A bloke can do a lot, but he can’t do everything. Nowadays vehicles are way too complicated a machine for me to service and maintain. There’s stuff under the bonnet, like oxygen sensors, which only increase the general sense of bafflement. And the engine management and body computers have esoteric knowledge and mystery which is denied to the likes of myself. At such times, a dude’s got to take the car in to the mechanic who specialises in this area of work.
Having been stung in the long distant past by mechanics making claims for unnecessary repairs, let’s just say that trust is initially low with a new mechanic. Who can forget the time when as a young bloke the mechanic claimed that the overhead camshaft had seized, thus snapping the timing belt. In a state of abject horror at the sheer size of the repair quote, a visit to the business quickly settled the anxiety. Sure the timing belt had broken, but a spanner attached to one end of the camshaft turned it so easily that seizing was not even a remote possibility. The guy wasn’t even remotely embarrassed caught out wallowing in the depths of dishonesty, as he was. Tow trucks are not cheap, but compared to that repair quote, it was peanuts.
However, time and experience proves that trust in a new mechanic builds, and that’s what a working business relationship looks like. The only issue for me, is that the mechanic business is located in the big smoke, and Sandra and I live up the bush. Being the crafty and resourceful people we are, whilst the Suzuki Dirt Rat Jimny was being serviced, why not go and see a film during the daytime at the cinema?
Sandra drove the Suzuki Dirt Mouse Swift, so on this rare occasion, we went in with two vehicles. Before heading to the cinema, why not stop off for a most excellent coffee and muffin? The timing was tight, but doable without undue stress. Anyway, life is too short for take-away coffee, so we kicked back for a few minutes, supped beverages from ceramic mugs, and generally enjoyed the inner city sport of people watching. So much to see. So very different to life in the bush.
Finished up at the café, and headed off to the cinema which is located in a touristy area which is even closer to the centre of the city (but still well outside the CBD). We planned to park the small Suzuki in place we’ve used plenty of times before over the years. It was weird that there were so many available car parks, and so few vehicles using the facilities. At such moments it’s always advisable to take a good look around and discern what has changed.
Turned out, the car parking limits had been reduced to two hours, right throughout the area. Holy carp! How are we meant to park the car, walk to the cinema, sit through the pre-screening advertisements, watch the film, grab some lunch, and walk back to the car again in only 2 hours? The quick maths weren’t working out. The cynic in me wondered if collecting the $100 parking fines was a more lucrative business venture for the local council, than the few bucks they earned from parking revenue?
Fortunately Sandra knew of an area nearby with 3 hour parking, and sure enough heading there we nabbed a park. It seemed like an oversight that street had been overlooked because everywhere else around there was 2 hours.
We made the film start with a few minutes to spare. Here’s the weird thing, the ticket prices were $7 each. I’d paid more to go to the cinema three decades ago. Sure it was a discounted price for Monday’s but with less than twenty people in the theatre (there were quite a number of other screens in the complex), I was wondering how they were making enough mad cash to even keep the lights on. Accounting sadly removes the fairy dust from a persons eyes, and instead you get to guesstimates of gritty realities. The story didn’t seem pretty.
After the film ended, we grabbed lunch comprising of a tasty gourmet burger. So nice, and again we sat at a table on the street and simply enjoyed watching the many people going about their day. The sun shone nicely with unusual late winter warmth, and we dissected the plot and fictional characters of the show.
Hang on a second, what time are we meant to be back at the car? Relaxation converted into intense energy. We made it back to the vehicle about ten minutes too late, but dodged the dreaded fine. Winning!
The incident got the old brain matter cogitating upon the issue. I’ll bet the traders association are deeply unhappy about this situation, and as far as I’m aware, there is only one commercial car park in the entire area. The council in that part of the inner big smoke is probably fair to say, predominantly quite left leaning. About as far left as you’d go in this country. And I believe deriving from well heeled suburbs, they have some funny ideas about cars. Not that many years ago, in a council meeting on this issue, one of the office holders was alleged to have raised the hard question of something along the lines of: “If we need house repairs performed, where are the tradies going to park?” It’s an interesting remark to say the least.
Ignoring the practical aspects as to where a tradesperson would place their vehicle when doing work in that area for more than two hours, there is an unspoken implication which suggests to me that a person working a useful trade, may not be able to afford to reside nearby. This suggests that they have to drive some distance to perform their work. Anecdotally, people I know living in those areas, unsurprisingly have troubles getting tradies.
This article lays out the situation better than I ever could: Property prices tipped to hit record highs in 2025-26, bringing pain for buyers and a boom for sellers
There are always unusual side effects from policies, and I’m of the belief that the economic realities of such massive house prices, is that the population is being segregated along lines of wealth and income. This is an unprecedented social experiment. Even the wealthy hill station owners over in the more fashionable end of the mountain range during the 19th century, understood that someone needs to run the creamery, tend to the orchards, man the Cobb and Co coaches etc. And all those folks lived cheek by jowl, the wealthy simply had larger gardens, oh and gardeners.
The drive home again in peak hour traffic took two hours to travel around 60km / 40 miles. Friends tell me that the trains are packed with people, although public transport may be quicker, if you don’t mind impersonating a sardine in a can. The real joke which may be lost on the supporters of these policies (and that is the vast majority of the population), is that with these economic shenanigans, one day in the not too distant future, there’ll be heaps of work available at a distance from your home, it just may not make any economic sense to do it.
The weather has been mostly pleasant and sunny this week. In fact, so far, it’s been an unusually warm and dry August. In the past day or two, a storm whipped up from that frozen continent way down below the Southern Ocean. Looked impressive, promised lots of rain with even a chance for snow, but we got neither, although there was some rainfall.
Work continued on breaking up the latest (and hopefully last) Meg. Last week, the trunk of the log had been cut up and burnt off. This week, the remnants were cleaned of compacted clay, then the monster was hacked apart with the chainsaw. Sounds awful doesn’t it?
A little lost magpie (let’s call him Bert) has begun following me around during the two days spent working down below at the forest edge.
The bird needed to exercise some caution because at times he was underfoot. As each monster piece of Meg was removed, I had to be certain as to where the magpie was. He’d not appreciate being squooshed by a heavy chunk of timber.
Over the day, the stump got smaller and smaller.
Bert kept following me around and remained dangerously underfoot.
By the time a very late lunch was called (well past 3pm), the Meg had been completely broken apart and removed from the soil. Yes, parts were embedded in the soil. Two of the arms of the tree stump were deeply buried underneath the compacted clay, and they had to both be levered out of the ground.
All the chunks were rolled down the hill and into a bonfire and burnt off. I’d appreciate not seeing any of them again. The fire though was really quite large and cast an eerie glow on the many trees at the forest edge after dark.
The work is hard on me, and it’s harder on the various machines used. One of the three springs used in the chainsaw clutch broke. Fortunately that occurred at the end of the day. A few days later the clutch was removed and fixed.
I keep spare parts for bits of the machines which are likely to break, and could replace the clutch with a working spare. The saw was back up and running within a hour. Here’s a close-up image of the clutch showing the broken spring (at the top).
The clutch is a clever contraption. As it spins around with the revolutions of the motor, centrifugal force pushes the three shoes outwards. They in turn grip a drum which rotates the chain. As the motor slows down, the springs draw the three shoes inwards, thus disconnecting the chain from the motor. However, with one broken spring, the chain keeps moving at idle speed, which is quite unsafe. Easy enough to fix, and as previously mentioned, if it’s likely to break, I keep a stash of spare parts.
The forest clean-up work will dominate this months activities, but this work is rapidly drawing to a close. Another thing we’re doing around the property at the moment, is relocating fruit trees. This week, a large and old Mandarin tree was moved to a sunnier position. The soil it was originally planted in had become quite boggy, and so the tree was not doing well. Digging the citrus tree up required the use of the electric jackhammer. Small, but a very tough root system. The tree is now a third of it’s size, but will regrow just fine.
In breaking produce news…
Overall it’s been a warm and dry August. However, some nights are getting down to, or are at freezing. Due to such cold extremes, the chilli plants in the greenhouse look a bit sad now.
Radishes on the other hand, have grown superbly during the winter months. It’s a real pleasure to bring them into the kitchen. Even the leaves make a decent pesto. Imagine a slice of warm oven baked fresh bread, slab of tasty cheese, all smothered in garden fresh pesto. Yum! Some days, that’s what lunch looks like.
Plants are beginning to slowly wake up from their winter slumber. Some of the hardiest are off to an early spring start.
This week’s video is about the early spring here.
Onto the flowers:
The temperature outside now at about 10am is 5’C (41’F). So far for this year there has been 479.4mm (18.9 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 470.6mm (18.5 inches)
Comments
39 responses to “Excluded”
Yo, Chris – It sounds like you had a really nice trip to the city. There were challenges, all overcome. Not that long ago, I went to a discount, late afternoon movie showing … and was the only one in the theatre. Another time, there were just five of us.
I’d say, staffs are very small and work for a minimum wage. Due to automation, one projectionist can oversee multiple screens. You didn’t mention the tucker, on offer in the lobby. The price of that stuff is eye watering, and that’s where they make the big bucks.
I suppose the tradies could park in your driveway, but, I suppose that would bring down the whole “tone” of the place. 🙂 Yes, the population is getting segregated by wealth and income. Only the wealthy can now live in some cities. And what of the “service” people. I read articles about teachers and nurses, who can’t afford to live in the areas they serve. Some businesses are building housing for their own employees. Some businesses are providing company owned transit, from outlying areas. Every time there’s a spike in gas prices, there are articles about people with two hour commutes, who can’t afford the costs, anymore. We have a number of “Park and ride” lots, here. Carpools. Multiple people in vehicles, to split the costs.
How will it all end? And, when? Whatever the answers, it won’t be pretty.
I found one of the sidebar articles, on the housing issues, interesting. “Inside the ‘quasi-civil war.’ I’m deeply sorry, but I’m afraid a lot of their ideas were exported, from us. Thank you internet.
I’m glad you finally conquered the mighty Meg. Man triumphs over nature. 🙂 The bonfire glowing in the dark, looked like the eyes of some great beast. Probably one that could rip the foot off a kangaroo.
In fits and starts, spring comes to Fern Glade Farm. The video was quit good, and reflected the text. If one wants a bit of variety in their diet, year around, a greenhouse is a good idea.
The Jonquils and Daffodils are quit lovely, and we won’t see the likes, for months. Lew
Hi Margaret,
Life intrudes on the things we want to do, and also if I may observe, there is less time to available achieve those goals. It happens. 🙂 We had a mountain of life’s annoyingly time consuming administrative tasks to do today, and just got on with it – but squeezed in time for a Bahn Mi. And why not? We were in the area. Discovered the nice telco closed up their local bricks and mortar shop. Hmm.
To be honest, I’d prefer such summers as yours to that of the super dry and windy variety, mostly because of the extreme fire risk. Everywhere is different, and 8 inches keeps such risk at bay. Had 10 inches in 5 days one summer long ago – who knew it could get that wet? On the other hand, plants grow better in hot and dry conditions, as long as there is access to plenty of water to make up the difference.
Go Marty! If there were a better outcome, with his new friends, it would be hard to think what it would be. And who knew he had it in him? I’m sure it’s all gossip and stuff, maybe! 🙂 The old timers used to say something or other about ‘idle hands’. Oh well. People will be people.
Sorry to hear that about your younger sister, and from our past discussions the lady has been ailing for a long while. Crohn’s is pretty nasty, and we mess with our guts at our peril. The departed build up around us, and those who remain both age and carry the memory of the enjoyable times.
Nice to hear of your honey flows from the hives. Great stuff. And I was super impressed that one of them (or was it more?) over wintered. 🙂 Sounds like you’ve got a smart young bloke working for you, and hopefully he learns plenty from you both for when he gets a place of his own.
Are they in college already? The years fly past. And well, yeah, student debt requires work doesn’t it, and that takes time. What else do you do? I had to work full time and do uni at night. You can only work that hard when you’re young, but it eats all of a persons free time. Dunno whether I mentioned this, but I eventually got sacked from the Tandy electronics job because I organised to go and see my grandmother near to Christmas, and the new boss changed his mind about letting me have the time off.
Good to hear you’re still working at the book store. Thanks for the laughs, life is busy because you’re doing heaps of stuff. 🙂
Enjoy the harvest, and so are the rabbits. I have a solution for those pesky critters! 😉 Doug will be up for that for sure, and there is no other way.
With thousands of trees, there’s no shortage for sure.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Mawkernewek,
Thanks for the images and song of Kea Plums. 🙂 I’d bring some home made cider along from the trees here in exchange for the feed and entertaining company. Bucolic scenery.
Ah, you’re on a mission there, and best of luck. Please don’t blame me if it all blows up, badly. 😉 Unsolicited advice is always a bit dodgy, but err, yeah, err, the age deduction is probably safer than the other option you suggested, which – and for the record we are short on specific details – but may involve highlighting complicated social matters such as say, the intimation of teenage pregnancy. No big deal if consensual, but people can get funny about such matters.
Did your mum ever tell you that you were a bit cheeky? 🙂
The plums in the video looked on the smaller side, but, here’s the thing, those often have the most concentrated flavours. Home made jam = Yum! We tend to bottle plums, and are still enjoying them in breakfast (as well as last seasons apricots). They’ll all be done by the end of September, the traditional lean time here.
