The sensitive person pauses for a moment to consider the broader implications of the heating system failing on the very first day of winter. Is it an auspicious sign, or just plain old bad luck? It’s been a heck of a week here, and some weeks are just sent to try a person’s patience. Tests your mettle so to speak. Right now typing away at this essay, the mettle is feeling a touch chilly. Indoors it is 16’C / 61’F and overnight it will only get colder. Might see if I can track down the plumber tomorrow morning.
The heating system is quite intricate. We burn firewood indoors in a locally made metal wood heater. The contraption provides both heat and hot water. With at least ten thousand trees here, many of which are already on the ground, using firewood as a heating fuel is a no brainer. It is possible to use gas for heating purposes at this location, but a 45kg / 99 pound bottle costs about $200 each delivered last I checked. And then there’s that quarterly rental charge of around $65 for two of the bottles. Annually that works out to a lot of cost, for not much gas. Running a gas heater is a non starter proposition, you’d burn through the bottles in maybe a week or so.
Many months ago we made the decision to wean ourselves off the expensive gas energy source. Once emptied, the large gas bottles were returned to the suppliers. Gas is mostly used here as a back up energy source to heat water when the sun doesn’t provide enough heat (via solar hot water panels), or the 30kW heat exchanger in the wood heater just isn’t enough. Gas also runs some hoppers in the kitchen plus an oven.
A nice neat metal stand was welded and fabricated, and nowadays we use two smaller swap-and-go gas bottles. They’re the sort mostly seen attached to barbecues. Locally they cost around $32 for a 9kg / 20 pound bottle, but with none of the ongoing rental fees. We were previously paying around $260 each year just for rental. And that cost kept increasing, with every new bill. The former rental charge now covers a bit over 8 bottles. Not a bad savings, and at current usage that is around as much as we’d use in a year.
It takes behavioural changes to begin to wean oneself off an energy source. Cooking fuel was the main area we could cut back on. Electric induction cookers and an electric oven are the biggest savers. Outside of June and July when the sun is low in the sky, additional uses of electricity from the off grid solar power system barely rates a second thought.
Gas sure is getting quite expensive down here, and that’s despite Australia being one of the world’s biggest exporters of gas. Rumour has it that demand in this south eastern Australian state is now at, or will soon exceed demand. I’d call that hovering around Peak Gas for sure. Looks like the stuff is being rationed by price from my perspective. It’s not a pretty story.
When I was a kid, the Bass Strait oil wells between the mainland and the large island state of Tasmania, provided plenty of oil and gas to this country. Even so, small cars were the way of things in the 1970’s. The two door Ford Falcon supercharged V8 engined beast in the original Mad Max (the Road Warrior) film back in 1979 is actually quite a small car compared to the monsters on the road today. At the time I thought those beasts of cars were huge.
As a young adult, petrol was still cheap and household gas bills were around $30 a month. With such low costs, who even thinks about any of this stuff? Only a truly naive person would complain about the costs of the connection charge being so great with a $30 monthly bill. That was me! In those days I had no idea about the subject of energy, let alone the cost of providing your own infrastructure. Nowadays I have personal experience with how much it costs to supply infrastructure. It’s ruinously expensive, and even after all that mad cash was splashed, there’s still no heater on the first day of winter.
The infrastructure here also captures and stores rainwater for later use. Realisation dawned somewhere around the beginning of the calendar year, that this was a relatively dry period of time. Since then we’ve been tackling various projects related to improving the many weaknesses exposed in the water systems. We’re also busy keeping the surrounding forest nice and clean. It’s been a lot of work, and hopefully the worst case scenarios fail to eventuate.
Thought the readers would appreciate a recent view into the local rainfall statistics. It was the numbers which prompted me to make many of the recent decisions. Here they are:
Even Blind Freddy can see that rainfall is rather variable at this location, although it is more often very wet than dry. What I notice the most, is that years which have really dry starts, are often followed by summers which have the most horrendous bushfires. 2008 was followed by the awful Black Saturday fires in 2009. A lot of people died that day. The even bigger, but far less deadly fires in the Black Summer of 2020 came after a dry start to 2019. It doesn’t always work out that way, and you can see that in early 2020, it rained here when it rained nowhere else. But it’s indicative of a potential risk. So we’re getting our systems in order bearing that risk in mind.
It was another warm and mostly dry week. The weather was actually really nice and the skin felt good getting softly kissed by the yellow sun, despite it being now very low in the sky. We were able to bring heaps of rocks back up hill. Those were all placed in the long line of steel rock gabion cages.
In the above photo, the cantina shed can be seen behind me. Preserves and other goodies are stored in there, and it’s a very well insulated and sealed shed. They’re all stored well and neatly on sturdy metal shelves. Unfortunately when it did rain, water from that shed had been running into one of the garden beds. With heavy rain forecast over the next few weeks, it seemed like the time had come to capture all that water and store it.
It was a fun job joining up all those pipes so that harvested water could be stored in the nearby 8,000L / 2,100 gallon water tank. This water system, when full, will overflow down into the two new water tanks which are 11,000L / 2,900 gallons in total. They sit slightly further down the hill. For the moment those two new water tanks have not been installed, but will be soon.
The pipe system used in this instance is sometimes described as a ‘wet system’. That’s because at all times, water is held within some of the pipes, and so as new water enters the system, pressure gets exerted, then the additional water exits into the water tank. It all works on gravity, and ensuring no leaks and that the levels on the pipes are correct is the main consideration.
In the above photo, you can see that the water flows into the tank at the highest point. The next lowest pipe works as an overflow, and that allows excess water in the tank to flow underground and then downhill, where it will feed into the two new water tanks. Observant readers will also note a pipe running along the top of a steel gabion cage and abruptly ending in a garden bed. That end has a screw cap on it so that if necessary, the contents of the pipes can be emptied.
Whilst connecting up all of these water pipes, we ran out of parts. A section of the pipes were unsupported, and that’s not ideal. A quick drive down to the nearest large town sorted out the lack. A few days later the pipes were emptied and a new section was cemented in. The weight of the pipes are now completely supported by the cages.
Working out how to get the pipe to move in a complicated manner outwards and then downwards was like resolving something of a three dimensional problem. By the end of the day of working on the system, my brain was cooked and a storm was rapidly rolling in. The problem remained as a problem. A few days later, the solution didn’t seem like that big of a deal. An hours work and a new section of pipe was installed.
This week’s video was about the work done on the water pipe system:
A day was spent upon excavations for the new water tank site. The weather was superb for the work as it was neither too hot, nor too cold, but just right!
The site is now probably only another day away from being completed.
All that soil is a useful resource (not to mention the many rocks uncovered). The soil is being brought back uphill and used around the kitchen garden with all of the raised round garden beds. It’s looking neat!
The soil level near to the large water tanks which supply the house, is also being improved.
At this stage the plan is to continuing adding soil to these locations. The area near to the water tanks will have a surface of sturdy rocks. The thinking there is that when the water systems fails during a big storm, the rocks will reduce the damage caused by the stupendous flows of water. The inlet filters on the water tanks are prone to blocking up in such conditions, then water goes everywhere – fast. That’s the plan anyway.
In cooking news, I tried my hand at baking a lemon meringue pie the other day. The base was made from blitzed up Anzac biscuits. The filling is a gel made with lots of lemon juice and zest. That worked out well, but the recipe could be improved with further practice and some minor tweaks such as more lemon zest with the gel, and less butter in the base.
The implementation of the meringue was a complete and utter kitchen failure. The meringue was made beautifully and set superbly. It just didn’t adhere to the lemon gel filling. Slid straight off. It was a marvel to see, and so was fed to the chickens. Just prior to acknowledgement of this unfolding disaster, the pie looked awesome.
Oh well, with a bit of fine tuning, this pie will be a total winner. The test victims, err, sorry I meant to type, recipe testers, gave the lemon tart a thumbs up. The chickens enjoyed the meringue, although it is hard to know what those avian intelligences are thinking.
The radish are having an outstanding season here, and we have dozens of them to eat and they’ll last through the winter months in the ground for sure. Both the root and leaves are edible.
Onto the flowers:
The temperature outside now at about 10am is 11’C (52’F). So far for last year there has been 215.4mm (8.5 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 208.2mm (8.2 inches)
Comments
46 responses to “Where there is no heater…”
I did not catch what failed, and why you couldn’t just burn wood in the stove to warm things up. 61 is a bit nippy. I will start burning wood when the living room gets down to 63, as it takes some hours for the brick mass to warm up and actually start radiating into the room.
Of course at night, in a snug bed if it gets cooler than that in the bedroom, no big deal, we prefer that anyway.
Got one more rain capture set up this spring, off of the new garden shed. It’s well located to water the terraces uphill from the house, as well as the eight new paw paw trees I planted. Still haven’t done any infrastructure that needs pumping.
Yeah, Australia has loads of gas, but you poor guys have been exposed to global prices, since the corporations chase profit, not necessarily national interest.
Here in the midwest, all the fracked gas can’t get to ports easily, so we are somewhat insulated from the global market, but LNG ports are being built, and pipelines are being run, so folks here will be squealing soon I suspect.
On a related note, back before the fracking boom, the U.S. had three LNG import terminals, and as domestic gas got going, they practically shut down. When gas really got going, all the terminals switched to becoming export terminals, and several more have been built since. Between that and the Nordstream incident bumping up global prices, the domestic gas companies are doing fine for now.
They are very expensive and complex facilities, so it’s shame their useful life will be so short. (not sure anyone realizes that, but one would think the banks are smart enough to make sure they close out the loans before that happens. We shall see. Could be some more squealing in a few years.)
Asparagus season is about over, won’t be long till the shelling peas are ready. I need to go check the cherry trees and see how they are doing.
Still learning how to operate the green house, may need to add more venting. It is so weird, watering every day even when it has been raining.
Chris note also that radish seeds are a treat!
Yo, Chris – I hope you can get the same plumber who installed your system. He might have a better grasp of the ins and out, rather than someone who comes in cold. Is that a pun? 🙂
That’s what we’re seeing more and more of, in a lot of areas. Demand destruction? Availability vs rising costs.
What are “hoppers in the kitchen?” That require gas?
The rainfall spread sheets were very interesting. They certainly show a great deal of variability, even in a relatively short period of time.
The water catchment system certainly is complicated. But everything works in concert, as did your text, photos and video. One slight quibble about the video. Some parts of it (particularly at the beginning) were a bit out of focus.
Your lemon meringue pie / tart was spectacular looking. I’m sure you’ll eventually solve the meringue landslide problem. By the way, there’s a bit of a knack to get nice clean cuts. Use a warm, wet knife. First lightly score the top with the wet knife, to break the gelatin layer. Then wipe the knife with a wet (warm water) paper towel, between each cut. The knife must be clean, for each cut.
Having fooled around with lemon and orange bakes (biscuits), I really think the usual amount of suggested zest, in recipes, is for more timid taste buds. There never seems to be enough, to impart a real citrus flavor. And sometimes, lemon or orange extract needs to be deployed, to give it a real zing.
Those are some lovely radish. Something keeps eating the tops of mine. The top of the bulbs, not the leaves. Thrips?
The leaf change pictures are real knock-outs. We also get the occasional confused rhododendron, that blooms out of season. I generally keep the rhubarb seed heads, cut off. The black and white salvia is a real stunner. I’m going to ask the Master Gardeners if they are available, here. Lew
Hi Gerry,
Thanks for the note regarding the seeds and I’ll try them out. There’s a lot to like about a fast growing root vegetable where every bit of the plant is edible.
My grandfather used to grow this exact same variety of radish back in the 70’s. I’d eat them straight out of the soil.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Steve,
Ah, it was the pump which sends hot water from the 30kW heat exchanger (wet jacket) at the back of the wood heater to the hydronic radiators dotted around the house. Hot water also travels into the header tank via convection, but when the pump failed, the water jacket had way too much energy to disperse and so the water in it was boiling violently. Very hard to ignore, so we shut down the wood heater by removing the burning logs and letting in cooler air. A fun few minutes of activity, followed by descending temperatures over the following 24 hours. It was 14’C / 57’F this morning. The wood heater was unusable until the pump was replaced, which thankfully happened early this evening. Yay! Does your wood heater have a hot water jacket inside the combustion chamber?
Lots of blankets allows for some sleep. It was a six blanket night. Brr! I sleep best when the house is around 17’C or 18’C with fresh air.
Well done, and how good is it capturing rainwater? Such a great resource, and it doesn’t get more local than that. The paw paw trees are a good idea, and do you have any of them growing already? What’s the fruit like?
Generally pumps are used to lift water back uphill, or provide serious pressure – like for fire fighting. The new big pump installed a few months ago can pump some serious water at high pressure, and you never know if an ember from a burn off lands high up in a tree whether there’ll be trouble.
It’s nice that you’re able to use gravity feed systems for water. Did you know that normal house pressure represents a fall in height of about 70m?
Australia now imports about 90% of it’s oil requirements, which is a bit dodgy, but if the reserves aren’t there… With such import dependencies, we may have little real choice with the gas exports. The state government is busy getting people off the gas system and onto electricity instead. The old timers used to say something about out of the frying pan, and into the fire.
Oh my! That’s not good future news about gas pipelines extending into your part of the world. My gut feeling is not good, and this may also explain why your fuel prices are so low comparatively. Are they broke? Probably not.
There were a lot of different life spans offered, but twenty years seemed to be about the sweet mid-point spot. Nothing lasts forever. Banks are most likely canny enough to avoid the worst case outcomes, maybe. During the GFC some were found with rather toxic assets on their books.
