Long term readers will recall that we’ve taken steps to reduce our usage of gas as an energy source. The costs were going through the proverbial roof, and each quarterly gas bottle rental and use bill produced a new outrage. Sometimes the universe sends a strong message, and it kinda sounded like: Chris and Sandra, stop using gas! Fair enough, I hear ya nature, gas is an energy source in terminal decline.
Other parts of the world use different concoctions of volatile hydrocarbon gases as an energy source, but down here we use Liquefied Petroleum Gas. It’s some sort of mixture of propane and butane. Whatever, the stuff burns strongly. It provides heating for the hot water system when there is no sun, and yet the weather is too warm to light the wood heater. As a brief explanation, we get hot water here from the solar hot water panels on the roof, plus the large wet jacket at the back of the wood combustion chamber. It’s a simple system, and both energy sources work towards heating a large tank of hot water in the roof cavity. However, like all renewable energy systems their failing is that they are both intermittent, and so the gas gets used as a fill in energy source when neither are supplying. The bright green dreamy plans for the mains electricity grid follows a similar route with gas.
Economics however, is a real buzzkill. The quarterly rental costs for two 45kg / 100 pound gas bottles were beginning to become financially ruinous. Incidentally, those two bottles provided enough gas to last a year. Anyway, being the crafty and clever folks we are, the bottles were returned to the distributor, and we replaced them with two small barbecue bottles. That put an immediate end to the rental costs. It is worth noting that they were greater than the usage costs. Then we set about working out how to use even less gas than before.
We never used the gas oven. But chasing savings is harder than it looks. Cooking is now mostly done on an electric induction cooktop, and a separate issue with the solar hot water panels was fixed. Previously, on cold frosty nights (of which there are more than a few living up in the mountains) hot water was leaking from the solar panels onto the roof. I’m sure the roof appreciated the extra warmth from the hot water, but it’s hardly an ideal situation. Easily sorted.
The new smaller 8.5kg / 19 pound bottles last about 6 weeks (in winter). So, some rough back of the envelope quick maths suggests we’ve reduced annual gas usage from around 90kg / 200 pounds to 73kg / 162 pounds – which excludes the weight of the bottles themselves. Not a bad effort and we hope to improve upon this in the future. We’re yet to test the savings during the summer months when sunshine is plentiful.
The other day an article in the newspaper suggested that the gas supply situation on the east coast of this continent was perhaps more grim than previously thought: Gas shortage crisis develops as Santos takeover heats up. The article included a graph which was credited as being sourced from AEMO (the Australian Energy Market Operator) which is about an official source as you’re likely to get.
It’s a pretty grim forecast, gas on the east coast looks like a resource which is in decline. In a decades time, the supply appears forecast to be 55% of what it is today. Someone, or a whole bunch of someone’s will be missing out by then for sure! The article even suggested that by the end of this year, there will be a minor shortfall in supply. Alert people will note that even in a decades time, domestic demand can potentially be covered, with plenty of spare capacity for export. However whilst Australia is a major world exporter of gas, we’re also a major importer of oil (accounting for about 90% of our supplies). The pragmatic person realises that we might have to supply the export markets with gas if we want access to all that imported oil.
And so it was with this story wirling around my brain, that we went to the petrol station to swap over an empty 8.5kg gas bottle, for a full one. That’s when we discovered, they’d run out of full gas bottles. Our clever plan was suddenly all in tatters. Fortunately the local petrol station isn’t the only local place to swap over the bottles! Plan B was implemented successfully. With the job done, we headed back home again. Still, it gives the sensitive person a moments pause for consideration as to what the future may look like.
Anyway, I’m not the only person to have noticed this alarming resource trend. Recently the state government has announced that no new houses will be fitted with gas appliances. None. Clearly people expect hot water, so the new houses will have electric heating and hot water. That’s part of our strategy too, and we’ve switched from using gas for cooking (hot plates only) and now utilise the electric induction cook tops instead. Easy enough, and the off grid solar power system handles that demand without a moments concern. Everyone else on the mains electricity grid, well, who knows what the collective effect of that energy shift will be. Probably not good.
What is alarming though, is that Gas hot water systems will be phased out in all Victorian homes from March 2027, with electric systems required in new builds and when gas systems reach the end of their life. This may require a serious re-think of our hot water system. March 2027 is not all that far away, and by then, the existing hot water machine would have been running for 17 years continuously. Or maybe it won’t require a re-think, we may just purchase a spare unit whilst we can, just in case. It pays to be prepared.
The thing is, regardless, a while ago I began thinking about options to replace the gas hot water heater with an equivalent electric model. Don’t kid yourselves in that it is a somehow eco-friendly move, because those baby’s suck an extraordinary quantity of electricity. This should be ringing alarm bells in the halls of power. In many examples, the words ‘three phase’ were thrown around with abandon. Other smaller machines had specifications of 35Amps at 230V, which works out to be around 8kW of instantaneous electricity. That’s a nuts amount of energy, and although the off grid power system could supply it, the question for me is: Is it worth pushing the system that hard? I’m guessing that the local power grid (a single wire earth return system) would equally have some serious troubles given its supply constraints. Hmm. Maybe living up here in a remote location, will see a return to remote living conditions over the next decade? Cold baths lack all appeal. Might have to do something, and soon.
The weather this week has been brilliant, and an early preview of spring. Sure, some of the days have been cloudy, but others, you can feel the suns warmth. Nice. As the days are slowly getting longer, there have been some great sunsets this week:
Winter is a most excellent time to do forestry clean up work at this location. The forest is damp enough that a big fire (hopefully) doesn’t spread. The days are also cool enough that the hard work isn’t exhausting. We’ll probably continue that work until maybe the end of August when the weather conditions will surely change.
Regular readers will recall that last week I decided to cut up and burn off the largest tree stump the loggers left behind from the post 1983 Ash Wednesday saw log salvaging. It was a beast, and presumably about 300 years old. No small tree.
The electric jackhammer was used to remove all of the compacted clay from the tree stump – and there was an awful lot of the stuff. As the dirt had dried for decades, it felt as solid as cement and last week had proven to be the nemesis of the chainsaw.
It interested me that there were scorch marks on the stump, so presumably there had been a failed attempt to burn all the mess off many long decades ago. All it did was preserve the timber, especially because the stump was so positioned that it was dry. A good lesson for preservation techniques when using the local timber species in construction. A very powerful 230V electric leaf blower was used to remove the final bits of dirt from the Meg – it was an effective cleaner.
Now that the timber was cleaned up, the chainsaw could then be used. Dirt blunts chainsaw chains in seconds. In Australia the more resilient to blunting semi-chisel chains are used as standard, but even so, dirt is a remarkably speedy way to stop the machine from doing what it does.
The job took many hours of work, and later in the day I also cut up the other chunks of loggers mess in that immediate area. It was pleasing to see big heavy chunks of timber falling off the Meg stump.
Once the stump was small enough…
A six foot steel house wrecking bar was used to lever the stump out of the soil. The stump had some arms which were buried deeply into the clay. Once the remaining chunk was free, it was rolled downhill and into a fire pit.
This week’s video was part two of the work:
That stump was a massive amount of work. And truly, it was no hardship to ignite that fire and kick back and watch that baby burn.
Speaking of fire pits, it takes many years for the soil to recover from the considerable heat, if the area is left alone. We tend to speed up the restoration process up by adding organic matter to the area. Over the weekend a bag of coffee bean husks were added and mixed into a fire pit used only a few weeks ago.
All of the chunks of clay and mounds were also cleaned up. It’s worth noting again that the compacted clay can feel as hard as a rock. The best machine for dealing with that stuff is the scary old rototiller. That machine is a beast, and always reminds me of the old farm machine repair dude, who sold it to me second-hand a few days before he passed away.
The old machine turns clay chunks into powder, and then we use the cutting blades on the heavy low centre of gravity mower to smooth out the soil surface. Honestly, the area hasn’t looked this good in many decades. In a few years time the area will have a lush forest floor full of plants which will in turn support even more life on the farm.
Observant readers will note that in the above image, there is still some more loggers mess to clean up. We’re getting on top of the job though, and who knows, we may even finish the entire mess before the end of the month, maybe…
With the drier year, we’ve thought it would be prudent to begin removing the very woody Echium plants from one of the garden beds. That job was started.
Onto the flowers:
The temperature outside now at about 11am is 11’C (52’F). So far for this year there has been 459.4mm (18.1 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 455.6mm (17.9 inches)
Comments
51 responses to “Gold Snafu”
Yo, Chris – That was an interesting article (and your comments) on the Australian gas supply. The article mentioned that gas was a transition fuel. Between what, and what? Private equity firm? From what I’ve been reading about them, not a good idea. They need to be reigned in. And foreign ownership? Also, not a good idea. Alternatives? Got me.
The thing is, less thoughtful people bang on about how there are huge oil reserves (in this country), that the “Greenies” are blocking development of. Mythical oceans of oil. But what people don’t realize is (or don’t want to realize), that even if we have huge supplies of oil, they go the highest bidder. Not necessarily the domestic market. I suppose a country could nationalize its energy supplies, but that smacks of communism! Or socialism! Or some ism or another. Markets should be free! And this is what it gets you.
Unlike most people, you’re putting your mind to solving the problem, I’m sure you’ll come up with something. Maybe look at some old tech. There might be an answer, there. Or, at least clues to a solution.
The sunset pic is truly calendar worthy.
Your narrative on conquering the mighty Meg, and the video, made clear how you tackled it, and adaptations along the way to speed the process along. Or, at least make it easier on your tools at hand. That was quit a burn pile.
The land reclamation bit, was clear. Speeds the process of healing.
The flowers, as always, are lovely. Lew
https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2025/06/how-australians-were-robbed-of-their-own-gas-2/
http://www.tinytechindia.com/product/renewable-energy-equipments/steam-engines/42
http://www.tinytechindia.com/product/renewable-energy-equipments/solar-cookers/45
http://www.tinytechindia.com/product/renewable-energy-equipments/steam-power-plants/43
Hi Kezza,
Thanks for the article, and did you spot the graph for manufacturing as a % of GDP? We have to sell Australian gas to China and Japan, because, you know, we don’t make things down here any more. Toyota HiLux’s and LDV utility vehicles don’t arrive on our shores by an act of magic. My background in accounting was in manufacturing, and I got to experience the massive sell-off of industrial capability first hand. Way back then, I knew the course taken and was repulsed by the choice, but truly, the vast majority of people are OK with that decision. Now we get to face the music.
As a massive import nation for oil products, we have little choice but to export the gas. The article sort of suggests that it was an error of judgement, but I don’t think so. What’s your take on that?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Yes, the great energy transition – into the dark ages. 🙂 The conclusions from the supply and demand graph for the next decade were hard to ignore, and replacing gas with machines requiring three phase 415V electricity just seemed really very deeply weird to my brain. Man, down under we don’t really have a lot of choice other than to export the gas. This is what a globalised economy looks like, and it’s not pretty. Once not all that long ago, we used to design and produce vehicles from scratch. Now, things are different.
And being forced to export energy so as to be able to afford to import stuff, is the path that our elites put us on many long years ago. And everyone went along with the easy ride. Sure was popular. It’s not the only path, but my preference is always to work, and work hard. This is a very unfashionable perspective. We could have easily instead have collectively chosen to live with less stuff and experiences, but that didn’t happen. I grew up in a poor household, so having access to less stuff seems not that big a deal to me. Everyone is different, and I get that.
Yeah, even with the systems we have on the property, a bit of adaption and compromise and things will be fine. How everyone else will deal with energy shortages combined with price hikes is something of a mystery to me, but I reckon both you and I will live to find out how it all rolls. Old tech has the answers for sure, it just doesn’t look like things today, and a solid local energy source in deepest darkest winter is wood. Plenty of that stuff to be had, here at least.
Thanks! With lots of burn-off’s in the area at this time of year, the sunsets are epic. Speaking of burn-off’s, the one in the video was an averaged sized fire pile. It astounds me that so much material can produce such a small pile of ash.
🙂 The flowers are a special treat for me as well. It’s nice to be able to share them all. In a week or two there’ll be daffodils which will provide plenty of winter cheer.
Thanks for the bee article from your corner of the world, and we know far less about insects than many may believe we do. It’s only in the big smoke that I become aware of a dearth of insects. Up here, they’re everywhere, even in the winter months. And true, nature abhors a vacuum, other insects will adapt to the easy feed the European honeybees left behind.
🙂 Agreed, and that’s what the call to nostalgia looks like to me as well. What do you do? Few people want to hear the flip side of the nostalgic era’s. Don’t you reckon that there are pluses and minuses to such matters? I read an article today which suggested that Millennials and Gen Z accounted for 42 per cent of enrolled voters down under, whilst Baby Boomers and older Australians will comprise just 27 per cent. Nobody listens to Gen Xers, mostly because demographically, they don’t have to (presumably X and Y make up the remaining 31%). Change will be coming for sure.