Hehe! Your trees are escaping and spreading. Cherries are the worst for that trick, and I tend to mow the suckers down. Getting more horizontal branches is best for good fruit set with some varieties for sure. There’s a lot to all this stuff isn’t there, but consuming your own fresh fruit is a truly wonderful experience.
Part of the reason we’ve been moving fruit trees of late, is to allow them more room to grow and spread without facing so much competition. Probably two more trees to go, but then that should be it, maybe…
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
It happens with daytime cinema sessions for sure, and makes for a more pleasant experience. Although, there was that one time when in a near empty cinema, some unknown person came and sat next to us. Massive Red flag alert! So I said to him: “What are you doing, the place is empty?” and he replied “I can sit where ever I want!”. Yeah sure, so we moved and I told him he was creepy. People…
All very true, and the margins on the food sold in such venues is probably where they make the larger share of the profits. Never worked for cinema, but years ago spoke to an accountant who did. Turns out, each of the film runs has it’s own unique deal depending on what can be negotiated, although there only so many different combinations of those deals. Complicated…
Ah, I’d not understood that possible misapprehension. The inner urban parts of Melbourne are usually Victorian era workers terraces with narrow plots of land – there is no off street parking (unless access is possible via the old alley ways and there is a backyard – not always guaranteed on either front).
That happens down here too, and I’ve heard that in some rural areas – with affordable rents, but nowhere to do so due to chronic housing supply shortages – that some businesses are providing housing options for their staff. Demand and supply issues down here are being artificially stressed so that the bubble continues. What did everyone expect would happen?
I’ve only heard of the bus-ing in of employees to a tourist town from a far distant town in only one instance. But it may be happening elsewhere for all I know. The whole policy is strange, and I’d not have encouraged these current arrangements. But people keep voting for these, so clearly my opinions are unpopular.
Out of curiosity, have you ever car pooled? Long ago I did just that with my now departed friend Mike. He worked around the corner from where I did, did the same hours, and lived not too far away. He paid the petrol and parking, and I supplied the car. It wasn’t a bad arrangement, but he had a different definition of the word ‘punctual’ than I did, and well, deep breath, relax and just go with the flow, but occasionally stressful if he’d had a big night beforehand. Thirty years ago, there was a lot less traffic than now. Far out.
Nobody told me about any quasi civil war… … What the heck? Oh no! Good luck with that option… I see what you mean about the exportation and importation of ideas. Provides hours of entertainment. The old timers used to say something about ‘fighting city hall’. They were right to say so.
Yes, take that mighty Meg and consider yourself smited! 🙂 It was an eerie photo, and there was a tree trunk way down below in between the camera and the fire. A bit spooky. Baleful.
Exactly, the greenhouse punches above its weight at this cold time of the year. And tomatoes do well in there during cool summers. The materials are long lasting, but probably not sustainable.
Your weather sounds very nice. Today began at 35’F, rose briefly to 45’F and was all rather a chilly experience. 🙂 We had heaps of admin to do today, and went to the nearest big outer suburban area. Why waste a journey is one school of thought, and so we went for a walk along the historic area there, and it was really nice. Took some photos of the dry stone walls used in vineyard terracing back in the day. Also destroyed a Bahn Mi for lunch. So good.
Yup agreed, hurricanes supply unpredictable behaviour too many days out. They can do all sorts of strange and unusual things.
Actually I was wondering that about the settles as well. Did they have cushions which would have conserved heat, and provided some insulation. Oh yeah, shawls would have been necessary against the constant chill. Thanks for the link, and those two Victorian era ladies look toasty warm. And there’s something a touch naughty about a product labelled ‘the Dainty Muff Warmer’. It’s a hot water bottle, which are still in use down under for sure. Not hard to buy, but who knew they were installed in muffs? Whoa! Forty pounds of clothing, yes that would make a difference, and probably sink you into the murky depths if say a lady was pitched into the water following the Titanic disaster. I see, flannel is a lovely warm material and makes for nice winter time bed sheets. Ah, the foot warmers are an elegant and simple technology, and it’s probably nicer to travel first class. Sent the article on to the Editor. Thanks, it was a great read.
A search on the name yesterday suggested the Persian King name for Darius, so your snail is clearly of an ancient lineage, and hope it has survived? Did you spot the snail today? Good to hear that you are employing Woody’s tactics. Worked against the zombies…
How does anyone kill horseradish? That stuff is close to what some unfair people may describe as a weed. But yeah, over watering is probably not ideal. Hey, replace it with proper wasabi root. I doubt they could over water that stream-side plant. Man, what do you do? Maybe, make the hose too short to reach those garden beds? For the record, I have never watered the rosemary. That stuff thrives on neglect. 🙂 Far out.
Having your car towed would be a surprise for sure, and could only but serve to fill the official coffers, whilst emptying yours. Still, that is a massive silver lining, and maybe the universe was pushing you in that direction. Sometimes weird synchronicity happens, although you and I may be just alert for opportunities? Dunno.
Nicotine does provide some sort of effective insect repellent, although other plants can be used as well. I’ve mentioned this to you before, but reading a book from the sixties, had a line about recommending the use of DDT to reduce the mosquitoes in the standing water. Probably one of those ‘it all seemed like a good idea at the time’ kind of things. On a serious note, I do wonder about the lack of insects in the big smoke. Nobody seems to notice.
Man, I used to get paid for writing articles for hippy magazines. It was an awesome gig, and back in the day, this week’s blog essay would have earned about $300 for the number of words and photos. 🙂 Ah, what a fun story, and thanks for the link. They now probably write partisan stuff on behalf of their paymasters. That’s what precarious employment looks like. It’s gutless. Why not go back to making fun of them, all of them? Or even better, ignoring them.
As an unapologetic introvert, a corporate retreat, or some madcap corporate adventure, would be a personal nightmare, even if the food and drinks were good. 😉
Agreed, and it is an excellent way to gain experience. However, there is a difference between volunteering, and providing six months of no-pay long hours of labour. That sounds like exploitation to me. Back in the day, companies used to train their staff to perform the required functions. Student debt looks like an outsourcing of that cost.
Oh yeah, of course, we’ve spoken of Mary Anning and the fossil trade.
Cheers
Chris
oxygen sensors et alia- Man, things are moving too fast! The new truck was way more tech laden than I want, but there are no choices these days.
Get this- the truck had been informing me it needs to download an update, and being quite persistent about it. Well, apparently, it went ahead and did so. How? Does it have its own cell phone plan? Satellite phone? Did it crack the password to out wifi?
Further, what got updated? Why did it need updating? Something about to explode? Better ability to give me notices I don’t need or want?
I’ll be researching this, but we all know added complexity means added things to break. This won’t end well.
where are the tradies going to park?- Indeed. Just one small example of the great division slowly happening. The haves and have-nots gap will grow till something gives. I’ll just stop my old guy grousing there 🙂
Yo, Chris – Maybe the theatre creep thought there was safety in number? 🙂 Still, I agree, creepy. Was he wearing a long raincoat? 🙂
It’s pretty well known that a lot of restaurants couldn’t survive, without their sales of booze. That’s where the biggest mark-up is.
I’ve read that a lot of the tech companies, particularly in the San Francisco area, run their own transit systems. Mexican factories, along the border, have transit systems for their mostly female employees.
I can’t remember ever car pooling. But in a lot of our major cities (including Seattle), there are dedicated “car pool lanes.” If you’re a lone driver, caught in those lanes, the fines are quit steep. There’s been a few incidences where someone stuck a dummy, in the passenger seat. 🙂
Of course, I have this paranoid conspiracy theory that some of the Powers That Be would like to drive most of the population, into the cities. A herd is more easily managed. And, people are being driven to the cities, as rural services and lack of amenities, vanish. Of course, once you get to the cities, there’s no affordable housing. Hence, homelessness.
Our high yesterday was 72F (22.22C). Our overnight low was 55F (12.77C). The forecast high for today is 77F. The forecast is for 88F, by Friday.
Settle cushions could be stuffed with wood or horsehair. When you think about it, keeping warm technology didn’t really change for hundreds of years. And then things changed relatively fast. The development of stoves for heating, is pretty interesting. The idea of putting a fire in a mettle box, and venting it up a chimney. Ben Franklin invented the Franklin Stove, in 1742. But it had drawbacks, and was swiftly improved upon.
I haven’t seen any of the snails, in a couple of days. But that’s not unusual. The foliage in the snail sanctuary is quit dense.
I got on-line to try and figure out why my horseradish died. I haven’t dug down in the soil, to see if it was bugs. It got enough light, and grew happily there, for three years, or so. I always added some good compost, in spring. I noticed when I gently pulled the leaves, they came away quit easy. And the bottom of the stems were “mushy.”
Now, writing for magazines involves how many “clicks” you can get, off an article. Number of comments. As far as internships go, there’s also been the opinion advanced, that only kids from rich families, can go that route. With their living expenses furnished by family. More segregation by wealth.
I know when I worked in libraries, there was part of the budget that was for “training.” Even when I worked in bookstores, there were extra hours provided in the hours budget, for training.
And, in one of those timely articles I just ran across yesterday, before the Romans were interested in fossils, there were the Greeks.
https://www.heritagedaily.com/2024/08/evidence-of-ancient-fossil-hunting-found-in-bronze-age-mycenae/153261
I read somewhere that the idea of a unicorn, was due to ancient discoveries of fossil rhinoceros skulls. Or maybe it was Narwhals. 🙂 Lew
Yo, Chris – I forgot to mention, I saw a really good article about hydropower (Roll, on Columbia, roll on….) and data centers. With a focus on my state.
https://www.npr.org/2025/08/17/nx-s1-5501579/washington-hydropower-data-center-boom-sustainability-climate-change
What the article didn’t mention, but I thought about, was, when the dams were built, there was a huge influx of construction workers, to those same areas. Now, it’s happening again. Like a tide that rises, and falls. Lew
Hi, Chris!
Vehicles are a tricky business to repair with all the high tech stuff on them. I doubt that I could even drive a new car. I hope I don’t ever have to rent one. It seems to me that it would be a good business to start a rental car company with older vehicles catering to us older folks. Anyway, that is why my family loves the older ones so much, they are easier to fix – if you can get the parts.
What a wretched thing that repairman did the time he tried to stick you with an unneeded expensive repair. Do you think he did it on purpose?
I would say that if you can get your car repaired in the time that it takes to go to a movie and eat lunch, then you are doing very well. People tell me that sometimes they have to leave their cars for days to be repaired. Maybe they are waiting on parts.
That sounds like our downtown. Parking is very limited and the time allotment is short. One of the many reasons I don’t go downtown anymore. 20 miles an hour is not a good rate of speed . . .
“Property prices to jump to fresh records in 2025-2026”. It has to end eventually, but somebody is buying these homes. Who are they? Retirees/pensioners? Does anyone ever collect that data?
I love the storm clouds.
Bert is a perfect Magpie name. Good old Bert, still unsmooshed, thank goodness. You go the extra mile in land reclamation when you remove the Meg parts embedded in the soil. Which building were you in when you were repairing the chainsaw?
In the bonfire photo, what are lights are we seeing in the left distance?
You are still moving those big fruit trees. I don’t know how you do it; well, I know how you do it, but it seems impossible. You will have to water them, won’t you? Your greenhouse chillies still look really good. How old are the plants? I am still waiting for mine to ripen and it’s getting really late. I shall be planting radishes quite soon. What a perfect radish photo; I hope I remember radish pesto. It’s “Sprinter” – that’s funny. I can’t make a word blend of summer and fall/autumn.
I always look for bittercress and chickweed. Wouldn’t it be great if some volunteer tree ferns popped up? Much cheaper that way! Our deer eat English Ivy and hollie with berries. I think both are supposed to be toxic. They also eat the leaves of tomatoes, which are toxic. Oh – it’s the radish leaves that are for pesto.
Thanks for the beautiful daffodils. Aren’t jonquils daffodils?
Pam
Hi Pam,
Yeah, it’s a bit of a worry all those new gadgets and geegaws. The thought that a computer can decide to apply the brakes hard, worries me (neither Suzuki can on the models we’ve got). It has some sort of crash alert system, and it’s been wrong many times. The dashboard flashes bright red and makes a beep sound which is distracting.
Down here there is a company which supplies such vehicles hopefully without all the bells and whistles: Rent a bomb. Good name, huh?
Pam, it’s hard to know another person’s motivations, but neither was he apologetic when caught out. I paid him for a couple of hours work, and just grabbed the car back. Replacing the timing belt was about $100 in parts, and in that engine it was a consumable item anyway and meant to be replaced sooner or later.
It wasn’t a repair, it was a minor service, so there was nothing wrong to be fixed. Basically, it was a few hours work to do, and had been booked in. Just the usual service book stuff needed attending too. And that’s it with repairs, they can take days depending on parts availability. Japanese cars tend to be pretty good when it comes to spare parts.
That’s what being excluded looks like. 🙂
Presumably that data is known, but it’s never really discussed in the media. Someone appears to be buying the things don’t you reckon? Unfortunately, allegedly many of our politicians own more than one home. There may be a conflict of interest in there…
Bert is a lovely magpie, but I haven’t seen him for a few days, so hope he’s doing OK. Probably is. Today was really nice, cold, actually at freezing this morning, but the sun shone with a little bit of warmth by late afternoon. It may get colder than freezing tonight. Brr! 30’F is the forecast low. Sunny again tomorrow.
