Inflation is a real thing, although just prior to the Federal election over the weekend, reports suggested that it’s all under control. Nothing to see here. Yeah. Sure. Frankly speaking, I hold some doubts about those claims. Moving on… Most weeks, I work six out of seven days. The work done may not take up the whole day, but it’s work nonetheless.
On a day off last week, Sandra and I decided to visit the Garden of St Erth, which is maintained by the big local gardening club, and they’re known as: The Diggers Club. Long term readers will know by now, that we have plenty of experience with digging soil. However, I believe that the name of the group is instead a reference to the colloquialism for Australian WWI soldiers who fought in trench warfare. Digging being an activity necessary to create trenches in enemy territory and hopefully stay alive.
The garden in the township of Blackwood we visited last week, is really lovely, and the office is run from an historic stone house dating back to the gold rush era – as you do. Fortuitously, the garden is located in a similar climate and environment to here. There are plenty of ornamental aspects to the property, however, there’s also a large section devoted to edible plants from orchard trees, to vegetables and berries. The influence of that nearby garden can’t be overstated. Some of the arrangements and systems they have used there, work really well, and get put to the ultimate test from err, tourists. Ideas can sometimes be picked up by the mysterious workings of osmosis. As always though, it’s implementing those great ideas, which takes work – that’s the hard bit.
Inspiration is a funny thing. The more fashionable western end of the mountain range has a lot of old hill station gardens. They were created as a summer escape for super wealthy folks who fled 19th century Melbourne to avoid the very real risk of contracting Cholera, Typhoid, or possibly both. Years ago, the national open garden scheme and the owners used to organise many of the large hill station gardens to open to the public. What a wonderful opportunity it was to amble around long established gardens and marvel at the astounding created beauty. Plus the observant person, or more correctly in this instance, persons, could see what systems and arrangements worked on the hilly sites. Those gardens are so old, they’ve all been tested by time, and natural disasters. We pinched plenty of ideas from those gardens too.
Anyway, there we were at the Garden of St Erth a few days ago enjoying the warm sunshine in a quiet out of the way spot. On that note, is it just me, or has everyone else noticed how warm this year has been? Back to the story… Picture the scene, a picnic table, quiet garden all to ourselves, greenery galore, long shade from the low sun, and the pond water level was not as high as usual. Lunch sat before us waiting to be consumed. We’d picked it up along the way.
The pre-made chicken and salad roll at $12.50 each was candidly a bit soggy. It happens and can be forgiven. The chicken however didn’t quite taste like I’d expected it would. Roast chicken is a delightful tasting meat, and hey, I’m a mostly vegetarian too. This stuff, well, I’ve heard of frozen chicken chunks being purchased out of sight of customers, and delivered in large plastic bags. Not saying that was the case here, but I wasn’t a fan of what was being placed into the mouth.
Two rolls and two small lamingtons cost about $36. Serious people suggest that inflation is now in the past, but maybe I simply need to get out more. Afterwards we had a robust discussion as to the quality versus cost equation. Honestly, my opinion is that our mad cash was poorly spent that day, and we could do better.
One interesting thought experiment a person can do when presented with a challenging new situation, is to cast their mind back to what worked in the past. It’s like looking at all those old hill station gardens and seeing how folks coped with the same gardening problems we face nowadays, but comprehending they had far less tools and resources available a century and half ago. I doubt they had power wheelbarrows or electric jackhammers in those days! Anyway, the idea popped into our heads to avoid the sad moment of biting into an average quality chicken and salad roll, and to take a picnic instead. When I was a kid, people used to pack those wicker baskets with produce to fuel you through lunch whilst traipsing around wherever it was you happened to be going (not that we travelled much or far in those days).
Talk is one thing, action is an entirely different matter. I took on-board the picnic concept and decided to do a spontaneous test upon Sandra. Always handy to have a amiable victim, sorry I meant to type, test-subject (sounds much better don’t you reckon?)
Sandra worked a very long day at the election. This was the perfect opportunity to test out the picnic idea, which incidentally cost less than $10 (for two) – you judge the quality for yourself. Here’s a photo of Sandra’s dinner from that night:
There are two types of cheese, the lighter crumbly variety is a ploughman’s sharp cheddar (with overtones of pickled onion), whilst the other more yellow slice is a mild cheddar made using a vegetable rennet. Two chunks of triple smoked ham slices. A couple of small rounds of Kabana, which is a dry sausage usually made of pork. Two hard boiled eggs. And an oven fresh baked focaccia roll. What’s not to like?
The whole thing was a surprise dinner meal which Sandra enjoyed whilst on a short 15 minute break at the election work. But also more importantly, it was a test to see whether the picnic idea is a feasible option. It’s certainly cheaper, that’s for sure. The feedback was very positive.
Look, it’s hard to adapt to the much wider changing circumstances without feeling some sort of loss. I get that. And food quality is certainly becoming more variable, presumably as costs and corners are cut. In this instance however, let the losses be your guide forward, for life is too short to consume bad or average food.
It’s been another warm and dry week. Bizarrely warm for this time of year. It’s pleasant though, and no doubts winter will arrive soon enough. Fire restriction season has ended, and presumably the volume of burn-offs has put enough smoke particles in the air to produce some lovely looking sunsets…
The sun has been good to get solar derived electricity back into the house batteries, and the other day we took the following photograph for this week’s video.
Having used off-grid solar derived electricity for the past fifteen years, I hold some strong opinions upon the subject. Observing the black-out in Spain from a far distance, caused the old brain matter to begin cogitating. This week’s video is on that very subject.
Despite recent rainfall, the grasses in the paddocks and under the fruit trees still looks dry.
The over night temperatures are cool though, and cold air falls and accumulates in the valleys. One early morning you could see that smoke from burn offs had settled along with the sunken cold air.
Now that we can burn off again, I tackled some more of the old timer loggers mess. A large stump was cut from a discarded tree. The stump always contains the heaviest and densest timber, and so is the first thing to be tackled.
It took about five hours of work to cut and extract, then burn off the large tree stump.
The burn off was quite hot, and had to be pushed together in the dark.
It didn’t help that day that the chainsaw was playing up. The machine is 14 years old, and was recommended to me all those long years ago by the now sadly missed farm machine repair dude. He was right too, the machine is a beast. It was clearly a fuel issue causing the problems, so the carburettor was completely dismantled, and then restored using parts from a kit.
You can see the component sitting on top of the orange plastic case. The job was easy enough to do, although the fine tuning afterwards took a while. The parts kit was $17. Note to self, get a replacement restoration kit. There was also a bit of fine sawdust inside the carburettor which was surprising to find. Also the fuel metering diaphragm was faulty. It had squooshes on the raised O ring – you can see them. They’re not meant to be there.
Also whilst I was doing the work, the chainsaw bar was replaced. I lined the new bar flat up against the old bar, and the grooves are clearly very different widths. The groove works to stop the chain from becoming wonky and cutting at strange angles. Of course, the bar is a consumable item and meant to wear out.
It’s a very well designed and built machine that one. It also happens to be thoughtfully designed to be repaired and maintained. This particular model was constructed in one guise or another for a couple of decades. Wouldn’t it be a fine thing if all machines were constructed that way?
Onto the flowers:
The temperature outside now at about 10am is 14’C (57’F). So far for last year there has been 189.6mm (7.5 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 178.8mm (7.0 inches)
Comments
42 responses to “The High Road”
Yo, Chris – Well, diggers might refer to this lot …
https://w.wiki/DPFo
Or maybe the group of “community anarchists” who were active in San Francisco, during the “Summer of Love.” Circa, 1968. The WWI riff is another possibility. Though, perhaps you still have Anzac Day on the brain. 🙂 Or, maybe, just because gardeners dig in the soil. And, as we all know, it all begins with the soil.
The Garden of St. Erth sounds lovely. It sounds like you may have found a bower. A slightly secluded place to give the chaperone the slip, and grab a quick kiss. Bring back the picnic! Bring back the wicker picnic basket!
The Editor’s lunch looks quit substantial. And in keeping with tradition. I think I might have tossed in a piece of fruit, and maybe some kind of greens. Maybe a rose? 🙂 Chocolate?
Over 50 years ago, I packed a picnic lunch to take out to Port Townsend. To be consumed on the lawn of the Victorian courthouse, with a sweeping view of Puget Sound. Or, at least, the Straights. I can’t remember the food I packed, but there was linen, crystal, china and good cutlery.
The sunset photo is calendar worthy.
The video was very good. Will armchair theorists pay any attention? Probably, not. But, heresy! All right minded people know the sun revolves around the earth! 🙂
Good work with the chainsaw. I suppose the endless vibration causes all kinds of long term problems. But I thought of something I ment to mention. The last time I was in the all purpose, general merchandise store, they had a Stihl riding lawnmower, on the showroom floor, in all its orange splendor. It was a beast. Price? $6,999.99.
Lavender and roses. Beautiful and what a delightful stink. 🙂
There is a frost advisory, for tonight. From the little town of Toledo, south. Toledo is 18 miles, south of us. Lew
Hello Chris,
What a great surprise picnic idea. Top quality food from home (or sourced from reliable suppliers) instead of “convenient” (fast) food joints, where you have to pay for their bricks and mortar, bosses, advertisement etc. etc.
Indeed, looking back is a cunning way of looking ahead.
Regarding your chainsaw repair – I am again reminded of the advice from my dad many years ago. “Don’t get the cheapest new version from an unknown supplier. Get a basic one that is popular and replacement parts will be available for a long time.”
I have a few Steahl battery operated garden tools; a grass trimmer and a hedge trimmer. If I ever need a battery operated chainsaw, it will be of the same brand.
All the carpentry tools are Machita.
In France, the consumer advocate organization HOP (https://www.halteobsolescence.org/) managed to get legislation to at least display “repairability” of equipment on the label at purchase.
Nothing like that here yet.
Maybe we need to push our politicians to copy some of that legal framework, to get better prepared for the coming clouds?
I suspect that none of your PM candidates endorse such a law? (Not that many constituents would care much, I fear…)
Here we had a late night frost tonight, down to -3C, and I think the plum and cherry and pear blossoms are toast. The apples have not yet blossomed so they will be fine.
Peace,
Göran
Hi Göran,
The word on the street was that the slapped together gourmet picnic was a winner. The eggs by the way, were from the chickens and the focaccia was baked by yours truly at a cost of maybe AU$0.30 – electricity for the oven being already paid for and wanting an excuse to be utilised on that particular day. We were talking the other week about the decline in food quality, and what better way to address the issue than supply / prepare as many items for personal consumption as possible? I’ve long noted that a subtext in your blog is good local food. 😉
And that’s the thing isn’t it? You may find yourself digging in a hole when the realisation dawns upon you that further digging is an unwise activity to continue – what to do? Look into the past to see what worked before, and choose from those options, or try something entirely new and out of the box. Either way, it’s probably best at that point to discontinue further digging.
Mind you, metaphors aside, I have to continue digging out the new water tank site and may get onto that work over the next few days. 🙂 Spare soil is an asset to be utilised.
Your dad made an observation which I very much agree with. The saw by the way is a Stihl MS381 Magnum, which is an updated version of the much earlier Stihl 038 Magnum. A true beast of a machine. And having been around for decades, parts are not hard to track down. It pains me to dispose of items which could have been repaired but for the lack of a specific part.
I’m in awe of the battery tools using those lithium-cobalt chemistry batteries. Powerful devices, that’s for sure. And respect for your fine choice with both brands – which I too utilise.
Nothing like that here either, and the population does not care for such issues. Not my circus, although years ago it became possible to repair and provide warranty backed service anywhere on consumer vehicles – sadly, cars are a special category on its own. Bigger agricultural machines I believe do not have that luxury, which can be a problem during harvest when the machine breaks down. As you know, timing for a harvest can be very exacting.
Not good, and that late frost happens here too some years. Still, you might be surprised at how a few of the more mature fruit trees struggle through such frosty weather. It becomes a wait and see how the trees produce. Dunno about you, but in the past few years I’ve begun feeding the soil more blood and bone meal (which contains phosphates in a slower release form) and the trees are getting more resilient to such weather craziness. Some of the older apricot trees produced this summer even after a snowfall when they were in blossom. That was a very worrying experience.
Apples are the cleverest trees around! 🙂 And home made cider is excellent. What’s not to like about that? 😉
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Thanks for the fascinating history, and were the Ranters the first hippies? Anyway, you are correct, the gardening club name is apparently a nod to Gerrard Winstanley. Long shadows can be cast down the ages. The name was also used during the infamous Eureka Stockade incident where gold rush miners cracked the sads about unfair taxes and corruption in the face of declining gold yields. But yup, it all begins with the soil!
Those chaperone’s are pesky interrupting folks who are only concerned with moral rectitude and not fun times. They’d probably make really good puritans concerned for the souls of others… They also would hate on gingerbread men too. Nothing wrong with the picnic though, it’s a nice way to spend some time. It’s not lost on me that during the Great Depression bush-walking become a major pastime for urban folks due to the free weekend train transport (ostensibly to give the unemployed something to do and look forward to).
The addition of greens and some chocolate is a wise move, and very good chunk of advice – he says whilst writing down your ideas for next time. On the day I was in a bit of a hurry, but needn’t have been. The break got scheduled half an hour earlier than earlier suggestions, so I had to race to get everything done on time, and then the mix up was discovered and the correct time was allowed for, but it was too late – by then the picnic was ready to go. In case you were concerned, we eat more leafy greens than pretty much anyone I know. Having them freshly picked from the garden is a real treat.
Your picnic sounds all very civilised, and James Bond would do no less. Just because it is a picnic does not infer that standards are reduced. Nay! Anyway, I predict the picnic will make a comeback as a concept. With the tourists over the Easter break, I heard some stories of real economic hardship. They’ll get there.
Thanks! The skies are really lovely and red when the smoke particles build up. It was again sunny and warm-ish today, but the wind had picked up. Alarmingly we could hear the fire station sirens blaring and there was allegedly an out of control burn-off near the rural hamlet of Ashbourne (not far from here). That was exciting. With the wind today there’s no way I wouldn’t have ignited a burn – nope. A lot of trucks got sent there and it was put out, apparently.
Hehe! I hate the armchair theorists, but don’t let them bother me. Some unnamed person gave the video a thumbs down – always nice to pierce their dreams. Oh yeah, they did used to think that weird thought about the centre of the universe and stuff, despite other cultures professing more correct answers about planetary rotation. Sensibilities were offended no doubts…
The chainsaw does vibrate being a two stroke motor, but there are four anti-vibration rubber mounts which work quite well at dampening down the worst of the effects. One of those rubber mounts has lost it’s screw and retainer clip – who knows where? The $30 replacement cost was alarming. I could have got it cheaper from the land of stuff, but the wait would have been much longer (almost a month and a half) – and it’s a tool I try to keep in top working condition. Oh well, some corners can’t be cut.
