Time has a habit of stealing away, nestled as it may be in the dark corners of moments lost when vision becomes obscured. Seems like this past year or so, we’ve been kicked around by the climate. Fear not dear reader, we’re keeping up with the challenges, just. Earlier in the week the unseasonable hot and dry weather continued. Then on Saturday, a climate switch was flicked. Thick clouds delivered rained all day long, and into the next day. Strange to see that wet stuff falling from the sky again. It’d been a while. Outdoors feels chilly now. Yup, the planet swings along its annual orbit about our local star.
With wet and cold weather, plans for Sunday were quietly shelved. The loss was not mourned. Time to relax, except there were still things needed to be done around the property. The chickens, that’s for one. It was cold work early on in the near freezing air. Their enclosure is well set up, but still requires five minutes or so a day to restore order. A lot of thought and effort went into the chicken’s all weather run and attached rat proof hen house. They may not be warm, but at least the birds are dry. The original structure was a disaster, and we learned a lot from the multiple failures. What to do? Implement all that hard won knowledge in the replacement structure which stands today.
Within the new chicken run, the deep litter mulch is a challenging environment for the steel used in its construction. After many years of bird activity, a few minor sections now show a bit of rust. That’s to be expected. Yup, there’s always stuff to do, and as they say, rust never sleeps. On the other hand I’d been hoping the deterioration would be slower.
Oh well. The suddenly wet weather has been a pleasant experience. Late last year about November, the rains were so heavy, that one day visitors were stuck inside and forced to consume good food whilst enjoying convivial companionship. A true hardship! Lunching outdoors was not an option that day. By January the rains became alarmingly intermittent, only arriving in an occasional downpour, then disappearing for weeks on end. And the heat! Whoa, the heat.
The surrounding forest is one level below rainforest, technically known as: Damp Sclerophyll Forest. The dry climate this year did not significantly impact the tall trees and forest canopy at all, merely the vine, shrub and ground cover layers. Those plants withered and looked moisture stressed, and even worse, would probably have burned hot and fast if given the opportunity. Water has been in short supply for months, and other than the youngest fruit trees in the orchard, no water was spared for those other trees. Despite that, they grew and produced pretty well all things considered.
The vegetables and other smaller edible plants on the other hand, all required some regular watering, but it wasn’t much each day a minute or two at most. Six months later, and we’ve burned through almost 80% of the stored water capacity (128kL / 33.8k gallons) and are grateful for the recent rain. We can learn and adapt. Regular readers will recall that there are plans in place to install two additional water tanks. And also who can forget the emergency work done to install the new water pump? That large permanent pipeline running up and down the hill has connections which can provide access to various water storages. The project was time well spent and has already proven its worth. Useful infrastructure, but the need was driven by the climate. And those water projects haven’t been completed yet.
Sometimes things can abruptly change, then you’re in a whole different world. A bit over five years ago, and just prior to the long lock downs due to the health subject which dare not be named, two twelve week old Kelpie pups unexpectedly came into our lives. A local farmer had them for sale, and even at that age you could tell they weren’t good working dog material. Lovely personalities though, and they’ve brought a lot of joy into our lives. However, due to the epic lock downs over two long years, the dogs were never properly socialised. They were a bit feral.
For the past year and a half, the two Kelpie’s have been attending the local dog obedience club. It’s been a journey, and Sandra who never had to deal with staff in her professional work, now exudes proper boss energy. Dame Plum even very recently earned a respectable second place in the dog trials for her class. Unexpected circumstances pushed us in these directions, and the outcomes have been great.
It’s funny thinking back on all the work we’ve done this year. We’d begun January with the idea of constructing a larger firewood shed. The month beforehand, we split, hauled and stacked a huge quantity of the firewood ready to be stored in the new shed. We just never built the thing, due mostly to having to respond to the suddenly crazy hot and dry weather. That shed is a job for the future.
There was now however, a very large pile of stacked and dry firewood. This was in addition to the completely filled original small shed. What to do? We purchased a huge plastic tarp. Threw it over the pile and anchored it down. A rare wind storm was mildly challenging and fortunately we retained the tarp. Now it is again anchored down, but this time better!
The need for the new firewood shed has not gone away, we’ve just bought some time with the tarp so that the job can be done properly, and at a measured pace. Sometimes you need more time, and other times nature refuses to co-operate with plans. That’s life.
There was a full moon earlier in the week. It was amazing to see the moon setting just above a fog bank the other morning. Not something you see every day. The full moon made susceptible people act a bit odd last week.
On Saturday, 15mm (3/5ths of an inch) of rain fell over the farm. That was a relief because it seems weird to me to have to water plants in May. On the other hand, we’re consuming the last of the fresh tomatoes. The season moves on at its own pace, and the chickens went off the lay weeks ago.
During storms, the fine mesh inlet filter seen in the photo above can become blocked and has to be manually cleared. At such moments, water goes everywhere, and of late we’ve been constructing a stone lined spillway to manage the water in that unfortunate circumstance. You’d be amazed at how much damage fast flowing concentrated water can cause. Best to be prepared for the eventuality, because it will happen sooner or later.
Speaking of dealing with possibilities, we’ve been continuing the clean up of the loggers mess at the forest edge. It’s a truly epic job, but bit by bit, it’s slowly being done. The logs on the ground are old, scorched from the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires, and also rather large.
The rusted old broken steel rope gives me the shudders to consider what might have happened the day it snapped. The loggers left it there on the ground next to that tree. Sends a strong message. Unfortunately, they also left the tree for me to clean up. Whatever can be harvested as firewood is saved, and the rest gets burned off. There’s a lot of mess in that location, which is why the land was cheap.
That big old log is the exception, most of the mess is more easily dealt with, but still, there’s a lot of it:
It’s strange, but the logs which are off the ground (as in the above photo), are a lot drier, and they make pretty decent firewood, although the stuff still has to dry to around 14% moisture content before it can be used.
The damp can be seen in the above image. At this stage the moist sections are quite pulpy, but they’ll dry out just fine and become useful as heater fuel in another a year or two’s time.
The local species of hardwood, is Messmate (Eucalyptus Obliqua) and it’s a super tough and dense timber. Readers have often expressed over the years the incredulous opinion that forty years is a long time for the timber to have survived, and I completely understand the perspective. The local timber is just that tough. Here’s an example of a tree stump which displays scorch marks from the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires.
The scorching actually preserves the timber. In order to remove the tree stump in the above photo, we’d have to cut down the dirty hardwood to ground level. All the while the chainsaw blunts as the teeth on the chain continually encounters dirt. Then a tree stump that size would take about an hour and half work with the stump grinder to grind it below ground level. Hopefully we wouldn’t hit any rocks in the process as that kills stump grinder cutting teeth. And the loggers over the past almost century and a half left these things all over the place, as you do. Nothing can live on or eat these things, especially once they’re charred by fire.
With the larger logs I cut them all into manageable sections, and then use the long house wrecking bar to move them.
Whatever can be saved as firewood is stacked to dry, and the rest is burned off. The ants and wood borers have long since consumed anything edible.
Afterwards the area looks a bit like a blank slate, but fear not, new plants will colonise that area in no time at all and this will provide a lot more feed for the forest critters.
Many of the projects require rocks, and of late they’ve gotten harder to find. Peak rocks is real, you read it here first. Fortunately we’re able to split boulders into more usefully sized rocks. It’s been a busy week.
The recent rain and thick cloud was a good opportunity to remind me to take a closer look at how the solar power system was working. Turns out before I even noticed, the two olive trees in the courtyard behind the house had grown substantially. They’re now shading the solar panels during the very late afternoon, and the two trees will have to be pruned.
Incidentally, the trees are only just shading the solar panels behind them. Here is a different view looking at them side on.
Just another job which nature is requiring me to attend to.
Nature can be bountiful though, and some of the young citrus trees in the new orchard are producing fruit. Interestingly the trees damaged by the rabbits are struggling through and appear to be recovering, although the growth is slower compared to undamaged trees.
The many edible plants in the greenhouse are also growing quite well.
Outdoors, the vegetables are growing more slowly due to the cool nights and reduced sunlight. Still, they provide fresh greens for the kitchen.
Speaking of tasty food – one of the tasty dishes which can be purchased in the big smoke is the traditional Vietnamese Bánh mì, which is usually roast pork in a small baguette with fresh vegetables, pâté and chilli. Yum.
Here’s an update on one of the two Sycamore trees planted earlier this year:
Onto the flowers:
The temperature outside now at about 10am is 4’C (39’F). So far for last year there has been 206.8mm (8.1 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 191.8mm (7.6 inches)
Comments
46 responses to “Seasons change”
Yo, Chris – Everyone’s (sweeping generalization) climate seems odd and out of whack, this year. I’m sure Prof. Mass would beg to differ, but it seems like we had an unusually mild winter, and are having a wet, cool spring. Probably falls within “average” parameters.
You’ve got a complicated system of water storage, but ongoing refinements seem to be meeting your needs.
And, you’ve got a good grip on firewood management. You’ll get to the new shed, eventually. And, if I remember correctly, you’ve already got the space cleared, and a pretty good foundation laid down. You’ve even milled some of the timber.
The picture of “The cut end of the big old tree…”? Those black masses, off to the right? Are they big ol’ boulders, or a rock outcropping?
The video is quit good. Blog text, photos and video all work together to fully illustrate what’s involved in forest cleanup. And why it’s important.
My how time passes. Which was the point of your opening ruminations. It seems like you just pruned the olive trees. Have you ever taken a look at Italian olive orchards? Search that and check out the images. Might give you …. ideas. 🙂
I am envious of your citrus. Also, the Banh Mi. It sure looks tasty.
Japanese maples are just so beautiful. Your Rosemary looks very healthy. Our venerable old Rosemary is looking … off. Maybe it’s in a dormant period. Or maybe, the Inmates have been overwatering it. Or maybe the landscapers whacked it back. Lew
Hi Lewis,
When you put it that way, the claim does seem like a sweeping generalisation. I’ve experienced hotter and drier years here, but the rainfall records suggest that this level of lack of rainfall can occur very occasionally – maybe once every 40 years. And interestingly, a few years ago there were ten days in excess of 104’F, and this past summer – not one. But then that year had more rainfall, so my brain hurts even thinking about what it all means. I see that Professor Mass is calling the El Nino / La Nina cycle as being in the neutral phase.
Weather is a funny thing. The Bureau of Meteorology (I always wonder if they spot meteors due to that name) is forecasting 1’C / 34’F in the big smoke for tomorrow morning. Cue lots of urban whingeing! Just another winter-esque day for me. More locally, the forecast suggests -1’C / 30’F, and already I can hear hot water from the wood box being pumped up to the solar hot water panels to stop them from freezing.
Speaking of meteors, one was found the other day way over in Western Australia (a recent fall which prompted meteor hunters to go take a look): Police officer finds meteorite that lit up WA’s skies. I’d not realised that this was a hobby for some folks.
Water is less of a problem for us than it was for plenty of other people in the area. And further west of here, it must be a nightmare summer and past year. The new water tanks will be good to get installed, and I’m thinking of ways to set up a temporary catchment system for one roof which is currently flowing its water onto the ground. That’s not ideal, but old timers used to quip not to let perfection be the enemy of the good enough (or something like that).
Today was such a nice day here, and I made up for working inside all day Saturday. It was cold, but the sun was shining with no breeze to speak of. We pruned those two olive trees today, except this time I grabbed the trusty copy of Lee Reich’s tome on the subject of pruning, and just followed the instructions. It’s a job that’s never been done correctly, and that’s not right. Unfortunately the courtyard soon filled up to its eyeballs with olive prunings. The plan was to run them through the scary old wood chipper, but there was just so much. We burnt the lot off instead – and accidentally discovered that green olive prunings burn fiercely. You learn something new every day. People worry about eucalyptus species, but you should see green olive branches and leaves go up in flames! To be honest, after today I’d not want to be in an olive orchard if a big fire swept through. Clearly there are some volatile oils involved. Makes me wonder if oils can’t be extracted from olive leaves the same way eucalyptus oil is processed?
Your memory serves you correctly! 😉 The space is ready and timber is slowly being milled for the new firewood shed. It’s actually an enjoyable process to use the local materials to produce a shed.The old timers would have done it that way, although they’d have used less fossil fuels! 😉
Sad to say that those dark masses in the photo are more wasted old trees the loggers left. The plan at this stage is to work our way to the down hill side of that mess. This way we can roll large chunks downhill using gravity and then burn them off. Man, the loggers were so wasteful, but then maybe they’d reached the end of the commercially extractable timber after the fires? There are time limits, and the nearby saw mill is a goodly distance away. Way back in the 19th century, saw mills were powered by steam and located closer to the resource – like out in the middle of nowhere. Teams of bullocks were used to pull the saw logs to the mill. Then tramways took the timber downhill to the nearest rail yard. I doubt that there is anyone left now in these parts who knows how to control a team of harnessed draft animals.
Thanks! I very much appreciate your kind words about the video and blog.
That thought about pruning the olive trees more for fruit production, and less for aesthetic considerations, also occurred to us. And there are many olive trees happily growing here. Hmm.
The citrus trees are growing right at the very margins as to what they can deal with in terms of cold weather – but the experiment is slowly producing solid results. When the rabbits ring barked a few of the expensive young trees, my reaction was not good, but the foxes saved the day. The Editor visits Vietnamese run bakeries in poorer parts of the big smoke and regales me with tales of those tasty treats. To date, I’ve not put them to the taste test, so that makes two of us. They sure do look good. I was hoping you’d enjoy that photo.