What a nice period of weather you’re having. Professor Mass used the autumn word recently. Hmm. Hey, we don’t get snowfall like they do up north there. There’s a fair bit of ancient rainforest country on the eastern facing slopes of that central eastern part of the continent, and they’d see more annual rainfall coming off the Coral Sea than I could ever imagine – or cope with. Heading west of the Great Dividing Range up there, and the land dries up.
The avocado is way outside it’s natural range, and is looking rather diminutive for a decade old fruit tree. Still, you have to be in it to win it, and who knows what the future may hold in store? The guys of the big shed fame have an avocado tree inside their shed and it’s always laden with fruit, so you never know what a touch of global warming may achieve.
Asparagus plants are heavy feeders, and they’ll appreciate the goodies. Oooo, now there’s a summer blast: The smell of fresh basil leaves. Yum!
Economics drives all of our decisions, and essentially your organic blueberries were hard to beat. It would be be very wasteful not to use the card. Makes me wonder if some folks on that scheme are in fact doing just that? That’s the thing with cards, they’re not always fully redeemed.
Ha! Hey, I recall the local insurance agent too, who could be trusted to look after your business and cut a good deal. Yup. Nowadays with no middleman, we’re probably all being ripped off. There’s an inherent power imbalance in such a business relationship by going direct.
Your country is different in regards to that matter. There was an alleged push by vested interests down here to phase out cash. Hmm. The risks of that strategy reared its ugly head during a natural disaster up north – it may have been a cyclone – but people without cash suddenly found themselves unable to buy stuff for a few weeks. The politician from that area took steps, and made an issue of the situation by forcing the parliamentary dining room to accept payment in cash. And yeah, things are as they are.
We’re on the same page here, and there is one other person who has rights to walk this land and hunt if need be, and that’s because I know the guy well. And that thought occurred to me too. With myself and such interactions, suspicion comes naturally. 🙂 It is always an unwise assumption to believe that there’ll be little risk and no consequences from me with such matters. No further developments.
Ha! Well, that’s an option you’ve taken there. A fine choice, and if your gut feeling says it’s so, it probably is wisest to follow that path. Dunno about your experiences, but I’ve observed that some people talk a lot out of sheer nervousness and anxiety. Like you, I’m comfortable with the quiet moments. Not everyone is.
A dude could do worse than take inspiration from ol’ Fred, and frankly speaking, the general standard of attire is so poor these days, that a bit of care and attention sets a person way out front on that score. Bring back the zoot suits I say, just maybe not the random bashings and other acts of incomprehensible associated violence.
Ooooooooo! Yummo! Your gumbo experience sounds like a superlative meal to remember for the ages. I too appreciate such fine moments of pure enjoyment. There used to be a restaurant about an hours drive to the west of here. It was located in a private garden which used to be a plant nursery. Truly it was out in the middle of nowhere. And they made the best scones, jam and cream I’ve ever tasted. Stands out as a memorable experience. The scones were freshly baked, and the jam was made from fruit grown in the garden. The cream was proper double thick stuff. Never been bettered, and sadly they’ve now closed the business.
Being handy with weapons is what it takes to survive a zombie onslaught. The motorcycle mention brings to mind the band Meatloaf… 🙂
That’s good with the farmers market regularity. Here, they run them once per month, although they bounce from one nearby town to another so you can find one in the area at least every week. The Editor went to the local one recently and was favourably impressed.
Hmm. Cool weather is a problem for ripening vegetables. My prediction is that next month (September) will be warmer for your area.
Spent the day servicing and repairing all of the machines. A lot of chains were sharpened, a whole lot. One of the mowers is a bit of a lemon and has always had problems starting. After years of being annoyed by the citrus coloured Honda GX powered motor, I may have figured out the problem. The bolts holding the ignition coil to the motor body looked as though they’d been slightly stripped of thread. Probably why it’s been such a nuisance. Feels good to sort out these dramas. They were replaced with new high tensile bolts. We’ll see how it goes in the longer term.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – The way things are … well, someone made a lot of money along the way. I suppose it goes all the way back to the robber barons and the gilded age.
I was cheered by the bee article. Species not seen in a hundred years. Undocumented species. I do see the occasional strange bee around the gardens.
The younger generation blames the older generation for their problems. Sometimes, justifiably. Well, let’s see if they can do better
🙂 .
Our high yesterday was 66F (18.88C). Our overnight low was 55F (12.77C). The forecast high for today is 74F. Rain, maybe, Wednesday and Thursday. Then temperatures into the 80s for a few days.
You can grow an avocado in your second greenhouse. 🙂
I went out and picked the first batch of tomatoes, this morning. About a quart. Not enough to fill the dehydrator, but I want to stay on top of them. The rain may split some.
I took a bowl out front, last night, to check on the 35 blueberry bushes. Not a single berry to be had. There were two bushes with berries on them, but, clearly, they had not got enough water. 🙁 There are some late season varieties still ripening up, but not many.
The fourteenth batch of blueberries is in the colanders, drying out. Now, it’s onto plumping up all those gallons. I’m afraid I’m going to have to buy another flat and a half. I’ll check the Winco store, tomorrow night. If no joy, I’ll head out to the fruit stand, again. By the way, even four cartons of blueberries from the fruit stand, do not equal three cartons from the farmer’s market. I could tell by how much they fill (or don’t) the colanders.
It looks like it’s going to be a pretty poopy year, in the garden. I have four zucchini bushes, and only two zucchini headed to harvest. I worked a bit with the pumpkins, last night. Or, I should say, pumpkin. What with all that strum und drang with the blossoms, I found only one on its way to harvest. There was another, but if apparently wasn’t fertilized, and fell off the stock.
Try as they might, I don’t think cash will go away entirely, in our lifetimes. But who knows?
Dress up a bit and people think you’re getting above your station 🙂 . There’s a lot of peer pressure, out there, to dress “down.”
We have the two farmer’s markets, in Chehalis, per week. I see Centralia has one day a week. And, they’ve moved from a blocked off side street in the CBD to the college campus, which is just outside the CBD. They’re all seasonal markets. May through September. I see Chehalis runs their market through October. Well, that’s interesting. The Centralia Farmer’s Market is on a Friday … and they closed during the Seattle to Portland bicycle ride. Might be a matter of space. A lot of the riders overnight on the college campus.
Soon to be a new Olympic sport. Surfing dogs!
https://www.npr.org/2025/08/03/nx-s1-5491443/dog-world-surfing-championships
You could field a team! 🙂 Lew
Hot water- yeah, nice to have. Just an idea, but maybe a solution for you:
Get a big electric water heater, like big, and then alter the set point to get the water much hotter than usual. You’ll need a tempering line to reduce the temp for use, but you can then store loads of heat while the sun shines. Might not fully solve your issue, but could help.
My setup is just a “normal” sized electric water heater (40 gallon), but have the thermostat set for 140F, and a cold water tempering line to mix in for use. I could go even higher, but we have grid backup, so not as critical for me. The controller to avoid overheat and overpressure is a home brew device that a friend built.
We were on a two week camping trip, so am just now catching up.
Hi, Chris!
Goodness – the hot water panels leaking is a nightmare, though you said “easily sorted”. I don’t think any roof work is easy. I guess they were “hot”, so they didn’t form ice. I have just remembered how, when my son was reroofing the house last winter, I had to spray hot water on it to get ice from a storm off of it so he could work up there. What a mess.
We use those smaller gas bottles for projects. It would be a scary situation to not be able to get the gas when you need it. Like where you are, there are a number of places to buy it here, though.
You will have to heat water over a wood fire and pour it into your tin bath tub in the kitchen (or wherever your wood stove is), just like your ancestors. I have had a good few of those baths, though in a bathtub in a bathroom, during some of our lengthy power outages over the decades. I would get a tin tub if I had to regularly carry hot water, as at the present time, it is up two flights of stairs to carry the hot water. Besides being warmer down by the stove.
Yes, it’s a fool’s paradise to think all this can continue.
You’ve had spring previews, I’ve had autumn ones. That’s one of my favorite sunset photos; absolutely amazing. I’ve noticed that baked clay around here. It might as well be bricks. And, as we have talked about before, scorching wood (on purpose) is a pretty good preservative.
In one photo, you look like you are sculpting a statue with your chainsaw. So far, it looks like a giant wombat. Go artist Chris! No, it’s down to nothing – and it’s gone! Those stumps always look bigger in the videos. And the video was like an old timey slide show. I like it! Remember those? Someone narrated: “And here’s the beach where Auntie Mary got stung by the jellyfish.”
I tell you, those ex-Meg sites look so good now.
From last week: I use white vinegar and water in making the cucumber pickles.
I see your point about the echiums – we have too many bushy, weedy areas – but it’s kind of a shame. They have pretty flowers.
Snow drops! With fertilizer! Nice. Early Rhodies and good old Pig Face. And the ever-amazing succulents. Thanks!
Pam
@ Lew:
From last week:
Sorry, Kew. K is next to L, besides which I have been reading about the Kew Gardens in London.
Pam
Chris
I think that the arguments put forward by Leith Van Onselen, together with those of Campbell and Lockhorst (see link below) have merit. And I don’t support the idea that private enterprise should be allowed to maintain an iron grip on our national resources. We sold off our coal and gas resources a while back, and various corporate entities are now drilling the bejesus out of Queensland and NSW farmland for CSG. And now we have Squadron Energy (guess who owns that), as well as some overseas-based predators, building LNG terminals in NSW and Victoria to land back here LNG that was originally sold out of Gladstone to East Asia and is now being bought back because none has been reserved for domestic users. A total clusterfcuk which Federal and State governments have gone along with, and which I believe could have been avoided had not the Feds been reduced to merely being the vassals of big business.
Given what you have been saying about giving up on gas maybe there’s a case for your looking at linking in to a Virtual Power Plant setup if you have got transmission lines nearby. Although there’s a good chance that government will stuff that idea up as well by letting the neoliberal gougers take it over.
Cheers
Kezza
https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/the-gas-plan-thats-sailing-australia-into-strategic-peril/#:~:text=Although%20it's%20a%20major%20producer,makes%20exporting%20gas%20more%20profitable.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/columns/spinifex/virtual-reality-check-vpps-hold-the-key-to-australias-clean-energy-future-but-only-if-we-get-them-right/
Hi Kezza,
You’ll get no argument from me about the gas market.
I’m of the opinion that if Australia wishes to import oil and industrial product from other countries, we have to sell stuff to external markets to pay for that. Should we not do so, the currency will blow up.
🙂 I like your suggestion, but I will absolutely not become a virtual power plant. Simply connecting up to the grid will cost an extraordinary amount of mad cash. If you are offering to pay for this expense, that’s an entirely different story – let me know?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Pam,
It was fortunate for me that the plumber was present on site recently and able to provide excellent advice to easily fix up the solar hot water panels. And yes, that is how the panels here work, they’re an old school design and send hot water up to the pipes during frosty weather so that they don’t burst. Simple, but there was that leak which was inexplicable. Anyway, all sorted now.
Oh my! Pam, the story of the hot water being sprayed onto the roof so as to lessen the impact of the ice storm gave me an attack of the vapours. Your son did very well to have tackled the roofing job in such weather without incident. But don’t tell him that, lest he get an inflated ego and attempt even more feats of derring-do.
It is something of a problem down here, and there was an article in the news this morning that 10 towns about an hours drive north of here are apparently going to be disconnected from the gas network. I guess the electricity network retreat will also follow a similar story, last in, first out. It’s OK until you realise you’re the last-in. Seems like gas bottles will be available for a long time to come. But my best guess is that like everything else down under, we’ll follow the rationing-by-price path. Oh well. Fingers crossed that the experience in your part of the world is easier.
Hehe! Your suggestion about heating water over some wood fire arrangement is of course the last option here. Fortunately there is no shortage of firewood.
True, and yeah, a fool’s paradise seems to be the way of things. When such shortages hit the big smokes, then there’ll be a different discussion.
Thank you for the lovely words. 🙂 I’ll tell you a funny story about the baked clay – when we first bought this land almost two decades ago, the soil surface looked and acted like baked clay. Digging that stuff was harder than breaking rocks nowadays. But you know, a lot of care and attention over a long period of time, and that’s how the place jumps with life now. However, it’s never a quick activity to restore land.
Seeing how the charring preserving technique just works, I might try that on the next building project.
🙂 Really appreciate that, but such fine carving work is beyond me, although it’s beautiful to see the outcomes and watch the artists at their work. Oh yeah, sorry it all had to go in the fire, maybe. Ook! Yes, that’s all rather unfortunate for Poor stung Aunt Mary, and I’ve heard of some unusual first aid applications for jellyfish stings which could only but impose further indignities on hapless relatives. They do suggest to be wary of swimming in waters where there are sharks! Not bad advice at all. On a serious note, encountering the pod of jellyfish really threw me off the competitive ocean swim. Nowadays I avoid such activities.
Don’t you reckon it’s nice to clean up after such work? In a year or two, that ex-Meg site area will look amazing.
Ah, white vinegar. Yum! Yum! That’s the finest tasting vinegar from my perspective, and can you imagine the aroma of opening the lid from those pickles in the depths of winter?