Quite expensive, but the ride ons here cost far more again, distressingly so.
The flowers will be blooming in your part of the world soon for you! 🙂
Fingers crossed that you dodge the frost risk, or that the impacts are minimal. How did it go? Haven’t had a frost here yet which is really weird and late, but then the climate here is a bit odd for the past six months or so.
Who knew that Mass Observation was a thing, and continues to this day? A true mystery, and it was very hard to ignore the 12 million word contribution of Nella Last, who’s son ended up living not all that far away from here. The gauntlet has now been thrown down, but 12 million is a lot of words… 🙂 I’m quailing in fright. Far out! It is of course well known that some folks like to write. 😉
The birds and reptiles are active during the day, the rest come out at night. It’s feral out there once the sun goes down, and I never let the dogs off lead when it’s dark – way too many temptations.
What! A food stylist, hadn’t thought of that, but now you mention it, a good idea. Wonder if they charge much? Hey, I get that, some nights the desire is for a small and easy dinner. My dinners are rarely large affairs.
Thought so, and the Editor likewise enjoys that crumbly cheese with the pickled onion flavour. My preference is for the milder cheddar, but then there was that time my mother substituted blue cheese in the macaroni and cheese meal, and some hurts are impossible to recover from. Sorry man, it’s disappointing for me as well! 🙂 But jokes aside, it also really did happen. Everyone has a different palate when it comes to flavours.
Thinking about making a key-lime pie later in the month. Should be interesting. I’ve had this vague desire to make one from scratch using the Anzac biscuits in the base. Should be tasty, that’s the plan anyway. Once I’ve got the recipe well sorted, I’ll inflict it on my foodie friends – tough critics, so I better get it right.
It is interesting isn’t it with the ever increasing prices. We bought a bottle of coconut oil today and it was something like $15.50 when not all that long ago was hovering around the $12 mark. Did you end up placing the interweb order?
You get used to access to such data as your airport weather station. The dirt mouse Suzuki didn’t come with an outdoor temperature gauge on the model we bought years ago, and the lack annoyed me. Such a small thing I’d gotten used to in the previous dirt mouse. Had to learn to let the concern go. Bizarrely the display only showed the outside temperature reading when the additional ‘safety pack’ was installed, but I’m uncomfortable at the thought that a vehicle computer can decide when to apply the brakes. The other dirt rat Suzuki has a crashing warning function which flashes the dashboard red and starts beeping at inappropriate moments. The first time it happened was quite the surprise and I had to take my eyes off the road to see what was going on. I thought it was a software meltdown. Hey, one of the photos in that technology link you gave the other day was of a vehicle unable to be used because it was downloading and installing software updates, like what the…?
I see what you mean about precision cuts, and I tell you truthfully, those cuts are probably going to land us all in a deep economic toilet. But then the monster deficits your lot (and ours too) ran were never sustainable. Anyway, at least the option of nuclear power plants is now off the table down under. Seems stupid when we’ve got all that coal to burn! As far as I can comprehend things, the goobermints of the western civ are busy blowing up their currencies. Not much either you or I can do about that.
The snake bite dude article did sort of suggest that it was a dangerous idea. Makes me wonder if the guy got the idea from the Princess Bride film? One scene in that was of a guy who’d acquired immunity to poison over a long period of time.
I’m trying not to think about the mushroom murders because there’s allegedly a lot of red flags in that scenario. I’d have run, fast, and far away. Exactly, bread and circuses.
The super moon comes around often enough, that perhaps the fictional human population in the film has to adjust to the new circumstances? How bad could werewolves be? Hey, I noticed you still enjoyed the popcorn – as would I. 🙂
Oh today’s thought is: If not idiot, then why idiot shaped? I’m having fun with that stupid meme.
Did paid work all day today, and it was a truly spectacular day outside. Oh well, there’ll be other days, and blessed are the competent, for they are busy!
Go the other local land sharks! Could be the little brown birds too – they’ll eat slugs for sure.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis cont…
The Editor went to see the The Penguin Lessons film and said to thank you for the most excellent recommendation.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Gerrard sounds like a bit of a poop stirrer. 🙂 I read recently that one of the reasons that the Puritans fled to the New World, was due to all the sectarian craziness going on in Britain. And they worked hard to keep any deviants, out of their colony. Religious variety also bedeviled the Cromwell Commonwealth. The king coming back led to a more “live and let live” attitude of tolerance. Which didn’t sit well with hard liners, of any persuasion.
The Eureka Stockade incident sounds very much like our “Whiskey Rebellion.” Always seems serious change leads to body counts.
Thomas Jefferson once said that “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” A quote often used by many people, riding different hobby horses. You go first…
Oh, I think your lunch was perfect, and in keeping with tradition. Just that now you’ve got the classic down, you can riff on it. I know you folks hit the greens hard. I just thought a bit of veg might be one of those riffs.
Our high yesterday was 63F (17.22C). The overnight low was 36F (2.22C). Forecast high for today is 71F. We didn’t get a frost, here in town. But not that far out of town, to our south, it was cold enough to freeze hoses.
$30 for a screw and clip replacement seems pretty outrageous. Although cheaper than replacing a whole machine. Which I’m sure the screw and clip people know. The morons I live with managed to break that hose sprayer replacement I bought, in less than a week. $12 shot in the keister. I am not buying another one.
I started looking at where the stuff I use comes from. Bar soap and toothpaste from Canada or Mexico. (Irish Spring, Dove and Colgate). Although the tariffs seem to change daily (hourly?), so who knows where that stands. Laundry soap (Arm & Hammer) and dish soap (Ajax) “seem” to be made in the US. Or is that just the address of their corporate headquarters? And where do the plastic bottles and jugs come from? One of the two dental flosses I use states clearly that it comes from China. I wonder if the dollar + stores are going to have to drop those lines? Because they can’t make a profit on them, anymore. Or, perhaps they’ll use them as “loss leaders.”
Oh, gosh. I wonder if Nella Last is one of those chatty people I can’t stand? Maybe she poured it all out, on paper? I see there was a movie made about her, “Housewife 49.” I’d really like to see that. And, wonder of wonders, it’s available, for free, on U-Tub.
Popcorn was made and last night I watched “Die Hard 2.” Great movie, but there’s poor Bruce, getting his head bashed around again. I got curious about the actress who plays his wife. Bonnie Bedelia. She seems to have dropped off the radar. I remember her in quit a few things, way in the past. So, being a curious kind of fellow … well, she has worked steadily, and is still working in both movies and TV. Now here’s something interesting. Her birth name is Bonnie Bedelia Caulkin. Her nephews are Macaulay and Kieren Caulkin.
Actually, blue cheese and Mac sounds pretty good, to me. Maybe with Stilton? Although if you encountered it without warning, expecting something else, it could be a shock.
Computerization of everything is getting completely out of hand. If they want to “improve” the car, bring back wing windows. 🙂 It’s that season again. I have to be careful opening my truck door, as wasps like to nest in the frame. I managed to knock one down and step on it, yesterday.
The werewolves in “Werewolves” were pretty brutal. What we used to call “gnarly.” 🙂
Just tell yourself the spectacular day, should you go out in it, would only lead to sunburn and a cooked head. 🙂
I don’t know. LBBs work the day shift. The slugs work the night shift. The nematodes (I think) are still on the job of slug control. No slugs on the lettuce, last night. Lew
Hi Lewis,
I suspect that Gerrard sped up the demise of the commons. After all, he used the resources available to him and his crew to their advantage, and look what happened? Others, even those who were initially sympathetic like that pastor, turned on them. The elites probably spotted their weakness and I doubt it was long afterwards that the commons were cleared and turned into private land holdings. Hmm.
Charles II probably had the correct middle ground with that approach, even though it left nobody happy. Technically, that’s also a reasonable representation as to what justice looks like. Cromwell was no doubts a martinet of the darkest stripe! 🙂 The attack on gingerbread men and pies was always a step too far for me.
Interestingly, the miners set up a stockade and actually had a proper shoot out with the constabulary and militia. But to the same effect, high body count. Weirdly, it took those deaths for the government to back down afterwards and accept that the gold yield per miner had dropped, so therefore the license fees likewise had to drop. I can see the fingers of the puritans on that whiskey tax, and the problem I could see was with the way the tax was implemented in that it produced an uneven playing field due to the distance factor. Distilling grains is simply another form of preservation of the harvest, albeit in a concentrated form, and so the further the producers travelled, the higher the whiskey tax. A good idea, badly implemented – with unusual results.
Nah, I’m not inclined to fight city hall. 😉 On the other hand, sometimes perquisites have to be exercised even if it discommodes other folks, lest the hard won benefits be disappeared.
🙂 The veg addition idea to the picnics is a goodie. And perhaps after some reflection I’m ever so slightly defensive about that discussion. Sorry about that. We consume a diet where most of the food is made from scratch using raw materials – many of which are harvested from the plants here. When we’re not on the farm, things are different. And from time to time, I’ve had people tell me to my face that the chosen food option – which they’re selling – is probably not all that great because they suggest that I should eat more greens. Concern clubbing over the head is a real thing. Hmm. My reaction is usually bland, but inside the mind, my brain is trying to figure out why they just said that – and clearly there’s a lot of judgement there. It’s possible that some folks shouldn’t be put in front of the public! 🙂 The very definition of hospitality, implies the act of being hospitable, but you know, everyone is different in that regard.
Hey, the special chainsaw bolt and retaining clip turned up in the mail today. Very exciting! So after dark I went down to the machinery shed and dismantled all sorts of parts on the chainsaw so as to be able to install the new bolt. And that’s when I discovered the head of the original bolt had been sheered off. Truly, the shaft of the bolt was lodged inside the chainsaw with the head nowhere to be found. Looking at it a bit closer, I could see that the head had been accidentally over tightened and twisted off.
It took an hour to carefully remove the remains of the original bolt, and then screw in the new one and put everything back together. I’m guessing what happened was that years ago the bolt was damaged when in the shop, and the mechanic presumably pretended nothing happened. The only reason I noticed the problem was because the chainsaw had been used to mill timber, and that is very hard on the saw and I could feel that the machine was a bit ‘off’. Another good reason to do this stuff yourself. Far out! Oh well.
Worked yesterday, and so could take today off paid work. We continued digging out the new water tank site, and have half finished that job. All the soil was brought back uphill and used to create the new flat site near to the front of the house. It’s looking good, and the little bit of forecast rain tomorrow will begin to bind the relocated clay back together.
70’F here today. Same, same, just saying! 🙂 That’s not good about the hard frost to the south of you. A very difficult weather extreme for this time of the year.
Oh no! I can’t believe the hose sprayer was broken, but then that’s been my experience with some of them too. The longest lasting ones here are this variety: Spray Nozzles. The plastic seems to outlast the brass variety which is not what I expected, although both are good.
The interconnectedness of all this stuff we enjoy as to where it came from, is something of a mystery. This strategy is probably not a bright idea, but nobody asked me. Generally, my gut feeling suggests ‘land of stuff’. The ever increasing property prices ploy has an end limit where nobody can make any mad cash because fixed costs are too high. We’ll get there, and the visible indicator for that will be empty retail and commercial property space.
🙂 We all get a bit chatty sometimes… I’ll be very interested to hear what you have to say about the Nella film if you get around to watching it.
Ouch! Such things are probably only clear from hindsight, unless it’s your head which is being bashed around, and then how would you know the difference? No way! It’s a small world and clearly lead to doors opening, but what an upbringing the family had. Sometimes tough circumstances can breed decent values.
Hehe! I thought you’d like the alteration to the mac and cheese dish, although I was very young. My mother was at best a careless cook, thus why I developed an interest in food and its preparation at a young age. In hindsight, it’s kind of weird to think that a 12 year old was making family meals, but there you go. Didn’t do me any harm, and I enjoy the kitchen space. This morning was feral with kitchen work, oh well, that’s what it takes to keep the household engine room boiling along.
🙂 Wing windows work on hot days. Take no prisoners with the wasps. I’m no fan of those particular import insects. Since we removed that willow tree, the wasps haven’t been around much this year.
Gnarly suggests that the werewolves were bad customers. Don’t they return to human form during the daylight hours?
Hehe! A cooked head and sunburned skin was avoided today. You’ll be up for such enjoyments shortly!
Of course, although slugs here seem to be a bit tardy early in the morning, and those little brown birds are up and at ’em before us night owls. My personal nightmare would be a job on early morning radio where I was expected to be perky. Getting up at 4:30am would most definitely not leave me in a perky mood. I dunno how they even act that way? That’s proper gnarly that is!
Did you see the after note about the Penguin Letters film?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Chris,
Today, I walked around and assessed the damage from the frost on Monday Morning. All the walnut trees that have leafed out were damaged, as were some kaki/persimmon and the mini-kiwis. Black leaves make me sad. Next time, I tell myself, I will bag the sensitive trees when I get a frost warning. (But who knows… will there be a warning next time?) After all, the trees will recover, but they lose a month or so of growth. That is why I prefer and recommend the late-budding varieties of walnut. Smaller max-yield, but more consistent.
And a side note; you were not the only kid to make dinner for the family at 12. We have two boys and both of them had a one-day-a-week-chore to cook for the rest of us. Now they are out in the world, with some useful skills that not all their friends have. 😉
Peace,
Göran
Yo, Chris – You see it time and again, over history. It takes a real blow out, with a body count, to effect change.
Oh, believe me, I know y’all eat a lot of greens. I was thinking a nice Cole slaw or maybe a cucumber salad. Maybe, leafy greens with croutons. And a nice dressing. Maybe … blue cheese? 🙂
Yes, why do people blurt out stuff, unsolicited. My shoes are beginning to show a lot of wear. I’m just waiting for someone to comment on them. I’m ready. “Thank you for pointing out my poverty.” 🙂
Arrrgh! Sheered off bolt. Can’t we get through one bit of maintenance without an unpleasant surprise? Oh, well. At least you knew what to do about it.
Our high yesterday was 72F (22.22C). Our overnight low was 41F (5C). The forecast high for today is 80F. Prof. Mass has a nice post on what creates our on-shore flow. I was out walking the dog, last night, and was a bit startled when the irrigation kicked on. I don’t know if it was the Master Gardeners who finally turned it on. There was some discussion over if it was Little Mary Sunshines responsibility, or the landscapers. I hope it’s not too late for the blueberries.
Thanks for the tip on the hose sprayer. I don’t know if they sell that brand, here.
There’s been chatter on the net about empty retail and commercial space. But that’s been going on for quit awhile. And yet they keep building new stuff. The HUD (Dept. of Housing and Urban Development) building, in Washington, D.C. was put on the market. Since they laid off half the staff, they said they didn’t need such a big building. The first day the new director moved into that building, he ordered his office carpet and drapes replaced. Said they were tatty. Money down the drain.
