Five years ago, and mere weeks before the first of the many lock downs due to the health subject which dares not be named, two 12 week old Kelpie dogs came into our lives. A local farmer was selling these two as the rejects from the litter. We bought them both. One had floppy ears, wonky eyes and an air of mischief, whilst the other was more traditional looking, but overly timid. Their personalities were hard wired at that time, and haven’t changed.
The much larger two year old Bull-Arab dog, Ollie, thought the pups were the best thing ever. He immediately took them under his wing acting as their protector and overall guide as how to be a proper member of the fluffy collective. The big dog was really gentle with them, even when the pin sharp puppy teeth gripped his jowls and hung off them with their full weight. Probably stretched his facial features, thus why he drools nowadays.
It’s hard to know where the five years since then have gone. The two Kelpie’s have all grown up, and they still love their big fluffy mascot, Ollie.
Part of the gentle art of learning with the two dogs, is making mistakes. A human in that pack merely hopes that the mistakes aren’t of the permanent variety. About three years ago, the two youngsters sampled some choice wombat or wallaby poop way down near to the forest edge. It had been a very wet year, and the weather had shifted from summer warmth to the more humid and cooler winter climate. Mushrooms were prolific. The marsupials have been on the continent so long that the fruiting fungi are a source of feed. Dogs and humans haven’t been on the land for all that long, and so all fungi should be treated with deep suspicion, mostly because they’re probably highly toxic and can be fatal if ingested.
Well, the hapless dogs should have known better, and they foolishly consumed the tainted poop. Hopes were dashed upon the shores of a harsh reality. Both canines had a really bad trip. Ruby, her of the floppy ears, ran off into the forest and headed about 500m downhill towards the beautiful fern lined creek. Fortunately, she barked the entire way, so we could at least follow her trail. Upon discovering the wonky brained dog in the creek, she was running backwards and forwards erratically between two rocks. It was all very unusual behaviour and was termed: Brain lock. Not sure whether that is proper scientific nomenclature. Who cares? A harsh command broke the spell, and woozily she was walked all the way back up hill again. Doesn’t seem to have been any permanent damage, and from that point onwards she at least avoids such tainted scat.
Dame Plum the Kelpie, well, she’s a touch more adventurous in her sampling of marsupial back-end wastes. Years ago, the dog began to randomly have seizures. The veterinarian advised us to keep a log of when, where and how long the seizures occurred. Based on the collected data, a pattern soon emerged. The episodes took place at the forest edge when mushroom season was at its peak.
Both dogs nowadays have curtailed freedoms. When near to the forest edge I keep them constantly on the move. They’re too busy running around to sample scats. All very sensible responses to the issue. However, it has been hard not to notice that the mushrooms were particularly prolific near to the old loggers mess. Hmm. The crusty brain kicked into gear, and it soon became obvious that with less mess comprising of old trees, stumps etc. on the ground in that area, there’d be less mushrooms. Fungi eats plant cellulose. It really is that simple.
So, three years ago, we began the slow process of cleaning up the mess of logs and stumps which the forestry dudes discarded at the conclusion of their salvage operations. At a guess, the saw log recovery work began soon after the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires. That would have only run for a few years afterwards as burnt hardwood logs are only good for milling purposes within about five years following on from a fire. Before that, the area had been logged between 1860 before ceasing around 1960, so that lot left some mess too.
It was a lot of mess to deal with, but that also originally kept the price for the property low. People may have been scared off seeing that horror show. Probably were. Unfortunately, we’re made of sterner stuff, or maybe we just had no idea and were naive? Dunno. Whatever. So yeah, three years ago, each winter season we began cutting up the logs, removing the many upside down discarded tree stumps, plus who can forget the ‘Meg’ enormously hard tree ends? What could be recovered for firewood was, whilst the rest was burnt off.
The job is mostly done now. The work was done in the winter months for very good reasons, and I for one am glad to have not been bitten during the process by an annoyed third-deadliest-on-the planet snake hiding in all that mess. They’re easily annoyed, those reptiles, possibly because they were until only recent times holding second place for that title. Some researcher upset the boat by discovering a slightly deadlier variety in a remote part of central Australia.
Snakes and rabbits go hand in hand down here, and there were also a goodly number of rabbit burrows which I’ve caved in and sealed over. All top stuff. Plus we recovered a huge quantity of rock for various projects. But more importantly, the area looks nice nowadays.
Mind you, it will be good to be getting on to other projects now. Quietly speaking, the effort has been physically challenging at times, whilst pushing many of the machines to their limits. The chainsaw in particular has just destroyed so many bars and chains over the years on this job – the timber being super dirty. The other day, the folks I purchase the machinery consumables from, phoned me up to ask if I wanted a trade account with them. Clearly this work has not been cheap, although I doubt we’ve spent over a thousand dollars on such stuff during the three years, but it would probably be very close to that number. A bloke with an excavator would have done the work much faster, but the cost would have been way higher. And during wet times, like after this weeks very stormy weather, an excavator wouldn’t have had any traction in that area. Best to do the work slowly, and clean up afterwards.
And the dogs, well, they’re doing fine and (touch wood) have not had any further strangeness since we comprehended the root cause of the mischief. Yup, mushrooms, best not to mess around with.
This week’s video is a montage of photos from the clean-up work over the past three years:
The only dry days this week were Monday and Sunday, and those were spent on cleaning up the loggers mess. A massive, but flat old log was cut up and burnt off. The timber was quite dirty which has been the case in this particular area, and so has required lots of chainsaw sharpening.
The bonfire was put out by the heavy rain from Tuesday morning onwards. But before then, it mostly burnt through all of the logs and stumps.
At the opposite end of the week, Sunday, I tackled another upside down tree stump. This one was weird because a large and very much alive tree, had wrapped it’s root systems around the stump. The best I could achieve was cutting off all of the extraneous stump arms and making it less noticeable. Looks like one of those creepy Aliens from the film franchise of the same name…
A large pile of loggers mess now awaits to be burned off. It was as much as I could do today to wind up the clean-up project. It’s not perfect, but it’s a damn sight better than it was.
The rest of the week was really wet and cold. A big storm swept up from that frozen continent of Antarctica and dumped a lot of rain. Heavy rainfall is a good time to head outdoors and check how the water and drainage systems are working. That was when I discovered that an overflow on one of the massive house water tanks was leaking. Water was sliding down the side of the tank where it flowed into the ground.
Just one of the water tanks weighs in when full at 25,000kg / 55,000 pound. It’s a plastic behemoth, and there are two of them there! When the plumbers installed the water pipes and power connection for the pump many long years ago, they excavated the trench along the downhill side of one of the water tanks. A better idea would have been to dig outwards from the tank, but that didn’t happen. And of course, with a deep trench along the downhill side of a full tank, the soil subsided. Since then the tank has been slightly off vertical and now leans downhill. It has survived a 5.9 earthquake unscathed, so it’s probably stable, maybe. But it’s not ideal either and reduces room for future unexpected issues.
Unfortunately, the leaking water just happened to be oozing down the tank side and entering the ground at the most downhill point. Again, not a great situation and nobody ever wants to see or experience such a large mass rolling down the hill.
The connection was sub-optimal, to put it mildly. The outlet ring wasn’t installed flat against the surface of the tank, and silicone sealant was used to fill the gap. This wondrous product does not adhere to Polyurethane. Not much sticks to that plastic. The best thing to do in this instance (in between breaks in the rain) was to remove the tank fitting and pipe.
Unfortunately, the overflow pipe for some weird reason, was angled uphill, and this artificially increased the amount of water held inside both tanks (they’re linked). So when I removed the fitting, I reckon about 2,000L / 500 gallons of cold water (it’s winter here), immediately gushed out. In between watching the water tank to see if it shifted position or increased it’s lean, I rapidly dug trenches to get rid of all that water as quickly as possible. A tense moment for sure!
The weather Gods must have smiled upon me for the rain held off for a while. Blue skies even provided some nice sunshine. Whilst up on a ladder, I cleaned off any old silicone sealant from the plastic tank surface using a sharp wood chisel.
A new fitting was then installed flush which sat flush with the tank surface. A pipe was connected up, and then the rain began again. Talk about just in time.
And whilst out in the rain observing the fix another leak was found further down the hill. An o-ring on an inspection cap in the pipe had failed. Water was again oozing out. This time it was less problematic because the cap could be replaced in mere moments. The new variety of caps have a better o-ring seal design than this much older one.
No wonder the large house overflow water tank had been slow to re-fill. Oh well. A lot of vegetation had grown in that area, so the plan is to remove the lot and put in a proper path. If things can be observed, failures will be corrected in a more timely fashion in future.
On Saturday morning we received a light dusting of snow. The storm was very brief and soon over. Still, it looked nice.
The heavy rains this week have brought the ferns to life:
The very first fruit tree has blossomed for the spring. The Plumcott (Plum-Apricot hybrid) flowers so early each year, that it has never before produced any fruit. Usually a late frost, or a lack of pollinators seals that fate. The tree is too large to relocate.
Onto the flowers:
The temperature outside now at about 11am is 10’C (50’F). So far for this year there has been 547.2mm (21.5 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 481.4mm (18.9 inches)
Comments
45 responses to “Little Devils”
Yo, Chris – My dog (or, am I her human?) thinks rabbit poop is doggie treats. Luckily, she seems not to have picked up any worms. Before I realized what was going on, she did spend a couple of days sort of lethargic and under the weather. Too rich for her diet?
So, you yell “chickens” at your dogs and they get the zoomies. There must be a story, there.
Well, the loggers mess is at an end. What an ordeal. What an epic. But it really underlines the importance of keeping the ol’ homestead neat and tidy, due to brush fire threat. The video photo montage was quit effective.
And, as if you needed water tank leaks, on top of all the forest clearance work. Those o-rings. Brought down the Challenger space craft.
That was interesting that the saw supply solicited a trade account from you. Someone from the Lenocracy might show up, to see if you’ve launched a clandestine logging operation. 🙂
Snow coming down really is so pretty. I think it’s better than fireworks. Best viewed from inside, where you can stay all warm and toasty.
Snow Drops and Daffodils. Sure signs that spring is right around the corner. Lew
Hi Lewis,
Definitely you are H’s human, and always the canine has control, sometimes, maybe. Look, it’s complicated… 🙂 Best of luck and if you work it all out, please do let me know?
The dog obedience school area has rabbits at night, and the poop morsels can be somewhat distracting for the fluffs at work during their training sessions. But yeah, such treats are probably too rich for H’s diet, and you know, as a responsible human (and I count myself in that basket) one must not randomly change said pooches diet. Technically, what this means is that H would believe it to be your fault if worms were the outcome! 🙂 Certainly Dame Plum gave me that impression after the months long pogrom against the rats, and shared the nuisance. As a little unsolicited hint, I chuck in some blitzed pepitas into their feed semi-regularly as a possible parasitical curative.
There’s always a story. So I have it on good authority that dogs can learn a vocabulary of around thirty words. And I was told to make those count, which is an ominous instruction don’t you reckon? The command, ‘Chickens’, instructs the two dogs to run towards the chicken enclosure at full speed and then stop. It’s a nice way to give them a goal which is a favoured destination for the Kelpies.
Thanks, and I appreciate your words. Today I burned off the two piles of loggers mess generated yesterday, but also added more stuff to them. I’ll still have to head downhill in a little while and push it all together, in the dark. Ollie will accompany me, and at such moments I’m grateful that we have no bears in this country. Far out! At night, I’d head down to the forest edge with an authoritative rifle if that was the case! That’s it for that work for this winter season.
The Editor cut out a lot of Echiums from the garden beds near to that large water tank today, and brought them down to the roaring fire. You stay fit here, no getting around that. Although, I feel a bit crunchy tonight after two continuous long days. Oh well.
We’ve discussed this before, but my faith in progress was utterly destroyed the day I awoke at 5am to head off on my bike to the local newsagent to collect the newspapers for home delivery. The news of the Challenger disaster was a real shock. The photos rocked my world. I loved the space shuttle as it fulfilled the stories told in the sci-fi books I read regarding re-usable space craft. Turns out, that’s a really super-dangerous activity. Who knew? 😉 Now I know, o-rings are a disposable and oft-replaced chunk of technology, if it’s remembered to do so.
Hehe! I was surprised by the call as well soliciting the trade account. To be honest, it was an awkward conversation, and probably one the boss put the bloke up to. At such moments, it’s easier to tell it like it is, and that doesn’t involve a trade account. And that’s a good point, we can harvest firewood for our own use. That’s enshrined in law. However, sell one chunk of the stuff, and we’re in an entirely new world of pain.
🙂 Now you mention it, when the snow was falling and it was 34’F outside, the wood heater was keeping us all warm. It was a bit cold that day.
Today was cloudy, but sort of warm-ish. It also rained late this afternoon, but given I was working near to a roaring bonfire, any damp quickly evaporated.
Spring has sprung, as they used to say. 🙂 Are you seeing any signs of the impending fall yet? Today was the first official day of spring down under.
Really? Well that is interesting. The guy down here is still on the loose, and the authoritas have now asked for locals help, which they probably should have done in the first place. Bones are probably all over the place, even the Kelpies find such things randomly, and one must consider of which species variety they are before pronouncing anything with any degree of certainty.
What I’m noticing about the big warehouse-ish looking supermarkets is that yes, the ceilings are very high due to structural design considerations. But also, the shelves contain more product, but with less diversity of stuff. I suspect that possibly the shelves are used nowadays in a fashion to which formerly an attached goods storage and warehousing arrangement used to suffice. As to the less diversity of stuff on offer, there is probably an economic incentive to reduce the number of line items (SKU’s) carried for sale.
