’ve also observed the eat or miss out strategy works a treat. Not hungry, the chickens will get your breakfast. Unfussy creatures. 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Just like health insurance companies. Put off the appeals long enough, and the patient / customer just might die. Problem solved.
I’ve hear mixed stories, on how good or bad the Social Security phone system is. Depends on when you call, and how lucky you are.
Tar paper shacks? Hoovervilles. During the Great Depression.
https://w.wiki/DGUg
Our high yesterday was 64F (17.77C). The overnight low was 41F (5C). Forecast high for today is 51F. The morning started off pretty dry, and now we’re into heavy mist / drizzle. Beez-us! 🙂 There’s heather in bloom, and when I took H for her afternoon walk, yesterday, I notice a bit of activity around them. So, we took a walk up the side walk. The B-52s (bumblebees), were really working them over. And, wonder of wonders, there were quit a few European honey bees about. Maybe from the hives up the hill. They looked a little emaciated, and were on the raspy side.
I picked up four bags of garden soil, this morning. Two a good brand, and they now have a “super-charged” veg and herb blend. Picked up two bags of that, and a bag of composted chicken poop. I’m going to see if I can revive that strawberry bed, before the Master Gardeners do something I’d rather they not do. I also picked up some asparagus root, for one of the barrels in back. The other, sunnier one will be pumpkins, again. If this drizzle keeps up, I might get out and hit up the garlic with some bone meal.
I’m looking forward to seeing your chain saw mill photos. Or, maybe in action?
Thanks for the ear worm. Wow. Shatner really does a great job on that tune. He does pop up in the oddest places. I was reading about the “Iron Chef” series, on the Food Channel. Turns out, the first two pilot episodes were presented by Shatner. Though he didn’t make the final series. Also, right before he did the original “Star Trek,” he was the lead in the movie “Incubus (1966). It was rather a dogs breakfast, but a.) it starred Shatner, b.) the dialogue was entirely in Esperanto (a made up language), and c.) it was long on cheese cake. 🙂 I actually saw it, years ago.
Prof. Mass is employed, mainly, by the University of Washington. But I think he has a few other streams of income. Interesting post on UFOs. 🙂
I’ve been scanning through Mr. Greer’s “Open Post,” this week. Getting a sense of other people’s and his take on the follies in Washington, D.C.. I thought he might put the kibosh on the whole topic, but he’s letting it play out. If it runs on too long, he may ban the topic, and cast into the outer darkness, anyone who brings it up. 🙂 Lew