Yeah, it is a shame to lose the Echium flowers. But then the rats and rabbits have pushed their welcome too far. There are no easy paths in such instances.
Always a pleasure to share the flowers with you. 🙂
Did lots and lots of paid work today which was good.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Steve,
You got the ol’ brain thinking about the matter. A calculator on the interweb suggests that a 2400W element working at 95% efficiency can heat 40 gallons of water from 50’F to 140’F in about just under 4 hours. Not a bad effort. 140’F being 60’C – which nobody would ever want to experience at a tap, so yeah the tempering valve is a good idea and is mandatory down under on new builds. 🙂
Having a look around those sized tanks you have usually have a 3.6kW element – down under at least. Which the inverter could handle, but it could potentially seriously drain the batteries during the winter months. That’s when the firewood shines though.
The local grid is a SWER system (Single Wire Earth Return) so I have some reservations that if too many households swapped bottled gas for electricity, there’d be some serious voltage drop. From reading, that line delivers about 5KVA to 10KVA per household, but it really depends upon what every other house on the circuit is using.
Hope the camping is good and the weather pleasant. 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Well, it wasn’t our decision to go down this path was it. 🙂 Probably goes back even further than that given what history has to say on the particular matter.
The bee article was great, and shows what can be seen by merely taking the time to look around. There are often bird and other animal counts in areas, although they can sometimes have unusual consequences. Some of the local authoritas slapped on a plarning koala overlay which can impose all manner of restrictions. Not fun, and mildly idealistic.
Hehe! My gut feeling suggests that if the younger generations were faced with the same issues and opportunities of the older generations, they’d have done the exact same thing. In a few of the past federal elections, major political parties went to the polls with policies to put an end to the housing price madness, or at least curtail the worst of it. Dude, they got thumped. And now such policies are off the table.
The 80’s weather for you will speed along some of the ripening. If it gets to the end of next month, and there’s been a continuing cool trend throughout the intervening time, I reckon your garden haul will be on the lower side of the harvest equation.
🙂 Avocado trees get really big. The one in the big shed is over 20ft tall. Still, it would be nice. The second greenhouse will not be so lofty.
Oooo, fresh tomatoes picked straight from the garden are a real treat. How did they taste? And splitting can happen here with summer storms. The fruit recovers, but is more easily prone to molds, which is usually spelled down here with a silent ‘u’, although just to be confusing the same word can apply to a container which is used to provide shape to the contents.
Hey, have you ever known anyone with an exotic pet? The Editor was showing me videos of people with Lynxes for pets. Frankly speaking, the entire arrangement seemed problematic. What could possibly go wrong?
Fingers crossed that the late season berries ripen for you. Hey, the rains might help the smaller ones put on some size. I’m assuming the water starved berries weren’t worth the bother harvesting?
Did you make it to the Winco store? Always a risk to be a bit short on supply. I’m still enjoying bottled apricots or plums as part of the breakfast fruit. Given it’s only August, we’ll probably run out of the preserves prior to the local fruit being available again.
Not bad info to have ready to hand given the difference in blueberry flats price wasn’t that big a jump.
Oh yeah, unfortunately your past month of weather sounded more fall-shaped than summer. Who knows how it will roll though by the end, there’s still many weeks of the growing season left.
I do hope that you chastised the insect pollinators for their shoddy work with the pumpkin flower which fell off the vine?
I’m with you about cash, it’ll be around for a long while yet. There are plenty of people who don’t trust banks, and it’s not like I haven’t personally experienced a bank run.
Hehe! True, but some people do take a fake it until you make it approach, and who is to argue with such wiles? On the other hand I set my own standards with such activities, and try my best to ignore peer pressure.
Can you imagine the permits required to block off a street? And if people didn’t also visit the local stores as well as the farmers market, you’d soon have the entire local traders association up in arms. I recall speaking to the boss of a hardware store near to an irregular market, and he said to me that his customers avoided the business on those days. And there were no cross-over walks from the market. Running a bricks and mortar based business is not cheap.
Go the surfing dogs! And it looked like the canines were having some fun in the water.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – The Audubon Society does a yearly bird count. December 14th through January 5th.
What I don’t get is people voting against their own interests. I suppose it’s a lack of attention. That and so much misinformation floating around.
Our high yesterday was 70F. (21.11C). Our overnight low was 54F (12.22C). The forecast high for today is 78F. The forecast also says, “Showers likely after 1am.” I’m not seeing any big green globs, on the weather radar, yet.
The tomatoes I picked are for drying, not tasting. 🙂 When they first started ripening up, I did sample a few. And put some on my birthday pizza. Nothing beats the flavor of a home grown tomato.
Exotic pets? The vet, Dr. Amanda has two boa constrictors. Centralia has an exotic pet store, mostly reptiles. I’ve never checked it out. I think I read in National Geographic that there are more tigers in private hands, than in the wild. They’re favored by dope dealers. 🙂 There was that dope dealer down in Columbia, who imported some hippos. He’s long gone, and the hippos found Columbia much to their liking. They’ve become quit a nuisance.
I saw an article that a zoo in Denmark has offered to take unwanted pets. So that their big cats will have something to hunt. Those Scandahovians. Noting if not pragmatic. There’s been a lot of articles here, recently, about animal shelters being overrun because people are surrendering their pets. They can’t afford to keep them, anymore.
I’ll go to Winco, tonight, and see what the blueberry situation is. It kinds of depends on if I can buy them in bulk. I figure I need a flat and a half. That’s 15 pounds. Besides fresh, I should check the frozen fruit case.
Back when I had a shop over on Tower, in Centralia, I finally just closed up for holiday parades or, the occasional car show, on the street. It brought no business in. Just a bunch of people wanting to use my bathroom. The Chehalis farmer’s market is on a side street, with no business frontages. But, I avoid, say, taking H to the groomer on Tuesdays. The congestion down there is just too overwhelming.
You might find this video on how the Getty museums survived the Palisades fire, interesting. It’s 3 minutes.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/01/style/video/getty-center-palisades-fire-los-angeles-digvid
It’s actually two museums, one for more modern art, and then, the villa for ancient art. Not mentioned in the video, but I’ve read elsewhere, that the Getty also installed water tanks, to fight fires. The villa is a reproduction of the Villa of the Papyri, in Herculaneum. Which was probably originally built by Julius Caesar’s father-in-law. The Herculaneum villa has yet to be fully excavated. The pyroclastic and mud flow is like digging through concrete. I do hope they find the Latin library, in my lifetime. Now that methods have been developed to read the scrolls, without unwrapping them, there may be some lost treasures. Lew
Chris:
We always went to the beach at Galveston Island, Texas (driving from Dallas) on the Gulf of Mexico when I was a child. I just loved that place, but one had to be ever alert for jellyfish. A bad place to be in the fairly frequent hurricanes, though.
I won’t have to imagine the pickles in vinegar aroma. I shall have some!
‘Tis good to be paid for your work.
I planted more beans yesterday, I may have mentioned that, and today I planted turnips and mustard greens. I don’t feel inclined to plant anything at all – something will surely eat it – but I can’t help but try. It’s a bit tricky finding space for fall stuff as all the summer stuff is still struggling along.
Pam
Chris,
From last week. Yes, several of the Native Reservations in the region have timber cleanup operations outside of fire season. Money and manpower are issues, but at least there is a regular program funded by the local Native tribes. The Federal funding for such operations off-Rez got cancelled by the current administration.
Good work with the Meg. The area looks so much better now. It’s an impressive result of the hard work. Removing the clay, a hard job in itself, was a great idea to keep from ruining the chainsaw.
Another cool front is due Wednesday and Thursday. Like last week’s cloudy weather, little or no rain is expected, just a break from the heat. Welcome break, that is. With the huge lack of rain starting in April, the ground is parched and plants aren’t enjoying it one bit. Add endless wind to the low humidity and any water added to the lawns is sucked away quickly. Like Lew, my squash harvest will be nearly nonexistent. The plants started in such a promising fashion, too. The cherry tomatoes are producing a great crop, however, and I need to start picking the chokecherries.
The Princess and I visited a local leather crafting business today. They do complex work and welcome special orders. The Princess has a project for them. We should have a preliminary design from them in a few days. More on this as the project becomes a reality.
On the way home, we stopped at a supermarket we haven’t visited for years. They had a lot of fresh Hatch chilis from New Mexico. I ate a lot of those when I lived in that state, and whenever we visit family there. I had to buy a goodly amount.
Naturally, we stopped at our favorite local eatery also. Along with a tasty liquid libation, I had my usual “Meltdown Burger”. It’s a standard cheeseburger with some lettuce and a tomato slice, with the addition of being smothered with a healthy amount of pickled jalapeno slices. It is very tasty.
The thyme is showing its resilience this year. A second blooming has begun. The succulents are also doing well. I want more succulents to add into the lawns and into a flower bed. Succulents are always a good idea.
DJSpo
Hello Chris,
Running out of resources is challenging. Life in abundance and growth is just so much easier. I wonder if there is some truth to the “upside of down”? What do you find?
Anyways, I guess we don’t have much of a choice, but to adapt and to see the reality as it is.
In our very locale experience, most people are confused, angry and disappointed. Just during the last three years, since we moved to our farmlet, several services have been discontinued or reduced.
Post delivery went from five days a week to three.
The newspaper delivery stopped to our place – “only available online”.
Two of the schools in our municipality closed.
Decline has been going on in rural Sweden for at least fifty years, but in the cities, and in the culture where I grew up, it was not visible. It was outsourced to others. Now I am one of the others.. 😉
I am intrigued by the potential advantages of weaker central power. In China, they have a saying: “The mountains are high and the emperor is far away.” – meaning that there is more flexibility and freedom when you are on a safe distance from the imperial courts.
Bas van Bavel wrote about the history of market economies, that farmers near the larger cities were the poorest, since they could most easily be taxed.
One thing you mentioned is cash. In the city areas, there are lots of people who never use cash, but here on the periphery, cash is king.
Food prices are an area where political voices are starting to be heard – some radicals requesting fixed maximum prices for certain foods. That is a situation like the 1924 Weimar Republic, when many bakeries had to close down due to too low allowed max price for bread. We are not there yet, of course, but the signals are starting to show up in the noise.
As you say, it seems like hard work, growing most excellent foods but the reward is enjoying good meals with friends. We have good harvests of chards, potatoes, tomatoes and cucumbers right now, with lots to spare and share.
Peace,
Göran
Chris
Maybe try line of sight microwave energy transmission instead 🙂 The next big thing after AI maybe as we head towards zero everything. Or maybe a steam-driven generator to power a heat pump thingo. Those clever South Asians will be looking for new markets now that they have flashed a thumb at the Yanks.
Cheers
Kezza
Hi Kezza,
Hmm, hey, remember when self driving cars were the next big thing? 🙂 Only people who have never interacted with chatbots, are excited about their future possibilities. Funnily enough, that happened to me yesterday.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Pam,
Watch out for those jellyfish, they mean both of us harm. And thanks for the blast from the past. Glen Campbell sang a beautiful song about that island, and truly, deeply, weirdly, there are only but one or two degrees of separation there. 🙂 I’ll say no more.
Extreme weather is hopefully a thing for other places. That’s the plan, but whether we’ll achieve the goals is a matter of luck. Having experienced a minor tornado on a Christmas day many long years ago, well, the winds could have been worse.
Yum! Pickled cucumbers from the jar are one of natures true winter delights, and it’s not a process I’ve yet mastered, so total respect to you.
Being paid is the plan. Reality may rudely intrude upon plans, and that’s when a dude has to reach way back into his past life as a debt collector, and take affirmative action. As a young bloke during the 90’s recession we had to have, with 10% unemployment mind you, it was quite eye opening to learn the tricks of the trade for extracting mad cash from reluctant folks. Fortunately in these more enlightened day and age, there’s more mad cash floating around than wealth to apply it to.
Turnips are an under rated vegetable, and sadly historically they came second best to the humble potato. They have a sharp flavour don’t you reckon? And fingers crossed that your fall lot produce. What do you do? Ollie and I went outside a few moments ago to discover a large stag consuming agapanthus leaves. The hunting dog was outraged, as was I. The stag knew he’d met more than his match.
Oh, mustard greens (or reds) are a favourite here too. Yum! And aren’t they good for some decent brain pain? 🙂 Horseradish ain’t the only game in town!
And yes, your dilemma is something that I too am struggling with. They tell me that ‘r’ is for ‘ruthless’, and it may be true. Fall plants need the remaining soil warmth to become established before winter. Dunno, but I’m learning about that issue as well.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Göran,
Hmm, the upside of down? Well, in between paid work today, I took a break and headed off to the scrap metal recycler in the big smoke to drop off the last of the lead acid batteries. The energy storage devices had performed excellent work for over a decade and a half, and the mad cash for recycling them was worth the travel time. One of the intriguing properties of lead is that the recycled metal is almost indistinguishable from new ore. The upside, well, a person sees opportunity, whereas other folks may believe there is only waste. Now the recyclability of the newer LiFePO4 batteries is an entirely different matter. But they may potentially have a much longer life span than lead-acid equivalents.