Japanese maples are my favourite plant, they’re so lovely combined with a resilience which would knock the socks off a lesser species. A question for you: Why would anyone water a Rosemary plant? Nuff said… 🙂 Mate, you’re only as good as the weakest link.
Ooo, thanks for the article on the stone field walls, and the photo was lovely. I noted in the image that large stones were sometimes placed on smaller stones and this is one benefit of square edged samples. Granite is weathered here, and shows signs of that effect by rounding. Glacial action has not been present for a long while, but even rainfall combined with weak acids in soils can weather granite over a long enough period of time.
We did some more rock work today on the new spillway for the water tanks. Haven’t shown a photo of this project, but probably should rectify that lack. More soil needs to be relocated to the area.
It’s not just Claire, Margaret was also hit with a massive dust storm: How did one of Chicago’s rarest extreme weather events occur?
Absolutely, alien technology can be the only explanation for the iron pillar! 😉 Very funny. It does make you wonder if steel makers would consider adding in already stretched supplies of phosphates into production?
The maximum temperature was about the same here today, but the morning was much colder! Brr! Hope you and H have survived the cool spring without resorting to the heater – although I can assure you that the wood heater is running right now! Brr.
That’s very naughty of the coders to do that trick. There are times I do wonder if the programs are good enough, and so no further development need take place?
The Roman aquifer was a beautiful construction. Really nice work. I noticed that many of the large rocks still showed the tell tale workers marks where the tools had been run along the face of the granite. And also, many of the large rocks had test holes drilled in them. Lovely work.
Hehe! I also prefer to comprehend the conclusion of a narrative as well, and not be left wondering as to what it all meant. Good to hear that the film had been remastered, VHS was not a kind format in relation to clarity of the displayed image when the tape was paused.
Thanks! 🙂 It would be nice if the brain’s in-box ran faster than it does, but a person must play the hand they are dealt.
Oh yeah, of course. It’s a bit macabre, but I agree with you about the economic outcomes of the Spartacus slave revolt – hadn’t thought of it that way.
Hopefully the nasty egg was the only one of the bunch? It’s an unforgettable stink, yup, but what a score with the rest of the eggs. We’re experimenting with a batch of purchased seconds eggs, and it’s been a bit hit or miss. Long ago we had a chicken which produced eggs with a notably unpleasant aroma, and some of the seconds eggs remind me of that. I never had the time to look into why that occurred.
Grannie was right you know! The author has to head into the arrangement with a sense that there has to be some sort of reciprocal benefit for said grannie – otherwise the lady may tell him to naff off.
What a delightfully appropriate introduction to a book on that subject. I’ve seen those sorts of sacks, although nowadays they’re made from synthetic materials, sorry to say. The core question the book raises is: why waste what you have access too? That’s such a clever response by the sack manufacturers to accommodate the end users of the product.
Man, it was in my lifetime that clothes stopped being produced in the household. I recall those pattern sets we’ve mentioned, and those are what takes the place of churned fast fashion. It’s a real skill to be able to make clothing, but it died out in the 1970’s. A few years ago the Editor dragged me to see a Mary Quant exhibition up in the Bendigo gallery, and I had no idea, but was fascinated to observe the societal changes over time. Back in the day, the designs were sold as patterns.
Maybe a decade or more ago, a very well educated friend (who I haven’t seen since those days) quipped to me about some food item I’d produced (for the record it was awesome): “That’s as good as a bought one.” There are moments when you know civilisation has lost the plot, and that was one of those.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – I saw a new article about a discovery in Pompeii.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/17/science/pompeii-barricaded-house-frescoes
I don’t know where the line is drawn, but the Weather Bureau seems to keep track of some stuff in the sky. When I called in to report the space junk, the officer mentioned that it was The National Weather Service who identified it, as such. I often run across references to “space weather.”
That was an interesting article about the meteor hunters. Of course, it seems like everything is collected by someone 🙂 . Besides the “Ain’t it cool!” factor, meteors can bring a pretty penny, on the open market. So do fossils.
Our high yesterday was 59F (15C). The overnight low was 48F (8.88C). Forecast high for today is 59F. When H and I went out for our walk, this morning, it wasn’t quit rain. But a very heavy mist. Enough to make my coat damp. I’ve only run the heater a time or two, this spring. On the other hand, the A/C has been kicked on, quit a bit. As in, anytime the sun shines. 🙂
I find the pictures of the heavily pruned Italian olive orchards are quit aesthetically pleasing. Almost like very large bonsai. I knew an organic farmer, one time, who had a sideline of creating bonsai, for sale.
After Mt. St. Helens blew, there was millions of board feet of lumber that had been knocked down. And, there were some salvage efforts. But I seem to remember that the volcanic dust quickly dulled saw blades.
The Master Gardeners were here, this morning. I guess the plant sale was a success. All the stuff that was sent from here, sold out. I asked about the Rosemary, and it may have been hacked back by one of Master Gardeners! I also noticed it’s got some kind of lichen, growing on it. They’re going to bring me a solution to spray on, and take care of that. I occasionally give the rosemary soil, a bit of a spritz. But I think some of the Inmates heavily water it. Even though I keep pointing out that it’s a Mediterranean plant, that doesn’t need much water. The poor thing takes a lot of abuse, but seems to just bump along. I bet it’s probably also very flammable.
I hadn’t heard about the dust storm, near Chicago. It reminded me of a story from the Great Depression. A congressman was trying to get a bill passed, for soil retention. He wasn’t having much luck. So he carefully time a committee meeting … Well, here’s the story.
https://boundarystones.weta.org/2012/11/19/hugh-bennett-and-perfect-storm
Last night I watched “Captain America: Brave New World.” Pretty good, but a lot of the Marvel movies now reference events in other movies, that I haven’t seen.
You’d think the Granny Growers would cultivate the “rich” Welshman. 🙂 He does spend money, acquiring his seed. Last night the chapter I read was on broad beans, and Fava beans. Same species, but may look different, as they’ve been landraced into different forms. Probably, originally from Syria, in ancient times.
Oh, I can remember when clothes were still made at home. Not my home, but several relatives still were handy with the sewing machine. Even around 1960, when I was in the 7th and 8th grade, boys took “shop” a couple of afternoons a week. And girls took “home ec,” which included a lot of sewing.
LOL. “As good as store bought.” Ignorant, and sort of a backhand compliment. Lew
Hi, Chris!
I do remember that first chicken house. There were challenges . . . Then you built the current chook palace. There are still challenges. I wonder how you will repair the rusty spots. Since all the girls are friends – ha! ha! – tell them to huddle up together to stay warm.
I have already lost track – when you add the 2 new water tanks, how many will you have?
Dame Plum – still garnering honors wherever she goes. Someday you’ll come into your own, Ruby. I know – it’s the ears that are holding you back.
We have a huge plastic tarp over firewood, too.
What a beautiful moon photo. Full moons definitely affect people. The nurses at the assisted living place where my mother lived told me that at a full moon they have a lot more trouble with people’s behavior.
A video really shows all the mess of those felled, abandoned trees. Do you think that the mess was the main reason that you got the property so cheap? Were there other factors? That Messmate is an incredible type of wood. I understand that scorching preserves wood as once my husband took a blowtorch to a bunch of boards and scorched them carefully all over and then we made raised garden beds from them. They have not rotted yet. How would the timber actually damage your woodstove? It would seem that the fact that it burns so hotly would be good and mean that you need less of it.
What huge (and beautiful) olive trees. What can you do besides top them off? Which shed is that? It is very attractive.
Your beetroot looks great. I have replanted mine 4 times as Somebody keeps eating it. I should have covered it with mosquito netting like the young, peas, beans, corn, turnips, and squashes, but I’M TIRED OF IT!
Banh mi – yum! You know all the best places to eat. What sort of pate is it?
You are giving your sycamores tender care. I have wild ones that are weeds.
Beautiful leaves; I so look forward to fall. Is rosemary a late bloomer? Three-fourths of my one rosemary bush died last winter. I can’t remember when it blooms. Thanks for the leaves and flowers!
From last week: Mr. Baby is one up on Dame Plum in the rabbit department. When he lived next to a golf course earlier in his life, there were rabbits on it, and he brought home a fully grown rabbit – and ate it, too.
Elvis the Groundhog it is!
Thanks for Swim Shady’s name explanation. If only I get a chance to show the teller how smart I am now.
Pam
Chris,
Yay for rain! Glad it is arriving there. We’ve had a drippy several days with cooler temperatures. This is supposed to slowly change. Good for the vegetable garden here, as the carrots have sprouted. Still waiting on the new grass seed to sprout, but it’s early yet.
Oh, that’s a lot of work on cleaning up the forest floor. Because we spent a lot of time in the forests and mountains, I learned at an early age what you mentioned. The fallen trees that are not touching the ground can remain in good condition indefinitely. Sitting on the wet ground enhances the rotting process in the trees or something. Good to see that you’re able to salvage a goodly amount of that for future winters.
I enjoyed noticing the dark fallen trees with moss growing on them.
Yes, the aluminum oxide is a very, very fine abrasive and acts similarly to a stone. It’s funny how many different ways there are to sharpen a knife. Some work for some people, but not for others.
And what’s this shaving thing you mentioned last week? Like in removing the hair from one’s face? Egads! If I didn’t have a thick beard in the colder seasons, I’d catch cold in the face! That would be unpleasant. Also, I’ve had a beard since August of 1992. If I shaved it off, I might find nothing underneath it. After several decades, the beard might have eaten away my chin.
Good news! My creative juices had a mild appearance over the weekend. I rewrote some lyrics to that musical Wizard of Oz. Bad news. None of the lyrics can be repeated in a family friendly atmosphere.
Ooof! Thanks for that story about the CFA and the new tax load. That’s one horrendous increase. I noted that the increase was “reduced” in the final legislation. “The government has also slightly eased the increase to the levy farmers pay, from a planned 189 per cent increase, to 150 per cent.” Which to those of us that have to foot that bill is not really much relief, is it? I also noted that the bill was voted on late at night. We’ve been getting a lot of legislation passed that way recently, from the local to the federal level. It seems shady.
Appreciated the Conan quote about civilized men being rude jerks, whereas “savages” know they have to be diplomatic. Great quote that I’ll learn and add to my repertoire to pull out at an opportune moment.
Hard to believe you’ve had the Kelpies for 5 years. Good to hear that obedience classes are making a positive difference. It seems that the Editor is learning too. I always found that dog obedience school changed me more than it did the dog. The dog’s changes came as a result of my changing.
I had to get some cash out of the bank today. They have a machine that counts out the money, although the human always offers to count it also. I declined the human count today, with the immediate reply from the teller, “So, if you get home and count it and it’s wrong, you can always come back and yell at me.” Said with a big grin. My reply was that “Yelling does no good, but maybe a polite conversation?” That got a nice laugh and an appreciative look. Yelling takes too much energy.
That banh mi sandwich looks good. I’ve had a few of those and always enjoyed them.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Oh yeah, talk about challenges with that original chicken enclosure, like constructing it with the run on the up hill side – every time it rained heavily, water would run into the hen house. Oops. Actually, I’m not sure how to fix the rusty sections, but was considering attacking the rust with a wire brush, then spray painting the surface with metal primer. Might work, for a few years.
You sure know your chickens there. And you called that correctly. I feel a bit sorry for the little lone bantam chook. Hmm.
Err, lots of tanks in 5 different systems with a total storage capacity with the two new tanks of around 140kL / 36,850 gallons. Sounds like a lot, until you face a dry summer.
Spare a moments thoughts for the floppy eared Ruby. Then consider that it’s not the downward facing ears, but the personality which is holding her back from a title. Pam, truly, her responses were hard wired in at 12 weeks of age, like how does that even happen? We’ve always assumed that the previous older dogs we’d known had endured some sort of trauma, but Ruby is simply mischievous by her very nature. Don’t get me wrong, the dog is a lovely and fun character, but obedient? I don’t think so. At best she could be described as ‘mostly obedient’.
Very cool to hear. Out of curiosity, does your large tarp over the firewood last for longer than a year? Strong winds are challenging for the plastic. 🙂
You’ll get total agreement from me, the full moon produced some strange behaviours last week. And an assisted living place would produce some strange full moon reactions from some older folks who for various reasons, may have porous social filters.
Hmm, you know, that’s a good question because the land was on the market for several years with zero interest before us. There’s an old timer saying which suggests that opportunity sometimes arrives wearing overalls and looking like hard work. Amusing quips aside, the former owner had no idea how to, or failed to do so, navigate the Byzantine process which is applying for a permit to construct a house on your own land. It was a very unnecessarily complicated process, but I have to wrap my head around such processes on a day to day basis. A person has to let go and say to themselves – this makes no sense, but what are the hoops which need jumping. Most people approach the task from a justice perspective, but if I may, the system owes you nothing.
Oh my! Well, you’ll see next week. Actually the video was quite funny, for the topic. The olive trees will be fine, and that heavily insulated shed is where the preserves are kept.
Sometimes the critters take things a step too far. That happens here as well. The kiwi fruit is down to about a tenth of the original crop. Hmm.
Banh mi, three types of chilli and in a paper bag, but sadly no ceramic. There are tissues provided…
Sycamores are a bit weedy in the more fashionable end of the mountain range as well, but not here where they tend to produce large and healthy looking trees. They’re an understory tree elsewhere in the range.
Rosemary keeps it’s flowers for most of the winter here from memory. Your winters are a bit more extreme, just.
Go Mr Baby! I’m in awe, and it’s a respectable catch.
