Yesterday was probably a step too far. With enough time, such things happen. It all started when earlier in the year we attended a farm expo. It’s such a fun day and I look forward to the event. A local poultry group operates a sale of heritage and commercial birds at the event. For over a decade, we’d replenished our collection of chickens using the sale, which usually occurs late summer. Except this year. Instead of spending mad cash to support the poultry group, we spoke to two Government biosecurity officers. The poultry sale had been closed due to the possible risk of spreading bird-flu. There were no reports of the disease anywhere near that area. It was so weird and I may made the observation: So what you’re saying is that you don’t trust people? The reaction was a touch defensive, and I wish I’d had a camera ready to hand because the hard working faces would have made a most excellent artistic mood impression titled: ‘outraged face number four’.
Anyone who has kept birds, knows that just like humans, every year there’ll be a flu like disease which takes out the weaker chickens. It happens, and most years I’ll lose one or two, and some years it’ll be none. Mostly the chooks here get to live out a pleasant retirement after their egg laying days are done, and one crusty old Silky even made it to fifteen years of age before finally keeling over. She was a bit of battleaxe, and I wondered if the collective breathed a sigh of relief at her passing? Regardless, such longevity is a fine effort to which we can all aspire to. Alternatively, I don’t have much first hand experience with factory farmed egg layers and breeds, but anecdotal accounts suggest that their lives are relatively short, sometimes even less than two years. After that, they’re culled, usually every last one of them bird flu, or otherwise.
With the poultry sale at the farm expo closed, a dead old Silky, the number of chickens we kept in the collective had fallen to nine. Some of the remaining birds are around five to six years old now, and candidly are not laying that many eggs these days. Today was notable because they produced five eggs, which is a pretty good effort for late winter.
Incidentally, in this environment, chickens come back on the lay following on from the winter solstice. Somehow they must know that the days are getting longer again. They’ll continue to produce well from now until about February, and that will be when the warm toasty summer days see the sun set earlier. By March, feathers will be everywhere in the enclosure as the birds moult their old summer coat. They then regrow new feathers for the coming cold winter conditions (June to August). Nothing goes to waste, because many of those discards are eaten as a source of easy nutrients.
Oh, even now we have enough chickens to supply a goodly quantity of eggs for the kitchen. But! And here’s the thing, what about next year, or the year after that? With all forms of production from nature, a longer term perspective is required to ensure that supply problems are addressed, long before they occur. Far out though, it never occurred to me that there’d be a possibility that the poultry group’s sale would have been shut down without warning.
Counting nine chickens, and falling… Through sheer chance of circumstance, and with an eye towards opportunity, Sandra made a contact with a breeder of heritage chickens. One thing lead to another, and we decided to go and visit the breeder and see if we could purchase some birds. It was an hours drive away, and yeah, sure the place was messy, but the birds looked healthy and well cared for. We bought two sort-of heritage breed chickens. The qualifying words ‘sort-of’, acknowledges that it would be considered impolite to discuss their uncertain parentage. They’ll be fine and have robust genetics.
It’s worth noting that in the past, we’ve always introduced new chooks towards the end of summer, or in early autumn. That’s when the older birds are off the lay. Laying eggs is clearly more taxing on a body than growing some feathers, and the chickens current need for protein could be described as: ‘demanding’. In earlier times, the the new hens were unceremoniously added to the enclosure, feathers were ruffled, pecking orders established, and everyone got along just fine.
This time things were different. For a while after the introductions to the two new birds, the usual dust ups occurred. Lot’s of squawking. Normal behaviour. Throughout their first day, we regularly checked on progress. By late afternoon, things had taken an ugly turn. That’s when it became clear to us, that thinking you know what you are doing, because in the past it all worked out fine, is an expression of inexperience.
An older and much larger chicken had cornered the two very young birds and was plucking feathers from their backs and consuming them. Another’s taste for blood is an unpleasant activity to observe. Fortunately, I’m bigger, and sported a nifty blue terry towelling hat. Removed the hat from my head, and used it to swat the large feasting bird. The momentum from the impact swooped the hen gracefully into the air only to land at the other end of enclosure. Temerity is stomping back towards me wanting to continue the meal of her new friends. Another swat. I mean business girl. But also, I needed some help. Urgently.
Help soon arrived, and Sandra supervised the chickens for an hour, maybe longer. In that time I constructed a sturdy cage which now resides within the larger chicken enclosure. The old birds can grow accustomed to the new birds over the next week or so, without the possibility of eating one another other. Sure it’s a small space, but it’s probably larger than most commercial caged egg layers would ever enjoy.
The lesson learned here, is that it’s probably a bad idea to introduce very young chickens when the existing birds are on the lay. The protein needs of the egg layers are high right now, which makes the much smaller and younger new birds look like walking take away scrumptious fast food. It’s not ideal, and in future we’ll source new chooks during the late summer / early autumn moulting time so as to make our lives easier. But also, we’ll trial some bitter tasting sprays to apply to the backs of the young hens when they’re eventually released into the enclosure. That’ll give the large bullies a surprise! Lastly, we’ve begun considering ways to introduce even more protein into the chickens diet.
The events have been a hard learning experience, but then, aren’t they all? For fifteen years with chickens we’d done the right thing, and not even realised. And that comprehension has really rammed home the old adage that: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.“, which has been attributed to the author, Mark Twain. Wise words.
Last Monday was really cold. We awoke to discover that the outdoor thermometer was recording 0’C / 32’F. It was certainly the heaviest frost we’ve experienced all year. Spare a thought for the little frozen Suzuki Dirt Mouse Swift exposed to such weather:
We’ve had some nice sunsets though, and the other evening produced a startlingly deep blue sky.
Earlier in the week, two further further fruit trees were relocated into the large citrus enclosure. There are now 36 trees in there, all in a nice neat well spaced 6×6 pattern. Unfortunately the original fencing was never intended to keep out deer. Wallabies were the concern in those days. The much bigger imported four legged herbivores have become something of a nuisance this past year or so. In order to extend the height of the fencing so as to make access hard for deer, the four corner posts were reinforced with diagonal posts. They’re really strong now, as is the fencing.
Each fence post has a steel star picket (T-posts in US parlance) attached. Through holes in these, two strands of stainless steel cable now increase the height to well over six foot. It may not be enough, but at least the top cable is coated with a jaunty yellow coloured UV stable plastic. Hopefully the deer can see this, or things may end up badly – for them.
The enclosure is quite large at 600m2 or a bit less than 6,500ft2 and all of the trees in there are doing well. The thing with citrus trees is that they are predominantly grown on dwarfing rootstock, and rarely grow taller than eight foot. A single wallaby and/or deer can destroy such a low growing fruit tree, thus the need for the fencing. Wallaby’s are destructive, but deer are the whole next level of damage.
Despite the frosty morning, the days are becoming both longer and warmer. It’s now time to get the various garden beds ready for the summer growing season. We purchased a trailer load of compost (about $42.50) from the local sand and soil supplier. It’s good stuff, and is a mixture of sand, mushroom compost and finely processed woody mulch.
On it’s own the mix will grow vegetables. However, in order to grow even better vegetables, a whole bunch of other materials are stirred into the compost. And that work gets done by shovel. The soil feed is then moved around the place in a power wheelbarrow.
It really does need all that other stuff which cost me about $70. Soil minerals are not cheap, but then what you grow and consume, impacts upon your health. During that day, Bert the little lone magpie is forever helping me out about the property. And he was happy to scratch through the rich soil feed as I spread it around.
During the week, all five garden terraces were pruned, weeded and fed. Here they are from lowest to highest:
The third terrace is used for various vegetables, and at the moment Globe Artichokes and green leafed mustard plants provide edibles for the kitchen. The next crop will be beetroot, radish and silverbeet. That terrace had been fed heavily only a few months ago, so the soil didn’t need the top up.
It’s a productive part of the property, and usually doesn’t require any additional watering other than rainfall. This week’s video is on that work:
It was a busy week, and I only managed to get a couple of hours work done on the old loggers mess clean up. That job is nearing completion, and given we’ve been at the task for two years, it’s about time. I tackled a very wide old log which had mostly rotted away, but wasn’t quite gone yet. The tree must have been enormous.
A second go at the tree took off many more chunks. Most of the cut timber will make useful firewood and I’ll leave it to dry for a few months before splitting.
Right next to this old log is another upside down tree stump. Nothing natural can cause this to occur. And hopefully the stump is not propping up the large tree which is growing next to it. I’ll deal with that next week.
Almost forgot to mention. On the coldest day of the week, we headed half an hour south to visit the nearest big township of Sunbury so as to run a lot of errands. Whilst we were there, we had a walk around some of the older sites in that town.
In breaking produce news:
Onto the flowers:
The temperature outside now at about 11am is 10’C (50’F). So far for this year there has been 481.4mm (18.9 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 479.4mm (18.9 inches)
Comments
40 responses to “Couldn’t Believe”
Yo, Chris – Sounds like it was a very productive week, at Fern Glade Farm. One major task after another. No wonder you took a well deserved day off, just to catch your breath.
Chickens are interesting, and entertaining. But, occasionally, there’s chicken drama. That’s a genius idea, to put something less tasty, on the new chickens backs.
Frost? We’ve probably just had our hottest day of the year. Our seasons are truly, reversed.
The sunset picture is beautiful. Truly calendar worthy.
I still think you should hang something sparkly, from the deer fencing. Maybe some strips of vampire hide. 🙂
I paid careful attention to the soil amendments. Even wrote it down in my garden journal, so I won’t leave anything out. What about stove ash?
The raspberry pruning video was very good. And, I see Bert’s back!
More logger’s mess to deal with. Will it ever end? Well, at least you get some firewood out of the deal.
You can refer to your pictures of the old winery, for future reference. The bluestone bridge is really beautiful. Why can’t we build stuff like that, anymore?
The dry stone wall picture? Looks like someone is trying to get some plants started in those little blue-ish enclosures. Any idea what they are?
Your photo of the asparagus is inspirational. Mine are still banging along, but it will be quit awhile before mine resemble anything like yours.
You have had a warm winter, judging from the roses still producing pretty blossoms. Lew
Hi Lewis,
🙂 The universe has suggested to me in a few different ways that some of the big projects need completing, so what, me delay? Of course the occasional day off becomes rather necessary.
Got stuck into the loggers mess today, and this time the Editor pitched in and helped out with what I was doing. We seriously kicked some goals, and that’s a good thing because the rainfall forecasts are suggesting falls between two and four inches over the next few days. Conditions are about to get wet. Therein lays the problem – I can’t make the claim that August has been dry if a huge amount falls in a few days… The distribution of the wet stuff dropping out of the sky has been slightly weird this year. I’m baffled by it all, but the work needs doing all the same.
Thanks! We’re going to make a spray bottle with some pine-tar solution and try that. I got the idea because some folks who have problems with chickens which eat eggs, fill an egg with hot chili powder. Produces a notable lesson for the naughty chickens. The two youngsters are doing quite well today, although they dislike being caged. Too bad, so sad for them. Being eaten alive is a far worse situation than a mite of inconvenience.
Ook! How did H cope with the hottest day of the year? The cold day was all rather chilly, and required two woollen jumpers so as to stay warm. Has the a/c worked well for you? Those units don’t use all that much energy. The other cold sunny day, we ran the big industrial electric fan heater to pump some heat into the house, and it worked a treat and ran directly off the sunshine. It’s hard for me to know whether such loads are problematic for the inverter. I just don’t know, but it is all operating well within specifications.
Thought you might enjoy the deep blue sunset. 🙂 Lovely colours! And so different from summer.
Hehe! Sparkly vampires seem to me to be some sort of re-branding for those dark undead souls. Have to laugh, I remember a film review for the final instalment of the vampire franchise and an undead baby was brought into that fictional world and the cheeky reviewer made the comment – burn it with fire! Strong words. Honestly, the departed are annoying at best, but your wise counsel over the years has sort of produced a guide to better living. Seriously, don’t laugh. 🙂 You told me ghosts can’t affect the material plane, and that was a relief, because it’s true..
Stove ash is always a worthy addition to soil improvement, and thanks for the correction. I’d not had any to hand at that stage, but yeah – totally good stuff. Ooo, the wind has picked up tonight, and soon I’ll have to take a break and Ollie and I will head down and push the fire together.
Aren’t the garden terraces well tended? It’s amazing they do well over the summer months without extra watering. Takes a lot of soil food though. And Bert was hanging around all day today.
Hehe! The winery has been in that location since 1863 and the buildings were really beautiful. Even the bluestone barn was just delightful on the senses. The bridge was made from the same stone, it’s just really nice stuff – and when crushed finely makes an excellent fertiliser in that it has a bit of everything. The plants in front of the stone wall were some sort of nondescript local plants. The terracing in that area was originally vast, and they harvested 350 gallons per acre. A fine effort.
Give your asparagus a year or two, and they’ll be producing plenty of yummo spears.
Yes, feral hogs are a problem up north of this continent as well as over in New Zealand. Clever creatures, and super tough.