Free will is a subject which deeply intrigues me, and as you observed, we all may have far less of that wiggle-room, than any of us may ever believe.
Yikes! Your experience with service disconnection is how I believe that the future will play out for rural areas. For one example, the de-electrification will I believe follow the reverse as to how it was rolled out. I mentioned over at Mr Greer’s blog, a recent article suggesting that 10 towns (some of which are only an hours drive north of here) are going to be removed from the piped gas network. There never was a piped gas network where this property is.
On the other hand, one of the appealing factors of the land here is that it has so few services in the first place. I relished the challenge, but that’s not for everyone is it? (most people are confused, angry and disappointed). Yup, all true. The flip side of a lack of services, is reduced future bills, and what’s not to like about that?
Exactly! The old proverb is absolutely true. A person has to ensure though, that they are not considered a target for other nefarious interests.
Your experience with cash mirrors what happens down here, although people have embraced the cashless lifestyle. The funny thing though, is that many years ago I was in line to the cashier at the local feed store. Their merchant machine had failed, due to a bank technical issue, and that was when I discovered I was the only person in line with cash. I paid for the 40kg of chickens grains, and went home. Everyone else in line looked and acted helpless. It’s not a good place to be for them.
Hmm. The food price issue is very deeply weird. Agricultural producers struggle to earn a profit because of such ‘top down’ pressure upon the prices they have to accept for their produce. It’s not a game I’d enjoy playing. However, as you’d know, there are diminishing returns for that game and eventually it will pop. It’s not widely mentioned, but prices for livestock are on the up.
My perspective is to focus on increasing production to reduce household costs, rather than attempting to earn a profit. My business can worry about that cash side of things. Incidentally, we harvested the first oranges ever produced here, and they were very tasty.
Yum! Enjoy your tasty harvest, and those are all worthwhile plants for the kitchen – and to share with friends. Few experiences are as fine as a good chat over an even longer lunch. 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Well done with the fuel reduction programs, although as you noted funding for such work is always problematic. Long ago, such work was done because it was the right thing to do – but then the monetary societal structures briefly intervened. Ah, I’d wondered if funding for such programs were cut recently, and sorry to hear that. The work is not cheap, and it’s worth mentioning the Japanese chainsaw bar and five chains set me back almost $250 for that work with the Meg tree stump. Although compared to hiring a bloke and an excavator, that’s cheap.
On that note, on Monday I took the older and cheaper bars to task and gave them a thorough working over. Hopefully that will reduce the costs somewhat. Hmm. And a dozen chains were sharpened and attended to. Back in the days of yore, they’d have an apprentice learning the ropes by doing such work. Can you imagine the whingeing if the quality of the work was not good?
I’d imagine you’d see the interaction of steel and dirt with the many hand tools used for carving? Although your timber probably arrives scrupulously clean. Maybe? The use of the 230V leaf blower as a cleaner was an innovation that I’ll use again in future. An old school mechanic many years ago advised me to use such an electric powered device to clean down machines after use, and he was not wrong. At this time of year when there is mud, a hose is used to clean machines as well. Everything gets put away clean and ready to use for next time. What’s your perspective when packing up your carving and burning tools?
February is a tough month here as well, and the plants have to do their best in the conditions. Selecting seed for varieties that do well in your summer months will make the garden easier in future years, although that may be a job for the future. I’d suspect that many of your varieties are raised in wetter conditions to your west.
Cherry tomatoes relish such weather. It’s their natural habitat. Yum! Squash plants originated I believe in super hot environments, near to a river. Some of the local varieties down here are well adjusted to hot and drier summer weather, and I strongly recommend Queensland Blue Pumpkins. We’re on tank water, and those ones get only maybe five to ten minutes of watering per day – with similar heat. Yet they still produce lots of large tasty fruit.
Any plans for the chokecherry harvest?
Sounds exciting, and that leather crafting work would be not dissimilar from your burning work. Maybe? Of course it could equally be leather cutting and stitching, which would be very different. I’m intrigued.
Little wonder that Hatch produces such fine chili’s. Granite combined with desert would create some astounding quality soils. Did I read it correctly that some of those chili’s may have a Scoville rating up to 100k? I’m not man enough for such challenges!!! Good luck. Hehe!
Go the jalapeño infused burger delight! 🙂 On the way back home again from the scrap metal recycler, we stopped off to enjoy a similar treat: The bánh mì, and because the lovely folks recognise us, they were more liberal in the application of chili. Left a tidy zing in the mouth for quite awhile afterwards! So good.
Thyme is pretty heat hardy here as well, but nothing beats the succulents. Hope you plant out some more, but never be afraid to cut them hard. The plants bounce back really quickly.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
The many works of John James Audubon were a real treat for the senses. Have you ever seen an exhibition of the painters work? Thanks for mentioning the group, and it amused me to see a portrait of the young man (who was also a naturalist) looking all pensive and stuff whilst cradling a potent rifle. The ornithological world can be remarkably competitive when it comes to sightings, particularly of rare examples. Dunno about your take on this, but I’d definitely put their enthusiasms into the metaphorical ‘collector’ basket.
Actually, that’s something which I do not understand either, but then what people do in the privacy of the polling booth, perhaps more accurately reflects their inner hopes and desires. The word ‘misinformation’ suffers I believe from the liars paradox, and this unfortunate blow-back effect very much reflects upon all of our leaders of whatever political stripe. Politics being a grubby enough business that the dirty details are rarely willingly handed over to the public. Such unwarranted revelations may shake many a persons world-view.
Your summer has been very much missing in action, sorry to say. That sort of cold weather during the growing season is hard on plants. On the other hand, it saves you from being exposed to serious heat, so there are pluses and minuses, like everything. Today here was cold, and wetter closer to the big smoke. Not much rain fell here, although it was even colder at about 45’F. It’s getting down to freezing tonight. Brr! The wood heater is doing good work.
Ah yes, such things happen, and when dealing with the summer harvest, one must occasionally succumb to temptation. 🙂 It was your birthday after all! With more garden space here, there’s a balance between dehydrating and fresh consumption of tomatoes.
Big smoke, yeah. So we dropped off the very last of the old lead-acid batteries today. And proving that it is always wise to consider how heavy loads are placed inside a vehicle, I did the exact opposite. One of the large batteries today was 154 pounds, and I’d placed it too far back in the car, behind the rear wheels. That made the front end alarmingly floaty feeling, and at random times cross winds only increased that difficulty.
By the time we made it to the scrap metal dealer, I was feeling a bit rattled. Although at a petrol station half way in, I pulled over to have a break and shifted the weighty battery forward. Should have gone to the toilet at that point. An error of judgement. Anyway, there was an unusually long line of vehicles in front of me at the scrap metal dealer, and so it took about half an hour to get everything done. Fortunately not long afterwards the big box hardware store had some handy public toilets. That was a relief… Stress is not kind to the bladder, that’s today’s lesson. 😉
Fortunately a tasty bánh mì for lunch soothed the raw nerves. Haven’t worked out how to eat those things without making a mess. The crunchy baguette shoots bread crumbs everywhere. Still, compromising using different bread would wholly alter the experience, and that should not be!
My brain shut down for a brief half hour rest once we got back home again. Anyway, did a lot of paid work today as well, and (yikes!) had to get up super early to get it all done. Who knew it was dark in the early hours of the morning? It’s not right somehow.
Oh yeah, had some nightmares last night. Two old friends who are no longer in the land of the living visited my dreams – independently. At first they looked like I remembered them, and then well, the afterlife is not a pretty place. Put my day a bit out of sorts to be honest. Have they got nothing better to do than harass me? Actually, I got the impression they were trying to say something. I hope such things stay away from your dreams?
Aren’t those the snakes which can strangle animals? You’d hope that the enclosures were secure and that the reptiles were kept well fed. Pet tigers can probably turn on their owners… No way! There’s even a wikipudding page on Tiger Attacks. As you can imagine, plenty of them ended badly. Is it deserving of a Darwin Award though?
Yeah, I’ve read about those hippos as well. Apparently they’re now living free and wild, and enjoying it. What a strange story, and everyone has an opinion on the large mammals. I’ll bet they make tasty steaks! I’d not want them lurking around the forest here, and Ollie and I scared away a stag tonight – the large deer was consuming agapanthus leaves. What eats agapanthus? It’s not right.
The Editor alerted me to that unwanted pet article. I don’t know how comfortable I am about feeding pets to fierce zoo creatures. It presents something of a moral slippery slope. Agreed however, the act itself is notably pragmatic. And yes, sadly the same thing is happening down here with animal shelters. I’ve heard anecdotal accounts that overseas students can do similar things to their pets upon returning home again.
Good hunting at Winco, and may the blueberries be both good and plentiful.
Your experience with the shop is exactly what the hardware store (which eventually closed) bloke told me. And it’s a bit rich to expect to use your bathroom without spending any money. At the big box hardware store today in their toilets, some thoughtless idiot urinated on the seat. Like how hard is to lift the thing so you avoid that outrage for the next person who uses it?
Wise to avoid the congestion, and I too tend to stay away from peak hour traffic, or special events.
It’s very thoughtful of the museum to have considered in the design, the environment into which it was constructed. The surfaces surrounding the building are non combustible, which I approve of. Hopefully that tiled roof never encounters super high winds. Anchoring the exhibits is a wise idea too.
Thought that this countdown would be more your style: Libraries in SA and Victoria among top 10 most beautiful in the world. Enjoy! The State Library here is epic scaled.
Cheers
Chris
Hello Chris,
Just a comment on the battery side.
Indeed, the lead acid batteries are heavy and lose power after a few years, but yes – they are really easily recyclable.
I spent some time last year in a recycling facility that was built to process (just discharge, dismantle and separate the different fractions) of lithium-ion batteries. It cost more than 30 million USD to build, and will cost a lot to operate.
Then each of the various fractions has to be further processed into a new ingredient somewhere else, due to all contaminations.
Several of the fractions are toxic (organic solvents in the electrolyte, heavy metals, electronics) and some become toxic when they get hot (the PFAS-plastic separators between each layer in the batteries).
At least twenty ingredients.
Compare that with lead, lead oxide and sulfuric acid.
Technology is often a trade-off. In this case: more power density – less recyclability.
I have come to think about sustainability a little bit backwards, mainly in terms of compostability. The more ephemeral something is, the more sustainable. By trying to make something last forever, it becomes difficult to digest and compost and recycle.
There were sami people living in about half of Sweden some five hundred years ago, but they left no trace behind. No temples, no pillars of stone, no stone houses. They lived in and with nature in a much more sustainable and invisible way than the sedentary Swedish population that already then produced quite some trash (i.e. archeological finds).
Peace,
Göran
Yo, Chris – I think it was either at Mr. Greer’s or Mr. Kunstler’s that the decline of rural areas will be like a film running backwards. Hard won amenities (roads, electrical power, etc.) will be lost. It’s been going on for quit awhile, if you paid attention. The population of a lot of our midwest has been hollowed out. There’s a saying: “The town dried up and blew away.”
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a painting, by Audubon. But his printed folios, yes. A page or two, here and there. There was a full sized reprint of his folios, decades back. One of the bookstores I worked for carried a few copies. It was pretty pricy. He also did a big book on mammals of North America. He needed that rifle. There were still plenty of our big cats, around. 🙂
World view: shaken, not stirred. 🙂
Our high yesterday was 79F (26.11C). Our overnight low was 61F (16.11C). The forecast high for today is 72F. I took a risk and didn’t water, last night. When I took H for a walk about midnight, there was a few drops, coming down. By 2am, it was a steady rain. I won’t have to water tonight, either. But, we’ll be bumping up against 90F, by the weekend.
Yup. Heavy loads should be carried over the axel. Or, as near as you can get.
Ah, yes. OMB. Old Man’s Bladder. 🙂 I was preparing to go to Winco, last night, I stopped by the Club. No cuppa for me. Two trips to the bog. And I still almost didn’t make it home.
I don’t often have full on nightmares. Disturbing dreams, yes. Maybe the trailer for “Cemetery Man” set you off. A few days ago, I had a dream where someone asked me the names of my cousins. Two families, 9 kids. I couldn’t come up with the names. When I woke up, I had no problem remembering them all. Go figure.
Speaking of movies, is was a popcorn night, last night. I watched “Death of a Unicorn.” Angsty teen, clueless adults, obnoxious obscenely wealthy (big pharmaceutical) family. The unicorns had fangs, and didn’t fart rainbows. 🙂 . It was a good movie. Until the last 30 seconds. One of those ambiguous endings. Here’s a good synopsis of the movie. Full of spoilers, but if you’re not going to see it …
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/movies/a64342534/death-of-a-unicorn-ending-explained/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=copy&utm_campaign=action_bar
If the hippos taste like chicken, they won’t last very long. 🙂 We had a deer in our gardens, this morning. One of the caregivers ran it off. I guess it was munching on my lettuce, but that’s ok. They’re going to seed, anyway. It ran away … as far as the roses.
All those books I read about the British home front, in WWII. Early in the war, a directive went out for people to dispose of their cats and dogs. Due to food shortages and rationing. Some complied. Other’s found work-arounds or resorted to the black market.