How good are fresh asparagus spears? And they make an excellent addition to the spring veg haul. Do you net your cherry trees? The birds here are feral for those fruits.
Ha! I’m watering the greenhouse here every second or third day depending upon the quality of the sunshine. No point pouring icy cold water onto crop soil on a bleak winters day. More venting will work a treat for you, and some greenhouses down here even throw shade cloth over the roof.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
My thoughts went along similar lines, and very early this morning I was able to contact the plumber who originally installed the system. He arrived early this evening (after a long work day too – respect) and replaced the failed pump. Yay! We had a good chat as well. It’s a great pun you made, and one I can enjoy now that the heater is running properly again. 🙂 I may have felt icy towards your pun if there was not heater tonight. It was so cold this morning, and last night was a six blanket night. Brr! Oh well, you discover vulnerabilities sometimes when things fail.
Yup, demand destruction and rationing by price seems to be the way of the future, and the present.
Maybe I invented some new kitchen device, or more likely just stuffed up the word choice? Meant to use the word: ‘Hob’ which in your country would refer to a stove top. Hoppers sounds much more lively. 🙂 Thanks for the correction.
The only thing I can be sure of, is climate variability. Looking back over the statistics I reckon the minor tornado hit on Christmas day in 2011. A lot of rain that month. It all depends on what the climate drivers are doing, and they’re saying that the rains from the north west of the continent are to return here soon. We’ll see.
Whilst trying to stay warm today, we decided to do some hard work outdoors. Removed a lot of wormwood from the garden beds and then burnt it all off. Created a lot of ash, and that importantly kept us warm.
Yeah, the zoom function on the camera does produce a little bit of a blurry image. I see what you mean. It happens, and unless a lot more subscribers jump on board to the good pirate ship, the camera will have to do. If I had to choose between decent audio or video, I’d pick the better audio quality, and that’s where we spent the mad cash (and the tripod – more important than most would realise).
Thanks! The dessert looked like the real deal, and the meringue was perfection. It just didn’t adhere properly to the tart surface due to temperature issues. Next time will solve the kitchen dramas. Thanks for the tip too with the knife. Makes sense and the tart was quite difficult to cut into slices.
Almost forgot to mention, we emptied two of the round steel raised garden beds today. Some of the plants were relocated (parsley and beetroot) and the excess rich soil was used to top up all of the other beds. The plan is to add in more soil underneath the raised beds, and so they had to be emptied.
I guess people tend to avoid strong flavours, but a lemon tart should not be insipid. And as you suggest a bit of zing will go a long way – extra zest I reckon.
And I hear you about the occasional triumph in the kitchen with some neglected ingredient. It’s rare, but does happen.
Here I’d blame rats for attacks on the tops of radish bulbs, but then it could be some sort of millipede maybe? Dunno about thrips, but your species might be different. Are there any other contenders?
Thanks, and how good was that Japanese maple? That was another clearance plant. You wouldn’t know it now, but it once had a damaged trunk. Lot’s of plants flower out of season, and it makes me wonder if the planet were warmer whether they’d produce more flowers and fruit per year? Dunno, just a random thought.
They’ve got some stunning Salvia species for your part of the world. We’re thinking of growing many of them in the garden beds which have been cleared of wormwood. Hope the master gardeners nab some.
Lewis, such a world as the Brazil film would be a personal nightmare of the darkest sort. The monitoring devices all along the nearby freeway gives me the ooks. I’m sure they’re occasionally handy for solving crimes, but seriously I dunno, we give stuff away without even thinking about it.
Today was sort of similar to your temperatures (maybe two or four degrees F cooler), even the thick clouds were much the same. They reckon it might rain here tomorrow.
Of course it is poor planning! 🙂 It’s a bit horrendous to consider that the planet wobbles ever so slightly in its orbit.
Oh no! That would be one bad day to be at the post office. And the folks who collect swarms are actually dealing with bees which are less likely to sting you. That truck on the other hand is different. And there’s a cost for the volunteers to help out in a pinch.
How could a subject like biochar be that comprehensive? Sounds like a lot of detail, or worse, repetition? I’ve read some books over the years which were, let’s just say: padded out a bit. I’m sure you’ve come across such book beasts?
🙂 You’re leading by example, and glad to hear that the kitchen sink avoided the soil incorporation fate. Perking up your soil is time well spent. Hey, what about the days when I used to whinge about the fruit trees not producing and growing slowly? Most plants need a good feed. Your fellow gardeners will get there in time. I used to plant vegetables in mulch, and that was not smart at all. Nature is a wonderful honing tool which can abrade abstractions.
Cheers
Chris
@ Pam – So many choices! So, what style of collar do you put on your plants? Point, spread, button down, club or mandarin? Or the ever popular (at least in 1900), celluloid. Ecclesiastical? 🙂
Maybe call the snail, Nameless? I named mine Sam the snail, Samantha and Darius.
I don’t know about feeding wildlife. Maybe, not a problem for possums. But did you see the article about the woman who fed the cute little raccoon? He invited his friends and extended family, to a party in her yard. Hundreds of raccoons showed up. They got quit demanding. She couldn’t leave the house. Had to call the police, to rescue her. Lew
Yo, Chris – Oh, put a jumper on it. 🙂 I’m glad you got the same guy. Obviously knows what he’s doing. Treasure him. In fall, all the tradies here, disappear. It’s hunting season.
Oh, I was just curious. I thought gas fired hoppers were some bit of off beat Australian kitchen kit. 🙂 Or an Australian name for something quit common.
I may have figured out what was eating the tops of my radish. I worked in the garden, three or four hours, last night. I needed to make space, so I pulled up two heads of the volunteer lettuce. One I gave to the night manager, and one I’ll use for wraps. There were three carrots that appeared this spring. I pulled them up, and they looked gorgeous … until I washed the dirt off. Two of them had deep, wide scores down one side, and the heart was entirely gone. According to the Master Gardeners, it’s Click beetles aka wireworms. They attack root crops. They suggested I work more stove ash into the soil, if I plant more root crops.
I also picked another round of Chamomile blossoms. Picking seems to stimulate blossom development. I cut back some of it, to make room.
Last night I did some pruning, weeding, scattered around some more blood meal and watered. Where I had made space, I prepared the soil with composted chicken poop, mushroom compost and bone meal. I planted two cayenne peppers, two sweet basil and, yes, once more into the breech, two Brussels sprouts. I also prepared a couple of areas for zucchini seed.
I told the Master Gardeners about your black and white salvia. They were intrigued. And if I get the seed, we’ll find a place for them. I checked a dozen nurseries, and no joy. Here, they must be a bit rare. I also got the go-ahead to run down a Frau Dagmar Hastrap rose.
Our high yesterday was 68F (20C). Our overnight low was 41F (5C). Forecast high for today is 73F. Lots of big fluffy clouds, and a nice onshore flow. Probably, for the next week.
If you look at a globe, you might notice that it’s rather top heavy. No wonder it wobbles. Land is clustered in the northern hemisphere. Sooner or later, the whole darned thing will flip over. It’s happened before. That will be an “interesting” day.
You may have seen that Mt. Etna, in Sicily, is erupting. Again. Pyroclastic flows, etc..
https://www.yahoo.com/news/mount-etna-erupts-huge-plume-124820672.html
Oh, well. At least it erupts so frequently, that no-one is caught flat footed. As they were in Pompeii. Lew
Hi Lewis,
Very funny, I see your scoffing and raise you a reality – I had two jumpers on! And this beats your amusing proposition hands down. As every right thinking person knows, two jumpers is better than one in such a situation. Actually, on that particular note, I’ve wondered if the baker on the Titanic, as well as getting righteously sloshed to soothe probably correctly rattled nerves in a serious crisis, was wearing several layers of old school long johns. That’s what I would have done. Thin enough to put multiple layers on, but not so heavy as to drag you down into Davy Jones locker. Wet suits sort of work that way by trapping warmer water close to a persons skin.
Man, the plumber and I had a really good conversation yesterday. It was like stepping back eight years in the past as if there’d been no days in between. Sometimes you meet people you just click with. The work was done speedily, and he also thought to bring replacement parts. Plus a minor and unrelated issue up on the roof was fixed too. That’s what knowing your job looks like. 🙂 I aim for low stress with clients too, and over the years have walked away from clients who were too much hassle. It happens. Some problems can’t be fixed, and rarely because of technical issues. You’d have seen that over the years as well? What do you do? I’d imagine from time to time, people would become involved with the Club who had no intentions of ever getting to the core of matters.
Actually, I like the innovative new name of ‘hoppers’. Sounds kind of feral doesn’t it? Idiom need not make sense. 🙂
Spare us all from click beetles / wireworms! They’re present down here too, and I’ve seen them both in the soil and in the click form. What a nightmare, and it was hard to get a grasp on their characteristics because there’s a lot of variability. They do seem on average (from the accounts I read and not first hand experience) to prefer damp soil. And it has rained a lot at your place recently. Might be a problem. The stove ash can only help the soil regardless, and many reports suggest that a more basic soil will make it hard for the species. Not a bad idea at all, and certainly worth trying.
Lovely! Those German Chamomile plants died here many years ago, so I’m impressed to hear that they’ve done well in your area and you’re presumably drying them? Dunno what happened either to cause that die-off.
Your soil additions are beginning to sound an awful lot like what I’m doing here. 🙂 It works in the conditions – which aren’t all that different. Sweet basil is a true summer delight, and the aroma is just really nice. Just the thing to accompany fresh tomatoes. Good luck with the Brussels Sprouts and may the cabbage moths be occupied elsewhere. 🙂 I mentioned a few weeks ago that the Editor finally consumed some of those sprouts cooked after being freshly picked from a garden, and was suitably impressed. Not a vegetable which travels well because of the bitter response. Watch out for the Triffids, sorry, I meant to say, Zucchini’s!
Fingers crossed that the Salvia specie is tracked down in your part of the world. We’re planning to increase the collection of those plants – the honeyeaters really appreciate the reliable nectar from the species. Well, there’s a little story there… Years and years ago we encountered a display, or was it a plant sale run by the (if I recall correctly): Victorian Salvia Study Group. A lost opportunity that we didn’t purchase more of the plants…
Good luck with finding the rose! Lovely plants.
You’re having really nice weather. Did I mention that it’s now 38’F outside right now and raining? About a quarter of an inch of rain fell today – at times it was quite heavy. Glad the plumber fixed the heater yesterday as I’d been considering having to wear three woollen jumpers! 🙂 Which of course as you’d know is better than two.
The planet is a dynamic place – as they’re experiencing in Sicily. It’d be a major drama to have Pompeii covered all over again don’t you reckon? Makes you wonder if there are other ancient cities preserved by volcanic activity waiting to be discovered? Although as a species, we do tend to dig the soil a lot. 🙂
I don’t see any particular reason to believe that the axial tilt of the planet is fixed. Why would it be, we are floating in space after all and subject to the vagaries of all else around us.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – And, from The Wonderful World of Dangerous Critters, this just in from our state of North Carolina …
https://www.yahoo.com/news/huge-400-pound-alligator-captured-151120622.html
Summer soft. 🙂 Keep piling on those jumpers, and you’ll end up looking like the Michelin man. Or, the Pillsbury Dough Boy. Whose evil twin you may remember from “Ghostbusters.” It’s all about acclimatization.
I have no idea of the state of the Titanic baker’s underwear. 🙂 But, yes, layers keep you warmer. Even in water. Depending on the material. Long Johns are sometimes called “Woolies.” And, I suppose a pair or two of wool socks, would have kept him from losing toes.
I’ll have to consult the organic insect control company, and see if they’ve got anything for click beetles. I’ve noticed, looking around with my torch at night, that there are a very few small slugs, and, the rollie pollies are not much in evidence. However, on the lettuce I’m seeing some very small earwigs, and some kind of beetle. Click beetle? Not much damage, so far.
I’ve had luck with the Chamomile. I planted seed, last year, and didn’t get much. But this year, three volunteers popped up, and they were easy to move when small. I only replanted one, and it really took off. I put the blossoms on a plate, in the window, and they’re dry in four or five days. Then into the canister they go.
The Master Gardeners were quit interested in your black and white salvia. I even managed to figure out how to send your picture, to one of them. It’s called “Meigans Magic.” But, it seems to only be available in the UK and Australia. Maybe I can get someone to send me a letter, with a few seeds slipped under the stamp. 🙂 There is a process called the “Small Lots of Seed Program.” It’s not expensive, but complicated. On the other hand, how does the Land of Stuff manage to send seed? Happened to me once, when I ordered something off The River. One didn’t expect “The Idaho Seed Co.” to be located in The Land of Stuff.
They were also interested in the Frau Dagmar (etc.) rose. But all sources checked, were out of stock.
That was a really interesting site, about the salvia. Seems like lot of plants have “fan” clubs. 🙂 Back when I worked in an antique mall, we had a bunch of customers, who would come in looking for anything with a fuchsia on it. They tried to outdo each other. It was a real competition.
I’ll have to break out the Bacillus thuringiensis, for the sprouts. I’ve got some on hand. I might also try putting a sock on it. 🙂 I think I have some protective bags made of garden cloth.
Our high yesterday was 72F (22.22C). The overnight low was 45F (7.22C). Forecast high for today is 74F. The rest of the week, and weekend seems to be more of the same.
Oh, I suppose Pompeii will get buried again, sooner or later. At least this time around, they’ll know where everything is. 🙂 There are several towns and villages that have been buried by volcanic eruptions. The Mediterranean island of Santorini is a good example. A Mayan town, in San Salvador, was buried in ash in 660 C.E.. Joya de Ceren.