Hope your groundhog enjoys the notable name! 🙂
Hehe! Always happy to assist with a pop culture moment, if I know anything about it.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
The conditions you’re enjoying sound quite ideal to me, and the plants will be jumping skywards before you know it. Just keep an eye on the bean stalks in particular – they can get a bit funny as to how fast they grow. 😉
Dunno about your area, but here, grass needs both warmth and moisture to germinate and grow fast. Dry seasons are a problem for grasses because they don’t grow at all. Sometimes it’s hard for me to comprehend that those species needs fertile soils as well. There’s a lot of ifs in those various requirements. People treat them like weeds, but I don’t think so.
Exactly, logs resting on the ground experience the capillary action of the soil, so they convert into finer organic matter particles faster. Also the various forest critters such as ants and wood borers do not inhabit dry timber. They need the moisture to convert the cellulose into something edible, although I don’t know the details of the process. You of course knew which firewood was the best to harvest when out bush. 🙂
The moss is pretty here, a really nice rich green – and the longer the rock walls stay in place, the more that moss and lichens take up residence, even in dry years like this one. Those plants anchor onto the solar panels too. Probably something to do with bird poop.
Yeah, I’ve noticed that too with knife sharpening. Interestingly, Sandra refuses to do that activity, so it’s left entirely to me. I’d only seen a strop used dry with a pocket knife, which was razor sharp. The old bloke was only too happy to display his prowess, and it was good.
DJ, what could be under all that facial hair? 🙂 It is possible what you say, but then, there are some mysteries that the people in our lives have to deal with. This is the package, and that’s how it looks. I’ve had facial hair from about that year as well, maybe two years later. I found myself having to manage staff, and I was so young – and looked it. The goatee lent me a certain gravitas, but I went full trimmed beard when the tech bros began sporting goatees. It happens, sometimes us mere mortals have to set the pace for others to follow, although it’s equally possible that the style was stolen. Hey, you forgot to mention the sun protection benefits as well!
Yes, I see, well that might compromise the blog code of conduct sorry to say. And would any of us really understand what you meant when the lines read something like this:
We’re off to see the (censored), the wonderful (censored) of (censored)
For here he is the little (censored), the (censored) of a (censored), never a (censored) (censored) (censored) of (censored due to legal advice)
If ever, oh (censored) it, a was a (censored), The (censored) of (censored)
See the problem? 🙂
If one takes but a moment of their time to comprehend the election results, well, you can see that the rural areas aren’t great fans of the newly returned goobermint, but does it actually matter? It might not.
An insightful quote which reveals an underlying truth.
It is hard to believe that time has slipped by so quickly, but then Ollie has been with us for seven years now. You’d have had Dame Avalanche with you for a few years as well. How long has it been? And hmm. The Editor is saying very much the same thing with the Kelpies as what you wrote. Almost identical. Dog obedience training teaches us humans about ourselves. Plus it’s a remarkably social activity.
Youch. My view on that interaction is that other people have yelled at the teller. Tensions are indeed high, and hey, even I got yelled at the other week – for no real reason that was immediately obvious. Annoyed me deeply, it did. But why get mad, when you can get even? I try not to hang around people who are emotionally volatile.
Whoa! Do they have Banh Mi’s in your part of the world?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
The excavations at Pompeii shine a light on the victims final moments. The fresco’s are amazing though, although as the article pointed out, one was ironic give the fate of the inhabitants. You know, when big bushfires sweep through areas, bodies often get discovered in bathrooms where there is only one exit in and out, or cellars where the house falls in on them. It would have been a terrible ending for those folks, although the gases probably did them in, maybe.
Yeah, you see reports now on mass particle ejections from the sun, so maybe they’re monitoring such space weather activity? I know the recent auroras which have been seen much further north than normal due to the suns cycle, were predicted a day or so beforehand. Unfortunately the view here looks to the south west, and not the south, so we miss auroras. Do you ever get any in your neck of the woods? I’ve never seen one, but I do wonder if long camera exposures make the eerie lights easier to see. Dunno.
Hehe! Collectors walk among us. 🙂 It just never occurred to me that people would hunt the meteors out. I wonder if a person needs a mineral license for such activities? Do they really have an economic value as a saleable item?
About the same here, except the overnight temperature was colder at 2’C / 36’F. Looking down into the valley, kind of leaves you with the impression that the promised -1’C / 30’F was to be found there. Looked quite frosty, and there was a thin layer of ice everywhere here this morning. Some mists are like that where the moisture just sticks to you, and H (of course). You know, I used to feel a bit thingee about those air-conditioning machines, but now with the over supply of solar on the mains grid, use the electricity is my thinking. Bizarrely, the likelihood of the grid thing popping becomes greater when we as a population don’t use enough electricity. Never thought I’d say that, but this outcome is a result of the choices for the renewable energy devices people are installing.
Hope you like the pruning job I did on those two olive trees, and it’ll feature in the next video. Actually, I thought the video was my first naturally relaxed irreverent sense of humour. Many things I’m serious about, but not all. Properly pruned trees have a lovely shape to them. But those olive leaves were so flammable, it was a bit of a worry really.
It’s not a bad idea spending time growing some bonsai for the market. Japanese maples would look really cool in that form. There is a bonsai nursery over in the more fashionable end of the mountain range. Never been there, but it’s been producing the plants for as long as I can recall.
Exactly! You hit the nail right on the head there. I spend half the time sharpening cutting blades when cleaning up. Hmm. And they blunt so quickly. Nowadays I get stuck into that work with and take along three or four chains. One blunts, swap it out for the next one, and so on. Hard work is probably what the loggers found. It’s an option to let the timber feed the soil too, and the trees growing around Mt Saint Helens were softwoods, which would speed up that process. One trick they do is pressure washing the logs, but even that is a lot of work, and water is not always readily available. The loggers weren’t lying.
Go the plant sale! And that’s a great result. My money is on the rosemary being over watered too – I never water that plant, ever. But yes, lots of volatile oils, and tasty too.
Timing is everything, and what a canny operator to have pulled that off. Yes, people in distant locations often hold vast sway over outcomes, yet no real world experience. The dust storm would have made them quail in fright, and provided permanent funding. Nice work.
Such stories perhaps might do better as stand alone tales? I saw the advertising for that film, but wasn’t inspired by the super hero films.
Ha! Maybe the welshman’s canny approach needs to find the balance between over paying for heritage seeds, and driving home a hard bargain, and maybe the back and forth the grannies provide is a glimpse into old school forms of negotiations?
That arrangement was how things were when I went to the hippy dippy high school, but after that experience, things were suddenly different with the grammar school. They didn’t do ‘shop’, or ‘home economics’ from what I recall. The focus was more aligned to the academic and sport side of things.
Yes, I thought it was a ‘neg’ too. Thanks for the confirmation.
Worked in the big smoke today and got home late. It was a pleasant day, although I worked hard. No rest for the competent! 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis cont…
Which I almost forgot to mention, was probably how you likewise got all that library work.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – I’m sure we’ve seen pictures before, but probably not identified as such. The pantry shed. Some pics would be nice, but maybe even a little tour, in one of your videos?
Odd you should mention solar storms. Just saw an article that they’ve managed to figure out how to date the big ones, in history, and even pre-history.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/14000-years-ago-the-most-powerful-solar-storm-ever-recorded-hit-earth-this-event-establishes-a-new-worst-case-scenario/ar-AA1F4vkA
Just for poops and giggles, I took a look down the rabbit hole. E Buy has a section of “Meteorites for sale.” Smaller one’s go pretty cheap, but some of the larger ones run $2,000 to $7,000 dollars.
Was that your first frost? Our high yesterday was 59F (15C). Our overnight low was 43F (6.11C). Forecast high for today is 60F. Our forecast has been changed, a bit. Scattered showers, today, but there’s not much showing on the radar. Then no rain through Sunday. The highest forecast temperature will be around 70F. I saw Prof. Mass’s post on being stuck in neutral. And that it might mean windstorms and flooding, for us.
Looking forward to your “…released sense of humor.” Remember, I’m the guy that doesn’t crack a smile when my mate Scott attempts humor. 🙂
And, in another odd coincidence, I just saw an article, yesterday, on some fabulous bonsai.
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/19/nx-s1-5383306/bonsai-survived-hiroshima-bombing-anniversary
Last nights chapter of “The Seed Detective” was about carrots. The wild ancestors probably came from around Afghanistan. There were two different contenders, in the wild. Of course, you know that carrots come in many colors. Purple, white, yellow. I could get seed mixes to reflect several colors. But, it was the Dutch, about 300 years ago, that kept fiddling yellow carrots, until an orange sport was finally produced. And most orange carrots descend from that. He also mentioned a really nice Australian carrot, called “Red Elephant.” He said it went out of production in 1910 (he didn’t know why), but enough seed is spread around the world that it’s still obtainable. And he spoke highly of it.
Well, the grammar school probably didn’t address shop or home ec classes, because, you have “people” to do those tasks. 🙂
Well, I sort of got lucky, with the library part of my careers. 🙂 Once I had experience, at 14, working for the Portland Public Library (and a summer in their “Books for the Blind” section), one library job was a stepping stone to the next. Before we even moved to Vancouver, when I was 15, I already had nailed down a job offer from the Fort Vancouver Regional Library. And, when I left there to move to Seattle, I’d already arranged for a job at the Seattle Public Library. I didn’t have place to live, but I had a job! 🙂 I occasionally see library jobs posted, that have requirements for this degree or that. Gatekeeping. But often they say, “or experience.”
Omens? Or, not? Every month since she took over, Little Mary Sunshine has sent out a newsletter, at the beginning of the month. In a first, we got none this month. Also, I don’t see a sit down with the tenants (which she calls “Hot Topics,”) this month. What’s up? Anything? Nothing? Next time I see the night manager, I’ll have to put the screw to him. Might involve a bright light and a rubber hose. 🙂 Lew
Chris:
That sounds like an enormous amount of water – until I think of all that you need it for, and the fact that it could run out, though that does not seem likely. Was it a close call this last summer?
Yes, but you are not taking into account Ruby’s early – and continuing – trauma because of her floppy ears. All the other Kelpies, including her sister, the legendary Dame Plum, have looked down on her because her ears do not stand upright. However, do not despair. There was one reindeer named Rudolph who over came his handicap and saved the Day. Sorry, I can’t think of a Kelpie legend. I’ll have to ask my neighbor’s ancient Kelpie, whose name is Holly.
The large tarp over the firewood has been there at least 3 years.
But too many people think the system owes them, not only something, but everything. Visually speaking, since you and I both look down from on high (though not that High) from our properties, do you think that steep land seems to appear bigger, or smaller, than its actual acreage? I mean, I look at a bare, flat 5 acres, then I look at our mountainous (it really is; I almost fell off it the other day), forested 5 acres and ours seems bigger.
Bingo! That’s what I now crave – a shed for preserves. We just don’t have enough room inside. Not that I have preserved so much, though I intend to do a whole lot this year, but we have a lot of longterm supplies of food set aside and my pantry had to go when my son renovated the downstairs for my parents to move in. Of course, there are things in the basement, but it is crowded, especially in the winter when some of the figs and all of the citrus move in for the winter.
Pam
Chris,
Today was still chilly and windy. Should be warmer starting tomorrow. I expect everything to start growing fast after 9 days of dampish weather.
I’ve also known guys whose pocket knives were kept razor sharp. Interestingly, one of them has changed how he sharpens his knives. He always used a stone back in the day. He’s the guy who suggested the strop with aluminum oxide. His knives are even sharper now, if possible.
Yes, sun protection on the face due to a beard. Yet, I’ve found that that pales when compared to cold in the face. I wouldn’t know how to get through a winter without facial hair. 😉
Oh, that little problem is why I didn’t include any examples of my rewriting the lyrics. My rewrite had more to do with the part that goes “If I only had a brain”. When written out, it would have looked similar to your rendition. Alas! That means that we will probably never write and film “The Wizard of Oz: Adult Version”.
Dame Avalanche turns 4 on June 21. We got her when she was about 4 months old. Time goes by so fast.
Yes, there are many places in the area that serve banh mi. I’ve been to a few of them. When I was about 14, a Vietnamese family moved to our neighborhood. I spent a lot of time with some of the boys, who were about my age. The food the family shared with us was unforgettably good.
UGG. Having problems with lights in the main basement room. Three lights have burned out. They won’t come out of the sockets easily. Under a bit of pressure, the light bulbs broke. In two of the three cases, the ceramic part of the light socket also broke. I need new fixtures. For electrical work, this is a little bit beyond my ability. I should find out tomorrow when the electrician can come.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
The stored water has to be everything to everyone here, and if the climate decides not to top up the storages, then things can get bad indeed. That question depends upon whether your brain considers 80% empty, or 20% full as a bad thing or a good thing. Hard to tell really, but we’re still using water and taking our chances with the refilling from the skies.
But of course, and thanks for the correction. Yes, floppy ears explains many unusual behavioural traits in Ruby. Alas, had her ears been more forthright, things would never have gotten to this point. Whoa! Who knew that the humble Kelpie is allegedly not recognised as a breed by the American Kennel Club? The outrage from the local muster dogs contingent could possibly be heard across the Pacific Ocean (if you listen hard enough)! Anyway Holly, your local representative of the Kelpie Union, may have other opinions, and as a side note, Holly is a lovely name for a dog.
Well, there’s the Dog on the Tuckerbox legend? Looks distinctly kelpie like to me.
If I may say so, three years is a respectable number of years for a tarp to be out in all the weather. Pam, I didn’t buy the really heavy duty tarp and instead chose the medium duty one. The reviews of the local heavy duty product were not good, but yours is probably a lot better constructed than the limited choices I was faced with. Truthfully, I’m hoping to get the new firewood shed constructed some time in the next year, maybe. Plans are notoriously difficult to implement.