Very interesting, and I’m observing shifts in purchasing as well.
The murky world of product from distribution centre to library has been revealed to you. I’m genuinely surprised that the option with another wholesaler was even available. It’s been long remarked upon this subject with the old adage: Good, fast, cheap – pick any two. Man, I tell ya, I see that playing out all of the time nowadays. It’s a bit scary really.
Good to hear that H is onto a shampoo that doesn’t tangle her fur. With a double coat, those would be a nightmare. You may notice that nowadays we have dogs with short hair?
🙂 Lewis’s Pizzeria! The smell is admittedly pretty nice.
Oh, that book recommendation of yours years ago was awesome, and Mr Russo recounted a solid tale with a realistic arc and complicated characters. Don’t mind reading about messed up families, although as a reader I try my best to take an objective and detached perspective when faced with such narratives. The Tolstoy quote in Anna Karina, is just so astute as to the human condition. If the essays are as good as the story, it may just hit the to-read pile. 🙂
Well, yeah, if protesting is your thing. I’m just not zinged up about any of the issues, and find it very strange that any protest which the current set of elite policies find unfavourable, are attended by neo-nazis. Like how is that selective outcome even possible? The cynic in me wonders whether they’re for hire. Oh well, look some people need the exercise and energy outlet. Me, I’m busy here getting things done. Dunno how you feel about the gentle art of protesting?
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – You missed it. Maybe you can catch it next year. 🙂
https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/30/europe/redhead-festival-dutch-latam-intl
H has a new trick she’s trying, to drive me up a wall. 🙂 When we’re getting ready for a walk, I put her in front of her food dish. So, I’m getting dressed, etc. etc.. I grab her leash and collar, ready to go out the door, and …. that’s when she finds whatever is in her dish, fascinating. So I just go off and do some small task, or read, and tell her to “Let me know when you’re ready to go.”
Thoughts going through your dogs minds, up at the chicken coop. “Just looking. Just window shopping.” I’ll give the pumpkin seeds, a try. See if she’ll deign to eat them.
Seems like every generation has its world-changing disaster. Hmmm. What was mine? When I was 9 I already had the habit of reading the newspaper, over breakfast. There was a fire, at a Catholic School in Chicago, with a large loss of life. Our Lady of the Angels, was the school. 1958. It was front page news, for days. Not as world shattering as the Challenger disaster, but it rocked my world.
Speaking of disasters, there was an interesting article, yesterday, on the discovery of the Titanic.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/31/science/titanic-discovery-anniversary-bob-ballard
One of the episodes of “The Art Detectives” had to do with fake Titanic items and, of course, murder.
Our high yesterday was 75F (23.88C). Our overnight low was 61F (16.11C). The forecast high for today is 77F. For the rest of the week, it’s going to be in the mid 80s. Fall yet? Well, I’m not noticing much leaf change. And, it doesn’t “smell” like fall.
I picked another bowl of cherry tomatoes, and some green beans this morning. The green beans are on the short side, compared to last year. The seed was what I saved from what our night manager grew. Blue Lake. I hear from other Gardners (not just here at the Institution) that gardens this year are a bit “off.” And no one seems to know why. Could be a number of things.
Your guy on the run could be getting help from other “Sovereign Citizens.” Or at least they keep quiet or misdirect searchers.
I don’t know. Protests seemed a lot more benign in the good ol’ days. Let’s see. Once I was on a small bridge, in my little yellow VW, near the uni when a crowd of 3,000 people crossed the bridge, going the other direction. I just sat it out. Once, I was quietly having lunch in a cafeteria, in the basement of a Uni building, when the building was taken over and “occupied.” I had to crawl over a barricade to get to my next class. And then there was the time I was tear gassed, near the Federal courthouse, downtown. Fun times. All of this was in relation to the Viet Nam War.
Nick Cage never disappoints. 🙂 He’s got a new movie coming out, called “Carpenter’s Son.” He plays big Js dad, Joseph. It’s a horror movie. And Peter Dinklage is doing a turn as the “Toxic Avenger.” The trailer is just insane.
Things are in a tizzy, here at the Institution. 30th anniversary, day after tomorrow. They’re cleaning the carpets, in all the public areas of the building. Among other things. I don’t know if I mentioned it, but Saturday night, when I took H out for a walk at midnight, I discovered the laundry room window (on the ground floor) was open, the light was on and the blinds were up. Same with a hallway window, at one end. Some of these old babes have no sense of security.
Our night manager was off camping. It’s a holiday, today. One of those sort-of holidays. Labor Day. Banks will be closed, and we won’t see the postie, but otherwise, life goes on. One of the old dears wondered why Chad wasn’t here. I had to gently explain to her that Chad’s job is like any other. He has days off and occasional vacation days. A lot of them seem to think he’s available 24/7/365. When we had that last go-around with the fire department, he was out grocery shopping. Had to abandon his cart, to head back here. By the time he got back to the grocers, the cart was gone and he had to start all over again. Lew
Hi, Chris!
Look at the 2 little darlin’s – I mean 3 – not a naughty bone in their bodies, eh? We never could keep our dogs completely away from poop; it is the delight of their revolting lives. It would mean watching them every minute.
That was very clever of you to connect log debris with the mushrooms. Actually, it was quite brilliant of you to figure out that the funky fungi was the culprit behind the pups bizarre behavior.
Today my son was using the Cat excavator (Mr. Diggy) to move large piles of mulch. If you had had that, how would you have used it? Just shove the debris into a pile and burn it? But – would there have been too many standing trees in the way to maneuver?
I didn’t expect the tree-hugging situation to turn out so strangely. The loggers’ mess is 10,000 times better than it was. Elephant stamp!
I loved your slide show; it showed the incredible amount of work you did. That must have taken a great deal of effort to put the show all together. Thanks!
The leaking tank was a hair-raising experience. Why did the plumbers trench it as they did? No experience with water tanks? So, the new fitting has no sealant? It looks tight in the photo.
See! See! Another O ring issue. You cannot count on those things. You and I are working on the same goal of unjungling.
Lovely to see the snow. Here, it is 6 weeks to the first chance of frost. We must get the greenhouses back up soon.
What charming, fresh ferns – and with cleavers. You never know, the plumcot may yet have a future.
From last week: The camper shell is fiberglass.
The leucodendrons are delightful, as are the snowdrops (I think the deer ate all the ones I planted, and the crocuses) and daffies. Thanks!
@ Lew,
Yes, those earth changing moments. I had mine when I was 3. And a half. My sister was 3 months old. Mom took the two of us from Whittier, CA to visit our grandma in Long Beach, CA. Twas November 1963. We were out shopping and suddenly the stores cleared. We rushed to grandma’s house to watch the tv. I could tell time, and I knew it was time for Popeye the Sailor cartoon show. I was excited. But… there was only breaking news about something that happened to some man in a car in Dallas. I was devastated that there was no Popeye on that day. Years later, I understood.
DJSpo
@ Pam,
Unfortunately, I’ve not seen Dr. Watson for a long time. I keep hoping to see him in one of those “Where’s Waldo” pictures if nowhere else. I fear that he may be keeping Jimmy Hoffa company.
DJSpo
Chris and the Fluffy Collective,
HAHAHAHAHA! Papa is doing dishes. Mama fell asleep. They left the computer on and unattended. Woof!
Papa is mostly staying indoors. The smoke was icky yesterday. Then it got cloudy and stayed warm overnight. Papa was grumbling that it was already 80 at 8 in the morning today. We went for a walk anyways because it was cloudy. Sometimes I think papa is a wimp. He just says that he’s old and slow.
It’s too hot out for me this afternoon. I’ve got that double layer of fur, you know. And Papa was telling Mama that it’s 39C out with 17% something. I’m staying in front of some vent thing that sometimes blows deliciously cold air. Because of the smoke, Papa has that weird air blowing machine with something he calls a filter on it, it runs all the time now. I like it. We all breathe better when it is running. Oh, and Papa says the next two days are s’posed to be even hotter.
Papa says he doesn’t watch videos on the interweb. He ain’t fooling me! He watches videos of old Linda Ronstadt concerts and a lot of videos with girls teaching something Papa calls Yoga or something. He doesn’t fool me. But I took advantage of being on this machine to watch latest “Outdoor Adventures of Chris and the Fluffies”. I tells ya, you Kelpies have Master Chris fooled but right good! He thinks that when he says “Chickens!” that you think he means you have to run to the chicken coop. All us dogs know better. He insults your bravery so you make a mad dash to where there’s always some interesting smells. And maybe an egg or a chicken will fall out for some fresh food for you, too. Yeah, you got him fooled and trained well.
Papa and Mama were talking earlier. Papa remembers when he could flood the yard every winter, ice skate for 6 weeks or even 2 months. Winters were that cold. They haven’t been cold enough for that for decades, he whines. And he read an article to Mama that talked about how Lake Couer d’Alene would freeze thick enough on the edges to ice skate most winters. But not since like 1983, whatever that means. I wish the winters got that cold now! I’m made for that.
Papa was also talking about the recent fires that started. Mostly north of here. There was lightning up that way overnight Thursday into Friday. Lotta smoke there. And some from some fires south of us. And then a lightning fire over on the west side where they got gobs of rain recently. That gobs of rain didn’t stop the fire threat over there, I guess.
You should be happy that Master Chris fixed those leaks. Can you imagine if you ran out of water in the summers? That’s a bad dream just thinking about it. Then you’d have to run away and drink from the creek, but then you’d prolly find some fungus things to eat and you’d get high and act all crazy like. Master Chris might have to take you to the vet where you’d get a shot in the butt. So it’s a good thing that he fixed the leaks.
I’m jealous. You Fluffies got snow! I can’t wait for snow. I like to run around with my nose in the snow and my mouth open, just scooping the snow in my mouth and eating it. I get free drinks that way when Papa has me out for our walks in the snow.
Oh no! Papa’s coming!
Dame Avalanche for DJSpo
Hi Pam,
The three dogs are as you infer, pure as driven snow, maybe. 🙂 The cheeky little scamps. I’m so with you, I simply can’t watch them every minute of the day, and so poop gets hoovered up. What can a person do, other than hope for the best.
Thanks, and it was the idea of the vet to keep a log of the seizures. Converting the data into a pattern was the harder bit, and fortunately the pattern in this instance was clear. The really difficult bit was cleaning up the old loggers mess, I mean, it’s been three winters of work. It’s pleasing on the eye to look over that area, even though at the moment it’s a little bit raw, like a painting which is not yet completed. Or a super yummy cake batter (yes, worthwhile taste testing merely to be sure of the outcome don’t you reckon?) which has yet to be chucked into the oven. In a few years time, it will all look amazing.
Go Mr Diggy! And I’m envious of the power of the beast, although might not know how to care for such a venerable steed. An interesting question! With mulch I tend to spread it thinly across a soil surface, even if there are plants already there, like say grass, or moss. When the rains return, the stuff breaks down readily enough. A mowing helps. In large thick piles of the material, you can observe white fungi hyphae turning it into a rich black sandy loam, but that does strip nitrogen and other minerals from the surrounding area – so it’s a long term proposition heaping it all up.
And the smaller trees are thinned for firewood, so manoeuvrability for machines is rarely a concern. Also there is less splitting and a lower risk of injury from the felling too of the small ones as a bonus. I never, ever touch the bigger trees, merely because they’re simply too difficult to process, and that’s where all the forest critters live. Nothing lives or consumes the smaller trees in the forests down here, and too many of them in a small area, increases competition for water and minerals in very difficult seasons. If enough of a gap in the spacing opened up, an especially hardy and healthy sapling would be chosen to fill in the space. And thus the forest becomes more resilient, provides greater feed and housing for critters, and is easier to live with for us.
It’s a pleasure to share the forest and gardens here with you. 🙂
Knowing motivations is always difficult, but I suspect that the plumber cut the original trench the way it was done, because it seemed like a good idea at the time – and worked. They don’t really get to experience the longer term consequences of how things are done, that’s something for you and I to enjoy! It would have been far better to have dug a trench pointing straight out from near to the tank, so that the least amount of soil was disturbed too close to the tank, but that didn’t happen.
The overflow outlet connection with the tank which they did, was probably not ideal, but it did work for 15 years. Maybe I just think in terms of a longer time scale, thus the repair. The fitting should have been held tight against the tank wall rather than the big blob of silicone which had zero chance of adhering to the polyethylene.
Oh! Silicone sealant was used between the fitting and the tank wall, but this time it works as a thin gasket, rather than a giant plug doomed to fail at the worst possible time. Also the screws holding the two bits of plastic are stainless steel – no other material will survive for long given the constant moisture.
The O-rings strike back! 🙂 De-jungle away, and if there was another way… To be honest, I need more soil from somewhere to correct the many problems in that garden bed where the Echiums are being removed from. Oh well… I’ll think of something.
It’s a very busy time of year for you. Some days here are positively leisurely, maybe, well, to me at least it feels that way! 🙂
The Plumcott is sadly in error, but I’d be delighted to taste the yummy fruits. Late frosts though, always cause dramas… Still, global warming is real. Hard to know really.
Ah, fibreglass. Those are good shells and don’t weigh the vehicle down too much like the steel ones do. I’ll bet it was heavy on the day you fitted it.
So that’s what has been eating the daffies! Pam, I thought that they were toxic those plants! What the heck! Those cheeky varmints…
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Please extend my most heartfelt thanks to Dame Avalanche for taking advantage of the unsupervised computer. 🙂 I shared the canine news from afar with the fluffy collective. The three dogs sat around attentively, even Ruby’s floppy ears pricked up as she took in the words from the more-wild-and-alpha than herself, notable Husky.