If things go to plan, I’ll check out the new discount grocery, tonight. I have a list 🙂 .
Apartment inspections in two weeks. Lew
Hi, Chris!
I can’t imagine, because of the cost, trying to entirely run a stove, or a refrigerator, on bottled gas.
In the 1970s I got my first new car. Do we all remember the Ford Pinto? Occasionally apt to blow up . . .
These rain charts are from your own records? Amazing. I am lucky if I can get around to finding a stick to put in the water that collected merely by chance in a bucket. And may I mention Peak Sticks? The area round my garden is now bereft of sticks because I so constantly gather them up to mark rows or to tie vegetables to. They are, however, renewable, more so than rocks. If you have trees.
That’s a beautiful pie, inside and out – it just needs to stay together. Lucky chooks.
Hey – I use cooked (or uncooked) sliced radishes as a substitute for water chestnuts in Asian food. I am thinking that turnips might work well for that, too. I have never liked turnips, but this year I grew some Japanese salad turnips, Shogoin, and I liked them very much. The problem is that they take up a lot of space anyway, and are very small roots, though you can eat their multitudinous leaves, so this fall I am going to try growing regular turnips again. Maybe I have developed a taste for them.
Not too hot, nor too cold, and beautiful fall leaf colors to boot! A good day for digging, man or wombat. Or groundhog.
I enjoyed the video. The topic was clearly and and concisely covered. That’s what the teacher said . . . Is the cement and Blue Glue like the JB Water Weld that I use on my shoes?
Thank you for all the striking colors in the leaves and flowers. Well, maybe not “striking” in the rhubarb, but lovely.
Pam
Chris,
Those are wonderful rainfall records you’ve kept. I can see why you’re concerned this year. Seeing the past years that have seen similar or less rainfall for the first 5 months of the year, well, the results and events haven’t been good for you.
Your average rainfall makes our official average of 420mm seem paltry. I’ve never seen even 500mm in a year. To compare this past 5 months directly with your situation…We would expect an average of 203mm of rainfall from January through May. We were exactly at the average expectation for the first two months at the end of February. At the end of May we are 31.5mm behind, meaning it has been a dry spring. To make matters worse, our snowfall this past season was a meager 739mm, 36% less than the average 1,153mm. Yet our plight pales in comparison with yours.
Meanwhile, it is supposed to be between 31C and 35C for about a week starting Thursday. These days of 20C to 25C have been pleasant. I’ll have to start waking up earlier, get on my “summer schedule”.
Okay, and more “relativity”. The Princess was with her brother again for a few days. The nights here were nicely cool. I kept the house between 16C and 20C that entire time. It was perfect for me. Your 6 blanket nights? Well. I did keep a blanket on my feet at these temperatures. If the feet get cold, I don’t sleep. I find our periodic comparisons about how we cope at similar temperatures to be fascinating.
I tell ya what. My first reaction to all of those new rocks in the new cages was, “What happened to peak rocks? He didn’t even mention peak rocks!” You explained from whence many of the rocks came with your discussion about the digging project for the water tanks. Getting rocks from there was a welcome bonus, I bet.
Anyhow, I completely enjoyed how you designed those new rock cages to act as supports for those new water pipes. That was brilliant. I also liked how you solved the problem of the curve and the slight elevation drop between cages. The entire project design and implementation are superb. And you avoided having to construct separate supports for the new water pipes. Both the Princess and I were appreciative of such a grand idea and wonderful work. We admired the photos for several minutes.
In local events…Dame Avalanche, in true husky fashion, will lie in the sun regardless of temperature until she can’t stand it any longer. Then she dives into her 60cm deep hole to get a rapid cooling when it is in the shade. Otherwise, she finds other deep shade.
Then there are the bird wars. Or should I call this Raptors versus Corvids? Monday’s main event occurred while I was outdoors enjoying the morning coffee. I noticed that the squirrels were motionless under cover and that many of the smaller birds had followed suit. No corvids were observed. I looked up to see the King of the Skies, an American bald eagle circling overhead. With the white plumage on the head and tail, these are quite a sight to watch. The house is about 3.5km from the river, near enough that we will see the occasional bald eagle, far enough away that it is not even a weekly occurrence. Seeing bald eagles was nearly a daily event at dad’s house growing up.
Then came Tuesday. I think I mentioned that a small hawk recently raided a crow’s nest and grabbed a hatchling, naturally getting chased by a crow or three. Well, Tuesday, a crow was in the street, facing south, doing whatever crows do in the street while facing south. Suddenly, at about Mach 5 (or so it seemed), one of the small hawks swooped toward the crow, coming from the north and behind the crow. The intrepid corvid sensed something and ducked just in time. Otherwise, the hawk would have ripped the crow’s head off its body, I’m sure. The raptor sped away with an enraged and noisy corvid in rapid pursuit.
The past few years watching the interaction between crows and ravens has been interesting. The new contest between the hawks and crows is on a completely different level. If they were humans, I would suggest that there is personal animosity causing a feud of rival clans.
That lemon meringue pie looked good. Too bad the meringue slid off the pie, though. I was disappointed by one thing about that: no video of sliding meringue to watch. 😉
DJSpo
wood heating- no, our Russian furnace does not have a water heat exchanger. Kind of wish it did. I know of one home nearby with similar stove, but a quite elaborate water heating system. It would be hard to retrofit one, so we make do.
Our well has a pressure switch that is adjustable, but I have it set at a fairly low pressure ( 40 psi ) to reduce chances of leaks with water hoses, and so it we don’t use as much water. As far as the gravity rainwater setups, it’s surprising how little head will give adequate flow for watering.
cherry trees- well………most of the cherries seem to go to the birds. I have not pruned them much, and they are not dwarf trees, so getting pretty tall. But even when I was netting, I found I had to do a very thorough job, or the buggers would find the smallest gap and get to the cherries.
I also found the netting to be arelly snaggy, tangled chore to take down, so unless I do a complete framed net tunnel, we’ll just share.
Hi Pam,
🙂 Say, that’s a lot of cost for the bottled gas! People do use gas that way around these parts, but it must ruinously expensive. The gas tanks are huge, and require a truck to turn up and refill. Not like the old days of the diesel oil heaters in the living room being the only heat source in a house, are they?
Forget about the Pinto occasional burst into flames incidents due to a supposed lack of a $10 part (which was optional I believe), look at the price. You’re gonna love it. 🙂 Pam, we drive small cars, and some of the behemoths on the roads these days freak me out a bit. It’s a bit of worst case scenario a risk, and nice for some. Has your son had a chance yet to fix up the new beastie car?
The records are pretty flash, and behind those neat tables exists the day by day records. The data comes from a local interweb rainfall gauge paid for by the local water authority which has neatly supplied the records every day for many years. Sometimes we get slightly more rain in this location, but the difference is no big deal.
Oh my, Peak Sticks is real. The same dearth exists here too because the sticks provide fuel for bushfires, so are cleaned up all the time. A great ash source for the soil though. Do your sticks begin breaking down into soil for the rows?
The chooks happily gobbled the meringue down, although they were hesitant at first. It’s hard to tell, but do you reckon chickens have a sweet tooth, err, beak / gullet?
I can see that with radishes as they sort of provide a similar crunch to the water chestnuts. Japanese salad turnips you say? Hmm. We don’t seem to have that variety down here, but I was intrigued with one called: Turnip ‘White Mini’. Correction, the Japanese variety are available here. They look like a white radish to my eyes and are labelled as a hybrid F1 seed. Do you save seeds from your lot?
Regular turnips were a bit disappointing tasting even after careful oven preparation. Potatoes provide more value from the scarce garden soil growing space. Worth a go though, absolutely. And the sugar beets were all eaten by rabbits, wombats and deer.
How is the groundhog situation going?
No, err, maybe. The two part cement is specific for the material uPVC which the pipes are made from. There are an awful lot of different plastics in use, so who knows whether it works for your shoes? And I so get where you are going with the footwear having ruined a pair of work boots by getting too close to a burn-off. Who knew the soles would melt and the glues to the leather upper would unstick?
Always nice to gain a glimpse of the over-world that is the land of Faery. Tricksey folks they are, and a person has to be fast with the camera.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
If the signs portend a dry year, then a person has to consider the reality that it may well be a dry year. You can see why for a lot of this year we’ve thrown so much effort at getting the water systems working right? The daily rainfall data comes from a weather station run by the local water authority which has been operating for many years now. Each week, I just grab the data. The station is located a bit closer to the more fashionable end of the mountain range, and sometimes it rains slightly more here, but the difference is statistically insignificant.
Ook! It’s hard for my brain to wrap itself around the precipitation numbers in your area – like does the snowfall get added to that number you mentioned? Your part of the world benefits from access to the large and reliable rivers presumably originating from biggerest mountains further east? The local creek here by comparison have occasionally run dry some years and could be jumped across easily. I use the flow in the creek to alert me to the conditions of the groundwater in the forest.
Yup, summer schedule means early mornings for us here as well. It’s almost dark at 7am now as we edge closer to the winter solstice. Getting up in the dark is not an enjoyable personal experience, but must be borne with good grace, and only the occasional whinge. Keep out of the afternoon sun on those hot days…
Sunday night / Monday morning I awoke and the house was 14’C, which is a bit too cold for my tastes, although in the past I’ve experienced 11’C. No better way to warm up Monday than head outdoors and work hard. 🙂 Like you, I don’t sleep well when it gets too cold and the blankets are not adequate, but it depends on the physical activity I’d done during the day prior to that night. Sitting on my backside doing paid work all day leaves me feeling more susceptible to cold weather.
Exactly, there are plenty of rocks ‘out there’, it’s just that we have to either dig, split boulders or head deeper into the forest to access the resource.
Thank you! 🙂 Very much appreciated the kind words. Stacking functions so that a chunk of infrastructure can easily support more than a single use, is an aspect of the various projects which reveals itself slowly, a little bit at a time. Like today I was thinking of the future firewood shed project and the thought bubble popped into my head: why stop at room for eight solar PV panels? If properly designed and constructed there’d be space for sixteen solar PV panels! It’s not as if the wiring isn’t already there to cope with that much energy.
It’s 3’C outside right now. Brr! The pipes have already begun channelling water into the tank. The skiers will be celebrating the blast of cold Antarctic air forecast over this week and the next: Polar blast to deliver long weekend snow in Aussie Alps. Zero chance of snow here, but plenty of rain will fall, maybe. Fingers crossed. Touch wood. I’m only just keeping ever so slightly ahead of the climate with project work around the place.
Oh no! A dog which enjoys a solid sun squoosh head cooking feeling. We’ve had some dogs in the past who used to overdo it, and Toothy the long haired dachshund comes to mind. I used to have to drag him into the shade to cool off and meanwhile the canine was looking kind of woozy. Like, what kind of story do you have to tell yourself to do that? Dame Avalanche is titled because clearly she respect limits. Toothy was a lesser creature.
Eagles can see things none of us lesser species would notice. Imagine what their eyes can see when they look up into a night sky full of stars, planets, the moon and stuff?
It’s tough in the world of bird, and the hawk is merely acting out in a fit of youthful exuberance directed at the crow, maybe… And yes, it does seem kind of personal doesn’t it? Makes you wonder what happened to take current events to that escalated level?
I didn’t think about adding in a sliding meringue incident to the video (he says noting down the excellent idea for use at another time).
Started early this morning and worked late tonight… A long but reasonably successful day.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Steve,
Thermal mass would be a great benefit of your masonry heaters. I wasn’t entirely sure what a Russian furnace was and some of the titled varieties in interweb images from Europe were a bit over the top. I prefer the more functional look of the American varieties. Your system would be more resilient, because the elaborate heating system hanging off the wood heater is just that – elaborate and probably more prone to failure for that reason.
The heat exchanger collects heat from the combustion chamber, then redistributes it to the hydronic radiators throughout the house, and also stores the energy in a 400L (100 gallon) header tank.
If I’d known more when we built the house I’d have added a radiator to the battery room. It’s cold in there, and batteries are chemical reactors so the low temperatures reduces their capacity. I’m trying to find out just how much, but nobody seems to have any clear idea. Hmm.
Ah, interesting and that makes sense. I believe that water pressure here is around 60psi, which is pretty good. Presumably your well isn’t that deep? Some of the wells I hear about around here can be a 100m or more deep. Interestingly, I just found a state goobermint map of bores in the area, and there looks like one here on this land, which makes no sense. Hmm.
Exactly, a small drop in elevation is all that is required to get water flowing out of a tap or hose. Gravity is amazing.
Birds and cherries… And netting. They have all day long to ponder the vulnerabilities of the structures you placed over the trees.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
That’s one hefty gator, and good to see that the local constabulary were enjoying their work. Far out, you wouldn’t want to stuff that job up – things would end badly for sure.
Speaking of summer soft, it’s 38’F outside right now. Brr! A little bit chilly, and I’m very grateful for the working wood heater. How good was that scene from Ghostbusters? So many great lines in the film as well. Truly enjoyable, and a little bit demented as well, but always fun. You’re right about acclimatisation, but last week was sunny and warm-ish. My brain hurts even thinking about it all.
See, these are the sorts of questions I’ll bet the investigators failed to ask. From what I could gather, the authoritas seemed none too happy that the baker had survived the sinking – you just didn’t get that flavour from reading the historical accounts. That seemed weird to me, but then the line did kind of bill the families of the musicians for the cost of the suits. Maybe there was a lack of sensitivity as to what actually happened? It’s funny you mention the toes, but that was apparently the only minor injury the bloke scored that fateful night.