I watched “Housewife 49,” last night. Nella had had some kind of a breakdown, about a year before the war started. And, her husband was a bit of a passive aggressive stick. Your grandfather would have had a good name for him. 🙂 But the war brought out a lot of … resiliency in Nella. Class distinctions were on full display. It was an engrossing movie, and I quit liked it. Nella’s family opted for a Morrison Shelter, rather than the Anderson Shelter. I’d read about them, but had never seen them in action. Think of a giant, reenforced dog kennel, plopped down in the middle of the lounge. Scroll down and you can see a picture of one.
https://w.wiki/E2MW
When mom went to work and Dad had evening side jobs, it was up to me to get a meal on the table. Or, at least get one started. I can’t remember much instruction, or even what we ate. I suppose a lot of canned and frozen stuff. But by the time I left home, I do remember that I was surprised to find that the way I like my eggs … was an omelet. 🙂
Yes, werewolves revert to human form, come daylight. And only change on full moons. But this widespread genetic anomaly, or what ever it was, only manifested during a particular kind of super moon. “Even a man who is pure in heart
And says his prayers by night
May become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms
And the autumn moon is bright.” (The Wolf Man,” 1941.)
I see our Fearless Leader is kicking around the idea of slapping a 100% tariff on movies produced overseas. Wants American films that reflect American values. Can you say p-r-o-p-a-g-a-n-d-a?
Lordy, I did a lot of shopping and spent a lot of money, last night. I hit the yuppie discount warehouse store, and the dollar + store. I had a list. I stocked up the tinned goods and frozen veg. I did find some California olive oil. Pricey, but, besides yours, the best.
Somehow or another, it felt like I was shopping for the apocalypse. 🙂
When I got home, I got on line and started ordering, also from a list. Prices seemed up. I didn’t buy the quantities I usually do. Dog dental chews were a real problem. The lowest priced ones were from Shri Lanka. Don’t think so. Some other low price offerings had very low number of transactions. Sometimes, a red flag. The green tea I buy seemed up. I only bought one box of 100 bags, as opposed to the usual 2 or 3 boxes. Basically, the stuff I wanted was available. It just cost more. Ditto the dental floss.
I stayed up way too late last night, reading a collection of Stephen King short stories. “Just After Sunset.” It came out a few years ago, but somehow I had missed it. There’s some real zingers, in there. Lew
Hi, Chris!
That is very interesting about the origin of the Digger group’s name. I wonder what connection in the group there is to WWI. It is so nice for you to have a lovely garden fairly close to you, with similar growing conditions so that you can make comparisons. I was thinking that it has been extra warm this year, but I’m not so sure now. We’re having a nice cool spell; last week it was hot. Up and down, but it seems to me that it was always like that, especially in Spring. The dryness here can’t be overlooked, though. It’s been very dry since December.
You get what you pay for, eh? Except that you don’t. Or maybe the new bromide is: “You pay a lot for what you get.”
Oh, yum! Sandra’s picnic is just what I like. That was a super idea.
What an extra beautiful sunset. Thanks. And what a nice shot of the solar panels, greenhouse, and machine shed.
I much enjoyed the video. So, does Spain have a lot of solar power production? I was going to ask your thoughts on the Spanish blackout and you say that they had an overproduction of solar power and demand on the grid could not keep up? I like your picture of High Tech Solar/Panels and Low Tech Solar/Greenhouse.
Did it really take you 5 hours to get rid of the stump? Maybe that was for the whole tree?
I am so impressed that you repaired the carburettor.
Squooshes on the diaphragm is highly technical . . . The other day I couldn’t find my 30 year old dehydrator. I wanted to dry some kale. We have so much of it, even after sharing with the groundhog. My son was the one who had stored it somewhere and he couldn’t find it either. Now, I rarely lose my temper, but I was beginning to get all riled up. We have a quite new, very advanced dehydrator, but I still like my old one with the on-off switch and nothing else the best. I have a feeling that it could be pretty easily repaired because, besides being simple, it has screws so that you can remove the whole bottom. Eventually, it was found and I have dried lots of kale, am still doing so right now.
Thank you for all the roses and the lavender. I really can smell them!
Pam
Hey Chris;
working the elections- My wife Patsy and I work our local polling place. With our very small township population it can get slow during the day, but you still have to wait till the polls close to do all the paperwork, so yeah, long day.
Our township clerk buys our lunch and dinner for us, but the fare from the only little shop in town is pretty marginal. I’m not picky, so eat it, but it wouldn’t be my first choice. If we packed our own, I worry that she and the other poll workers will think we are snobs. ( hmm, I dunno, are we?)
chainsaws- Mine is still pretty new, but went ahead and bought a second blade. A forester friend recommended it, as an “escape blade”, in case the saw gets inextricably pinched from the tree shifting and an inattentive sawyer. Unbolt, put in the other blade, and hopefully not get it stuck. He never told me how he learned that trick……….
picnics, shifting baselines, boiling frogs- When we did travel vacations with the kids, we didn’t stay in hotels, we camped our way across the country. And for lunch, we’d stop at freeway rest stops (are they a thing in Oz?) and do a picnic with all our own fixings. We’d usually be the only ones doing so.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shifting_baseline-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog
Young folks only know how things are as they grow up, and don’t have the perspective us old farts do, so don’t realize how much things have changed over time.
reminds me of one of my blog posts from a while back, one that was rather memorable to me, because self incriminating, but also a call for perspective.
http://viridviews.blogspot.com/2014/05/
Have you read any Edward Abbey? He strongly indicts modernity, but also evokes some interesting moods.
Chris,
The other morning, sitting outside with my coffee, I heard a hum. A loud hum. I looked around and saw that the flowering crabapple tree, in full bloom, was covered with a few hundred honeybees enjoying the blossoms. That was good to see and hear.
For one day, there was something spectacular in that yard I’ve never seen before. The crabapple tree usually blooms too late to see this. The quince blooms were a fiery orange on the fence line, the cherry tree was all white with blooms and the flowering crabapple was a vibrant pink. With the bees busy pollinating at the same time, it was quite enjoyable.
Good job with the special lunch for the Editor. The meats and cheeses looked intriguing, and the homemade bread had to be a treat. Boiled eggs from your own chickens, too! Well done. Much better fare than what you’d had on your other venture and at a better price.
Killian’s owner had a coupon for the local take and bake pizza place. She gave it to us for some reason. Free large pizza with one topping. We took advantage tonight, ordering olives. Added mushrooms and pepperoni at home. It was wonderful. When ordering the pizza, I was asked if I wanted the receipt. “Sure”, I joked. I was handed the receipt that said $0.00 pizza, $0.00 tax, $0.00 total. The gal who took the order quipped, “I wouldn’t want you to think that I double charged you.” I replied, “Not only did you double charge me, but you multiplied them together rather than adding them!” That exchange had most of the staff laughing.
Growing up, our travels were much as Steve C described. Stop somewhere, make lunch from the makings in our cooler. Camp at night. On longer trips, we still take snacks, sandwiches and fruit with us, having made the sandwiches ourselves. It’s a lot cheaper and you can guarantee a healthy meal.
I planted the vegetable seeds Sunday afternoon. In 6 containers there are chard and collards. I had one potato to plant, but there were already 11 volunteer potato plants growing in the garden bed. These were joined by 4 varieties of carrots, acorn squash, yellow summer squash and zucchini. I purchased 3 cherry tomato plants and 3 varieties of peppers plants, one plant per variety, from the local store. These were added to the garden bed Monday evening. Hopefully the seeds will germinate, and things will grow well.
Dame Avalanche howl? Yes, she is known to do that. A few times at the moon, several times when a neighbor’s dogs were howling at whatever, so she joined in the chorus as solidarity. She also rather yammers/yowls/howls at dogs being walked by their owners. She whines and talks a lot on our walks, and the volume increases when we near yards inhabited by other dogs. She speaks a LOT when it’s dogs she’s exchanged sniffs with up close. Huskies are well known for being talkers.
The magpies didn’t seem to mind the dry grasses in the paddock. They looked to be on the hunt for food there.
O rings are not supposed to have squooshes in them. Yet, sometimes the squooshes are hard to see. Good eye to pick up on that. Squoosh is a highly technical term that is very useful in many situations.
Your roses are still looking grand. Lavender is always a nice color, too.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
The name has been used quite a lot down through the ages, but in relation to WWI it refers to the colloquial name of Australian WWI soldiers under command of the British in Europe. They were quite good at digging trenches, thus the name. A friend once said to me that I dug trenches quicker than anyone he’d met – although a trenching machine would be faster and easier, but sadly cost more mad cash.
The nearby garden is really pretty and a nice place to spend some time, and I look at gardens in all sorts of similar areas to see how they tackle various issues. Flat land being of course a wonderful thing, as you’d perhaps also agree? Plus they sell seeds and plants there. What’s not to like about that?
Pam, that’s also been what has happened here over the past few years. A sudden early spring warming, followed by cooler weather. Not sure what to make of it all, and hope your plants struggle on through, although I enjoy the cold weather more than the heat. Yup, it’s now dry here too since that month, although you’ll observe from the statistics at the end of each blog, that most weeks I get some sort of rain. Hope you get some decent rainfall soon.
Hehe! I ain’t arguing with you. 🙂 Nice one. Yup less for more, because somehow we all asked for it!
Thanks, and glad to hear of your approval. It’s difficult to recall what goes into a picnic. Are there any such traditions in your part of the world?
In Spain I believe that one in five buildings have grid-tied solar panels. However, in Australia, it’s apparently one in three. That’s a lot. My gut feeling as to what happened there was an over supply of electricity was not balanced off against demand – then things popped, probably due to over voltage and/or frequency issues. In cool spring weather when the skies are a clear blue around midday, that’s when solar photovoltaic panels over produce. Down here they pay only a few cents for exported solar electricity nowadays. What does that tell you?
Exactly! And plants are another form of solar power, as are systems for producing hot water from the sunshine. The high tech way is not the only solar game in town.
No, it really was five hours of work just for the stump of that long downed tree. I failed to take an earlier photo showing just how big the root ball was, and it was partially buried. It’s all hardwood species here and they’re tough and ridiculously heavy. A 20 tonne excavator would make quick work of the job, but it would also cost an arm and a leg to hire, and make an even bigger mess. Fingers crossed I’m not in a hurry (that I’m aware of).
Fixed the chainsaw last night too. And am looking forward to getting the beast out and seeing how it performs. I dunno how your son maintains his equanimity, but the need to fix the saw really annoyed me – I suspect after the farm machine repair dude passed on, standards slipped and someone broke the part inside the saw, thus why I do the work myself now. Usually I’m unflappable, mostly.
Clearly as are you. 🙂 Some situations were sent to try us. Oh Pam, we’ve got the same two differing dehydrating devices here (and about the same age) and whilst trying to repair the older machine, I couldn’t, because the circuit board was cracked. And to add insult to injury, the new machine wasn’t quite the same size for the round trays. It was so close, but so far, and the air would leak through the tray levels.
Inside your old dehydrating machine there’ll be a tiny circuit board just so that the power can be throttled down with the temperature dial. Heat is super hard on electronics…
How do you use the dehydrated kale leaves? That plant is just beginning to grow now. At least the unusual warmer weather is speeding up the process.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Göran,
Blackened frost damaged leaves are a real bummer. It was only a -3’C frost wasn’t it? Although I’ve read that the temperature can vary a lot in such extreme weather depending on height above the soil level. The local gardening club says those particular variety of mini-kiwi fruit can survive down to -16’C, but probably not when in leaf I’m guessing.
Man, I’ve heard of people throwing blankets over trees and frost sensitive plants during such weather, but it all seems like a whole lot of hard work to me. There’ll always be that day where you get caught out and can’t, or forget to, throw on the blankets. Easier to deal with appropriate varieties of plants and wait for them to recover.
Many of the peach trees here suffer from curly leaf early in the growing season, and spraying with anti-fungal sprays just didn’t seem to make much of a difference. Now I don’t worry about it, let the leaves die back, then grow back. The trees seem to fruit OK. Probably part of their life-cycle.
Consistency is a wonderful thing with nature, and that’s the sweet point in terms of plant production.
But I agree with you, late flowering fruit trees are more reliable producers. Although, even then, many fruit trees are biennial. Apples are very late flowering, and super hardy, but some years the harvest is comparatively smaller. Home made cider is good. 🙂
Respect. And that is so true and what a great skill to hand over to your children. I’ve experienced some house mates who’ve had zero idea about simple domestic day to day activities, such as cooking. It’s not a good look.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Steve,
Well done to your good self and Patsy. 🙂 Yeah, it’s a long day here too, for exactly those reasons. An hour set-up beforehand, open at 8am (massed early hordes), then during the day the flow slows to a trickle, and polling closes at 6pm sharp across the country (there are four time zones with the latest closing in Western Australia along the west coast). Sorting and counting then begins and my experience suggests a finish around 10:30pm / 11:00pm. I’ve often remarked that I don’t work that hard for myself! 🙂 It interests me that the folks doing that work are often older nowadays. Still, it’s no hardship for me to chat to people all day long, although it drains the social batteries so to speak. How do you end up feeling after such a day of work?
Ha! There was no paid lunch, or dinner down here. You guys are spoiled with lots of good stuff in your country. 🙂 We’ve got a thing called an ‘election sausage’, so some vendor will set up a sausage sizzle and sell basic sausages with white bread and tomato sauce for a charity, and those things sell like hot-cakes. For your interest, the individual cooked sausages in bread cost $3.50 each this election.
I’d say the answer is emphatically ‘no’ to that question, on the basis that life is too short to consume average quality food. 🙂 On an entirely innovative scale, I’d pay $10 for a properly cooked cheese kransky election sausage with fried onions and mustard served on a decent roll. Does this make me a food snob? No, maybe, yes! 😉 Go not to the folks living with lots of fresh local produce for answers to such questions as yours, for they will respond both ‘yes’ and ‘no’.
We’ve all been there, as has your forester friend despite the lack of admission on his part. One never knows the pain of having their chainsaw bar stuck deep into a log, until it happens. Chocks and plastic wedges are good insurance to avoid that situation, ask me why I know this esoteric knowledge? 😉
I like both of those analogies and thanks for them. My grandfather used to take me camping up in the remote alpine country too with his WWII buddies. I always looked forward to those trips, but the immediate family was pretty economically in a bad way and so didn’t travel all that far otherwise.