With three dogs all vying to be the first to reply, an intermediary, nay an umpire – for it’s all a bit raucous at the moment – is required. Here goes…
Shut it, you lot! Now one at a time. Ruby, stop it. Sit! Good girl. You little rascals, be polite to the Husky, slow down, one at a time, and I’ll type out the replies:
Ollie – Greetings oh sister fluff from a far land, your good deeds are known even down here, and also Killian who has been in occasional contact, speaks highly of you. There is much in what you say regarding 80 at 8am, oh great fluffy one, and I’ll respectfully reserve judgement upon your human, them being generally the weaker of the species anyway. Take heart my fine thick furred friend, when your world is gripped by -10’C and the world looks strangely white, and the effulgence of colour is leached from the garden, your double thick coat would be a true strength, and the natural Husky might of course. My own heritage being related to pig hunting (you’d understand) in far northerly hot Queensland, with short hair and stuff, well your winters would scare me silly. Plus, my short thin coat gets blown all the time, and those funny humans have to follow around with a noisy sucking machine every few days due to copious dust bunnies, and, do your humans threaten to suck you up if the loud beast gets too close to the paws? Your cold blowing machine sounds as if it has much nicer manners and would rarely require a sound vanquishing!
Dame Plum – Uh, uh, oh, oh, uh, well, g’day to you noble Dame. I, I, did you really see me and Ruby running at the uh, err, chickens? I love the chickens, but well, don’t tell Chris that they wants eating, just a little bit, of an uh, taste. So nice, maybe. Winters are warmer here too, sometimes. Today, whilst nobody was watching, I kind of snuck outside, and girl, yo, the sun was so warm, and, and, my head was getting cooked, it was just all really nice. Ollie, lovely, well, but he whines a lot about the winter weather. And me and sis, we, um, got the big one wrapped around our paws, and he makes room for us two in front of the heater, by well, sort of, moving elsewhere. Your humans no doubts, make room for you, sort of, by getting away from the summer cold blowing thing, which hopefully is, maybe, nice to you? Kinda sounds like it is. Respects from afar, and cordial tail wags.
Ruby – Yo girl! What’s going on? Oh, yeah, summer afternoons are a real bummer. Anyway, what did you have for dinner? Sis, I got a rawhide chew, and it was totally awesome. Except Sandra took it off me before I finished, something about $8 each. Who cares? So’s when I saw her coming to grab it, I hocked up a particularly luscious drool. Got all over the humans hand, it did. Winning! Now, I heard some stuff about youse, and I’m here to set you straight. Right, you listening or what? Keep those humans edgy and off guard by doing what they want, some of the time. Listen, I’m telling ya’s do random, it’s heaps fun to watch them going bananas. Then before things get too hot, do what they want. Trust me girl, they’ll love you for it, and you’ll get more chews. It’s a plan. Cool!
Chris – To the good Dame, I do hope that the smoke clears soon and the air cools, and in the meantime young lady, I wish you all the best for dreams of snuggling deep into snow caves with your wild pack mates.
To DJ. Thanks for the laughs and all ’round good cheer. 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
🙂 Always appreciate a special touch of support for the cause. Did you know that the first ginger rally anywhere was held in the big smoke almost a decade ago? Ginger Pride parade: More than 1,000 redheads turn out to celebrate in Melbourne. One of the placards was quite amusing: “Day of the Walking Red”, very droll. Gingers have more fun for sure, this has been scientifically proven.
H is running clever experiments upon you for sure with that trick, and my observation of your response is that you’re out-cooling her. Nice one. 🙂 I said this to you a few months ago, but at the farm expo, the Kelpie breeder said that the dogs have the ability to emotionally manipulate their humans. He said it was the equivalent of a demanding five year old, which was a surprising revelation, but probably not all that far off the mark. It’s pretty clever behaviour really.
True, the dogs really would love to eat the chickens. Would they hesitate if the opportunity presented itself? No. Ruby in particular is fascinated by the birds. The enclosure is strong. With the pumpkin seeds, they’re blitzed so the individual pieces are small and easily digestible. There’s a lot of information on feeding dogs those seeds, and one common word used is ‘moderation’ which can mean much or little. Not quite specific is it? And also makes me wonder about the echo-chamber that is this big online public database interweb thingee.
Whoa! I see what you mean, that fire was a complete horror of the worst sort. Absolutely. My mind is reeling a bit from the descriptions in that link about the fire. I take fire prevention very seriously, but always have in the background of the mind, that it may not be enough if things get really bad.
I wasn’t aware that two subs had sunk all those long years ago. And the hunt for the Titanic wreck was something of a side-issue. The bloke found the mighty Bismarck wreck too. He’s got a knack for that sort of thing. It’s the old problem of finding a needle in a haystack (as they used to say). That Malaysian aircraft MH370 which disappeared presumably off the west coast of this continent, was never found. The water is so deep, I doubt the black box could be recovered and used, even if the wreck was discovered.
Yes, duplicity and murder are known companions, even in the heady world of artefacts. Oh my, so many rabbit holes this evening.
The changes in the seasons do present new aromas, I know what you mean. Like the smell of rain after a prolonged dry spell. The air just feels fresher, or at least less dusty and parched.
Every season produces different results with the plants, it’s really hard to know. Best to plant a whole variety of things, then at least something will work. Frankly speaking, your summer has been too cold, especially the night time lows, for a really solid harvest. Man, this is exactly why we have a greenhouse, especially for the heat loving tomatoes and chilli’s. But yeah, it’s probably due a whole bunch of other reasons as well, like the fall of Rome.
Well, yeah, that’s what is being suggested in the media. Dunno.
Very funny! None of those protests examples from the 60’s sound benign to me. And the responses in those days were also harsher, like that uni shooting involving the national guard.
Ooo! I’ll have to check out those trailers, and ol’ Toxie is clearly back and badder than ever. Speaking of Peter Dinklage, isn’t the new Dexter series out yet? Hmm…
Ah, well, having just read that link about the fire, the windows would be open wouldn’t they? Far out… I was particularly impressed with the foresight to pile books and furniture against the door to prevent the entry of smoke and heat. Very quick thinking.
What do you mean he’s got some time off? 🙂 Incidentally, in the past seven or so years, the longest time I’ve had off work is three weeks, and due to that former client, even the Christmas summer holidays were a work-fest. Hope the guy switches his mobile phone off and enjoys the break.
Cheers
Chris
@ DJ – Dr. Watson’s got a new series on TV. He’s a black dude …
When I lived in S. California, for 3 or 4 years in the early 1970s, I lived a lot of places. The last place I lived was Long Beach, and it was my favorite. A real downtown … neighborhoods. About the only place I lived that had a real sense of “place.” Lew
Yo, Chris – Day of the Walking Red. Oh, that is too funny. 🙂
Yup, H is occasionally like a demanding 5 year old. The little princess. And, sly, too. I tossed four or five pumpkin seeds, on top of her kibble, last night. Just to see if she’d eat them. Yes, she did. Though I expect they’ll come out the other end, fairly intact. I’ll blitz some up, and give her a dose, occasionally.
Theatre fires, school fires, circus fires. I’ve read books about them all. And, usually, for one reason or another, they could have been averted.
Ballard is quit an interesting fellow. Developed, or helped develop a lot of sea exploration tech. As did Cousteau. Both have inspired a lot of underwater archaeologists.
Kent State, during that time period, was sort of a one off. Although there was another round of students killed, about a week and a half later, at Jackson State. That involved the police, not the National Guard. James Michener wrote a book about Kent State. With all this willy-nilly deploying of the National Guard, I’ve only seen a reference or two to Kent State. How soon they forget. What could possibly go wrong.
Our high yesterday was 75F (23.88C). Our overnight low was 54F (12.22C). The forecast for today is 80F. The forecast highs have been revised a bit downward. Low 80s, instead of mid 80s for the next few days. Nights will be cool.
I loaded up the dehydrator, with tomatoes, this morning. A lot of cherry tomatoes and some grape tomatoes and Romas to round things out.
It was a popcorn evening. 🙂 I watched “How to Train Your Dragon.” The live action version. Vikings, dragons, what’s not to like? Had one of those “Is that…” moments. Yup. Simon Pegg’s sidekick, Nick Frost has a pretty substantial role. Lew
@ DJSpo:
Dr. Watson is undoubtedly keeping Jimmy Hoffa company.
I was 7 in November 1963. On the day of President Kennedy’s death, my mother ran and turned the TV on and started crying. There was an extra reason she was so upset: Her father, Earle Cabell, was mayor of Dallas at that time. He and my grandmother were in a car in the cavalcade, 4 or 5 cars behind the president.
Pam
Chris:
Actually, nothing here, even deer, has been eating the daffies, but I expect them to start any time. They have done so with everything else. We don’t thin the smaller trees. There are too few of them, thanks to the deer. Our future firewood supply is at stake.
I didn’t help move the camper shell. My son can lift that sort of thing by himslf.
This summer, I have been doing something that you suggested years ago – putting down cardboard in the beds to smush weeds (we have lots of boxes from all the vehicle parts that come steadily in). After I put it down, I covered it with bought hardwood mulch. All of that has broken down quickly and neatly over the summer and lately I have been raking it back to make rows for my fall plantings. No weeds!
I am glad to know this information about the water tanks, just in case. We probably won’t buy any while still at this property; too expensive to move.
I always carry a bandana in my pocket; so useful for so many things. Besides sweaty faces, one can carry things in it, or tie up a wound, and once I tied it to a stray dog’s collar and walked him back to the house. My favorite bandana is one that I made long ago that has a fabric with bright parrots all over it. I love that one so much that I take it in the shower with me every night and wash it (saves time). The parrots are fading a bit . . . Today I was musing on handkerchiefs. If I use a bandana every day, why not also keep a handkerchief with me? I remember some lovely embroidered ones from my youth, though those were really just for show; we had Kleenex, of course. I may make some handerchiefs. Alas, I have no blue hat.
I have been having trouble with my laptop for months. All sorts of odd things, including running really slowly. It seemed to have something to do with the cursor, so finally I disabled the touchscreen and, wha la!, so far all is running smoothly. I already had a wireless mouse; I much prefer that.
Pam
Hi Pam,
It’s hard to tell isn’t it? Trail cameras would decide the issue, but they’re not free, put it that way. 🙂 Daffies here sometimes get chomped and dropped at ground level – the leaves do that is. I’ve no idea which critter is doing that activity, but it could equally be careless critters just stomping and bouncing around the place. And I’d suggest eucalyptus saplings to trick the deer at your place, but they do seem rather flammable at times.
Well done to him, and respect for lifting the camper shell single handedly. I’m an older fella now and have to look after my back, just in case. On that note, we innovated a few years ago and trialled a dog lead which loops around your waist. Those rotten, but also lovely, Kelpies, used to place a lot of forwards bending pressure on my lower back because they don’t do slow and measured walks like every other dog on the planet. I ditched those leads as a bad idea, and have not regretted the choice. Looking around the interweb, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of support for the things. Oh well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. 🙂
Did you know that the boxes will provide some much needed Boron for your soils as well? Sorry for the fun fact, but I’m really pleased to hear that you’re having success with the strategy. Any plans for a fall garden in those beds? I’ll bet the soil looks good.
Pam, water tanks are large and heavy things. Once in place, the plan is that they reside there, for more than a little while. Anyway, you have wells in your country which don’t run dry and aren’t too far below the soil level. For your interest, most of the water tanks are at, or near to full now. Happy days!
Go the bandanna! 🙂 A very useful item, and those are all situations we find ourselves in from time to time. Oh no, the parrots are fading, but doesn’t that just add to the mojo of the cloth? Gives it a nice patina. Handkerchiefs will probably come around again, but truly I’m left with this mystery, like why did my grandmother (not the nice one) give me a box of handkerchiefs for Christmas, and think that was OK for a kid? I don’t recall being a snotty child. You see the mountains we’ll all have to climb in order to reclaim the humble handkerchief as a useful accessory? Did you know, that tissues weren’t around when I was a kid. When visitors stay for lunch, we supply cloth napkins for their use which then get washed. There’s heaps we can all do to reduce costs and thus waste.
Oh poop! That’s not good about the laptop, and a touch screen is very flash, but yeah, probably one of those technologies which sort of works – and now the machine does! Nice deduction skills. My phone and radio in the cars have those touch screen things, and they can be a bit temperamental, but not for any good reason. Glad to hear that you figured out how to make the things work for you.
I keep getting warnings about the computer operating system I rely upon here reaching it’s end of life next month! Yikes! The computer is good, but it’s not good enough to run the upgraded operating system. Oh well, I’ll figure something out. Spent more than a few hours today updating the website for my business. Have to do some marketing, which I’m not all that gifted at. A man has to know his limits. 😉 But like the computer, I’ll sort something out. What else do you do, other than keep on rolling.
By the way, it was a delightful day here. Sunny blue skies, with cool air temperatures. The dogs ran around like crazy at times.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
It was pretty funny, yeah! A bloke has to work with what he’s got.
It was a really nice day here. 7’C / 45’F this morning and it reached a high of 14’C / 57’F which felt really warm when out in the sun. In the shade, that felt freezing, but one doesn’t always get what they want as the famous song suggested. 😉 Spent the day indoors doing work, but did escape for a while into the sun to soak up some rays and exercise the dogs.