Slugs are more upfront about their activities than roly-poly’s which are a bit sneaky and hide under detritus. They even live under rocks here, so those things are tough as. Probably taste like chicken… 🙂
Thanks for the info on harvesting and drying the chamomile. Might have to revisit the plant. The tea is quite pleasant, but some folks I’ve heard are a bit put-off by the taste.
Ah, that’s it! Salvia ‘Meigan’s Magic’ looks about spot on to me, and aren’t the flowers great? Turns out it was apparently a chance seedling in the state to the west of here. No wonder the seeds are not found in your country. We’re seriously going to add to the Salvia and Penstemmon plants because they’re super drought hardy and the birds love the nectar.
Drop shippers are a difficulty, and back in the day it used to be easier to know who was where, but things are a bit cloudy nowadays. The other week I bought a kit of stainless steel screws and they claimed local, but were actually from the land of stuff. Got air freighted too – which makes no sense to me.
The in-demand rose seems to be enjoying supply issues. What is it about the particular rose that makes it so desirable? There are thousands of different rose varieties.
Fuchsia’s seem to bring out that collector mindset, yeah. In the valley directly below, there’s a road named Fuchsia lane which long ago used to have a plant nursery and some massive record breaking hanging basket – apparently a bit of a thing… On the other side of the mountain saddle is a Pear Lane, and it makes me wonder if there was an orchard there long in the past now?
Hope you get on top of the dreaded cabbage moths. Not much stops them, and they boomed the year the tall forest eucalyptus trees all decided to flower. Unfussy critters, probably out survive the human race! 🙂
Oooo. I’ll have a look into Joya de Ceren. Finished work well past 8pm tonight and began just before 9am this morning. A long work day. Brain is a bit cooked, but at least I’m warm. It’ll be 15’C / 59’F tomorrow. Sure is cold outside tonight.
Go the list! An enviable tool in the continual fight to stay on track. The Editor loves lists. Did you make it to the shop?
Far out. Is two weeks enough?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Chris,
Repercussions from the tornado that cruised through the city of St. Louis on May 16th are ongoing (yes, it was a tornado, and a strong EF3 tornado with multiple whirls and a mile-wide path at its worst). My honorary daughter’s house, which she shares with her mother, brother, and two daughters, had its roof and attic removed by the tornado. Her house was among 5,000 structures damaged by the tornado. She, her mother, and her brother have been living in a motel suite since (one of her daughters has an internship in New York this summer, the other is living with one of her cousins), until they can find a place to rent. Rental houses and apartments were in short supply to start with; with so many suddenly in need of a place to stay until their residence is repaired, rents have gone up to levels like coastal cities. With so many buildings needing repair, local insurance agents’ caseloads are enormous, and timelines for places needing substantial repairs such as her house extend well into next year. She’s been told not to expect repairs to even begin until next year. Difficult times for those who suffered losses, and undoubtably a further increase in insurance rates for all of us. It’s a good thing that tornadoes don’t hit densely populated urban areas more often than they do.
Brrr … no one likes the heat to not be there when needed. Our gas fired furnace failed like that on us one year. The furnace company got the technician out to fix it commendably quickly, at the price of a high emergency service fee.
We hope we have avoided a similar situation with the air conditioner this summer by remembering to get the yearly maintenance done before we needed it. During that work it was discovered that the AC wasn’t working properly. The technician told us that there were two possibilities, one that was fixable with a replacement part, the other of which was not and would require a new unit to be installed. We opted to gamble on the replacement part and were very pleased when the replacement was performed and the AC works again. We haven’t needed the AC yet; so far the high temperature has yet to reach 90F (the average date for the first high of 90F is 20 May), and we don’t start using the AC until the high gets closer to 95F.
The lettuce, cabbages, collards, and bok choy are the best looking they have been in years. Part of that is the lack of excessive heat, but it is also a relative lack of predators, for unknown reasons. Meanwhile, the tomato plants are finally catching hold and growing well, and I have a good set of summer squash and yard-long bean seedlings from last week’s sowing. Now I’m keeping an eye on the apricots, hoping the birds and squirrels leave a few for us to eat.
Claire
@ Pam – Molotov Pinto. :-). Lew
Yo, Chris – I appreciated the sense of humor, in that article. Quit skillful, I thought. I did wonder about the wisdom of releasing the creature near a boat ramp.
Our high yesterday was 73F (22.77C). Our overnight low was 54F (12.22C). Forecast high for today is 65F.
I think the authorities, and the White Star Line would have been happier if everyone had gone down with the ship. Dead men tell no tales.
Pam mentioned that that rose was known for its large rose hips. Which I find interesting, and, perhaps, useful. Rose hips as big as apples! 🙂
Years ago, I ran across some author who noticed that things are often named for things that are gone. “Deer Run,” and not a deer in sight. “Oak Grove,” but all the oaks have been cut down.
Yes, I made my maiden voyage to Winco, last night. I went over about 10:30. Looks like a good time to shop, not many people around. Oh, my gosh! It’s better than Dizzy Land! They had several things that are impossible, or hard to find. And the prices! Cheap! Or should I get all classy and say, inexpensive? They didn’t have all the Bob’s Red Mill line. And it wasn’t all in one place. I told at least three clerks that they needed to pull it all together, and stock the full line. I would have bought a 25 pound bag of rolled oats, but they didn’t have them.
So, I hit the bulk bins, and those will hold me until they get in more Bob’s Red Mill. Rolled oats were .70 a pound. There were dried cranberries. I was paying $5.49 a pound, buying 25 pounds at a time, on line. From the bins, it was $3.48 a pound. I don’t know if it was Ocean Spray. Bananas were .54 a pound. They had Swiss cheese! One pound bricks for $5.18. I notice that a 1 1/2 quart of Umpqua ice cream was $3.48. At the yuppie discount grocer it has jumped to $5+. And, I bought a few other things that were hard to find, elsewhere, and cheap. We got a commodities food box, today. I don’t want to throw too much food at you, all at once. Food fight! 🙂 Lew
Chris:
That’s a beastie truck, and, no, my son has not had time to do much work on it as Mr. Musty the ancient Toyota Pickup had to have a major overhaul, which is not quite complete, but he’s going again. His brakes are a bit wonky, but he does not go on public roads. Did you ever have a car with wonky brakes? I have, a couple of times, and it is so reassuring when they are manual transmission because you can just shift down to slow the thing down.
That is very generous for the local water authority to furnish a rain gauge measurement. It sure beats my bucket and a stick.
My row marker and stake sticks usually do break down inthe soil some. I especially find this out with the taller stake sticks, as when I go to push them further into the ground, they break off and sometimes I take a tumble if I was pushing too hard.
I don’t know what to call a chook’s gullet. You can throw pretty much anything into it.
This is the first time I have tried the Japanese turnips, so we’ll see if I get any seed. They were a bit pricey, I think. I don’t think it’s hybrid, but they are a lovely golden color. My problem is that I planted young pepper plants among them and the turnip tops are huge now and shading the peppers. They are bolting, though, so I need to pick most of them.
My potatoes stems have “potato blackleg”. I’ll bet it has something to do with being planted in black plastic. I just hate the black plastic, but it sure does keep the weeds down.
Remember when I mentioned volunteer tomatoes in the early spring and I brought some inside when my seedlings failed due to their potting soil? I have huge volunteer plants in the garden from the ones that I never pulled up and it is going to be very interesting to see what varieties they are and how they produce. I am not babying them. This is the first year that volunteer tomatoes have gotten so big. Strange, since it was also the coldest May that we have had in 36 years.
So far, so good. Attila has not even tried to get in the garden again – yet.
I almost stepped on a faery in the driveway today, then I realized that it was a big, fat toad. Same realm, but not slim.
Pam
Chris,
I hear you. If it looks, acts and feels like a dry year, it will probably be a dry year. I’ve paid attention to your weekly rainfall updates since I first started visiting here. When your total rainfall for the first 5 months of the calendar year coincides with our “average” amount for that time frame, you are in a seriously dry period. Getting the water storage situation improved would have been high on my priority list also.
Yes. The “rainfall equivalent” of any fallen snow is counted as part of the rainfall. The nice mountains in Idaho and Montana to the east and northeast of us contribute a lot of water to our underground aquifer. The aquifer originates somewhere under the large Lake Pend Oreille northeast of here. The Clark Fork River, which originates just west of the Continental Divide near Butte, Montana, collects water from a ginormous area and ends at Lake Pend Oreille. Other rivers also feed that lake, and somehow, eventually, the aquifer. And yes, those are biggerest mountains that eventually feed Lake Pend Oreille.
If we were 3 weeks from the winter solstice, it would be dark about 4:15 p.m. Sunrise maybe 8:00 a.m. We achieve slightly less than 8 hours of so-called daylight on the shortest day of the year. Of course, it can be cloudy then, also, to make it darker. One January, we went the entire month with no sun breaks. Rare, but possible.
14C indoors? Ok, I admit to requiring a blanket at that temperature. Maybe two. I have worse sleep issues if it is too warm. Compounding the heat this time of year is the light: we get about 16 hours of the sun being up, but the skies start getting light about 3:30 a.m. and can retain some light until about 10 p.m. or later.
Ohhh, nice thought about the proper woodshed design to add a bit more electricity generation. Will the new woodshed be larger than the current one? I think you may have mentioned that you could do with having a larger supply of winter wood than you’ve had in the past. Something about the woodshed getting close to empty?
Yeah, 3C outside is chilly, especially when you’re dropping from summer. It takes awhile to acclimate to that after being used to 30C and warmer for several months. Hopefully, that big storm system will drop a good amount of rain on you. We need rain. You NEED rain, desperately.
Fortunately with Dame Avalanche, if I see her frying her brain in the sun, the moment I go outside she stands up and moves into the shade. If I think she is too hot, I can always turn the hose on her, give her a quick bath. Later in the summer, Killian and Avalanche will drag their humans on walks near the Little Spokane River. There is a place where the dogs can access the river, swim around and cool down.
Having eagle vision would be interesting. They can sure see tiny things from a big distance. I never wondered before how they view the night sky. Dad was very farsighted. He could sometimes see one of Jupiter’s moons without binoculars or a telescope. I bet eagles could see more than that.
Had to take the Princess’s car into the shop Tuesday for routine maintenance. Had to leave it overnight, as there was more than routine. Her rear wheels couldn’t get properly aligned as one of the struts had gotten bent. They said probably because of hitting a pothole in the road too hard. Both rear struts had to be replaced. I got a Lyft ride home in an electric vehicle. We got to talking about the EV. He said it works fantastic in the urban area, but that long road trips aren’t feasible. There aren’t enough charging stations. Summer heat reduces his mileage per fully charged battery somewhat, but winter just crushes the car’s performance. He verified my suspicion that you cannot drive from Spokane to Seattle without having to charge the batteries at least once.
DJSpo
Hi Claire,
Whoa! I’d not realised the damage was so extensive, and sorry to say, but the disaster has dropped out of the news, as often happens down here as well. Yes, it’s all very remote and abstract, until people you know and love are caught up in a disaster. I’m so sorry to hear that your friends and honorary relatives were heavily impacted by the tornado, and an F3 is a whopper. At least the family survived the destruction. Roofs can be replaced, but lives are not so easy. What to do and where to go is an important question, sorry to say.
You and Mike were lucky to have dodged the worst of that storms track.
Living in a disaster zone myself, that sort of outcome is always at the back of my mind. Down here, I believe that the authoritas allow two years (and probably more if needed) to live on site following a big fire. Low vacancy rates in the rental market means that option is a non-starter. I’d go full on shed life, if required. Mind you, in between paid work this morning and this evening, I headed down below to the forest edge to continue the clean up work. It’s been a dry year.
Insurance will be rationed on price, just like everything else. Some of the flood impacted areas up north east of the continent are facing that very issue.
Oh my! Your area’s winter temperatures would be a serious problem without heating. It was bad enough here, and this morning was 2’C and frosty. Brr! Isn’t it great when tradies help you out when you’re in a pickle?
Yeah, it’s weird isn’t it? Some years can bring 10 days over 40’C (in the shade), but the past few years it’s been warmer overall, but with less extreme days. 90’F is quite pleasant, and good for the garden and so hopefully the more extreme days don’t eventuate for you. 🙂 I’ve never lived in an air conditioned house. It troubles me though that the overnight minimum’s during summer are getting up there. The worst I’ve seen was 29’C and that was hot and uncomfortable night.
🙂 Happy days when Brassica plants thrive in the summer months. One year when the tall eucalyptus trees were flowering, the entire area smelled of honey, and I spotted the cabbage moths way up there in the forest canopy enjoying the flowers. The rotters! I could lend you some predators if you want? This evening two deer were cleared out of the orchard, and a very large and healthy looking rat was in the Meyer lemon tree knocking fruit onto the ground. Ollie is useful at times, and we startled the rodent into submission.
Fingers crossed that your apricots ripen in the sunshine and summer warmth. A truly lovely fruit, and we’re consuming apricot jam at lunch on fresh bread and bottled (canned) apricots with breakfast. Yum!
Cheers
Chris
Hi Pam,
It’s funny you mention wonky and dodgy brakes, but a long time ago in a misbegotten youth, a friend requested me to drive his car to a meeting point in the country. Why not? It seemed like an adventure. But did he tell me that the brakes were having troubles with the hydraulic lines? No. So thirty five years ago I sailed down a hill and across a busy intersection against the lights with no brakes. Proving that conditions were quieter in those days – there was no accident. Nothing was hit and the car rolled to a halt (with frantic down shifting of the gears). The brake pedal had to be pumped hard. Sometimes people omit important information and you end up on someone else’s idea of a journey, or more probably, nightmare.