Mr King’s story regarding 9/11 raises a few questions – one of which is for whom does the closure benefit? After the 2009 bushfires when 173 people died, and a respectable few years later, I made a point of talking with people who went through that day and survived, that is whenever the opportunity presented itself. It’s weird, but even after several years, the trauma was still lurking there in plain sight. How a person reacts to an horrific event can be almost impossible to know beforehand. Even being calm in a crisis is no guarantee that a person won’t have a meltdown after the urgency has ceased.
Man, I so hear you about taking time out to recover the internal batteries. 🙂 August has been such a weird month. Oh well, it happens… Ollie and I pushed the fire together (or he supervised from a discreet distance) and yes, I wore the boots with the heat resistant soles. Tell ya what though, the wind is really adding some energy to the fire. And the soil was very dry in that area we worked today, surprisingly so.
Always take heed of what H has to say about things surrounding us lesser humans of which we may be unaware of. The dogs and birds see stuff for sure. I was watching Bert today to see if he’d tell me about a snake, just in case. Oh my, I’d say raising the hairs on the back of my neck accompanied by a few chills is the mark of a truly spooky film. Thanks for the recommendation, to which I’ve forwarded on to the Editor.
Yeah, I know raising chickens is fun, but ultimately I’m going to have to join a local poultry club. It takes a village to ensure that the genetics aren’t completely botched!
Interesting! It’s funny you say that about commonly understood knowledge not being worth commenting upon, but you pointed out such an issue in last week’s blog which entirely changed the story – with the off street car parking – which was non existent in an old Victorian-era suburb. Mentioning that aspect never even popped into my awareness.
Maybe, and possibly so. I’ve not found that tomato seeds readily hybridise with nearby plants, although common sense suggests there would be some interchange of genetics. Saved seeds generally breed true to type. Hope your experiment works, and that tomato with zing may be a mortgage buster variety?
How did the inspection go today? Hopefully you passed with flying colours, or at least gave the inspectors something really simple to fixate upon. Sometimes they just need to find something… I’ve used that technique in the past, and it works.
Streaming doesn’t interest me either, although the Editor uses the government broadcaster services which has a lot of material. A lot of Scandi-noir seems to be on the viewing menu, although I’m not sure what this means. Look, she did grow up reading many a Mr King book, and in fact introduced me to the author.
Moving around a lot from one residence to another is a destabilising force, so I’m unsurprised that the kids don’t want to take on family heirlooms. If hurt feelings are desired to be avoided, make housing cheaper and more stable. 😉 That’d stop such emotions.
Well, some topics may be interesting, but can the author engage with the audience? Michael Lewis made complex financial derivatives into a fascinating narrative in the Big Short. I dislike conclusions which amount to ‘calls to arms’ to get someone else to change a system. Such claims sound ingenuine to my reading ears.
Thanks for the laughs, yes: watery food of unknown character! 🙂 Exactly! Sounded like my vegetable soup consumed for lunch today which used pearl barley. Yum!
Did you eventually make it to the Club?
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – If you don’t already, maybe keep a weather journal. “August, 2025. It looks like we had a lot of rain, in August, but most of it fell the last week.” Stuff like that. I make notations on my wall calendar (and transfer the notes, from year to year.) And, also make notes in my garden journal.
I guess for the next few days, you’ll be doing inside stuff. I’m sure the list is long. 🙂
Grandpa’s Pine Tar Soap! Great stuff, though expensive. I keep a few bars for special occasions. Though I can’t imagine what such a special occasion, would be.
Our high yesterday was 95F (35C). Our overnight low was 57F (13.88C). The forecast high for today is 92F. The same forecast high for tomorrow. Then it will slowly get cooler. Being on the third floor, facing south, I run the A/C from early morning to late night. Even when the temperatures are lower (say in the 70s), I still use it a lot. The electric bill hasn’t bumped up much. And it will fall to very little, over the winter.
Morons (Redux). I did quit a bit for the the inspection, yesterday morning. I decided to take a nap. I was sound asleep, about 45 minutes in, and having an interesting dream about a talking cat. And … the fire alarms went off. According to reports, someone had microwaved something in a plastic bowl, and it ignited. So, the usual. Blaring alarms and flashing lights. I got dressed, determined that the hallway wasn’t in flames, and headed out with H. She’s been handling the heat, pretty well, but did NOT like going out in the hottest part of the day. I think that’s the third, more or less false alarm, in as many months. It took the fire department about 20 minutes, to get here, and apparently, they’re the only one’s who can turn off the alarms.
Oh, the stove ash thing wasn’t a correction. I just wondered if it was in there, somewhere, and I missed it.
I wonder if your terraces get water, not from a spring, but maybe from a seep. Just a bit of groundwater to percolate downhill.
I was out pretty early and ran into one of the caregivers. We were talking about new movie trailers. I told her about “Good Boy,” and she informed me that there is to be another sparkly vampire movie. We had both read the first book, and watched the first movie. And that was enough. 🙂
Well, closure for the families. It worked, in the story. I guess you’d have to have been there (or, read it.) 🙂 Closure for the guy, who finally got rid of all the stuff that kept showing up. He had pretty heavy survivor guilt, and at first thought the items were showing up, just to torment him.
I hope the local poultry club doesn’t require aprons. With logos. 🙂
Well, I’m ready as I’ll ever be, for the inspection. It will happen sometime between 9 and 5. So, that pretty much blows my day. I suppose I’ll be deep in an afternoon nap, when he shows up. I decided not to go to the Club, last night. I still had this and that to do, and didn’t want to push it. I’ll probably go, tonight.
I took the book on “Choice,” back to the library. I’m pretty sure it was someone’s Masters, or PHD dissertation. Every point was defended, over and over again. OK, I got it. What feels like freedom of choice, is really influenced by all kinds of external factors, most of which we’re unaware of.
I am reading “Cults Like Us: Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America.” (Borden, 2025). Very good read, and funny as heck. I might stick with the book on private equity firms. Its form is to follow four people who were impacted by such firms. Lew
Hi, Chris!
Chickens can be so belligerent. Whoever made up that “Don’t be a chicken!” must have known some different chickens. Ours used to fly at the dogs and cats, besides beating up each other. That is a very nice solution and a very cozy cage that you made. Your chickens all look to be in prime condition.
As for the two government biosecurity officers – just doing their job, I guess. One wonders if the biosecurity department has any real experience with raising chickens – in a normal setting, I mean. Maybe they are trying to cover their behinds in case there was a – shall we say, “epidemic”? – and some folks start accusing them of not having prevented it.
What a stunning deep blue sunset.
Yes, I think your new deer fence is going to work. That is just how it looks over our cattle gate. It has been that way for some years and they have never tried to jump over it.
I use composted cow manure and fine woody mulch, with some soil additives. So there is Bert! He is so devoted to you for some reason . . .
I have cleared all my “jungles” in the garden but two. Those two have to wait for winter as one is my tomato nursery bed and it is still producing and the other is a jujube bed, and they will lose their leaves anyway. I looked into each of those with a flashlight and could see no signs of groundhog digging. The rest of the jungle was all along the inside perimeter of 65ft by 120ft, which is blackberries on three sides. I don’t know if this is pruning time, but they are now at least partially pruned; I had no choice. In doing so, I found yet another hole exiting the garden. I blocked that and now that I can see along the fence line well, I will be able to watch more closely. I don’t think he’s in there anymore. Sorry to go on about it so much. It has been a very discouraging season.
I doubt the upside-down trunk is propping up that tree. It lookes pretty sturdy.
I love the neat, straight rows of grape vines in a vineyard. I pass by one every time I go into town. Your vines look wonderfully orderly, too. And I do love to see old bridges. That is a charming example.
Asparagus! It must be spring.
So silver wattle smells as nice at it looks. You are lucky to have some. No way should roses be blooming right now. Thanks for all the beautiful flowers. And thanks for the video.
From last week:
There was something in the back of my mind when I brought up dachshunds last week. Of course – it was Toothy, the naughty fellow. And I have indeed met the little girl with the little curl.
Pam
@ DJSpo:
Thanks for the anti-groundhog suggestions last week. Now there’s a thought – dog poop. It might actually work. We girls at our house never cut our hair. My son cuts his seasonally. Now where does one get hair . . .
I’ve always liked The Spruce. Thanks for the link.
And thanks for the best wishes. It has been a heck of a season with the wildlife.
Pam
Hi Pam,
Absolutely. Chickens are tough as, and have the morals of an annoyed rat. Of course, Mr Baby could deal with rodents, but he may be hard pressed fighting off a dozen or more roosters. It is rough and tumble the world of chicken, plus they occasionally do horrid things to one another. The best outcome is finding some sort of balance, whilst getting decent egg production. Over an inch of rain fell today, and the two young birds are toasty warm and dry in their cage within an enclosure. Put a tarp over their roof, just in case rain was driven by wind into the enclosure. Those two learned how to consume the weed cleavers today, and decided it was good. As were the scones. 🙂
Well, yeah they were simply doing their jobs, and I certainly didn’t expect it was those two who made the decision to shut the poultry sale down. Still, given the decision, it would perhaps have been wise for those two, to at least communicate the benefits of the choice made. Otherwise a simple sign announcing the decision could have sufficed. And I absolutely agree with you in that prevention is better than a cure, but a sign would have been cheaper and produced much the same result.
Thanks! And I was wondering about the gate – which sits lower than the fencing. Do deer have the same cognitive processes as humans? Dunno, but around these parts, like what you said, nobody has fence extenders on their gates. Makes me wonder if a trail camera there at the gate would provide some interesting footage? Hope the big herbivores can see the yellow wire. Ook!
Nice, and composted cow manure is an excellent additive to begin a mix with. Doesn’t have everything, but it’s got some serious goodies. Bert is a delightful, if somewhat in-danger character about the property. The other day I noticed another magpie swooping him, and I’m not sure why. It’s possible Bert is attempting to establish a territory here, and may have enlisted my help? Dunno. Yesterday, I’d have described him as ‘full’ after all the insects and grubs he ate. With an inch of rain today, he needed to be.
Not much foraging today, although a few minutes ago an owl was spotted on a fencing post for the large citrus enclosure – presumably hunting rats and rabbits. Found a dead mouse earlier today (or rather Dame Plum did), and wondered about that given we don’t poison them.
Pam, I totally comprehend your experience with the groundhog, and have done exactly the same thing: De-jungled the garden beds. And that’s when you find burrows and all sorts of other activities. Yesterday whilst doing the forestry work, I’m pretty certain a rabbit burrow was discovered. Hope nothing else is living in there? Possibly snakes over wintering? Wombat entrances are much wider, for obvious reasons.
Sandra says much the same about the upside down tree trunk, and with the high winds and rain this morning, the mid-sized tree has remained upright, despite yesterdays initial work on that stump. Probably fine, maybe. 😉 The soil in that area was extraordinarily dry, and yesterday bizarrely we were dealing with dusty conditions (just in that area). For late winter, that’s very odd. Soil elsewhere on the property seems damp. Dunno. Maybe the hard compacted surface lead to water run-off?
Aren’t they lovely to see such neat order in a vineyard, and the bridge was beautifully constructed of local stone. The only reason it’s not still in use today, is that it’s not wide enough, but it’s sturdy. Many train bridges are similarly made in this area, and still in use today.
It’s kind of early for asparagus, but the plants mark time differently to us. 🙂 Far out, it’s wet outside today. Not much rain, then a whole bunch of the stuff. Oh well.
🙂 Both characters are there to keep us on our tippy toes!
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
That’s a good idea, and I have kept daily rainfall records for many years now. May add some notes like you suggest. Hmm. It’s a bit like the solar power system records, in that the long term data helps produce a sort of big-picture abstract map as to how things work out here. Before recording the solar power data, just for example, it was hard to comprehend the various flows, and far out, it’s alerted me to some problems which needed fixing over the years with that system.
Speaking of such things, did I mention how wet it has been here today? No. Oh well, lot’s of rain and well over an inch has fallen since last night with more to come over the next few days. Too wet to work outside as initially planned. Oh my, the radar looks feral… So I was checking on all of the water tank systems and noticed that the overflow for the house water tanks was leaking. Far out, that’s a lot of water, and I’ll have to fix it up over the next few days. Always something. By the way, the water is dribbling down the side of the tank and heading underground – which is slightly destablising to the soil. Ook!
Yeah, I recall you mentioning pine-tar-soap. It’s meant to be pretty good stuff for the skin, although has a pungent aroma. We’ll have to work it into a solution that can be sprayed onto the chickens. Although, if things get bad, we’ll capture the two birds and try smearing Vicks VapoRub on their backs. The bullies won’t like that at all! Always room for a special occasion, maybe… 🙂
Had to change plans today, much like you with the Club visit. The rain was far heavier than forecast, and began a lot earlier in the day. Did a whole bunch of admin we had slated for tomorrow, which will be another inside work day. As you surmised, there’s plenty to be done.
I doubt you’ll see too much of a hike in the electricity use from the a/c machine. Depending on how big those machines are, the compressors don’t use all that much. Now if you were heating, that’s a whole different story. Facing south and enjoying the ‘chimney effect’ of the upper airs of a building does make for a toasty existence during summer. Still, you get some heating from surrounding apartments in winter, so that’s something.