My brain suggests that the land looks bigger due to the trees obscuring the property boundaries. 🙂 What do you reckon about that theory? Oops, stay safe, and have one hand ready to grab something, anything, in the off chance that you’re navigating a particularly steep section of mountain. Concrete staircases are a wonderful thing. What happened?
The other night a huge wombat was at the bottom of a set of stairs the glowering at us in an effort to make us go away by sheer force of personality. The marsupial had been planning to use the stairs, and possibly also leaving a calling card.
You’ve got more time to do such preserving activities this season, and it’s an enjoyable process in the kitchen. Out of curiosity, does DIL have any specialities with preserving techniques?
Candidly, the cantina shed is good, and over the years my stuff has been evicted from the internals. 🙂 Lots of steel shelving in there. Preserves need no such niceties as a toasty warm basement.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Oh yeah, your place will be a jungle soon if the weather warms up. Anyway, you know where your cold and wet weather has gone? Here, soon. Powerful polar blast roaring towards Australia. Thanks for all the rain, it would be a good thing to top up the water tanks. 🙂
I’d never seen such a sharp knife before either, although the ancient Romans were said to have shaved with their err, professional cutting tools. It was an old timer orchardist, and he whipped the knife out so as to display grafting techniques, but also just to prove how sharp the knife was (razor sharp) by scraping hairs off his forearm.
Yeah, the sharpening stones have never really worked for me, so I’m interested to hear that feedback. Just put a locally made leather strop on order, but the compounds – oh my! There are so many. You prefer aluminium oxide don’t you? Some folks use diamond paste, like what the? How does the aluminium oxide last on the strop?
A proper caveman adorns his face with decent fuzz, and survives the coldest of winter days. This is known. Ugg! And respect. 🙂 Little wonder the Roman Empire fell what with all that shaving going on.
We’ve all been there with that lyrical escapade of yours, brains being occasionally very useful things to employ towards resolving problems – as distinct from getting deeper into such unfathomable ‘why is this happening’ moments. Of course the pathway into such times are when our brains are switched off. Again, such things are known. But yeah, had the same problems with the naughty version lyrics as well.
A truly auspicious day for Dame Avalanche to have been borne into. The very pinnacle of the daylight hours and of course naturally, a super dose of canine excellence.
During and after the war, a lot of what they used to call ‘boat people’ arrived from that country, and at the hippy dippy school I also had a friend with origins in that country. In my reluctant travels overseas, the cuisine was often rated on whether it made me deeply ill. In Laos I had the most appalling stomach bug. Vietnam was similar to Peru in that the food was very good indeed on this basis, but it also tasted great as well. Dudes on bicycles would travel around selling very tasty French baguettes – as you do.
Ook! What was the prognosis with the light sockets? They can corrode and leave bad connections, just as a random out loud thought. Mains wiring can be a pretty dangerous activity.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
I’d not really shown images from the insides of the cantina shed before regularly, because we have to age a lot of the wines / ciders we make, and in the past I’ve had some comments which were a bit, you know, let’s call it by the proper nomenclature: judgemental. Plenty of country wines have to be aged out to maybe eighteen months, and the process for that looks like a lot, but that’s what it takes. If all a person knows of the process is what can be purchased at a liquor store, what can be lost in that story is the monsteriferous biological and industrial processes to merely get to that point. Maybe, I’ll chuck a photo into the comments section where the more open minded readers, such as yourself, venture. 🙂
Oh that solar storm sounds epic, and probably not all that conducive to the continuance of this here information super highway. Probably wouldn’t last, and if I may be so bold as to make a prediction: The regularity of such events suggests an end point which can’t be gotten around.
You always say that there are collectors around in most given fields (and I agree), and the meteorite hunters probably charge what the market can bear. You’d hope that the space rocks weren’t radioactive from having spent all that time outside the Earth’s magnetosphere? Well, that thought bubble sent me on a massive interweb rabbit hole. 🙂 So many things to go wrong, it’s amazing that things have gone as right as they have, for as long.
It was the first frost, or maybe the day before was. It’s been cold the past couple of nights, and tonight is no different. Thought it was cold: Big dry contributes to record cold SA, Vic mornings. That explains a few things. Last night was a four blanket night. Brr! 70’F sounds pretty delightful. The rain is meant to pick up here on Sunday night, or something like that – the forecast is shifting day to day, so it may technically be known as ‘dynamic’.
Ah, I’d not appreciated that when that climate cycle is in the neutral phase, the wind picks up and flooding becomes a possibility. Not ideal, that’s for sure. There’s been heavy flooding further up on the east coast of this continent. Not quite a foot of rain, but I’d say over 10 inches of rain in some places would be challenging.
It is possible that Scott is not particularly amusing? 🙂 Or he sticks to tired old dad jokes? Dunno. Hope Scott is doing OK.
Does that sign in the photo of the bonsai pine declare: “in training since 1625′? It’s an impressive effort. And the Yamaki Pine is a beautiful tree and long connection into the past. Lucky to have survived the bombing as well.
No way? Had a quick look around to see if anyone down under is offering seeds for the carrot. It is big and one use was described as ‘erosion control’. Plant breeding used to be an activity with far more people involved in it than there are today – or at least they were better spread around. It’s be easier if all the neighbours were busy growing edible plants as well. The images of the ‘Red Elephant’ variety of carrot looked quite good to me.
Hehe! Probably true. And not all that long ago I read of a similar statement made by a left leaning inner urban local council conclave. They were busy at the discussion as to removing car parks, when someone made the observation about the need for such public spaces for tradies – as you do.
Good to read that you were a mercenary youngster much like myself, although the hours you worked in the library were the smarter choice during the winter months. Gate keeping is a thing, that’s for sure.
It’s possible that your building manager is ill? What’s the word on the street as to the unusual goings on?
Did mostly paid work today and finished late around 8pm.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – LOL. Well, if an old recovering drunk like me, can appreciate the work and all the pretty colors in the bottles … other people need to get a life. Or toughen up. Or, something. I suppose some are more easily triggered, than others. Or, maybe it’s a case of “I’m so sensitive and special … ”
Yes, a solar storm could wipe out this here net. Maybe they’ll build it better, next time? If there’s anything left to build with. I meant to mention EMPs are a little different, than solar storms. Pretty much the same result. One rather small nuclear device, exploded over the central US, would do the job. Probably wouldn’t even notice it, from the ground.
Our high yesterday was 57F (13.88C). Our overnight low was 43F (6.11C). Forecast high for today is 66F. Those are some pretty low temps, for you folks, this time of the year. I saw a headline about more flooding up in your NE. Those poor folks …
I was looking for a picture of the Red Elephant carrots, and ran across a really good interview with “The Seed Detective.” Yup. That’s the book I’m reading, now.
https://joegardener.com/podcast/seed-detective-preserving-diversity-uncovering-history-adam-alexander/
Saving seed from open pollinated plants, can be problematic, if you have neighbors. Mr. Alexander mentioned, in his book, that he gives seed to his neighbors, so everyone is on the same page. Clever, no?
Speaking of hobbies, I also saw an article on miniatures. Which have always fascinated me. I have a few, kicking around. LOL. I love the picture of the porch rail, with the overflowing ashtray and beer cans. (I hope that doesn’t trigger anyone. Perhaps I should post a warning … 🙂 The hoarders kitchen was also … interesting.
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/19/nx-s1-5389937/miniature-art-tiktok
Well, job wise, it took awhile to get to warm and cozy. 🙂 There was the summer fruit picking, in the hot sun. Then the stint of paperboy in the wee small hours, with all the typical PNW weather. And even when a buddy and I did a weekend swap meet, it was in a race track, that was covered. But other wise open to the elements. Even after all this time, I remember we froze our tushies off. 🙂
Oh, our building manager has been around. Hold up in her office, with the door closed. I haven’t run across the night manager, yet, so no word on the street.
You follow economics, so, you might find this article interesting. Ignore the headline, and go for the economic meat. The US credit rating has been downgraded.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/20/economy/us-debt-crisis
I was looking at the new, on-order non-fiction book list, on the library website, last night. There was a new book on private equity firms, that I put on hold. And, a book “Art of Abandonment: Railroad Abandonments in the Pacific Northwest.” We have a steam train museum, here, and some of the old routes have been revived, as tourist attractions. Well, a couple of weeks ago, someone burned down one of the railroad bridges. It will curtail some of their routes. Until they get it rebuilt. Raising money for that is already well under way. I hope whoever did the deed, is dumb enough to start crowing about it on social media.
I went shopping at the yuppie discount grocery store, last night. I picked up some nice lose Roma tomatoes (as opposed to prepackaged.) These I won’t have to leave to ripen on the counter. I didn’t buy, but saw some watermelon, for .89 a pound. I don’t know where the whole Mexican tariffs are at. They seem to change from day to day. But if I were king of the world, I’d exempt food. I saw a headline where one of our big box hardware stores is not going to increase prices, on tariff items. But said they were not going to carry some items.
Some amateur volunteer archaeologists, up on Hadrian’s Wall have discovered a relief carving of a winged victory. At Vindolanda.
Looks like I’ll be watering the garden, tonight. Still no action from the green beans I planted. After this next warm, sunny spell, I might poke around in the soil, and see what’s going on, with them. Lew
Chris:
I’ll put a bug in Holly’s ear about the standing (or lack thereof) of the Kelpie in America. I doubt if she pays attention to the news much; she’s awfully old. I didn’t know that myself.
Yep, the Tuckerbox Dog has got to be a Kelpie. What a bunch of fun facts; thanks. There was a funny way-up-high statue at first, then this really nice one. And there is a festival. You might like that!
I also think it is the trees that make it look biggerer. Perhaps it is their height, though they cannot match yours, tall though ours are. Well, I was working on laying the black plastic landscaping fabric a few days ago to keep that groundhog out (it has; he seems completely flummoxed so far) and where I was working alongside the garden is one of our steepest parts, and, gee, that stuff can be slippery when on a steep slope and I just about took off into space. I caught myself, but not my bucket of tools, though it didn’t go far. No steps at all here. Anyway, this morning my next door neighbor (about 300 ft (91m away) told me that something had eaten most of her young plants. I had to tell her that it might have been our disgruntled groundhog, though there is at least one more around here.
Yes, my DIL has some pretty good preserving techniques. She helps so much in my son’s business, though, that I don’t know if she’ll have time to do much else. Preserves don’t want a nice toasty basement. Or a below-freezing shed, either. Do you have freezing problem in the shed in winter?
I looked over at my son driving the CAT while I was in the garden and there was all this smoke coming out of it up front. I assumed it was overheating, but he said, no, it was a hose that had burst and caught on fire. Luckily, he had a fire extinguisher handy. He went by a local shop and they said they could put together a hose that would fit – for $300. He decided that was too much and found one for $150 online from a place he had bought from before, so he feels that it will be okay. This old equipment does eat up the dollars, but he could never have even gotten near a new one.
Pam
Hi Pam,
Well, that’s the thing isn’t it? How interesting can the news be when a canine gets to the venerable age when it’s considered polite to enjoy a strip of beef jerky whilst reclining at leisure for many hours daily in front of the heater? Did you know that a Kelpie is also a mythological shape-shifting water spirit of Celtic folklore? I didn’t until just then. And the dogs here are show Kelpies as distinct from working Kelpie’s – as the show dogs have slightly shorter legs for some reason. And show kelpies are meant to be trained for trials competitions, which would be interesting to see. Candidly, these two would not do well.
Dame Plum is harassing me for some of my dinner, which is a tasty egg salad – she wants some egg chunks.
I forget, what species of tall trees grows at your place? Oh no! Hope you were uninjured during the incident? Sometimes things can go wrong quite quickly. The bucket had it’s own ideas as to where it was going to land. Nice to hear that your neighbours are also growing plants, and where there is food, there are forest critters, so it may not necessarily be your disgruntled groundhog. The old timers used to suggest that where there is one critter, there are usually more of the same. Hope the plastic keeps on working well.
Oh well, also nice to have the kitchen for such work all to yourself. Preserving requires a lot of preparation space. No, troubles with freezing that I’m aware of, except for maybe the solar hot water panels – they use hot water from the house system to prevent the pipes from freezing when the temperatures get close to frozen. Winters are cold here, but not as cold as you’d experience in your part of the world. About the coldest temperature I’d expect to see here is 28’F, which is worthy of a Brr! but a whinge? Maybe! 🙂
Oh no! At least your son is able to repair the machine, and hydraulic hoses are not cheap at the best of times. And that’s exactly it, if a person can service and repair an older machine, then the things are cheaper to run. You may wonder why I do all of the repairs on the machines here (excluding the cars)? The last service bill for the big mower (which I’d previously declined to work on) was $500 and realisation dawned that I could have done that work for about $150 in parts and maybe $30 in oil. Hmm.
Pea soup thick fog here tonight. We fixed up the rock wall around one of the two olive trees in the courtyard. Replaced all of the small rocks with biggerer rocks, and have yet again exhausted the supply. Peak Rocks strikes again! But at least the olive tree now has a new rock wall.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Nah, I knew you’d be cool, and thank you for the kind words. Trolls… Pesky critters and best flung off the nearest bridge. All they want to extract is a toll, and nothing more. The whole thing is lost on me, but then the Puritans would have done their level best to burn me at the stake for the most minor of excuses. I’d like to turn trolls into a newt. 😉 I’ll see what I can do about getting a photo. Actually, this morning I finally managed to get a photo of an open Loquat flower, so hopefully we get some tasty loquat fruit in the spring? The tree has been growing for at least 15 years, and these are the first flowers I’ve observed.