These are the same folks I pay a water bill to and for no connection, so at least the online rain gauge makes up for the lack. It’s outrageous that bill. Oh well, a person has to move on.
Oh no! I can see how the tumbling episodes could occur. At least the soil is being fed with some interesting minerals from the sticks.
Did paid work this morning, and then late this evening. But in-between, I headed down to the forest edge to continue the clean up. Got a nice bonfire going which warms the soul.
Chickens are not fussy creatures – and the things I’ve seen over the years. Nowadays I refuse to take in the commercial birds after witnessing a cannibal attack on my favourite black silkie chicken. Many birds were dealt to that day, I can assure you, and one was also an act of mercy. A horrid episode.
Yellow Japanese turnips? The ones sold down here are small white bulb shaped root vegies, but with that name, and an F1 insignia. Different?
It’s early days for peppers, maybe? Any sign of fruit on them?
Blackleg is present in this states soils. Yikes! Err, maybe it is time to rotate that crop (and it’s entire family) to another part of the garden if that is even possible?
Pam, one really hot and dry year, I noticed that the neglected volunteer tomatoes out performed the more mollycoddled seedlings. How was that even possible? Self seeded tomatoes here are usually the cherry varieties. Might be worth seed saving from that lot, if they’re any good. Dunno.
Ollie and I cleared off two deer this evening in the shady orchard. Had they asked permission to be there? I don’t think so. The probably know Atilla, just sayin’.
It always pays to be nice to denizens of the land of Faery. 🙂 And yes, toads get a bad rap, but is it justified? When I was a kid adults used to tell me that I’d get warts from frogs and toads. Hmm.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
I’m cleaning up the surrounding forest as best as I’m able too. It’s hard work that, but if a fire gets in there and the work is not done, the whole lot dies. Looks like next week is rainy weather. We’ll see how it goes. In the past rain has been forecast and then fails to eventuate. That potential rain was the reason I dropped everything and connected up the drainage pipes to the water tank. A lot of my year has been like that – responding to events with but a moment to spare.
Oh, right! Bear in mind snow is a once or twice a year event here, so I appreciate your perspective. You said in the past it was about a 10% conversion rate of snow to rainfall, does that formula work?
I looked at dozens of images of the mountains of Idaho and Montana and failed to see a photo I didn’t like. Those are epically tall and sometimes just under 4,000m. That’s big. There’s nothing like that on this entire continent! 🙂 No wonder your rivers and aquifers are reliable sources of water. Far out, those areas would have some seriously cold winters though. The forecast here over the next week or so includes the possibility of snow over 1,000m (which is way higher than here).
Ah, being further south than you are north (but due to elevation having a climate of around 44’S) the winter mornings start a little earlier here relatively speaking at this time of year. It’s kind of dark now at 7am, but soon lightens up, and by 5:30pm, the day is done. Do you get that prolonged twilight during the winter months? One winter many years ago we were in the island state of Tasmania, and the twilight there was very different to how things roll on the mainland. It was prolonged and a murky gray colour hung over the sky. Probably not a good explanation, but that’s my memory of how it used to look.
Yes, the new firewood shed will be much larger than the old one. Work from home shifted costs to the home, and from that point onwards we ran short of firewood (although have a decent firewood plan B in place now). Last I checked second hand solar panels cost very little, mostly because there is so much waste when people upgrade their systems. The old panels can’t be used for some weird reason during an upgrade – as you do. And I don’t believe that there is anywhere on the continent that can properly recycle these high tech items. Oh well the things will probably have a 50 year lifespan.
Hope you continue to get some regular rain over your city, and the rain is very much needed here. Things are far drier west of here: A welcome week of showers for Adelaide, Melbourne, Hobart. The forecast rain appears to be falling just where it is needed.
Dame Avalanche is a clever dog to remove herself from the effect of the sun squooshing rays, albeit at your suggestion. 🙂 Dogs love the water, and what a fun trip that would be for the Dame and her friend Killian.
What? I’ve never spoken to anyone with eyes impacted by far sight. What a rabbit hole the discussion sent me on. Did you dad drive a car, or were there glasses so as to partially correct his vision? Did you inherit that?
Dude, I so feel your wallet pain there. The original dirt Mouse Suzuki (not the current red one) was a drive away demo model. For some weird reason, the dealer added low profile tires and 17inch alloy wheels to that car, and never again would I contemplate such a combination. 100% looks, 1% practicality. It was like the gift which kept on giving. The tires lasted maybe 20,000km and pot holes eventually took out the alloy wheels too. An expensive option and not really appropriate for poor country roads. At least struts are fairly cheap to replace, maybe.
And EV’s, yup. I’m guessing it’d get cold enough in your part of the world to actually reduce the capacity of the car batteries during the deep winter months. Never travelled in an EV myself. Ah 450km, that’s a goodly distance. Most cars are designed for some weird reason to be able to traverse about 600km. Have you ever taken the train on that trip?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
It is nice to see people going about unusual and dangerous tasks not in a high state of emotion, and in fact quite enjoying themselves.To be calm in a crisis is a real skill, sadly often lacking these days. The things I hear from people who work directly with the general public is that common courtesy is far from common these days. And I’ve had people go off at me too. It makes me feel very deeply uncomfortable because soon such outbursts can become repeat behaviour. Of course, me being me, there are often consequences for people pulling that trick. I’ve got a hunch that people who vent their emotional energy at others as a coping mechanism probably are addicted to the pressure release. But what do I know? There’s probably a club for that?
The alligator had to go somewhere. 🙂 Who’d swim in those waters? Far out! To bad if the boat capsized and went into the drink. I can’t forget the sharks and the survivors from the torpedoed and stricken WWII US navy vessel. You’d never head out to sea again after that.
73’F sounds delightful to me, and it was 59’F here today (briefly!). This morning was frosty and 36’F, now that was cold feeling and a four blanket night. I was a bit stressed after the long paid work day yesterday, and a small problem had been nagging at the back of my mind. Anyway woke up at about 4am and had to coax the brain back into a state of calm before going to sleep again. This morning with a clearer mind, the problem got resolved. Makes me wonder if the brain put the puzzle on an overnight background batch program to work out a resolution. 🙂 Always nice to resolve issues.
So did paid work this morning and late this afternoon. But in between, I headed down to the forest edge to continue the clean up work. Had a nice toasty warm bonfire too. There’s a lot of rocks in that area. Need more rocks…
The rains are meant to return late tomorrow afternoon and continue for about five or six days. We’ll see how it goes. They’re forecasting damaging winds too. Ook! Oh well, that’s winter for you.
There’s a long weekend coming up too for the King’s birthday public holiday (on Monday). I presume you don’t celebrate that day? Hehe! He seems alright. A fondness for organic gardening can’t be all that bad.
Ooooo, I’d not considered that aspect of the investigation, but yeah. Dead men do tell no tales. Last weekend I was explaining your areas delightful quip of: shoot, shovel and shut-up. People seem to be handy with the first two options, but the third? Maybe not so much.
What? I’ve never seen such large rose hips. Surely you exaggerate the facts? 🙂 Actually the photos showed that they were pretty big. It’s an old school rose with those leaves. Hope you manage to track one down.
Oak dearth sounds better, but as a marketing campaign, it may not fly. New housing estates down here rarely have big established trees. As an author, being able to comprehend the language would seem like a powerful tool to wield – so poking holes in ironically named places is par for course. There’s a suburb in the big smoke with the name: Deer Park. Originally, sure there’d have been deer, maybe not so much nowadays. There is an old hunt club building there though. Ollie and I shooed two deer out of the shady orchard this evening, so those gentleman did everyone a disservice by introducing the deer, if it was that lot that did it.
Well done, and the visit to the new business sounds like a successful one. Rolled oats are a very particular purchase for me too because they’re not all the same. Some are cut from crops which haven’t been in the ground long enough (or at least that’s my best guess). And there is a lot of variance in the processing.
Those bulk bins are rarely if ever seen down under. Fascinating and from the images the line of product they stocked in those bins seemed extensive. What do you put the stuff into? Paper bags, plastic, or what?
Thanks for not overloading my brain with lots of food. Did the box turn up today? And more importantly, was it any good?
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – “Anger Management” is big business, here. Counseling … therapy, whatever. Often court ordered.
Our high yesterday was 66F (18.88C). Our overnight low was 52F (11.11C). The forecast high for today is 80F.
It’s funny how the mind will sometimes work on problems, while asleep. My Idaho friends sent me a picture of an oil painting that the husband is putting in his bedroom. They claim it’s something I sold to them. It’s of a winsome young lady, sans clothes. Not my style at all, and I can’t imagine buying such a thing, for resale. But after sleeping on it, I think it was from my old landlord, Don. We shared shop space, for awhile.
No I don’t think we’ll be celebrating the King’s birthday. Though our current Fearless Leader is planning some kind of a big blowout, for his. Soon to become a national holiday, I’m sure. 🙂
Yes,, I can’t believe the goobers (or, your grandfather’s favorite name), who splash their crimes across social media. Potential employers are now delving into job prospects social media.
The bins at the new discount grocer are pretty amazing. Most are big, clear plastic barrels. You rip a plastic bag off a roll, fill it up, and close it with a paper and wire twist tie. You write the bin number on the twist tie. Pens on flexible twisted cord are provided at intervals. For things you might buy in smaller amounts, there are clear plastic “silos” with a spout and “gate.” You wrap the plastic bag, very firmly around the spout and open the gate. Rate of flow can be regulated by how far you open the gate. Maybe I can find a picture … I must say though, that getting sticky things, like cranberries and dried prunes, out of the barrels, is a challenge. Though I managed.
We got a commodity box, yesterday. Not to look a gift food box in the mouth, but most of it will go down to the swap table. There was a 2 lb. brick of cheese “product” but also a one pound pack of cheddar cheese. A 16oz bottle of veg oil. 6 bottles of nutritional drink for old people. 4 individual plastic cups of flavored yoghurt. A dozen eggs. (As that made almost 3 doz in my fridge, I took those down to the Club, to give to Jane for the Funny Farm). A one pound bag each of dried beans: pinto, navy and kidney. A little box with 8 packets of chicken bullion. 1 pound each of frozen, ground beef and pork. The fresh veg was pretty thin. 4 potatoes, a handful of carrots and 4 apples. A jar of peanut butter. 2 one pound boxes of elbow macaroni. 2 big boxes of corn flakes cereal and two quarts of shelf stable milk. A 2 quart jug of grape drink. Two shelf stable packets of chicken and one packet of chili.
As far as the canned stuff went, one each of tomato sauce, green beans, and apple sauce. Two each of pears, peas and carrots. Three pinto beans. Four whole kernel corn.
Not a bad lot, but as you mentioned with the oatmeal, what about quality? As long as I can afford it, I’ll pass the middling stuff along, and buy better quality, for myself.
After soaking the seed, overnight (to give them a leg up), yesterday I planted four hills of zucchini. Two yellow, two green, two seeds per hill. I think I mentioned I had prepared the planting sites with composted chicken poop, mushroom compost and bone meal. I gave it a good mix into the soil. On reflection, I also added some coffee grounds and stove ash, before planting. We’ll see how they do. Lew
Yo, Chris – Here ya go. A ten minute video tour of the bulk bins, at Winco.
https://youtu.be/HVzqd81pAWA?si=mra_EWTOw6co67t9
Your mind will be boggled. Lew
@ Lew:
Ha, ha! At least I was never the cocktail. Don’t know about the person that I gave it to later. . .
Pam
Chris:
That was some journey in the other bloke’s car. A nightmare, as you said, and pretty unforgiveable.
I have never figured out how they can charge you for water that you can’t even get if you want it, being unconnected. It’s too bad that I can’t say what I really think.
I remember that horrible chicken and that episode. They’re all cannibals at heart.
Yes – small, pale yellow turnips. Not at all what you have. And lots of big, leafy tasty greens.
There are some small peppers on some plants and quite a few small green tomatoes. I have a strong feeling that most, if not all, of the volunteer plants are cherries. They are so much hardier than the bigger ones. I will definitely save seeds.
I had not heard of blackleg before. These have been rotated. There were jujubes there before! I was going to go ahead and dig up the potatoes from the affected plants today, but I had to deal with the Varmint of the Day: Mr. Rat again. I have a big, bushy volunteer squash that came up from a last year’s seed. It looks like a zucchini plant, but the little squashes on it are crooked and slightly yellow, so I guess it’s Yellow Crookneck Squash. This morning I found the biggest squash on it – 4″ – on the ground and daintily half eaten. Shortly before that I had surprised a wood rat under a loose piece of black plastic lying around. He was so startled that he sat there for 10 sec and looked at me. Now I know what they remind me of: They look very like lemmings, so cute. I think he ate the squash and not a squirrel. I have now put chicken wire around the plant. Perhaps I should have invested in Chicken Wire Stocks?
The above mentioned squash and my Cocozelle Zucchinis I am growing vertically this year. So far, they look good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drzr7ZJ0B14
I was told that about toads (not frogs) and warts when I was a child, too, but I have handled them – they are sweet things – my whole life without getting warts, or anything else.
Pam
Hi everyone,
Thought you all might be interested. On a farm about two hours directly east of here, deer have caused some dramas: Feral deer plough through $100,000 worth of vegetables at Flowerdale farm.