The nearest town to the area I reside in was in the news today: Fast-tracked housing estate approval set to double population of Riddells Creek. The creek mentioned begins near to the bottom of my property.
Nice to see that you are restoring the use of the word: Morons. It’s still used down here, but has been pre-empted by the simpler descriptive word: Idiots. Yes, a talking cat would be interesting, and now we are left wondering what message was attempting to be imparted to you? Holy carp! Can a microwave oven produce enough energy to ignite plastic? 20 minutes is a good response time all things considered, and the entire situation is a mare’s nest. Presumably someone has to pay for the attendance?
We’re always short of stove ash. In fact, I remain surprised that despite nothing organic leaving the property including our own poop, we’ve never generated enough material to have a compost pile. Still, the top soils are getting deeper, and this is perhaps where the stuff is ending up. But right now, it’s very much an import dependent system here, although getting less so.
Agreed, there is the possibility that the terraces are accessing some underground water – and years ago the neighbours sewerage system uphill of there failed (but was replaced). Dunno.
Hey, did you by any chance read some of the utoob comments attached to the “Good Boy” film trailer. They were genuinely funny, and voiced some of the questions I had about the dog film. Worth the read, at least the first few. I’d believed the best thing about that series was, that it had finished. What more could there be? Actually you sent me on a journey which ended up at the 2 minute audio of the final film review. Very amusing and sets a gold standard for reviews, although you may have other opinions. I can post a link if you’re interested? Knowing you were in that business, I thought it was better to ask you.
Ah, the returning of the items were intended as a healing process for all, including the protagonist. So much pain. I noted that today our goobermint ejected embarsey (sic) folks as persona non grata. That doesn’t happen everyday.
Yikes! What a thought! One can only hope that plans for branded aprons don’t cross their minds… Far out. Hey, I’m alert for such mischief these days realising where it can lead. Look at the changes in the Club of late over something as simple as a register. Willpower is a tool which can shape, but it can also consume and then destroy, sorry to say. Mostly I use a very light touch mostly to keep the worst of entropy at bay. What else can a person do?
Did you pass the inspection with flying colours? And yes, some folks can be rather free with our time. I’ve noticed that habit as well.
Really? What’s the attraction with doomsday scenarios other than not having to go to work on a Monday morning? Or face the music for previous decisions? And maybe some other stuff as well… 🙂 Did you get any insights from the book?
As to the other book, well, my experience with them was first good, then bad. Jumped ship before it got worse than bad.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Our high yesterday was 90F (32.22C). The overnight low was 59F (15C). The forecast high for today is 90F. Though the day has started off with overcast and a nice cool breeze. Destabilizing soil? Yikes!
Grandpa’s Pine Tar Soap has a nice masculine (?) smell to it. There’s also Grandma’s Oatmeal soap, for the fairer sex. I’ve tried both. In fact, when I had my tat store, I carried it as a side-line. I sold a lot of it.
When this place was built, there were no A/C units. Early on, someone got a grant, and all the apartments got “air.” I think mine is one of the original ones. I know some apartments have more modern units. That crank out more cool air. My unit will also heat. Have hardly ever used that function.
Wow. That’s a really big development. 1,360 houses? It will definitely change the character of the town. As far as you know, has Riddells Creek ever flooded, in that area? We have a big development going in in our Salzer Valley area. And, Salzer Valley Creek runs right through it. When we have big floods, it floods. Of course, the builders say they’re doing mitigation, but I think it will be a disaster waiting to happen.
A thought I had … kids, being kids … at least when I think back, love to play along, and follow creeks. You might want to think about doing some preemptive signing, or even fencing. Not that a three strand bob wire fence ever stopped us from “exploring.”
So many kinds of plastic, some more flammable than others. I got the rest of the story. It was in an apartment, and it wasn’t a microwave. It was the oven. The fire department and EMTs are supported by taxes. That’s one thing I always vote for. I figure it’s in my best interest. I also vote for any school bonds. I figure anything that keeps the little b—–ds off the streets is also in my best interest 🙂 .
I went back and read some of the comments, for “Good Boy.” Some are very amusing. Yes, let’s hope the movie doesn’t end in an “Ol’ Yeller,” ending. The cost of psychotherapy for the public will be staggering. 🙂 People are calling for awards. I thought Rin Tin Tin got an Academy Award, but that’s an urban legend. Though I see he got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
https://w.wiki/F8wV
I’m always up for a well written (spoken) review. Especially if it trashes sparkly vampire movies.
I saw a headline about the expulsion of an ambassador. But I didn’t read the article. The enemy within.
The inspection. Well, it didn’t happen. A day shot in the ass. I did get a good long nap, though. Around 4:30, the maintenance guy (who was doing the inspections) truck was still here. So, I took H down for a walk. Little Mary Sunshine happened to be in her office. he hadn’t completed the second floor, yet. No idea when he might finish up the rest. And, with on-going maintenance issues and the anniversary coming up next week, it will probably be awhile. So, I felt pretty much in limbo. Although later, the night manager told me that when they finally get around to it, I’ll get another 48 hour notice.
One thing I discovered. I have blinds in my apartment, but they really let a lot of light through. So, I’ve been hanging a couple of old sheets, off an old curtain rod. I didn’t know if they really did any good. I took them down, yesterday morning, due to the inspection. Oh, my gosh, did this place heat up. I’ll leave them up for the next potential inspection.
Well, I guess I can get back to my life. Keep the place up for the next inspection, and maybe fine tune a few places.
The book on cults is pretty good. She covers everything from multi-level marketing to new age stuff. Of course, our fascination in the US with this kind of thing has roots in our Puritan / Pilgrim past. It morphs over the years, but there are similarities. The author is humorous. It’s a good read.
I don’t know when people will wake up to how evil private equity companies are. And the damage they do. If you say “private equity companies” to the run of the population, you get a blank stare.
The new buzz on the net is about “weaponized incompetence.” More of less what we’ve talked about before. Learned helplessness. Or phony helplessness.
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/articles/weaponized-incompetence-back-driving-modern-091702253.html
Although I think women are just as guilty. Lew
You have reason to be proud of your accomplishments — your property truly shows the beautiful and orderly results of all that endless work.
My asparagus are, of course, at the other end of the season from yours. I had to cut them to the ground early because of aphid infestation, for the second year in a row. It seems the mild California winters make pests like aphids a perennial problem for many plants. Maybe the last couple of years were especially mild and conducive to the aphids — I don’t know.
I enjoyed reading about your new chickens, and new experiences. It seems very wise to be thinking long-term about your flock considering the instability in the poultry world at large. I guess I will never stop wishing I could keep chickens again, though I have stopped wasting time thinking about it.
Enjoy your asparagus season and the coming of springtime 🙂
Chris:
We never had a rooster. My husband’s family had one with their chickens when he was growing up and it chased him every time it saw him. That was a lot of rain, but I know your chooks were cozy. Cleavers grows around here. It does have medicinal purposes, you know. That’s probably why your chickens thrive – you give them such a variety of foods. But scones . . .
Speaking of rats, my son saw a large rat in his potted fig trees area (where the greenhouses are) and it was bigger and longer than the wood rats. Not a good omen. He plans to get even more traps and just set them every day as they wrought havic in the greenhouses last winter.
I wish we had a trail camera, but it’s one more expense and one more thing to monitor and maintain.
Pam
Chris,
Congrats on some rain. You need it, especially heading into your warmer months. Now if it could only be spread throughout the month, rather than have an entire month of rain fall in a few days.
The heat wave is still with us. It’s now looking likely stay at 31C or higher for most of the next 10 days or so. Much better than the week of 35C and higher that is still with us, but much warmer than the “average” 26C. Wednesday should see an influx of smoke into the area. No walking Avalanche if that happens.
I had to take Saturday off from nearly all physical activity. The heat finally caught up with me, so a day off from everything was a necessity. Did some very gentle yoga stretching and that was it. Oh, and Killian’s human and I ventured forth in the heat to feast on enchiladas.
Meanwhile, Dame Avalanche was very agitated early Tuesday morning. She often needs out at 4 a.m., but this time she was clearly investigating something. I could hear some snuffling and bushes rustling. I couldn’t see anything. Eventually, one of the critters got to where I could get a good light on it. Racoon. A BIG racoon. It would growl at Dame Avalanche whenever she approached the fence that was separating us from the racoon. I was able to keep Avalanche away and tossed rocks near the racoon. One hit a nearby structure with a loud bang, so the racoon sped away. At least one other one was going through someone’s garbage barrel.
That racoon could’ve torn Dame Avalanche to shreds. It also seemed in a rather feisty mood whenever Avalanche got too close. A coworker of mine was bitten by a racoon several years ago. Since most of the racoons on the area carry rabies, he had to get the regimen of rabies shots. I was happy that I could chase it away from a distance.
Your chicken adventure reminded me of when I took care of a friend’s place when he and his wife were on vacation. One month a year. I house sat for them and took care of their animals two years in a row. The chickens were interesting. Fresh eggs whenever I wanted them. They had two roosters, a big one and a small one. Yes, the big one was the king. Whenever the smaller one approached a hen, the big one jealously chased him away. Tending to side with the underdog, I came upon a way to change the narrative briefly. When I was near the chickens and the big rooster was involved with a hen, I would chase him away. He would get irritated with me and try to chase me around. When the big rooster was intent upon teaching me a lesson, the little rooster would take advantage and get together with a hen or three. Then the big rooster would see the small rooster and chase him again. The event would get repeated a day or so later.
I enjoyed your approach to the hens going after the new ones. Who knew that blue terry hat could be used as a weapon? I’m sure your old sensei would be proud about your resourcefulness in using what was at hand. Or should I say, what was at head? In this week’s picture with you and the chickens, you’re wearing a green cat. The blue terry hat didn’t get damaged in the Great Chicken Melee did it?
Sunbury? Now I know two people from or near Sunbury. Well, my cousins in New Mexico? Their mother is from Sunbury. Sunbury, Pennsylvania.
The photos from your Sunbury trip were enjoyable. I always like driving near wineries. There are many in parts of Washington. The grape plants are always laid out in such a wonderful geometry. The old bridge is spectacular. They don’t make them like that anymore. And a drystone wall? What a great trip! I’ve always had an affinity for drystone walls. Thanks for those photos.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
That rooster chasing business can happen for sure, and I’ve had both gentlemanly, and psychopathic roosters. It’s not nice to be feeding chickens, whilst being attacked all at once. The last one who did that chasing menacing biz, copped the knife. I’d had enough. And Pam, that crowing at the crack of dawn business is simply fantasy, he did that too but in the wee early hours of the morning. Strong moonlight would set that rooster off. Just say no. Mind you, it is extraordinarily difficult to breed chickens without a rooster, and therein lays the entire problem.
The chooks are doing fine after the rain, which was around one and a half inches and continued in fits and spurts today. What wasn’t going fine, was an overflow outlet on one of the big house water tanks which began to leak – a lot. Spent the day fixing that, and the leaking water can soften the soil which the huge mass of water was perched upon (a single full tank probably weighs 60,000 pounds!) It’s already a few degrees off vertical. It’s a long story… But definitely it became a situation to fix sooner, rather than later.
Yes, most birds and animals here realise that cleavers have such medicinal properties, and the dogs are very fond of the plant. I hang the bundles of cleavers up in the air to give the chickens something interesting to do. It always gets eaten, and yup, the plentiful scones were very real and a gift from a lovely local. The birds and dogs gobble them up.
If my thinking is correct in rodent-mode-number-four, in your part of the world, they’ll be soon seeking warm toasty over-wintering nesting sites. A greenhouse is perfect in every way. Sorry to say, but it is best to strike early. And also keep an eye on dry and warm engine bays. We check them every week now.
Agreed, with the extra expense and stuff to think about with trail cameras. I did not take that route lightly, and the miscreant/s have seriously annoyed me – thus kicking the bush telegraph hard to alert locals that such things are going on in the area. Seems to have worked.
More rain tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that. Ook!
Cheers
Chris
Hi Joanna,
Thank you so much for the delightful words, and it is a pleasure to share the place with you each week. Now you mention it, there is a lot of work being done! On that note, I had to drop all other activities today, and fix up a leaking overflow on one of the massive house water tanks. Getting water into the subsoil is a grand idea, but too much of the wet stuff in a concentrated location can cause a world of erosion dramas. All done now though.
Out of curiosity, do you let some of your asparagus spears form ferny-like fronds? I reckon we can harvest about two thirds of the spears, but that’s only a guess. My gut feeling suggests that the plants eventually die due to too much root system inhabiting too little soil. The one’s I’ve dug up over the years give pause for thought at their sheer size.
Aphids are rarely a problem here due to hungry ladybirds, praying mantis and lacewings. But then such critters also depend upon the conditions of your neighbouring gardens and the actions such folks take which can reduce those populations. It’s hard isn’t it?
One annoying critter here are the ants, because they’re super smart. In citrus trees, they’ll encourage sap sucking insects on the leaves which harvest sugars, and that produces sooty mould on the leaves, which then has to be cleaned off with soap and water. I’m going to try grease banding the citrus trees this summer to stop the ants.