Today I was getting the business website up to date, and linked up to gargle and all that stuff. I can do computer things, but it can be a bit headache inducing at times. Still mustn’t grumble as the English are wont to say. Might eventually get the delightful readers here to have a look at it and critique the thing if anyone is interested. I’m no expert in this area and will take on board any comments, be they: The good, the bad, and the ugly!
H’s latest trick with the food sure does sound sly to me as well. I favour a more direct approach, and would probably take the food bowl away with the command: No pouting young lady! Can dogs even pull a pouty face? Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
Ha! Did you discover the whereabouts of those err, now slightly soiled five pumpkin seeds? Dogs seem to enjoy pumpkin seeds, and to broach an impolite in genteel company subject, they’re beneficial for their rear gland. Years ago a vet offered to teach me the trick of draining the gland, and I just said no. The money was well invested getting a professional to do the job. Trust me in this. 😉 The groomers may do that job with H?
You’re right and that was what I took away from the fire you linked to. A lot of kids died because of this or that mishap, or poor systems. Far out, the fire alarm didn’t go off the first time it was pulled. The firies turned up initially to the wrong location. Gates were locked. Everything which could go wrong, possibly went wrong. A truly hard moment for anyone involved.
I hope they keep on finding interesting wrecks down in the murky depths. And some treasure would be good too. Isn’t it weird how there are bacteria which are consuming the wreck?
Oh, I’d not appreciated that the Kent State shootings were a one-off incident. Surely there was some escalation which lead to that outcome, on all sides of the awful event? The national guard folks are reservists, aren’t they? We have the army reserve, plus various cadres of cadets down here and they are usually volunteers I believe. The defence forces get wheeled out down under after major disasters in order to expedite things. I heard on the news today, that folks from that lot are now involved in looking for the gunman. I would have got them in early on because of the inherent difficulty of the entire situation. Always there are barriers between bureaucracies. I recall during a massive fire incident long ago that the various groups were using different radio frequencies with no overlap.
Enjoy your suddenly cooler weather, I know I would, despite the setback for the garden. It’s conflicted, yeah. 🙂
It’s pizza day in the Lewis kitchen. Or maybe it will be in winter when you add them to all sorts of tasty dishes. Yummo.
Go Nick Frost! And I’ll check it out now. Have to watch that fascinating horror film on that island with Mr Frost. Did you see that film, or were we talking about the trailer? No spoilers please. 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Our high yesterday was 81F (27.22C). Our overnight low was 57F (13.88C). The forecast high for today is 87F. About the same for tomorrow. We may see rain by the weekend.
I suddenly remembered that my A/C unit has a filter. It’s a rigid plastic sheet, that just pulls out. Oh, yes, it needed a clean. Just a run through the sink with a bit of soap and a soft brush. Might improve the operation? A real Duh! moment.
You probably heard about this, but may not have seen these pictures. How pretty! And, it’s blue! 🙂
https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/02/climate/bioluminscent-algae-australia-beach-warming-ocean
I’m always up for a good critique. 🙂 I’d only caution not to make it too “graphics rich.” It slows down the loading time.
H gets a spa day, tomorrow. 🙂 I made an appointment, for today, and then realized that we’e got that 30th anniversary this afternoon. I’d be picking her up and bringing her home, in the middle of all that. No thanks. So, I called them back, to switch to tomorrow. Not a problem. H has glands? I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that. The vet has said nothing about them.
Speaking of the anniversary, I decided to neaten up the garden, a bit. There was room in the dumpster, so I did some weeding (pulled out a lot of the Bachelor’s Buttons, as they’re pretty spent.) And, decided to take some off the top and sides of the grapes. They were pretty out of control. At least they’d look good from the front. The Master Gardeners have planted rhubarb in a couple of low planters, near the grapes. I tripped and fell flat out. No damage, other than rattling what brains I have left. I didn’t hit my head.
We’re supposed to get a food box, today. It usually comes in the morning, and I hope it does. Could get interesting if they show up in the middle of all the chaos, anniversary.
There’s more fires in California. This one is kind of interesting. The photos … maybe you should have cut the brush, before the fire? Before it’s burning down your neighbors house?
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/quick-moving-wildfire-scorches-historic-051225834.html
There’s also an article further down, about a fire at our Grand Canyon.
Each state has its own National Guard. Under the command of the state governor, AND the Federal Government. Here’s everything and anything you’d want to know about “The Guard.”
https://w.wiki/FEZD
That Nick Frost movie was “Get Away.” I should have made two bowls of popcorn! It’s diabolical! Soon to be a major cult classic! Lew
Chris:
I don’t think Eucalyptus would grow in my climate. My son was telling me about some Eucalyptus that he saw when living in Spain. Apparently they had been there quite awhile.
Not every other dog on the planet walks nicely. For decades I have had a torn rotator cuff in my shoulder, or at least the muscles or tendons around it (though I guess we’d say “healed”, but in an odd way) from walking three dogs who saw a deer and jerked my arm before I could do anything.
I did know about the boron in the boxes – thanks to you. That’s one reason I am using them. My fall garden is coming along nicely, except for the rabbit. I am still in fortification mode.
I’m afraid your Grandma was missing some nuts and bolts. Mr. Baby has taken to calling me Grandma, not my doing, all my son’s fault.
My son is going to give Linux a try. He has an old laptop that has some issues and figures it’s worth trying. I am supposed to wait at least 6 months until the cost of W11 maybe comes down. I have no business to run like you do.
Today was tree culling day. My son cut down 4 or 5 around our barn to make a parking area behind it for all this machinery. When I say cut, I think he only cut one of them. It was really big and possibly rotten inside (it was). The rest he pushed down with Mr. Diggy the CAT. I can’t help but watch; it’s some kind of fatal attraction.
Pam
@ Pam,
Wow. The same motorcade. That had to be scary. The wikipedia article mentions that your grandmother saw something long sticking out of a window of the book depository. Scary and traumatic place to be and things to see.
DJSpo
@ Lew,
My recollection of Long Beach matches yours. After moving to Spokane in 1967, we visited periodically in the 70s and into the early 80s. I always liked the town and its feel.
DJSpo
Chris,
Not for canine consumption, but Dame Avalanche has Ruby’s “act random” thing perfected. Don’t tell the Fluffies. 😉
Before this week, the highest temperature on record for September was 98F, set on September 1, 1888 and matched on the September 1 in both 1938 and 1988. I appreciate the even spacing of 50 years. Then we hit 2025. The official Weather service measured 99F all three days of the month so far. We hit 102F at my house on Monday, followed by consecutive days reaching 103. And smoky. Not as bad as the worst years by far, but the air quality hit unhealthy ranges today. Too hot and otherwise nasty to do anything outdoors.
There’s a nasty fire at the south of the Rez, near where the Spokane River enters the Columbia River. It’s as hot as there, too. A second fire on the Rez is about 7 miles northwest of a tiny town called Inchelium. Due north of us near the Canadian border, there is a complex of fires near Northport, WA. Fire crews are desperately trying to keep the fire out of that town and its surrounding environs. Finally, another fire is near an area I frequented throughout the 1980s and early 90s. About 8 miles northwest of tiny Cusick, WA. I knew that area extremely well once. On all of these fires, the conditions are as hot as and under 20% humidity. They’re having wind issues too. The wind directions are being perverse, and that smoke is what’s drifting into Spokane.
A local telly station was talking about how dry it has been. From June 1 through August 31, going back as far as records exist (1881), the average rainfall for those three months combined is 2.33 inches. We set a record for least rainfall for that period this year: 0.26 inches at the official station. No wonder it feels like high desert this year.
Meanwhile, I’ve been working on a pyrography project. I’m having fun with it. It’s a bit different than what I normally do in style, subject matter and the wood it’s being burned on. It should be ready for the big show later this month. I’ll send a photo your direction when it gets completed.
Dame Avalanche found the perfect place to lie down. She’s wanting to be with her humans, so she found a space on the main room floor. Two AC vents blow cold air near here, and she is in front of the air purifier and its fan too. Probably the coolest spot in the house. Dogs are not dumb.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Oh, yes, thanks for the correction. The extreme winter temperatures would be challenging to the eucalyptus trees, except maybe the snow gums. But they’re a very slow growing variety which kind of defeats the entire purpose. 🙂 Very early in the twentieth century, the Australian government gifted the seeds for eucalyptus trees, and now they’re all over the world. And yes, Spain and Portugal have more than their fair share, as does California incidentally. Being able to cope with poor soils (especially those low in phosphates) and high temperatures make them ideal candidates for marginal tree growing areas. On the flip side, they’re high maintenance if not attended to, regularly. You can see that outcome in the big fires they are involved in, although pines are equally as problematic. I’ve seen them growing in some very remote places, like as wind breaks on property boundaries in India’s drier regions.
Oh my! Pam, what a nightmare situation those three dogs put you in. Sending you some positive energy, although I’d imagine the incident was long ago now? Far out. You know, a few months ago after those two rascals (Ollie on the other hand is a total joy to walk) began stressing out my lower back, and I’ve never had back issues before, that was enough for me, I simply stopped walking them on the lead. The back is good now, but it was a real wake up call. You have to laugh, all the heavy hard work stuff done around here, and it was walking the Kelpies which gave me an injury, the cheeky scamps. Did it take long to sort-of heal your shoulder? I do stretching routines every single day now, regardless of my inclination. Hmm. Rehab never sleeps…
Well done, and best wishes for your fall garden. May you vanquish the cheeky rabbit using longer term strategies than the Elmer Fudd methodology. There’s an owl here most nights now, which is interesting because it suggests to me that there is enough prey to sustain the predator. A nesting box for the local owl species would work wonders? Maybe?
Yup, that Grandma was a touch odd and her life ended badly, but the warmth of my other grandmother made up for the lack. It’s so weird because the opposing grandmother and grandfather were excellent, their partners were just a bit off, to put it mildly.
Pam, your son is encouraging naughty behaviour in the otherwise pampered feline. 🙂 Hope the birds are continuing to tease the cat, and that he is taking advantage of long naps in the sun whilst contained within the tunnel?
That’s something I’ve been wondering about as well with Linux. I spotted some links to getting free continued official support for 12 months after the W10 shutdown and will look into that soon. If you’re interested, and I find anything useful, I’ll send you a link as to what to do.
Go Mr Diggy! And what a wonderful use of a long stretchy mechanical arm and bucket. On the other hand, an old timer once told me that they never get smaller, and also to not have trees within dropping distance of buildings. Hope the works go smoothly and you enjoy the benefits of local firewood.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Fortunately the fluffies are elsewhere this evening and missed that note (in with the Editor who has dolled out rawhide chews). Man, some dog breeds are wilder and less domesticated than others, that’s for sure! Like those rodents in Hitchhikers Guide, they’re sent to keep us lesser humans on our toes, whilst observing the results.
Ouch! 39’C is wicked hot and I dunno about your overnight lows, but when that happens here, the nights can be hot. Actually the worst I’ve experienced here is a low of 29’C and that was brutal. Fortunately, it’s rare, for now. 37 years does tend to indicate an acceleration of the patterns, and at least by September the days are getting shorter for you. What you described is what happened here earlier this year. For wont of a better set of words to use, the fall weather was in fact hotter than the summer. Thermal inertia strikes again.
You’re lucky in your part of the world that you have those big rivers, otherwise it’s possible your area would be uninhabitable by large populations.
Hope the folks on the Rez contain the fire near to Inchelium, and that it doesn’t become too big and lives are lost. Had a look at the photos, and there is an enormous lake to draw water from, that’s one good thing at least. But the territory climbed up from there and some steeper parts looked dry and inaccessible – with a lot of dead timber on the ground, sorry to say. Sure the live trees burn, but the stuff on the ground is what really gives heaps of extra energy to a fire.
20% humidity is no joke, and on really hot summer days here it can get down into the teens-ish percentage mark with strong wind. A true horror set of conditions. Again, I hope you get a cool change with cold moist westerly Pacific winds soon. Any signs of that in the forecast?
Dude, that’s 6.6mm of rain for three entire summer months. Not good at all. Yup, high desert conditions for sure. Hopefully it’s an anomaly rather than a longer term trend? What’s your take on that possibility? How are the grasses coping this summer?
I’m intrigued by your description. Lot’s of work, and very little details as to the nature of the project. I look forward to seeing the results when you’re ready.
Had a mixed day of paid work, and outdoors stuff today. The plan was to reconnect up the irrigation system for the round raised garden beds (don’t tell anyone, right now, that system is a mess! 😉 ). Nature had other ideas in mind because despite the sunny breaks, the clouds delivered some wet stuff and the cold southerly winds blew. No day to be outside if it can be avoided. At one point I headed down to the machinery shed and brought about four chainsaw bars back up to working condition. Took a lot of work I can tell you. Had a break for lunch, then went down and tested out the results. It was good, the machine was ripping into hardwood like it was butter – and more importantly, was cutting dead straight, which is what you want. Always more stuff to learn with this technology. I’m tempted to splash the mad cash on a proper wood milling machine. We’ll see.
Go Dame Avalanche. Yes, dogs are very clever indeed, and they know stuff. 🙂 Hope you all are doing OK in the heat?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
87’F is beginning to get up there. Hope the warm spell invigorates the plant growth, but it’s always nice to enjoy some rain in the summer months – all other considerations to the side. Hope the weekend delivers for you on that front.
It was cold here today and the wind blew strongly. At times the rain came out of nowhere, and that happens with southerly storms from that big frozen continent, in that on the radar (and satellite image for that matter) they’ll have lots of broken up clouds. Looks dotty! Dunno why that happens, but it’s fairly consistent.