I’d thought the deer issues were resolved here, but no. Last evening Ollie and I cleared off two young deer, which bizarrely decamped in a westerly direction (something I’d not previously observed). It’s awful to consider, but sometimes hard choices need to be made and deer have no predators other than humans in this corner of the world. Probably not a sustainable situation.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Pam,
No harm came from the incident, and I learned a valuable lesson that day about blindly applying trust, and also other folks abilities to evaluate risk not being the same as my own. It was more luck than anything else that I wasn’t seriously injured. But yes, once the factors were known, I never trusted that person again, the bloke was far too casual with risk. It happens and isn’t even that unusual a behaviour from what I’ve observed over the years.
Who knows about that strange water bill? It’s a mystery and presumably we’re just a walking ATM! 🙂 One of the local legal heavy weights (presumably over in the more fashionable western end of the mountain range) took the matter to court, and failed. My resources are not up to that, and my thoughts barely rate, and so I pay the bill. Ain’t no freedom of speech down under, so I have to restrain myself too, all the time. Not worth the resulting bother.
The rains began about two hours ago, and now I can hear frogs happily croaking away. It was hammering down on the roof, and just have to go outside regularly and check the inlet filters on the water tanks. I want to capture as much of this stuff as possible. A quarter inch has fallen so far.
Dug more soil from the water tank site earlier today, and that job isn’t quite finished yet – the scope was expanded.
Hmm. That’s a very good idea with the Japanese turnips, and the radish greens are filling a similar dual purpose role. Thanks for mentioning them. Need a second greenhouse.
Cherry tomatoes have the best flavour too – very intensely tomatoey yumms. Do you add salt and pepper to fresh tomatoes? My impression is that the cherry varieties are the best at self seeding. I usually leave a few of the fruits around on the ground and they just do their own thing.
Ain’t just you, I’ve never encountered blackleg disease either with tomatoes. Sorry to hear that, and the crop rotation thing was a mere suggestion. Ook! Oh no! The rats got to some of the pumpkins as well this year, although breaking through the tough skin must have been difficult. Pam, I’m on a rat habitat destruction process – and funnily enough this topic is included in this week’s video. If there was another way… Mr and Mrs Ratty are probably lovely and clean creatures. Certainly when they were jumping at me, just before squealing in fright, I noted their healthful good looks. I’d not anticipated the rodents doing that, but Dame Plum was there to sort out the finer grittier details. But why be naughty in the garden is what I wondered too.
For all sorts of legal reasons I’m unable to provide financial advice, but my gut feeling suggests that there will always be a market for chicken wire – it’s good stuff! 😉
That’s so cool, it never would have occurred to me to grow zucchini’s vertically. What a great idea. Please do let me know how your trial works out?
Who knew the adults would lie about such serious matters? The frogs and toads do it tough, and yeah, they’re such sweet creatures. Anything that can eat nasty looking garden spiders and huntsmen are friends of mine. Very wise of you too. Why would anyone hate on a tree frog? I’ll bet the adults in those days simply disliked nature!
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
All is now explained, and I can well comprehend your enthusiasm for Winco. I’ve never seen such diversity of bulk produce available anywhere. Personally I would have skipped the first half of the bins shown in the video, but overall it’s a truly amazing bulk supply system. And yes, my mind was utterly boggled. Every time the thought popped into my head that surely there could be no more bulk bins, there were more. Wow! Lucky you. 🙂
Tongs would be the perfect tool to remove sticky items from the bins. In the 70’s such utensils were called, err, ‘ice tongs’, presumably for cocktail making? Maybe…
Out of curiosity, do such angry folks ever end up at the Club as well as their court appointed anger management groups? I guess it all depends, but I’d worry a bit about the ‘bad energy’ such a person may bring along with them, although the Club has known many different personality types and issues over the decades. I’d read that the lack of the usual social norms on many interweb forums has kind of spread outwards into everyday existence, and have wondered about that issue, but also don’t have any great feel for the subject. It’s not an issue which is generally encouraged to be explored, investigated and discussed in the wider society. Doesn’t mean that it isn’t important.
Your overnight low temperatures are sneaking upwards as you edge closer to the summer solstice. The timing for the planting of your zucchini seeds is about spot on – respect. I reckon today here was around 50’F and windy as. Far out it was windy, and walking under big trees was a somewhat alarming experience. Still, we briefly braved the risk and continued digging out the flat site for the two new water tanks. The Editor wanted to take more soil out, so the job wasn’t quite finished today. Mission creep I believe that it is called? A few more hours should do it. But we had to pack up and put everything away in late afternoon because you could see the storm arriving. It’s raining now and maybe a quarter inch has already fallen. The upper forecast limits suggests two inches of rain over the next few days. All gratefully received. When I hear the rain thudding down hard on the roof as I’m typing away, I have to head outside on the veranda and check the water tank inlet filters, and so far they have not blocked up. Why waste the water?
It is weird isn’t it how the brain works on problems in the background. Of course this does require a person to have an active brain, and also a desire to resolve problems. 🙂 Ah, your friends would not appreciate the finer distinction between yourself and the shared business space. To them, it would be all one and the same – thus their memory. Memories have no ability to provide context on the abstract concept of what is truth. Dare I say it (he says cheekily!) it’s like the age old question: Yes, but is it art? Hopefully I raised a minor chuckle, or at the very least a groan from you there? 🙂 The context was just asking for that one liner!
Hopefully you score a new public holiday! 🙂 And surely you’ll hear the large business complainants if it ever gets across the line. As someone who is self employed in small business and not paid for such days, I’m not at all sure what they mean. It’s a hard subject to comment upon without sounding gripey (which I’m not because I have a general level of at least some sort of flexibility with my time which to me is valuable), but truly, such benefits are spread unequally in our society.
The old timers used to say something about ‘looking a gift horse in the mouth’, although rumour has it that the vet bills which accompany horse ownership are not small. Speaking of such things I spotted someone today driving some sort of massive import which I’m guessing you’d call them a truck: Silvarado? Anyway, I was wondering how much the owners spent on tires, brakes, fuel etc… Gonna be expensive at a wild guess.
How’s Jane recovering from her surgery? And it’s a thoughtful gift to send the eggs there. The dried beans are a good score and I’d have kept those too. For some lunches recently we’ve been making a minestrone soup with oven fresh bread. So good to warm your guts on a cold winters day.
Oats are a really variable product, and they can be very good, or not so great. My grandfather used to make up batches of his own interpretation of Swiss muesli. Ordinarily we’d toast the oats, pepitas, honey and peanut mix, but that takes two hours in the electric oven, and maybe at this time of year when the sun is so low in the sky – maybe we should save the electricity for other activities and consume the uncooked stuff? Dunno.
We’re off and racing! A half inch of rain has landed.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Chris,
I feel for the farmers in the article you linked to. Deer are basically stomachs on four stilts. 😉
Speaking of deer, I was horrified this morning to spot a deer a block or so down the street where a creek runs under it. The deer was standing in the middle of the street, which is only two blocks long and has very little traffic, as if it is perfectly fine for deer to do that. All I can do is hope that it or any friends it has do not find the four cabbages and several heads of lettuce in my garden. If they do, it will look like the photos in the article, in miniature.
Claire
Yo, Chris – That was a horrible story about the deer doing damage to the farm. It sounds like the deer on your place are heading deep into drought country. I think a nice clean kill would be preferable to them dying of thirst. But, whatever works. I noticed a sidebar, suggesting people eat them. Not a bad idea. Though in some areas, here, new strange diseases are running through the deer populations. In some states, it’s advised to take a harvested deer, to an inspection station, to make sure the meat isn’t tainted. Reminder to self: scatter more blood meal and soap chips, this evening.
I learned some things from that video of the bulk bins, too. Green tags mean organic. I wonder what the blue tags mean? The tags on the bins are pretty dense with information, but I didn’t have my reading glasses with me. I wondered if the dried cranberries were Ocean Spray brand. Yes, that really kicked off with a lot of junk food. I bet they get cleaned out, come Halloween. 🙂
I noticed when I walked down the cereal aisle (didn’t buy any), that it’s really inexpensive compared to other places. I had given up the idea of Chex mix, at the holidays. As with pizza, it just hit a price level that I won’t pay. Well, now it’s back on the holiday menu. Not only is the cereal part within reason, but also, from the bulk bins, probably the nuts. Hmmm. I need to check out the walnuts. They also have tags on some items, listing at what price the other local outlets are selling stuff. They suffer by comparison.
I’ve heard a few people around the Club, mention the they’re also in anger management programs. But that part of their problems don’t seen to spill over, into the Club. Mostly, it’s domestic stuff. We have a big problem here, with road rage. Not a week goes by that someone isn’t shooting at someone else, on our freeways. For some imagined disrespect.
There’s nothing as nice as the sound of rain on a roof. And frogs singing. I saw Sam the Snail, last night. Our high yesterday was 77F (25C). Our overnight low was 52F (11.11C). Forecast high for today is 79F. Sunday and Monday the forecast high is for 90F+. (32C). But then the rest of next week, it’s back to the high 60s. Those two days I’ll probably water morning and evening.
LOL. “But is it art?” A loaded question. I’d say the winsome young lady is folk art. If she had been painted on velvet, she still might be considered “kitsch” or even “high camp.” Even I have a few pieces around that I’d consider kitsch. Just for a giggle.
So, is there a difference between “gripey” and “whingey?” 🙂
If any business doesn’t close on the perspective new holiday, it will be taken as a sign of disloyalty to the new regime. There could be … repercussions. Apparently, to be hired for a government position, these days, requires a bit of a loyalty test. There was a fellow who was up to lead NASA (Isaacman … oh, those ears!) who was taken out of the running. As near as anyone can discover, about the only reason anyone can come up with, is, a few years back he threw a couple of bucks at “the other side” in an election campaign. Or maybe he wasn’t enthusiastic enough, about going to Mars? Or maybe some billionaire, with no experience what-so-ever wanted the spot?
Really? A Silverado? Don’t forget the insurance. One wonders what the owner is trying to prove? Who is he trying to impress? Or maybe, he’s just trying to make up for his … shortcomings. 🙂
Jane is doing quit well, I think. Her hair is growing back. Looks very “punk.” When she lost it, she took to wearing headscarves, with skulls on them. Just because she likes skulls. Attitude has a lot to do with cancer survival rates. She’s been pretty upbeat, through the whole thing. Lew
Chris:
“Not worth the resulting bother.” – as regarding your water bill for no water usage. There you go, using common sense again.
I am glad you had a rain. We just had a short-lived, though torrential, one; badly needed. More tomorrow, maybe. Yay! I expect the rain is making your water tank site easier to dig. Yay!
I prefer my tomatoes au natural. I shouldn’t think turnips would need a greenhouse where you are.
Not blackleg tomatoes. Blackleg potatoes. The stem rots at ground level and turns all black. Couldn’t get to the garden to dig some up because I was in town today and then the rain.
“their healthful good looks” – double ha, ha! Now, why wouldn’t rats be naughty in the garden with some of the best food in the world at their fingertips? And accommodations, too, though it sounds like that may shortly be a thing of the past. Goodness knows you are trying.
Yesterday I planted some buckwheat. Later that night, it suddenly occurred to me that if I was a rat, that would be a rare treat, and easy to reach as I just broadcast it on the ground.
I forgot to ask you about Lake Eyre/Kali something? that you mentioned at Mr. Greer’s. Fascinating.
Pam
Chris,
I know what happens when you clean up the forest floor. And what happens when you don’t. The local fire brigades had a Federal grant 18 months ago to do some forest cleaning. They removed a lot of dead undergrowth and fallen limbs, etc.in their fire district. That area caught on fire a few months later on a windy day, no less. They were able to hold the fire to 100 or 150 acres or so when it would’ve likely been 1,500 acres that would have threatened a lot of residences. Cleaning things up made a huge difference.
Rainfall equivalent of snow has no precise formula. For the stuff that routinely falls here between -4C and zero, that 10% is close. Sometimes it’s almost exactly 1 foot of snow equals 1 inch of rain. As the temperature drops radically, those ideas go completely out the window.
Many years ago it was -20C and 6 inches of snow fell at that temperature. I call that “fake Hollywood snow” because it is so fluffy. There is such little water content in that snow that you cannot make a snowball or a snowman, as the snow won’t stick together. Anyhow, my friend’s toddler went outside with an 8 ounce drinking cup and scooped it full of snow. Within 5 minutes indoors it had completely melted. There was maybe 5mm in the bottom of the cup. I think the weather gurus catch the snow in their rainfall gizmo, bring it indoors to let it melt and read how much rainfall equivalent there was.
Yes, there are some very tall mountains in Idaho and Montana. And Wyoming and Colorado and New Mexico. On one of our trips to New Mexico, we actually drove from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Pueblo, Colorado. A mountain pass we climbed was about 3,350 meters above sea level. Our trip to New Mexico in 2024 had us at an elevation between 1,300 meters and 1,900 meters on the plains where we were surrounded by the higher mountains. Hence, the High Plains that much of the western USA consists of.
The 6 weeks surrounding the winter solstice can seem like 4 hours of daylight and 4 hours of twilight. If it’s thickly clouded, then it all feels like twilight. Like in the Eagles song Desperado: “Don’t your feet get cold in the wintertime, the sky won’t snow and the sun won’t shine, it’s hard to tell the nighttime from the day”. Wonderful lyrics with a lot of truth to them.