Thanks, and thinking and acting longer term is hard. As you’re guessing, it’ll probably work out to joining the local poultry club. Yup, there are a lot of forces at work in the world of productive birds, it’s hard to know how it will look like in a decade or more.
🙂 Chickens are lovely, but then so are dreams. Some situations are just too complicated to keep chooks. A wise path to know thyself there.
Thanks, and I wish you all the best for the fall and winter. And especially hope you enjoy some tasty winter sweetened greens. I’ve become partial to kale exposed to light frosts over the past few years. Tasty stuff, especially in winter warming soups. 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
The rain has been most beneficial, and is around 42mm now, maybe more. The thing is, when you get that much rainfall in a short period of time, you tend to discover water systems that aren’t working properly. Like the house water tank overflow outlet. It decided to begin leaking yesterday early on during the storm and continued to do so for the rest of the day.
Lot’s of water leaking down the side of a water tank can undermine the soil stability of the monster chunk of super heavy plastic (and its sloshy contents). Anyway, I bit the proverbial bullet today and replaced the 90mm outlet connector and pipes, and man, water went everywhere. It was feral wet.
For some weird reason, the angle of the outlet pipe (at the highest spot on the tank) was pointing erroneously uphill at less than right angles to the side of the tank. And so rather than draining, water was banking up behind it to unnaturally high levels inside the tank itself. And with two huge tanks connected, they’d both share the same water level – as happens. So I removed the faulty connector, and that was when a couple of thousand litres immediately poured out the hole. The water level in the tanks was being artificially increased due to faulty (and leaky) pipes… Grr!
Soon attached another outlet and pipe – at the proper angle this time (i.e. pointing downhill), and then rushed to reconnect up the pipes to send excess water to the much lower down the hill overflow tank. Another storm was fast approaching and dumped even more rain (and again topped up the level in the tanks). The storm was a good test of the fix-up. It was all a bit of a headache really, and a much longer story behind it all as to why it even occurred in the first place.
Averages convey a sense of what may be, and unfortunately, then there is reality. 🙂 That’d be around the big smokes average temperature for the same summer month. Very aspirational. Oh my, that sounds unpleasantly warm, and hope you’re all coping OK? The smoke on the other hand is hard, and you have my understanding and sympathy. What do you do? It’s like that here for months on end too during the summer months. And some bad years are feral.
Here’s something to take your mind off the heat: Biggest, coldest blizzard of the season about to hit the alps. One of those white squares in the snow forecast is here (the so called in the article: the small white blobs NW of Melbourne). We’ll see…
Hope you’re feeling better now after some rest and relaxation. Heat exhaustion is hard on the body. It’s easier for a person to warm up, than cool down from my experience, but all the same – the far extremes will win out against us in the end. Of course, enchiladas can only but help!
Whoa! Rabies is not something you want to mess around with, even a tough Dame Avalanche is not immune – and who may, or may not come out on top in a racoon scuffle. Awful to win a bout and then lose. You sent me on a rabbit hole reading about the critters. Tough, smart, agile – similar to humans. I’d have chucked rocks too. The reports suggest that the rabies regimen of shots hurt.
Always fun to look after animals, and then hand them back to the owners. That was a pretty good arrangement because it is hard getting time away from caring for farm animals, of whatever sort. Still, I have no great desire to travel far these days. None, dunno why.
Dude, you upset the entire pecking order by favouring the smaller rooster! 🙂 Nice work, and I too tend to side with the underdog in such circumstances. Still, a collective of chickens is hardly the epitome of democracy. Roosters are a real mixed bag with their demeanour, and the ones which decided it was OK to attack me in the past, made a bad call.
Blue terry hats are useful, much like how towels are useful with space travel. These things are known, by a select few! 🙂 The contact with the hat produced a lovely arcing swish momentum which propelled the miscreants up and through the air to the far side of the enclosure. Cricket bats are useful too in a tight spot, although the chickens would certainly be harmed in that instance. Best to use the appropriate tool for the job don’t you reckon?
Thanks for asking, and the hat is fine, although it requires a wash. There’s a second one exactly the same you know. Saves me having to utilise brain cells to consider what to wear…
Doesn’t it make you wonder why anyone would try and bury the sun? The nearby town has some very nice spots, and in the nineteenth century, the extensive vineyards (the planting of which were encouraged by the government of the day) in nice neat terracing would have looked amazing. It’s impressive that some was retained given the urban sprawl there.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Weather conditions were a tad opposite here today. A bit Antarctic really (at respectable distance away without all the pesky glaciers, hypothermia and having to consume dog meat from the harness team !) On that note, dinner was a vegetarian home made pizza. At least your summer night time weather is pleasant for sleeping. Nights over 70’F are just hard, especially when the humidity is right up there.
Yeah, well, the risk of further destabilising the soil holding up one of two 60,000 pound tanks of water on the side of the hill, was enough to get me into action today. Man, I couldn’t quite shake your words about rocks: ‘everything eventually ends up at the bottom of the mountain’. I was meant to do paid work today, but instead with the unfolding crisis, I headed to the nearest big box hardware store and purchased the few parts required to fix the entire problem.
The fix wasn’t too hard, as I replaced the outlet connector which sets the upper water level limit in the big tanks. The biggest problem was dealing with almost 500 gallons of water which gushed out the hole when I removed the original parts! It was already a cold and damp day today, need it get worse? Probably needed too.
Anyway, I was wondering why this issue wasn’t fixed properly in the first place, and then reality kicks in – it’d been more or less working for 15 years, but was no longer. Still, the situation has yet again proven to me that nobody is going to care more about getting all these systems right and working simply, than me. The join had probably been leaking for a while anyway given the way the water tank had settled slightly off vertical, it’s just that yesterday the leak was feral.
Pine tar does smell quite pleasant. I like eucalyptus oils too, although they’re pretty gnarly cleaning agents, best to use diluted. Clever to have both old-timey soaps available for purchase, and they’d have supplied a nice aroma too.
Ah, you sent me on a rabbit hole as to the difference between a soap and a detergent (we make and use soap), but here goes: A soap a chemical is produced by a Saponification reaction of a base chemical with a fatty acid. Whereas detergents are a much larger class of chemical surfactants. Soap is nicer, but uses some pretty strong alkaline chemicals to make.
I’m hardly surprised by how your lot of units were originally made without a/c machines. When I was a kid or even as a young adult, nobody had a/c in their houses, or insulation for that matter now I consider how things were. It wasn’t that long ago, maybe. 😉 A/c uses very little electricity, heating is much more demanding thus why I wonder about how houses are meant to all switch over to electric hot water systems. A mystery as to how it will all end up.
Doubling the size of the town will surely change the character of the place. It feels a bit small town now, but all things change. Some of the facilities there are pretty good. It’s funny you mention that about flooding, but when we rented there whilst building this place, the road did flood right up to the front door. The road was on an old dry creek bed, and once long ago the estate was a duck farm.
Sooner or later infrastructure gets overwhelmed. There’s an estate built not too far from the base of the mountain range, and I’ve seen that underwater. Hope the drains are good enough. Some years, a lot of rain can fall and run off the mountains.
If it is a flood zone, they might not be able to obtain building insurance, and thus no mortgages.
Oh yeah, an oven will burn plastic for sure. Imagine that clean up job? Stinky smouldering chemicals and their aftermath. Not bad at all. Things are different down here. Annual property rates have a levy for the fire and emergency services, although recently the state goobermint tried to collect a while lot more from rural landowners. EMT (Ambulance in Oz-lish) is a subscription service, and a non member using the service risks facing a super hefty bill. Imagine how much a helicopter emergency flight may cost?
That’s funny about the streets. A friend of mine has a theory that pushing uni education was about keeping unemployment numbers artificially lower.
The comments to the film trailer were really funny, and yes, we all know what happened to Ol’ Yella at the end. A real heart string pulling moment. Someone said something about if it happens: Vengeance will be mine. There’s a lot to unpack there for sure. 🙂
I realise it is not the same dog, but now you’ve mentioned it, I have this vague memory of having seen some episodes of The Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin. Talking about finding talent in odd out of the way places, like battlefields. The dog did the hard yards for that star.
Here is the review. It asks for a sign-in, but I simply hit the ‘Esc’ button on the keyboard and the request disappeared: Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 Review. It’s quite pithy and a bit over 2 minutes.
Yes, the enemy now without. I noticed something about evacuating the embarsey over there.
Oh total poop! What the heck? I hear you about losing the day waiting around for nothing to happen. It’s the old: Hurry up and wait, routine. You’re definitely in bureaucratic limbo. I guess it’s all out of your hands.
Keeping the direct sunlight out does keep the temperature down. We use the bushfire shutters over the double glazed super thick windows in summer for similar reasons. Glass is a very poor insulator, it allows heat energy to pass through in either direction quite well.
There’s always some thing which needs looking into. If everything worked all the time, and well, it’d be a much simpler world, like a whole bunch simpler. We’d probably be busy thinking about where the next meal was coming from – that kind of simple. But until then, lots of stuff will break, or fail, all the time. Maybe I’m cynical about such things… 😉
I don’t know, what I see with that lot you mentioned was that it is far easier to break something, than to build it up in the first place. Smashers, that’s what they act like.
For sure! That sort of guilt is very much an equal opportunity problem, and truthfully, we can’t know everything, or be on top of every aspect of our lives, even with the best of intentions. And there are those who’d use words to beat people around the heads on that front, just because. I once worked for a boss like that, and it took a toll, now I’m more careful. That article started the ol’ brain cogitating deeply, and at the core of the story, there is a lack of recognition that expectations need not always be met, BUT, relationships also involve compromise and negotiations. You read that right, I tend to follow the golden rule of ‘do unto others’, and if I want something, well there has to be some acknowledged give and take. It sounds grubby, but we live in a culture of demands and expectations, when there are quite civilised ways to work out differences, organise priorities and things involving material stuff. It’s not enough to whine, but a lot of people feel that is appropriate in a relationship and it’s their first and only tool. I’m not into that.
Many of the buzz terms in the article baffled me, and yet I’ve heard people using them.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Our high yesterday was 90F (32.22C). Our overnight low was 61F (16.11C). Our forecast high for today is 81F. I saw that article you linked to, about snowfall in your alps. I also saw the article about the guy who shot and killed two police officers, and wounded another. Who has fled into said alps. He’s one of those sovereign citizen nut jobs. And, has survival skills.
Well, quit a surprise when I got up this morning. The forecast has predicted rain, between 8 and 9am. There are a lot of big green blobs on the radar. I think a few drops came down, but I’ll still be watering, tonight.
Well, 500 gallons of water. I guess you can skip your bath, today. 🙂 I shouldn’t make fun of such a serious, and onerous situation. At least it’s taken care of, and it sounds like the tanks are recharged.
The washing machines are constantly breaking down, here, as people keep using powdered detergent or those pods. Even though Little Mary Sunshine mentions in every news letter to only use liquid detergent.
I don’t think they even thought about A/C in the apartments, when they built the place. The hallways and common rooms have A/C. I suppose they thought that would be sufficient.
Ah, by taxes for the fire department, I meant property taxes. Which I figure is the same as your property rates. My friends in Idaho pay $100 a year, for medical helicopter service. When their son-in-law was injured, he had to be flown to Boise. They didn’t have the insurance (or any medical insurance, for that matter). The charges were eye-watering. Drove them to medical bankruptcy, which is no easy thing to pull off, these days. It really doesn’t discharge the debt, but just establishes a payment plan. Though the back and forth reduces the amount of some of the bills. At least, as I understand it.
That was a great review. Thanks for the tip about the Esc key. Worked a charm. There may, or may not be another Twilight movie. I think it’s mostly wishful thinking on the part of the fans. There are actually trailers, floating around out there, but they’re clearly AI fan constructs. Might be some spin-offs.
I finished watching season four of “The Boys,” last night. There will be a fifth and final season. I had one of those, “Is that…” moments. Simon Pegg has a roll, over a couple of seasons.
Yes, I see they’re closing the embassy, and advising any Australian, wandering around that country, to get the heck out.
I was looking through our libraries catalog, last night, of things that have been put on order. A book. “Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It”. (Doctorow, 2025). He’s written a lot of books about computers, so, it might be interesting. There’s even a Wiki-poppia entry for it.
https://w.wiki/8Vad
I suppose “enshitification” is a sibling of crapification. Or at least a kissing cousin. 🙂
Also, a new book coming out from Stephen King’s kid, Joe Hill. “King Sorrow.” I put both books on hold. I’ve read other books by Hill, and they were quit good. Chip off the old block. But, he’s a little more hip and with it, than the old man. 🙂 Lew
Chris:
We’ve had neighbors who had roosters that would crow at any hour of the day or night. No thanks.
That is so scary. A leak is bad enough, repairs being troublesome, but I can’t even comprehend 60,000 pounds sliding down the slope. What does one do then? It’s like an earthquake.
Got you about the engine bays. You should see what a mouse did to Mr. Musty’s insides recently; they can work really fast, too. It could not have been seen with a look inside the engine bay, the scoundrel, and was only discovered in this big overhaul Mr. Musty is getting. At the moment, my son is welding stuff to the bed, which is separated from the truck, because there was rust under there that was getting to where one was not going to be able to open or close the tailgate. In fact, it could have given way during use.