So, I went to Winco, last night. I had a brain storm (brain fart?) and decided to check out the frozen fruit cases. My Idaho friend bought the fresh. Same price here. About $2 a pound. The frozen blueberries were $2.78 a pound. She got the better deal. Fresh, they would have been about $19.80 a flat. Frozen, about $27.80 a flat. Less than the fruit stand or farmer’s market. But I can top off my bags, and won’t have to mess with them, anymore. I might have hesitated if they had come from Bolivia, or somewhere. But, they were a US product.
That was a great article on libraries. About a year ago, I picked up a big picture book from the library, something like “Libraries of the World.” All the one’s in the article had photo spreads in the book. There was a Doctor Who episode, quit a few seasons back, that was set in a made redundant library, in Britain. A wonderful old Victorian pile with all that ornate iron work. Both the book companies I worked for had rolling ladders, in their stores.
I saw a timely article, yesterday. On wasps.
https://www.cnn.com/science/love-wasps-exhibition-c2e-spc
I still don’t like them.
We got food boxes, today. The commodity stuff. Report to follow, tomorrow. Lew
Chris:
I’d forgotten that Glen Campbell song. Thanks for the memories.
You are one tough cookie to have been a debt collector. I’ll bet those experiences have served you well.
I planted some ordinary turnips yesterday, got a bed ready today for planting the mild Aji Kogane that I like – and the seed packet was empty. Silly me, but not so silly that I neglected to order some more yesterday just in case.
“The Stag at Bay”, eh? I ran into the Four Bucks Club this morning. They are all young and nowhere nearly as big as yours so I did not need an Ollie. I just shooed them away, though one cocky one did shake his head a bit at me. Right now their antlers are in the velvet, but I’ll be more careful next time as the fall rut is soon coming up. They probably think it is here, it’s been so cool. Lewis the Wren does. He only comes to the back door for walnuts in the winter, but there he is every morning now.
I have some red mustard, but I favor a mild green one more – with a bit of red.
Pam
@ Lew and Chris:
I have the most charming Lapland book. It says on the front Lapland/Sapmi. Inside it has a copyright for Manne Stenros, though no author.
The book is diminutive, being 6 inches by 6 inches and 3/8 inches thick, with photos on most every one of its 63 pages. Lots of recipes, too.
I mention all this because, first of all, I would be happy to send it to you (media mail). I think you would really enjoy it. And second, because it is small and I know you don’t have a lot of room.
If it’s okay with Chris, you could give him your address and he could email me, or you could ask him to give me your email address.
Pam
Hi Göran,
Exactly, the lead-acid batteries are a least-worst option. What few people may realise is that with LiFePO4 batteries, which it should be stated, can be cycled (i.e. taken from 100% to 0% maybe two to three times more than lead-acid ever could be), they still suffer from degradation over time, regardless. None of this stuff will last.
Yes, I recall you mentioning working at that facility, and very much appreciate your perspective as to what it involves. Your description makes the process of melting lead into new ore – which is done at almost no loss, look good. How the facility determined the individual chemistry of the lithium batteries is beyond me. The ones which worry me the most are the batteries with Cobalt in them, and whilst they all are a bit problematic, those in particular can be very dangerous.
My understanding of the PFAS based separators between the cells is that there is some conductivity between cells, and that the exotic material is used to block that. Otherwise, the lithium cells in a pack may potentially get out of balance and possibly cause a fire during the recharging process. Yes, all technological compromises.
Mind you, I’d not want to have to rely upon Nickel-Iron batteries due to their significant voltage drop issues. 🙂 But on the other hand, they’ll enjoy many decades of usefulness. Batteries are a very old and mature technology.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that the only way to go from the apex is: down. 😉
Agreed. Would this item of technology be placed into a vegetable garden from which you will have to eat the produce, is a question which isn’t asked often enough. Respect.
And I see that you have a new blog entry (the RSS feeds update from your site about a week after you’ve posted for some reason – not to worry, better late than not at all).
Hehe! What a fascinating idea. Yes, trash = archaeological finds. Thanks for an entirely new way of looking at the world.
A lot of Brassica species plants have germinated in the chilly soil over the past few days. The cycle of the year progresses.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Pam,
It’s like experimentation, I was subjected to popular music of the 70’s as a kid. And now it all can’t be forgotten. A lovely song too. The singer Glen Campbell had a great voice, and fun fact, his really big song, Rhinestone Cowboy (remember that one? 🙂 ), had links to Australia. One day in the far future, I’ll probably have dementia but by crikey, I’ll be able to belt out Skyhooks classic 70’s Australian anthem, Living in the 70’s… Something for everyone else to be troubled about! At least I’d be in key, maybe… 🙂
Galveston was a good song, and produced a lovely sense of longing.
Thanks. But truly, in those days I was a bit naive and just had to work things out on the fly. The incentive of 10% unemployment and being one unexpected car repair away from eviction was enough incentive to focus the mind on the job at hand. You know, after four years of that work, I’d heard every excuse under the sun, then had to learn how to counter each one. It’s a wonderful way to learn how to peer under the bonnet of the human condition.
Very good to hear, and always wise to keep on top of the seed bank. Turnips are easy to grow plants and undemanding (from my experience). Interesting to hear that your variety are sweet, which would be an improvment. Hmm. The one I’ve grown is the ‘Purple Top’ (Organic), which looks similar but I wouldn’t describe as sweet. When roasted it had a bitter after taste. I much prefer beetroot, which grows almost as fast.
🙂 The stag was a scaredy cat, and fled into the surrounding forest from the big dog and I. Ollie is a very useful dog from many different perspectives. Having known him and seen his good works for many years now, I’d probably always keep a very large dog from here onwards. He generates a natural healthy respect, and has such a delightfully upbeat personality. Just happy to be doing what he does here. Others of his breed that I’ve met have shared similar dispositions.
Met some Maremma dogs today, and the owner was talking up their scary factor. Sure. The canines had a sniff and then went off and did something else like enjoying the winter sunshine. All very frightening!
Yeah, I’ve heard that when in rut, the occasional deer can become a bit tetchy with humans. You know what you’re doing though. Pam, one of the things which really annoys me about the velvet is that the stags feel the need to rub the stuff off on the fruit trees – particularly favouring apples. It’s not nice to have them ring-bark a decade and a bit old apple tree.
Lewis the Wren may know more about the realities of your season than us mere humans. I watch the birds, animals and insects as well to see what is going on, and also coming up. The ants always take action prior to big storms, it’s not hard to see – if a person knows what to look at.
🙂 I like the green mustard leaves better too, and they’re more prolific than the red. Interesting, the ones here have not crossed, yet. Yours may be a truly local variety?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Yes, probably was Mr Kunstler, and who can forget the chapter in the authors book which was amusingly titled: The alt-energy freak show? Paints a strong picture. Yup, like a film running backwards – that was it. 🙂 And the asphalt roads around here are more poorly maintained every year, and yet the demands placed on them only increase. Potholes are an issue for sure.
That’s a great saying. And one downside of the ‘get big, or get out’ mindset was that it re-directed income away from small rural towns into the coffers of distant owners – on many different fronts.
Lovely! And the full sized reprint of the portfolios would be a real treat themselves to view. In the hallway on the walls hang a number of such local bird prints made from the original paintings. It’s old school, but I find the effect to be pleasing. And yeah, a good rifle can come in handy in a tight spot with a large predator.
You may have missed this art item: Gifted balloon sculpture by Jeff Koons is unveiled in the National Gallery of Australia . Look, the symbolic artwork is not to my taste because it seems deliberately ugly to me, and last I checked, women are not balloons.
Very funny, and your point regarding world-view is well taken. Of course you and I could handle the grubby details, but imagine the effect it may have on someone in the west who holds a deeply held belief that they and everyone around them, are really nice. People in other parts of the world want stuff too.
Nice weather, and hopefully the coming 90’s don’t cause hot August nights. Apologies for the music pun. It was sunny here today, albeit with a cold southerly. There was even a light frost this morning. Ice everywhere. Brr! Headed north to pick up some honey and apples, and also to meet a lady who breeds chickens. The place was a bit of a mess, but the chickens and dogs were extraordinarily healthy looking and clearly well cared for. A real back to the land character. You may recall that the poultry auction was closed earlier in the year due to you-know-what that is rarely mentioned these days, and certainly didn’t turn out as dire as the worst case predictions. What most people fail to comprehend with commercial egg producers, is that they probably have to cull their entire flock every year anyway. My experiences with the commercial breeds like Isa Brown (similar to Hyline) has not been good. I want nothing to do with that lot ever again.
The placement of the battery inside the vehicle was an error of judgement. But easily fixed, although I had to live with the problem for a little bit down the freeway – an exciting time, actually a bit too exciting for my tastes. And yes, that directly impacted the OMB situation. 🙂 Your strategy was the wiser path, and fessing up here, whilst working prior to setting out on the journey I’d been supping on a big mug of chamomile tea.
Nightmares are unpleasant. And yeah, dreams can be disturbing too, I hear you about that. And I don’t watch horror or gore films, probably for that reason, but do enjoy your reviews, plus the trailers are harmless enough. Yeah, that is a complicated story, and it’s like the intellectual dream version of being caught naked in public – that is a recurring theme for many from what I’ve heard, although that’s never been a worry for me.
Hehe! I’d read about that film – and we have mentioned it, and it sounded like an intriguingly fascinating demented premise with an unresolved ending. The poor unicorn/s. I can’t believe they were trying to turn the disaster into a profitable outcome. Some people have the morals of an alley-cat, no disrespect to the more cultured felines in the audience.
But of course, and what I was wondering about with the hippos was whether the conservationists had tried some burgers? Apparently the meat is a delicacy. Deer, well venison in another version, and if I, the dogs and chickens were hungry enough… Hope the roses survived the gentle ministrations of those large herbivores. Nice redirection too. 😉 Hey, you might be missing out, I hear many parts of the rose bush is apparently edible. But you raised the eternal question: does it taste like chicken? Probably not. Rose hip jelly is very tasty though.
Really? That’s a new bit of info for me about those days. I imagine the rats would have enjoyed having less cats around? And feline food rations would have focused the animals minds wonderfully towards resolving the rodent problems.
Exactly, point of origin can be something to keep in mind. Hey, some of the frozen ones down here come from the land of stuff. There was an article recently from there which alleged that lead based paints were used to brighten up kiddies food at some childcare thing. Not a pretty story, but that paint was really good stuff back in the day, it just wasn’t ever intended to be consumed. The colours never faded.
I recall you mentioning the book. Glad you enjoyed the photos. Lovely places, and I like those ladders with rollers and tracks. Clever.
Some wasps are more hated than others, in fact it’s only the introduced European wasps AKA yellowjackets which bother me. The rest are fine, and one of them lays parasitic eggs inside cabbage moth larvae. What’s not to like about that?
Look forward to reading your report.
Cheers
Chris
@ Pam – Ohhh! That sounds like a cool book. Recipes? I like recipes 🙂 . Yes, if Chris doesn’t mind, he could send you my e-mail address. Lew
Yo, Chris – An interesting article about Pompeii, after the eruption.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/evidence-pompeii-show-signs-life-142418866.html?
And, in local news, we’ve had the first case of locally acquired malaria in the state. Up around Tacoma.
I saw a headline that our space agency NASA, wants to put a nuclear reactor on the moon. Why? I didn’t read the article. But, it reminded me of a scene from the remake of “The Time Machine.”
https://youtu.be/AhTadcV0myo?si=9hGf6vS_qfiRYPnJ
Our side streets in town, are in terrible shape. They really rattle the teeth. Main arterials are kept up pretty good. But the side streets are lucky to get a bit of asphalt (which doesn’t last long) to fill holes and cracks.
I bet your bird prints are really nice. I had a bird corner, in The Room Formerly Known as Bedroom. A couple of prints and a few ceramic birds. A quilt block with Blue Jays. A bamboo cage shaped like an Asian boat. My cedar raven carving.
But is it art? Not to my way of thinking. But the picture of the Munch painting … that’s art.
I need a certain amount of grubby, in my life. Keeping it real … 🙂
Music pun? There was a music pun? Our high yesterday was 72F (22.22C). Our overnight low was 57F (13.88C). The forecast high for today is 73F. Back to watering the garden, tonight. It was nice to have a couple of evening, off.
So, did you buy a chicken or three? Inquiring Minds Want to Know!
Ground unicorn horn gets you high, and the blood cures cancer. Who knew? I started watching a new Brit mystery series, last night. “Patience.” It’s about an autistic young lady who works in records, in the bowels of the York, England police department. She sees patterns 🙂 . So, she’s helping the police detectives solve cases. It’s really good. I was looking to see if there would be a season two (there will be), and discovered that all neurodivergent (the new hip and with it term for people “on the spectrum”) rolls in the series are played by people who are neurodivergent. Including the lead.