Exactly! Some of my friends who are a bit younger than I, have never known a day of rough economic news. The other friends who are a bit older, sailed through the recession of the 90’s for they were more employable than I or Sandra. Hmm. How they’ll all react to bad news, is a question I ponder. Other than the recession of the 90’s Australia kind of sailed through a lot of trouble blissfully unaware of the ructions in other parts of the world.
I’ve not read Edward Abbey until this evening, but he has the soul of a poet and the heart of a lion to strike deep fear into that of the technocrat. Age has mellowed me a lot, and I’m easier going. I mean, if the raccoon’s had been the prime species of the planet and discovered the properties of oil, would they have done better than us? I think not.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Thanks for the lovely image from your part of the world. Nature is amazing! Crab-apple trees produce one of the best flowering tree displays too, but with edible fruit, and yet you’ve got a flowering cherry as well. Quince trees are super hardy, do you ever get any fruit from your trees? The ones here don’t produce fruit, which is annoying, because the fruit stewed is superb.
Happy bees. 🙂 It’s nearing 10pm and the bees are all back in their hives and at 7’C it feels a bit chilly. Kuato the super chunky brush tailed possum was spotted by Ollie up in the Snow Pear tree looking a bit damp. 1mm of rain has fallen today, one must be thankful for whatever is delivered in dry seasons. I’ll bet he’s warm though under all that fur. And I spotted a rabbit in that area – never seen one there before. Where are the foxes, this is their job?
It’s not hard to make good food, although the act does take time. And the dinner was well received. I reckon the trick with inflation is discovering the untrod paths, then going there. And a picnic is one proven old school path which doesn’t get much of a look-in nowadays.
That’s funny with the cheeky humour. The coupon is a ‘bait’ arrangement and I’m sure they’d like to see you back again as a paying customer at that business. A fine choice of toppings too. Yum! What I’m curious to know, is did you enjoy the pizza whilst watching a film? I’ve never heard of that option down under.
Chance food options on the road can be a rather dubious affair. Sometimes the results can be out of the park, and other times you’re left feeling a bit disgruntled and unsettled in the guts with the forlorn hope that you don’t get to see the meal a second time. Hmm. We didn’t travel far when I was young, but I loved camping out which my mother and sisters never did. But yeah, what you’ve both said was how families used to travel around. It certainly wasn’t fancy in those days. Also being quieter, things were less intense than they are now. I really do wonder how people accustomed to regularly jumping aboard an aircraft and travelling to far distant locales will cope with serious economic hardship?
DJ, nice choice of plants, and how have I never come across collard greens before? What an interesting plant, although we grow kale which might be slightly more cold weather adapted and has ever so slightly more protein and fat, but smaller leaves. Hmm. I’m going to have to check these plants out. Fingers crossed the seeds germinate, the seedlings grow fast, and the tubers are as indestructible as the reviews suggest. Are the peppers large, small, hot or mild varieties?
Go Dame Avalanche, and the full moon probably does need a good ‘what for’, that the dog is delivering at volume. 🙂 Are the dogs which Dame Avalanche meets intimidated by her? Presumably some would be, whilst others might not be, but few would ever remain in a disinterested state of mind. Husky’s have presence.
🙂 The magpies make do somehow on a food front, and that family are a permanent fixture here. They’re clever birds and know every move we make. When a small quantity of the chicken deep litter gets scattered every day, the birds go through it. Plus they wait for me to clean the chickens water and will stand on the other side of the drain collecting whatever soaked food scraps shoots out.
They were fed the wood grubs I came across when cutting up that tree stump. Got the chainsaw working again, and long ago I reckon a mechanic had stripped the head off a bolt on that machine. Fishing out a bolt whilst trying not to damage the threads is a painstaking job. Oh well, this is why I do the work myself nowadays, and I miss the old farm machine repair dude. He’d have not returned the chainsaw to me in that condition, and I’ve lived with it (unknowingly) but the mill contraption made it too hard to ignore the issue..
It’s a useful word isn’t it? 🙂 The diaphragm was definitely not meant to have such damage and it effected the amount of fuel going into the engine.
Thanks! Early winter is the hardest time for flowers here, but not long after the winter solstice, the forest blooms, particularly the wattles.
Did paid work today, and given the weather, it was a fine day to spend indoors.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Youch, for people to get to that extreme point, they’ve probably been pushed way too far. It’s a shame that compromises and concessions don’t get made before things go too far. There’s a sort of stubbornness to existing arrangements don’t you reckon? I note that another political party down here, the ‘Greens’ leader also lost his seat in the election. I’d say the population sent a strong message to resist change.
I was with you, up until you brought out the big gun – blue cheese. 🙂 I’m sure the variety is delightful, cheddar is just nicer on my palate. I’m soft…
Oh my, why is it anyone’s business at all but yours if the shoes are a bit worn? Man, you gotta get ’em where it hurts most when considering a reply – politely thank them for the money to pay for a new pair, and then begin to collect! I’ve heard the 100m sprint can be run under ten seconds – you might get to see that happen after the demand.
The damaged bolt which had to be extracted was a nuisance and in some ways, it shocked me. The Editor suggests that I’m not yet cynical enough in such matters. Possibly true. It’s worked out well so far that I’m doing the maintenance and repairs on all this stuff.
You’ve overtaken us in terms of warmth. It’s 45’F outside right now and feels rather chilly, and today was not what I’d describe as warm 60’F. Brr! A good day to spend indoors doing paid work. A tiny bit of rain fell too, which was well received. This morning I had to water all of those oak and fruit trees moved a few weeks ago. Watering in May is an odd experience.
Had an egg salad for dinner this evening, and added in the first of the seasons radishes. It was superb, and those plants grow really fast. Recently we’ve been using the radish leaves in a pesto, and they’re quite good.
I reckon you’d be surprised to discover that blueberries are quite dry tolerant plants, or at least the varieties I grow here are. Mind you, I don’t get the harvests you enjoy with those tasty berries, and that is probably down to reduced watering.
The spray nozzle is a design that’s been around for a while. Seems to last the test of time.
True, there’s a lot of weirdness to that story, and perhaps the old adage: Build and they shall come! has something to offer as a possible part-answer. It’s one of those things to see when someone tries to ‘make / leave their mark’. It’s possible that is going on in your Club by the way. Still, some people leave their mark by doodling naughty depictions upon public walls – the cheeky scamps.
Thanks for the review. Ouch! One must be careful as to who they choose as a partner, much can result from that one decision. My grandfather was extraordinarily blunt, and nobody seemed to mind…
The Morrison shelters are a good idea. Hmm. One day we may construct a root cellar burrowed into the side of the hill.
Yeah, you know some people are a bit feral on undercooked eggs, and your experience sounds a lot like mine with blue cheese. When the albumen looks like a poteinous gelatinous clear liquidity lump, it’s probably undercooked.
Thanks for the werewolf poem and lore. It’s got an eerie cadence to it those words, and suggests futility.
Hehe! Propogonda, happens… Dude, during the original that-which-shall-not-be-mentioned film with the actor who’s name produces a reaction from you, well, they had recruiting stations near to the cinemas, as you do. The second instalment of the film franchise was a pretty good story and recounted very well. A billion mad cash at the box office is big biz, so your leader might be onto something. I’d just be happy if films were made that gave us a reason to go to the cinemas. Have you ever gotten the impression that some films were made and ended up being a bit err, self-reverential?
Olive oil is pricey nowadays. That’s a touch disturbing, because it’s good stuff as long as the point of origin is known. Maybe you were shopping for the zombie apocalypse – hey survivors are often stranded in shopping malls. It’s a thing, and at least you’d avoid having to navigate the roundabout of death! Dual lane roundabouts are a fraught experience. 😉
Prices are up down here too. Yup. Adapt to circumstance is the word of the day, although it’s three words, no four, no three. 🙂 But adaption is how things will go for a while.
Dog chews here come from Thailand… Like, what?
Always good to settle the nerves with a good book from Mr King, although the ante may get upped if the stories are super scary, especially in the wee hours when the darker sides of the imagination roam free. Hmm, how have I missed this collection of short stories?
Ollie woke me up at 6:30am this morning making retching sounds, but nothing was found. Yuk. The canine looked well pleased with his efforts to reduce food waste.
Cheers
Chris
@ Pam – LOL. My dehydrator is only about 5 years old. But it has a very simple on/off switch. You either plug it in. Or unplug it. 🙂 Lew
Yo, Chris – I saw an article on “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” 50th anniversary. A classic.
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/05/nx-s1-5366522/monty-python-holy-grail-50-year-anniversary
I meant to mention, I notice the magpies photo bombed you last video. Soon to be major motion picture stars! 🙂 You can be their agent.
Stubbornness and existing arrangements … if there’s money to be made. Also, temporary arrangements tend to become permanent.
I don’t think I liked blue cheese, when I was a youngster, either. Maybe you’ll acquire a taste, as you get older and the taste buds begin to die 🙂
Our high yesterday was 81F (27.22C). The overnight low was 48F (8.88C). The forecast high for today is 63F. We may get some rain, late afternoon or early evening. But not much. I don’t see any green blobs, on the radar moving in from the coast. But it is overcast.
I like eggs as long as there’s nothing moving. Or, running. Last night I had rice with three fried and chopped up eggs. Garlic, celery, broccoli, peas and dried tomatoes. A bit of cheese on top. Radish leaf pesto? Do tell all.
We have more of a problem keeping enough water on our blueberries. They were small, last year, due to not enough water early on. The strawberries had a lot of blossoms, but I don’t see any fruit forming. Lack of pollinators?
The nozzle you showed me looks identical to the one’s I bought. Just a different brand. A good old brass twist nozzle would work just as well. But the Ladies just can’t seem to get the hang of them. 🙁 Try harder.
Build it and they will come? Well, maybe. There’s a brand new building close to the Club. It looks like it might either be a fast food place, or a gas station / mini mart. It’s been finished for about 4 months, and is still empty. The old site of the veg store, which is free standing in the same parking lot as the Club, has been empty since Christmas. That building probably started out its life as a gas station / mini mart. Maybe the landlords outrageous rent demand is keeping it empty. Or maybe, the landlords lack of contributing to repairs, has gotten around.
I was just reading about a mobile recruiting station, outside a movie theatre. But for a much better movie. John Wayne’s “Green Berets,” 1968. 🙂
I rotate my olive oil, so, discovered that the next two bottles up are Australian. Cobram Estates. I can’t remember how much I paid for them. Probably, around $9 or $10 dollars. 12 fluid ounces, or, if you like, 375 mL.
I read a couple more stories, in the King book. Lots of possible fodder there, for future movies. One though, is pretty much a direct rip-off (or, homage?) to Lovecraft.
I gave H a bath yesterday. She hid under the bed and I had a devil of a time prying her out. If all goes according to plan, I’m going to drop by the groomer, tomorrow, and have her nails ground down. It’s not very expensive, and you can just do a walk-in.
We just got a commodity box. I’ve only pulled out the perishables. A dozen eggs! though some are stuck in the carton. Maybe if I’m careful …A pound of medium cheddar cheese, a pound of butter. I’ll keep all that. There was also a pound of frozen ground pork and some yoghurt. I’ll take those down to the swap table. There was also a bag of small apples, celery, 3 carrots, 2 red peppers, and two oranges. 4 potatoes and 4 yams (sweet potatoes?). 2 oranges. I’ll keep all that, except for the yams. That part of it came in a really nice insulated tote bag, with a zipper top. Looks like canvas but probably is some kind of pressed fiber. I’ll tell you about the rest of it, tomorrow.
There was also a bunch of kale. I have never eaten kale, before. Try it out or send it to the kitchen scrap bag? I think I’ll give it a whirl. I really don’t think I get enough leafy greens. Who knows, if I like it, I might end up growing some. Stranger things have happened. Any tips? Lew
Chris:
Being a speed trench digger is a wonderful accomplishment. I knew someone who had a trench digging machine; he always had trouble with it. I assume that you are no trouble, only requiring an occasional visit to the pub to keep yourself in fine running order.
Hey, do you ever have the trouble of putting things down on the hillside and then having them roll way away from you? I seem to do this with buckets a lot.
It tells me the municipal solar folks are fools, in more ways than one.
I tell you what makes some great solar hot water: Leaving a hundred foot (30m) black garden hose in the direct sun on top of black plastic laid in some garden paths. The tap has to be turned on and there has to be a sprayer attachment with an “off” postion on the end of the hose. It doesn’t take long before the water inside that hose becomes too hot to touch. That’s what happens with my hose. Every time I go off and do something and then come back to the garden to water, I have to turn the sprayer nozzle to “on” and set it to shoot the hot water off onto the lawn. Maybe I should be washing clothes with it?
Wow – that’s a lot of work for one stump. No, don’t hurry.
I just looked at circuit board replacements for dehydrators (though I imagine that they are for newer ones than yours and mine). I saw one for $545. Umm, my dehydrator cost $20 new.
I use my dehydrated kale leaves as I would dried herbs, except that I use a lot more of it as it is a vegetable. I put it in soup and in my hummus burgers – or other veggie burgers. Once the kale is dry I smoosh it all up into finer particles with my hands.
Pam
Chris,
We get some fruit from the quince trees, but not a lot and what we get is tiny. I use it more as a privacy hedge from the alley along the fence line.
Hmmm, so the Giant Possum is still hanging around. Rabbits are seen where they’ve never been seen before. No predators? Is it possible that the Fluffy Collective has scared the predators away but that the prey isn’t scared of the Collective? Perhaps you need my design for the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch?
The untrod and lesser trod paths are worth visiting and exploring. As things continue to change, these will become used more. And if not, well, often different is good. And many of these lesser used paths are healthier alternatives.
Hmmm, I think we were watching a MASH rerun when we ate the pizza. Would that be classified as eating while watching a film?
I’ve got a cousin, 10 years younger than I am, who is very rich. He wrote several computer applications way back when, sold them for millions to companies like Microsoft. He still has a highly paying job, lives in Boston, Massachusetts. He will get up in the morning, decide he wants to spend a week in Monte Carlo, makes a phone call to arrange for a private plane and goes to the airport. When travel becomes more and more difficult, I don’t know what he’ll do. His is a way of living that I can’t comprehend at all.
The peppers…One regular bell pepper plant. A sweet banana pepper plant. An ancho chili plant. The ancho will have a little bit of zing. I like them.
Avalanche is very friendly with most people and dogs. She just wants to play. Most dogs aren’t the least intimidated by her. She has regular conversations with the outdoor dogs on our normal walk routes. However, there have been two or three dogs that were just plain mean. A few weeks ago, a little yapper dog ran behind her and tried to bite her hamstring. This was prior to shedding season, so her fur on her hamstrings was VERY thick. The little yapper was spitting out white husky fur for several minutes. Its human was extremely apologetic and has also asked us twice if Avalanche was okay. Avalanche was shocked and not hurt.