I was working on groundhog remediation today – it is not going to end until he goes into hibernation, which was not for long last year – and was filling in a new spot that he had dug (at least I can spot them right away now) and there was a tiny grey lizard watching me the whole time. He was a Fence Lizard and was 2cm long without his tail, which added another 2cm. He was indeed sitting on a weathered wooden part of the fence, blending in and actively watching for bugs. At one point he tried to catch a fly as big as his head. I could have told him that wouldn’t work. Anyway, it turns out his name is Bert. Funny coincidence . . .
Pam
Hi Pam,
Some roosters lack discernment as to correctly gauging the exact timing of the sunrise. It can be a bit of a problem, and to be honest I’ve wondered whether they were in fact complaining about rat incursions, as distinct from marking the hours of the day? Dunno, but I’ve wondered about that. Many long years ago now, when living in the swanky inner burbs, a neighbour had a rooster. There’s a reason they’re a bad idea in the city. Chickens are fine, roosters, maybe not so much. Had to go around and have a chat about the unfortunate realities of city life and having a rooster only mere feet away from where you’re sleeping is not great. So yeah, no thanks is a great way of summing it all up, sorry to say. If everyone kept roosters, it’d probably be fine.
Pam, the water tank fix up yesterday was like facing one of those little problems where I’ve no idea what might happen. When the 500 gallons of water gushed out, truly I stood back and to the side and just watched the monster water tank for any movement. There would have been no way to stop it from moving once it began – and fortunately it looked stable. But as I stood there keeping an eye on it, I couldn’t really be certain if it was moving, or I was swaying ever so slightly due to the psychic wall of pressure. Ook! 🙂 Still, all fixed now, and that area will begin to dry up. My belief is that the sheer weight of the thing over the many years, has already compacted the clay, but trust me, I’ll keep an eye on it.
If needs be, over summer when it has no water (and thus weighs less), I’ll correct the lean (if possible). But if it’s stable, I’ll just leave it as is. You can’t fix some things, but you can stop them from becoming worse. Also, I should have gotten onto this fix earlier, but just as equally, the plumbers did the wrong thing with their initial works, and then the later dodgy patch-up fix. Blame for this one is directed at all involved, including myself. Still, better to sort it out now, than when there is more urgency to do so.
Far out! There’s always something, isn’t there? Rodents can test even the best systems. Poor Mr Musty having to deal with the indignity of a mousey hard-to-discover incursion.
It’s good that your son is onto that fix-up job, and you may recall that about two years ago the old bright yellow trailer was replaced. On it’s last journey, prior to being scrapped, chunks of structural supports gave way. Fortunately, no big deal, and it hastened the decision. Earlier welding in of new supports could have averted the damage, but you know, how does a person be onto everything? Now I have the time to make such repairs, whereas back then I didn’t. Hope the repairs go well for the venerable steed!
How did you go about filling in the hole which Mr Groundhog made? With rabbit burrows, I have to bring in soil from other parts of the property, so the job is a double nuisance – but also has to be done. Aren’t your Eastern Fence Lizards attractive with their blue stripe? And similar critters here, Skinks, do great work in the garden with insect pests. There’s one over wintering in the greenhouse, the cheeky scamp. Nice and warm in there for reptiles, and yes, I do keep an eye out for snakes, just in case. And do your lizards also drop their tails as a protective mechanism?
Cordial tail wags from the fluffy’s to Bert the lizard!
Had the day off work today, and headed north to pick up some local honey and apples from the cool store. Both excellent produce. It rained a lot today, and the water tank repairs held up nicely. Tomorrow’s weather sounds feral, so a day to spend at home on paid work stuff. Maybe even a slight chance of snow, maybe.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Nice to see that your weather has begun a slight cooling trend. The year is getting on and Monday here will be the first official day of Spring, although your autumn is declared around the equinox next date month, maybe.
Yeah, it’s not good that, and we’d have the shutters up if he was in this area. Probably one of those situations where if identified correctly, shoot first, ask questions later would be given the unofficial ok – at a wild guess. Frankly speaking, it seems stupid to take on city hall even under the best of conditions, just like the old timers used to say. They tend to dominate the monopoly on violence, and err, deep pockets for protracted system nuisances. Actually on that note, a long running case I’d been following was resolved very recently, as in today (apparently): Whistleblower Richard Boyle has ‘suffered’ for years after revealing heavy-handed ATO tactics. Just because he may have been on the moral side of justice, doesn’t not in any way imply that that system would mete out a similar result. The case sends a very strong message to folks considering such actions.
The guy hidden up in the forest up in the north east of the state is probably quite dangerous because he has little left to lose, and may in all likelihood, hunt the trackers. Sun Tzu had something to say about that scenario. A truly dangerous situation, and probably one for the military to handle. Even then, it’s not a risk free proposition.
Oh poop! You missed out on the rain. A few drops doesn’t really cut it, I hear you about that. The forecast here suggests the possibility of snow tomorrow and Saturday morning. We’ll see, but the forecast temperatures seem too high to me for that outcome.
Very funny, and sometimes a lighter note is called for. Gallows humour, or something like that? Hey, when that all water was gushing out of the tank, I stood well back and to the side of the massively heavy behemoth. 🙂 If the ground had shifted under it, there’d be nothing I could do to stop the unfolding disaster. Best to let some things slide right past you and then live to fix them up afterwards. Fortunately, massive drama was not the case – this time. Thus why I made the decision to fix the leaking outflow pipe now, before anything got worse.
I’ll keep an eye on the water tank from now to the end of summer when the clay is likely to shrink slightly. Still, at that hotter time of year, the weight will be less, and the centre of gravity will be lower. It’s been there for fifteen or so years, so it should be fine, maybe. And the thing survived that 5.9 earthquake which rocked the house. Not keen to repeat any of those experiences.
Oh no! Far out, machine empathy is a thing, and misuse of washing machines will only lead to bad outcomes. The silly thing about it all, is that it’s an abuse of the commons with the costs being externalised. It’s also the flip-side story to that link you provided the other day regarding what was it again, weaponised helplessness? Both display a contempt towards the gentle art of compromise. And that really is at the core of both scenarios. Few people get everything they want.
Have you ever noticed building designs taking into account the liveability of the structure as a primary goal? Is it even thought of?
Ah, property taxes are pretty much the same thing as council rates, although the state government does levy a ‘land tax’ for people who own more property than their primary residence (there is no hiding in complicated legal structures either, because a few years ago they instituted look-through provisions to see who the ultimate beneficiary was). And yeah, the annual ambulance subscription is about the same cost as what your friends in Idaho are paying.
That story involving the medical system experience in your country, gives me an attack of the vapours. Don’t you think it is weird that companies can be wound up in liquidation and have all their obligations extinguished, and yet the same does not apply to individuals? I believe student debt down here is exempt from bankruptcy proceedings as well. Probably best not to be involved, with any of that story. The thing with those sorts of payment plans is that if you own nothing, and earn nothing, then how could anything ever be repaid? It’s a perverse incentive to simply drop out.
Hehe! It was pretty witty, and quite pithy to boot. I really loved the comment about the horrendous cgi sparkly vampire baby. Some things you just know will be wrong. Maybe the next instalment of the film franchise will be what happened to bubs? That fan construct trailer for the book which shall remain nameless, you mentioned a long time back, was actually quite attractive to watch. Had a Great Gatsby vibe to it all. Quite art deco visually, although I recall the book was post war which would have looked differently. To be honest, I’d believed the book to have been penned at a later date. Who knew?
The Boys series sounds messed up, but a whole bunch of fun. Why not turn the superhero trope on its head? We all knew they were bad eggs behind closed doors! 😉 Go Simon Pegg! The character Hughie sounds like one of the more morally grounded folks in the entire series.
A few friends are fans of the author Cory Doctorow. I believe he pens fiction as well as the non-fiction work you referred to. Haven’t read the book, but the concept is quite sound. Look at all the administration activities required of an individual these days just to deal with a company / other entity. Far out, you linked to a great list of such annoying tech issues a few months ago. Is there even anything which can be done about the issue?
Go Joe Hill! Just read the fun plot line. Trust academics to raise a denizen of the over world. Clearly the first mistake was befriending the local dealer, I keep saying to people, they’re not your mates, but does anyone listen to me? No. Further mistakes compounded the initial difficulties – as is often the case. I often wonder about the sanity of people who aim to summon up such monsters, it’s probably not good.
You’re not wrong about hip and with it (we all age, sad to say), and one book title was a nod to the band Nirvana, of whom the author may have heard? 🙂 Hey, there’s definitely something in the water in that corner of your country!
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis cont…
What kind of story do you have to tell yourself to visit that area? Significant snow forecast as hunt for alleged Porepunkah gunman continues.
It’s all fun and games until you meet the wrong person… Far out! I thought the above advice would be obvious. One quote alarmed me greatly ‘We’ll be all right.’
It’d be nice to be that certain of yourself and the future, but I lack such competence.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Our high yesterday was 70F (21.11C). Our overnight low was 59F (15C). The forecast high for today is 77F. We had a little more rain, yesterday. I took a look at the garden, and decided I didn’t need to water. The soil was pretty dark. And, we got a heavy dew, this morning. I’ll water a bit earlier, tonight. Nothing looks stressed. You might get a light dusting of snow, but nothing major.
That was an interesting article about the whistle blower. Entities, especially government, really don’t want people looking at what’s going on the inside. Lack of transparency. When the big changeover came here, at the Institution, there was a bit of a splash in the local news. The powers that be were NOT happy.
We see occasional news stories, here, where “The source spoke on a condition of anonymity, to avoid possible retaliation.” Sometimes, the screws are really put to the reporters, to reveal sources. Some have gone to prison rather than reveal their sources. Of course, then there’s a big witch hunt for “leaks.”
We have a guy on the run, in the eastern part of our state, who took to the wilderness.
https://www.npr.org/2025/06/10/nx-s1-5429550/travis-decker-daughters-murder-manhunt-washington
Then there’s that similar situation in New Zealand.
Yes, best be vigilant, when it comes to your water tank.
Our washers and dryers are coin operated. Due to ongoing repair bills, the price was recently raised. To dry is now $1.50. A wash is $2, but there’s also a big machine that costs $3. When it’s working. Still a lot cheaper than a commercial wuashateria.
Yes, what about livability. Of course, I don’t think whoever designed these units, ever thought the inspection rules would get so crazy as to have a three foot clearance, from heat sources. These changes are apparently supposed to enhance our “safety and living conditions.” They sure don’t do much for my comfort and convenience. Oh, well. It’s the cost of getting inexpensive rent.
At 8:30 this morning (luckily, I was up) there was a short blast of the fire alarm system. It repeated, a few times. Apparently, it was a test of the system. Not that they bothered to tell the Inmates, as, they didn’t have to enter our apartments. That comes on Monday, when they test the smoke alarms.
Another part of our ongoing medical nightmare is Long Term Care. Next time I run across an article about that boondoggle, I’ll link to it. You may remember how difficult it was to find an assisted living bed, for Eleanor.
It’s the same here. Student debt cannot be discharged, through bankruptcy. Between that, medical debt and, of course, housing, it’s no wonder so many people are homeless.
Oh, “The Boys” is very messed up. 🙂 Jack Quaid plays Hughie, and he sure has been popping up in a lot of stuff, lately.
Last night I watched a NOVA science documentary, called “Secrets of the Forest.” I got it because the description in the library catalog mentioned Australia. Well, not so much. Just a short section on counting insects in your Bouddi National Park. But, still, it was an interesting film. A lot of places are planting trees, to offset CO2. But they’re more or less, monoculture tree plantations. A young scientist set out to measure the difference between those types of plantations, and intact forest lands. Well, they do soak up a lot more CO2, but it takes a concert of things. There were sections on trees, fungi, insects, soil and the microscopic critters that live there-in, animals and humans.
I ran another load of tomatoes through my dehydrator. Half cherry tomatoes from the garden, and half grape tomatoes that I bought at the yuppie discount store. Those were apparently grown in a greenhouse, in British Columbia. They needed to be washed (as directed on the package), as they had some kind of oily substance on them. Mineral oil?
More interesting Roma tomato observations. You know, Romas are usually kind of torpedo shaped. Mine are pear shaped. And one the night manager gave me from his patch is perfectly round. He has at least two other varieties growing in his patch, and I think there was a bit of pollen swapping.
And, finally, it’s been 20 years since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. So there’s been a lot of articles. Here’s one about a rose (you like roses, don’t you? 🙂 that against all odds, survived.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/27/science/peggy-martin-rose-hurricane-katrina
Some roses are tough as nails. No wonder they’ve been with us for so long. When I was a wee small lad, one of my best friends had an auntie who lived down on the Oregon coast. I was invited along when they went to visit her. She had a very old rose, that was quit an oddity. It had a decidedly green cast. And smelled peppery.
My memory might not be faulty. It was probably a Viridiflora rosa chinensis. Lew
@ Pam,
Chris has a magpie friend named Bert. You have a lizard friend named Bert. Daylight hours where Chris lives are about opposite to your daylight hours. Now I’m scared: are his Bert and your Bert really the same Bert but in different forms? Does Bert ever sleep?