Anyway, spent most of the day on paid work, but managed to get an hour or two down in the machinery shed having a good, hard and long look at the failed chainsaw bars. Then managed to bring most of them back to working condition, which saves mad cash – those things are not cheap. After lunch I was able to test them out on some logs, and the results were good. To be honest, I was pleased to be doing anything with the machine other than cleaning up the extraordinarily dirty loggers mess. Put a smile on my face how well the thing worked. It’s amazing how complicated just this one machine is. They’re all kind of like that!
🙂 Your a/c unit is a perfect example of the third filter theory of machine maintenance! There’s always an unsuspecting filter, some of which are hidden in plain sight. On that note, vacuum cleaners send me loopy because by the time you discover the filter, it may be already too late. For your interest, we recently replaced a battery and filters on a smaller rug vacuum, and it made a lot of difference. The old battery was given some care and attention, and brought back to life. It’s got about 80% of the capacity of the replacement, which is still pretty good.
It’s an attractive part of the city that beach, and even used to have a small penguin colony living on the breakwater rocks. Funnily enough, or maybe it’s not so funny, but us humans are learning the hard way that the oceans are not a limitless sewer for human and agricultural wastes. We’ve spoken of the monster sized algal bloom off the coast of the state of South Australia, and that is bizarre. There’s a river near to the beginning of the Great Ocean Road way off to the south west of here which seems to be experiencing similar problems: After repeat Anglesea River fish kills over 25 years, locals and experts are stumped
Thanks for the offer of assistance, and I’ll get the site changed and working over the next few weeks. I agree with you about fast load times being the preferred option for the search ungines. This here website has a lot of photos, but then I don’t seek a massive audience. Gargle has actually complained about the slow load times, and marked me down. A lot of sites get around that by having a ‘continue reading’ button, so you get a snippet of text before all is revealed. Ranks the site higher in the searches. Agreed, less graphics is my thinking as well for that other one. 🙂 Great minds think alike! Or that’s what the old timers used to say.
Go H! And was the little lady on her finest behaviour for the outing? Ook! I see, you switched days due to the perils of slogging through the festivities. Did they set up a mead hall, that’s what I want to know? 🙂 Were you inclined to attend any of the events?
Nice to cut the bachelor buttons back, and it’ll promote better growth next year. They get sort of dry looking don’t they? Hey, did your grapes produce any clusters of fruit? One of the vines here gets a bit of fungi, and I hope it doesn’t spread to all of the other vines. This year, with that in mind, I upped the amount of lime fed to the grapes – it makes the area less accommodating for fungi. But might add some more soon. Hmm.
Glad you didn’t hit your head, or were otherwise injured in the fall. I’m always on the look out for trip hazards here, and sometimes even the dogs end up caught out and take a tumble. Did I ever tell you of the time towards the end of Dame Scritchy’s life when she had a bit of dementia, and jumped off the veranda? Man, she landed on her head with her neck twisted at a weird angle, and I thought to myself, well this is it. But no. The dog was dazed for a moment, and then slowly stood up like a zombie climbing out of a grave, and then merrily toddled off. For a nineteen year old dog, she was made of tough stuff, if a little bit weird towards the end.
That’s not good, and hope the delivery of the food boxes was delayed?
Yeah, it’s a bit late really to be cutting and hauling logs and brush away when the neighbours house is on fire. I didn’t know what to make of that photo. Not a lot of protective gear in evidence either. It’s always interesting to see bright green trees oblivious to the fact that the house which is mere feet away, has monster flames pouring through the roof.
I’d not realised that at one time all able bodied men were part of the local or state militia in your country. Interesting indeed, and very different to down here. Ah, they’re your countries first line of defence, and your leader controls the cadre in dc, so that’s clearly why that is occurring being to constitutionally ‘execute the Laws of the Union’. Makes some sense, given the alleged homicide rate. Very interesting.
Ah, Get Away! That’s it. Thanks. 🙂 One bowl of popcorn is good, two’s better, maybe.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – You have succulents. I thought you might find this article interesting. I don’t know quit what to think. They sure are pretty.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/03/science/multicolor-reachargeable-glowing-plants-intl-scli
And, in news of the world …
https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/03/europe/lisbon-funicular-crash-latam-intl
Takes the fun out of funicular.
Our high yesterday was 86F (30C). The overnight low was 59F (15C). The forecast high for today is 85F. The same for tomorrow. The moon the past couple of nights has been very reddish. I think there’s a lot of smoke, but, it’s aloof. I can’t really detect it, at ground level. It’s rather muggy, during the day. Once the sun goes down, it cools pretty rapidly. I can put a small fan in the window, to blow cool air in.
Always advisable to keep your chainsaws in tip top condition. Never know when the zombie apocalypse might break out. 🙂 I see “28 Years Later,” is a two parter. 🙁 I did not know that. I’ve got part one on my hold list. I usually wait until both parts are out, before watching. Decisions, decisions.
That was quit an article about the fish kill. Sounds like a perfect storm of possibilities. One thing they didn’t mention is fish generally need a lot of shade, along a river. At least that’s what they’ve discovered, here, restoring fish runs.
I’ve never found your load time to be excessive. Heck, my local library website takes longer to load, then here. I always wondered about that “Continue reading,” button. Now I know.
I dropped H off at 9, and picked her up just before starting this reply. She looks good. I don’t fuss much about her grooming, as some people do. But they finally got her ears right. I think I’ve found the magic phrase. “So they don’t drag in her water dish.” 🙂
After dropping H off, I ran by the credit union. They have a coin counter. I keep all my quarters, for laundry, and toss anything else in a cup and bowl. I was hoping there were enough for two rolls of quarters. $20. The coin came to exactly $20.02. 🙂 I also talked to the teller about my on-line banking, and how I often get kicked off in under two minutes. It turns out they’re working on the site, and she’ll pass along the feedback.
I then ran by the Club for a cuppa. They weren’t quit open, so, I checked out the op-shop, next door. I’ve been looking for a small sugar and creamer. I sent mine to the auction last year. I just wanted something cheap, in case I have company. I found a sugar and creamer, bone china, with pictures of King George, the Queen Mum and Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. Dated 1937. No price, so I took it up to the counter and asked. 49¢ each! Between the bank and the score at the op-store, I should have bought a lottery ticket. 🙂
Looks like a good year for grapes. Plenty of bunches. One of the Master Gardeners has been pruning them correctly, in the spring. But, they send out all kinds of wild runners, and I hack them back from time to time. The runners produce no grapes, so, it’s not a fraught job. I’ve mentioned all four varieties have seeds, and once the Inmates discover that, they lose interest.
Oh, I remember when Dame Scritchy did her header off the veranda. A tough nut to crack. 🙂
The food boxes arrived well before the soiree. It’s the one’s that usually have some fruit or veg. Nothing this time, which I find odd, given its harvest time. There was butter, eggs and a pack each of a pound of frozen ground pork and frozen ground beef. I took those down to Jane, at the Club. Plus another three one pound packs of ground beef that I found in my freezer.
There were about a dozen, individually wrapped odd little sandwiches and pieces of cake. Probably from a store deli or coffee shop. Two pounds of good mild cheddar cheese (which I kept), and two pounds of the cheese that won’t melt. A one pound bag of dried lentils, a one pound bag of instant potato flakes. Two large boxes of corn flakes cereal and two quarts of shelf stable milk. A two quart jug of grape drink. Six small bottles of old people’s nutritional drink. Two one pound bags of white rice. A jar of peanut butter. Two 10oz packets of shelf stable chicken. A two and a half pound bag of frozen, Oregon blueberries (!).
Tins: 3 each of green beans, and corn. Two each of spaghetti sauce, fruit mix, peas and Pinto beans. One each of apple sauce and salmon.
If things go according to plan, I plan a trip to the Winco, tonight. I have a list …
I saw an article this morning, that pretty much outlines how the guard works in this day and age.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/no-end-sight-national-guardsmen-090006381.html
Like everything else in this country, it seems the citizens are divided 50/50 as to if it’s a good thing, or not. Lew
Chris:
Oh, yes – it was 15 or 20 years ago and, yes, it did take a long time to sort-of heal. Most of the time, it seems to be something relatively minor that sets off back trouble, just moving the wrong way even. I am sorry that you have that issue to deal with. Be sure that it is a back issue and not a sciatic nerve problem, sometimes they feel similar and sciatic nerve issues are often easier to fix. I sporadically have sciatic nerve issues. There are great stretches for those, but with my hernia trouble this summer, I can’t do them. So, since the sciatic thing popped up this summer as well, and I couldn’t do my usual strectches because of the hernia (it is much better due to me working SO hard on my posture), I found some exercises on Youtube that I can do. It is helping my sciatic nerve a lot. Yeah – rehab never sleeps . . .
I wish I had Elmer Fudd. I now have a Marigold Monster. I have marigolds planted all over the garden, from as hedges and at the ends of beds, to just clumps of them here and there. Something is not only biting the flowers off – some 2 feet high – but is smooshing the plants and breaking them. It is especially sad as they are late bloomers and haven’t been doing so for very long. If I didn’t know better, I would think it was a wombat. Boy, I’d like to see the size of a nesting box for our Great Horned Owl. I hear him at night, so I guess he already has a home.
My son came in while I was eating a snack and reading in my room and dangled a freshly dead mouse in front of me. Ook. Mr. Baby was sleeping on the other bed. He then dangled it in front of Mr. Baby who looked at it with one eye half closed. “Interesting, but is it fresh enough?” My son took it away and put it in a baggie in the refrigerator. Ook. Mr. Baby leapt up and I don’t know where it went from there. It appears that the mouse had an encounter with Mr. Musty the Toyota pickup. Probably it was making a new nest in Mr. M’s engine and fell out when the truck was driven, and was smooshed. Which is karma, I would say, since mice caused so much damage in there, which has all just been repaired.
Yes, thank you, I would be interested in info about the W10 shutdown.
Pam
Chris,
Yup, some dog breeds are closer to “wild” than others. Sure lets me know how thin the divide is between tame and feral, civilized and barbarian.
This week has been a combination of thermal inertia and a gigantic high pressure dome that set up after sucking hot arid air in from Arizona, basically. Without the big rivers, life would be very difficult here.
They should be able to keep Inchelium intact. Lake Roosevelt, as you noted, is right there. It is actually the part of the Columbia River that is backed up behind the Grand Coulee Dam. You’re also correct, in that the area is steep and rugged and full of dried out trees, standing and deadfalls. The problem today could be that the winds are increasing all over the eastern part of the state, 40km per hour gusts expected for the fires on the Rez and elsewhere north of here.
Relief? Today is not quite so wickedly hot. The air quality is extremely sucky, though. Indoors all day. Friday should be a wee bit cooler, ditto Saturday, then maybe “only ” 31C Sunday. Clouds and cold front forecast for Sunday night throughout all of next week. While there is some chance of rain, it’s not expected to be widespread or very much. I don’t expect much change in the rainfall pattern until at least the middle of October.
Yeah, 6.6mm officially. I think we had about 12mm here, maybe 15. Problem is, the half hour when it dumped most of that? Ground was so baked that it all just ran off into the streets.
Dude. It’s 98F here instead of 103. Smoky. Hot breeze. Tell ya what…Let’s have Scotty beam me to your place yesterday so I can stand outside in the wet and your cold south wind. I’m likely to stand around outside getting soaked the first real rain we get, make sure it’s really happening. Remember, our April and May were very dry for those months, too, less then half of what we’d normally expect.
So, what am I doing about it? First, I assume that summers like this are becoming the norm. This year is the first since 2019 that didn’t hit 100F officially. Several years prior to 2019 were also overly hot. Been like this – extra hot and diminishing summer and late spring rainfall – for 2 decades now.
Grass that gets a lot of shade is in good shape. Some of the previously established grass that gets little shade is parched regardless of getting watered. Some of the new grass is okay – the dryland grasses were established and some of this year’s project is okay. Most of this year’s seeding project turned out beyond dead, though. So, moving forward, the areas that have been failing to get rehabbed will end up with some kind of succulent getting put there. Some type of ground cover is needed, or else it turns into hot, hardpacked areas full of what the local goobermint calls “noxious weeds”. One variety of succulent here spreads like a weed. Its flowers smell like dog poo, but they can get cut by the mower at appropriate times to avoid the stench. There’s also a variety of wild grass that grows tall that has volunteered in some of the bad areas in the front. The Princess sort of likes it, so I can let it spread. Neighbors might not like it, but they can always dig it out of their yards, right?
One area in the back is just plain a bad location for grass, what with no shade and afternoon reflection off of the garage’s white wall. And there’s a weed that is trying to grow there, very invasive that I do Not want. With no water, it struggles mightily. So, that area might have containers for vegetable gardening placed over the weedy bits. The dry areas will likely get some succulents added in.
Another by product of this is that the soil in the vegetable bed isn’t getting any better. It stays good enough for potatoes – so I can rotate potatoes from one end to the other each year, use what’s not planted for more container gardening. For some reason keeping the soil good in the containers is easier than in the raised bed.
Meanwhile, I found a new band that I’ve been listening to online. The lead singer was born in Scotland but became a USA citizen eventually. 5 young women make up the group. They play mostly their own creations, often in bluegrass style, sometimes hard rock. Various historical events were used for inspiration. Morna Rowan MacAedan is the lead singer. These should give you an introduction to their music, if you’re so inclined.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CUiQFo7K5U
https://rumble.com/v5qvvhk-a-warriors-call.html?e9s=src_v1_upp_a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uyGPtxIeuM&list=RD_uyGPtxIeuM&index=3
One of my cousins from New Mexico, well, she and her husband once had two dogs, brother and sister, that were about 7/8 wolf and 1/8 malemute husky. The pair did okay at 5,300 feet elevation in New Mexico, although they slept a lot during the day. They lived in Seattle for a few years. The dogs hated summer there. Too humid. Slept from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Dame Avalanche is following that same trend in our heat and is doing well.