None of what the magpies do for food with you nearby surprises me at all. I enjoy watching the intelligence of the Corvid family of birds. The crows here seem to appreciate having a trained human (me) on staff when they need help. It looks like your magpies have a trained human on their staff too. It’s nice to be needed and appreciated, isn’t it?
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
I’ve never used one of those trenching machines, but they look like giant digging chainsaws on wheels, and would probably run away from me down the hill at a most inconvenient time. Probably a lot of trouble, because I’d imagine the cutting teeth would also be blunted by the first rock they encounter. There are plenty of rocks here. Your assumption is correct, I’m very little trouble, although there have been a few folks over the years who might disagree vehemently with your opinion. 🙂 It’s hardly my fault those folks went out of their way to annoy me deeply for their personal giggles and amusement, and then thought that there’d be no response. What did they expect? Hehe! We’ve spoken for many years, and I likewise presume that you’d be also be no trouble.
Heck yeah! Buckets have been occasionally known to roll way down the hill. To be honest, I hold the opinion that the plastic contraptions are somehow mildly self-aware, and they’ve decided to conduct subtle experiments in order to improve our fitness levels. Walking up and down hills is not for everyone, but it sure keeps you fit.
Have any of your buckets ever gotten away from you, only to be discovered a year or two later? I once had a lawn mower plastic cover fly away in the wind, only to discover it about a year later – and it was in perfect condition.
It’s a bit sad that our society completely ignored the technical possibility of grid tied solar power inverters which could throttle down their output if the grid circuit voltage went too high. You know, it is foolish – and that’s a great word – to have a system which begins with the premise: Now let’s assume that nothing will go wrong! Always unwise, but here we are.
Made the next video this morning, and it’ll be about moving a round raised garden bed to a new location. Don’t want to be known as the whingey solar power bloke…
Oh yeah! Pam, that happens here too with hoses. Oh my, but does the water in them get hot from the sun, or what? It’s hard to know what to do with such hot water when in the garden, although you could spray it on some weeds? I tend to spray it through the air onto grass, and hope the water isn’t too hot before it hits the ground – as do you. If there were another way… The solar hot water panels produce really hot water during about six months of the year. Right now, the water from that system is tepid. I only know that because the wood heater hadn’t been run, and the gas bottle was empty.
Thanks. Those tree stumps the loggers left are one of the hardest jobs done here – possibly why the lazy folks left them, rather than using the big machines they no doubts had to clean up. Oh well, probably why the property was cheap. I’m thinking about tackling another tree stump in a few days time – the Meg. It’s big.
Yeah, sorry to say, but some stuff is uneconomical to repair, although that price seems excessive for a temperature controller board. Hope your machine enjoys a very long life and does not require such spare parts.
Ah! Thanks for the explanation as to the dried kale, and that makes a lot of sense. Hadn’t considered using the leaves that way. Hmm.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Ah, you piqued my curiosity with this loose talk of quince trees and tiny fruit. Reaching into the bookshelf to grab Dr Louis Glowinski’s epic tome ‘The complete book of fruit growing in Australia’ (a recommended classic on the subject), suggests that quince trees originated in northern Persia, Armenia, or Anatolia and were spread and once known throughout the Mediterranean basin. With them being marginal in England. They’re marginal here, except maybe the Chinese quince tree which seems to do well. Incidentally, I’ve visited that author’s garden.
Fortunately the fluffy’s are unable to roam at night, that being the traditional hour for all things wildlife related. Only the birds and reptiles operate here during the daylight hours. Foxes will eventually take out the rabbits, and maybe a Powerful owl will get Kuato, or lack of winter feed… It’s hard to know in advance. Fingers crossed the marsupial does not attempt a raid on my winter greens.
A fine suggestion for the holy hand grenade of Antioch. 🙂
Exactly, who knows what paths are currently being ignored? The system still does provide a lot of benefits, so the weight of support behind it does in no way surprise me. When it can no longer meet any demands, it’ll fall, but until then. Still, throughout decline it is wise to adapt, and I’ve spent most of my life doing just that. No point in getting upset about a perceived lack of stuff is there?
A fine viewing choice, and I really enjoyed that show. Although Hawkeye kind of annoyed me, but as an introvert his actions merely baffled my brain. Your mileage may differ with that character? And yeah, that counts for sure.
Wow, I don’t know anyone who can do such a thing, and the choices make no sense to me whatsoever. However, the three precious things in life to my mind are: Friends; Purpose; and Hobbies. A better use of one’s limited time if you ask me.
Speaking of such things, we moved a corrugated steel round raised garden bed today, and relocated it on the newly created flat site near to the front of the house. A very satisfying part day of work (had to do some paid work this morning). Also began cutting out the very woody wormwood shrub from one of the garden beds. The thing had taken over and was hiding rats and rabbits. Hmm. Even managed to burn the stuff off tonight after dark. A big day, with lots of good things happening.
Oooo, the ancho chili plant sounds really good (and completely unknown to me). What a great combination of flavour and mild heat, and I can see why you’re growing them. Can you get regular bell peppers developing? It’s possible that you have access to more varieties than down here.
Go the little yapper, and fortunately Dame Avalanche would only have been bemused at the antics. Years ago in the big smoke there was an unfortunate interaction with a small Pomeranian. DJ, the dog gave me this look of ‘go on and pat me’, so I did. The little blighter was acting all nervous, shy and stuff, before lunging and biting me. Nice. Walked off with its small head held high, with another notch added to the collar. It was beneath my dignity to express any emotions in response, the small dog would have only enjoyed my discomfit.
Yeah, it’s nice to have a mutually beneficial relationship with the birds, and they really will come and get me if there is a nearby problem which they want a human to deal with. Clever birds, as are your ravens too. Agreed, it is nice to be appreciated isn’t it? 🙂
How’s the spring going? It was cold here this morning at 4’C. Brr!
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Pies Iesu Domine….Dona eis requiem – try not to smack yourself in the head with a wooden board though… 😉 What a fun film! Man, I feel bad now about typing that after what we were discussing with the actor in the Die Hard film franchise. Maybe the Gregorian chanting might help? Maybe?
Hopefully the magpies don’t wise up and get an agent! There may be demands for pay and riders. I’m not made of wood grubs you know. Sometimes the dogs photo bomb me too, they especially seem to enjoy impolite acts not usually seen performed in front of gentle crowds.
Sad to say, but I agree with you. Temporary arrangements can become permanent. The old timers used to have a good saying which you rarely hear spoken nowadays: Give ’em an inch, and they’ll take a mile. There have been some times in the long distant past where I’ve helped a person out, and they just wanted more, or were ungrateful. Not into that outcome at all. Probably an earlier failing on my part, yeah. Oh well, you learn as you go through life.
Man, some hurts are too deep, and blue cheese may fall into that category. 😉 Mind you, say I got dementia, that food could end up on the plate, and I’d not know. Is it really the same situation as freely consuming the cheese? The Editor tells me that a palate can be retrained in three weeks.
Whoa! It was warmer again in your part of the world. 39’F this morning and the maximum was 60’F. Brr! Did some paid work this morning, and then headed outdoors and moved a corrugated steel round raised garden bed. Placed it in its new location on the flat site we created over the past few weeks. It’s looking good, and when they’re full of soil those rings are almost impossible to move.
Cut out a huge swath of wormwood shrubs today as well. And burnt them off tonight. Watching the woody shrubs burn was an enlightening experience. Probably not a good idea to have them growing near to the house and/or sheds. The leaves must be full of oils because the fire went off like a frog in a sock.
The d for drought word was used today: Drought in South Australia, Victoria a hint at lasting shift in rainmaking weather patterns. The rain here so far this year has not been out of the realms of experience. It’s on the low side, but that can happen some years.
Had to send some water to the chickens water tank today. There’s not much rainfall in the immediate forecast, but at least the weather is very cool now. Hope you get some green blobs soon, and the same applies here as well.
Nobody wants their eggs to run off the plate. 😉 Hey, we ate almost the exact same dinner this evening, although used cooked kale leaves (which have to be cut up into small sized pieces using kitchen scissors). Some people eat kale raw and in large leaf sizes, but I’m not into that.
Radish leaves are edible, but a bit furry. But greens get blitzed in a pesto anyway, so that’s cool. Ah, you won’t find my interpretation of radish leaf pesto online because I ditch the garlic, and substitute peanuts for the obligatory pine nuts (peanuts taste better). Oh, and add chili – yum! Plus I had a look at a lot of images online and the pesto usually created and displayed online is a much brighter green colour. The stuff we make is a darker pesto, and it makes me wonder if the images are altered slightly, or the light was perhaps more favourable. Dunno. Worth trying. Absolutely! And I consume the stuff on freshly baked bread with a slice of tasty cheddar cheese. It’s a real food treat.
Water can be important to the development of larger berries, but still. Those big hybrid strawberry plants baffle me, so I gave up because there are less troublesome berries – like Alpine Strawberries (which have a far longer growing season and are producing even now). Hybrid strawberries would probably never develop and grow naturally.
Holy carp, sorry to hear that about the hose nozzle. Those are the best of the best and longest lasting. You have said before that some folks can’t have nice things.
Ha! With the rent situation, it’s probably all of the above. What baffles me, is how these buildings can stay empty because the mere fact they’re empty suggests an over supply – someone must be losing mad cash somewhere in that deal?
Interesting. Both films were commercial successes but not all that well liked by the critics.
That olive oil is pretty good and grown on a lot of trees not too far from here. I believe they also run farms in California. The price down here is cheaper for the oil and costs around $10 for 17fl oz.
Mr King’s short stories often translate into films well. A lot of the narrative detail gets lost when the books are longer. Still, screenplays would be hard to write, and Inge’s blunt advice: ‘Concision!’ sounds easier in theory than it would be to implement.
Lovecraft looms large in the imagination, although I doubt Cthulu would strike terror into my heart. Ooo, you’re big. I guess this is the end then… Probably my last thoughts when encountering that eldritch behemoth.
Did you manage to grab H for bath time? How did she know that a dunking was imminent? Dogs notice things and are forever observing.
That’s unfortunate. Hope the eggs are OK, and I always crack eggs into a cup first and have a sniff before adding them to meal preparation. If you’ve encountered an off egg, it’s a memorable experience I can assure you. I’m sure you’ve seen some over the years?
Sounds like a decent haul of stuff. Rice comes in tote bags down here, but I’m equally dubious, although the Editor assures me that they are cotton. You can test fabrics you know to see if they’re artificial fibres – utoob has such esoteric knowledge, but for free (maybe with some advertisements).
Cut the kale into small pieces before cooking the stuff, my only advice. But it would go well in the rice / egg / veg mix you make. Raw is not good.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – The magpies and I are in negotiations. 🙂
I think sometimes, palate retraining happens very fast. When I switched from 2% milk to unsweetened, unflavored almond milk, it took me about three days. Maybe a certain amount of desire speeds up the process?
Our high yesterday was 64F (17.77C). The overnight low was 43F (6.11C). Forecast high for today is 65F. That was an interesting article about your drought. I don’t think even Prof. Mass would argue with that call 🙂 . The northwest cloud band is really something. Yes, moving round raised garden beds are best done empty. The Master Gardeners “suggested” I move one of my barrels about 3 or 4″. I don’t think so. It’s full of horseradish. The other barrel is now empty, and I can get it moved. But, I want to lay down some ground cloth and mulch it over. Keep the weeds down.
Good work cutting out the wormwood shrubs. Might help with the rabbits and rats. Better to find out now, rather than later, just how flammable the stuff is. Even green blackberry canes will burn, once you get them started.
Thanks for the tips on the kale and radish leaf pesto. I’m glad the pesto uses something less expensive than pine nuts. I took a look down the rabbit hole. There are recipes for radish leaf pesto. Some call for replacing the pine nuts with walnuts, or even pumpkin seeds. I cut the bottom two inches off the kale, and plopped it in a quart jar of water. I might try some in my rice, etc. for dinner.
Besides the hose nozzle, I went down to do laundry last night. The front loader, which takes the largest loads, is down AGAIN. Usually, the problem is someone has used powder soap or those pods. Even though Little Mary Sunshine has repeatedly mentioned in her news letters, not to do that. Use only liquid. I guess some people think they are exempt.
I watch the first “Suicide Squad” movie, last night. There was popcorn. 🙂 Not bad. Though, to me, there’s something about DC movies, that just don’t quit measure up to the Marvel stuff.
I finished the Stephen King short story book, last night. In the introduction, he said that in the afterward, he’d talk about how he came to write the stories. But not to read it first. So, I didn’t. Who knows, maybe SOMETHING TERRIBLE WOULD HAPPEN! 🙂 I did notice something interesting though. In 2007 he flew to Brisbane, rented a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and rode it to Perth. Though he did admit to sticking it in a Toyota Land Cruiser, to cross the Great Australian Desert. Though the short story he wrote while recovering from jet lag had nothing to do with Australia. As far as I know, he has never written an Australia story. He probably keeps a story idea file. There might be something kicking around, in there. Time will tell.
It took some prying to get H out from under the bed, for her bath. She’s cringed a bit, but never went to such lengths. But she was fine, once the process got under way. It was a productive morning. I got an early start, and took her to the groomer, to get her nails ground down. When they do that, I get to stay with her, and keep her calm. She was very good. Didn’t take the groomers arm off. We had a few minutes to wait, and I noticed they had a dog scale. She’s still 12 pounds. Has been a steady 12 pounds since I got her. The little lady watches her weight. We should all be so lucky.
Then I went to the sort of department store, and bought plants. Two kind of tomatoes, two tomatillos, spearmint, Ceyenne pepper and Brussels sprouts. I’ll give them a try, again. Put a sock on them. There were two pepper plants. I’ll plant one inside, and one out. Mint will stay in, as, it’s invasive. Stopped by the Club for a cuppa, and then to the relocated veg store for yoghurt. A full morning.
Besides what I mentioned yesterday, we also got two boxes of corn flakes, 2 quarts of shelf stable milk, a half gallon of grape drink, a box of elbow macaroni, a pound of rice, a jar of peanut butter. There was one packet each of shelf stable chili with beans, and white chicken. As far as the tinned stuff went, there were two each of corn, peas, carrots, Pinto beans and peaches. One tin each of tomato sauce and apple sauce. One, one pound bag each of dry red beans, white beans and garbanzo beans. A box with 8 packets of chicken bullion. Five small bottles of some nutritional drink for old folks. Not a bad haul. I kept one of the boxes of corn flakes, as I might make more crackles. I also kept the tins of peaches. Otherwise, it all went down to the swap table.
Last night in the garden, I planted a few mammoth sunflower seeds that I had had soaking in water all day. Applied the second round of nematodes and watered. No action from the pumpkins or asparagus, yet. Lew
@ Lew:
Wow, Lew – your dehydrator has even one less thing to break than mine does.