DJSpo
Chris,
UGG! Water leak. Eroding surface beneath the tanks. Repairs immediately required regardless of the weather. I can foresee more rocks needing to be placed near those tanks, too, meaning more work. UGG!
The BIG question, however, is “Did the rain stop falling once 42mm had been received?” That is the perfect number, after all. In an amazing coincidence, the deepest snow on the ground at any one moment in Spokane is…is…is…42 inches. In another amazing coincidence, my height at the time was also 42 inches. People shoveled snow off their sidewalks and made very tall walls. It was like walking through trenches. I felt very tiny at the time.
Averages. Well, yes, I think you hit on the idea. They tell what could be. And isn’t a number still in the “average range” if it is within one standard deviation of the “average”? Hence, Spokane averages about 420mm of rainfall per annum including snowmelt equivalent. Anything between about 370mm and 470mm meets that criteria with the standard deviation. Then again there’s the current 15-day forecast. With average temperatures next Wednesday about 26C, the forecast 37C is well out of the “average plus/minus a standard deviation”. Record heat is what next week will be. UGG. This is the summer that never ends. It is NOT related, however, to the Beach Boys album “Endless Summer”. There is no ocean beach for surfing here. 😉
Agreed, the enchiladas enhanced the other relaxation activities! They have a way of doing that. Wednesday also turned into a relaxation day, although I did have to run some errands for necessary supplies, like coffee. And feed for Dame Avalanche. It was a cloudy and windy day, the air quality suffering as a result of the wind. A lot of napping occurred. It looks as if Wednesday and today (Thursday) will be the relief days from the intense heat, highs being near 28C. Much better than 35C and higher!
I am solidly in the camp that wants to avoid getting bitten by a rabid critter. My old coworker said that the treatment regimen was extremely painful. Best avoided, I reckon.
The small farm I took care of, the owners were good friends. I found it pleasant to be there mid-September through mid-October. Beginning of the fall term at university, weather still pleasant, fresh garden produce, fresh eggs, chickens to watch (and turkeys the second year), and 12 or more acres of pine woods to wander through.
Apparently, domesticated turkeys are as stupid as. I was told that one of my duties, if heavy rains occurred, was to make sure the turkeys were under cover. They tended to get curious about the raindrops hitting the tops of their heads and would look up, exposing their nostrils to the rain. A torrential downpour, I was told, had been known to drown domesticated turkeys. It didn’t rain that year when I was there, however, so I was unable to observe turkeys trying to drown themselves in the rain. I still feel like I missed out on something worthwhile watching. 😉
The large rooster tried to attack me the very first day that I was there and bringing in the chicken feed. I tossed the 110kg unopened bag of feed at him, let out with a spine tingling yell, and proceeded to chase the rooster around the chicken yard for a few minutes. Ever after that, his anger at me was merely glaring in my general direction. The owners laughed at that when I told them.
Then there was their Siamese cat, one of the two indoor cats. It despised me and the feeling was mutual. Every day when I returned from university, the Siamese would poo in their bathtub. Nothing I tried, absolutely nothing, had any effect. This behavior began quickly the second year. However, early in that year’s stay, I was sitting on their patio with their 22-caliber rifle at hand. The indoor cats were out wandering the property. Across a dirt field, I noticed the Siamese cat was stalking something, probably a grasshopper. I aimed about 30cm behind its tail and fired. Hit my target. Fool cat took off running like lightning had hit its backside. Along about 11 pm that night, there was a quiet mewing at the door. I let the Siamese cat back indoors. Never had another issue with it after that. I didn’t tell the owners about that incident. We lost touch about 8 years later.
Another 2 decades later, however, I happened to run into one of the owners. They had divorced a decade earlier. While catching up, I mentioned to her the Siamese cat incident. She laughed and laughed and said, “I hated that cat. It was his and gave me nothing but trouble. I wish you had shot it and left it out for the coyotes! But this was better – it got bested by a human it hated. I always wondered why it started behaving so well that fall when we got back.”
I can guess why some people would try to bury the sun. Some people are just eejits and numpties. They likely get told regularly to put their heads where the sun don’t shine. Not being smart enough to figure that out, they try to dig a hole to bury the sun in. The stubborn hole-diggers end up with an entire community there, as they never quit digging. Those communities are named “Sunbury”.
DJSpo
Hi everyone,
Just a quick update on the possibility of snow… Snow within 35km of five Australian capitals as Antarctic blast arrives.
Nothing yet other than persistent rain, but I thought today felt cold. Brr!
Looks like it may be possible later tonight. 🙂
Hope the weather in your part of the world is not too extreme.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Had another 15mm of rain today, and discovered an entirely new and different leak in the system. Fixed it. In the rain, but of course. The entire episode has got the ol’ brain working though. The problems had been difficult to spot because access to the area was poor – let’s fix that. There are now plans in place to do so (it’s a big job).
DJ, it’s outrageous that the rain did not pause to respect the magic number of 42. I don’t know what to say other than standards must be slipping. You must have been young when that monster snowfall hit, and isn’t it funny how some incidents imprint a strong memory? Out of curiosity, is snowfall in your area lessening in recent years? We’re lucky to get one day of snow per year nowadays, and already some of the fruit trees are beginning to produce blossoms. The plumcott for one, the tree is stupidly early, every year.
Err, no beach in your part of the world. Although I have heard some folks refer to the sandy edges of rivers as ‘the beach’. Surfing is right out.
A person could relax on such a day, only after the coffee stocks had been replenished, or was at least in the process of being so. First things first. 😉 It’s weird, but the big box hardware store has begun selling bulk supplies of dog food kibbles, and they are sold in 20kg bags. Is the wind pushing the smoke in your direction? 28’C is a pretty pleasant otherwise, if the smoke was elsewhere.
If the snow will fall here tonight, it’ll probably be around midnight, but we’ll see.
Ouch! The same treatment is applied for bat bites and/or scratches here. Yes, wise to avoid rabies. We’ve got tiny little insect eating marsupial bats here, and only once have I noticed the larger fruit bats – which I cleared off. Those bats happily alert their friends to fruit opportunities and a colony would eat everything. One of the benefits of the cooler winter weather here is a lack of fruit bats because they don’t like those conditions so mostly avoid the entire area.
Ah, your farm stay would have coincided with the fall harvest period when there is plenty of yummy produce, although depending on how far north or south the land was, October could be a mixed bag on that front. Given your pleasant memories, conditions sounded productive.
Please spare me from domesticated turkeys! 🙂 That’s not good, surely it is an urban myth? Anyway, it’s a tasty meat if not over baked, and I’ve had some examples which are quite dry – not good. When it is cooked well though and retains a bit of moisture, yum! It’s not a meat you see much of down here, roast chicken is far more commonly encountered, even duck is preferred. You may have missed out by not observing such actions first hand.
Wise to display to the miscreant rooster who the boss really is, and it ain’t him is it? That’s language the nuisance would comprehend. To be honest, I was not happy having a rooster in the enclosure anyway, and he was way too rough with the smaller hens. The decision to bring out the knife came down in the end to: Who is producing the eggs? Who is annoying me at night? Chickens can learn to treat me with a grudging respect, but how do I stop the rooster injuring the smaller birds, who he was taking advantage of?
Man, a Siamese cat is generally of a distinguished and noble lineage, which may haughtily ignore the pragmatic realities of your Viking blood. You definitely struck a clash of cultures there, and hey, can you imagine the effort required to break the will of a horse. That’s what horse breaking comes down to. The trust, training and skills which would be required between the horse and rider in the Indian relay horse races must be very deep.
It’s an interesting circumstance with the cat, yeah. With the animals here, I tend to set and enforce limits. But! Like that Siamese cat you mentioned, some folks don’t do so, and the animal then acts as if it is the alpha. That’s a bad thing. The original, but now deceased old Fluff was like that when we got her. She was such a pain of a dog, I wanted to take her back to the shelter. The former owners were irresponsible in the extreme. Anyway, the Editor said no to taking her back, and so we worked on her intensively, which eventually pivoted on a single moment (like you example). The dog realised we meant business, and from that point onwards was the most obedient dog I’d ever encountered. So weird. She’d follow me around all day whilst I was working. Never a hassle, and ruled the rest of the dog pack with an iron paw. Got to sixteen years of age, and then began having serious long and regular seizures, she’d scream from the pain.
Funnily enough, it took a while, but the work accounts teams I ran were fiercely loyal, and I attribute a lot of that to interactions with all the many dogs I’ve had the pleasure of knowing over the years. The main issue I had with the big end of town is that the higher ups enjoyed the stability of the outcomes, but could never reciprocate that arrangement and perpetually sought to meddle and destabilise things. There are only so many fights I can cope with. Years later I came across the concept of ‘hungry ghosts’ and it just made so much sense that they’d be around, but make for problematic leaders.
Very funny! But at the same time I kind of like the outer suburb of Sunbury. It’s got some nice parts to it, and my dirty little secret is that I like the big box hardware store. Hey, what about the suburb of Thornbury? What’s with burying all those thorns? Surely there is a purpose hidden in there, somewhere. 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
What delightful weather you are enjoying, but it sure sounds to me like fall has arrived early for you this year. Early morning dew comes as a surprise after the summer months here to me as well. And it’s enviable too for garden soil to be that dark colour.
That’s my thinking with the possible snow too. A light dusting at best, maybe later tonight or early tomorrow. I mean, it’s 9:30pm and 3’C / 37’F which is too warm for snow. The air pressure has risen slightly over the past few hours. Just took the dogs out to do their ablutions, and ended up quite wet. The rain felt icy enough, but no snow.
Best not to be a whistle-blower in this country is my take on that story. Candidly speaking, the folks who got upset about the actions, like the biz you mentioned, only serve to possibly promote how insecure they are. If they were comfortable about what goes on behind the scenes, why throw the book at such foolishly courageous people? Makes no sense to me, but yeah, not happy is an understatement given the treatment over, I believe, seven years.
Oh yeah, those two problems fall under the same banner. A person has to probably be aware of the consequences, which can be pretty harsh all things considered. I believe that not all crimes are treated equally.
Not a guy to be trifled with in your part of the world, and I’d describe the behaviour as dangerous, yeah. The thing with borderline I observed, is that they’ll turn on you, even if things are going well. It’s in their nature to do so. Best avoided. And who knew there was a similar thing going on over in New Zealand? Apparently they spotted that guy in the past day or so. Also there are kids involved. I’m noticing a pattern.
Thanks, and upon further inspections of the water tank overflow system, I discovered another leak further down the hill and closer to the huge overflow tank. Easily fixed, but had to be done in the rain this morning. All very unpleasant. I had to clear a bit of vegetation away from the latest leak, and are formulating plans to make that entire area more readily accessible. If we’re in that location regularly, we’ll at least notice problems far earlier.
It’s a good option with the coin laundry in your building. Hey, speaking of abuses of the commons, I read about what for me would be a personal nightmare situation: Toilets stop working on Virgin Australia flight from Bali, passenger says crew told him to ‘urinate in bottle’. Man, some things are just wrong, and people wonder why I have no desires to fly. How would OMB work for you in that situation? I’d go the bottle route, but number two’s could be a serious problem.
Well that’s true about the three foot clearance from heating sources. It seems quite an arbitrary decision, but in a high rise apartment block in the big smoke, apparently people had been using the balconies and possibly the a/c compressor unit to store err, combustible items of some sort, and well one thing may allegedly have lead to another… Overcrowding, substandard building contributed to $2m Docklands apartment fire, investigation finds. Always interesting to read what the investigation afterwards discovered.
Well that would give me a fright too. Is there a need to evacuate would be going through my mind. Far out.
There is apparently a shortage of such long term care in this country as well. Bluntly speaking, it’s expensive to provide. It’s such a change because when I was a kid, such places didn’t really exist. People dropped dead where they resided.
It’d be hard to navigate such a situation where you can’t own anything, and neither can you earn much. Sometimes a person needs a fresh start, just because. Probably the best outcome would be to become a house husband in such an instance for a guy. It’s an honest assessment of the situation, because otherwise a person is possibly working afterwards for free. Interestingly, I have some experience with that situation – because of my work background in the business world, in order to be allowed to offer my services to the general public, the professional body set an upper limit of $20k per year on my income (expenses came off that amount) for three years. Talk about allowing the career path change, but putting up significant barriers to doing so. It was a tough time, I’m not mucking around.
We’ve travelled around a bit of the country, but didn’t spend much time up near that Bouddi National Park, or the centre east coast of the continent. It was quite pricey, even back then, although at least we were able to camp a lot. That would be difficult nowadays. Monoculture tree plantations look to me as if they’ll be harvested at some future time when the saw logs are ready to go. A mixture of species is usually more resilient to all sorts of shocks. Oh well.
Nice, but who knows what the oily product on the tomatoes was? A real mystery there.
Pear shaped tomatoes are pretty common down here, although they’re more of the sort that will be grown at home rather than being available to purchase, if that makes sense? You’re sure getting some intriguing tomato variations this year, but how are they working out on the plate, or in the dehyrdator machine?