Decided to enjoy the sunshine, and worked on the deer fencing for that large citrus enclosure. Cemented in eight timber support posts for the four corner posts. A deer stupidly ran into the fence a while back, and did some damage. I’ll put some fence height extenders on that enclosure in the next few days once the cement has cured properly. 6 foot fencing should stop the deer getting in there. Maybe.
Ah, those lights are from the train station and nearby footy field. There’s also a big netball area and some sort of indoor basketball massive shed.
Two more fruit trees to move, and that will be it. Late winter is a good time to move trees because they’re mostly dormant and asleep. I’ll give them a little bit of water over the next few days because it will be dry, but they should be fine after that.
Those chilli plants are three years old, and may keep producing for another three years. Until I saw it for myself, it was hard to believe they could survive winter weather. It may warm up next month in your part of the world. The weather can be surprising. And that happened here. February was cool, and March plus April suddenly became hot and dry. Weird.
Never tried bittercress but have eaten some chickweed. Fingers crossed that those ferns reproduce, that’d be great. What else can deer do! Pam, they’re really quite adaptable to whatever is on the menu. I’m not into them, and they have no place here the cheeky scamps.
It’s funny you say that about jonquils and daffodils, but we were having the exact same discussion. Are they the same? They kind of look alike.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Steve,
I don’t need or want all that extra stuff, and interestingly the Suzuki Jimny comes in a Lite model which is pretty basic and cheaper. Wasn’t available at the time due to serious supply issues. Do I really need a computer to switch the lights on for me? I think I got that one, computer.
The engine management computers and fuel injection are a thoroughly tested technology, so they’re pretty good and add a degree of reliability, especially when compared to how things were thirty years ago. This morning was 32’F / 0’C and icy, and who can forget the fun and excitement as to whether the car will start in such weather?
Far out! I’ve heard of cars requesting a software update, but have never personally experienced that. Yeah, things that make you wonder… Presumably the car connected up to the interweb via bluetooth and your phone via the audio system? Maybe? Unless the cars computer has a sim card, but I don’t see how it could have managed that trick because there would be an ongoing cost related to the data. Dunno. Have you uncovered anything?
There was an interweb meme with a photograph of a dashboard saying that the car was bricked for the moment as it updated the firmware – with the caption: “I’m going to be late for work”.
Makes me wonder what other data the car maybe sending out?
Joseph Tainters theory of complexity and society, has a lot to say.
A fine rant, and one I agree with. Something is already giving, looks like maybe an over supply of bonds is driving up yields. All policies are subject to diminishing returns. Strange days.
Worked on the deer fencing for the large citrus orchard today. Six foot fencing should do it, maybe… 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
The data centre article was fascinating. Hmm. The water mob which bill me for who knows what service, are currently reviewing applications for many of those big installations. Calls for guidelines after Greater Western Water documents reveal potential data centre water usage. They use a lot of water, and incidentally there are 3.8 litres per gallon, so if you divide the numbers given in the article by four, there’s some interesting real world usage data provided. A heck of a lot of water. Twenty years ago, the dams for the big smoke were down to low teen percentages due to prolonged drought. People forget, although a desalination plant was constructed. And exactly, it’s all boom and bust, that’s how our species rolls.
I noticed that the electricity concerns weren’t even addressed in the article. Oh well.
Oh yes, that’s a useful observation. Yup, beware the gentleman wearing a trench coat in the cinema. Nuff said. 🙂
All very true, and the coffee machines in restaurants usually have a good margin as well, although prices for the beans are on the up lately. Presumably margins have shrunk in recent times.
Can’t say that I’ve ever seen a car pool lane, but the dummy idea in the passenger seat is genius, until a person gets caught – then it makes the news. Even better is avoiding peak hour traffic altogether. Last week which caught me in that trap, was an exception. Mostly I try to get in later and leave later, mostly on the basis that I’ve observed people have a natural tendency to want to head in ever earlier, so best to go your own way and do your own thing – if that’s at all possible.
Didn’t you tell me long ago the old hippy saying that: “It ain’t paranoia, if it’s true!” But I too have often wondered about that push as well. Every now and then, there’ll be an article from an academic suggesting that living up the bush is too dangerous due to the fire risk (cough, cough, 2003 Canberra fires in our nations capital city). I wonder what their motivations are in making that claim? Hard to know really. Honestly, I don’t know what the big worry is anyway, most people from what I’ve observed, don’t use their land all that productively. And yes, the under supply of homes and the shenanigans with demand pressures, is a real problem.
If your season follows anything like what happened down here earlier this year, next month might get hot for you. Maybe. 88’F is getting up there, but still OK from my perspective. It was 32’F this morning and frost was everywhere. Brr! Didn’t get warm today, but at least it was sunny.
Began fixing up the deer fencing for that large citrus enclosure. The four corner posts are now supported with two diagonal posts in each direction following the fence line. We’ll add in a couple of runs of wire (one yellow coated, and the other a dull galvanised grey) to extend the height of the fencing to six foot over the next few days. Should be an effective deterrent for the deer, but they might be stupid enough to get tangled up in those higher wires. Maybe? Hmm. That’ll be interesting, but I’ll deal with the situation and learn.
I see what you mean about ‘keeping warm technology’ being fairly mature, until the metal fireboxes went and changed everything. Of course, energy use went up and up over the years as well, which is baffling. You’d think that it would be otherwise, but no. In these enlightened times, I see people wearing very inappropriate clothes given the wintry conditions up here. Mind you, everyone I saw this morning, were seriously rugged up, it being 32’F and all. A cold dose of reality in the form of a very frosty morning. 🙂 Tomorrow promises 30’F, then a sunny warm day.
The snails will turn up when they’re ready to do so. Have you ever noticed the tiny little shells they produce early on in their development? Looks like something out of the ocean. Haven’t seen Bert the magpie for a few days, and hoping he’s doing OK.
Hmm. That’s interesting about the horseradish leaves pulling away from the root system easily. My experience with them is that they cling on hard to the roots. Have you discovered anything further about the horseradish problems? They are not over watered here, and in fact get only a few minutes per day from the sprinkler in the area (so it’s very little water). But they grow in super rich and fertile soil. Some of the best on the property. I’ve got to clean up that bed soon and plant out the seed potatoes. So much to do at this time of the year…
Hehe! I have some doubts about the honesty of interweb statistics. They can be gamed, for a fee.
That’s very true. I mean it’s not cheap to work for free for six months. In many ways that requirement is a barrier to entry, which is another way of saying as you suggested: segregation. As an adult I’ve only ever studied part-time, because I had to work. Looking back now I wonder how I had time for a relationship, repairing houses, friends, sports. After finishing the degree, I remember sleeping twelve hours per day for a few weeks in a row. You draw down on your internal reserves, and then crash out.
That used to be the case with training budgets, and probably still is in large corporate and government concerns. At my level, nope. The profession demands 40 hours (a week) of training per year, and 10 hours of ethics training every three years. The costs stack up and the playing field is not level.
People were pretty clever back in the days of the ancient Greeks, even as they were in the Bronze Age. They’d have encountered fossils for sure because they were clearly mining, and it wasn’t all that long ago that the idea that dinosaurs ruled the planet 65 million years ago was even accepted.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – According to the Font of All Wisdom, deer fencing should be at least 8′ high. What with the cables you’re going to string, that might do it. Might want to hang something sparkly from them. Christmas tinsel? 🙂
How rude! We were talking about rudeness and general lack of manners, these days. Apparently, we’re not the only ones …
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/crisis-rudeness-100000182.html
That was an interesting article, about your data centers. So, that’s where the Cloud lives? Should have called it “ground fog.” 🙂 I noticed one of the Washington data centers has a closed water system. It can be done, and might be mandated … if The Powers That Be are on the ball.
I noticed one of the fellows who was interviewed was named “Ascelin.” Who would do that to a child? His childhood nickname was probably “asinine.” I see it’s a Norman / Old German name. It means “ash tree.”
What I really found interesting was the sidebar article about closing the bank in Bendigo … and other rural branches. I guess if you want full service banking, you’d better move to a large city. Weren’t we just talking about that?
You and I think ahead. Seems like a rational response to avoiding peak traffic hours. Go early, or go later. Just another example of the herd, not thinking beyond 5 minutes into the future.
As far as living in the Bush, the first thing you’ll hear from the bleeding hearts, is, “But the children! Think of the children!” Must I? Next up: medical care.
Our high yesterday was 73F (22.77C). Our overnight low was 50F (10C). The forecast high for today is 77F. “Rugged up” is a good old turn of phrase. Probably dates back to rugs and blankets in sleighs. Or early autos that had no heat.
I went through an aquarium phase, when I was a wee small child. Just one of many stops along the way, in a string of hobbies. Some snails are entirely aquatic. They were part of the clean up crew 🙂 . There were also some variety of tiny catfish. Quiet colorful. We have small snails, in most of our streams.
I watched a pretty funny, older movie, last night. “The Heat.” Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock. A very uptight FBI agent (Bullock) has to team up with an outrageous police woman to catch drug smugglers. There was an interesting trailer … “The Internship.” I see the library has a couple of copies, kicking around. When my hold list loosens up …
Yes, when I think back on being a young adult, where did all that energy come from? Any opportunity to “crash and burn,” was taken advantage of.
I was pretty horrified when you recently posted your fixed costs, just for staying in business. A lot of it, truly, seemed to be the lenocracy at work. When are we going to be free of those people?
I read that book recently, on how the “discovery” of the dinosaurs, in the early 1800s, really shook up people’s world views. Up until then, a great majority of, at least Western, culture firmly believed that the earth was just 6,000+ years old. Of course, there are still people out there who hold firmly to that view. Then there’s The Flat Earth Society … :-). Lew
Chris:
Rent a Bomb – that’s a great name. And I heard it here first!
Remember, there is one set of rules for politicians and another for the rest of us.
Uh, oh. Maybe Bert got smooshed somewhere else. He’s awfully pushy.
That is a “maybe” with the 6 foot deer fence. Ours is 8 feet. Of course, everything else in creation can get in. Ha! When I tell a deer (like the one lying down right outside the fence of Mr. Baby’s nature preserve today, chewing her cud while he was inside there) that they have no place here, they say: “We were here first.” I don’t know if that’s true; they’ve never been able to present a deed.
I am impressed at 3 year old chilli plants. Do you ever feed them?
Pam
Chris,
Still watching the Little League World Series. The championship game is Sunday. It has been fun. Watching this together is an annual tradition for us.
The big rain was only 2mm. Maybe 3. The local fires I was watching are contained and off the radar. The largish fire northwest of Olympia, Washington apparently received several inches of rain. The discussion from the firefighters was filled with disappointment. Why? The rain came so quickly that it only accomplished dampening the surfaces of burnable material and the ground. They projected that by, well, today, the fire danger would be where it was before the storm. So much for the pundits who said that this storm would inundate the entire state and end this year’s fire season.
We’re in the comfortable 30C range now. Wednesday will increase the wind again, followed by nasty heat starting Thursday for a week, again pushing 36C. We should get the more permanent shift in temperatures around September 1.
Tomorrow I start the preparation work for the cement project. It’s on the porch where the railings have corroded. The prior cement work didn’t hold completely. This time, I will use a specialty drill bit and drill into the concrete, clean out the holes, add epoxy and then jam in a vertical piece of rebar. The rebar then gets secured to the good parts of the railing. Friday will be the cement work. Less wet, hopefully stickier.
Had the 2005 Subaru Forester into the shop today. Normal maintenance and a good check on things. There has been a tiny leak of some radiator fluid from somewhere. The location indicates something to do with the timing belt. They showed me what was happening. It was supposed to have been changed 30,000 miles ago. My previous mechanic shop, allegedly doing all maintenance work according to the Forester book, neglected to change the belt. I’ll take it back in for that job in a few weeks. So much for the old “trusted” mechanic.
Our city government has determined that car parks are the absolute worst use for property within the city limits. A local movie theater is leased from a landlord. The landlord decided to build some apartments in what had been the car park for the theater for the past 70 years. New apartment complexes are also being constructed with very limited parking for potential residents. There currently is inadequate public transportation in those areas.
And parking costs? The Spokane Interstate Fair starts next month. The Princess usually spends a day there. Parking now costs more than admission to the fair.
Quite the enjoyable photo of your approaching storm. I wish we had similar events in our forecast.
Also, I enjoyed the series of photos showing your progression on the meg. Thanks. A bit of imagination and I nearly felt as if I were there with you. In a supervisory role, of course. 😉
Then there is this week’s premium photo. The Princess took one look at the dark forest and exclaimed, “There’s a red-eyed monster in his woods!” It looks very Lovecraftian to me.
Good job with the chilis and the radishes. Still getting cherry tomatoes and chard. Potatoes are about ready to dig up. One summer squash for the entire season. The chilis had a gazillion flowers, none of which got pollinated. Meanwhile, Killian’s human’s chilis produced prolifically. Well, the ones she started from seed in her greenhouse. The plants that she bought where I bought my plants didn’t produce very much either.