The Great British Pet Massacre.
https://w.wiki/Ey2X
We got our food boxes, yesterday. There were 7 small very sad looking potatoes and two sad beets. A bag of grapes and a bag of small nectarines. Both from California. 5 large apples. I haven’t cut into them yet, so, quality, unknown. A pound each of frozen ground beef and pork. A two pound brick of the cheese “product” that won’t melt. A 16 oz. bottle of some kind of veg cooking oil. 8 small bottles of old people’s nutritional drink. 2 individual yoghurts.
There was a half gallon of apple drink and a half gallon or grape drink. A one pound bag of shelled pecans. A two pound bag of dried cherries. A bag of dried non-fat milk. Two boxes of crispy rice cereal and two quarts of shelf stable milk. Two, 1 pound boxes of elbow macaroni. Two 10oz packets of shelf stable chicken. Two 2 pound bags of dried pinto beans. A jar of peanut butter.
As far as the tins go, there was one tin each of salmon, black beans, applesauce and peaches. Two tins each of diced tomatoes, corn, peas and green beans. Not a bad lot, but it would have been nice to get some real cheese and eggs. I took most of it down to the swap table. Lew
Chris,
Big news! We got measurable rainfall overnight. Officially was a measly amount, but our neighborhood received enough rain that I was able to forgo watering this morning. Back to warm and dry tomorrow.
The better bar and new chains should make a big difference with some of the more gnarly projects. The cost of a guy with an excavator would scare me. Then there’s the damage to other areas that the excavator would make. That would almost be counterproductive.
Our wood is usually fairly clean. I do some work with “found wood”, usually trimmed branches from my trees that I make into walking sticks. However, I remove the bark prior to any carving or woodburning, so the wood is still fairly clean. Even so, some of the hardwoods can dull a knife rapidly.
I’ll keep a look out for the Queensland Blue Pumpkins. They sound better acclimated to our climate.
The chokecherries? Probably freeze them. Eventually they will get added to homemade bread or to stews. Or donated to events on the Rez. Chokecherries are considered a traditional food throughout this region. It just takes a LOT of work to get the cherry pits out of them. Chokecherries are VERY tiny compared to a regular cherry.
Some leather work is similar to carving. Use tools, design the project carefully, stay patient, enjoy. It’s simply something that we don’t have the tools for. And this project is complex and would be over our heads also.
Yes, Hatch chilis can range anywhere between spicy to unbearably hot. When we were in New Mexico 18 months ago, one of the cousins supplied us with a bunch of frozen Hatch chilis. Unfortunately, he froze them whole, neglecting to cut them up and discard the seeds which have a lot of heat. These were high on the heat scale. It took a long time to eat them, just a little bit at a time. Found out later that cousin could barely eat them either.
Banh mi with extra zing? Sounds yummy!
I’ll keep you updated regarding the succulents. I’ve got several sources of them throughout the yard. It’s a matter of separating some and moving to the right locations. Too hot to do that right now.
DJSpo
Chris:
So you can sing, Chris? That’s wonderful, and it will be wonderful for the other old codgers to hear you let go with a song.
Ah, well – nobody’s perfect . . .
I am planting Purple Top for the first time, so I may be disappointed. That would be the only thing nothing touches, with the luck I have had.
Ollie is the gold standard for a loyal friend; I am so glad you found him. I was amazed at his size at first.
I love Maremmas. I knew someone that had one once. It was a lamb, which I guess is a good thing in a sheepdog. Huge things, they are. I knew someone with a Mastiff once, too. It was also very sweet. Those big dogs don’t always know their own strength, though.
I have saved seeds from both of the mustard varieties for some years. That makes them local to my property anyway.
Found my White Russian Kale seeds today and planted those. Also found the wasp nest nearby where they have been coming from to sting me. My son has terminated it.
Pam
Hi Pam,
Honestly, having a higher pitched voice limits your career at the top end of town. They tend to hire heavy set blokes with deep voices at that level for some odd reason. Think the traditional well fed bankster. Dunno why. Anyway, a few years ago someone was complaining about something I said on the telephone (and this was to a third party). Apparently I was a: rude young man. As an old fella, hearing such mistaken words was pure music, and it made me feel much more kindly towards the person – despite their complaints. The lesson here, dunno, err, grasping for straws, oh yeah, maybe: staying in key doesn’t pay the bills? Tenuous admittedly. 🙂
How’s the rain going at your place?
Perfection is over rated. Dunno about you, but I’m yet to be convinced otherwise. Makes life easier don’t you reckon? Took me a few years as a younger self to comprehend that lesson. People took advantage up until that point. Oh well.
Planting a diversity of crops is a great idea, and before potatoes arrived on the scene, turnips were a highly regarded vegetable. Can’t wait to hear of your opinion, and truly I may have stuffed up how they were cooked – which was oven roasted.
Ollie is in next week’s video loitering around doing his own thing. He’s a lovely dog and happily walks to heel, unlike the two Kelpie’s who always seem to be more interested in important Kelpie-business, whatever that may be. Has Mr Baby had any further interactions with the cat-bird, and how is he enjoying his expanded run?
Maremma’s are lovely dogs, but have an unfortunate tendency to fight among themselves. I’d keep such canine breeds separated, although the lady had several from the same litter all happily enjoying themselves. She did admit that they sometimes fought hard, and I prefer canine harmony. Agreed, they don’t know their strength sometimes.
Good stuff, and yours is a landrace variety of mustards, as are the ones here.
Whoa! Never seen the White Russian Kale variety, although we grow the red Russian Kale it was bred from. Winter soups can only be improved with leaves from those most cold hardy of plants. Presumably they’re part of your fall garden?
Respect to your son, and I’d do no less.
Pam, the deer lopped the top off an olive tree last night, and have begun rubbing off their velvet on the surrounding forest trees. I am not happy about their presence here. Deep breath… Calm… Maybe…
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
What a great time of year to get some rain. Presumably this is not a usual occurrence for August? Your land would seriously appreciate the wet stuff falling from the sky. 🙂 And being able to dodge watering is like having more free time to do other things, such as relaxing with a dog and enjoying coffee whilst watching the local birds.
Exactly the Japanese bar will get wheeled out when the going gets tough, like that Meg stump proved to be. Hopefully there are not too many more like that one loitering around here and becoming unexpected nuisances? Dunno. The bars made from riveted sheet metal have a tendency to widen the gap where the chain runs, and that can cause less than dead straight cuts, which in turn jams the chain. Ordinarily that is not a problem…
And that’s the biggest problem of the lot, a massive excavator will do the work quickly, but in the short term create a truly monster mess. Soil compaction is very much an issue with those machines. Although many long years ago I paid the bloke with the big excavator machine to do a once deep rip of the paddocks where the orchards now are. Absolutely, it is counter productive once the soil has loosened up.
Interesting. Does your group hold classes for tool care and maintenance? The local Eucalyptus tree species is slightly harder than Quercus robur (the English Oak which grows very well here), and I occasionally watch utoob videos of people in your country happily sawing away at softwood species in pure envy. 🙂
Ah, I’d thought that due to the name, the local variety of pumpkins would be re-branded in your country, but no, they’re described as: Queensland Blue winter squash. Ah, someone refers to them also as: Beaudesert Blue. But same, same. Seriously five to ten minutes of water per day is enough, and they’ll survive 104’F+ temperatures easily. Well worth your time.
Just went on a deep dive regarding the Chokecherry, and it’s an interesting plant for sure. Have you ever sampled one of the sun-baked cakes made from the fruit? Do your lot have a bitter flavour?
Cherries (a different species altogether) are an impossible to grow fruit here. The place teems with hungry bird life, and they know more about the various fruits than I ever will. Cherries are their favourite.
Made a batch of apple cider today, and fed the parrots some of the mash. The chickens got most of the mash, but one needn’t be neglectful of the King Parrots – which are friendly birds. Completed the remainder of the machine maintenance too, and everything is working as expected. There were plans to do some forest clean up, but the thick fog and drizzle was just unpleasant to be out in. Some days are for rest and recuperation.
Good stuff, and hope the leather work turns out well, and more importantly, is well received. Gifts are powerful things. And I get that, it’s hard to be across too many skills. There’s far more I know absolutely nothing about, than things which can be claimed as having some level of mastery. 🙂
Oooooo!!!! No!!!!! Yup, it would be the seeds which got you all. 🙂 I’m wary of chili’s from sources unknown to me. It’s all OK until your mouth explodes from the heat. 😉
The Vietnamese cooks do not overdo the chili inclusion, but at the same time got the zing factor just right. It was a pretty awesome lunch.
Agreed, the plants won’t enjoy being transplanted around now. That’s a job for early spring next year. 🙂
I’ve got to plant out a whole bunch of Japanese maples next week before the weather warms up too much. Oh well, always lots to do, isn’t there?
Fingers crossed it doesn’t warm up too much for you?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
That’s fascinating about Pompeii being re-used after the disaster. And the Roman’s mining the ruins for treasure. I’d imagine that the costs of living elsewhere for such citizens would have been rather exorbitant to consider residing on the disaster site? Has anyone ever researched the economics of everyday life for citizens in the late Roman Empire? Paid a $400 bill today for the business which was mandated, but realistically I’ll see no benefit from.
Malaria is everywhere, and didn’t Oliver Cromwell die from that?
All very exciting, but is anything on the moon providing an economic return? To be honest, I’m not entirely certain that small nuclear reactors have even been trialled on this planet. I guess there’d be less safety and certification issues on the moon…
Same down here, the main freeway is not too bad, but step away from there and the quality of the roads deteriorate. Much of the recent road fixes use cold asphalt fills and they tend to lift over time. I’m grateful if the local council grades the dirt roads around here once or twice per year. Historically, traffic on the dirt roads in this mountain range reduced during the winter months. The old Cobb and Co coaches would have had a hard time of it during winter with those thin cartwheels.
The local parrots are rather colourful and the artist captured that in the prints. We purchased the collection at a business which used to sell second hand stuff, but since moved to the cheaper new import items. Nice idea with the themed corner of the room. And some of the art was blue! 🙂
Didn’t seem like art to me either, but apparently the thing is expensive. Reminds me of one of those clown tricks with blow up balloons where they tie them altogether to make a stylised horse, except that was a stylised something else. Meh! The Munch painting was very nice, and I was wondering what you thought of it. It’s an impressionist style, maybe? A soul tortured by itself, that one.
Don’t we all? 🙂
Tis beneath my dignity to acknowledge your question, and I shall ignore your lack of appreciation for my music puns! 😉
Wasn’t your weather heading into the 90’s? Of course you may have noticed the proposed budget cuts to your weather mob? It was cloudy and cool here today. Apparently this morning promised near zero chance of rain, which worked out to be a few hours of drizzle. I’d planned to head outdoors and work, nature suggested that it would be an unpleasant ambition. Squeezed lemons and froze the juice, plus made many demijohns of cider. Also after lunch I got through servicing and inspecting the remaining machines. All are in tip top working shape, that I’m aware of. Hey, at least they all started and did what they were meant to do.
Oh no! That was the thing which was a bit odd. We could have purchased a chicken on the day, but they were a bit young and needed a few more weeks of growth. Candidly I was wondering if we were providing some sort of social call to the chicken breeder? I didn’t see the need to go, but all the arrangements and minor details have now been sorted out. It’s not how I do business, but everyone is different. Probably end up taking the crew from nine chooks to a nice even dozen. We’re getting about four eggs per day now.
These unicorns sound rather handy. Shame that they are easily annoyed. Oh, I mentioned the series to the Editor. It’d be of interest to her for sure. Yeah, so true, the patterns aren’t right, or are they? Pattern recognition is a real skill. Funnily enough, I’ve produced and read so many financial reports over the decades, that I see the numbers as if they’re telling me a story of all the dramas going on in the background just out of sight. Not sure what other people see when they read them. It’s very possible that they don’t read them. A lot of scandi-noir has err, female leads who are possibly neurodivergent, I believe The Bridge series was the first to do so. Women are generally forced from a young age to learn socialisation skills which is why the ratio is higher for males. Based on what I see around me, it’s pretty equal really.
Is it just me, or as I was reading about the great pet massacre, the thoughts of a more recent toilet paper panic bubbled up to the scum of consciousness? Probably why. It’s something I joked about at the time, but also noted we kept less than 42 rolls which was high risk behaviour. I’d never heard of that incident. Thanks for mentioning it. Makes a bafflingly weird sort of sense as to mass behaviour.
Potatoes and beetroot from the garden are a superlative experience, sad looking equivalents, worm food, unless seriously hungry. Did the nectarines have any flavour? When they’re good… Yum! Did you make any scores from the swap table? Or was it all much the same?
A deer managed to push over an Irish Strawberry Tree last night, and they’ve been rubbing their velvet against the bark of some trees. And the top of an olive tree was completely removed. I’m getting annoyed by their antics and they may get a three, oh, eight response. Not happy. I’ll go out and have look around soon to see what mischief they’re up to tonight.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – There’s been some recent articles, about one archaeologist whose specialty is tracking Pompeii survivors. Using family names, occupations and linguistics. The emperor at the time, Titus, had some kind of a relocation and relief program, but the details are scant. Resettled survivors tended to cluster in neighborhoods.