I notice that you got at least a half inch of rain with more scheduled. That should help fill the tanks. We’re in the dry zone again. Very windy today on top of it. Good weather to remain indoors.
Dad could see long and normal distances very well. Close up was a problem, so he needed special prescription glasses for reading. Meanwhile, I take after mom’s paternal AND maternal sides of the family – myopia typical for us. Without glasses, distant objects all kind of blur together. Bifocals required at age 40. Now I need trifocals, but have those weird transitional lenses instead.
Some idiots around here put alloy wheels on the big Chevy Silverado pickup trucks. Seems really stupid to me. Not functional at all.
Nope, never done the train trip. The train comes through here once per day at about midnight westbound and once per day eastbound at about 2:00 a.m. No thanks. I have taken the Greyhound bus to Seattle, transferred and then rode more Greyhounds to Bakersfield, California near where a friend lived. That was an interesting trip.
DJSpo
Hi Claire,
I felt for those farmers too. Fences are fine, but as stewards of land no matter how large or small, and even your garden has to face this issue, is how it might all look and work. Last night I startled an owl (I couldn’t see what variety – there are a few) but it’s been hanging around for a few nights now, and the possums have all clearly been eaten. The bird was chasing a large rat which has been in one of the Meyer Lemon trees. Late this afternoon in the grey winter twilight, the bird took a Fairy Wren right in front of me. The other wrens were distressed.
The critters which eat deer are mildly startling such as I’m guessing mountain lions, cougars and bobcats. None of which are present down under. Us humans are probably prey for them as well, so we’ve kind of made the land safer for us, but coincidentally also for the deer. And therein lies the problem, we’ve unbalanced the environment. If those toothy critters aren’t in your garden, what I’ve faced from that is a choice: Allow the deer in, apathy reigns, or take a more pro-active approach. I’ve chosen the latter. Fencing has to be very tall to exclude deer, yup, but sometimes a cull is necessary.
Your garden fence might be 6ft / 1.8m? Did you know that during that which shall not be named, deer were spotted roaming the inner urban streets of Melbourne? Hmm. Just like how you described the scene with the herbivore.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Pam,
Well, the old timers used to say that you can’t fight city hall, and they were right too. If well heeled and connected folks in the more fashionable end of the mountain range can’t sort out the problem, I’ll just pay the bill and spend my energy on other concerns.
Speaking of which, did you know that the big inland lake in central Australia is fast filling up (although I suspect you do, because you mentioned it!) Hope you enjoy the following photos and stories: Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre could be filling at a scale not witnessed in living memory bringing life to those at its edge.
Did you get much more rain today? Digging the soil on Thursday showed how dry the subsoil here had become. Interestingly, I use the creek which flows out of the bottom of this property to gauge how dry things have become (it crosses a nearby road), and it hasn’t ceased flowing all year. Sadly it is too far away from the house to be of any practical use, but it looks nice (if the deer haven’t eaten all of the tree ferns). It’s still raining tonight, but more gently and consistently. It was a real pleasure watching the water flow into the tanks.
How torrential were your rains? Those are some of the most difficult and destructive rains to deal with.
Ah, I see and have not correctly detailed the situation. The greenhouse is hard to get into for critters, and whilst turnips would happily grow just fine outdoors, it’s been a really dry start to the year. All of the sugar beets grew well, but have long since been ravaged. We have growing stuff to eat in a hard season, so every critter on this side of the mountain range has descended upon us. 🙂 A second greenhouse would sure up our winter food supply. It’s been a difficult time, but I’m learning fast. An owl took a Fairy Wren right in front of me tonight. Deadly silent, and startling for Ollie and I.
Finding a balance with all the critters is the hardest thing to establish because the goal posts shift from year to year. The deer I have no tolerance for, mostly because humans are their only predator here. We made that role for ourselves and now have to face the music (as they used to say).
Very good, and tomatoes are very tasty on their own. Yum! There’s heaps of preserved tomatoes, but we’re down to the final few fresh fruit now.
Thanks for the correction, yes, potatoes. The rain can probably only make tater matters worse I’m thinking. Some of the potatoes here we stored in a sugar cane mulch and they have since rotted. It all seemed like a good idea at the time. The straw was slightly damp. Oh well, back to the drawing board.
Hopefully your local critters respected the buckwheat seeds and merely bided their time for a bountiful future harvest? Candidly I’ve not observed the critters here taking a big picture perspective, but you never know?
Hope your trip into town was nice and uneventful. I took today off work. Although this morning I sharpened all of the chainsaw chains and serviced the machine. Plus some lichens and moss had grown on the solar photovoltaic panels. That was a brain twister to work out how to get rid of those plants (are moss plants?) Sounds like work, but was all taken at a relaxed and enjoyable pace. It’s a long weekend here for King Charles birthday, as you do, but it’s possibly not his actual birth date for the former Queen had a similar day – and that would be weird if they were both born on the same day. Yes, hard to explain it would be!
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
I’ve taken inspiration from your recent food exploits this evening, and will soon bake some enchiladas. Never made them before and the worst I can do is stuff it up.
Yes, I recall you mentioning that grant for the forest clean up. And it was such a good outcome too. In big hot fires at the wrong time of year, so much more forest life dies. It’s a bit sad really, but seems to be a hard wired part of western culture. At least the learning is progressing slowly one little win at a time. When I do the work, obviously the biggest and oldest trees are given the most care and attention, but for the under story the question gets asked (rhetorically speaking): How should and could this area look?
It’s been a tough year what with the prolonged dry weather. Every critter on this side of the mountain range is turning up for a feed here, and it’s a bit of blood bath out there really. As twilight was setting in, I took Ollie out for a walk to do his ablutions, and an owl took a Fairy Wren right in front of me. The little bird was scratching around in the damp litter looking for feed – and the owl swooped silently in and off again. The remaining Fairy Wrens were calling out in alarm, but it was a bit late for that. The owl has been hanging around for a few nights now.
Ha! Fake Hoolywood snow brought a good chuckle. Thanks! Are you seriously suggesting that toddlers know as much about snow as seasoned meteorologists? 😉 That kid has a bright future ahead in the sciences.
Out of curiosity, how did you feel going over the 3,350m mountain pass? And was the car OK? Presumably it was, or you wouldn’t be here. My understanding is that altitude sickness can occur after about 2,500m (higher than any point on this flat-ish continent). In Peru (and apologies if I’ve already recounted this story) but we travelled rapidly in elevation to see the Condors flying over a valley. Quite spectacular. The guide advised us to chew upon cocoa leaves on the way up, and they tasted disgusting but made the rapid ascent in a bus easier – and a bit silly if I may add. Those who failed to heed the good advice, were quite ill.
Ah, that’s a long twilight – and matches my experience of the winter months in the south of the big island state of Tasmania (and you’re further north by three degrees in latitude from there).
Desperado was their best album, no getting around it.
The rain over the past 27 hours has been a real game changer, and hopefully it continues into the future. Tomorrow may be another wash-out event due to more rain, and I’m good with that.
Doesn’t the wind dry things out? This storm has brought cold southerly winds with it and so I’m grateful that the trees have decided to remain vertical, so far. Strong winds are bad news.
Ah, myopia and you’re lucky to have avoided the far sightedness from you fathers side of the family. The Editor is also talking about bifocals, but trifocals is a new one. Hope you can dodge them for a bit longer.
Took today off work, oh except maybe some stuff was done. Had to work out a way to scrape some lichens and moss which had grown on the solar panel glass – as you do when a plant is one step off Triffid genetics. 🙂 Anywhoo, got a 4m long piece of steel RHS 2 x 1 inch channel and gently scraped the stuff off (I checked the end for steel burrs prior to using it). A neat solution, because I couldn’t reach the plants, even using a long pole whilst up a ladder.
Yup, low profile tires and country roads are a bad mix. Hey, did we ever discuss the story of the recycled metal truck who allegedly lost the load on a major highway? The metal had apparently been chipped up… Driver charged over ‘840kg of metal’ shards allegedly spilled onto M1 motorway north of Sydney. Total mayhem, and super hard to clean up. That’s a lot of metal shards on the roads.
The greyhound buses would have some interesting times, that’s for sure. Does any incident stand out, or was the whole trip a bit err, dare I say it, trippy? 😉 I’ve done a few long distance bus trips myself. Getting on a train at midnight and having to sleep in an upright position is not cool. I like long distance trains with sleeper bunks or cabins, much nicer and more relaxed.
It’s enchilada time! Fingers crossed the idea in my mind for this meal works out.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
The local deer at least have plenty of fresh water in creeks and dams in this area, but elsewhere things would be bad. The year to date has been rather dry right across the western half of the state, but I should mention that the local creek at the bottom of the property is flowing and kept that up during summer – groundwater moves slowly. I suspect that the big bambi herbivores are here because there’s much more food than elsewhere in this part of the mountain range.
Made enchiladas this evening. Yummo! Grated carrot and radish. Mushrooms. Capsicum. Corn. All fried up with a tomato based sauce. Mixed in two types of grated cheese: Mozzarella + Parmesan. Rolled them in the corn soft tortilla shells (added some yoghurt at that point). Chucked some more cheese and tomato sauce on top, and then baked six of them in the oven. Quite good. Probably needed some chilli added to the mix, although I prefer not to consume chilli at night. A lot of cheese though, so I dunno whether the cheese can be simply removed from the mixture and added only to the final surface layer once they’re all in the baking tray? Might try that next time.
There’s not much of a hunting tradition down under, dunno why? Maybe it has something to do with the population being largely quite urban. I’ve heard of the deer diseases in your country, nasty. I’d hate to think what deer can eat, and that would probably impact the quality of the meat.
Did you get around to throwing down some more blood and bone meal as well as the soap chips? How’s the preventative measures working, has anyone spotted deer recently in your area? It’s hard to forget that during you-know-what, deer were roaming inner urban streets in the big smoke. It was like a scene out of zombie film.
It’s still raining to which I’m grateful. Had a bit of a lull during the middle of the day, but it’s picked up again tonight. Dude, there were even puddles in the courtyard! It’s been a while. 🙂
Those bins would sure see a lot of turnover of stock during Halloween for sure. I didn’t notice any blue tags, did you uncover the meaning behind those? It was pretty funny seeing all of the lollies / candy in the first half of the video, but knew there’d be more and better stuff shown soon. Getting your flour, nuts and grains there is a no-brainer choice, and you can load up with as much as you need. Most packaging is very pre-determined for sizing, and consumers don’t really have all that much choice in the matter.
Chex mix sounds intriguing! 🙂 What is this stuff? Hang on a second… … Sounds pretty tasty. Yes, the food definitely has a party vibe to it, and if Charlie Brown approved… Foodflation is real. We now review the weekly grocery run and think up ways to maintain quality and also keep the residents of the household well fed. Is this the bargaining stage of grief? Kind of sounds like it, but you’re an old hand at scrounging for supplies. You haven’t mentioned the ratty supermarket for a while, is it still on the regular roster?
Have you considered making your own Chex mix?
Good to hear that people aren’t bringing those particular issues to the Club. What? Who shoots at someone else for an alleged incident of road rage? I guess some folks have a what did they used to call it again, err, hair trigger response? De-escalating a situation is a difficult thing. It’s hard to know what a person will be like and react if your only exposure to them is an unpleasant encounter lasting less than a minute or two – best to be careful in such circumstances. People can be strange and unpredictable.
Yeah, the rain is good – and it’s all getting into the tanks. Please extend cordial greetings to Sam the snail. Was Sam loitering near to your plants? You’ll probably have to water twice a day in such weather, and hope you can dodge the afternoon sunshine. How’s the tomato seedlings looking? Did the new one you got as a left over take to the soil? No watering here, although I may have to water the plants inside the greenhouse – I do that every few days or so.
It is a loaded question about art, but also provides plenty of scope for amusement. Art can be fun, and the painting which hangs in the bathroom titled ‘having a ball’ never fails to bring a smile. I wrote about that years ago. I noticed that the nearby town (Woodend) I bought it from is again having another annual art show this long weekend. Lions Club I believe.
Hmm, I reckon that both words evince a sense of perpetual dissatisfaction, which sadly for the rest of us is being communicated. Do we need to hear such complaints? Should we care? I may have used the word ‘gripe’ because I believe it is a word used in your country, but not so much down here. We’d use the word ‘whinge’ instead, but it does more or less convey the same sentiment. Hopefully you yourself weren’t griping about the use of the word whinge? 😉 Hehe! Or was it the other way around – I’m getting confused now (could be interpreted as a whinge!)
Yes, well, there is that possibility. Loyalty tests have been a thing for a while now, pesky things. Sadly for me, I have my own thoughts on matters, but do try my best not to hang in such heady spheres. A billion ain’t what it used to be. When I was a kid, people used to talk glowingly about getting a million, and nowadays that can barely buy you a house in many parts of the country. Oh my, someone in power has said the unmentionable: Housing Minister Clare O’Neil takes aim at Australia’s regulation red tape. Apparently housing has become uneconomic down under… It’s all talk, I doubt any change will occur, it’s a state matter anyway.
I forgot about insurance. Yeah. It’s big. Livin’ large, like physically doing so. That’s a question I ponder too, and rumours have made many a suggestion which may well be close to the truth of the matter.
That’s really good news about Jane. Attitude makes a lot of difference to a person’s health, but I’d not known about the link. Makes sense though.
Need to go and sleep off the cheese, although I read something a long time ago which suggested that the food was linked to nightmares. I’ll tell you tomorrow how the experiment goes.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Well, if you’re going to lay out a buffet for the deer … I know, I know. Blame the victim 🙂 I scattered around some blood meal and soap chips, last night. those areas I lightly water, so the stuff sticks and just doesn’t get washed away. I’ve never heard of bone meal being a deterrent. Not as stinky.