Tonight it’s pea soup outside, but that is holding the temperature like a thick blanket over the mountain range. It’s 50’F outside at about 10pm. That’s very warm for this time of year. Earlier today was cloudy, and I had to do some paid work this morning, then hauled all of the large rocks available back up the hill. We replaced the rock wall around one of the two olive trees in the courtyard. It was a big job and took a lot of rocks, but the original rocks used were way too small, and had collapsed (hidden by all the ladies bedstraw herbs). That’s it for the stash of large rocks, and now some more boulders need to be split. Woe is me for Peak Rocks is real.
Hehe! I like your display of optimism (or was that sarcasm! 🙂 ) about the interweb rebuilding after a huge solar electrical storm. My gut feeling suggests that as a civilisation we’d have far bigger problems from such a cataclysmic event. Nuclear has been a risk since I was a small kid, although the subject rarely gets much airtime these days. Hey, remember the whole ‘duck and cover’ shtick? Like hiding under a school desk was going to do anything when finding oneself too close to a mushroom cloud.
It was a little bit warmer here today than where you are, and also again tonight. What’s going on? The flooding up north is pretty bad, and some areas have received just a smidgen under two feet of rain over the week. It’s not good.
The photo of Mr Alexander’s garden in Wales looks amazing, particularly given the damp climate of that part of the world. I’ve downloaded the podcast and will have a listen mid next week. Don’t mind a good podcast. And what a fine approach to handling the issues of variety hybridisation in a local garden. It is clever, yup. Although sometimes a shot of additional genetics can create vigorous vegetables. My goal is to grow varieties which do well here in this climate, and it is a slowly but surely kind of err, landrace! Sorry for the pun, but it does work.
The miniatures are awesome, and serious works of art. Speaking of trigger warnings! The hoarders kitchen left me feeling a bit jittery what with all the mess, but fear not! The mess could potentially be cleaned up. But would the overall composition then look the same after all that cleaning effort? 🙂 Actually, I’ve known people who had kitchens like that one, at an earlier point in their life. Again, former house-mates in my younger years had the whole overflowing ashtray problem, which eventually began pouring smoke from the core of the laden tray. Bizarrely that house did not burn down, the landlord would have had some issues with that outcome for sure.
But of course, there’s a school of thought which suggests that nothing good comes easily, or so I’m told. Still, such ideology may be spouted by folks who don’t have to do an honest days work to earn a living? 😉
The fruit picking would have been a good way for a young bloke to earn some mad cash. It’s hard work that too, especially as you note: in the hot sun. Yes, PNW weather is as remarkably changeable as down here. Four seasons in one day I’ve heard it described. Winters were cold with paper deliveries, but the cash was good. The only part of it which annoyed me was when the newspapers were running late probably due to late-breaking-news. Remember when the news cycle wasn’t 24 hours per day?
The swap meet was a good idea, but then you’ve got inventory costs and supply issues to worry about. Did you encounter any collectors at the swap meets? Yup! Your winters are colder than here by a fair bit, although this year there were only two, or maybe three weeks or so which exceeded the winter experience here.
Yes, I’ve been reading about the downgrade elsewhere, and will studiously ignore the various items of political commentary in the article. The author Michael Lewis, who penned one of my favourite books to read, recounted some rather pointed and fascinating things to say about the folks working in the ratings agencies. There’s a graph which is not too difficult to find that plots out debt and the cost of servicing the debt. An astounding looking chart for sure.
Has the DVD backlog-jam been unblocked? Art of Abandonment is such a nice title which paints a vivid image don’t you reckon? Oh my, that’s so not good about the bridge and if I may say so, we’re only ever as good as the weakest link.
It’s funny you say that, but the usual 10% goods and services tax down here has unprocessed food items as exempt from the tax. Food inflation is a real bummer, which appears to be happening. I suppose demand will drive the down-the-track impacts from the tariffs? Can people afford to pay for this item?, really is the important core question. Hard to know really, but I suspect in many households, some bills are being quietly dropped.
A nice way for the couples to spend their annual leave out in the sunshine doing something both useful and interesting. The carving was good and you can only imagine what the walls of the fort once looked like.
Beans are slower to germinate than peas (which cope better with cooler soil), but it’s hard to know. Poking around in the soil is a good way to find out though.
Cheers
Chris
Chris,
Wow. Two days of mixed sun and clouds with wind brought out the jungle here for sure. Light rain today until early afternoon. The new grass seed is starting to sprout, too. With the big warming this weekend, it should really take off.
My friend used to show off the sharpness of his knives by shaving his arm, too. Yet somehow his knives are even sharper now.
The aluminum oxide lasts about long enough to sharpen one knife. For polishing afterward, I use some green stuff on a strop for after using a stone or the aluminum oxide. It takes surprisingly little aluminum oxide.
Naturally the Roman Empire fell due to no facial hair. Shaving took away all of their desires to properly fight. For conquering and plundering and pillaging, I’ll take a properly bearded barbarian horde every time. 😉
My last two years at university near here, there was a young lady from Malaysia. She baked something from her native cuisine, had meat and vegetables in some type of bread. Sold them for a dollar each. She was smart, coming through the hallway with her basket of these mid-morning, right when many of us would need a snack. Once she realized that I was a regular customer, she always looked for me. Those were really good. I always bought two. Sometimes three.
The Vietnamese family that lived near us were upper class in Vietnam. The father had been a Senator there. They got out early. Then, to earn money, the father worked nights as a janitor in a local retirement facility. The older boys started a house painting business. The youngest boy, my age, eventually attended Texas A&M University in either mechanical or electrical engineering. The older boys moved to I think Louisiana eventually, and the parents soon followed. They didn’t like Spokane winters, although they did live in Spokane for maybe 10 years. Their daughter? I wanted to go out with her, discreetly mentioned it to one of her brothers. Nope, not a chance. Arranged marriage from when she was very young.
The light sockets? Well, there were two fixtures. The electrician said it would be easiest to swap in two new fixtures. Two 1-foot diameter circular thingies went in. LED lights. The room is a bit brighter than it was before. The Princess will be ecstatic when she gets home from her visit with her brother.
It’s nearly lunch time. Killian the Red’s owner will be here shortly, and we’ll go pillage, er, find someplace to have a tasty meal.
DJSpo
Yo, Chris – It will be interesting to see the Loquat flowers. You might even get some if Evil Possum or the parrots don’t take a shine to them. Those bright clusters of fruit would be attractive.
Our high yesterday was 64F (17.77C). Our overnight low was 48F (8.88C). Forecast high for today is 65F. Scattered big fluffy white clouds and a nice onshore flow of cool air. Prof. Mass has an interesting post. We hear all about human caused warming. But what about cooling?
So, what are you going to do with the smaller rocks, you salvaged from the olive trees? Inquiring Minds Want to Know! 🙂
Optimism? Sarcasm? How about … cynicism?
Oh, I remember the old duck and cover drills. Usually, we’d remove to an inner hallway. Actually, in the event of a tornado, that might of been of some use. Nuclear bomb? Not so much. Head down, tush up, cover head and back of neck with hands.
I read some more of the “Seed Detective,” last night. All about leeks! Early in the book, he mentioned Prof. Mary Beard. One of my favorite authors and TV presenters. She’s an eccentric, in that fine old traditionally British way. Her specialty is the Romans. She’s done some really nice videos about Pompeii. Those are available in the usual place. But I digress … Prof. Beard feels that the Romans were the first to globalize food, 2,500 years ago. “…they were the first society to export their food culture as part of their imperial “brand.””
cabbages and kale, cauliflower and broccoli, asparagus, lettuce and even leeks. Mr. Alexander mentioned that the leek is a favorite, at garden shows. Who can grow the biggest, longest, etc.. He asks the hard question. But how do they taste?
I cut down some fennel, last night, that was shading the grapes. No worries. There’s still plenty kicking around. Now our dumpster smells like licorice. I replanted some Scarlet Runner beans, as, I’ve seen none appearing, yet. Just hedging my bets. I watered and scattered some more blood meal. Last night when I took H out for her midnight ramble, I was sitting on the garden wall and noticed an almost ripe strawberry looked odd. So, I deployed my torch and found … a big ol’ slug wrapped around the berry. Luckily, I had my bottle of spray ammonia, with me. The strawberry is a goner … but so is the slug. I’ll have to remember to scatter a bit of slug bait, in that area.
It’s been a long time, and I really don’t remember much about how I scrounged about for inventory and supply, for the swap meet. Probably, the usual. Garage and estate sales. There were always collectors wandering around those events. None particularly come to mind.
My DVD pile is getting a little lite, and nothing is in transit. I discovered that if I search the library catalog for “Criterion Collection,” the entire library holding comes up. There are a couple hundred titles. And, I can further sort for items on the shelf in Chehalis. So, I made a list of what looked interesting. I stopped by the library, this morning, and picked up “Time Bandits,” “Brazil” and … “Great Expectations.” An old British version from the 1940s.
One must face one’s fears, right? If it doesn’t give me seizures, I may even reread the book. I was going to throw down a challenge, but discovered your nemesis was never made into a movie. You know the one. The book with the carousel on the front. But I discovered something really interesting. Someone made a trailer, as if the movie did exist. OK, we’re all agreed Holden was a real s–t. Petulant. Which comes through clearly in the trailer. But here’s the interesting part, and why you maybe should give it a look. It’s entirely done in AI. And, it’s visually beautiful. 4 minutes.
https://youtu.be/Q3sfvEZaSdg?si=TOjW9-jygVbNkeGs
I don’t know if I mentioned that I was looking in the library catalog for a copy of Twain’s “Gilded Age.” All they have is the electronic version 🙁 . A real book, please. But I noticed that there was a documentary, “The Gilded Age,” as part of The American Experience series. It was pretty interesting. A cultural, economic and political history of the 1880s to, say, 1910. The rise of the robber Barrons. labor unrest. Unbelievable wealth and abject poverty. There’s a rather long trailer (10 minutes), to what was a rather long documentary (2 hours.) Both available, for free, on U Tub.
https://youtu.be/AeWE_FaIP6k?si=-9-EftUmCBPqCQWy
After the library, H and I ran down to the Club for a cuppa. And then we went to get yoghurt. We were stoped by a freight train. Flat bed cars with one or two shipping containers, on top. Several had already gone by, when I started to count cars. Nothing better to do. Half way through, there was another two engines, to keep things moving along. Number of cars I counted? 206. I wonder what was inside those containers? Lew
Chris:
My gosh – I forgot about those Celtic Kelpies (that’s a mouthful).
I remembered something Holly did when she was just a young thing of two. Her owners used to let her run around loose then, though it was eventually put a stop to. One evening I was cooking steaks on the barbecue on the back porch. I had no thought of dogs coming up those back stairs . . . Holly came up when I wasn’t looking and stole a steak off of a plate. Luckily, she did not try to get one off of the hot grill. I also remember that our own dog, Bob the Tailess, a very, very smart canine, taught Holly to talk. He was very old by then and had been able to talk for years. He literally had an extensive vocabulary and made it as close to human as he could. When Holly would come over to visit, first she would steal his spot on the porch “couch”. He would complain like heck. Then the two of them would hold a conversation, with words, and they really loved it if a human would come along and join in.
I’m fine; no injuries. But I am no longer calling this place “on a hill”. It is actually a foothill, with a real mountain right behind us, but so much of our property is so steep, that I am saying “mountain” now.
Let’s see: We have all kinds of oaks, and tulip poplars, beech, walnut, hickory, sycamore, and pines that actually get quite tall. The ones in that list often reach 100 ft (30m), some occasionally up to 140 ft (43m).
One wonders at the combined weight of all those rocks the two of you have moved.
Pam
@Lew:
I read the “Seed Detective” article. That was very interesting.
Pam
Good to see you’re keeping up the blogging Chris, it’s been ages since I checked in…
I dare say you’re now getting way more rain than you really wanted, as the weather radar suggest the system that has been torturing us for the last week has now descended upon you.
Hopefully you don’t cop it as bad as we have.
https://glass.photo/les/4X7x6RYVNrYzcoDvSB3ZAr
Cheers,
Les
Hi Chris,
I’m happy to report that Mike and I, and our house, are all fine. The reason I didn’t report in before this was that Mike and I left town on the morning of 12 May, we didn’t get back till this afternoon, and I didn’t have any internet access from late morning on the 15th till late yesterday evening, when all I had was a small tablet that makes it inconvenient to respond to blog posts. The tornado was several miles away from our house at its closest, and even the electricity didn’t so much as flicker.
I’ll write more sometime in the next few days, after I catch up a little on outside and inside work.
Claire
Hi Les,
Always a pleasure to hear from you, and our thoughts go out to you at this time. Thanks for the photo, and I’d not venture into a creek which is 1m above the usual flow levels. Yes, you are definitely cut off and are more or less at the epicentre of this weeks heavy rains. Hope you and the farm and animals are doing OK?
Nah, nothing to worry about here, and I’ve been at weekly blogging for the past 11 years and hope to continue to do so far into the future! 🙂
We’re enjoying the moderate tail end of that epic storm and barely received more than 1mm today – but it was strangely warm here. The sting may arrive Monday night looking at the forecast, but the water will be very appreciated – at whatever amount the skies can deliver. The thick clouds over the region today look ominous and epic.
The weather is delightful until a super cell storm or minor tornado hits here. Yup. One year 250mm fell in five days, and I’d never seen so much water falling from the sky before, and you may have experienced double that amount.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Claire,
Lovely to hear from you as the news from your area was not good. It’s pleasing to hear that your place, and both you and Mike were unaffected by the err, tornado. Has it even been called as a tornado yet? The damage in the photos from your part of the world looked horrendous to me. Buildings were smashed.