There are signs around Pompeii of a bit of burrowing and digging about. Holes poked through walls, etc.. I seem to remember one house, where bones from victims were carefully moved out of the way and stacked. I suppose any jewelry was removed. It was a dangerous business. Poison gases still lingered in the pumice. That was even a problem in the 1700s, when the city began to be re-excavated.
As near as they can figure, Cromwell died from malaria and maybe typhoid. There were urinary and kidney problems. At that time, quinine was available, but he refused to use it, as it had been discovered by Catholic Jesuit missionaries, in the Americas.
My friends in Idaho are onto a trove of western art, for the hotel. An old guy, who they have done some favors for, well, his wife collected western art. He says he can’t take it with him, and isn’t much interested. So, they can stop by and pick some things out.
On of the prints I have in my in-house bird sanctuary is an older print of two blue parakeets. Nicely matted and framed.
I’d say the Munch picture of the man and the horse must be one of his earlier paintings. He started out as more of a naturalist (realism) and then moved onto a style that developed into “expressionism.” More interested in portraying or conveying emotion. I find some of the expressionist stuff, interesting. At least you have a general idea of what you’re looking at.
Our high yesterday was 70F (21.11C). Our overnight low was 48F (8.88C). The forecast high for today is 80F. It’s Friday, here. Sunday and Monday will be in the low 90s.
Yes, there were quit a few layoffs in the government weather service. But now, they’re hiring back some of those people. Although any new hires will be subjected to loyalty oaths and tests, and such. To Fearless Leader. And, of course, anyone who thinks climate change is real, won’t be hired. There’s some talk of taking down two satellites that measure greenhouse gases.
Besides the social aspect, maybe the chicken seller just wanted to make sure you knew what you were about, as far as chickens go. At least you weren’t subjected to a home visit. 🙂 Reminds me of a painting …. American regionalist painter Grant Wood, “The Appraisal”.
https://dubuqueart.tumblr.com/post/171545288588/grant-woods-artwork-the-appraisal-and-your
I finished watching the last episode of season one of “Patience.” I’m really looking forward to season two.
LOL. I need an accountant. 🙂 I’m really on top of keeping up my check register. Well this month, there was a lot of moving money around, deposits, withdrawals. And I could not get it to balance. Of course, it didn’t help that the credit union website kept tossing me out, in as little as two minutes. So, it was back to another round of duel identification. I’ve finally just decided to let the dust settle, and see where I’m at, in a couple of days.
My current toilet paper census is 50 rolls, on hand. A comfortable margin 🙂 .
I had run across references to The Great Pet Massacre in a few novels. And I think there was even an episode of “Foyle’s War,” that was built around it. But I’d never looked into the actual facts.
I cut into one of those apples, and the core was rotten. Another apple was better. The nectarines … what a disappointment. I think there was a dozen in the bag, and I was only able to salvage three. The rest were molding and rotting. The three I salvaged are under ripe, and ripening up on my counter. Currently, hard as rocks. I didn’t pick anything up off the swap table.
If it’s not one thing, it’s another. Deer. Of course, being in the city limits, we can’t go blasting away. Probably a good thing.
H got a bath, last night. Then I did laundry. I took her down to the groomer’s, this morning to get her nails ground down. Then off to the Club for a cuppa. She really needs a trip to the groomers for a trim, but I’m trying to hold out til next month. Lots of expenses, this month. I trimmed her up a bit, before her bath. Now, she’s more aerodynamic. :-). Lew
@ Lew:
Chris did send me your email address. I just haven’t had time to send you one, which I will do now.
Pam
Chris:
You can’t have harmony without tenors.
It tickles me pink when someone in a shop says: “Here you are young lady.” I think it’s so funny, though I like my senior discount, too. Where I live, women are often addressed as “Miss” (no matter what their marital status is) or “Ma’am”. And men are “Sir”.
What rain? It’s been a long time since it has rained, but it has been very cool, so it hasn’t mattered too much.
Mr. Baby doesn’t talk about the birds he meets. Strangely, he never catches birds and they are all over his fenced nature preserve, but he is a real menace to rodents, even while imprisoned. The other evening a terrible yowling was heard and it was Mr. Baby at his drive-thru window wanting to bring in a dead mouse to share.
Can hardly wait for the Ollie premiere.
I only grow kale in the fall. The cabbage worms usually eat it all in the spring and summer. Also, kale will grow a bit all winter here and then start up all over again in the spring. I am still eating a bit from plants a year old. The cabbage worms weren’t as bad this year.
That’s unforgiveable. Those deer had better watch out. So far, ours have only rubbed on one pawpaw tree.
This spring I grew 3 new little alpine strawberry plants from seed. The plants are still tiny right now – maybe that is why nothing has eaten them – but they have tiny, ripe strawberries. I hadn’t been paying attention.
Pam
Chris,
Historical records show that we should get about a half inch of rain in August. So some rain is expected, typically via thunderstorm until about the 20th, then maybe via a storm system rolling in from the Pacific. July also averages about a half inch, almost exclusively from thunderstorms. Rain this early in August from even a weak system from the Pacific is rare. I doubt that I got more than about 4mm, but it was nice. Oh, and we’ve gotten probably 20mm of rain in the past 90 days. If that. The rain spigot turned off at the end of March this year.
Today was a pleasant 28C with mixed sun and clouds and a breeze. 30C to 35C expected Saturday and Sunday, then 2 days near 38C before another drop to more “average” (whatever that is) temperatures between 25 and 30C. So, short term, hot, then longer term, the “Not too hot” you’re hoping we get. In other words, August weather. 😉
Hopefully you won’t find another Massive Megatron Meg. Even with the new bar and chains, that would be way too much work. I still say the most fun would be with a few well-placed drilled holes, some dynamite, and after the gooie kablooie has settled down, the Giant Meg will be gone, there will be smallish pieces of wood strewn about, and the magpies will be enjoying a meal of the grubs that were once lurking beneath the Meg. Of course, there might be some (hopefully temporary) deafness issues and some rather irritated neighbors. Darn! There’s always a downside to all these massively fun things! I guess you better hope you don’t find another Massive Meg.
Formal classes for knife sharpening aren’t held. However, there is a lot of knife sharpening going on, especially when some of the better power sharpening tools are brought in. When a knife’s dullness is past my ability, I usually have one of the expert carvers sharpen it. The longer I’ve carved, the less assistance I need. Also, whenever a brand new carver arrives with his/her own tools, one of the first questions the newbie asks is “How do I sharpen these things?” An impromptu lesson will quickly follow from one of the more experienced carvers.
Never even seen a sunbaked chokecherry cake. Sounds interesting. The drying process might add some sweetness to combat the strong bitter flavor of the chokecherries.
Once upon a year, when the great bison herds freely roamed the Great Plains of the USA, many Native groups had a staple food for primary winter use called pemmican. It consisted of dried bison meat ground into a powder. The powder was then mixed with bison fat and dried wild fruits, quite often dried chokecherries. Not only was this a winter staple for many people, but it was also apparently rather tasty. Although I’ve sampled bison meat on occasion, I’ve never had an opportunity to try pemmican.
Wednesday and Thursday here were the cool days. Light mist and clouds and winds. Those are good days for staying indoors and relaxing. The air quality was very good, so we had the windows open. The cool, the fresh air, the relief from the heat was welcome and relaxing. Good days to catch up with oneself, relax, slow down.
Ah, yes, I see that you have been there in the world of mystery chilis. And their seeds. Your mouth burns. Your belly has a raging fire terrifying your innards. Apparently there may be a way to cook these hot chilis that keeps the flavor but reduces the heat. I don’t know the secret. Flavorful with some zing is the goal.
I could probably transplant the hens and chicks. We’ve planted some of those at graves in the desert near Omak. Added a lot of water when we transplanted them, then their only water was whatever rain fell. They were thriving by the second year. The hens and chicks do well in this climate and soil and spread rapidly. Great for some of the flower beds.
Ya know, owning your own home is a good thing, I reckon. A benefit is that there is always something to do. The downside is that there is always something that must be done.
Glad you took care of the King Parrots when feeding the mash to the chickens. Gotta take care of the locals, yes? They entertain us in return, I guess. I’ve been enjoying the Cricket Cacophonic Chorus each evening.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
The high notes create the interest in a melody, yeah. 🙂 Someone has to do them.
Aren’t such people lovely! So nice. ‘Mam’ is not usually heard down here, but I like it and use it as well as ‘Sir’ too (there’s a story). And even though that particular person was hating on me, it was very hard to hate on them for such kind words.
Pam, there was a very well heeled guy who was (note past tense) a bit of a nuisance. One day, and this was his error, I saw my opening and said: “Excuse me Sir!” to direct him to move out of the way. Can you believe he called me a ‘tosser’? Outrageous, but he did move on. Sadly, he has passed on. For the record, I had nothing to do with that.
‘Miss’ sounds very formal too and quite pleasant.
Poop, no rain for a while. But as you say, at least the weather has been cool so that the lack of rain may not be so crucial. How is the tree canopy looking? Are you enjoying as much shade nowadays?
Of course, Mr Baby is a gentleman. But perhaps bringing dead rodents into the house is a step too far? On the other hand, it is a notable achievement and Dame Plum rodent bane extends cordial tail wags to a kindred spirit.
Ollie and I will soon head way down below to the forest edge and push in the fire. We went out last night hoping to discomfit the deer, but they knew! Must have been reading the blog, the cheeky scamps.
Oh, did more clean up work today, AND (please excuse the capital letters 🙂 ) worked out why the electric chainsaw sharpener was no longer creating sharp chains – the disc was worn out. Hmm. A real Doh! moment. I sharpened one of the chains by hand using a file, and it cut beautifully. Thus the culprit was revealed, and sure enough the disc was problematic. It’s the things you think you know, that truly I have no idea about! 🙂
Same here, although the cheeky cabbage moths wait until summer weather before destroying all Brassica species.
Oooo! Has your tree produced any pawpaws? Hope you enjoy the alpine strawberries, and when you get enough, they produce a jam which tastes like bubble gum! Not quite strawberry jam like, but still good. The alpine strawberries grow here in the greenhouse, so I don’t know whether that would make a difference?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
It’s somewhat astounding that after two millennia, there’s enough records around to be able to do that detailed investigative work. And also, if only 20% of the population perished on that day, 80% survived and would have gone somewhere within the Roman Empire.
Whoa! That Pompeii robbing work would have been a hazardous proposition if poisoned gases still lingered in the pumice. Was there a theory in the long distant past that the buried city had somehow been forgotten? Looting suggests that things may have been otherwise – local knowledge of course.
I’d not realised Cromwell had other complications, but makes sense. Life back then was a risky proposition, but then it is today too. I can’t imagine that they had Gin and Tonics in those days, but then he was a noted Puritan. Ah, I see that some cheeky wag has released a Gin named after the gingerbread and pie hating bloke. Kind of puts the fun back into Cromwell? He was no doubts very boring and probably a real pain. What’s not to like about pies and gingerbread men?
Hope your friends score some pleasing works that fit the building they’re putting them into.
Parakeets are a common pet down this way, and of course they have their origins a bit further north than here. We do get flocks of budgerigars from time to time, but usually they’re green. Proper framing really adds something to a print or painting. It’s nice to see good work.
That’s what I was thinking as well regarding Mr Munch. It would be hard to misinterpret The Scream, for example? I’d not realised that the painting was so famous, but yeah emotions are most certainly conveyed.
Ah, I see, the 90’F temperatures are yet to arrive. Saturday night here, being in the future. It was 59’F bright sunny and still today. Headed down to the forest edge to continue the clean up work. Actually, Ollie and I just went down there in the dark (although it is a bright full moon outside) and pushed the fire together. Might do some more tomorrow.
Discovered the reason for the chainsaw dramas of late. The cutting disc on the electric chain grinder had worn to the point of uselessness. Who knew? I worked it out backwards by sharpening a chain by hand today, and the machine just sang. Hmm. Oh well, there’s always new stuff to be learned. Put a replacement disc on order.
Good to hear the weather service staff will be loyal, whatever that means. It’s a strange job requirement, but then a quarter century ago I had a boss demanding I do some dodgy stuff, and he said: “Are you disregarding a direct order?” It was a surreal moment, and the reply was an irritated: “We’re not in the f#$%ing army”. Of course such actions inevitably lead to the parting of ways, and I left not long afterwards. Life is too short for that kind of stuff.
Doesn’t make global warming go away, but on the other hand, maybe it’s more honest – it’s not like anyone actually appears to be doing anything about it? You and I, and most of the people here live very considered lives, but we’re in the minority.
Thanks for that interpretation regarding the chicken breeder, and that was probably how it was. Hmm. Please spare me from such heady interactions to which I’d fail. That painting is awesome, and the sizing-up look from the chicken seller is terrifying.
The Editor is very much interested in Patience, so report to follow.
Oh Lewis, I’ve had accounts staff and accountants tell me that they couldn’t reconcile a bank account. Sure. 🙂 Always go back to basics at such mystified moments, then all will be revealed. The interweb dramas wouldn’t have helped the situation.