DJSpo
Hello Chris,
Thanks for recounting the years with the Kelpies. A good story.
Congratulations with finishing the worst of the loggers’ mess. Now there are still photos around, but in a generation or two, only the legends of the Meg will survive and bards will sing epic songs about the adventures of the knights of the chainsaw.
Water logged soil and heavy loads are not a good combination. When we lived in China, a decade back, there was a seven story building that toppled over after a poorly drained rainy season. The soil is strong, until it isn’t.
Good that you got that connection fixed, but what a bummer to be on the receiving end of 500 liters of winter water.
Over here, harvest season is in the peak, and the old calendars from the 1700s were full of harvest feasts in early September. In current enlightened times, no such public holiday is celebrated. We follow the life cycle of some carpenter instead.
For our trees, the growing season has been great. Best season yet. Not too hot, regular rains. Just the last month has been dry, but still we have quite a lot of green grass in certain areas. Last week I spent some time to walk around and take photos of where the grass grows well and where it is dried out. The main pattern is that lower areas are greener, but there are some places that break the pattern. Some higher areas are lush, and some lower areas are dry and brown.
I will relocate some of the staying trees based on the water availability.
We have water in our well (dug well 4m deep), but I hear that some wells in our municipality have run dry, which is very unusual.
In Scandinavia, we used to have very even rainfall, approx 75mm every month of the year. Similar to England. Most places in the world have much larger seasonal variations.
Now we are also moving towards larger seasonal variations, which makes farming and urban water drainage more challenging. Still, we have very mild conditions compared to most places in the world.
This week, we released a first film on how to plant nut trees (in Swedish) on utoob – available here: youtube.com/@notverket. Maybe I will make some subtitles in English.
What do you like the camera-man’s style of moving around? I get too dizzy when I watch this, but he says that it is very modern and dynamic.
Peace,
Göran
Hi Pam,
Yeah, I’ve noticed that as well with some injuries in that unexpected minor incidents can set them off again. It happens, and I’m of the opinion that it’s lucky we’re all as healthy and robust as we are. Not sure what your take on the world is, but there’s a certain sort of diligence required to either avoid injury, or at least not exacerbate existing things. I was lucky enough to have worked at an industrial site (a steel distributor) long ago which drilled staff on how to lift heavy objects, and it was an excellent lesson which I’ve always employed. It’s the sort of thing which most people need, but few get the opportunity to do so. And then there was the crusty old forestry dude who was like a drill sergeant who relentlessly trained us students for two solid days out in the forest on how to use a chainsaw sustainably for many hours in a row. I tell ya, I see people using those machines in ways which are really bad for their body.
By the way, I stopped walking those two little terrors, I mean lovelies, using that waist lead before things got bad, so it is all good. And I’m very careful with using the ol’ back when doing work – not having a plan B is an incentive to do so. So far, and who knows what the future holds in store, but I’m doing good for an old fella. 🙂
Glad to read that utoob has been helpful for you in that regard, and there is a lot of good information on that forum, yup. It kind of sounds like a bad joke, but it’s also true – rehab does never sleep.
What! That’s an outrage. The poor marigolds, what could any critter possibly have against such wonderful flowers – not to mention useful plants in the garden? Smooshing such lovely plants is a wanton act of pure vandalism from my perspective. But what critter could it possibly be? The deer have only this year begun eating the agapanthus. Like what eats agapanthus flowers, leaves, the lot? Pam, wombats are ladies and gentlemen of the finest marsupial pedigree and would never dare harm a marigold, maybe.
The name of your Great Horned Owl is as impressive as its fearsome good looks. I’ll bet the bird is dining upon your excess squirrels, and yes thank you for the correction, those birds do nest locally. 🙂 Had a Powerful Owl in the orchard this evening, and may the rats, rabbits and possums be nervous, as they well should be.
Ook indeed, ah yes, a fine specimen of dead rodent, but please do take it outdoors again! 🙂 Well that rodent / engine bay encounter sad story suggests to me that karma is very much a real thing and should be taken seriously.
On that note, a baby bunny rabbit had made the unfortunate error of inspecting the insides of the dog enclosure this morning. The apertures of the fencing are of different sizes, and the poor little bunny possibly became confused as to the exit plan. Dame Plum was having none of the incursion, and that was that. Chucked the body into the worm farm where it will feed the soil critters.
Got my house insurance bill today. Is a 45% increase over the previous years premium a record? Seems like it.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
You are in the realm of the Husky, which is akin to a canine Conan the Barbarian. Respect the Husky, but perhaps civilising activities for said dog involve setting hard limits like, say, being nice to neighbours and their lesser dogs. The alternatives have been proven to end up badly. And yeah, some breeds are just more wild than their compatriots. The Kelpies are like that, and they make Ollie – a pig hunting dog – look like a complete gentleman. Dame Plum got a baby rabbit this morning. She’s fast and has the added benefit of not getting zinged up and blooded by the activity.
Ah, a high pressure heat dome. Ouch, you have my sympathy and understanding. Such monsters draw heat from the centre of this hot and dry continent as well. They stall sometimes too, which is even harder.
If those deadfalls and forest litter were regularly burned off at lower temperatures, the resulting ash and charcoal will ever so slowly build the soils and ability to retain water in that currently dry landscape. Thought you might be interested in this article: Elders lead cultural burns in Barrington Tops to help rare orchid. Oops, the orchids were mentioned… Hope the collectors and enthusiasts missed that news article? 🙂
The cooler and cloudier weather should (fingers crossed) assist with the fires. To be honest, it’s good that they occurred later in the season, rather than high summer.
Yeah, it’s interesting that with the soil and rainfall. The surface layer seals over in order to protect the sub surface soil moisture during hot and dry spells, or that is my understanding. Some nearby areas have cracks which allow the rainfall to end up deeper in the ground. But yes, rainfall usually runs off rather than soaking in. Deeper top soils tend to allow for such rains to penetrate into the surface, but it takes a long time to develop those. When first we bought here, the clay was as hard as concrete. Real back breaking work to dig holes for fruit trees. Now, almost two decades later, things are different on that front. Still, even so, it takes a while for summer rainfall to make a difference to soil moisture levels. Best to store the wet stuff in the ground long before the annual bout of hot and dry weather arrives.
Your weather sounds all rather unpleasant. It’s 3’C outdoors right now, Brr! Personally I’ve always liked the idea of teleportation, although who wants to deal with all that messy mucking around business in hyper-space? 😉
Good thinking with the use of succulents to shade the soil. Those plants are super hardy, and will recover from a mow at the end of the season. Not sure I have encountered the succulent plant with the startling aroma, and that may be considered a good thing. But truly, if the plant works in your area, and you can manage stinky flowers early on, why not?
Containers are a good idea in that harsh area because like all raised beds, you can manage the water requirements more closely. And the soil underneath will slowly become better. Dunno why that would be the case, but it’s an interesting difference. Out of curiosity, are there less drainage holes in the container gardens? Raised beds seem to sit generally on whatever is beneath them, so water would percolate outwards much faster at a wild guess.
Thanks for the music link and I’ll have a listen after replying later tonight. 🙂 A few famous Australian bands have had singers of Scottish origins, such as AC/DC or Cold Chisel.
DJ, I’d sleep a lot during the day at such a hot and dry location too! 🙂 How did that wolf-hybrid enjoy being domesticated?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Göran,
Thank you! And many projects can take multiple years and much observation and further corrections, like your drainage works which will require testing through a number of seasons, but those are also the sort which kept the original purchase price of the land affordable in the first place. 🙂 You’re not wrong, and I very much appreciated the laughs. It truly baffles me that the loggers went to all the effort to drag such Meg stumps with huge trunk diameters, only to leave them there for me to have to deal with. It’s candidly been something of a relief that the job is now mostly (but not entirely) completed.
Oh my! What a nightmare scenario of a seven story building toppling over due to allegedly inadequate foundations and poorly drained soil. In this nearby area, I’ve observed a housing estate constructed on land which was once a swamp. One very wet year long ago, water was all over the soil surface. The developers have completed some seriously deep drainage works, but is it enough during the worst seasons?
🙂 The water tank connection was more important to fix, than my personal concerns for staying warm and dry on that cold and wet day! 2,000L is a lot of water to deal with in a short period of time (which is roughly 500 gallons). Every moment I watched the water tank to see whether it leaned any further from vertical than it already has. Seems stable, but I check that regularly now.
Agreed, it is weird that we don’t celebrate the harvest nowadays. Man, you should experience Christmas day celebrations with hot roast meats when it’s 40’C. One fun Christmas day with friends many years ago, it was generally agreed upon to have a water fight. That was a fun experience, although some folks felt otherwise. The traditional iconography of snow, reindeer’s and heavy red clothing just doesn’t work at all down here. I respect the new ways, but prefer the older ways. 😉
Dry weather towards the end of the growing season makes harvesting grains in particular, a whole lot easier, so your description of things sounds like almost perfect conditions. Some years are like that where everything just works right.
Observation is a great skill to hone, and agreed, the movement and retention of the sub surface moisture can be revealed by the plants. It’s worth noting that only a very damp summer will leave the grasses green looking here, even if say 50mm of rainfall fell per month during that season. And I too plant trees according to the patterns of the water flow. The orchards here have to survive each summer without additional watering. It can be done.
4m! Imagine having to dig that well by hand. You’d have to know what you’re doing and ensure that it did not collapse upon you. Water bores are sunk far deeper than that around these parts. 100m is not out of the question, and it requires a lot of electricity to lift water from that depth. I’ll rely on water tanks because I can physically see and manage the volume of water available. And people can easily deplete their water bores here before they are even aware of the problem. They just run dry. So I can appreciate why some wells in your area have run dry. The resource is subject to the old abuse of the commons problem.
75mm per month on average is an enviable rainfall. One of the English readers here (Inge) may differ with your beliefs as to reliable rainfall in that country, and only a few weeks ago reports from the area was that it was in drought with water restrictions. Some parts of the UK receive only 600mm per year, but they remain green because it’s a cooler environment. Add in more heat, and that story changes.
The seasonal variations do make agriculture difficult, absolutely! No two growing seasons are alike here, and to be honest, I just hope for the best and trial different approaches to producing edibles. That’s a challenge which will become worse for everyone as more energy gets added to the weather systems.
I’ll have a look at the video after replying to Lewis. Like you, I’d prefer if the camera view wasn’t moving around. A good tripod can make a massive difference to the end result.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Well I never! Sounds intriguing with the glow in the dark plants, and got me wondering about strontium, which sounds like a rare element, but apparently is quite common – although very diffuse. I’d imagine obtaining the stuff is a bit like mining for gold in the oceans, possible, but hardly economical.
How weird is it, but we were only discussing funiculars only a few weeks ago, maybe? The wreck looked like a mess. The news down here suggested something about contract issues of some sort or another. Certainly the fun was gone from that ride. Far out!
There’s some talk of a reddish moon down here next week, something about a Blood Moon. But yours seems to be from fires and smoke, that’s different. Your cooler nights sounds like the seasons have turned towards, but not quite exactly like, the fall. Interestingly I could smell the smoke from a neighbours burn off late this afternoon. Went away soon enough. The materials were probably too damp and the fire isn’t hot enough is my best guess.
It was sunny, but cool here today, and is currently only 36’F outdoors. Brr! Unsurprisingly, this morning had a light frost on some parts of the property. We headed to a nearby town today to go and visit a large country open garden. It was really lovely and the building was a 19th century bluestone original. The bones of the garden were old and well established. They even had a haha rock wall which provided a livestock fence without impeding the view from the house. The town has a daffodil arts festival and sometimes people open up their gardens to casual visitors such as myself and the Editor.
A nice way to spend some time. Interestingly, the wind blew there constantly in a way that does not happen here, and thus the fence lines had shelter trees etc.
Oh yeah, 28 years later will be scarily epic, and I’d read a while back that it was a two parter. Hope the filming is up to scratch, because I read some obscure note that it was all filmed on phones. Like how is that even possible? I’ve seen both 28 days later, and 28 months later. Both good solid zombie films. And with chainsaws and zombies, who can forget the character Ash and the Evil Dead! The film in that franchise: ‘Armies of Darkness’ was hilarious and just so wrong. Definitely go part one, and I’d appreciate a review.
Yes, the constant clearing of willows shading streams and rivers down under have had similar impacts upon fish life. The waters generally are better for fish if kept cooler.
Thanks for the feedback about the load times. Really appreciate that because it has been an issue I’ve been working on in the background. A few years ago after a core software upgrade, everything suddenly slowed down and so I paid for some extra bandwidth and processing power for the website. Seems to have worked. Yeah, that button is all about tricking the search ungines to place a website higher in the list because it initially loads faster.
Well done with conveying the correct instructions to the groomer. That’s not easy working out what needs to be said so as to get the outcome you want. It’s surprisingly easy to have people misinterpret words. Writing this blog and all the comments is honing that skill, but even then, I completely stuff things up from time to time – as do we all. Nice one. Hope H is looking tidy and ready for her audience?
At a wild guess, banks would like to eliminate cash. What they may not realise is that a digital bank run may be even faster than a physical event. And how liquid are they all really? Good to see that they took your feedback on board.