The tomatoes are clamoring for water.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
It’s such a great business name, and a friend recently tested out the rental wares and found them to be good. What do they call a clapped out car in the US?
Oops, forgot that. And thanks very much for the correction. Lacking decent connections and financing, a dude has to be wary of becoming entangled in the legul system. Things are clearly similar in your country. 🙂
Got the rest of the deer fencing wire extenders up today on the large citrus enclosure. Hopefully the stainless steel wire coated in bright yellow UV stable plastic can be seen by those herbivores, otherwise I’m going to be up for a messy job (which yes, you did warn me about). It’s an experiment, we’ll see how it goes. Also moved two additional fruit trees in there – a mulberry and an apple – and that makes 36 trees in there now. Citrus trees don’t really grow tall enough to escape the worst that the deer can do, thus the need for fencing.
We’ll see about Bert. He seemed like a clever bird, if slightly too-trusting.
Hehe! You should see what wombats can do to fencing! They’re like little armoured vehicles, and pushing heavy duty gauge steel out of their way is no drama at all. Probably comes from a low centre of gravity. The rabbits follow the wombats break-in. Oh well. Poor Mr Baby having to endure that deer encounter. It smacks of an utter lack of respect.
But of course, the cheeky minxes have no paperwork! 🙂 The early English colonists released deer to give them something familiar to hunt. It was perhaps one of those things which all seemed like a good idea at the time. Presumably deer have been present in your country for far longer than under 200 years?
The chilli plants enjoy a top up feed for the raised beds in the greenhouse. It’s usually: garden lime + compost + blood and bone meal. The compost is a mixture of sand + mushroom compost + fine woody mulch. The compost alone is not good enough, thus the lime and blood and bone meal for Calcium, Nitrogen and Phosphates. Everything a growing plant needs, except maybe some Boron. That would be good to sprinkle on from time to time. And play around with the variety of lime between Garden lime, Dolomite (contains magnesium) and Gypsum (contains Sulphur). Good luck!
Hey, I noticed that blood and bone meal was slightly cheaper last week. Not sure why.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Hope the best team wins, and that every game is a total nail biter, down to the wire, finish! I used to love going to watch the cricket, and it’s hard to explain, but there are times when a five day test match between two Commonwealth countries can be riveting. Only the English could come up with a game which takes five days to play. 🙂
Ha! You’re not thinking about the problem correctly. See, the issue becomes: where do the pundits reside? West of the range is now rather damp, and clearly out of contention for the championship. Disappointment? Maybe I’m not wired right, because I’d simply feel relief. Things are different further east. Nothing has changed my view on this subject, a lot of prevention, will save an extraordinary amount of resources at some unspecified time in the future.
Fingers crossed that September brings cooler weather for you and your household. How’s Dame Avalanche holding up in the heat? Remember Sir Poopy the Swedish Lapphund getting his summer buzzcut? A purist once encountered him in that state, and despite the jaunty pom-pom tail and cooler demeanour, I copped an ear full of unwarranted opinions. 🙂
Ah, railings corroding is all very unfortunate. Hmm, not sure what epoxy you’re using, but there are some products which can make cement water tight (although you’ve probably done the work by now). Just a crazy left of centre idea, have you ever considered the use of a Sacrificial anode which will rust out first? Good luck!
Got two runs of wire installed as fence extenders around the large citrus enclosure today. The top most wire is coated with bright yellow UV stable plastic, so hopefully the herbivores can see it. Maybe? We’ll find out sooner or later. Sometimes the test has to be run in the real world where things go wrong. The second lower run is stainless steel cable, very strong stuff. Moved the last two trees in there today as well. It was such a lovely afternoon of weather. Tomorrow plans to be even better. They keep forecasting rain for next week, but it doesn’t really eventuate. Oh well, the water tanks are about 85% full now.
Holy carp! Those err, plastic/rubber/compound whatever, timing belts eventually break, and I know that by personal experience. The more durable motors use double row metal timing chains which are almost indestructible, although they do ever so slightly stretch. But here’s the kicker, the chain tensioners can break… None of this stuff will last, sorry to say. Fun fact: You know the belts are on the cusp of breaking because the car becomes hard to start – the valve timing being out. The tolerances are quite fine.
Still, as far as the job goes, changing the timing belt will extend the life of the motor because everything will function at the correct time. Valves have been known to bash into pistons when the belt breaks – not that the engine would run under those conditions, but momentum can keep things turning. Bent valve stems are expensive to repair, if that is even possible.
Yes, those sorts of situations occur down here as well. Lot’s of people, inadequate facilities. What do you do? And when constructing housing becomes a more highly desirable economic outcome for land than say, running a business, well, heck, perhaps that is the business? 🙂 People have to work though, and where are they going to do that once the buildings are constructed?
Sorry to hear that. We used to visit the Royal Melbourne Show (Fair equivalent near to the CBD), and now we head north to attend the farm expos instead, for similar economic reasons.
The storms have been pretty good, but a bit light-on with the amount of rain they’re bringing. The long term forecast is for increased rainfall here during the official spring, but we’ll see. Right now, it’s unusually dry (although not drought levels of dry either).
Yes, work supervisors are always made welcome, and provided with a nice shovel so that they can apply their hard won theory. 🙂 Very funny.
Glad you both enjoyed the photo of the sunset with the fire way down below at the forest edge. Baleful… A tree was between the fire and where I was standing with the camera, so it split the conflagration into two eyes. Spooky plus!
How’s the taste with the cherry tomatoes, and I forget, are they yellow or red varieties (or some other colour)? How hardy is chard, and it’d be shrugging off the worst your summer can throw at it. Out of curiosity if the chilli flowers didn’t get pollinated, do you have any theories as to what happened? Always stuff to learn. Are they the same plants as Killian’s owners ones?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Ah yes, well, six foot deer exclusion fencing will have to do. However, it’s on a slope, so that will change things considerably for the herbivores – but we’ll see how it works out over the next few months. It has to be better than what was there previously, although there is a serious risk of a deer getting strung up in the wire, which will be a problem. I used a bright yellow coated UV stable plastic coated stainless steel wire, but who knows what the animals can and can’t see. Dunno. But the job is now done.
Also, did a 50/50 mix today of paid work and the fencing sort of outdoor activities. The weather was awesome, cool but sunny and calm. Almost perfect conditions. Moved two more fruit trees into that enclosure and we’ll see how they go. Both were ailing and needed a leg-up. 🙂 Conditions and soil are pretty good in there. One of the trees was a mulberry which had been over shadowed, and the other was an apple, which was also not doing so well. The top soil was about a foot deep, and the clay below it was soft. A good outcome.
It’s an interesting topic, and as the article pointed out, it is also hard to pin down whether courtesy and impolite behaviour has become worse of late. Although, I’d have to say that the time of the health subject which shall not be named, has in many subtle ways changed things. Checked in on the mail, and grabbed a coffee late this afternoon and some old bloke was droning on at volume about some boring topic involving complaints he’d made to a walking club, or something like that. His ability to project his voice was commendable, but is he on stage at the theatre? Is such behaviour even considered rude? Dunno. My desire for quiet enjoyment might be thought of as quirky, and his actions were merely a lifestyle choice? I simply don’t know, but wouldn’t hang out with him. Interestingly, I don’t hang out with people who are constantly checking their mobile devices, but I’ve heard stories about such things happening. You’d have noticed the rise in the use of phones on film and in various series? The Editor says that is a bit of trend.
Hehe! The Cloud is all about us! 🙂 Ground fog is funny, but yeah. Makes me wonder if all that humidity being released from the data centres changes the local environment. The used water is going somewhere. Makes me wonder what chemicals they add to the wet stuff to keep the pipes clean? Probably don’t want to know… I noticed that one of them had a closed water system, but how closed is what I want to know? Closed water systems distributing heat can quickly turn into boilers. Nobody wants that. Still, probably better than just dumping all of the water.
It’s not a name you hear every day. Did you know that there was Papal Ambassador to the Tartars (Mongols) with that name? He’d have had to have been made of ash hardwood to survive that lot. They seemed very effective at their trade.
Yeah, I read articles about bank branch closures with a touch of trepidation. One of the banks made a record profit recently. It was very impressively large. Hopefully they keep the local branch open. Are bank branches closing in your part of the world? It’s hard to have a bank-run if there are no physical branches. And yeah, we were discussing these sorts of matters, although plenty of suburban branches have closed up as well.
Exactly, why do what everyone else appears to be doing? Of course, this may involve risk, compromises and lower expectations, but what of that?
Far out, that is so true about living up the bush, on both counts. Although I’m often cornered by concerned people with the medical story risk. Anyway, makes you wonder who they’re actually concerned about, me or them? One day, things will end badly for me, but that’s everyone’s journey really. Doesn’t seem to be much a person can do about it, other than taking note of those blue zone lessons you’ve mentioned in the past.
The forecast is for 20’C / 68’F and sunny tomorrow. Last I checked, we’re still in August, but that’s sort of early September weather. Oh well, when other people trouble to take note of these things. The extra warmth might make for a good growing season, maybe. I’m managing all the water levels so that the tanks stay more or less full. Probably not a bad idea.
I’ll probably get the beds of raspberry canes pruned tomorrow and maybe even chuck down some compost for the roses. Some are still flowering, although the frosty weather this week has to have impacted them, maybe.
Ain’t just you there, I had an aquarium too, although kept cold water species, rather than tropical fish, and remember the snails and sucker-fish cleaning the glass. Clean up crew indeed, that’s a goodie. Thanks for the laughs. 🙂 Hmm. Just had a look at the life cycle of snails, and the tiny shells I saw the other day may have been some other species altogether. A mystery! May require a deeper dive.
Sandra Bullock is a good actor and often plays a strong lead. I quite enjoyed the Proposal film from a few years ago. Quite amusing. I’ll check out the trailer next.
Always nice to take some time out and recover from exertions. Although, dunno about you, but I do try to pace myself and listen to what the brain and body are suggesting as to their energy levels. One only does so after having crashed in the past. Sometimes pushing through is not always the wisest move. With training for distance running as a young bloke, you got to learn to switch off to pain. There’s good and bad to that, and I’d seen enough people injure themselves over the years to wind things back if required.
Thanks for saying that, and there are times I feel as I’m a walking ATM. I reckon the best small business has to offer nowadays is some flexibility which employees don’t have, but then you take on a lot of risk, and as you now know, there are parasites and red tape aplenty.
What do you mean it’s not flat? 🙂 Hehe! Is that lot still active these days? Whoa! I just checked out their website, and the word hacked came to mind. Best not to go there…
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Another thing I’ve heard people doing with deer fencing, is laying down a zone of cyclone fencing, flat on the ground, outside the enclosure. Deer don’t like walking on it, and can’t get a running start to leap the fence. I suppose it would be a pricey proposition, but, if you ran across a lot of surplus fencing … Where I lived before, across the road and way down at the end of some pasture, a deer had apparently mixed it up with a fence. Dead. Luckily, far enough away that odors weren’t a problem. It was interesting watching it slowly decompose. About a year, and even the bones were gone.
Mulberry tree? Another cottage industry that will make your fortune! Silk worms!
The old dude might have been on the deaf side. Deaf people don’t know how loud they are. Dude! Get some hearing aids!
Tell me about devices in movies. I’m highly irritated when some major plot point is relayed via a text on some dumb phone. I usually have to pause the film, reverse, freeze, dig out my reading glasses and peer into the screen. It’s one reason I prefer period dramas. Not a computer or dumb phone, in sight.
Quit a few of our major banks have moved out of our two towns, and up to Olympia. Interestingly, the surplus buildings have pretty much been put to other uses. One has become a rental cargo container storage outfit, and another, a credit union (which is pretty much a bank) that I had never heard of.
A good way to wait out peak traffic is to find a quiet pub, and bend an elbow for awhile. 🙂
Our high yesterday was 75F (23.88C). Our overnight low was 54F (12.22C). Our forecast high for today is 78F. Going up, and by the weekend will be in the 90F+ territory. I’ve noticed how fast the days are getting shorter. Sun sets now at 8:15pm. It just seems to accelerate.
I’ve seen a few tiny snail shells, around here. It’s the juvenile, juvenile phase of Sam the Snail, et all. Down at the Club, we have a couple of benches, outside. Tucked in a corner and covered. There’s a large grated drain, for rainwater. Every once in awhile, I’ve seen green frogs, that apparently live in the drain. About 4″ long, at rest. The last time I was down there, I saw a red frog! I looked it up. A Northern Red-legged frog. I’d never seen one, before, but apparently, they’re pretty common in this part of the country. Now how they initially managed to cross a vast parking lot, to colonize the drain, I don’t know.
I’ve often thought I’d like to keep sea horses. They are so cool.
Last night, I watched “Oh, Brother Where Art Thou?” The library got fresh blue ray copies. I think I’ve seen it, twice before. Holds up remarkably well.
I saw an interesting article, last night, on using recycled materials to make furniture. I do like that dinning room set. The color, at least 🙂 .
https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/19/style/surprising-materials-future-of-furniture-design
I stayed up way too late last night, reading a very fascinating book. “Deep Time Dreaming: Uncovering Ancient Australia.” (Billy Griffiths, 2018). It’s pretty much a history of archaeology in Australia. The discovery of Mungo Woman, Mungo Man, etc. etc.. With a dash of how ever changing politics impacted archaeology.