Look forward to hearing from you, and may your growing season be both bountiful and productive.
Up in the mid north east of this continent, some areas have received over 600mm of rain (that’s roughly two feet in imperial measurements) over the past week. Down here in the south east, it’s dry, now humid and cool, but we’re getting by.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Pam,
Ooo, those words are hard to say fast, and I admit defeat. However, I’m not really a fast talking kind of guy. I prefer a more measured verbal pace. When people talk to me at too fast a pace of spewed forth words, my brain instead begins wondering at what meaning was lost or missed, and then, the thread of the whole conversation disappears entirely. People have become annoyed when I ask them to repeat their ideas more clearly. At such moments the alert mind wonders whether the ideas were even comprehensible, or worse – not to my advantage. 🙂 I’m sure you’ve met a few fast talkers over your life?
Oh no! Naughty Holly to have pulled that steak trick, but there’s a part of me which applauds such skills. The breed of dogs can jump onto the backs of a herd of sheep, then bounce from one to the other – like canine crowd surfing. An unguarded steak for them is no problem at all. Had a cat which once did that same trick, but from a hot fry pan, except she lost the meat to the dogs waiting on the kitchen floor below. Turns out the meat was too hot to handle.
Go Bob the tailless and it’s a fine thing to teach reciprocal communication to our fellow species. Cats and dogs know spoken English words from my observation, and some canny researchers have even used those button and light boards used by non-verbal children to teach dogs to communicate their thoughts. You can see the results on utoob, although I wonder about whether the dogs are happy.
Anywhoo, such technical devices are not needed here, and looking at Ollie he is definitely asking to go outside at check to see what Kuato is up to at this time.
That’s good news about the lack of injury, and also an excellent outcome. Nice to be agile in an emergency. 🙂
The whole mountain thing is an issue here as well. Like, is a mountain saddle (or foothill) the same thing as a mountain? We could get lost in definitions for sure and still end up with minimal flat land. 😉
Thanks so much for the list of plants as that gives my brain a better understanding as to the nature of your forest. Something I’ve never quite understood is why the forests on your west coast produce much taller trees? A mystery.
Oooo! Pam! My brain may explode thinking about such weighty rock thoughts. 🙂 Spare a moments thought for the stupendous quantity of coffee grounds brought back here over the past 18 years. You’d think that the soil would smell of coffee, but no.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Go the Jungle! Which by way of sheer digression, is also the name of an English funk band who are very, very talented. Good to hear that the grass seed has finally germinated – that stuff is super hardy, but needs some warm moist soil. What’s the big warming forecast look like?
It’s cool-ish sort of today, and 1mm of rain fell. The clouds were epic looking though. At one point I spotted a thick dark grey cloud which looked like it was reaching down from the skies and almost touching the ground. All part of the storm mentioned by the commenter Les, who’s area has received around 600mm of rain over the past week.
Your friend has a serious talent there, and sharp tools make for easier carving I’d imagine? I’m in the apprentice stage with that sharpening skill, but over the past few years I’ve been realising that sharp and well maintained tools, makes them work better. Your comment did however inspire me to put in an order for a locally made leather strop. It’s the sort that has a timber backing, and they used a really lovely local tree which produced fine furniture timber by the name of: Australian Red Cedar. It’d grow here, just. I used to grow a similar variety known as the Australian White Cedar, and those are super hardy plants. Unfortunately it got knocked over in a serious storm and was never replaced. Might have to do something about that.
Thanks for the positive real world review of the Aluminium oxide paste. Yes, I spotted the green waxy stuff as well. My mind is baulking at the possibility that diamond abrasive paste could be so cheap! Makes little to no sense to me. I’ll wait to see how the strop looks – I’ll chuck in a photo of it when it turns up, as I’d be curious to hear of your opinion.
Exactly, the Roman Empire failed because of dodgy shaving standards and so as you correctly noted, they lost their mojo. Barbarians and beards go hand in hand – they didn’t lose their mojo and so won the day.
Dude, I would have purchased those yummy treats as well, and it’s a very clever strategy on the part of the young lady. The mad cash earned probably went a long way towards reducing the pain of the tuition fees.
Ah, a lost opportunity, which never was to be in the first place. Funnily enough, and scratching at my memory, I can’t say that I’ve ever known anyone who was in an arranged marriage, although you do hear stories. It’s not lost on me that the arrangement has a lower probability of ending prematurely, which is interesting in itself.
I’d not consider moving countries for those reasons you mentioned in the story of your friend. A person has to start all over again, whilst doing what needs doing economically. Truth to tell though, during the recent health you-know-what, the experience in this state was worse than anywhere else on the planet (lucky us). The Editor and I seriously considered leaving the state. From this position of hindsight, the state here is in more debt than anywhere else in the country. The word ‘default’ is at the back of my mind with that lot. Things could get strange here again…
A friend of mine who is an immigrant once told me seriously that people aren’t going somewhere, but leaving somewhere else.
Cool sounding lights! LED lights are really good, although I prefer the warmer yellow-ish colours as distinct from the bluer sort. Something to do with a Kelvin scale or something like. Kelvin as everyone knows would have been the naughty kid in class, or is that Kevin? I forget…
Enjoy your tasty meal, and we had a French baguette with a chicken filling today. Quite nice. Intense. After an hours bushwalk, we headed home for a food coma nap.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
For a few days now, I’ve only seen Kuato’s nervous looking girlfriend, and there was a small pile of grey looking fur discovered early today on the forest edge. Powerful owls have been around of late. He’s probably fine, maybe… But I hear you about that with the loquat fruit. It’s a problem.
The weather here was almost the same today, but with thick and low clouds. At one point there was a huge thick dark grey cloud which was almost touching the ground. I’d never seen such a thing before, but sadly because of an impending food coma, the brain wasn’t active enough to recall that a photo would recount the story better. I’ll check out Professor Mass’s essay later tonight. If I knew what a ‘normal’ season was here, well I don’t really know.
Ah, all of the smaller rocks are being used in a very long line of steel rock gabion cages. No rock goes to waste here, oh, except for maybe the Moby rocks, those things are huge and may require explosives.
Thanks for the correction! Cynicism it is then. 🙂 And it fits the context too if I may say so. As I age, my cynicism is increasing, although at the core I’m a very upbeat kind of guy and can comprehend a certain sort of wry humour and irony in the many activities our species seem to be up to. I’m not entirely convinced that our species is very good at handling a ‘steady as she goes’ historical pace.
Agreed, in a tornado, sheltering in a strongly constructed part of a house is not a bad idea. But yeah, nuclear blasts, you can kiss that tush goodbye! All things will be suddenly different in the fallout. Ruin your whole day – as they used to say. Remember that one liner?
The British do tend to churn out eccentric personalities, it’s something of a national past time for them. Usually they can be quite charming too, but quirky AF. What’s not to like about that? That’s a really interesting point too that the Professor opined. Probably right especially at the scale the Roman’s undertook, although plant trading has a long history with our species, especially useful edible and medicinal plants. Look at the spread of the humble coffee plant, or tea camellia’s for that matter. Speaking of which, the tea camellia here is not looking all that healthy, and I’m inclined to remove it. The variety is most likely not suitable for here, and I’d be better starting some seeds instead to ascertain which were viable for this climate. If they can grow the plant in Scotland…
It’s a good question to ask about the leeks: Sure they’re huge, but do they taste any good? I’m liking what I’m hearing about the seed detective bloke, Mr Alexander. Ordered a copy of the book. 🙂
I like the smell of fennel, and find myself munching upon the fronds / leaves / whatever during the summer months. Strawberries are a rapidly vanishing tasty morsel which critters consume with abandon. Slugs, yup and others. Some things are not to be. Although the Alpine strawberries do very well here.
That’s thinking outside the box with the DVD’s. I’ll be interested to hear what you have to say about the film ‘Brazil’ as I’ve never seen it. It’s a bit of a cult classic. Time Bandits was OK. And yes, I almost fell off my chair when I read that. Oh my, you’re facing your worst literary moments. I dunno man. Must we really revisit such nightmares, and will the experience be any good? 🙂 Good luck and may the ability to put down the book again be with you Brother Lewis! Still, you raise the awful possibility – could we indeed be err, wrong in our earlier assessments? I’m starting to feel an attack of the vapours coming…
Yeah, nah, real paper – agreed. Hope H enjoyed the visit to the Club and that you had many a good chin wag. That’s a lot of rail cars, and good to see that rail freight is being used. When the wind blows up from the south, I can hear the rumble of the diesel freight trains heading either to the big smoke, or up to the border town of Swan Hill. The paddle steamers used to send passengers and freight on the Murray River and connect up with the train there. I believe that bulk grains are still moved by train.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – RIP Kuato. I hope he didn’t get his girlfriend in a family way, before shuffling off his mortal coil. All you need is a tribe of little Kuatos, eating you out of house and home. 🙂
Our high yesterday was 66F (18.88C). The overnight low was 41F (5C). The forecast high for today is for 68F. We might be bumping up against 80F, tomorrow. There was probably an alien mother ship, hiding in that strange cloud. Didn’t get a picture? Then it didn’t happen. 🙂
It crossed my mind that the smaller rocks might be headed for a gabion cage. But I didn’t mention it, so, the thought didn’t happen. 🙂
“Ruin your whole day.” I haven’t heard that one, in awhile. I someone asks me how my day is going, I usually say, “Too early to tell.”
I think you’ll enjoy “The Seed Detective.” I just wonder how many of the varieties he mentions are available, here. I bet Nichols Garden Nursery carries some of them. But I’ve already given my catalog, away. I was reading about the brassicaceae family, last night. Some wild kale, cabbage and broccoli grow wild, along the English coast, around Devon. For a long time, it was thought that they were native varieties. Nope. A little DNA investigation found that they were escapees from Roman gardens, that reverted to their undomesticated forms.
That’s sad about your tea Camilla. You might try doing a search, “What’s wrong with my tea Camilia.” I see some of the Quinault strawberries are beginning to turn red. Time to deploy the bird netting! I replanted some of the Scarlett Runnder beans, last night, and tossed around some snail bait.
I saw “Brazil” decades ago, and as I remember, found it confusing, but entertaining. But, this will be the director’s cut, and there will probably be all kinds of DVD extras … given it’s a Criterion Collection edition.
I should have known better. I watched a new-ish movie, last night, titled “The End.” Mother, father and Son have been in their lavish underground bunker for 25 years. Along with three family retainers. Due to ecological melt down, most of the world’s population is gone. Then, the girl shows up. Almost sounds like “Blast from the Past,” but not near so entertaining. Not by a mile. I should have known better, because Tilda Swinton plays Mother. She makes weird, off-beat movies, and I can’t say there’s a one that I’ve enjoyed. And, this will make you twitch, it’s a musical. 🙂
We got a food box, this morning. Pretty good. A dozen eggs! A pound of ground turkey meat, a pack of cheddar hot dogs, A box of Marie Callendar meat loaf. A pound of butter “product.” An individual piece of cheesecake and an individual chocolate croissant. There was some produce. a bag of small red potatoes, a small head of iceburg lettuuce, one orange, 3 Roma tomatoes. Two individual plastic containers of peaches. Hot dog buns. As far as the dry stuff goes, there was a pound each of pinto beans, rice and spaghetti pasta. A box of Rice a Roni cheddar broccoli. A box of Cream of Wheat and a quart of shelf stable milk. A box of Mac n Cheese. A jar each of peanut butter and strawberry preserves.
As far as the tinned stuff goes, one each of corn, green beans, carrots, chicken, chicken noodle soup, Two each of tuna, pineapple chunks and chile. Here’s one of life’s mysteries. Why do packs of hot dogs and hot dog buns, always come in unequal amounts? And why do banana bunches mostly have six bananas, when the week has seven days? Mysteries that are enough to keep a person up at night! 🙂
I meant to mention, years ago, I knew a fellow in Seattle. Years later, ran into him and a mate, in Olympia. Turns out, they were going to Britain, every summer, to volunteer on archaeological sites. Mostly, Roman Villas.
I’m glad we heard from Claire. And that all’s well. Lew
@ Pam – It is interesting. Do you do any seed saving? The book is divided into “Seeds from the East” and “Seeds from the West.” That last is the good ol’ trans Columbian exchange. We gave, as good as we got. :-). Lew
@Claire:
I am so glad that you and Mike and your house are okay; I had worried about you. Thanks for letting us hear.
Pam
Chris:
No need to read all this, but look at the photos of these biggest Virginia trees. There are many others. I’m not so sure that our West Coast has taller trees, except for the Redwoods of California and that is genetic; they were made to be giants.
https://virginiamercury.com/2024/05/20/documenting-and-preserving-virginias-largest-most-revered-trees/
How interesting if your place always smelled of coffee. Might put you off of your morning cuppa.
I saw a Bald Eagle flying round and round in a circle over my neighbor’s house today. The odd thing was that there were a bunch of vultures circling with him. We don’t often see a Bald Eagle, though there are always vultures around. I wonder if they were watching to see if he killed something that they might steal. hopefully there was a groundhog taking a stroll. I also wondered if I should mention this odd sight to my neighbor in case it was a bad omen . . .
Pam
Chris,
Earlier this week, we had 72 hours that didn’t get above 15C. Today (Friday) was a pleasant 22C. Sunday should hit about 30C. The longer term forecast is for highs to fluctuate between 24C and 30C. I’d say moving from 15C to even today’s 23C is a significant warming trend. Late spring/early summer temperatures are what is forecast for several weeks. Following the wet we’ve had for 10 days, things should start to grow rapidly.
I noticed today that the squashes are now starting to sprout. That means that all the seeds I planted are beginning to do their thing. I’m happy. Dame Avalanche is happy. The birds are happy. The squirrels are extra wary.