You’re on a hot streak with the find so the lottery ticket sounds like it may deliver, maybe. Are you really sure that the purchase wasn’t to satiate your collectors desires, as distinct from for reasons relating to the general purposes of delighting polite company? 😉 They might be desirable pieces for the next auction?
That’s great news about the bunches of grapes, and we’d add them to the breakfast fresh fruit mix when ripe. Yum! I didn’t know that about the runners not producing fruit. Hmm. Far out, there’s always more to learn about all this stuff. Don’t all grapes have seeds? Grape-seed oil is a fine cooking oil.
That’s funny, yes, Dame Scritchy was tough-as.
I’m amazed that with all of the budget cuts going on in your land, that the food boxes are still being delivered. That’s a good haul, and a decent thing to do. How’s Jane doing these days?
I’m not a fan of such sandwiches, but perhaps my definition of bread does not refer to the same thing as the stuff used in those err, foodstuffs. I’d have kept the mild cheddar too. Always useful that cheese. The Oregon blueberries sound like a good score too, but I’d probably steer clear of them. You hear things.
Be very careful of the one list to rule them all! 😉 The Editor very much enjoys lists and apparently they’re quite efficient, although I tend to also use them but to a lesser extent. Helps free up the brain resources to do other duties.
Ah, thanks for the article. Interesting, and probably a show of force from what I’m reading between the lines there. Yeah, people seem to love protesting these days, I’m just not into that myself. Apparently the homicide rate was quite high in that area, which is odd for the nations capital. Makes no sense to me. But yeah, I could read that divide into it as well.
Cheers
Chris
@ DJ – I was looking at our libraries new, on order book lists, last night, and spotted a couple of things you might find interesting. Both by the same author, “Deasy.”
“It Happened in Spokane: Odd and Hysterical Stories from the Early Press.” Sounds like fun. Did you ever see a book, really a long time ago, called “Wisconsin Death Trip?’ Same idea.
Not so fun, but, maybe interesting. “It Happened in Spokane: Historical Tales of Crime, Justice and Injustice.” Lew
Yo, Chris – Our high yesterday was 82F (27.77C). Our overnight low was 59F (15C). The forecast high for today is 81F. Prof. Mass, the weather guy, has called it. End of summer. Starting early tomorrow morning, the forecast for the next week is fogs, and “chance of showers.”
Strontium-90 isn’t good for big nuclear bombs. But, apparently, is ideal for “dirty bombs.”
There are a few places around the Pacific Northwest, that have daffodil festivals. LaConnor, for one.
Perhaps you should build some haha’s to keep the deer out. Maybe put sharpened spikes in the bottom. You know, in your spare time.
🙂
Down the rabbit hole … I thought maybe I’d like to watch the first two movies, again. 28 days later … months … Turns out the library only has one copy of each, and a pile of holds. They need to order in some more copies. “Ash and the Evil Dead” was done here, as a three season TV series. It was mad. The library has a few copies of season one and two, but none of season three 🙁 . Somehow, I missed “Armies of Darkness.” The library has one copy, it’s checked out, but there were no holds on it. So, I placed one. I might not see it til the end of September. Unless the person who has it checked out returns it, early.
Poor H! I think she has a bit of separation anxiety. First I abandoned her at the groomer, and then I went shopping at Winco, last night, and left her at home. She was a bit “needy,” last night. But that’s ok. I figure when I disappear, it shakes up her little world. Even though I always come back. So far. 🙂
Well, I keep thinking I’ll have Kenna, and Mike the Chef over, for coffee and nibbles. I’d need a sugar and creamer. Although on that front, Mike relapsed. Some people do, when things are going too well. They’re still friends, but anything more complicated is off the table.
Given the state of the antiques and collectibles market, I doubt my sugar and creamer would bring much.
Most of the grapes on offer, in our stores, are seedless. Although a glance down the rabbit hole indicates that grape seeds are eatable, and maybe even beneficial. If the Inmates don’t want to eat them, I will.
Who knows how long the food boxes will continue? They’re still putting on a pretty good showing, although nothing like “the good ol’ days. There are things we used to get pretty regularly, that I haven’t seen in a long time. Sugar comes to mind.
The trip to Winco was productive. Still no bagel chips or nutritional yeast. I’ve pretty much decided to just order those, on-line. Get them off my list 🙂 .
Jane is doing well, other than being a bit accident prone. The cancer and diabetes are under control or in remission. Last week, she took a fall. Bruised, but unbroken. The other day she was cutting her toenails and managed to cut the end of her toe. Bad enough to make a trip to the emergency room.
Murders and car jackings were actually in decline, in Washington, D.C, over the last couple of years. What it all boils down to is, next year is our countries 250th anniversary. I’m sure Fearless Leader has big plans for a blow out. And he wants our nation’s capital to be all clean and shiny. Potemkin Village comes to mind. Lew
Chris:
“but I’m doing good for an old fella. ” That you are! Somebody, somewhere taught me how to lift – and carry – heavy things to spare my back. A lot of it is in the legs.
I have always wondered if the Great Horned Owl eats squirrels. It could only be if a squirrel stays up too late, or gets up too early, when the owl is still about. Everything else I can think of is out at night, and in the day some. Do the fawns that you see have spots? Ours do, white ones, and there is one fawn that was born right next to our property in early summer who is in between now – half spots and half solid.
Well, that is why she is a Dame.
Wow! I reeled at your house insurance increase. I’m pretty sure that ours did not go up too much. Well, I am sure, as we shopped around and moved to another company.
Leaf change has begun, a bit. I guess it’s about the usual time.
Pam
Chris:
This is a hoot, yet fairly scientific – I think.
How Chickens See the World:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyCba1TOkPA
Pam
@ Lew,
Thanks. I ordered this one from the County library ““It Happened in Spokane: Odd and Hysterical Stories from the Early Press.” Neither the City nor the County systems have the other books you mentioned. If I like this one, I can try interlibrary loan for the others.
DJSpo
Chris,
Ah yes, husky. Conan the Barbarian. I feel right at home with that wildish crowd. 😉 Fortunately, Dame Avalanche has always been enthusiastic toward humans and most other dogs. Rather than having to teach her to be friendly, I’ve had to teach her to decrease her enthusiastic greetings. And good for Dame Plum, Bane of Rabbits! I wonder, though, how she would fare against the Killer Rabbit. With the rabbits about your place, one never knows when the Killer Rabbit will make an appearance. You do have ready access to a Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, don’t you?
Yup, the high pressure heat dome is in stall mode over us. A system is expected to blow in Monday, bringing cooler temps and maybe some sprinkles of wet stuff. Then back to 29C weather by the 10th. A bit rare of to be that warm this late, but not unheard of.
Sometimes weather systems stall in this area. Maybe 20ish years ago, my sister was flying to Spokane from Seattle. She got the bird’s eye view of a rare phenomenon: an April snowstorm had stalled over the nearby town of Reardan. In a diameter of about 10km, there was a circle with snow 48cm deep centered on Reardan. Nothing else in the region got a bit of snow or rain that day.
Thanks for the article. That Bularr-Gulga Watuun is gorgeous and looks so delicate. It’s amazing what some upkeep of the forest does, a little bit of burning of forest litter and certain plants begin to thrive again. Which will eventually mean more bugs, more plants, more animals. I’ve been in some of the old growth forests in the area. Not a lot going on near the ground.
I hear you about mucking around in hyperspace. Always have to be wary of Vogon constructor fleets constructing hyperspace bypasses, right? Always best to avoid Vogons and their “poetry”.
That particular succulent of questionably aromatic blooms thrives in this sandy soil. Needs very little water. I have several areas where it has some starts. Dig them up, put them where I want them and they’ll be fine next year. Mowing has never bothered it. I figure getting succulents to start and spread will be a nice ground cover that takes little care. The front yard will really be looking interesting in another two years, what with succulents and various wild grasses and thyme and vinca (periwinkle). And a few wildflowers. More of a meadow look than a standard grassy lawn.
I’ve tried containers both with and without drainage holes. Larger containers don’t need holes in my experience. Smaller ones do need holes.
Oh, yes, cousin’s wolf hybrids. She and her husband had two, a male named Angus and a female named Aoifa. Pronounced “eeeffa”. They got the pair when they were pups, so they only knew a domestic setting. Anyhow, the Princess and I met Aoifa when Angus and hubby weren’t around. Cousin explained that Aoifa was the “friendly” one of the pair, but to ignore her. She needed time to get familiar with the new humans – scent, voice, vibes, etc. – and would make a friendly gesture if she were willing to. Either nudging a hand with her nose or putting her head on a knee. Reach a hand toward her when she wasn’t ready yet, and, well, you can guess. Took Aoifa about 30 minutes to get friendly, but she never forgot me, either, and was friendly the other times I saw her.
Angus was completely different. Think total alpha male. Again, he would approach on his own terms, if at all. However, when I first saw him, I was strictly warned to never look at his face. He would take it as an insulting challenge if someone were looking him in the eye. Well, anyone other than cousin and her husband. And Aoifa. I mistakenly glanced at his face when he was looking at me. I was quickly chastised and it took 2 or 3 minutes for Angus to get calmed down.
However, they were extremely well behaved indoors. They were loyal to whomever they chose to be friends with, as long as proper etiquette was rigidly adhered to. And cousin and her husband had to get very wolfish and feral when challenged by the wolf dogs. So I’m not certain that they were truly domesticated. They knew their place in their particular pack.
They spent a night here when we had Thordog the Irish wolfhound mix. They were studiously kept apart from Thor. As tough as he was, the two wolf hybrids would’ve had him torn to bits very quickly.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
I’m almost scared to know how chickens view the world. They might see us humans as food! You never know… That guy is awesome and whip smart, thanks for the video link, I learned heaps. Interestingly, I don’t use artificial lighting for the chickens either, but then winters are warmer here, and we probably get more sun that you do in winter, maybe.
Yeah, exactly. Use the legs to lift heavy weights whilst keeping the lower back straight, or as straight as possible. I do that too, and it’s funny, but the next video has something about getting around the need to lift heavy rocks up and down the concrete garden stairs.
Well, the owls here will raid nests at night, so if squirrels were less than careful about their housing choices, I’d imagine they’d be picked off. Some nights, the screams of outrage and / or pain in the surrounding forest from the critters activities, raises the hairs on the back of the neck. I’m sure you know those sorts of forest sounds. At times you can hear the vixen screams, and that’s blood curdling. Still, encountering a bear at night would be far worse.
You know, the fawns are hidden by the parents way down near to the creek I’m guessing. It’s pretty hard for humans to get in there, so no I rarely see fawns. They do look really sweet though, but need the herbivores be so destructive?
On that note, we cleared the last of the Echium plants out of the garden bed today. Burnt the lot off, which is no bad thing. Those plants were so woody, that the rats and rabbits were hiding in there. Hmm. Might replant the area with Japanese maples, but that’s a job for next week. It’s meant to rain a lot tomorrow… Oh well.
Far out! The insurance folks are going to send us all broke. 🙂 And you may wonder why I now take the forest clean up work so seriously. Actually, we did a small area of that today in order to get enough timber for a hot fire to burn off the Echiums. You’ll be amazed at how much material was just littering the ground.
Pam, the other companies were even more expensive. We’re talking five figure premiums. It’s completely crazy. Oh well…
Sounds about the usual time. Watch out for the tourists loitering around. 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Man, it’s a warm overnight here. 12’C / 54’F and getting windier. There’s some loose talk in the forecast about a thunderstorm here tomorrow and very heavy rain. We’ll see how it goes. No way, you’re having a risk of thunderstorms too. At least despite the smoky air, there’s a good chance of cooler weather coming up for you.
Aren’t people clever coming up with such intriguing devices? Yes, I read that particular isotope of strontium is a very nasty customer. Best avoided if possible.
Wow, the LaConnor daffodil festival produced more of the flowers than I spotted all day yesterday. That’s a flower farm by any other name I’m guessing. Looked really amazing with the snow capped mountains in the background.
Yeah, sure, hey what is this spare time thing that people talk about? I’ve heard the rumours… On that note, we finished up work tonight just shy of 7pm and it was already dark. The garden bed was finally cleared of Echium plants – yes, those dense woody growths which harbour rats and rabbits. Burnt the lot off.
They don’t burn so well though, so we had to build up a hot fire. And to that end, we did a little extra surrounding forest clean-up. It was an epic day of work, and my evening began around 9.45pm after dinner – which I made. A yummy vegetarian pasta with linguine, mushrooms, capsicum, tasty cheddar cheese and the french lentil roast veg mix we bake up en masse. Chucked in some pepper and Italian dried herbs, and it was very tasty. I must say that I’m enjoying the carbon steel frypan, it gives food a touch of an iron-ey flavour. Had to set out little bowls for the three dogs, otherwise they’d pester me for a share of my dinner. Worked too long and hard today for such things! Outrageous the demands those fluffs make.
Just my take on those two zombie films, 28 days later had a sort of rawer production, whereas 28 months later clearly enjoyed a better budget. Still, great stories told well. How did I miss Ash and the Evil Dead series? Education is clearly not all that good these days. 😉 The film is a hoot, and well worth a bowl of popcorn. It’s actually quite funny.
H will thus learn to enjoy the time you two do share. And that’s always an issue, what do you do? I dunno, but I hear people saying that they won’t get a dog because they might drop dead tomorrow. They still keep paying their bills and buying groceries. It’s a risk, sure, but then so is driving a car. We all go out on the final journey sooner or later. If the Queen couldn’t do anything about it, what hope do we have? 😉
Fair enough, I only mentioned it because I’ve wondered if you dabble in trading with the items you find from time to time? Keeps your hand in the market so to speak, and it could be an interesting hobby. I’ve met people who turn such hobbies into money making operations – like with stamp or coin collecting, although I do wonder if that takes the fun and enjoyment out of the activity? Probably does. Have you met such people?