I got my notice, yesterday, that my inspection will be on Monday. Other than one sort of major project, I’m pretty much ready. I saw the maintenance guy, downstairs, and he’ll change a couple of light bulbs, in my place, sometime today. I hope it’s early enough that I can get my afternoon nap in 🙂 . Lew
Chris:
First I have to know what a clapped out car is. Is it the “bomb” in the business name? If it’s really a worn out old thing I think I’d call it a “lemon”, though that also fits any car of any age that just always has problems. Oh, we also say it’s a “beater”. Hopefullyythe rental place doesn’t rent out beaters.
I think your new fencing measures sound just fine. I don’t think the deer will get in there. Speaking of animals and fences: A couple of days ago I discovered a hole in a jungley part of the garden that could only fit a young groundhog. It didn’t go anywhere, being just only about 3/4 of a meter deep. I filled it up with water today. Then I went all over the garden with my 6ft tomato stake because I was pretty sure that he was trapped in there and poked into all the other shadowy, jungley areas. I found nothing – until I got to the last corner of the garden, which actually has no plants. Somehow he had dug out through the chicken wire there and freed himself. I am so relieved. I had pretty much given up on planting any more fall seeds.
I had to look up how long our deer friends have been here. How about 4 million years? I guess they were here first . . .
No wonder your chillis are achieving ancient status. That’s a lot of good food.
Pam
Chris,
Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun. The English invented cricket, probably due to being in the midday sun too often. And since a single cricket game can last for 5 days, that’s even more time that Englishmen spend in the midday sun.
Yeah, the pundits live west of the Cascades. But the firefighters who were disappointed with the effects of the rain are also west of the Cascades. I never expect any west siders’ weather forecasts of most of Eastern Washington to be correct, or even close. And Spokane weather? They muck it up almost every time. I’m used to it. I found it amusing that even firefighters on the west side were disappointed with the results, even though they received the rain that was forecast. Oh, and wildfire prevention? You’re doing it right.
Dame Avalanche is handling the heat well. She sleeps a lot. When Outdoors, usually in the shade. As the season is trending towards change, however, she is sleeping more in the sun. Gotta soak it in while it’s available, I guess. She enjoys being indoors too and sleeps indoors a lot during the heat. She’s figured it out, how to survive the heat.
I ache tonight. The afternoon was boring. Er, I spent the afternoon boring 2 vertical holes in the concrete near where the railings corroded. A concrete drill bit on my electric drill worked. Slowly. A lot of vibration. I felt like the Beach Boys song, Good Vibrations. I dunno how good the vibrations were, though. I hurt. I have no idea how you spend days with the power tools that reduce the boulders to size.
Anyhoo, the 2 holes were filled with the “epoxy”. It’s more of a concrete mixed with epoxy to fill cracks, or to use to adhere things to concrete. Rebar was then stuffed in the epoxy filled holes and attached to the railings. Then more of the epoxy mix. Oh and I had stabilized the railings so they wouldn’t jostle much while the epoxy mix is curing. Friday afternoon I will add more concrete to the areas where it sloughed off. I think I’ll have an assistant. Young neighbor wants to learn how to do household and car maintenance things and will show up early afternoon – about when I was going to start.
No, never thought about a sacrificial anode. It appears that the metal used for the railings would be the preferred metal to be a sacrificial anode in many cases. Actually, a sacrificial anode sounds like one of Marvin the Paranoid Android’s ailments. 😉
I can hear him now. “I’ve got a terrible pain in all the diodes running down my left side. Maybe the pain will diminish if I sacrifice one of my anodes.”
Hope the fence extenders work. Important things with some of the critters you’ve got. It’s amazing how high deer can jump, isn’t it?
The moment anybody questions entropy, I simply point out that the person’s car won’t last forever because parts wear out because of friction which is a basic entropic force. And if that doesn’t convince them, then I’ll suggest that they don’t need to maintain their car since they don’t believe in entropy. That usually gets their attention.
I’ve watched a boss use a shovel. He pretended that he had read a book “The Boss Method of Proper Shovel Use”. So, he stuck it firmly in the ground and leaned on it, then proceeded to bark orders to the rest of the work crew. Claimed he was “doing things by the book”.
The cherry tomatoes are red. We buy some cherry tomatoes at the store sometimes. They are very good, and a little bit sweet. The cherry tomatoes I’m growing taste VIBRANT. Much better than any from the store. Bursting with flavor.
Killian’s human raised chilis from seed in her greenhouse. Those are producing fantastically. She also bought the same varieties of starts that I did from the same place. Those have not produced for her either. So I dunno what the issue is.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
It’s all getting lost in translation between US terms and Oz-lish, but a ‘lemon’ is only ever used in relation to a new machine down here, whether it be a car or some other thing. And ‘beater’ is never heard, and may have some negative connotations attached to the word down under. I believe they merely rent out older and more basic vehicles. Like you, I do not want all the bells and whistles – which only serve to confuse me.
Thanks for that, and well, time will tell in relation to the deer fencing. Certainly if things go wrong, the results will be most hard to ignore.
😉 That’s what I’d describe here as a ‘tester hole’, where the burrowing critter has begun the early hard yards of making escape tunnels and perhaps been dissuaded from completing the works. Long ago, one notable rat hole suffered from the indignity of having a hose poked into it and a goodly stream of water pumped in. It was weird because the water went in and the hole never seemed to fill up. How is that even possible? I gave up, and used rocks to seal up the entrance instead. The rats had no business being there.
Good to hear that the groundhog escaped and is now outside the vegetable enclosure.
That’s quite a goodly length of time, and yes it very much precedes our species by a significant margin. Did you know that rats have been on this continent for five million years?
The chilli plants do complain about the occasional overnight temperature which is both frosty and near freezing. But yes, they are kept well fed.
Speaking of feeding plants, today I got all of the berry beds ready for the growing season – pruning, weeding and feeding. Don’t how you feel about thinning growing plants, but it’s hard to thin out perfectly good raspberry canes, but the job must be done each year. Oh well. It was a nice day for the work, although there were other responsibilities to do as well.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
That’s the weird thing, cricket is played at the hottest time of the year, during the hottest part of the day. And test cricket goes on for five days, clearly it’s some strange sort of endurance test: Can the players survive? I’d nod off exposed to such heat out in the sunshine (where it could be 15’C hotter), and probably miss catching the ball – everyone would be so upset, a person would never hear the end of it all. On a hot summer’s day, by about 2pm, I retreat indoors. It was 20’C in the big smoke today, and about 16’C here which felt very nice.
Thinned the raspberry beds, pruned the blackberries and fed the lot with the usual soil feed mixture. Those plants produce heaps for jam making, so fingers crossed I’d didn’t mess the garden bed preparation up. Reviewed the pruning book prior to any cutting, but we’ll see later in the year how it all went.
Yes, being further inland, the weather can be noticeably different to coastal regions, and you’ve got those monster mountains west of you too doing all sorts of things like, blocking storms arriving from the Pacific westerlies.
At almost 700m higher elevation than the big smoke, the weather there is indicative of what might happen here, but it’s not the same at all. And sometimes it rains here, when there are blue skies in the big city near to the coast. I’m surprised that your city doesn’t get its own forecast. There’s no specific forecast for this mountain range either, and I tend to pour over a whole bunch of different sources and take a best guess as to what might happen. The rainfall forecast maps are a good guide.
Thanks! The clean-up work is very hard, but one day may yield some results. Frankly speaking, I’ve been a bit startled by how easy the bonfires are starting this winter. Usually August is very hard to light a fire due to sheer moisture, but not this year. Thus why so much time has been put into the work. And it’s never enough. Oh well.
Husky’s do it tough during hot summer days due to their very thick coats, which may be a double coat arrangement? Maybe? Good to hear that the Dame is adapting, and during those naps is probably dreaming of cooler winter weather. I doubt we’ll get snow here this winter.
Oh no, presumably you meant a hammer drill with a mortar bit? Yeah, they can be slow going, and you may have mixed quite a strong concrete mix a few years back. How big a hole are we talking about here? I tend to use 18mm bits for rock breaking work, although the drill will drive a 22mm bit into granite boulders, but no larger than that. It is hard work, yup, but taking breaks are important lest the drill bit overheat and soften.
Wider diameter holes may require diamond tipped bits, or much bigger drills than can be powered by a mains electrical outlet. Ook!
Never used epoxy as a mix in cement, but from what I’ve seen it produces a nice solid water tight finish. And you’ve got a helper. Nice one.
Hehe! It was just an idea. I used to work with a mob which did corrosion protection. Marvin would be impressed with such thinking, but then rapidly switching back to a depressed state of mind. Probably making some pithy observation too.
Kangaroos have been known to jump quite high as well, although they pose no threat to fruit trees like the deer do. Just took Ollie outside (it’s still 10’C, what the heck?) to do his ablutions, and startled a large wombat drinking from the dogs water bowl. The marsupial took off into the orchard, and began munching on the ground cover plants. Ollie was restrained and instructed to ‘leave it!’ which being a gentleman, he did. For the record, he had little choice in the matter. 😉
Ha! Oh man, I’ve encountered people who believe that regular car servicing is unnecessary. Yes, it’s very much a belief system. You’d imagine that such mind processes churn through vehicles.
Very funny, and with that shovel technique, I’d probably be working too hard to notice what the boss was up to. It’d be beneath my dignity anyway to point out what the word ‘slack’ referred to, but I might work it into a witty sentence.
I reckon cherry tomatoes are the best tasting variety. The yellow cherry’s are most excellent. The larger fruits are best used for sauce making, but people do chuck slices of them in all sorts of meals, like hamburgers. They do taste like cardboard. Seems like an expected thing though, so what do you do?
Ook! If neither plant is producing, they may be well outside their usual range. It happens, and you should see the limited variety of vegetables available to me here, and usually bred for much warmer climates. Eventually, the whole seed business will get local again, but we’re not anywhere near that point right now. I’m breeding for plant varieties which survive and thrive here.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Unfortunately, my gut feeling tells me that the cyclone fencing laid flat would get caught up in both grass and mower blades. It gives me pause for thought to imagine what might happen if the wire got into the spinning blades and fast moving mechanisms. And your description pretty much is what may happen if the deer gets tangled in most fencing, although I’d ensure the hapless critter was dead and then dispose of the body. The lower two thirds of the fence is chicken wire, so presumably the deer will assess the situation before committing to a leap, maybe. We’ll see how it goes. I’ve seen animals caught up in fencing which is multi-strands of thin horizontal wires, and that’s not pretty.
On such a note today, Dame Plum got her ear caught on a rose bush and squealed. I’ll bet it hurt. She tried to pull away from the barb, but that only made things worse. I hauled her in towards the bush and the ear came unstuck from the thorn. Had a good feel of her ear, and it seemed fine. Ten minutes later she was wary of rose bushes, but back to the usual canine upbeat nature.
In between paid work, we went outside into the warm early spring sunshine and got the raspberry and blackberry beds ready for the summer growing season. Pruned, thinned, weeded, fed – you name it. I’m following the advice in the pruning book, so we’ll see how it goes. Worked a treat last summer. And home made raspberry jam is a true delight.
Might do the grapes and roses tomorrow, it being another forecast superb early spring day.
Oh yeah, mulberry trees are linked to silk worms. Hadn’t thought of that, and there are a few of them growing here. Hmm. The fruit is a bit insipid tasting, mostly because I should have planted them in a sunnier position. It’ll be interesting to see if the transplanted tree produces better fruit – there’s certainly heaps of it in season.
About an hours drive north of here at Mount Alexander, there is an historic site for silkworm production: All-female silkworm farm in Mt Alexander. They had problems mostly because the trees weren’t established prior to being stripped for feed, and that requires many growing years upfront.
🙂 Now I feel bad, the guy may have been both deaf and a nuisance.
The Editor mentioned this trend to me, which I first observed in the ‘Chef’ film. It annoys her as well, and for much the same reasons. She said that sometimes the presence of the phone is so great that it almost becomes another character.
Have you ever rented a cargo container? Some folks use them when moving house, but you really do see a lot of them on farms as massive storage lockers. The aesthetics are a bit too industrial for my tastes.
An absolutely genius suggestion, and yup, occasionally do just that. Go find a café, enjoy a good coffee, maybe a small chunk of cake and kick back with a book. Wait out peak hour traffic. What, me hurry? 😉 One of my favourite places to read. And a person is never alone when accompanied by an excellent book.
Our overnight lows are getting closer. It’s 50’F outside right now at 10pm. Like, is this winter, or what? 90’F on the other hand is quite uncomfortably warm, and late afternoons in the garden is best avoided in such weather. Days are getting longer here, with light well past 6pm. It’s a quick slide to the solar maximum and minimums. UV here is now moderate most days, and you can feel the sun’s energy. The solar hot water is quite toasty.
It was probably a tree frog of some type, and they’ll hunker down in drains here as well – it being cooler underground. Never seen a red frog before, but I can answer your question based on what the frogs do here – they cross roads. In wet weather here, you’ll often see frogs hopping from one side of the road to the other. You get the impression that getting to the other side is more luck than anything else.