Pam
Chris:
Of course, I’m no trouble. I’m an angel incarnate. Ask anyone.
Dear me, yes – as my son cleared more and more trees, all sorts of things came to light. I can’t remember anything in particular, except that, since both my sons enjoyed golf as teenagers, many a golf ball was hit into the woods as they practiced. Every now and then I’ll find one.
You are never whingey about solar. You just happen to know more about the topic than anyone else I have come across, and that knowledge was hard won. Looking forward to seeing how you move the round bed; that ought to be interesting.
Megalodon? They’re real, by the way. Megalith?
Pam
Chris,
After your comments about the quince and marginal areas for growing it, I felt better about my quince. Cool, and you saw the book author’s garden too. That’s exciting.
Owl versus Kuato. Is that an Australian version of Alien Versus Predator? The Princess really likes that movie. She likes the entire Alien series for that matter. When it comes to Alien Versus Predator, I root for the predator. In your instance, I root for the owl, the Powerful owl.
Accept, adapt, move on. I’ve said it before. It’s the best way to handle the decline. Whining about stuff that isn’t there sounds like whining about spilled milk.
Hawkeye could be very funny. Hawkeye could be extremely annoying. Sometimes both at once. I really adored the first season episode where he and Captain McIntyre created a mythical captain for their unit, Captain Tuttle. They had to come up with a file for him so they, with Radar’s help, concocted one. In the form where it asked for “Religion”, Hawkey decided on “Druid. No! Druid, Reformed”. When Radar asked about what the reformed means, Hawkeye said, “It means he can pray at bushes too.”
Interestingly, less than a decade earlier, a bunch of students at tiny Concordia College had rebelled against the school’s religious attendance requirements and founded their own thing, which they called Reformed Druids of North America. They were reformed because they could pray at bushes too AND had given up ritual human sacrifice. Score one for the writers of MASH.
I ran into a book written by a Chinese migrant to the
USA. His book, with his cute original drawings, was somewhat of a synthesis of Daoism and Confucianism. The author based the book on lectures from one of the classes he taught at…Concordia College.
That cousin makes no sense to me, either. After my uncle’s funeral service, we convened at oldest cousin’s house. Youngest of uncle’s three sons was talking with rich cousin (grandson of my uncle) and rich cousin’s brother-in-law. The topic? Expensive and rare tequilas and whiskies they had drunk. The brother-in-law was standing in silent shock at the prices. Some of what the other two had sampled were up to $500 per shot glass or thousands of dollars per bottle. This was in 2012, so I shudder to think what the prices would be today.
I’ve grown bell peppers here before, once or twice. Always from purchased plants. I’ve not yet succeeded in growing peppers and chilis form seeds.
Pomeranian is a breed of dog that I absolutely do NOT trust. They’ve always barked too much and acted in a rather flighty and untrustworthy manner to me. Some of those smaller dog breeds act as if they suffer from “tiny man syndrome” and are overly aggressive.
A coworker I had lived out of town. Lots of coyotes in that area, heck, we have coyotes here in town, too. And they had deer, elk, moose in their yard regularly. Anyhow, one evening she let the Maltese out for a late-night tinkle. The coyotes were howling. The 7-pound Maltese immediately sat on its haunches and howled back. coworker rapidly gathered up said Maltese before the coyotes could turn him into a snack.
Spring has been, well spring. Spells of the overly hot weather have been mixed with some rain, followed by a cold night or two, then back to the heat. We had two nights early in the week that hit +1C and +2C. Mostly, rather pleasant with highs between 20C and 27C, lows dropping below 10C. Good sleeping weather.
Hmmm, I just remembered. There’s a book I’ve got about David Thompson, an early Welsh explorer, surveyor and fur trader in this area. I’ve read other books by the same author, all of which are about history of this general area. The Princess and I attended an “encampment” in Montana in2011. Montana school teachers could get credit for the courses they took. There were a lot of Natives there, many of whom we knew from the Kalispell tribe a bit north of here near Cusick, Washington. The other Natives were from the Flathead Lake area in Montana, members of the Flathead tribe. Classes were on things like making rope from twine or vines, like the fur traders did, cutting up and drying deer meat with some of the Natives, making Native moccasins, a nature walk through the area to see various edible plants and other classes. The author of my book led the nature walk.
One of his books was about some of the colorful characters, Native and mixed Native/other, from the early 1800s in the area. And their descendants. The author talked to a lot of elderly people as his sources, got permission to record tribal elders talking about old tribal history. A relative of the Princess, who lived off the Rez, had funeral services at the family’s private cemetery. The author was there, as that person had become one of his friends. We were very surprised to see each other.
Way back in summer of 1980, I took an introductory physics class at the local two-year college. My dad was the instructor. One of the students, a couple years older than me, was Native. Last fall I saw a book in the “new book” section of the library. I recognized the name. Yup, the gal from that physics class. And the book took place in the mid 1900s on and near the Flathead Rez. That’s an area I know well, as I’ve spent a lot of time there from age 6. It was a fun read.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Had to laugh at your reply, and thanks for that. Last I checked, angels had a lot of difficulties posting comments here, although sooner or later the software might get upgraded? 🙂 Hopefully the future possible software upgrades don’t focus on some of the stupid stuff I’ve blurted out over the long years? Oh well, here’s hoping the developers aren’t all that good. They probably aren’t! 😉 Maybe…
However, truthfully, the comments the bots send me every single day now are utterly hilarious. When serious concerned looking folks suggest that AI will take all our jobs and fun, inwardly I think to myself: Have you actually looked at the rubbish that system is producing? It’s possible that expectations are too great, whilst the reality is too small.
Ha! That’s funny finding all those old long forgotten golf balls. Kind of nostalgic really. Maybe it’s just me, but I wonder how the game of golf can even be played on a sloping chunk of land?
And years ago we discovered a mysterious tennis ball which the dogs and wildlife would move about the property – as if the thing had a life of its own. Was it possessed? Can’t say for sure, but after a few months I decided the safer path was to chuck the eerie tennis ball into a fire. Haven’t been troubled since then – although there was that tire in a strange location which was hard to explain. When will the mysteries end?
🙂 Pam, I really try hard to talk candidly about my lived experience with solar derived electricity. It’s just people have such fixed opinions about the stuff. I poke those folks, but gently nowadays. In earlier days I felt differently and wanted to raise an alarm.
Hehe! There might be a megalith in the forest – wouldn’t surprise me one bit. There are places here which nobody has ventured for a century or more.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Yeah, that authors garden was open for the public a decade or more ago, and it was good to visit. I’ve oft wondered what the author could have achieved if he’d had more land? Dunno, but my gut feeling suggests that the book might not have been written. 😉 It’s a great book too by the way, a real informative tome penned by one who is not usually considered an authority, but has vast experience all the same.
My votes are for the Predator too in that particular instalment, but both are bad news. 🙂 The original 1980 film really blew my mind as to the horror genre. I’d be interested in your thoughts, but it captured the futility that zombie films tend to play upon.
That’s another very useful old timey saying. The ‘land of milk and honey’ is very suggestive that long ago, societal expectations in relation to stuff, were very much lower than today.
Ah, that’s good, yes. Of course it’s been remarked upon elsewhere that ask any three Druids a question, and you’ll receive five answers! I’m thinking shrubberies though… But hey, that’s just my take.
Ha! I get that desire for freedom. The more English than the English grammar school I attended later in the high school years, us students used to belt out the hymns at twice weekly church and produce a harmony which would really shake the ceiling tiles. None fell, in case you were wondering. In some ways it was irreverent, others rebellious, but a part of me always felt a sort of spiritual energy from the ritual. Of course after school detentions were the order of the day, but I do wonder if the priesthood there failed to make higher enquiries in relation to the matter?
By sheer chance I know of some worldwide award winning local distillers. My perspective is that plants have a wonderful ability to produce carbohydrates, carbon and hydrogen being plentiful elements. Ethanol is cheap, my perspective is that the old timey saying: More dollars than sense may apply.
Ah, I see. Right, seedlings for your chili plants. Makes sense to get the head start. For your interest, the only seeds we’ve been able to germinate are the milder varieties, and the seeds came by way of a gift plant.
🙂 I’m rather fond of the Pomeranian breeds, them being the smaller variety of the Spitz family of dogs, of which Sir Poopy and the original Fluff Boss lay claim. They’re all close to wild stock, even the small ones, which makes them – like husky’s – mildly unpredictable. The difference in behaviour between the gentlemanly Ollie, and those two Kelpie girls is marked – they’re a bit wild and wilful.
A Maltese terrier is no match for a coyote, and I’d have done the same.
That sounds like very pleasant weather. Here, we’re bouncing between 17’C in the daytime and about 4’C over night. Feels quite brisk outside now in the early morning air.
What a fun encampment, and in Montana of all places. All useful skills, and the sort of thing which could be useful in a dire situation. Butchering an animal and utilising the various parts is something I know very little about. It’s odd how we outsource our brains in many day to day areas of our lives.
One of the risks with oral traditions is that the knowledge can disappear. But then in the future, many things will be lost, that’s entropy for you. Do you wonder if the recorded traditions can be re-learned? I tend to believe they can be, but will end up being different somehow. Still, culture is a fluid artefact.
Out of curiosity, did the author of the book observe the ‘country’ you walked around in differently from you, and did that alter your perspective in any way?
Travelled a bit over an hours north to the goldfields area today. Climbed an old (but restored) mining poppet at Mt Tarrengower Lookout Tower. It’s at the top of a hill, and the 360 degree views are amazing. At the top of the tower was a manned (in season) fire look out tower.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Will it do any good if I slip the magpies some of the chickens grain feed every morning? The pay demands might not be too great then, maybe?
Agreed, the desire to challenge one’s palate is most of the story. I can see how you rode through that change. I had a similar story when moving from the sweetened yoghurt to the natural stuff we made – which is a lot sour tasting, although I don’t notice that aspect of it nowadays. It’s been remarked upon elsewhere that time often sorts of these types of issues.
Oh, I’ve somehow managed to offend the bots, and the pointless comments are coming in quick and fast tonight. Who knew that bots feel the hurt and rejection? Far out!
Had a lovely day today, and we headed north to visit the goldfields area. We climbed an old mining poppet (it had well maintained stairs) which sits on the top of Mount Tarrengower. The old mining tower sits on top of a mountain and the view is impressive, although I kept away from the edges… During the fire season, there’s even a fire look out at the very top (which the public can’t access). Had a nice lunch, walked around a botanical garden, then got home and crashed out. Slept for about an hour which was nice. Took the dogs for a walk after that. The weather is superb today, and despite the ongoing dry, it’s nice to actually have some more traditional autumn weather. Most years we flip from summer to winter within days.
Same here today, although the night was slightly cooler at 39’F. The air felt quite bracing this morning whilst taking Ollie out to do his ablutions. Drought is the proper word regarding the land to the west of here. Not good. Here it is merely below average rainfall. Glad to hear that Professor Mass would use the same description for a foot of rain in 15 months. Not much rain.
Those northwest cloud bands are epic, and pull moist laden tropical winds from the Inidian Ocean right across the continent to down here. Not having tall mountain ranges on the vast majority of the continent produces some odd weather effects – like that one. I suspect the Great Dividing Range on the entire east coast (of which this range is part of but near to the southern and western end), channels the moist air to here.
Sounds like a bad idea to me too. If the master gardeners want the barrel moved, well they could do the work!
Actually to see how flammable those wormwood shrubs were, quite surprised me. They burned hot and fast, which is not what I’d expected. Most will be removed.
Exactly, pesto is presented as a traditional recipe, but I believe what happened in reality, is that whatever was available got chucked into the mix. Walnuts would be awesome, just more expensive than peanuts. Heck, you could probably use Macadamia nuts.
Did you end up trying the kale (hopefully you cooked the stuff)?
The sensitive person might suggest that this is an abuse of the commons. And I once lived in an apartment block which had a shared laundry on each level. The things which went on in there were a major personal annoyance, and enough so that I eventually took my stuff down to the coin laundromat instead. Which also had it’s share of problems, but they were of the lesser variety.
Saw the trailer for that film, and couldn’t quite comprehend the storyline, although there were a lot of explosions. Presumably it was based on a comic, maybe?
Ook! Not wise to tempt fate, and I’d imagine authors put a hex on readers who skip to the final chapter / page so as to see what eventuated in the narrative? Anyway, you dodged that risk! 🙂 That would have been a fun journey, and we’ve travelled a bit of the outback ourselves. The large motorcycle may not have handled the sandy roads as well as the Landcruiser, so that’s a wise decision. The corrugations on those roads will loosen the teeth on your jaw. And circumventing those roads would have been a very monster detour, the likes of which your country may not be aware.
Time will tell, and the outback is an eerie place where strange things can happen. I’d say that’s right up the authors alley. If you ever hear of such a tale, please do let me know? Candidly, it’s very quiet where we live and I’m used to such an environment. Had lunch today at the North British Mine and Quartz Kilns, and it was so quiet that all we could hear were the many birds. No background engine noises, nothing. Quite pleasant actually.
Two more bots just landed, and are accusing me of faulty spelling. Next they make begin critiquing my grammar, and that school was an odd experience, but did provide an Education. On that note, I did let the newsletter folks know that my old school mate had passed away, and they didn’t include his name in the obituaries. Should I let this go, correct the situation with a more formal letter, or will the ghost come for me a second time? Pesky critters. I might cross the stream on them.
Good to hear that no dog groomers were harmed during the incident. Dude, it’s that time thing again. What do you do? My take is simply to do the best I can, then don’t worry about that sort of stuff.
Brussels Sprouts (why plural on the first word?) are meant to be very tasty fresh from the plant. The Editor concurs with that view, although the experience has not been mine to put to the test – the cabbage moths make those plants too hard here. I hope you get some sprouts and I’ll be very interested to hear of your opinion. Mint is very invasive, yup. Hasn’t taken over yet, but that doesn’t imply that it isn’t trying…
Have you considered turning the corn flakes into honey crisps again? Probably a lot of sugar… Yeah it was all a good haul. Has the Club pantry finished? Or was it all loose talk?
Go the land sharks! And asparagus are early season, but still its yet to get too warm from what you’ve been saying about the weather. The pumpkins need warm soil. From memory, last year, we re-seeded those beds, maybe?
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – I took a look at that link to the Mt. Tarrengower lookout tower. We have quit history of fire lookout towers, in the west. A few years ago, I read a book by a woman, who manned 🙂 a lookout tower, during WWII. Due to male labor shortages. Everything had to be “muled” in. Her only contact with the outside world was a very tenuous phone line. I found it quit interesting. It was up in our east county. Of course, now a’days, they’re mostly automated (as are lighthouses.) What could possibly go wrong? Many a starving author got jobs in lookout towers, over the years. Some even got books published.