That’s one impressive rose to have pulled through such an epic disaster. Incidentally the photos of the disaster were staggering, and quite shocking. Whoa! I’ve never seen a rose which looks like that green one. It has the appearance of a bunch of leaves. Interesting. They do readily hybridise.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Our high yesterday was 73F (22.77C). Our overnight low was 61F (16.11C). The forecast high for today is 83F. Prof. Mass had a post about a low, off our coast. I think that’s where our bit of rain came from. We must have caught the outer edge of it’s spin. It doesn’t quit feel like fall, yet. The leaves still haven’t started to turn, and, although we’ve had low overcast in the mornings, no autumn fogs.
There were a couple of news articles, over here, that the fugitives in New Zealand had been spotted.
You know, the story about the original whistle blower didn’t really say what happened to him. See: The Emperor Has No Clothes. 🙂 I think it’s pretty apparent that we have a two tier legal system. Depends on how much money you have.
Another water tank leak? It’s good you spotted it, early. Lush vegetation in an area might indicate a leak.
Henceforth, all air flights will carry porta-potties which can be deployed in emergencies. 🙂 Maybe it was a fat berg. I’d have no problem peeing in a bottle, given how often I do that to apply to the garden. Given a little privacy.
Perhaps the new inspection rules make sense, considering I’m surrounded by morons. 🙂 I’d guess the change came about, because something, somewhere went terribly wrong. They have another long standing rule, that nothing under pressure, can be kept under the sink. Why? Because we have a garbage disposal unit, under there, that might overheat and cause an explosion. They once issued a list of what we couldn’t put down the disposal. After reading it, I wondered what we could put down the disposal. I never use it. But every weekend, I have to run water through it, for a few minutes, to keep it in operating order.
Those limits on income sound really … onerous. Just more gate keeping. The lenocracy in full cry.
What was on the tomatoes might have been paraffin. Or, “tomato tar” which is a naturally occurring substance. Whatever it was, it seemed to wash off easily, in hot water. The tomatoes tasted fine, and dehydrated well.
New Orleans, has a shelf life. An expiration date. It’s basically one big bowl. You might find this article on its pumping stations, and how they fared during Katrina, interesting.
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2025/08/us/hurricane-katrina-new-orleans-anniversary-vis/
I wish I had visited New Orleans. When I was young, and still traveling. And, Savannah, Georgia. Oh, well. Next life. 🙂
I bought gas, yesterday. $4.50 a US gallon. Regular grade. That was with the cash discount of 10%.
More Strum und Drang at the Club. It’s all being played out on Face Plant, which I don’t do, so, I’m getting second hand reports. We had a car show, here, recently. Our old club manager, Mr. Bill was there, and approached by several people to start a new club. So, he sent up a trial ballon on social media. Oh, my. What a firestorm. Someone commented that it was nice when Bill was there, and in the mornings a lot of the old timers would show up for coffee. The current club manager, with no people skills, said she wasn’t interested in the old timers, but only in young people. I guess she doesn’t realize that the old timers, well, that’s where the money is. I’m just laying low and watching the whole show. I might make popcorn. :-). Lew
Chris:
I am truly glad that you stood back and to the side when the water was gushing out. However, that “psychic wall of pressure” is priceless. Thanks!
I have fond memories of that bright yellow trailer. In fact, I still miss it. I never knew anyone else that had one that color.
Well, to fill in the groundhog burrows – I brought soil in from another part of the property . . . And I filled bags with peak rocks, too. The bags I had saved from some composted manure that I had bought. Yes, our lizards very easily lose their tails. I used to blame whatever cat was in residence – until I saw the lizards fighting with each other and chomping on their opponent’s tail. I actually see that quite often now.
Sunbury is a funny name. Surely no-one would hope to bury the sun? As for Thornbury – St. Thorn? There are so many saints buried in the old country; don’t know about the new.
Pam
@ DJSpo:
I hope it’s the same Bert. What could be more interesting?
Pam
@ Pam,
True that. ANd you know something? Nobody has seen your Bert and Chris’s Bert at the same time, have they? So maybe…
DJSpo
Chris,
That’s a tough slog, mate. More rain. Another leak. A dread psychic wall of pressure. All you need now to turn this into a waking nightmare is some snow. Maybe even that rare snowstorm that comes complete with thunder – thunder snow. Yes it exists. We’ve had it here two or three times that I can remember.
I read a book about 45 years ago. It was translated from Russian and was a lot of stories about Russian physics graduate students. One chapter had quotes from many students about their experiences working as research assistants in a lab. The most common complaint was, “All the professor ever wants me to do is to find the leak”. Sounds like you and your water system.
Yeah that deep amount of snow, the 42 inches, I was 8 years old. No snow rakes back then. Dad had to shovel snow off of the roof to keep the sheer weight of snow from collapsing the roof. The berms of snow in the front of the house were extremely tall. The tops of the main room’s large windows were barely visible above the berms. It was possible for tiny me at age 8 to stand on the berm and touch the roof.
Interestingly, that winter’s total snow fall was an inch or so below the record back then. The winter that shattered the old record, the 2008-2009 winter of 111 inches? The total snow depth never got above 36 inches, even after the single storm that dropped 27 inches. Clearing that much snow from the walks and driveway was brutal.
Winter snowfall totals have always varied. The most recent winter sported one of the smallest snowfall totals in the lowlands and town that I can remember. Going back to averages and standard deviations. “Average” is about 44 inches per season. I call anything between about 30 inches and 60 inches “normal”. Our snowfall amounts are mostly keeping in that range the past 15 years. Some years have been under 30 inches, some more than 60 inches, but by and large, not a lot of difference yet.
However, there is one big thing I’ve noticed. The winters are warmer than in the past. As late as 1996, temperatures between -10F and -20F occurred often enough that they were rare. This past winter was the first one since maybe January 2008 that had temperatures even nearing -10F.
Ha! I surfed on a river once. No sandy beach, either, twas all rocks. There were about 6 canoes in our group floating down the St. Joe River in Idaho. We found an oddly shaped piece of plywood with a hole at one end, begging for a rope to be threaded through it. So we did that and had several guys holding the rope in some rapids. They were upstream, and one at a time we could stand on the wood and try to surf the whitewater. It was fun.
We’ve had smoky/hazy air for about a week now. Air quality remains in the “moderate” range, although there have been a couple days when my eyes were burning when walking Dame Avalanche. The heat wave that just started today is supposed to trap whatever smoke drifts into the area, so I expect the air quality will slowly worsen until another storm system blows through. The smoke this year actually has been mild compared with some past seasons.
Yes, bat bites get the rabies shot regimen here also. Bats are notorious carriers of rabies.
It’s easy to cook turkey dry. I had good teachers and have been lucky when roasting turkey. Fairs and other large events often sell turkey legs. Big turkey legs. Darn near a meal in itself. And tasty.
I’ve been around a rooster that gets noisy before first light. All I can say is “fresh rooster sounds good for dinner”, but since it wasn’t my rooster…
People that are that good with horses amaze me. The Princess grew up around horses and did a lot of riding. Her youngest brother has helped on some of the relay teams. It’s a gift. Some folks speak horse. I speak dog.
Isn’t it wonderful when you can see that everything makes sense to the dog? It really is like a switch got flipped on, isn’t it? It takes a lot of patience and acceptance, too. I can’t even imagine what it takes with a horse.
Okay, Thornbury? Vikings were everywhere. Thornbury is a corruption of Thorin’s Barrow, where some Viking named Thorin had been buried in the far past. Intermarriage with the locals kept the name alive, even if nobody remembers that Vikings were ever there. Thorin’s Barrow… Thorn Barrow…Thornbury. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Oh yeah, and glad to hear that you enjoyed the word-play tension of the pivotal moment when all was uncertain with the flow of psychic potentialities! 🙂 Was this ‘ere monster chunk of plastic and sloshy water going to create a genuinely massive crisis? Candidly, I was relieved that no such thing happened.
For your information, the bright yellow trailer enjoyed positive comments where ever it went. Sadly the steel worm ate all of the important bits, but! on the other hand the expensive four wheel drive low centre of gravity mower did not fall through the broken bits en route to be serviced (long ago) on the trailers final journey. And truly, I’m embarrassed to admit that I have no idea when and where the chunks of trailer dropped away from the structure. Never found them. Not my usual style, but the mower is quite heavy.
The replacement shiny galvanised trailer appears quite well constructed, and is now stored out of the rain. I can learn.
Ah, many thanks as I’d wondered about the practicalities as to how the groundhog holes were filled. Alas, rocks are useful and peak rocks is a sad moment in every homesteaders life. Already there are plans to smoosh up some boulders to delay the awful moment when there are no more rocks for projects. Hope Mr Groundhog respects your efforts? Have there been any new incursions of late?
I’ve not observed that with the reptile tails, but will keep a sharp eye out to see if the same thing happens here. Actually the little reptiles are considered food for larger reptiles, and so such things go. At least they can regrow the missing tail.
OK, you got me, who is St. Thorn? Couldn’t find any reference, except an obscure link to St. Stephen, who paid a high price, but distributed charity more even handedly than other sects, particularly to widows, and thus upset the entire apple cart which probably thrived on exploitation. Stoned to death for the effort, apparently. Such things happened, few saints are buried down here. Far out, our military coup in early history was largely about a dispute over rum. Hardly the stuff of goodly works. Tea disputes were much more civilised. 😉
Hey, there was a tiny bit of snow this morning. A few flurries, and then it was all over. It was quite cold though at 34’F this morning. Brr!
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Ha! Thanks for the laughs, and there was snow this morning, it was just very brief and perfunctory. Mind you, the 1’C morning felt very brisk. Next Saturday the forecast suggests 21’C, and so the climate shifts… A couple of decades ago there used to be an average of 10 snow days per year.
Never experienced a thundersnow storm, but it sounds a bit err, electrifying. Sorry for the dodgy pun, because it’s a serious thing that type of storm.
Testing for leaks in a fluid system is a nightmare. Dunno about you, but I always had the impression that the systems are initially installed with the idea: Let’s pretend that it all works. To be honest, I’ve observed a few folks stopping at that point. A system based on gases requires different leak checking devices. On that note, with the LPG gas bottles I always dab a bit of liquid soap on the join, and then spray with water. If there is a leak, bubbles will form. Easy. I’m sure you’ve got your own tests for such leaks?
Whoa! That’s a lot of snow, and the weight on the roof would be a serious problem. Presumably there are roof collapses in your country occasionally from such extreme weather? I’d not know how to cope with 42″ of snow, because I get the impression that such volumes wouldn’t melt by the afternoon! Do you recall how long it took for the majority of that monster dump to melt away?
111 inches of snow would boggle my mind. Did you know that that particular year was a very dry one down here. The fires in early 2009 were the worst for loss of life. This mountain range dodged that incident, just, due to a wind change.
Good to hear that the recent snow season was within the expected range. It’s been dry-ish this year, but again, rainfall is easily within the expected range. And that’s it, winters are warmer here as well. Hashtag, many different varieties of citrus trees growing… Thirty years ago that was not considered possible, now it is.
That’s genius with the use of the chunk of plywood. And you have skills to have ridden the wild rapids, albeit without moving. And that’s really attractive, The Saint Joe River. Didn’t see a single photo I didn’t like. Do you get up that way much nowadays?
Oh yeah, the acrid stink of wood burned at low temperatures – which is what you get in a wildfire (mostly) – is no good at all. And yes, my eyes get scratchy too. Hope you’re all doing OK with that and the combined heat. Have you got the air purifier going?
What the whole turkey leg? Far out, that’s a big meal. 🙂 When I was a kid, some Friday nights would be a trip to the fish and chip shop and grab a take away quarter-chicken-and-chips meal. Sounds like a lot of roast chicken, but wasn’t really. The birds were pretty small, and tasty. I was particularly fond of the drumstick, but it was luck of the draw and a person could easily end up with a wing, which is a bit bony. About the only time we’d eat out.
🙂 I hear you about that and have nothing but respect for people with those skills. I used to work with a lovely lady who lived up this way (just a bit north of the mountain range) and kept horses on a 100+ acre farm. We got along quite well. Like you, I speak dog, and dogs speak human. I feel uncomfortable around really large animals like cattle and horses, dunno why.
It is wonderful when the link between a dog and human gets established. Lately I’ve been training the canines with softer commands, and they seem to respond pretty well to that, although occasionally their minds wander and need to be brought back. A juicy forest stink can be distracting, I guess. Not my cup of tea, but then dogs exist in a different world on that front.
Oh my! The Hobbit… But of course, Professor Tolkien would have no doubts read the original Viking story, probably in the language in which it was penned. Thanks!
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Professor Mass’s articles were both interesting, and I’d not heard of your monsoon previously. And the decrease in fire acreage, despite the warmer and drier summer is a good outcome. However, one wonders whether the same conditions have reduced animal feeds on non-irrigated land? Probably has. You’ll probably get some morning fogs next month, which isn’t at all far away.
Man, it was cold here this morning. 34’F and there was a little bit of snow, briefly. I reckon there was simply too much wind for heaps of snow to fall and settle. The trees were blowing around, and the council had a clean-up crew working in the area clearing downed trees off the roads. Ran the wood heater for most of the day, but also went into the big smoke to have lunch with friends. A lovely, but chilly day.