Sea horses are pretty cool. I used to live (briefly) in the port suburb of Williamstown, and who knew that there was a marine park there? Community campaigns to protect reef by extending boundaries of Victoria’s smallest marine park It was in the mid 90’s, and the place was very quiet and Victorian era feeling. Now it would be feral at a guess.
It’s a remarkable film, but sadly I’ve not watched the full movie. Must remedy this.
The dining table was pretty cool, and makes a strong statement, in blue. 🙂 You know, I didn’t mind those kooky lamps either, they looked fun, but are probably enormously expensive given where the stores are located. It’s really good to see designers thinking about using materials from waste streams. To be honest, with plastics, I do wonder why the stuff isn’t burned off in power generating plants like they do in Japan. I’ve read that many varieties of plastic can only be used new, and then once more, and that’s it. In many ways, I reckon as a civilisation, we only make plastics because there is the oil product available to do so which is looking for a use.
It’s quite remarkable how far our species spread across the planet in a relatively short period of time. The pressures to do that would have been immense. It’s not the sort of journey you’d take just for fun. Mungo man and woman are interesting indeed. One of the bodies was quite ceremoniously buried. And you’re not wrong about the politics because any new date – and older finds in your country for example, would certainly throw the cat among the academic pigeons – chafes upon previously accepted theories and there is a subsequent professorial rash. A theory is merely a theory though.
Good luck for next week’s inspection. That’s short notice. Did you get a nap in? It was so nice outdoors today that such enjoyments took a back seat to work.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – One wonders what some people have against trees?
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/one-worlds-tallest-trees-burning-013500720.html
I suppose you could put down ground cloth, heavily mulch, and then lay down the cyclone fencing. An expensive proposition, but, it would probably last quit a few seasons. There wouldn’t be much maintenance, once established.
Poor Dame Plume! The pretty flowers lure her in, and then bite!
I’m sure your pruning will be fine, and yield fruit. 🙂 It’s wise to consult that book, and, if I remember correctly, Claire recommended it.
That was an interesting article about the ill fated silk worm farm. Looks like someone was robbing out the stone work, before it was protected.
I never rented a cargo container, exactly. Back when I was in the tat trade, I imported a 40′ container, a couple of times. Stuffed full of mostly oak furniture, from England. The shipping company would drop it off, I’d have a couple of days to get it unloaded, and then they picked it up, again. There used to be an outfit, just north of Centralia, by the freeway. It sold used cargo containers. I’ve seen a few examples of cargo containers turned into housing, that are quit nice.
“Kick back with a book.” I just saw an article, yesterday, on the state of reading, as an activity.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/education-and-learning/general/romantasy-is-on-the-rise-but-reading-for-pleasure-has-fallen-drastically-over-the-past-20-years/ar-AA1KT5W5
Speaking of reading, I picked up that collection of short stories, yesterday, by different authors embroidering on the world of Stephen King’s, “The Stand.” And stayed up WAY too late, last night. It’s divided into parts. The first part is the plague, and people sorting themselves into Team Flagg and Team Mother Abigail. The second part is about journeys to either Las Vegas, or Boulder, Colorado.
I think I figured out why I really don’t care for short stories. You get invested in some characters, and, I often found myself asking, “What happens next?” It’s a question that will never be answered.
Our high yesterday was 77F (25C). Our overnight low was 50F (10C). Our forecast high for today is 81F. Another heat advisory, through the weekend.
We have a variety of tree frog. There small, and green. Cute little fellows. With big voices. That was an interesting article, about the marine park.
Just after I closed out my post yesterday, the maintenance guy showed up. He’ll be doing the upcoming inspection. He mentioned that he’s coming two days a week, now, to keep up with all the maintenance on this aging building. Lew
Chris:
I would have expected no less from a rat. Or the tree rat known as a squirrel, which for some strange reason you don’t have. But, then, I don’t have wombats. Thank goodness.
I used to lament the clearing of things like perfectly good canes, but after this year of the jungle, no more. Let me at ’em.
When I was in town a few days ago I was thinking of how last week you were driving and it took you so much longer than it usually does. I had that problem this week as the University of Virginia students are back and that doubles the population of the city of Charlottesville during the school year. They’re all busy buying things to set up house, which is good for the economy. The interesting thing is that at the end of the school year they either donate all that stuff or set it out on the curb and Mr. Musty and I used to find real treasures that way in the past.
Pam
@ Margaret:
I finally went back to finish the last comments from last week and I saw yours. It is easy to see why you are so busy – it’s because you have too much to do!
I am so happy to hear that Marty is doing so well, but I am so sorry to hear that your sister is worse; the poor thing. But you are always there for her, as you are for all of your family.
Pam
Hi Pam,
All rodents are scary, for they may be cleverer than us humans. At the very least the critters have 24/7 – 365 to consider all of the obstacles we put in their way. Far out! I discovered today that the rabbits had dug their way back into the five terraced rows. Turns out, a weak spot on the highest terrace (raspberries and roses) had been dug away, and an opening created. Only sturdy rocks will do in this instance to block up the hole.
Actually those nineteenth century gentleman introduced red and grey squirrels down under – probably because it seemed like a good idea at the time – but they all perished.
Hehe! All that summer rain you’ve enjoyed has produced a thick jungle. Didn’t the old timers used to keep a sharp machete for such voyages? Deep down, I’m soft hearted and it pains me to remove half of the raspberry canes, but if a person wants tasty sun ripened berries, that must be the way of things.
Such economic behaviour makes little sense to me – and clearly yourself, although it does present an opportunity. But such things happen down under as well with the international students, up to and including their pets. Hmm. You hear stories, and wonder at the waste. Beyond my understanding as I’m just not wired that way.
The dining table we use was purchased second hand for $100. The bloke told me that it was an heirloom, which is obviously why he was selling it. The table is locally made and uses really thick well aged timber. The joins are tight and the grain is fine suggesting it came from very old trees with carefully dried timber. Unfortunately, it was ordered with an odd walnut stain, but being hardwood we could sand it back to a raw surface. Six coats of glossy Tung oil and it looks amazing.
It’s not possible to pick up every discarded pet or treasure, but there is just so much waste that treasure hunting is not a difficult proposition. The future will probably involve less waste. 🙂
Finished pruning and feeding all of the plants on the five terraces of garden rows today. The grape vines were particularly pruned hard, as were the roses, so it’s always a good way to learn what the effect of that will be. Dunno really, but we’ll find out later in the year.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
My first thought with that large old tree was lightning, and for all anyone knows, the fire could have been slowly smouldering for months. Still, the people on the ground have dismissed that possibility, which is sad, and probably why we (as you put it nicely a year or two back) can’t have nice things.
Alas, economic realities play a part of the marauding deer story, and my pockets have limits which exceed your suggestion. Bambi has to learn the hard way to co-exist, as do I. All other critters have found some sort of approximate balance here, so I see no reason why that lot can’t do so as well.
Man, I’m tired tonight. Finished pruning, weeding and feeding the five terraces today. I tackled the grapevines, whilst the Editor dealt to the many roses. By 6pm my brain had a bit of a shut down for about three quarters of an hour, and all was then well again with the world, albeit mildly fuzzy. 🙂 The soil feeding involved mixing by hand about half a cubic metre of compost, with all the extra stuff, and then spreading it around. Those beds are now all ready for the growing season.
Looks like the forecast for next week is a lot of rain, particularly from Tuesday onwards. We’ll see how it goes. The soil is damp right now, but could use the extra water. So far, it’s been a dry August, and warm to boot. Zero sign of snow in the forecast.
Yes, poor Dame Plum. The pretty flowers did a tough sell and employed the old bait and switch routine. She really squealed loudly, and at first I thought it had taken out an eyeball, but fortunately not. A good lesson for the curious dog to learn, at half the price.
The pruning book has provided an excellent guide. The advice is often to prune far harder than my initial instincts, which suggests that there is much yet to learn. And yes, Claire did recommend the book, and it’s proven invaluable. I went hard on the grapevines today, and recent travels provided some casual observations as to what commercial vineyards do in that regard. No doubts the commercial winegrowers would believe that the vines here are mollycoddled given their feeding and spacing.
You did mention a while ago that thoughtfully stacked up rocks on a long enough time-span, are eventually pilfered. Oh well, I’ll be long gone by then! And funnily enough, I agree with you. Most stone ruins from around these parts dating from the nineteenth century show signs of deliberate demolition. Stones are a valuable resource.
The old oak furniture was of some nice stuff, and casting the mind back thirty years, that’s what tat businesses were full of. I still regret not purchasing the round oak table with claw foot central post. A beautifully made item. Oh well. Nowadays from what I can see, the tat trade seems to proffer bric-a-brac.
Reading is my not so secret guilty pleasure. If other people are missing out on such fine moments of pure enjoyment, too bad, so sad, for them. I do my best to promote the activity of reading, by the act of so doing – in public, mind you – and let other folks make of that what they will. If I may observe, people make the time for the things which are important to them. And historically literacy rates weren’t as high as they are nowadays.
That sounds like a delightful, if mildly frustrating book. Man, I read the unabridged version of The Stand, and the extra 400 pages were well worth the time. Why would an editor remove the chapter where characters survived the plague only to run afoul of ordinary human stupidity? It was genuine black-humour, and the image of that idiot hippy encountering the nutty young lady with the firearm, has stuck with me. Or that super crazy character who kidnapped Trashie and took him on a wild road trip. The insane character provided a nice ternary to the whole Flagg v Abigail title fight – he was his own kind of monster.
Only the most rat cunningest of folks would think to nab lots of fuel stabiliser and containers in such plague riddled fictional moments! 😉 Guess, fuel was different back in those days. But yeah, what happens next is always of continuing interest, but sometimes is lost in the conclusion.
Hmm. You’ve had a remarkably cool August. The old timers used to say that there was an inherent balance in all things, and good times were followed by… Of course on an individual level they may have been wrong. Dunno?
Good to hear that maintenance is being taken seriously. Always a good sign of future intentions in relation to the whatever it is being looked after.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Prof. Mass has put up radar pictures that just show lightening strikes. Apparently, there were no lightening strikes in that area, prior to the discovery of the fire. Although as you noted, it could have smoldered for quit awhile.
Well, an alternative would be to build a watch tower, get some flood lights, and construct a machine gun nest. 🙂 In one of the “Stand” short stories, a deer blind plays a major role.
Our high yesterday was 81F (27.22C). The overnight low was 52F (11.11C). The forecast high for today is 92F. The forecast has been revised, a bit, and it will be hotter, longer, than originally forecast.
A lot of work, but those fruit and flower beds, are now ready to face a new season. I pruned my tomatoes, hard. I really don’t know if that has produced more or less of a crop. But, it sure does make it easier to pick them. There are not more blossoms, on the tomatoes. So, I guess all I’ll get from here on out is what’s green. And there are a lot of them.
And, from the wonderful world of archaeology … a recent discovery of an interesting Roman mosaic.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/archaeologists-found-1-600-old-203000828.html
The same Roman villa offered up, a few years back, a mosaic of Roman bikini girls. They sure do look trendy, and modern.
https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/the-villa-del-casale-of-piazza-armerina/
Speaking of all things Roma 🙂 I noticed something “different” about my Roma tomatoes. I picked a couple of them the other night, and added it to my dinner. A pretty bland amalgamation. Rice, peas, a bit of garlic, chopped celery and corn. Nuked the whole thing for 10 minutes. But I noticed something, when I ate it. Keep in mind that my taste buds are fairly dull. There was a bit of “heat” to the tomatoes. Peppery and a bit zingy. That tomato plant is quit close to a cayenne pepper, and I wonder …
Stone robbing. Finished stone tended to be reused. Often in archaeological sites, there’s nothing left of a stone wall but the foundations.
If things are going the same way as here, that round oak table with the claw feet (or, another like it) might be quit a bit cheaper, now. I was checking the auction results, of a business in Olympia. There was an oak, side by side secretary. One side is shelves with a glass door. The other side is a drop front desk, open shelves above and drawers, below. $80. They used to go for a lot more. There was also a curved glass, oak china cupboard. It went for $180. Not so long ago, those were selling for $1000 +. I haven’t seen one of those sell for more than $200, in a few years.
I pretty much finished off the kitchen, for the inspection. So, I told myself I could read two of the short stories, from the world of “The Stand” book. Well … best intentions pave the road to hell. 🙂 I think some of the characters in the short stories, later make appearances in “The Stand.” Back stories, more or less. Such as, a teenage boy is observing (spying on) Larry Underwood and the woman he escaped from New York with, who are camping outside his small town. The morning Larry wakes up to discover the woman has committed suicide.
When Stephen King wrote “The Stand,” it was early in his career and he didn’t have much clout. His publisher said it was too long, and demanded the length be cut. A few years later, when he did have clout, and was in negotiations to renew his contract … well, that’s when he pretty much demanded that they re-release “The Stand” at it’s original length. If they wanted to continue publishing him. Once an author becomes reliably “bankable”, in contract negotiations, they can always threaten to jump to another publisher. Though it’s usually an agent who does the tough negotiations.
We got a food box, this morning. There was a big loaf of white balloon bread, a pound of butter “product,” a plastic clamshell of something called Italian pinwheels (looks like a soft taco, wrapped around some Italian meat and cheese. Cut into rounds), a plastic clamshell of almond and cheese snack pack (almonds, cheese, cut veg and dip).