A while ago I went outside and down the hill to push the fire in together. The wind is really giving the flames some energy tonight. I reckon the end of the season for that work is fast approaching because a few times today the fire slowly began running along the grass and away from the core of the bonfire. Easy enough to put out with a stick with leaves and you just beat the ground. Done.
🙂 I’d eat grape seeds too. They’ve got some healthy oils in them, but what else do they say about this subject? … … Oh yeah, they’ve got some great stuff in them. Your fellow inmates are seriously missing out by avoiding the seeds.
It’s a good question isn’t it? But whilst the food boxes are arriving, take advantage of the produce that’s good enough. I’ve never quite understood that about your countries preference for corn syrup over that of cane sugar. Mostly down here you’ll see sugar cane products. It’s an undemanding crop, but probably needs the right climate (which is not way down in chilly here!) 🙂
That’s funny about the list. Yes, very droll. 🙂 But I am laughing all the same. Sometimes ordering online is the best option, and I get heaps of stuff which can’t easily be found in the shops from ebuy. They’re alright, and I do appreciate the feedback system.
Holy carp! I’d call that incident accident prone too. The people I’ve known with diabetes were often concerned for their eyesight, for good reasons. Maybe Jane’s eyesight ain’t so crash hot these days, thus missing the nail and taking the end of the toe? Yikes!
I respect your cynicism, and acknowledge that you’re probably right about the anniversary celebrations. 🙂 You’ll be able to confirm your theory when the homeless folks are decamped in an elsewhere direction.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Natural exuberance is a thing with some dogs I’ve known too. Do they really have to jump up excitedly to meet friends and strangers? I have to restrain Ollie on that front too, he’s naturally high spirited, as is Dame Avalanche from your description. I don’t personally mind dogs who are excitable in a good way, but then there’s heaps of people around whom get freaked out by such dogs. I have no hesitation in using a knee and martial arts deflection to restrain such canines, but I’ve seen some folks just not knowing what to do. Talk about learned helplessness.
Spare us all from a terrible encounter with a Killer Rabbit. I mean, look at the bones… It’s awful to consider, and I’ve not tried this, but a three oh eight is probably akin to using the holy hand-grenade of Antioch on a rabbit! Wouldn’t be much left to be honest. 😉
Good to hear that the stalled high pressure system has received it’s marching orders, and will hopefully go somewhere else now. 29’C is pretty nice, but that combined with decent rain (always a possibility) would make a huge difference to your local conditions. It was 15’C and windy today. Had a burn off of all the Echium plants and the wind really gave the fire some additional oomph.
It’s a bummer to remove perfectly good plants, but it’s all part of de-jungling the garden beds – and property really. With a 45% increase in the cost of the home insurance, I do wonder at what point that industry collapses? It’s an impressive achievement that increase.
Whoa! Some storms can be highly localised, and the super cell thunderstorms are like that. Horrendous and not at all nice like snow would be. I think I mentioned to you that I saw such a storm at a distance of maybe 10km, and it looked pretty intense. It was the continual and rapid lightning strikes which alerted me to something go really wrong in that area. It was in the news the next day. When such storms hit here, there’s usually no reporting of the incident probably because we’re too remote.
The orchid is really pretty and if the land is cared for, those flowers thrive. The local orchids here are a spider orchid and they’re a good sign as to the conditions. The rest of that area in the article looks really pretty, and it’s quite elevated thus the sparse forest but all the grass lands. Good tucker for the marsupials living there.
That’s the thing, compared to, say a well managed forest with all sorts of aged plants from young to really ancient, not much lives in an old growth forest. They’re actually really quiet places. You’d be astounded by the sheer volume and diversity of bird life living here. As we were cleaning up the last of the Echiums today, a couple of gang-gang cockatoos were on top of the water tank enjoying a drink of fresh water. There’s a depression on the roof of the tank which is always full of water (and I top it up over the summer months if the weather has been dry for a while), and because it is elevated and safe off the ground, the birds all use it.
Hehe! Vogon poetry is reputed to be truly ear-bleedingly-unpleasant! I’d like to imagine that our species could do better. Do you reckon Beowulf would have been recounted almost as a form of poetry?
Your front lawn sounds right on. Meadows are another of those environments which are full of life. It’ll be great. We’re going to trial some new flowering plants in the recently de-jungled garden beds.
Ah! I see, no drainage holes in the containers would probably work well in your climate, as long as you don’t get massive storms?
Interesting! And thanks for the story as to how you both encountered the hybrid wolves. Makes sense that the canines would be edgy and want to make their own mind up. Some people reach a hand towards an unknown dog with their palms facing upwards, and I tend to suggest instead that dogs get to sniff the backs of their hands. It’s a less threatening gesture for the dogs to experience and react to.
Whoa! That’s what I’d call reactionary. Probably not domesticated based upon your description of how the hybrid dogs acted.
Not a bad idea to separate off Thor. Sometimes you know things will end badly, and those situations are best avoided.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Our high yesterday was 70F (21.11C). Our overnight low was 57F (13.88C.) About the same as yours, and I found it quit pleasant. 🙂 For forecast for today is 76F. It started drizzling, overnight, into this morning. I think it’s slacked off, a bit. Thunder storms? Often promised, seldom seen. At least here. Eventually, this cooler, wet weather will make it over to DJ, and, my friends in Idaho.
Until recently, we had a huge, mostly tulip, growing operation out in our east county. I think you’ll find this article interesting. Especially the bits about WWII.
https://www.newsbreak.com/nisqually-valley-news-1674503/3324975923292-degoede-brothers-close-sale-on-iconic-mossyrock-flower-farm
Another Fern Glade Farm milestone! Garden bed cleared of Echium.
Your dinner sounds really yummy. I’m sure the fluffy collective enjoyed your efforts. 🙂 I pretty much had junk food, for dinner, last night. Other than some grapes from the food box before last, with yoghurt.
I watched “The Internship,” an older movie. Quit funny, and a look inside the sub-culture of Garggle. Filmed mostly on their “campus” down in California. A few days ago I watched “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life.” I thought it was a rom-com, but, not exactly. A good deal of the dialogue was in French. Thank goodness for subtitles.
I should get out more, and see if I can find stuff to send to auction. Although I found the last New Year’s Day auction, a little disappointing. Collector’s often buy and sell to support their collecting habit. 🙂 Or, they’re buying and selling to upgrade whatever collecting area has caught their fancy.
Corn syrup is in so much here, because it’s cheaper. But, many people, like me, read labels and avoid it.
Time to take H for her morning walk. And, we’ll take a little jaunt down to the library. I have stuff to pick up! Lew
@ DJ – You may already know, but Vinca (aka periwinkle), can be very invasive. And it forms thick mats. I know from experience. I could have used Chris’s jack hammer. But, it’s so pretty and is about the first thing to flower, here. I moved some to a hanging basket, and it seems quit happy, there. Lew
Hi Lewis,
The weather is eerily similar to your part of the world at this change-over time of the annual cycle. The weather radar is predicting that a big-ish storm will pass quickly over this area within the next 15 minutes or so. Lot’s of interesting colours on the radar too, even purple which indicates quite heavy rain – although that may run south of here – no bad thing. The forecast for tomorrow is around 20’C / 68’F, so should be pleasant.
Today on the other hand was quite wet and cold. It rained for most of the day. A good day to spend in the machinery shed getting all of the machines used recently, back into tip-top, shipshape order. Even fixed a few niggling problems, which is good to do.
Yeah, hope the folks further east than you get some decent rain and cooler weather soon.
Mossyrock is a great name for a town, and the name itself speaks volumes as to what to expect of the prevailing conditions. Thanks for the story on the bulb farm, it was an interesting, and oft repeated journey. It’s funny that the kids didn’t get into running the farm, but at least it’s being turned over to a hazelnut and strawberry grower and not some other usage. The real issue there is that there are more lucrative options than farming, for now.
The rain is pounding down on the roof! 🙂
Thanks! We didn’t find any rat or rabbit burrows under the Echiums, but those varmints (not a word I’d ordinarily use, but it seems appropriate don’t you reckon?) always hid underneath the woody shrubs when threatened by the dogs.
Whoa! Better head outside and check the drains due to the heavy rain. Hang on a second…
It’s feral out there tonight!
Go Lewis! A truly ascetic diet would be rather dull, and candidly images of such practitioners always seem underfed and at risk of succumbing to the first illness which challenges their lowest liveable weight methodologies. Anyway, I hold some strong doubts that my life would be better for the loss of a few lamingtons here and there.
If I may say so, fruit and yoghurt is an excellent combination. 🙂
Watched The Internship trailer, and it looked pretty funny. They’re good comic actors too, Vince Vaughan and Owen Wilson. Do they even make rom-coms any more? The Editor told me that the film we went to see at the cinema recently ‘The Materialists’ was a rom-com, but it was more of a rom-drama. See what you mean there with the words ‘not exactly’, and yes it is always unwise to presume that the locals are not bi-lingual when speaking openly of their character flaws in another tongue. The film raises a question, could a location assist with the task of writing? Observational ability would be of greater assistance I believe, and then the ability to imagine where that character and story would lead, would maybe the stronger requirement. But what do I know?
Yeah, you mentioned that prices seemed depressed at the most recent auction, which surely is a physical representation of the ‘too much stuff’ problem in society. What! 🙂 I’d not thought of collecting from that perspective, but it makes a whole lot of sense. And upgrades to the collection, why not… Thanks for the insights.
Took a deep dive on that subject and it’s interesting because what people are sort of hedging around, is that it’s possible that with access to cheap sweeteners, they are economically advantageous to add to processed food stuffs in order to make them tastier. Seems the simplest approach is to minimise the intake of processed foods, then there’s little to worry about. Like you, I too read labels and make choices based on what’s inside.
Hope the library hunt was fruitful, and that H enjoyed the journey.
The rain is still hammering down on the roof. The systems seem to be working though, which is good because it means I stay dry. 🙂 That’s what could be described as an incentive!
Cheers and better get writing!
Chris
Yo, Chris – Our high yesterday was 75F (23.88C). Our overnight low was a steady 61F (16.11C), all night long. The forecast high for today is 72F. Unless we get some rain, today (only a 20% chance), I’ll probably water the garden, tonight. There was a bit of drizzle, on and off yesterday. H and I managed to dodge it on her three daily walks. Sounds like you’re getting ‘a bit of weather.’
Not much on my agenda, today, either. Can’t say there’s ‘niggling problems,’ but I could do a bit of cleaning or cooking. We’ll see how it goes. We’ll probably head down to the Club at 10am and chew the fat with Carl. He used to be, I think, greenhouse supervisor at Raintree Nursery.
https://raintreenursery.com
I’ve known Carl for years, but, recently, our paths haven’t crossed. He’s volunteering on the counter, Sunday mornings. I went down last Sunday, and we pretty much chatted about gardening, etc.. The last place I lived, he and his wife came every spring, to prune my “dwarf” apple trees. They pruned, I hauled stuff out of the way. I suppose any progress has been let go to wrack and ruin.
You’d be envious of the land that the bulb nursery, is on. Flat bottom land with rich looking soil. Although I haven’t heard of any flooding in that area, it’s a wide valley with the Cowlitz River running through it. There are three hydro dams, on the Cowlitz. When one of them was constructed, it drowned a small town. That area up there was where they used to grow a lot of wheat, back in the day. There’s also a big blueberry growing operation, up there.
My dinner was simple, healthy and tasty, last night. Some rice with frozen peas and broccoli. I diced up a tomato, to give it a bit of color. Garlic. A sprinkle of cider vinegar with a topping of a little cheese and plane yoghurt. For desert I had reconstituted dried prunes and yoghurt. Prunes out of the bins at the Winco are a lot cheaper than little packets from the yuppie discount store. I take 8 or 9 prunes, cover them with water and nuke them for 1:15 minutes. I drink the liquid, which is now prune juice. Top it with yoghurt. I have to watch out for pits, though. I’ve run across a couple. 🙂
I think Owen Wilson is funny as. He had a bit of a rocky start, early on. As far as his personal life went. But, he straightened out, and always seems to turn in a good performance. I think, maybe, Hallmark has cornered the rom-com market. 🙂 I’ve watched a few, usually one’s that revolve around food. They’ve also cranked out a few that were mysteries. Librarians or bookstores also figure in some of their offerings.
Actually, the antiques and collectibles market is an ever shrinking pool. Think of all the antiques, collectibles and art that were lost in the recent LA fires. Besides everyday mishap, any large disaster. In general, the economy isn’t that hot, and I think disposable income isn’t as liquid. People are distracted by world events. But high end stuff still seems to be pulling down big bucks. I see a Jane Austen letter, to her sister, is hitting the block in October. Along with some other Austen memorabilia. The prices will probably set records.
The trip to the library had some interesting things. Nothing popcorn worthy, but interesting. I did watch a documentary, last night. “The Burnt Half.” About the wildfire on Kangaroo Island, 2019-2020. What a stuff up. I also picked up a new Brit mystery series, “Death Valley.” A retired actor who played a detective on TV, teams up with a struggling young detective, to solve crimes in Wales. I’ll know within an episode or two, of it’s worth following. A couple of other documentaries and a few books. But if I’m disciplined, 🙂 I first need to finish the book on Australian archaeology, and one on American cults. Lew