Trees down and building damage after Victoria lashed by strong winds and showers overnight
Of course, presumably the Emperor cracked the sads, and the young bloke with the keen eye towards reality over pretense, had to flee for his life. 🙂 It’s one of those systems which costs a lot of mad cash to navigate. I used to work for a wealthy bloke who had folks from that profession on call. It was an instructive experience as to how things can roll.
Man, I so hear you about that, and if I had to go and that was the only option, well, bottle it would be. You’d hope nobody had a stomach bug, but that could be bagged, I guess. Yuk. I’ve been on some ferries in rough waters where going to the toilet was a no-go proposition due to the err, usage. People who clean up such messes deserve special hazard pay-rates. To be honest, I wondered if someone had stuffed something down the toilet drain pipes like a nappy… I like that about the fat-berg, and that would be the ultimate horror to clean up mid flight. Is there a plumber on board? It was a bit of a trope that old: Is there a doctor on board?
Man, you’re only ever as good as the weakest link. We exist within the vast panorama of the human condition, and just hope nobody does anything too stupid to put all others at risk. It happens though. Dinosaur park, kid stops and cracks the sads about fleeing too fast – what could possibly go wrong? Just a random example there.
Ah, the kitchen sink munching machine that ate the compost inputs. I see, I’ve only ever encountered one of those machines once or twice, and did wonder how the cutting blades were kept sharp and the internals clean. Sorry, it’s a personal failing to wonder how these things work… 🙂 I’d be slightly worried about the fingers. Hopefully nobody misread the instructions and tried to munch up a pressurised can of something? Wise to attend to the thing once per week – it’s in a harsh environment.
Yup. And because the Editor worked in that area, no such income restrictions applied to her. It was all very weird and seemed possibly more than a little bit like a protection racket.
Interesting about the wax on the tomatoes, and I’d just not ever seen that. Hmm. Although, occasionally, purchased apples can have a waxy coating. The ones I get from the cool store don’t have that, and they’re as good as can be expected for so many months after the harvest.
Thanks for the article, and below sea level is not good. Some years the water collects in such places. Look at Lake Eyre in the outback this year. I must say, the weather warnings there lived up to the reality – they pulled no punches. The system was lucky enough to have had its own dedicated power source.
Whoa! That’s quite expensive for gas compared to what you usually pay.
🙂 Nice one to dodge that storm. Let the dust settle, there’s no upside to getting involved, although I find it to be odd that ‘the old timers’ would be singled out. Hardly what I’d describe as welcoming. Strange times.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Our high yesterday was 73F (22.77C). Our overnight low was 52F (11.11C.) The forecast high for today is 77F. By mid-week, we’ll be bumping up against 90F.
That was quit a storm your state had. The price of firewood will drop 🙂 . Any trees come down at your place, that you’re aware of? The pictures of the snow, up in your alps … well, that’s a proper snow.
I read the sidebar article, about the guy who’s “on the lamb” in that area. It mentioned that there were a lot of old mines, up in that area. And that they are quit toasty warm. It’s going to take a lot to pry him out.
I saw an article about a whistleblower, at our Social Security Administration, last night. That’s the program that I’ve paid into, all my working life. And, it’s the largest check I get every month.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/29/politics/social-security-whistleblower-resigns-involuntarily
One thing I found interesting about the article is that he was assigned to that position, by the current administration. So, must have been vetted for “loyalty.” But apparently, he’s had second thoughts (and, he’s not the only one,) and has decided he didn’t want to be thrown under the bus. 🙂
While in Seattle, I worked for a janitorial company, for little over a year. We did mostly small neighborhood businesses. Beauty shops, small offices. I think the largest things we tackled were a car dealership and a Safeway store. Back when Safeway stores were of modest size. 🙂 But every Saturday night, between close of business and Sunday morning opening, we had 5 or 6 neighborhood taverns to do. Many a time there was “sick” to clean out of men’s urinals. But, in a way, we did get hazard pay. Any money we found was ours to keep. And there was always a bit. Behind the bar … in the booths.
Yes, who knows what might happen here, where the old dears run all the way from entirely daft, to fairly sharp. There’s one woman down the hall from me, whose relatives show up twice a day to make sure she’s taken her pills. Not exactly compos mentis.
Leave it to the Dutch. They’ve been doing quit a bit with recycling wind generators. I wouldn’t mind living in one of those little housing units.
https://www.cnn.com/style/wind-turbine-blade-made-tiny-home-hnk-spc
I wondered about the Editor’s income, during that three year period. But thought it best to be discreet.
I’m not too bothered by the gas prices. I can usually get by on a fill-up, for a month. Or more.
I was looking through the library catalog last night, and discovered they’ve ordered all the “Peabody and Sherman” episodes from the “Rocky and Bullwinkle” show. You remember. The way-back machine. You know, when I think about it, there was a lot of mildly subversive stuff on offer, back then. “Crusader Rabbit,” “Mr. Magoo,” etc..
I did laundry last night (one machine was down), and besides the usual, also washed the blanket and throw, from the bed. As I’m about to toss H in the tub. Little does she know … 🙂 I’ll probably take her to the groomer, late in the week.
I loaded up the dehydrator, with tomatoes, this morning. One rack of cherry tomatoes from the garden, and the rest the balance of the grape tomatoes. I had to fill in the last rack with one Roma tomato, from the store.
I’m still poking at the book on Australian archaeology. I’m deep into the chapter on rock art. Paintings. It’s pretty interesting. Lew
Chris:
As unsettling as it must have been to you to lose parts of the Yellow Trailer enroute, it is a great comedy of errors, bits dropping off here and there, hopefully not causing too much roadway havoc.
I spent a delightful morning today helping my son bolt back on the bed of Mr. Musty the Toyota pickup. I certainly enjoy helping on these vehicle projects, though not a little of it is working with my son. And Mr. Musty also now wears a camper shell for protecting the tools that he carries. We have had that shell (was made for his year and model, same color even) stored away for years and I had mostly forgotten about it.
There have been no more groundhog incursions. It only took me almost 6 months to – so far – block him. However, I do now seem to have a bunny rabbit . . . I’d get a Chinese rabbit discourager like my neighbor, but it doesn’t seem to be working for her.
Gosh, I’m sorry to send you down that rabbit (blast him) hole. I made up St. Thorn. I have come across so many “burys” involving so many saints, that, well, you never know. Or possibly King Thorn? I like DJSpo’s Thorin’s Barrow.
Snow – what fun! A couple of days ago, when heading into town on our 2-lane highway, I saw an electric sign from the county that said: “Tractors and pickups for snow removal”, with a phone number. I’ve never seen them advertise that way before. I am, however, glad that they are looking ahead.
Pam
@ DJSpo:
I call that definite evidence that you have so cleverly come up with. Indeed, no-one has ever seen the two Berts together. We’re getting closer to solving this mystery – maybe we have!
Thorin’s Barrow – I like your theory and you should stick to it.
You have solved another mystery! So, how’s Dr. Watson?
Pam
Hi Pam,
It was indeed a comedy of errors, and glad that the yellow trailer made it back home that day, with it’s contents, minus a few important chunks.
Always nice to work together, hopefully in harmony. The camper shell is a great idea, and those things are expensive nowadays. What’s the one you put on made of fibreglass or sheet metal? Nice to clean up some items hidden around the place, and put them to good work.
Ha! Is that code word for a ferret? Very amusing. 🙂 Rabbits are a tough critter and they’re wily to boot. Good luck, and ensuring they have no safe home is probably the best long term solution I’ve found with them. Backfilled a rabbit hole today, although I don’t believe it is used, although I’ll check on that tomorrow morning.
St. Thorn sounds like a great saint, if of dodgy origins. Now what could he be the patron saint of? Cats and dogs won’t enjoy thorns, but squirrels, maybe. What about the patron saint of squirrels?
Thorin’s barrow was a very witty reference, yes. 🙂
A little bit of snow, a tiny bit in fact. It fell from the sky and made a wonderful show, and yet not enough fell to settle. Photo to come…
Cheers and better get writing.
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Interesting that next week is pushing back up to 90’F. That’s kind of what happened down here earlier in the year, it got warmer instead of cooler as the season progressed towards fall. All very strange.
Folks in rural areas certainly make use of fallen trees and branches for firewood, but the city folks, dunno. A lot of those get chipped up and used as mulches for council gardens. Probably not a bad idea. I was always mildly baffled that some of the larger parks didn’t utilise the resource of recycled waste water. Although people are very indiscriminate with the stuff that they drop down the flusher.
No trees down here, and yes the higher regions of the state enjoyed a solid dump of snow. Thus why the guy was so excited to head into the mountains despite the risk of the gunman on the loose.
It is possible that guy is going to be something of a nuisance for quite a while to come. Also, there is the possibility that he offed himself in one of those mines and it would be almost impossible to find the body.
Given that level of alleged responsibility, I’d have resigned as well. No point possibly being blamed for something you have no control over, although that happens. It’s all a bit like herding cats, as the old timers used to say. Sometimes there are no winning hands, except walking away from the game. That system has some err, unfunded liabilities, from what I’ve read. Hard to know what it all means.
Are they making those stores, warehouse sized nowadays? That seems to be the trend down here as well. I noticed that in a nearby town, the original supermarket car park seems less full nowadays since the big warehouse supermarket opened. People can be a bit careless with cash, yeah. Finders keepers in that instance is probably a fair and reasonable rule. Such work provides an interesting insight into the human condition.
The tiny home looked pretty solid and well thought out. It’d be quite weatherproof I’d imagine. Man, I don’t need much housing space either, although I do like a big garden. The turbine blades seem pretty wasteful, and probably should be burnt off for their energy.
There was none, we used the time instead to construct the house ourselves. One must be organised, and work within the systems, no matter how weird they may be.
We use less petrol all the time now. The mechanic asked me why I wasn’t driving the Dirt rat Suzuki Jimny as much as the maintenance schedule suggested, like that was a bad thing.
Oh yes, I remember those cartoons, and enjoyed them thoroughly. Hope Peabody takes you on some fun historic journeys in the way back machine. Never heard of Crusader Rabbit, but who could forget Mr Magoo? Even as a kid I knew that the Rocky and Bullwinkle show was a bit off, but loved it. Fractured Fairy-tales was fun too.
Hope H wasn’t too surprised by the dunking into the tub? Still, canines must be stoic about such things.
Yum! I’ll bet the apartment smelled wonderfully of tomatoes? I quite enjoy the aroma of dehydrating tomatoes, and best to do that work before it hits 90’F. 🙂
The best cave paintings are up north of the continent. I remember seeing heaps way high up above the flood line on the Katherine River gorge. What does the book recommend?
Cheers and better get writing.
Chris
Yo, Chris – Our high yesterday was 73F (22.77C). Our overnight low was 59F (15C). Our forecast high for today is 76F. It’s overcast, this morning. I think it’s feeling cooler, at night and in the mornings. Perhaps because of the longer nights and shorter days.
The guy who killed his three daughters? They found a body, but it turned out to be a rando overdose victim. They also found bones, but are testing them to see if they are animal, or human. If human, they’ll test to see if they’re his.
Safeways seem to be getting bigger and bigger. Last time I was in the one in Centralia it seemed oddly oversized for the stuff on the shelves. Very high ceilings, which didn’t help. I think the Winco has really impacted the other grocery stores, in town. The yuppie discount store isn’t near so busy, as it used to be. The “Store of Walls” is a super store, but the end with the groceries parking lot, isn’t near so full as in past. I got gas across from the independent grocer, in Centralia, and its lot seemed pretty thin.
I thought about “Fractured Fairytales.” I wondered if they might put out a collection of those. When I picked up a couple of DVDs at the library yesterday, I was complaining about how changes to the courier routes, seemed to add an extra day or two to stuff in transit. I was talking about just between the service center and Chehalis, but she thought I was talking about them getting materials from whatever source. She made the comment that they had recently changed from one wholesaler to another, for books and DVDs, and that things were sorting themselves out on that front. In other words, stuff they order takes longer to arrive to be processed.
Oh, H seemed to take to her bath, ok. Getting her combed out though. She’ll only put up with so much of my fussing. I’ll probably take her in for a trim, either late this week or the next. I’ve started using a shampoo on her, that is really good. She hasn’t had a mat since I switched over. Pricey, though.
The tomatoes in the dryer make my apartment smell like I’m baking pizza.
The Australian archaeology book really isn’t much of a travel book. More the history of archaeology in Australia. And how interpretation of finds changes over time. Places are often mentioned, but, of course, I don’t have a clue as to where they are. Occasionally, they mention a state, which gives me more of an idea.
I’m reading a collection of essays by the guy who wrote “Empire Falls.” “Life and Art” (Russo, 2025). I guess you could say it’s his pandemic collection. 🙂 There’s a lot about his life (boy, was his family messed up), and other biographical tales. I’m finding it engrossing, and, of course, well written.
I see you’ve had quit a bit of excitement in Sydney and Melbourne, this weekend. We live in interesting times. Not that that’s necessarily a good thing. Lew