There was a 1 pound pack of frozen ground beef, and an 8oz box of frozen turkey breakfast sausage links. A bag of red table grapes from California. There was a big box of corn flakes cereal, a box of Mac & cheese and a box of “Bacon Cheeseburger Hamburger Helper.” A two pound bag of white rice and a pound bag of dry pinto beans. A one pound bag of spaghetti. A jar of peanut butter and a glass jar of Kosher pickles. Oh, and one dozen, large brown eggs.
As far as the tins went, there was a 24oz tin of “Garlic & Herb Chunky Pasta Sauce, and one each of green beans, corn, peas, baked beans, vegetable soup, cranberry sauce and “Manwich Original Sloppy Joe Sauce.” There were two tins each of tuna and mixed fruit.
I think it’s going to be a popcorn night. I picked up a new movie, called “Neighborhood Watch.” Another film staring Jack Quaid. My, he’s been popping up everywhere, lately. I’d guess he shows up on time, knows his lines and is pleasant to work with. 🙂 I also picked up season four of “The Boys.” Another vehicle with Jack Quaid. It’s about superheroes, who are pretty much entirely owned and marketed by a large corporation. Lew
Chris:
Kuh-RIS! That hog is back in the garden! Help! I went in the garden and looked at his hole that I had flooded and he had dug it out a bunch more. I had just made it easier for him with the water. I guess when I thought he had escaped he had already gone out and come back in and then I sealed up the exit to the outside.
My son told me to open up the exit, so I did, because we don’t want him digging anymore secret holes inside the garden. I don’t know about that, but my son is going to help me soon to unjungle the place. He has his own problems because deer have started eating his fig trees and they are not supposed to ever do that. Yeah, sure. He’s putting up a temporary fence right now.
So, you have rabbits and I have groundhogs, and both are rodents, so what we need are a couple of nice, mean little rat terriers. Or at least a dachshund. Dachshunds can be quite fierce and good hunters. My uncle always had them. Bad as can be, though; always getting into trouble.
Our dining room table cost about that, too. It is an antique oak table from a pub in Liverpool. It also has 6 Barley Twist chairs. Like you, we refinished it with tung oil in 1980 and have never refinished it again as it still looks so good.
I have to keep remembering that you are pruning in early spring. And 5 terraces is a lot to do in one day.
I had a funny experience today. I went to the Chick-fil-a drive- thru to get a milkshake for a friend of mine at the Inn. They had 5 or 6 college girls (they certainly looked like college girls) working as car hops taking orders. I asked them if the computers were down or something, but they said “no”, and they were using tablets, so it is some kind of gimmick, I guess. They were very fast and even took cash.
Pam
@ Pam,
Groundhogs? Ugh!
A Couple quick things I’ve heard that *might* work. Maybe spread epsom salts around your garden perimeter and where the tunnel exits into the garden. Have access to dog poo? Put dog poo in the groundhog holes. Human hair clippings spread around the garden might help also. Maybe.
This website had a few other ideas.
https://www.thespruce.com/groundhog-damage-in-yard-2131141#:
I wish you the best. They are stubborn critters.
DJSpo
Chris,
Being active in the heat is interesting. My drilling session was at peak heat. However, I was in the shade and there was a breeze. And I was hydrated when I started.
The epoxy held well. I won’t have to rely on the concrete being the only support for the rebar and railing. Young neighbor and I spent about 45 minutes today adding a coat of repair cement, which includes a bit of epoxy apparently. We made mud pies of putty consistency and dabbed them on. It is about 5 to 10mm thick and set up quickly. That should provide a cover for the bare old concrete that was showing. More coats to follow. It was hot out at 34C, but again with a breeze in the shade it wasn’t bad. Nor was it strenuous.
Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun. Perhaps that’s why the English invented cricket – heat addled brains. And of course, having 5 day matches in the hottest part of the year in the sun, well, it rather explains a lot, yes? 😉
Spokane does get its own weather forecasts. There is a Federal weather station 9 miles from my house. It gives a lot of regional forecasts also. Alas! They are using the rainfall forecasting models that do not take into account climate change. Spokane has basically turned into high desert from April through late in October or even November. For many years, I’ve found that weather dot com does a very good job of predicting weather system precipitation. Weather dot com seems to be closer regarding temperatures, also.
Yup, Dame Avalanche sports a double coat. The outer coat is supposed to provide some protection from the heat.
The holes I drilled were a wee bit bigger than standard rebar. Drilling was tough slogging. I’ve seen a few very deteriorated concrete porches in the area. The rotten concrete is easily removed. Then a goodly bit can get removed with some sledge hammer work. What’s left is typically a very large blob of concrete that is harder than hard. I think I was trying to drill into that stuff that makes basalt seem soft.
Four of us from the club met Thursday evening. The club treasurer has the club trailer at his place. We took stuff out of the trailer and got rid of a LOT of stuff that we don’t need and that has deteriorated to the unusable state anyhow. What’s left is only stuff that we need for various things like the show. It was good to get that done. And it was fun at times. The treasurer grew up reading Douglas Adams, so he and I went back and forth with Hitchhiker jokes, much to the chagrin of the other two.
One of the other two was our previous treasurer. He was a professional accountant. He arrived last and left first. Naturally, as he was leaving I mentioned that he clearly adheres to “Last In First Out.” He quickly and loudly said “LIFO”. Appropriate fist bumps were shared.
I’ll never understand those who don’t maintain their vehicles. The 2014 Honda CRV that the Princess drives is going strong after 187,000 miles. One of the maintenance techs at the Honda dealership has seen CRVs of that vintage and a bit older with over 500,000 miles on them. The owners religiously kept up with maintenance. He suggested that my 2005 Subaru Forester could last a long time also. That vintage just keeps on going if properly maintained.
Large tomatoes? Killian’s human makes tomato sauce from them. Fresh from the garden, they do taste better than from the store, but nowhere near as good as cherry tomatoes. Getting the large tomatoes to ripen in Spokane can be difficult, even with the lengthening growing season and hot summers. Once the weather was too cold, dad would dig up his tomato plants and hang them upside down in the basement. Some of the green tomatoes actually got ripe that way.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
The cheeky scamp broke back into the garden. Not good, and the critters have all day (and night) to think about how to get past the defences, yup. Had a wallaby jump onto the many raised round beds last night and consume plentiful seedlings, so the pain is shared.
Groundhogs sound like a complete nightmare. Please do keep them to your part of the world. Rocks are useful to block up entrances and garden holes. I agree that un-jungling a garden bed is probably the best start – and you may have noticed this process in place here for the past couple of years. Rabbits and rats are also notoriously good tunnellers. Shame we can’t put their energy to some good use?
Dachshunds are a good option, and you may recall Toothy the long haired dachshund. Effective. He was fierce for his diminutive size and was mostly pleasant, but occasionally could do as you noted, get up to serious mischief. Like the poem regarding the little girl with the curl.
The table sounds lovely, and would make a delightful centrepiece, whilst being super useful. Tung oil gives such a hard semi-glossy surface. Truly, we have to re-oil the floors, which is not bad after 15 years. You may notice that nobody ever walks upon the surface of a table as they do with timber floors.
The seasons are backwards down here, and I have to recall the same thing when you’re all in the grip of winter and I’m complaining about hot it is! 🙂
Ooo. Had not heard of that chicken mob, but sandwiches seem to be their speciality. Plus yummy milkshakes, of course. Efficiency is a worthy goal.
On that note, bought two chickens today. Probably a bad idea. The other chickens are now on the lay, and their protein needs are high. One of the new chickens was pecked by the older chooks, but not badly, and an hour or two was spent this afternoon making a cage which sits inside the chicken enclosure so that the existing chickens can get used to the new birds over the next week or two. Before this, we’ve only bought chickens when the others are off the lay, and yeah, this was a bit traumatic. Now I know…
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Usually the path of a fire can be traced, so you’d imagine that the people there had spent enough time looking at the damage that they could tell where the ignition point was. My gut feeling suggests that because the top part of the tree has since dropped off, well lightning is the most likely cause. And it could have smouldered and burned for months before flaring up enough that anyone even noticed. Tree climbers would probably be respectful of such a tree, and they’d be the only ones to really get up that high. Anyway, it’s not like it’s as easily accessible as that UK tree. Just my twenty cents.
I like where you are going with the deer blind idea, and it would work a treat for the zombies as well, maybe. Those fast zombies are pesky critters. Hunters aren’t allowed to use spotlights against deer down here – there are steep fines for being caught with such equipment. As a landowner, I’m allowed to use them, but only on this piece of land. Anyway, now I’m curious, was the blind used against the fictional plague victims? Was it effective?
I was just about to type nice weather, but then spotted the 92’F bit. Ook! How are you holding up there? Sounds unpleasant. It was the exact opposite here today: grey, gloomy and cold. We went to the farmers market to buy a couple of chickens. Now we’ve never bought chickens at this time of year, but the poultry group at the farm expo had been shut down earlier in the year. Anywhoo… Bought two chickens, introduced them to the flock. Checked in on their progress regularly, and spotted an older bird pecking at the back of one of the new ones. Got it early, but then what to do? I can’t monitor the chickens for the next few weeks. The Editor monitored the chickens whilst I hastily constructed a sturdy cage to place inside the chicken enclosure. About an hour of metal cutting and a nice cage was made. Guess there is something in what people say about introducing new chickens slowly. In fifteen years of keeping poultry, never had this happen before. It got me thinking that because the flock are on-the-lay, the protein needs might be higher than what we are supplying. Hmm. It’s not nice behaviour for chickens to attempt to eat their fellows. Anyway, the day went right off the rails, and we had a long conversation this evening. Hmm.
At this time of year for you, the tomatoes need to put their energies into ripening the fruit, so no blossoms is a sign that the plant is on track. I used to be easy going with pruning tomatoes, but like you say, it’s better to prune them for all sorts of reasons.
Who even knew that flip-flops (we call them something else down here) were used by the Romans? A universal concept no doubts. 🙂 Very pretty too, although the lady in the middle on the bottom row wearing the crown looks a bit pouty, and something else too.
The font of some wisdom suggests that the plants won’t cross, and I’ve never had a spicy tomato. Did you save the seeds? Our fortunes may have just been made!
Finished stone is too goo to leave in some mouldering old ruin… Hehe! Probably what people thought to themselves as they were thiefing off with the stones.
Oh my, that’s sad to hear, but yes, I’m seeing similar results with second hand / antique furniture. Man, the super-quality stuff we’ve bought over the years for next to nothing should bring shame to society. People are prepared to take a massive loss on this stuff. Probably the time to buy…
Ha! You got sucked into a vortex of most excellent tales. 🙂 Well done, and we’ve all been there. Some people have made that claim about the road to hell being lined with good intentions. Of course being an up-right kind of dude, I know nothing of such shenanigans, and am fearful of making a more thorough investigation. You could go first and report back if you like? 😉
What a dramatic scene to observe from afar. Some people just give up. It happens. Makes me wonder what impact it would have had on the teenage kid.
Ah, thanks for the explanation as to the lost 400 pages. The publisher was of course wrong, because the words added much to the story. I assume they were too timid to suggest making the book a multi-part series? Agents would be like dealing with a sly fox, and I can appreciate that a bit of distance with the negotiations would be beneficial overall to the process. A person cannot be good at everything, and sometimes a job requires a specialist.
The Editor tells me that there is some story about bread in your country which can be squeezed and yet return to its original shape. An innovation, but perhaps keep it away from me. 🙂 Your mention of balloon bread brought the story to mind, and hope it didn’t float away in the breeze? On a food related note, the Editor discovered what ‘gruel’ was after reading the dinner choice mentioned in a book. Presumably the horror of reality was, dare I say it, gruelling?
The plot to Neighborhood Watch reads like a very complicated story at the core of which is the issue of trust. The actor probably is all those things and more. His parents could open some doors, but only he can continue walking through them and not burn the road behind.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
To put it mildly, my day got trashed. Had some strange chicken dramas. I’d like to reply this evening, but reality is that this won’t happen. Will reply tomorrow morning instead. You may not notice the time difference, maybe. 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – I guess there is a trail, to that Douglas Fir. Though it doesn’t sound like it’s what we call, “handicapped accessible.” 🙂 I do not understand people who wantonly destroy trees. There was that book I read, a few years back, about the Golden Spruce. And, recently, some yo-yo cut down a lot of trees in downtown L.A.. As if they didn’t need every bit of shade they can get. I’m sure those kinds of people, would join Team Flagg.
It’s also against the law (though it may vary from state to state) to “spotlight deer,” here.
The deer blind was used by a guy who got away from a town, as things had gone very, very wrong there. Then there’s a young lady, on the run, from bad guys. Feral hogs play a role. Feral hogs play a role in more than one of the stories.
Our high yesterday was 91F (32.77C). Our overnight low was 54F (12.22C). The forecast high for today is 96F. The same for tomorrow. Then it will get S-L-O-W-L-Y cooler. I really don’t have to go out in it, other than to walk the dog and water the garden. I drink a lot of water. H seems to be holding up. LOL. When I take her out for a walk, we sit for awhile on the garden wall, and watch the world go by. She has a choice to flop down in the shade, or a sunny patch. Which does she choose? The sunny patch, of course.