It’s pretty awful that Great Pet Massacre, and was it really even necessary? There was a really interesting concept related to that incident called: “black boredom”, although I’m not sure that it is a widely used description. Dunno.
You’ll be safe, but our toilet paper coffers are not quite so replete. Always something more to worry about, isn’t there?
That’s nasty with the rotten apple, although the worms will make short work of it. Ditto for the mouldy nectarines. Fingers crossed that the stone fruit ripen, and have some taste.
Probably is a good thing the ladies can’t go blasting away at deer in the car park. What could possibly go wrong? 🙂 Didn’t spot anything outdoors other than a couple of rabbits I probably should deal to. Found a rabbit burrow in all that loggers mess. Hopefully there are no deadly reptiles living in there…
Being a cooler summer, H probably won’t mind missing the grooming? Maybe? Clearly after the home trim, she’s looking slick. And aerodynamic! Hopefully such skills aren’t needed?
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Thanks for the lovely comment. Sorry man, Ollie and I headed out earlier this evening and pushed the fire in. So I’ve lost an hour. Oh well, these things happen. I’ll reply tomorrow morning, but until then! 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Dogs and bees. What’s not to like? 🙂
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/dog-used-sniff-cold-cases-174818561.html
I read a mystery series, a few years back, about two sisters who were refugees from Pompeii. Who ended up running a Roman mansio (hotel), in Britain. I can’t find a reference to it, now. 🙁
By the 1700s, the locations of the cities had been lost. Wars, plagues. Things fall through the cracks of history.
Re: Cromwell. That’s what happens when armchair theologians run amok.
I looked into parakeets as pet. Thank you, “Parakeets for Dummies” book. If you want a parakeet to bond with you, get one. But, then you have to play with it, two or three hours a day. If you get two, they bond with each other, and not with you. Parakeet breeders over here, have really developed different color lines. The blue ones. And, I’ve even seen some really striking black and white parakeets.
There’s been some speculation that that crazy sky, in Munch’s “The Scream,” was due to the volcanic eruption of Krakatoa. Or, not.
https://w.wiki/3jcJ
Our high yesterday was 81F (27.22C). The overnight low was 52F (11.11C). The forecast high for today is 84F. Our night manager is going camping, and asked that I water his patch. So, I did. I also checked windows, in the late evening. I found two open. Some of the Inmates have no sense of security.
Might want to order in a backup electric chain saw grinder disc. Although I suppose they’re pretty pricey.
I really like the paintings of the American Regionalists. You can tell the chicken seller is sizing up the city woman, to figure out how much money she can shake out of her. 🙂
“Patience” is a great series. There are several scenes where she attends a support group, for the neurodivergent. One of the mysteries revolves around a member of the group. “Hell is full and the dead walk!” 🙂 Keep in mind that the actors are all neurodivergent.
I watched “Thunderbolts: The New Avengers.” A Marvel comic movie. Popcorn was had. It was pretty good, though I thought it dragged in places.
I think Black Boredom was, perhaps, a result of The Phony War. War was declared, and nothing much happened between October, 1939 and March, 1940. Ever rising tension, lots of preparation. Lew
Chris:
I think there is more to that story. What is a tosser? Could it be a rude person?
It’s funny that you mentioned shade as I have been thinking about how, even though there are way less trees because of what my son has cut, the shade is even heavier in some areas. I think it is very simple – the trees have grown taller! So, there is a bunch of canopy. It’s still a squirrel’s paradise because so many of those trees are nut trees.
Ever resourceful, you and your hand tools. How great that you have them as backup.
Pam
Hi DJ,
Your area borders some arid lands. Not desert (please correct me if I’m in error), but rather more arid than not. On the flip side, the reduced rainfall means your soil minerals would be much better than anything around here. 🙂 Trees, I’ve read, require a minimum average of 500mm annual rainfall in order to thrive. Up north of this continent with distinctive wet and dry (but always hot) seasons, the trees have all sorts of strategies to get through the hot and dry seasons. Bizarrely, I reckon your winters would be driest for the trees and that’s way outside my experience. Makes me wonder what your area would look like with warmer wetter winters?
Reduced rain from March is a worry, but then you do have big rivers (at least they seem so from my perspective – the local creek is tiny).
Nice weather, although it’s probably getting up into the high 90’s for you today? Hehe! Yeah, true, when you discover what normal is, please don’t hesitate to tell us. 🙂 It’s really variable here, although the weather average follows a sine wave. Today is nice again at 15’C with blue sunny skies and no breeze. Might head down below and continue the forest clean up work.
On that note… I discovered yesterday the reasons for the recent difficulties with the chain saw. The grinding disc had worn out, and was now cutting at a strange angle relative to the cutting tooth on the chain. The discs when new are 145mm, but this one is I believe 125mm – it’s done. I hadn’t noticed until the supposedly sharp chains no longer cut. Don’t you think it’s amazing that all these technologies require every single step and process to have remarkably fine and unforgiving tolerances? Look at all the sensors in a modern car engine… You just hope they all work! Oh well…
Hopefully there are no further (and thanks for the image) Megatron Megs hiding in that mess. Did your mum ever tell you that you were a bad influence? 🙂 I’d like to blow them up too, but the neighbours might seriously crack the sads. Drats, there are always these pesky downsides, yeah!
Interesting, and a thoughtful way to teach the skill – on necessity. And yes, there are differences in sharpening tools for sure. Hey, I’ve found that with drill sharpeners, and used to waste a lot of time and eventually stumped the mad cash for a Drill Doctor machine. Works a treat, but you have to know how to use the thing. It’s interesting you mention that about the sharpening getting beyond your abilities, and there’s one kitchen knife which is just annoying how quickly the edge dulls. Could be an issue with the quality of the steel, but probably skill levels… Have you ever bought some carving tools which were problematic to maintain? Those are starter tools from my perspective.
Hmm, the western palate is not accustomed to bitter flavours, but other cultures are different I believe in that regard. Sun baking might do a bit of fermenting too, and that does change flavours. It’d be a real process I’d imagine.
Pemmican sounds like a great travel / winter food. You know, I’m coming around to the idea that a lot of the many activities required for living with renewable sources of anything, is learning how to preserve stuff when nature makes it available. That’s one of the things which people miss out on when it comes to renewable anything. It’s not the same as strawberries in winter is it?
Good to hear that the smoke hasn’t be too bad for you and Dame Avalanche this summer, and fresh air is a wonderful thing.
Ha! I don’t know that mystery chili cooking secret either. Fire, yes, ouch! 🙂
Hens and chick plants will probably shade the ground a lot, and yours is a lovely tribute to the departed.
All true, and did you know that a house is only new, once. 😉 I’ve long suspected the desire for houses with short life spans, reflects our societies throw-away and don’t repair and maintain culture. Dunno, just a hunch. But yeah, they do keep you busy – although I’ve observed plenty of homes in need of maintenance over the long years.
The CCC, that’s the sound of summer!
Cheers
Chris
Hi Pam,
Yes now that you say it, he was a very rude person. I know what you meant, just being funny. It’s down under slang for a pretentious person. Honestly, talk about that bloke projecting his proverbial shadow at me. 😉
Hehe! Trees will do that for sure. An old timer from ’round here used to amusingly tell me that: ‘They never get smaller’, and he give me this smug expression, mostly because he’s right and knows it. Actually, I also believe, and would be interested to hear of your opinion, but when you thin trees out, due to the plants accessing more light, minerals and water, the canopy gets more dense.
🙂 Thanks, and I try to master the manual methods prior to using machines for the same task. It’s nice to be able to pick and choose how a job gets done. On that note, I broke one of the springs in the chainsaw clutch today. Oh well, they’re consumable items. Now I’m left wondering if I should purchase an original Stihl clutch for the saw rather than the cheaper after-market clutch. Hmm.
Cheers and better get writing. Hope your day is going well? 🙂
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Go Maple the bee saving canine! Interestingly, Ollie has some progenitors from those dogs and apparently he can sniff out a feral pig from 6km / 4 miles away, so stinky bees a couple of metres away would be easy as. Fortunately he’s never complained about living with humans. 🙂 A dogs world would look astoundingly strange to us, and I don’t believe that their eyesight is all that great. And exactly, there is plenty to like there and it’s great to see that bee keepers are gettin’ serious about hive risks. They need to take it seriously.
The Roman reference of the Mansio, puts me in mind of the most excellent book from Norah Lofts you recommended years ago ‘A Wayside Tavern’. Both the Editor and I enjoyed the book immensely. Fun fact, the Editor has finally grasped why I so enjoy the Jack Vance highlight books. Her nose is deeply buried in the pages on some days, yet alas we have to both work. PS: I’m giving her the highlight reel, for there was as many misses as there are hits, but when the metaphorical ball is struck with the bat, the narrative flies out of the park and off and into the stratosphere. Oh, I should also mention that she watched the first episode of Patience, and is hooked. Thanks for the referral.
I guess so, our understanding of what went on ten millennia ago is rather thin. For all we know, they had electricity.
Oh far out! That’s so true about Oliver Cromwell. I’d not thought of him that way, but err, Pol Pot… Just sayin’.
The idea of interacting with a caged bird for several hours per day, would send me nutty. However, since you mention this, today we did another forest clean up day, and for the entire time I was shadowed by a little youthful magpie. He was very sweet, but underfoot and occasionally at risk, although nothing bad happened. Yesterday he did pretty much the same and had an injured feather, so I’m guessing he was kicked out of the family nest to go and fend for himself, and was happy to pick through the various grubs discovered during out work. A pleasant natured bird. And, there’s another King Parrot who is also remarkably friendly… You’ll see.
Candidly, the sky in that painting does look a lot like the sort of sunset produced from high particulate matter. I note that this explanation has been discredited, but did you notice that above the head of the painter, the lines of red diminish the higher they go? That would be consistent.
Nice to have someone reliable such as yourself to water the plants whilst others are on a short holiday. Hmm. You know, since being here, I’ve had less holidays, but then there are less needs for holidays aren’t there? Dunno, but people use holidays as a circuit breaker so as to take them away from their everyday existence. The problem is, you have to come back from such events and face what you’ve created. That can be hard.
😉 I did just that with the grinding disc, and got a spare for good measure. Your advice accords with my way of thinking.
Hehe! A shake down for mad cash. Yup. That’s what the eyes suggest, and the differences in social positions couldn’t have been expressed more starkly than in that painting. The painter had a sharp mind to human interactions.
Very good, and I’m yet to dip my toes into the Marvel and DC film world. A bloke has only so many hours to spare for such activities, and alas, I did something very bad in a past life and now have to work hard – right until the end. Oh well, a bloke has to take the good and the bad in this existence don’t you reckon? 🙂 Ollie and I went down to the forest edge at about 8pm to push the fire together, so it’s a very late start this evening.
Oh my, things sure got real after that during WWII. Isn’t it the waiting that’s the hardest part, although that was a song.
Cheers and seriously I’m so late tonight! Ook! It’s now past 9pm. Yikes!
Chris
Yo, Chris – I’d say, Ollie knows which side his bread is buttered on. 🙂
And I’m sure he finds The Editor, you, and the kelpies endlessly entertaining. 🙂
Norah Lofts was another one of those authors who was really popular, in her time. And has now, pretty much fallen off the radar. I’ll keep looking for that series of books on the Roman British mansio.
“…had electricity.” Well, there’s always those “ancient batteries from Bagdad.” That’s the search term. History’s mysteries.
Well, as Sinclair Lewis said, “Fascism will come to America, wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross.” There’s been several … worrying judgements coming out of courts recently, that weaken the firewall between the separation of church and state.
Birds are a lot of fun, to watch. We seem to have a lot of robins around, this year. They startle me, I startle them. I saw two jays, yesterday. Though they appeared to be just passing through. Prof. Mass has taken note, from the radar, that the birds are beginning to migrate south. I finally saw the snake, yesterday evening! About a foot long, black (but not a black mamba), and pencil thin. After I got done making funny noises, I had a chat with Mr. Snake. It’s funny to think, that in the recent past, there was a nest with eggs in it, that escaped notice. I also saw Sam the Snail, last night.
If you didn’t have to work hard, to the end, you wouldn’t know what to do with yourself. 🙂 Well, maybe you’d watch more movies.
There’s another big fire, NW of LA. It’s in a less populated area. And, with the recent Palisades Fire, fresh in memory, people are probably paying more attention to evacuation orders.
We talked about bad dreams. But I’ve been having a string of sad dreams, recently. Had a real hum dinger, last night. H had died, of some internal problems, and I was sitting in a bar (!) arranging to have a wake, there, for her public. While I was sobbing into my beer (!). It woke me up, but it was reassuring to reach out from under the covers, and confirm that she was snoring away. Very lady-like snores, but snores, none the less.
Our high yesterday was 82F (27.77C). Our overnight low was 61F (16.11C). The forecast high for today is 90F. We’ll have three days of high temps in the low 90s. There’s a “heat advisory” out.
Thanks for passing on my e-mail to Pam. Contact! The eagle has landed! Whatever … :-). Lew