Wary squirrels not only because of Dame Avalanche. There are several small hawk families nesting throughout the neighborhood. These are fairly aggressive, too. When I was weeding this afternoon, I heard a loud and rather angry cry from a crow and looked up to see a crow chasing one of the smaller hawks, the hawk carrying something in its talons. Methinks the raptor raided the corvid’s nest, which is something that doesn’t happen all that often.
Seriously? Over 600mm of rain in a week? That’s like 2 feet of rain! We’ve never gotten that much in a year. That is a LOT of water. Hopefully you’re getting rain, but not too much too fast.
Sounds like you’re on the right track for a sharpening strop. Please do add a photo of it when you get it. All the strops we use in carving are attached to timber. I use a different one for sharpening than I use for cleaning the woodburning tips. I’ve nearly worn out the sharpening strop. I’ve got two others in reserve.
My final year as an undergrad, my electricity and magnetism professor was a tiny man from India. He and his wife, also from India, came to the US when he attended Columbia University for graduate school. Theirs was an arranged marriage. It worked well for them. They both remarked that the arranged marriages had extremely low failure rates. Extremely low. Different culture, different expectations and different ways of doing things.
There are several families in my neighborhood who migrated from foreign countries. It has got to be very difficult moving to a different country, with a different culture, different climate, different food and one in which your culture and religion are completely misunderstood. I know it would be hard for me to move to a different country. Your immigrant friend’s statement matches what I’ve heard from the immigrants I’ve talked with over the years.
I prefer the yellower lights, too. When they put in new fluorescent lights where I worked, they put in bright blue/white. They bothered a lot of us. I wasn’t the only employee who suffered from migraines as a result. When they moved me to a workspace with a window, the mix of real light with the weird indoor lights made a huge difference. Then several of us found commercially made fireproof translucent films we could place over the lights. It both dimmed them and changed their color. My area chose sky blue, other people chose other colors. The new LED lights in the basement are the brighter variety, but that is a darkish room with darkish wood panel walls, so I think it will work out okay.
Kelvin, Kevin. That one letter makes a big difference. NEVER call someone named Kelvin, Kevin. Kevin is one of the Minions from the
Despicable Me movie cartoons. William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, was a British mathematician, physicist and engineer, who did a lot of work with the first two laws of thermodynamics in the 1800s. The temperature scale of Kelvins was named after him.
It’s your fault. We got to talking about banh mi. So Killian’s human and I went to a tiny hole-in-the wall Asian Fusion restaurant. They have extremely good banh mi. It was a wonderfully delicious meal.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
The kelpies are in the doghouse today. Naughty as, nuff said…
Oh my! I’d not realised that a tulip tree could grow so big. The example in the photo sports an impressive diameter, and your climate does seem to produce some astoundingly massive trees, if not soaring into the upper atmosphere like the Redwoods, or Eucalyptus species here which can reach 300ft if undisturbed. One tree in particular here has a very fast growth rate reaching upwards. Already it is outcompeting its peers.
🙂 I think not, actually the used coffee grounds have a mildly decomposing smell to them, and nobody would want that heady aroma in their morning cuppa, would they?
Go the Bald Eagle, and clearly it was beneath the large birds dignity to acknowledge the presence of the lesser vultures. Could it be an omen? I’ve always enjoyed the wedge tail eagles regular presence here because it means that the land can support them. Of course I was slightly nervous when those two naughty kelpies were only a few months old – the eagles were around all the time in those days.
Spotted an eagle on Thursday morning dining on some road kill – nothing goes to waste here. I wish people would slow down on the forested roads, the animals barely have time to get off the road when humans are simulating the world rally championship experience on public forested roads. Oh well…
It was a pleasant day here today, and I worked on servicing and repairing the many machines. All done now and everything is in working order. Had to order some replacement parts so as to top up stocks of spare parts. You go through them. Still, cheaper than paying someone else to do the work, and I got to crank the tunes on the radio.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
30’C is quite a pleasant temperature from my perspective, and makes for an enjoyable work day – if you can avoid the mid to late afternoon sun. Has a bit of zing to it, and so is best avoided lest a person cook their head. Interestingly, I’m told that many annual plants require air temperatures 30’C and above to grow, although I’ve noticed that once it hits over 40’C – plant growth shuts down.
Go the squashes! And may your harvest be most excellent. Hopefully Dame Avalanche can keep the squirrels off the squash seedlings, although I’ve observed that not much eats them here – even the rabbits turned their noses up at pumpkin vines. Although the rats had gnawed on one or two of the larger Queensland Blue pumpkins grown. They have super tough skin because they keep until the following spring.
It happens, and the world of bird is a rough and tumble existence. I’m surprised a small hawk could even raid a corvid nest, but I have seen Kookaburras making off with young from a blackbirds (an imported species) nest. It was eerie to hear the birds laughing at their audaciousness from deeper within the forest. Anyway, such activity keeps the birds sharp – a lesser species will fall by the wayside.
Nah, all the big wet action is going on in the mid north east coast of the continent. Very little of that rain has fallen here, but if I saw two feet of rain in a short period of time, there’d be a major freak out. I wouldn’t know if the systems here could cope with so much water in that short period of time. I’d imagine that soil minerals are being leached from the soils in those flooded areas.
You’re lucky where you are in terms of water because you have large rivers draining large mountains. Otherwise I reckon your area might look very different. It’s not unreasonable here to expect anything between 800mm and 1,000mm of rain annually.
On the other hand, a bit of extra rain right now, would be most gratefully received.
Will do with the photo of the strop, and any advice would be appreciated. This is not a technology that I’m at all familiar with.
That’s also my take on immersing yourself into a different culture. One of the interesting contrasting things I’ve noted about people in your country is how much they move around within the country itself. Down under we’re not generally as mobile a people, and I’ve often wondered about that difference. I was born in Melbourne and am now about 40 miles north west of the city. Dunno how I’d feel about moving to a new state, although we did consider it. Establishing yourself in a new area is kind of similar too once you’re in a rural area (they can have their own local quirks, that’s for sure) – most cities are reasonably homogeneous, even between countries.
Yeah, what is with that choice of colour lighting? I’ve seen that in offices too, and when I was boss man, removing half of the lights in the office produced a nicer ambience – less glare and eye strain for everyone. Anyway, so the wealthy bloke who owned the company sees this all going on and cracks the sads because get this, he thought the lower light level looked poor. I kid you not, it was one of those pivotal moments of comprehension. Just like trying to get the entire business to use new paper produced from recycled paper for printing on. Hmm. There’s a lot of talk about the environment, and it’s mostly just talk. I gave up worrying.
Yeah, it’ll be fine and being a basement, you probably don’t want dark corners for dark stuff to be hiding in the dark shadows.
Never met a Kelvin, but sometimes hypotheses should be put to the ultimate test! Like how annoyed can this theoretical Kelvin dude get? 🙂 We used to have a Prime Minister with the name Kevin, he’s now the ambassador to your country and allegedly made the error of saying naughty things online about your President, who later described him, probably correctly so, as ‘nasty’.
The first two laws of thermodynamics are rather useful reminders as to limits.
Yummo! Well done you two with the delicious Bahn Mi. 🙂 And glad to be a bad influence, in a good way.
Worked on servicing and repairing of all the various machines today. One of the fuel lines with the log splitter had dried and cracked and of course I discovered this by refilling the fuel tank – which I was surprised I’d left empty. Not so, the fuel had leaked out long ago and was doing it all over again. Oh well. Had to take the tank off and remove the carburettor to get at everything, but eventually got the job done and the machine is running fine now. Nice to have spare parts ready to hand for such work, and there are no standards when it comes to fuel lines, just various different sizes of internal and external diameter hose measurements. A bit of standardisation would save a lot of hassles and waste.
Cheers
Chris
chicken poop- yes, it can be quite corrosive. I do a deep litter coop, but when the level approaches the edge of the metal siding, it’s time to clean house!
scorching timber- When I built the garden shed, I did an experiment with part of the walls. I charred the pine in the Japanese style called shou sugi ban, or Yakisugi. I mention this in may last blog post from almost two years ago. I swear I’ll start blogging again!
news from the farm- our neighbors, recently moved here, are going gangbusters with building a flock of sheep, and a herd of goats, with rotational grazing keeping things quite busy. Anyway, I’ver been wanting to transition our hayfield to grazing for a long time, but it’s a big lift.
So now we’ve agreed to have their sheep come across the road ( that will be fun) and make a grazing pass through our field. We make the move next week, after setting up the mobile electrical fencing. I’ve never liked the cycle of cutting hay, then having to pay for and spread fertilizer, so am eager to see how this goes.
Relating to your post- they have livestock guard dogs, and are well trained. They just acquired a new dog (Mareema-Great Pyranees mix) which had not been trained to work, and they are trying to get it up to speed. The difference in behavior is striking.
And I was getting trained as well, helped them yesterday move some of the paddock fencing on their place. Old dogs, new tricks…………….
Hi Lewis,
That’s what I was wondering as well, but given Kuato’s notorious air of self satisfaction, I think we both know what the answer is to that most crucial observation of yours. Fortunately there are a lot of owls here in this forest, and they take a lot of feeding. Actually on that note, maybe Thursday I spotted a young wedge tail eagle dining on road kill just out of the nearby town. There’s a lot of road kill these days, particularly rabbits. Anyway, as we got closer in the car (the bird was in the opposite lane) the large predator flew a ways away to perch upon a sturdy fence post from where it could properly glare back at us. I’m quite fond of the eagles and the good work they do, although they made me slightly nervous when the kelpies were only twelve weeks old. For some reason, the eagles were hanging around a lot in those days.
Those two rat-bags are in the doghouse today. Not happy with them at all, and their freedom is now curtailed for the next month or so, maybe longer.
You’re right the predation of the edibles grown here has to have some sort of balance, otherwise the effort on my part is ultimately wasted and they’ll all go hungry if I was to give up the game. Fortunately I have some tools which can be brought to bear on the matter if required as a last ditch option, which so far has not ever been the case. Only the deer really push things too far, and they have no predators here, other than humans.
Speaking of deer, there are still plans to lift the height of the fencing on the large enclosure with all of the young citrus trees. We just have to add in some support posts to the corners, otherwise the tension of the extra wire will eventually pull the posts over. We’ve been chucking around ideas for that enclosure and are thinking of moving a few more fruit trees in there. The only vegetables I want to grow in there are either potatoes or pumpkins, and the idea is maybe to grow those root vegetables in blocks which can be moved around the enclosure so as to account for proper crop rotation. Dunno, we have to do something on that front though.
That 80’F forecast day is a big jump over the more recent cooler spring weather you’re having. 57’F here today, sunny and cool and the overnight was warm at about 46’F. A strange May, but then the rest of the year the weather has also been odd – not record breakingly odd, just slightly overall warmer and drier than usual.
The steel gabion cages work better with smaller rocks as there is less settling of the mass over time. When we get a collection of really small rocks, those are chucked onto the surface of an existing sewn up gabion cage. Nothing goes to waste here.
Hehe! Your response would certainly confuse many a person, it also happens to be factually accurate.
You’ve done a solid sell on the seed detective book, and I respect your opinions. The Editor looked at me earlier today and asked the hard question: Is this book a work of fiction, or non fiction narrative? I’d not considered the book title from that perspective, but then you and I had been discussing the contents for a while.
I had plans today. No truly, there really were plans. Before I got stuck into said plans, the idea occurred to me that it was about time that I did a check up of some of the machines which have been slightly neglected of late. So I dragged them all out into the sunshine and fresh air, fired them up and put them to work. The first thing I acknowledged was that it is unwise to have neglected them for four months. A few were a bit harder to start than I’d become accustomed too. And the fuel line of the petrol log splitter was leaking. Petrol went everywhere after I filled up the tank, and of course the break in the line just happened to be on the wrong side of the shut off valve. Probably saved about two thirds of the tank, but had to dismantle the guts of the machine rather quickly. 🙂 Oh well, fixed now. Turns out the rubber fuel lines harden over time and become brittle, then crack.
Interestingly, when I put in an order on ebuy for some replacement long lengths of rubber (or nitrite or whatever they call the stuff) fuel line, an equal number of listings were from your country and the land of stuff. That’s new.
Ooo, yeah, some varieties of kale and broccoli are rather feral, and probably will revert. Those are the varieties I like because they set seed and grow true to type and are less fussy that other more highly bred varieties from that family of plant. I’m unsurprised that the plants reverted to their more hardy original form.
A few years I read a book on the subject of tea plants, and I was left with the impression that with the plant, the old adage of: if at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again, applied. The authors sort of suggested to start new seeds until you get plants which do well in your area, then breed from those. Camellia’s are a funny plant here because sometimes they can do well and be super hardy, and other times they’re a bit light weight. Lot’s of variability I guess.
Be fast with that bird netting and slug protection for those delectable berries! 🙂 And hope your inmates don’t thief off with them too! The dogs consuming the tasty strawberries was the last straw for me.
You’d hope that the director’s cut of the film was less confusing. Sometimes chunks can get taken out of films, and the overall creative vision ends up a bit muddled. One of the things I’m observing about the Jack Vance collection is that the fans who put them together, worked with the author and original manuscripts to bring the text back to their original form. The pulp magazine editors could be a bit hack and slash so as to reduce word count. Stuff gets lost in that process don’t you reckon?