The magpies must get out, a lot. As part of their contract, as with the Knights Who Say Ni!, they want shrubberies.
Our high yesterday was 64F (17.77C). The overnight low was 37F (2.77C). The forecast high for today is 70F. Over the next week, it’s pretty much the same. Mostly sunny, with a nice onshore breeze to keep things comfortable. There are a few days with “Chance of Showers.” We’ll see.
I took one of the crinkly kale leaves and cut off the yellow edges (it’s heading south). Pulled chunks away from the main stem, and chopped them fine. Mixed in with rice, garlic, peas, half a red bell pepper. Nuked it for ten minutes and put a bit of cheddar cheese, on top. I can’t say I could particularly notice a flavor, but it just seemed … richer. I also pulled off a few little bits and tried them raw. Again, no distinctive flavor I could detect, but a kind of “rich” mouth feel.
Maybe Mr. King will come up with a story about a wombat as big Uluru. 🙂 Rabid camels cornering travelers in broken down vehicles? Maybe a riff on “Picnic at Hanging Rock?” What with the dream time, and all, I’m sure he could come up with something. By the say, I see “The Last Wave” is in transit, to me. I’ll probably pick it up from the library, tomorrow.
The quartz kilns were really interesting. And all that great brickwork. I did wonder a bit at the “educational toilets.” In his collection of short stories, King has one about a Porta-Potty. That’s all I’ll say, about that!
You did your due diligence, as far as the newsletter went. Maybe it was already “set in stone” and it will appear in the next one. I wouldn’t bother, unless the ghost makes another appearance.
Speaking of abuse of the commons, the Hadrian’s Wall tree destruction, finally came to trial.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/two-men-found-guilty-chopping-120609863.html
Your grandfather’s favorite epithet, comes to mind. As in, “What a pair of d—h—s.” Apparently, they did it for the notoriety. Same reason mass shooters often use.
I often wondered about the whole Brussels apostrophe question. I’m not the only one.
https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/there-apostrophes
Stuff like this could keep me awake. If I cared … 🙂
I did keep a box of the cornflakes. I want to try making some peanut butter, or chocolate crinkles. Yes, the Club pantry is gone. I think what hurt the most, was one of the reasons given, was that it “looked tacky.” According to third hand reports. Never mind that I was in there, usually 5 times a week, to make sure everything was in good order. Upon further reflection, I think another factor was one we touched on, last week. Some people are uncomfortable with the appearance of poverty.
I picked up the book on feed sack fabric patterns, the other day. Hundreds of photos. I haven’t taken a good look at it, yet. Due to poor lighting (and, probably, my vision), I can only enjoy looking at books with a lot of photographs, during the daylight hours. And, I usually don’t read much, during the daylight hours. Too many other things, to do. I’ll get to it, as it looks fascinating. Lew
Chris:
“Have you actually looked at the rubbish that system is producing?” Exactly what I was thinking earlier today. People are going to get tired of this and turn their backs on it, especially younger people, who, I think, are going to be wanting real experiences, real content, the heck with this fake stuff. It’s a shame that you have to deal with the bots daily.
They weren’t actually playing golf (not that we don’t have holes all over . . .), just practicing shots. No place for putting, though. At the time we also had a municipal golf course that cost $2 per visit. They have turned it into something else now, which is understandable. I doubt if as many people play golf now. My sons got their clubs at a thrift shop.
A possessed tennis ball is not something I would want on my property. In something unrelated, except that dogs were mentioned and mystery, one of our dogs once stole our neighbor’s boot off of his porch and hid it under our porch. It took awhile for us to solve that mystery, but he did get it back.
We finally got a good rain.
An ancient 100 year old megalith . . .
Pam
Chris,
Interestingly, the first movie I saw in the Alien franchise was the second one, Aliens. It was a free showing at a local college long after it had ceased to be in the theaters. I finally saw the first one after the Princess and I met. It was chilling. Very chilling. “Resistance is useless” is the phrase that comes to mind. Might as well get tossed off of a Vogon spaceship.
“Land of milk and honey”? Indeed, that was the saying. But, you know, the local grocery stores could be so described, as they usually have plenty of milk and quite a bit of honey, also. A different phrase that describes plentiful food that people want is needed in this modern era. Perhaps “Land of pizza and pretzels and beer”?
I try to avoid the word “shrubbery”. Every time I use that word, these weird dudes wearing fake armor suddenly appear and endlessly repeat “Ni! Ni! Ni!” So I say bush instead. 😉
Hmmmm, you got me thinking. My memory is that Rakhi the Samoyed was generally extremely well behaved. Upon further reflection, she had her moments, but very rarely with me. I was her human. She could give dad fits, however. And she had one boyfriend of my sister shaking in mortal fear. Cheyenne the Finnish Spitz fit the mold you’re describing until she realized that her humans were the alphas, no ifs, ands, or buts. From then on, Cheyenne displayed a lot of subordinate wolf behavior.
But Rakhi versus the boyfriend, aka the skank. He was at the house visiting my sister, who was taking care of the house across the street, so the pair went there to sunbathe. The skank changed into very small speedos. Then they came back and he wanted to shoot some basketball in the backyard, still wearing the speedos. I told him to wait for me, but he said that “Rakhi knows me” and he went out the door. Yes, Rakhi knew him and didn’t trust him one bit. The skank came running back into the house screaming and holding his hands over his privates. When he could talk, he said that that wild dog growled at him, opened her mouth wide and charged for his crotch. We couldn’t help but laugh.
Some of the traditions might be remembered. Others will be forgotten and a few of these will be reinvented. The stories and mythologies about these will all be different from what they are now.
I assume you’re wondering about the author of the book about Montana, whose name is Debra Magpie Earling? If so, yes, she had a different perspective than I did, which I expected. And it did alter my perspective to some degree, both about that geographical area and in how I view things in general, the latter being an ongoing process started once I first got to know the Princess. Ms Earling has lived there most of her life, while I was a visitor. Further, and most people don’t like to admit this, but there is a difference in the thought process between many Natives and most non-Natives. This was apparent in this book, as I expected. I’ve seen this difference in books I’ve read by Louise Erdrich, Tommy Orange, the local Sherman Alexie, mostly fiction writing. I’ve also noticed it in scholarly works by Vine Deloria, Jr and a few others too. There appear to be some underlying assumptions that most non-Natives just plain can’t even see, much less understand. It’s very hard to put into words.
Early on, the Princess suggested that I read the mystery novels by Tony Hillerman. Although these take place in Navajo country in New Mexico and Arizona, and although these were written by a non-Native, she had found them to be a good introduction to how many Native cultures view things. The Navajo mythologies, of course, are different, but some of the assumptions get mentioned. Things like living in harmony with the area, with what actually IS rather than a romantic notion of it. Relationships with others are more important than achievements. Those are two main ideas. These and other ideas are there in the books by most of the other authors but aren’t as obvious as in the Hillerman books.
Thanks for the Mount Tarrengower link. We both enjoyed the pictures. In person, the views from there have got to be beyond spectacular.
Today was a busy day. A lot of yard work got done. Meanwhile, it is peak pollen time. Dame Avalanche has been mostly okay. Today, however, her asthma got triggered. This means that she will have lung fluid that she needs to expel. Not fun for her. This also coincided with her inhaler expiring, so I got out a new one. She seemed a lot better this evening.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Action was taken to block access to the bots for this website, basically I’d had enough. 46 additional comments had arrived overnight. If the bots had something interesting to say, I’d listen, but there’s no creativity to be seen there.
And I agree with you about younger folks seeking a more authentic experience, but perhaps I’d chuck in the wild card of economics. How many of those interweb services demand regular tithes, sorry, I meant to say subscription fees? Or the users get bombarded with advertising, which is not cool, but another form of payment. If the tide turns economically, all those services may get dropped like hot-cakes (as they used to say) out of necessity. Then there’s face to face catch ups which are usually low cost experiences, like the old timers used to do. 🙂
The gophers / ground hogs must be creating a unique golf course? Rabbits do the same here, except the burrows have somewhat larger openings, I’m guessing. I see, practice shots! And yeah, irons are cheap second hand (I did the same many years ago – the hippy school used to take us to play golf, go figure!) Those course fees are pretty affordable. The competition for land can sometimes turn golf courses into housing estates. That particular issue came up about a year ago in the big smoke.
Maybe the shoe was possessed? You never know! 🙂 Was the neighbour good about it all? Some folks can be a touch reactionary when the neighbours dogs go a visiting. The dogs here don’t do that, as far as I’m aware (have to add that caveat) but a neighbours husky sometimes comes and visits. Always a challenging situation and the Kelpies dive for the house and try and get in a door and away from the visiting dog. So far, Ollie and that husky have not met, but it’s a bit of a worry.
Yay for decent rain for you, and what a great time of the growing season to enjoy the wet stuff. How are the plants responding to the extra water?
You’re not far wrong about the century old megalith, and I reckon the loggers were on this property after the 1983 fires, which is now over forty years ago. Anyway, I managed to cut the monster root ball from the log today. Some chunks were recovered for firewood, and others were burned off. It was a hard day of forest clean up work. You wait and see the photos, the loggers must have been mad to have felled that tree with a bulldozer (I’m guessing) and it’s not like the broken steel cables weren’t found right next to the behemoth.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
I liked the ‘Aliens’ sequel as well, and despite them being well armed, the protagonists were up against the wall dealing with an alien. The first film was dark, all of the scenes were low light, and when that cat jumped out of the cabinet I near soiled my armour! 🙂 Fortunately the aliens don’t mess around and waste energy on really bad poetry. They’re all business. It’s like those scenes where the evil mastermind begins explaining their story, and that gives the plucky adventurer enough time and opportunity to get away. Aliens and zombies don’t do that…
True, pizza and beer is fine combination. But what would people in the far distant future make of those claims? Will pizza even be known?
Here we can agree, those dastardly knights who say (the word which cannot be spoken aloud) might not agree on what is meant by the word ‘bush’ – which between you and I has some rather interesting definitions. Ni! 😉 Oops, broke my own rule there.
Male Samoyed dogs are about half again as large as Sir Poopy was. I reckon people freak out about big dogs, especially if they’re occasionally boisterous. But I tend to recall that you have to be the pack leader with them. This is a difficult matter for many people who probably want to just be friends with dogs firstly, and they don’t respond well to that. You can be friends with canines, but you also have to be their pack leader, or they’ll take on that role.
Exactly, with Cheyenne the Spitz, and we had that awful realisation with the original old fluff Pomeranian – who’d been spoilt rotten by the previous owner. The dog was a monster initially, and had to be brought to heel, as they say. But then she flipped her personality and was one of the most obedient dogs I’ve ever known.
Whoa! That would have hurt. Hopefully your sisters beau recovered from the err, indignities, although Rahki probably just needed to set some serious ground rules for their interactions. Ook!
Culture and stories are fluid and not a fixed in stone, and we’re a story telling species. It’s what we do naturally. New stories will fill the gaps, so my thinking is very much along the lines of what you observed.
I was indeed wondering about the author of the book. Hmm. Thanks for the candid reply. Western civilisation is super weird. We tell ourselves these stories about manifest destiny, as if we’ll all head out to the stars. Now I love old school sci-fi, but never treated it as a how-to manual. There are more workable stories, such as ‘what does the magpie say’, and western culture basically ignores those kind of stories. We worked out on the forest edge today cleaning up the loggers mess which had been left there for forty something years. Why did they leave the land that way? Can any critters eat or shelter there? What are the values being displayed from leaving the forest in that condition? There are stories all around us, and many of those I’m blind to, but the society we live in relies upon mindless ritual as a way to hide from the deeper connections you mentioned. But dunno really, I’m just out here doing my own thang. 🙂
I should also out myself here. As someone with an INFJ personality type, I value harmony, which is not something that is valued by the larger culture, so I’ve been at odds with it for most of my life. Nowadays, I’m more super-chill about that reality.
Speaking of which I better head down in the dark and push the fire in. And note to self, wear the proper fire rated boots this time…
Thanks for the book recommendation. And how have I never heard of Arthur Upfield? Education these days…
The views were awesome, and my head was swimming a bit if I got too close to the edge of the tower. Being located on top of an old volcano, it’s a real 360 degree feast for the eyes. No wonder there’s a fire look out at the top of the old mining poppet tower.
Yuk! Have you got the filter machine going? Man, with the dry this year the dust has been feral at times. Hard on the sinuses. Good to hear that Dame Avalanche is feeling better now.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
It’s a great job being a fire observer for those who prefer a quiet life, or put their minds to tasks which don’t involve constant interruptions and stimulation (authors!) I have a vague memory that we spoke of the book long ago. How do you even automate such a process? In this corner of the country, the fire towers are manned during the fire season. You’re not wrong there – what could go wrong with automating such a system?
Things can get a bit exciting in that role though, and the fire tower in Murrundindi (I believe) burnt to the ground in the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires. The bloke working it on the day apparently called in the monster fire and evacuated in time. For some reason the warnings of the advancing fire were delayed near to the town of Marysville I believe. It was pretty bad there, kind of like the Paradise wildfire a few years back. Have you read anything about the folks there rebuilding?
Oh my! What sad times are these when a passing gentleman is set upon by magpie ruffians demanding shrubberies and saying ‘Ni!’
There’ll be no shrubberies, or at least none now we’ve decided to ditch the wormwood – the stuff is too volatile. There are a couple of different varieties growing, so we’ll test them out and see if they’re the same.
It was warmer here today at 66’F and the morning was 41’F. Blue sunny skies with no breeze to speak of. Chance of showers sounds like much or nothing? Hard to tell. I’d like a bit of rain here, although interestingly most mornings now are very damp.
That’s my take on kale leaves as well, and your experience of ‘richer’ may well be down to the additional protein and tiny amount of fat. Plus who knows what other minerals are in the leaves. They’re good green fill in cooked meals. Silverbeet is also good but has more flavour, which I like, but it’s not for everyone. Eating the leaves in a meal picked fresh from the garden is an experience which many folks miss out on. I don’t recall seeing a lot of kale leaves sold.
Hehe! That’s one big wombat. 🙂 Uluru is an impressive sight, and can be seen from a long way away. There are a lot of camels in the outback, I’d say that they’re here to stay. So they might well form into surly groups and attack tourists, especially the ones who are considering eating them. We passed a place way out in the middle of nowhere whom were advertising camel pies, and we didn’t stop. Could be missing out. Crocodile burgers were very tasty, and yes, chicken. True, they feed the big reptiles chicken.
Haha! A porta-potty out to teach us all a lesson. But will it be a nice lesson? A balance of probabilities suggests that it won’t be nice. Encountered a toilet in the past year which had a small LED display. Hard to know why the contraption suggested deeply complicated functions. And I forgot to ask what it all meant.