Chickens may just be establishing a peeking order. But, best be on guard. I did the same thing when I introduced some chicks I had raised, to the flock. Although all I had to do was fence off a corner of the chicken coop. For about a week, as I remember.
I think I read somewhere where the bikini girls mosaic, might have pictured an athletic competition. Maybe the lady with the crown, was the winner? Her expression might have been more, “Take that! B—-s.
Something kind of interesting, that came to mind. In Roman mosaics and paintings, of erotic situations, ladies cover there top bits. Even, working girls. They’ve never quit figured out if it was some kind of social taboo, or where it came from. Goddesses were, apparently, exempt.
I read that book about how it is suspected, plants swap a lot more information than we can imagine. Maybe the Roma tomato thought, “Well, that’s a handy bit of defensive kit.” 🙂 I don’t know if I’ll save seed, or not. I always have the best intentions …
I’d say Pam’s dining set was also, probably from England. I wasn’t the only one, bringing in oak (and, other woods) furniture from England, by the container full. It was quit the craze, for awhile. Most of it was made in the 1920s and 30s. I still have a smallish wardrobe, that has “linen fold panels.” Those types of panels, and barley twist legs are a tip off of British origins. Looks like there are still people doing it.
https://cotastreet.com
I deferred watching the movie, and finished the King derived book, last night. I took it back to the library, this morning. I thought there might have been people waiting for it. Hmmm. Not so much. Only one other hold. That may be because, I haven’t seen much media attention. Only one other hold, on six copies. But I noticed there are plenty of holds on the e-book and audio versions.
So, what did I think of the book? A very good read. Most of the stories were good. Only a few clinkers. Not a surprise, when I investigated the many authors. In the back of the book, was a short bio of each contributor. They’d all published many books and short stories. They’d all won numerous awards for science fiction, horror or mysteries. Was I familiar with any of the authors? One or two. Maybe I need to get out more. 🙂
Yes, when I was a kid, you could cut the crust off a piece of ballon bread, and knead it until it assumed a dough like form. You could smash it flat and use a biscuit cutter, to make “biscuits.”
Gruel is considered a delicacy, in some parts of the world. But a steady diet of the stuff? I’d think you could also “jazz it up,” with the addition of one thing or another. Although then, I suppose it wouldn’t be gruel. :-). Lew
Hi DJ,
Oh yeah, shade makes a massive difference. It can be up to 15’C warmer in the direct sun, although the planet is closer to that big fusion reactor in the sky during our summers. Always interesting to see tourists being shocked by the fierceness of the summer sun, and even the colours get bleached slightly so everything gets sort of washed out tones.
Well done you two, and I’ve never repaired concrete – but have the equipment to break it apart if needed. Although Megapascal’s / Pounds per square inch can vary wildly with the stuff depending on the relative ratios of the ingredients. Sounds like you had some fun mixing and making the stuff. They do say a good way to learn is to do.
Oh yeah, the game is a test of endurance under that hot sun. Still fielding wouldn’t be too strenuous. Tennis is another one which makes little sense to me, but would require greater continuous exertions under the same sun.
Well, yeah, like your example, I tend to take information from a number of sites and achieve a best guess for what may happen. I like your style, but are the forecasters under any obligation to compare their forecasts to reality? The forecast for next Tuesday here suggests maybe up to 20mm of rain, but we’ll see how it goes. At the very least some rain should fall. It’s bizarrely dry for this time of year.
The husky double coat is insulation at its finest, and yet I hold some doubts about the protection from heat – unless she does nothing at all on hot days and spends the time hiding in the cool shade. Sir Poopy the Swedish Lapphund struggled during hot weather, and I’ve observed that furry critters don’t tend to evolve in super hot climates.
Drilling into rock is hard work – at the best of times. We use a Makita 850W 32mm SDS+ Rotary Hammer HR3200C, which is a bit of a beast. They use them in the mining industry from what I hear. It’s an old machine now and will probably pack it in one day, just like me! 🙂 But until then… You probably were drilling into such hard stuff. The mix is never consistent, and rain infiltrates the material and probably leaches certain compounds over the years, whereas I reckon the core would remain.
Isn’t it cathartic to have a good clean out and set things back to order? Oh man, yes deterioration of stuff if not properly stored. Hmm. Cleaning out the Editors mum’s house after she passed on of stuff (her dad left the country for a while) was an instructive lesson on why it is not a good idea to keep stuff, just because, and store it badly. It breaks down rapidly. But of course, excellent humour is timeless, and can be great fun if shared with others who have a similar sense of the absurd. 🙂
187,000 miles is a very impressive achievement, and um, yeah, products were manufactured more comparatively sturdier not all that long ago when energy was cheaper. What a surprise! Man, if I’d known of the many changes and challenges I’ve faced over the past two years, but in advance, I’d have simply fixed the old 2004 Suzuki Dirt Rat rather than buying the replacement. And then told certain folks to go f-themselves, and made the time to fix it myself. Of course, hindsight is a wonderful thing, and all things considered, the experiences could have been worse. One of the interesting things about life is that we accrue experience.
That’s the same here, some seasons, ripening tomatoes can be a tricky proposition – thus the greenhouse. Takes a bit of the guesswork and luck out. But yeah, your dad’s idea of hanging the vines upside down does work – and I’ve tested that. Some strange years, we can have tomatoes into early June (your December).
Spotted the first asparagus spears today. So early…
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
The reason I believe that the fire was caused by natural occurrences was because to date nobody has bragged about it on social media. Unless it’s like those mysterious hits to the electrical substations as a warning shot as to what might be. Certainly the trail sounded hard to traverse, so if a person did do it, then they mean business. I’m leaning towards natural causes though in thist instance. The felling of the Golden Spruce was just weird. Like why would anyone do such a thing, is far outside of my comprehension.
It’s hardly sporting to spotlight deer, but there is an allowance for me to do so just on this property. But then I’m not hunting deer. They’re hunting my food.
Ah, yes, I can see how the feral hogs featured in a few of those stories. They’re notably unfussy creatures, and wouldn’t hesitate just taking a sample, or maybe twenty such. Wouldn’t be much left, other than happy piglets. Few plagues have a 100% mortality rate though, even really nasty stuff like Ebola. But it would be seriously challenging to witness such an outbreak and survive. Survivor guilt is a real thing, and the first I ever heard of it was when folks houses and possessions survive a bushfire which takes out everyone and everything around them.
Did it get as hot as 96’F today? Today was sunny here, but cool at 52’F. Such a nice day, so plans got shelved and we took the day off any and all work and headed to a nearby cidery for lunch. A nacho box and sticky date pudding was shared, as well as a pint of their finest. The lunch of champions, although I did crash out for a while upon returning home. The efforts of a committed trencherman, requires championship recuperative digestive efforts. 😉
Dogs are funny like that with their preferences to cooking their brains in the full sun on a hot day. Hope H recovered her wits in time for dinner? Or at least retreated to the shade in a timely manner. Definitely weather to take it easy in. It’s meant to be 68’F tomorrow.
Never raised chickens, but keeping the younger birds separated as you suggested is a wise precaution – which I’d not experienced before, but now I know. The two younger birds are not happy about being in their cage, but it’s better than being eaten alive.
The article did indeed mention that the young mosaic ladies were frolicking during an athletic event. Possibly so about that interpretation, and competitiveness is a thing. Mr King may remark something or other about a poop eating grin! The taboo is quite strange given Goddesses are exempt, but then we probably know far less about the Roman’s than we imagine. It’s a bit like how the male statues always have rather tiny appendages. Probably a cultural thing lost to time, although it’s possibly all done purely in good taste?
Hehe! Don’t we all? There are best intentions, and then there is stuff which we can get done in the time available. In between lay the dreams and aspirations which fire our collective imaginations.
Quality used furniture never goes out of style, except maybe a little bit when new and cheap stuff becomes super-affordable. I dunno man, people want to live in decor which could easily inhabit a nondescript mid-to-upmarket hotel. By contrast, the antique pieces would suit a manor, and maybe people know that such a life is outside their possibilities and the antiques may annoy them? Dunno.
That’s some interesting on the ground observations as to the book market. If I may suggest, it would have been wiser to release the book at the time of the recent re-make of the series in a what do they call it again, err, cross promotional exercise? And that’s interesting because some of my friends prefer e-books and audio-books instead of the act of reading paper. I like physical books, and have not considered an e-book reader. I will observe again that historically literacy rates weren’t as high as they are today.
And yeah, that’s difficult because how much time does a person have in a day to read? Also, the awards are nice and all, but how does a person decide to invest time in a new author? Your point has raised more questions than answers.
With the bread I bake, you can still squish it down into a lump if that’s your thing, and yours is an ingenious way to produce biscuit dough. A few spices and maybe some dried fruit, and it’d be a winner. Did they work out well as cookies?
Is it? I must share this gruel news with the Editor, who was unconvinced that the meal would be any good. But yes, I can see that – spice the soupy watery stuff up, thicken with some legumes, and hey presto! It’s a vegetable casserole. Probably quite tasty.
Cheers and better get writing! 🙂
Chris
Yo, Chris – Feral hogs … and then there’s those tusks … I’ve seen an item or two, that they’ve become quit a problem in some of our southern states, and midwest. They also seem to be moving north.
Oh, yes. Survivor guilt is a real thing. The Titanic. The Fall of the Towers on 9/11. The whole question of “Why did I survive and other people didn’t?” Often, people’s lives take a whole new direction. The feeling of they must have survived for a purpose. But different from the usual, “I’m exceptional,” kind of person. There’s a King story, about a guy who survived 9/11. He took the day off to stay in bed. Everyone else in his office, died. Suddenly, items that belonged to co-workers start appearing in his apartment. At first, he tries to trash them, but they just keep coming back. He finally “gets it,” that he needs to return these items, to the families. To provide closure.
Our high yesterday was 93F (33.88C). Our overnight low was 57F (13.88C). The forecast high for today is 95F.
After all that pruning, weeding and soil amendments, you took a well deserved day off. More or less. As one gets older, you need a bit more recovery time. 🙂 Take it from one who knows.
Speaking of dogs, there’s a lot of chatter about a new spooky movie, coming out. It’s a ghost story, told from a dog’s eye view. I’ve had animals who apparently “see” things, beyond our perception. Once in awhile, H seems a bit disturbed by “something.” Luckily, never in the apartment. Out in the hallways and common areas. Even though I joke about the elevator being inhabited by souls in hell, she has no problem getting in.
https://youtu.be/6GvNnW_H3HU?si=YHYOXCwvC4JjxbfO
Raising chicks was really fun. I put a big box in the laundry room, with a heat lamp. Once they lost their fuzz, and had their first round of feathers, it was time for them to join the flock. The “For Dummies” books guided me through the process, plus talking to other chicken owners.
A Quick Look down the rabbit hole … the Romans thought large ta-tas on ladies were funny. Humorous. They felt the same way about male dangly bits. Those attitudes figured a lot in Roman comedies. Often, when it comes to looking at ancient cultures, we don’t know a lot about some aspects. As, it’s such common knowledge that it isn’t worth commenting on.
Another thing about saving tomato seeds, is, we have so many different kinds of tomatoes growing out in the garden, in close proximity, that getting uncontaminated seed is near impossible. I’ll try growing pepper next to Roma tomatoes, next year. In a different spot. See if it happens, again. LOL. I was a little miffed, this year. I only grow Bachelor’s Buttons, that are a deep blue. Someone planted a patch that’s a mix of blue, pink and white. So much for the purity of any volunteers that might come up, next year.
I woke up pretty early, and went out and picked more tomatoes, to dry. The sun had not yet peeked over the horizon. I figured I’d better get to them, as a lot were ripe. I won’t have time to dry them today, and, with the inspection pending tomorrow, it will be a couple of days. They’ll be fine in the fridge, in the meantime.
The library puts out statistics, every year, of the different classifications of material and how many are circulated. E-books, audio books are on the rise. “Real” books are declining. They even have a free movie streaming service, but I’ve never looked into it. Even though, occasionally, an old movie I’m interested in is only available through the streaming service. DVDs are still holding their own. They say DVDs won’t disappear anytime soon, as so many still circulate. But, someone new could come in and decide to force the issue.
I just saw an article the other day, about young people’s reluctance to take on family heirlooms. It’s a matter of different tastes, and young folk tend to move around a lot and live in small apartments. Sometimes, there are hurt feelings. “What? You don’t want grandma’s 12 place settings of fine china?”
We’ve also talked before about how a bit of analog is coming back, among the young. Due to everything being stored electronically, tells people nothing about their tastes and interests.
I find as I get older, I’m less interested in fiction, and read a heck of a lot more non-fiction. I picked up that book on private equity firms, a couple of days ago. I did read the introduction. I don’t know. I’m afraid it’s one of those books that yes, ain’t it awful, but not much will be done to regulate them, and anything I do certainly won’t change the course of things.
Well, here you go. Everything you ever wanted to know about gruel.
https://w.wiki/F7op
I’ve pretty much got a handle on the inspection. It feels like shuffling the deck chairs around on the Titanic. I might even get done today, and be able to take a shower and head for the Club, this evening, for a cuppa. I’ll see.
Oh, I did squeeze in watching “Neighborhood Watch,” last evening. With popcorn. It was pretty good. A bit of a mystery, a bit comic. What’s not to like? Lew