I didn’t mind the film: “We need to talk about Kevin”, although it was exactly as you suggested, a bit weird and off-beat. I could never quite figure out why Kevin did what he did at the end of the film. It seemed like pointless destruction more than anything else, and then there was some sort of out-of-character redemption scene which made no sense to me. Wasn’t the character irredeemable? I’m probably over thinking the story. 😉 The zombie film featuring that actor, and Bill Murray and Adam Driver, that was a bit ‘off’ as well, I had trouble engaging with the characters. I just didn’t care when the zombies got them, or Tilda whisked off and up to space in a UFO.
I’m twitching! 🙂 Thanks for that. I watched the trailer about ‘that book’ you linked to yesterday. Agreed. The backgrounds were lovely, the whole thing had a sort of Great Gatsby vibe to the trailer. And the soaring music was a nice touch too. It had an air of a high end animation, but not a cartoon kind of a vibe.
I’m still twitching you know… Hehe!
Some of the food boxes are better than others, and that one seems particularly good. I’d ditch the really processed stuff, but I can’t imagine any of it would go to waste, although the ultimate test is the swap table.
Yeah, that sort of thing can keep a person up at night. 🙂 It’s a deep philosophical question, and maybe there is a presumption that you’ll eat out once per week. Or, thinking out of the box, breakfast pizza takes precedence over bananas in some peoples world-view! I can’t go there though and would prefer a hand of seven bananas.
Cool. What an excellent way to spend one’s annual holiday. The article suggested that there were way more offers of assistance and labour than there were openings for the work.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Steve,
Good advice with the steel, and I can see the benefits of your approach. Actually a few days ago I took the drill and wire brush and cleaned the steel surface, then spray painted it with metal primer paint. Might put some top coats on the now primed surface.
Interestingly, with the deep litter mulch, I work the fork into it each day, and you can feel the warmth from all of the bacterial action. The chickens happily scratch around that on cold winter mornings too. I can’t leave that turning job for more than a day, because the bacteria work quickly and the smell can be quite profound – which is all of your nitrogen escaping back into the atmosphere. Man, I’d be troubled working at a commercial chicken farm.
Usually the chicken enclosure here is very neutral smelling.
It’s cool, when you get around to it. 🙂 A guy I follow on utoob was also demonstrating that very process, but for fence posts. Tired of Rotting Fence Posts? Burn Them First (Really!). He’s an interesting guy up to interesting things in his woodland on the west coast of the US.
What a great thing to have new neighbours up to such good stuff, and rotational grazing should work well, and it sure beats not giving paddocks a break. Goat makes nice curry, and lamb is a fine roast. Mind you, the goats and sheep may be breeds which favour fleece production?
Ah, down under in rural areas livestock has right of way on roads. But it’s not ideal moving flock / herd across a road. A farm with a road down the middle is not a best practice. You have to put out signs for cars, and just hope that the drivers understand the requirements. Most people are pretty good with that arrangement. There’s two towns around here where geese hold up the traffic whilst they cross the road.
Do you sell off your hay? But I see what you mean, and having all those critters on the land for a while, will really perk up your soils. That’s part of the reason I allow all of the forest critters in here, they bring in a lot of poop and nitrogen, and also convert plant matter back to manure more rapidly than would otherwise happen.
On the other hand, I just can’t forgive the deer for ring barking fruit trees. That activity is not cool.
Hope the experiment goes well and you get some meat out of the arrangement.
I’ve heard of both good and bad experiences with Maremma’s. Fighting between males was one notable issue which ended badly with some folks I know. I can’t recall what triggered the incident between the two dogs either, but wasn’t involved with any of that story.
🙂 We all get trained every now and then! Always stuff to learn, and I’ve not used that portable electric fencing, but from all accounts the stuff works well.
Might get a bit of rain from Monday night onwards, maybe.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Raptors and small dogs. Every once in awhile, I catch eagles, hawks or ravens, eyeing H from on high. I keep her on a short leash, when they’re around. I think I’ve mentioned that eagles’s nests are often found stuffed full of dog and cat collars. When H is naughty, I threaten to swap her for a younger, prettier trophy dog. 🙂 Maybe I’d have more impact, if I threatened feeding her to an eagle?
I lost one of my pumpkins, last year, that was just sampled by either a squirrel or a rat. Apparently, it wasn’t to their taste. Luckily. Hallelujah! I think my green beans are finally making an appearance. The Qunault strawberry bed (that I take care of) is a communal bed. But, as with a lot of the other communal beds, the Inmates don’t avail themselves to them. Lucky me! I’m hoping to get enough strawberries, to make at least 6 pints of jam. I’ve already deployed some slug bait. I also tucked three extra plants in a corner of one of my beds. The Chamomile is blooming. Time to start drying up a batch.
Our high yesterday was 68F (20C). The overnight low was 41F (5C). The forecast high for today is 77F. I’ve been following Mr. Greere’s post on climate. Finally! Something interesting. 🙂 To me. I thought it very odd, that he mentioned the movie “The Last Wave.” Just days after I had watched it. I commented on that.
Good to keep on top of your machine maintenance. Well, that’s done and dusted for awhile. You’re lucky you didn’t light yourself up. Hot machine … leaking gas.
E Buy here, also lists items from Australia and the UK. Usually down at the end of a listing. Although there’s a little selection box, on the left hand side where I can select for North America, only.
You wouldn’t think tea plants would be such a struggle. I had heard of “Siberian Tea,” so, I took a look down the rabbit hole. False alarm. There’s no caffeine in it. Although it has some really interesting energy and medicinal properties.
https://w.wiki/EH4C
I watched “Great Expectations” (1945), last night. What a great movie! And, apparently I’m not the only one to think so. Directed by David Lean (Dr. Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, etc.).
https://w.wiki/8aZf
The thing about Dickens, though, is you really have to suspend disbelief. Some of his coincidences, are pretty far fetched. I curse that high school English teacher, who managed to suck all the joy out of that book. Will I re-read it? Might. If I ever whittle my “to-read” stack down.
I didn’t keep much, out of the food box. Most went down to the swap table. I did keep a couple of cans of pineapple chunks, with the idea of eventually making pizza. I also kept the lean ground turkey. I’ll probably fry that up, with onion, divide it into small doses, and use it more as a condiment. The small read potatoes, I kept, as I might make some hot German potato salad. The eggs I kept, although I now have an awful lot of them. I took a lot of the other stuff, down to the swap table, last night. Eventually, about the only things that will be left will be the dried beans. And a lot of the tinned veg. Sooner or later, someone will haul it down to the local mission.
And, finally, since we’re interested in all things ginger … 🙂
https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/23/science/orange-cats-genetic-mutation
I had an orange cat, decades ago. I really think she was landed from a galaxy, far, far away. Lew
Chris:
I worry about Mr. Baby now that I have seen an eagle nearby. He stands out a mile with his white coat and even from way high up, any eagle could tell what a tasty, juicy lunch he would be. I didn’t know eagles were also scavengers, and would eat roadkill till you mentioned it. I looked up the Bald and he does indeed eat corpses. The vultures with him were Blackheaded Vultures, not our native Turkey Vultures, who are mild-mannered. The Black have taken over here and have run out most of the Turkey ones. That is unfortunate, because the Black ones can be ferocious enough to actually kill their own food sometimes and not wait to find it already dead. Newborn calves are on their menu since they are born out in the open field.
Smart move to work on the machines and especially to be sure that extra spare parts are on hand. One does always hope that O rings are not needed . . .
Pam
@Lew:
I have saved seeds for decades, but the last few years I had very little time to garden, though I tried to keep up with it. Didn’t save many seeds besides beans last year and a few flowers.
Pam
Hi Pam,
Hard to tell what may happen with an eagle, and I’ve no idea how your lot hunt, but down here they tend to pick off smaller prey, like puppy sized critters, which they tend to drop from a height. Not a nice way to go, but occasionally they survive like Wandi the alpine dingo. Unless Mr Baby is soundly asleep, I’d consider him safe from eagles, maybe. Cats have very sharp claws.
Oh yeah, the wedge tail eagles won’t waste a meal opportunity, although more often I’ll spot the ravens consuming road kill, not sure about how such things go in your part of the world, but err, vultures!
Cows protect their calves, but there is a belief operating down here that the eagles target young lambs. Foxes would be the bigger danger to lambs I reckon, but I guess it all depends on the day doesn’t it?
Ook! Did I, or did I not order a mixed box of o-rings? You’ve got me wandering.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
In breaking sad news, a lovely restaurant we used to frequent when living in the big smoke, is closing it’s doors. We were able to walk there, and you’ll love the photos and the food was always excellent: Melbourne’s Afghan Gallery restaurant prepares for bittersweet closure after more than 40 years. It’s where I developed the taste for lentils cooked properly. Shola ghorbandi, yummo! The reason for the closure sounds brutal to me.
You’ve mentioned that about the eagles nests with their err, trophies. H is probably about the size where trouble could potentially happen if a watchful eye was diverted. The Kelpies are around 44 pounds each, and Ollie is double that – the eagles would not lift off again with any of the fluffs.
I almost thought you were about to write that an inmate had thiefed off with your pumpkin, but then squirrels and rats produce a similar outcome. How thick are the skins of the varieties you grow? The problem with the damage that rats cause here is that the fruit doesn’t keep, so you have to cut the impacted chunks off and cook them sooner rather than later.
What a massive oversight not to harvest the strawberries. You know that there is excess wealth sloshing around a system when home grown strawberries are blithely ignored. Lucky you indeed! Strawberry jam is excellent, but raspberry jam is the best. Even the Alpine strawberries make an interesting flavoured jam – kind of like bubble gum, which is a bit weird, but does work.
🙂 You are very cheeky, respect. The essays on climate will be very interesting. I enjoy all of Mr Greer’s essays, and always learn something. Yeah, I spotted that and saw your words, and the old timers used to describe such moments as synchronicity. Must be something in the water.
Ah, no that was not possible – so much fuel leaked from the broken hose that I was not able to start the engine, so no fear of that happening. And the work was done outdoors in the fresh air, with the background redolent stink of gasoline. The stuff dries the skin on my hands out.
Really? I’d not known that we send stuff to your country, but I try to click on the link to the closest supplier. Although, there are always the drop-shipper folks who say they’re local but I believe are operating out of the land of stuff and have to air freight the goods. The old timers used to have a saying about: ‘A slow boat from the land of stuff’.
I’ve got a feeling that I’ve seen that plant you mentioned, Bergenia crassifolia growing. Seems easy enough to propagate too. Very interesting and potent uses as well. Hmm. Dry shade creates plants which are remarkably tough.
So here’s a question for you, was Estella (a bold name if I may say so) worth all of the hassle? The lady appears a touch problematic to me, and why did Magwitch ever travel back to the UK? So many questions, so few answers. The plot seems unsatisfying to me, and yes a pox on all English teachers who make reading and writing painful.
Pineapple from a tin is probably better tasting than the under ripe stuff sold at shops. And would probably make an excellent pizza – just don’t tell anyone who is a purist that this was your idea. You can instead dissemble by suggesting that the pizza arrived in that form! 😉
The title was a bit triggering, really. 🙂 How could gingers be a freak of nature? Ah, right to the end a proper and healthy scepticism was displayed!
Ook! Better get writing, I’m so late tonight, it’s almost 9pm and I have to go and push the fire in way down below on the forest edge. Did more clean up work today.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – A recent discovery from Sutton Hoo. Not from the original ship burial, but, from nearby. Seems the whole area was quit a burial ground. Makes sense. Nice river view …
https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/24/science/sutton-hoo-bromeswell-bucket
I don’t know if you realized that there has been quit a lively debate, on if Vikings had horns on their helmets. Some sources say it’s an outright myth. But, the smoking gun (smoking helmet?) has been found. In an 8th century burial, in Scandinavia, was a bit of tapestry that managed to survive. One of the figures on the tapestry is a Viking warrior … with horns on his helmet. I’ll see if I can find the article.
That’s sad about the Afghan Gallery. Change happens. None of the kids interested in the business … building sold out from underneath them.
H would make a tasty morsel. She’s always been right around 12 pounds. Speaking of ravens, Brother Bob the Bachelor Farmer told me that he had to keep a sharp eye on any lambs he had. Ravens would peck at their poopers, until they pulled out their innards.
How thick were my pumpkin skins? About as thick as a pumpkin skin. 🙂 Hmmm. Well, if I bake a pumpkin, the skin peels off like parchment paper. If that’s any help. I tossed the pumpkin. I had five others, so, no great loss.
The Inmates want the produce picked, washed, and delivered to their door. Not happening. I give them windows of opportunity, to get out there and pick their own. I must say though, I don’t think anyone goes at it as intensely as I do.
It’s a holiday weekend. The town, and the building, are pretty quiet. Memorial Day. But I do see that someone is barbecuing on the patio. When I took H for her walk, I could smell cooking meat, in the building. I hope they manage to not set off the fire alarms, this time.
My green beans are coming up. At first, I thought something was gnawing on them. A second look, and it’s the secondary leaves, that look a bit ragged as they are emerging.
Was Estella worth the hassle? Well, young love, obsession and all that. Magwitch had to come back to England. Otherwise, how could he tip of to Pip, that it was he who had financed his rise, and not Miss Haversham? Also, without him, there would be no poignant death bed scene where Pip tells him his daughter (Estella) has become a fine lady. 🙂
Hawaiian pizza. Pineapple and some pig product. Can’t be beat. Especially, cold for breakfast with milk! 😉
Our high yesterday was 77F (25C). The overnight low was 45F (7.22C). Forecast high for today is 72F. We might get some rain, late tonight and into tomorrow. Temperatures are supposed to get into the 80sF, next week. I think my tomatoes are already showing some growth.
I had some bananas heading south, and it was either use them or lose them. So, I baked a couple dozen banana muffins, last night. They turned out pretty good. Tasty. Lew