Hope you can make sense of the film? It is not usual for me to suggest reading the plot summary beforehand, but Peter Weir takes enigmatic as a personal challenge. Picnic at Hanging Rock was aesthetically pleasing and ethereal, but narrative… And how they got lost there is a true mystery to me. Half an hour, and you’ve walked around and climbed the rock. Alien abduction can be the only plausible explanation.
Thanks for the advice regarding the ghost, and that seems like the wisest path to take.
Yeah, those two gentleman are in a lot of trouble with that tree. The article suggested that no motive has yet been announced, and I’m curious as to that aspect of the story. On the other hand, there’s something very odd about doing an allegedly criminal act, filming it, and then posting about it online. Brain. Switched. Off. 😉
Thanks for the The Australian Poem by Anon, and also the explanation as to when to use the apostrophe. However, I still like the word sheep’s, who doesn’t?
Sorry to hear that about the Club pantry, I’d thought it was all loose talk amounting to nothing. Oh well. And I agree, Mr King may write some seriously engrossing horror stories, however a descent into poverty would scare the pants off the average person. Pretending such things do not exist does in no way make them go away.
Fair enough about the book and plentiful photos. Have you discerned anything from the parts of the book you’ve read?
Tackled the Meg loggers mess tree stump today – and won! Photos to come on the next blog. A very long work day.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – And, from the Wonderful World of Paleontology … another fossil bed has been discovered, in New Jersey, that is similar to the Tanis fossil bed. A snapshot of the Day the Comet Fell, and wiped out all the dinosaurs.
https://www.npr.org/2024/08/16/g-s1-16813/paleontologist-ken-lacovara-and-the-fifth-extinction-that-killed-the-dinosaurs
And, from later (a lot later) in history, a new version of a Merlin and King Arthur manuscript.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/09/science/merlin-king-arthur-medieval-manuscript-cambridge
We were recently talking about names, and how they are popular, and then fall out of favor. Saw an article, last night. Our Social Security system (most parents sign their kids up, early on) has been tracking names since 1880. This year, the two most popular boys names are Liam, followed by Noah. Popular girls names are Olivia in the top spot, followed by Emma. These names have all had a pretty long run. They usually publish the top ten, in each gender.
I see the odd article, about Paradise, California, from time to time. Some people are rebuilding, some not. It’s a slow process. First, a lot of toxic stuff had to be hauled off (to where?), and then the infrastructure had to be rebuilt. Negotiating insurance and, maybe angling for government money. Suing the electric company.
Our high yesterday was 72F (22.22C). The overnight low was 45F (7.22C). Forecast high for today is 65F. The irrigation is back on, and it does reach the pumpkins and asparagus. And a Magnolia tree the Master Gardeners planted. I can stop hauling watering cans. 🙂 Unless we get some really hot weather.
When I first watched “Last Wave,” it didn’t make much sense. I also checked out the net, watched it again, and then it made more sense. I picked it up this morning. I’ll check out the synopsis, before I watch it, again. In a few days.
Another article I read said the tree criminals did it for pure notoriety. Texts the next day had them crowing over “blowing up the internet.” Saw a picture of the two. One looked like a country squire (for court.) The other looked like a real goober. Central casting would make him the village idiot. Both lived in caravans. Though that’s rather judgmental, on my part. We have a saying here: “Trailer Trash.” As we call caravans, trailers.
A couple of things, for the near future. I have all this lovely lettuce coming up, and should do something with it. I actually picked up some tomatoes, last night. Roma’s, strip mined in Mexico. I’ve got them on the counter for a few days. See if they ripen up, for salads. I’m also looking into lettuce leaf wraps.
I mentioned we got some celery, in our food boxes. Well, I had just bought celery, a few days before. So, what to do? I’ve had a brain storm. Make a green been casserole, but substitute celery for the green beans. It’s pretty traditional, here. Tinned cream of mushroom soup and tinned dried onions, on top. I think I may also add just a bit of fried hamburger and onion.
LOL. That Australian olive oil? The first time I twisted off the cap, up popped a pouring spout. Startled me. I almost screamed like a little girl! 🙂 Ought to have a warning label.
I’ll be working in the garden, this evening. Goal for tonight? Bury a bag of kitchen scraps, scatter some more blood meal, and get the two tomatoes in the ground. I’ll see how far I get. Lew
Chris:
I read no sites that require tithes – though if you ever need such a thing to keep this one up, let me know, I’m sure I could help. I stay away from things with pop-up advertising except for news sites; there don’t seem to be any without it. A bit of discrete advertising on a blog is fair because, after all, I am viewing it for free. That goes for the news sites, too. And YouTube how-to’s.
Our neighbor was quite decent about the stolen boot. He had the most forbidding-looking old Doberman Pinscher named Damien (inspires trust, eh?) who used to wander over to our house quite often where our two small boys were playing. Luckily, he was actually a very sweet dog and we were glad to see him. Maybe our neighbor appreciated that. With the wandering Husky at your house: Of course, he should not be coming on your property. Our house was actually a stone’s throw from Damien’s house, so it was easier to accept his visits; we didn’t have any dogs at that point either. My parents always had Huskies. They were very sweet with people, but occasionally wanted to challenge another dog. I hope you don’t have any trouble with it.
After the rain, the whole garden was standing up and dancing!
Are you saying that Meg broke the steel cables?
Pam
Hi Pam,
Thank you for the kind offer, and who knows what the future will entail, but for the present things are sort of OK on that front. None of this stuff is free, but for many years those sorts of news sites you mentioned provided the services at no cost because it seemed like a good idea at the time. Back in the day, newspapers had to run advertising and charge a fee in order keep the lights on for the business. Remember the classified advertisement sections, where you’d pour through the ads looking for second hand stuff? It’s hard to say where the mad cash comes from these days for such media things. Years ago I read an alarming statistic which suggested that many articles were in fact paid for placements, and what does that then suggest? Oh well, the national youth music broadcaster (and news service too by the way) is paid for by the government and so you get to hear no ads, and a lot of local music content that few other services are playing – but the government and tax payer are picking up the tab for that service.
Have to laugh about the utoob videos. I started that because somehow due to the blog links on the left hand side of this screen, gargle (gargoyle? 🙂 ) took it upon themselves prior to your recent election, to shadow ban this blog. Yes do no evil, which doesn’t stack up. Many other independent people on the interweb were losing their minds in those days, but I prefer to keep a cool tool.
That’s a big powerful dog, but probably with a sweet temperament. Agreed, the name does conjure a certain film franchise, which frankly left me wondering why the child of darkness had such petty concerns? Made no sense to me. 🙂 I see, a stone’s throw suggests close enough for a slingshot – these folks I mentioned are a 1,000ft away, although a good slingshot maybe? The dog seems nice enough and even came to me when commanded on the last visit.
Lovely stuff, and may your growing season be productive and fruitful.
Still dry here, and it was a lovely sunny day today with blue skies at 66’F, which is almost unheard of for this time of the year. Oh well. It was nice though.
You’ll see, oh yeah. I’ll be very interested to learn your opinion. I know what my grandfather may have called them.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
I’m amazed that the fossil bed has been turned over to amateur archaeologists, but it’s an awesome thing to do – nobody knows what the outcome will be. Tell ya what though, it would not have been a good day to have been there when that massive wave broke. I’d not realised that the temperature of the planet had risen that high as a response to the meteor direct hit. Presumably the southern hemisphere would have been somewhat cooler, maybe? It’s a bit ‘On the Beach’ don’t you reckon? Calamity is coming, it’s just not reached there yet. Although if I recall correctly a monster tsunami hit these shores as well.
Go Merlin! And the manuscript was a sequel too penned in old French. Isn’t it interesting that the core of the story has universal appeal, and so gets updated over time for the intended audience? Good to see that Merlin was a shape shifter who could scrub up and dazzle the aristocracy, and yet provide decent military strategy – and who knows what else? To be honest, I still can’t quite forgive Marion Zimmer Bradley for her depiction of Merlin. Trash talking is never a polite act.
Oh! I’d not known that about your social security system, although have heard of the system and the ubiquitous number. I’d read an obscure reference recently that there were some active numbers for people aged 120, which is an impressive feat of longevity don’t you reckon? Having been in a bank once long ago as a senior professional where they claimed I’d be born in the 19th century was a weird life moment. Those are old school names, although I do wonder if the enduring popularity of English band Oasis has something to do with one of those names? The vast majority of people clearly have names which are easily used day to day.
Makes you wonder where the land of elsewhere for that toxic stuff actually resides? During such disasters down here, I’ve noticed that when it hits a township, the government tends to organise the demolition and clean up process – the rest of the rebuilding is up to individuals, insurers and the local councils. Where that stuff goes though, is a mystery. Class actions take absolute years to process, and you wouldn’t want to hold your breath waiting for a rapid outcome. What I was curious about was whether the people in that town had changed their relationship to the plant communities and arrangements grown there?
Ah, your area was warmer than here. Lovely weather by the way. The overnight was about the same, but the day time maximum was 66’F. And yeah, I also had to water today – all of the recently relocated trees. Oh well, winter will arrive before I know it, and at least there are plenty of chilling hours for the fruit trees. Good to hear that the irrigation system is working, and well. Keep an eye on the thing, you never know when it stuffs up. Thanks for the laughs, and yes I was hauling watering cans today as well – not wanting to unravel the hose for some reason unknown to my brain. It just doesn’t seem right watering plants in May.
Should be an intriguing film, and please do let me know if the film should be added to the to-see list. 🙂 My education is sadly lacking.
I missed that article, but my opinion is that it is a shallow desire. Interestingly, I did look at a map of where they were from and where the tree was located. A lot of folks would have passed through their area, so I do wonder about that side of the story, although we’ll probably never find out the truth of the matter. There was some sort of suggestion that rough justice had been applied to one of the miscreants, always a risk when you antagonise peoples livelihoods.
That description isn’t really used down here, but it does conjure a certain image. Although, it should also be pointed out that housing policies down here are landing plenty of people in that predicament – and it ain’t a cheap option either. I recall recently reading about some folks allegedly evicted from their own land for permanently camping, and the authorities said something nice like: We gave them the phone number for the local caravan park. Yeah, nice one. I believe after a local outpouring of support, the folks were allowed to camp on their own land, but I believe had to reapply for a permit every six months or so – whatever that entails. If a system is made too hard, people fall off the boat, and probably resent the process.
Yum! Fresh lettuce from the garden sounds wonderful. Is it a hearting variety or a leaf by leaf picking type (my preferred option)? Very funny, but err, quite a factually accurate description. It amazes me how far soil minerals travel these days. I dunno about your Roma variety, but they’re not a strong flavour from my perspective. My favourite tomatoes are the mid sized cherry’s. Yum! The yellow variety does the best in this location, for some unknown reason. I’m thinking flat bread wrap with lettuce and some of that bean salad you make, maybe with a small amount of cheese. That’s what I’d call proper good!
Celery is super hard to grow. 🙂 Enjoy your glut of the leaves and stems. Sounds like a tasty meal. How did it work out?
Hehe! Good to hear you survived the incident! The pouring cap is a fine invention, and you may or may not know this fun fact, but the wine cask was also an Australian invention.
Did you get all that work done? Not much done here today (a bit of recovery from yesterday’s efforts – you’ll see!) I did spread the coffee grounds and husks around today, plus some wood ash down near to where the oak trees were relocated. There were plans to clean up the saws and service the machines, but the plans remained plans. Had a sausage roll and lamington instead. Yum!
Cheers and better get writing.
Chris
Yo, Chris – Yes, the Day the Astroid Fell, it was really high temps (the forest fires probably didn’t help), and then a plunge into the cold and dark. For maybe as long as ten years. Funny you should mention “On the Beach.” What with the tension between Indian and Pakistani, and both being nuclear powers …
Stories reflect the times. I’ve heard that applied to Science Fiction. Maybe the author Whyte undid some of the damage Bradley did to Merlin’s reputation? 🙂
Here’s the rest of the story … Yes, there were some advanced ages still on the Social Security rolls. But no checks issued to those accounts. Makes for a good story, though, doesn’t it?
When I was a wee small lad, there were still quit a few Civil War veteran soldiers, kicking around. They even had reunions. Now, it’s articles about “the last…” soldier from this or that WWII action.
I haven’t seen any articles discussing how fire proof (plants or otherwise) Paradise, California is implementing. I think I may have seen something about the county, instituting more fire proof building codes. As they did down there.
Our high yesterday was 64F (17.77C). The overnight low was 45F (7.22C). The forecast high for today is 63F. We’re supposed to get rain, this afternoon and into tomorrow.
As far as the article about the Hadrian’s Wall tree that I read, it mentioned that at least one of the fellow’s is in “protective custody.”
That’s pretty … well, family friendly and all … that one can’t camp on one’s own land. I wonder if there were children involved, or neighbors, worried about property values going down? A fire hazard? Legitimate reasons, or not, there must be a bit more to the story.
The lettuce is the leaf by leaf variety. Sort of crinkly leaves. When I get around to trying wraps, I’ll figure out some way to wilt the leaves a bit, so I can roll them without breaking. Yes, I thought a stuffing of black beans, rice, garlic, chopped tomatoes and a bit of cheese. Nuke them for a minute or two. Maybe some tomato sauce, over the top. Plain yoghurt?
I think, in general, the yellow cherry tomatoes outproduce the red ones. Might just be in their nature. I had a plant of each, last year, just four feet apart. And the yellow still outproduced the red.
Yes, I got everything I wanted to get done in the garden, last night. I buried a bag of kitchen scraps, and weeded out the areas I was going to plant. Not much of a job, as I’ve been keeping on top of it. I gathered up some green mustard branches, full of pods. Tied them together and hung them on a convenient T-post, to dry. One at a time, I mixed up three 5 gallon buckets of dirt (aka soil). Good garden soil, egg shells, a bit of composted chicken poop, composted mushroom poop 🙂 and coffee grounds. A bit of stove ash. I got the two tomatoes planted and the Blue Lake Green beans. I also planted little clutches of bachelor button (aka corn flower) seeds, here and there all over the gardens. We’ll see if they come up. I’ve got a few already blooming. Watered, and then sprinkled some blood meal around, to keep the deer off. Whew! Tired and sore.
I just threw together dinner. Rice, a can of seasoned lima beans, chopped up one of those fresh tomatoes, broccoli, sprouts and garlic.
I watched the end of season two of “The Mayfair Witches.” It’s from some books by Anne Rice. There was quit a section of weird Scottish fertility rites, filmed in Scotland.
I almost forgot. It’s Mother’s Day, here. Time to go out and fertilize the blueberries. Not a bad job. Only takes me about 1/2 hour. Lew