Free form enchiladas. 🙂 And why not? I think all kinds of different filling have been tried.
Sounds like you’re going to have to break out your Wellies. Our high yesterday was 77F (25C). Our overnight low was 54F (12.22C). The forecast high for today is 83F. We have a heat advisory up, for the next two days. Although the highs have been revised down, a degree or two.
Speaking of pre-measured sizes of packaging and shrinkflation, I saw this article this morning. Oh, no! Not Vegemite! Say it ain’t true!
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/think-wont-notice-19-real-031603707.html
I do make my own Chex party mix. They have the recipe, right on the cereal boxes. Pretty simple. The three kinds of Chex cereal (wheat, rice and corn), pretzels, bagel chips, mixed nuts. Butter, Worcester sauce, garlic and onion powder. Mix it all up and nuke it for a few minutes. Sure, you can buy it in little snack packs, but that’s not very thrifty. But I felt priced out. Until the Winco opened. 🙂
Speaking of thrifty, I went to make some beans and rice, the other night, and discovered I was out of frozen corn. Well, we usually get some tinned stuff, in our food boxes. But I’d never investigated it. It turns out the quality was quit good. Canned corn went in my pantry, and I won’t be buying the frozen stuff, again.
Sam the Snail seems to be doing pretty well. And, he stays within the bounds of his snail sanctuary … pretty much. When I water, I give that area a good wet down, so he stays hydrated. 🙂
My tomatoes plants have about doubled in size. LOL. And, as predicted … I was going to sow the asparagus seeds, this evening. Well, I glanced in the barrel, last night, and … there’s spear coming up from the root I planted. I’m still going to sow the seed. But I think I’ll give it a couple of days, to see if there’s any more action. Like shooting asparagus in a (half) barrel?
Cultural cross pollination. A Trans-Pacific exchange? You use “gripe” and I’ll use “whinge” and we’ll appear to be hip, with it, and cosmopolitan. 🙂
Well, the housing minister is on the right track, and at least it’s being discussed. Will it go further than that? Time will tell. The private equity firms are quit happy with the way things are. Buying up foreclosed properties and turning them into rentals.
There was an interesting sidebar, about the authors Geraldine Brooks and Tony Horwitz. He died, and she retreated to your Flinders Island, to grieve. I haven’t read that book, but, have read several books by both authors. Quit good.
I’d heard cheese could give you constipation, but I hadn’t heard it could give you nightmares. Maybe only if it’s blue cheese. 🙂
H is getting a bath, this evening. And, she’s got an appointment with the groomer, next Wednesday morning. Vet visit next month, as she will need more flea pills, and, she’s due for a rabies shot.
Road rage shootings happen here, all the time. Several months ago, a small child was a passenger in a car, and was killed in a road rage shooting. The perp was caught. As they usually are.
Stephen King’s new novel is in transit to me. I should pick it up, probably next Wednesday. Lew
Chris:
I very much enjoyed the Kati Thanda story and pictures. There was a fascinating history, too.
I had missed the destructive deer article till I saw people here commenting on it. Those fellows are now putting up a 3 meter fence and someone in the article said that won’t work, but we have had an 8 foot (2.4m) fence for 9 years and they have never gotten over it, but that won’t stop rats, groundhogs, and all the rest. I tell you what, if I get hungry enough, or even mad enough, I’m gonna’ eat the whole lot of them. You can get a permit to shoot deer out of season if they cause that much destruction, especially if it’s commercial, but I’m not sure if you have to suffer the large damages first. My son lost hundreds of dollars worth of small trees from his business to the rats last winter, as I have mentioned.
I’m pretty sure moss are plants. Our front “lawn” is mostly moss. At least nothing here eats it. It has been known to grow on the north side of our roof. I don’t know how it was gotten off these asphalt kind of shingles with out damaging them. Probably vinegar.
I once again didn’t get out in the garden because last night Mr. Baby had one of his attacks and by dawn my son and daughter-in-law decided he’d better go to the emergency vet. My son said on the way there he was turning blue. We did not expect a happy outcome, but they have saved him once again. You’ve never seen a cat so happy to get home since part of the treatment involves drawing fluid out of his lungs with a needle. He’s one tough kitty, but adjustments are always needed to his health protocol.
While under stress at the vet, Mr. Baby bit my daughter-in-law’s finger, just about all the way through. He never bites or scratches; it was the stress. Later today, my DIL’s finger was very swollen and she was very worried and asked me to take her to the emergency room. Her finger will be fine. I think she just wanted some antibiotics.
Mr. Baby looks almost himself at the moment.
Pam
Hi Pam,
It’s such a lovely part of the world in that corner of this continent. A person is subjected to the whims of nature whether they like it or no. Having a yacht club there on an only occasional lake fill displays the more fun side of our species. I’d imagine that in the long distant past, the lake remained filled given it is 15m below sea level at some points.
Exactly, and I totally agree with you. Growers need to spend quality time getting to know their competition whether it be groundhogs, rats, rabbits or deer – not to mention the rest of the critters. And that’s the underlying and unspoken reality, our species is very adaptable as to what it can consume to stay alive – otherwise we’d have long since faded away.
If I may suggest, a wary eye must be kept upon produce in lean times for the process of escalation is only what I’ve ever experienced. One raid, does lead to multiple raids. Rats… I used to feed a bit under two dozen of them, until Dame Plum and I spent months on evasive manoeuvres. Sorry to say, but like the rest of life, it’s something of a learning experience. Sometimes you just need to discover how far things can go before you consider taking preventative measures. And there is no season for deer here, legally for myself at least. The herbivores have become that much of an issue. At the moment I’m still in the learning phase.
Lovely, and isn’t moss soft under foot? And I’ve noticed that it’s one of the fastest plants to recover following on from dry weather. Removing those particular plants from surfaces is an interesting matter. 🙂
Sorry to hear that Mr Baby took a turn for the worst, but the hardy kitty pulled through with some serious assistance. And your daughter in law’s story is like a personal nightmare story and not one to be taken lightly – the consequences as you well understood can be fatal. Glad to read that all parties recovered from the ordeal and trial.
Still raining here today. Yay!
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Ain’t just you observing that. An old school local farmer around hereabouts once informed me bluntly that I’d: ‘created a supermarket for the wildlife’. One of the things I truly enjoy about country life is that from time to time, people will simply call it as they see it. 🙂 It’s kind of refreshing really.
There’s a slight misunderstanding here. In your country, blood meal and bone meal can be purchased separately, but down here they are usually supplied mixed together and that’s how it is. And interestingly, we were talking about this a while back, I’ve noticed that the different suppliers provide mixtures which can vary widely in terms of their stinkability. This was unknown to me until I tried a different supplier and discovered the sheer level of pungency. Is pungence a correct noun, the spell checker doesn’t appear to recognise the word? What do the bots even know? Had a comment from an artefishal unintelligance chunk of code today which was quite good, but still way too obvious.
Had an interesting chat with friends the other week about that very subject, and they were asking me how did I know that computers as were the ones who wrote the comments. The sheer lack of creativity for one was my reply, but mostly the bots write in point form – they’re a formula, what did everyone expect? When I was in High School, the English teacher asked the class to write a creative essay, so I wrote something genuinely creative, except that’s not what they wanted is it? My worst subject at High School, and only the argumentative essays pulled me through. Anywhoo, these are the same folks as writing the software. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel, although admittedly the software is getting better in that at least the words more or less now follow the basic rules of English grammar. Still, a person has to know the rules (or at least enough of them), to break those with aplomb!
Why not indeed? And hopefully you enjoy the enchilada photo. Hardly traditional, but a dude uses what is ready to hand.
No wellies for me, but the Editor did have hers ready to hand. It’s rained nigh on two days now. Very impressive, but a bit lopsided in terms of what might be needed throughout the year.
What constitutes a heat advisory in your part of the world? That’d be over 104’F here. A bit of a worry those hot days, and more folks die from the heat extremes, if the statistics have anything to say about the matter. Stay cool!
Shrinkflation is outrageous, but give a man a KPI (key performance indicator) and he’ll game it in some way. Price being one. All those goods feed into the official inflation statistics, but is the quality and quantity measured in that number? Reminds me of the old timer joke: Forget the quality, look at the width!
🙂 Simple recipes are often the best! But if the outcomes are no better, why bother making the stuff? The history of chex mix suggested that the stuff was initially provided as a recipe.
Incidentally I used a boiled corn cob for the enchiladas and simply ran a knife down the cob to release the kernels. And that’s the flip-side of the demise of the Club pantry and swap table, you begin to experiment with the offerings. They’re not all bad, are they?
Go Sam the snail, and that’s a very thoughtful gesture. Some countries cook up garden snails… 🙂
Oh no! The asparagus crown finally made a special guest appearance. Everyone knows what happens to the special guest death ensign in Star Trek! 🙂 The spear will be gathering energy into the root system, so I’d probably leave it, but on the other hand, the plant is growing now. I’d sow the seed too. My understanding is that if you want the plants not to reproduce and eventually crowd themselves out, is to remove the female asparagus plants. It’s easy to tell which is which, because the seeds in spring are impossible to miss.
We are hip and with it! 😉 That’s my story too, and I’m sticking to it.
Had the best take away lunch ever today. Baguette with ham, cheese, pickles, French mustard and rocket. So good, and am now curious to see whether the local-ish business can keep up the good work.
I suspect the housing talk is important, but will go nowhere. As you note, there are too many vested interests wanting to keep things as they are. Plus I believe the public has accustomed itself to the abstract concept of safety. I don’t know what to make of that, because if the very things done, make everyone less safe, why do them? Possibly my expectations are too high.
An intriguing author and story, and one I’d utterly missed. There’s little to do on Flinders Island. It’s a wild place and possibly forces a person to hold a mirror up to themselves and work on the interior bits. There are lots of places down under like that. It’s good to see the author achieved an affinity with the rocks, I get that. When people tell me that they’re fine, it’s usually code word for them not really being in that state of mind. I’ve known a few people to literally drop dead. Buried a few mates over the years. Life is a precious thing.
Far out, this loose talk of blue cheese is giving me nightmares! 🙂
Hope H achieves the desirable level of cleanliness, although dogs will be dogs.
Maybe if the child was driving the car, things would have gone more smoothly…
Nice score! 🙂 Can’t wait to hear your review.
Cheers and seriously better get writing.
Chris
Yo, Chris – A Winco for critters. 🙂 Speaking of which … right now, the bins section looks new, clean and shiny. People, being people, they’re a little hard to keep up. With those over-top silo bins, with the release gates, you have to really have a firm grip on wrapping the opening of the plastic bag, around the spout. Otherwise, stuff flies everywhere. Some people are also leery of those open bins, as all and sundry can dip in and mess about in them. Did they wash those hands before running their fingers through the oats and rice? 🙂 I don’t worry about such things. I usually throw the stuff from the bins, into the freezer for a few days. And everything gets cooked.
Ah, I’d forgotten you folks mix the blood and bone meal. Isn’t “stink,” and “stinky” good enough. I suppose if one wanted to get all toffy nosed about it, they could use “odiferous.” 🙂
I read an article the other day, about an AI incident. Apparently, there was a test program that had served its usefulness, and was about to be ended. The AI didn’t like that, and threatened to circulate a bogus bit of gossip about the programer having an affair. That’s a rather disquieting little story. Takes the “fiction” out of science fiction.
You don’t need no stinkin’ Wellies. 🙂
I don’t know under what circumstances they call a heat advisory. The national weather service page has all kinds of advisory boxes, with information for avoiding heat stroke. Also reminders that the air may be warm, but water may be very cold. Seems like every year we lose a person or two to the thermal shock of leaping into frigid waters. Our high yesterday was 82F (27.77C). The overnight low was 53F (11.66C). The forecast high for today is 91F (32+C.)
A lot of food companies have testing kitchens and labs. To develop uses for their products. The practice goes way back. Recipes might be printed right on the product, or, included in ads. They might be printed in small pamphlets or booklets, to be given away. Which are collectible, by the way. 🙂
My standards are being lowered. 🙂 The frozen corn I bought was organic and non GMO. About the best I can hope for, off the swap table is low sodium or fruit in “light” syrup.
I saw Sam the Snail, again, last night. Out for a midnight stroll. Given the weather, I watered the garden, this morning. And will water it again, tonight. I’ve harvested chamomile three times, so far. the bush is loaded with blossoms, again. I did notice, that yesterday and this morning, there are no bees working the blossoms. Oh, a fairy bee or two. Yesterday, I did see one honey bee. Looked like he might have been a wild one. Disturbing.
The baguette sounds very tasty. Last night, for dinner, I had the usual rice with pumpkin seeds and turmeric. I chopped up some fried eggs. Celery, a couple of Roma tomatoes, broccoli, peas and shiitake mushrooms. Topped it with a sprinkling of cider vinegar, nutritional yeast, Swiss cheese and yogurt. Also, tasty.
I got to thinking about housing. Within living memory, either dad or grandpa just built a house. Without much government oversight or regulation. Might start off pretty basic, with maybe the privy outside. But, eventually, given available time and money, upgrades were made. LOL. Probably at the nagging of mom or grandma. I think those memories live on, probably more in rural areas. Which may contribute to the current urban / rural divide.
Yes, H is all clean and shiny. I also washed blankets and towels. Tonight, I think I’ll wash me. :-). Lew