Sunday, was loafing day. I’m such an introvert. Two massive social days during the week wiped out the energy reserves. At one point during the day off whilst reclining on the couch, a pretense was made that reading Jack Vance’s ‘Dying Earth book one’ was really occurring. But no, the wood heater released it’s fine heat, the rain fell heavily outdoors, and it was oh so easy to shut the eyes and fall into oblivion. Rest, recharge the batteries, get back into the fray at some future point.
Seriously, I’ve no idea how extroverts do what they do. My friends these days are probably better aligned to my introverted ways. That wasn’t always the case. Way back in 2002, a large group of friends went to the one day music festival, ‘The Big Day Out’. From memory, they all got wasted, whilst I was left in the arena minding the bags. Honestly, I only went to see the band ‘System of a Down’ play, and it was a truly epic performance. The show-grounds were packed with wall to wall people (plus the bags I was looking after), and the band transcended the ordinary and became something larger than life. On the other hand, the queues for the toilet at the festival just made me feel uncomfortable.
Time changes, and by 2008 the once large and close group had been spread to the far corners of the city, mostly due to poor economic winds. Communication with those lovely folks via computer games was not to my taste, and so I was cast adrift, bereft. Ever so quietly, the foothold in the city was let go, and Sandra and I slipped away up to the bush on an adventure. Turns out, there’s a big old world out there waiting to be experienced.
But even without the extroverted friends, occasionally the social side of my brain gets overloaded. So yeah, I loafed today, and those were some of the thoughts going through the ol’ brain. Fear not fellow readers, despite the seemingly footloose irresponsible attitude, even on a day off, some paid work was unavoidable and in need of doing. But overall, the spectacle of the heavy rainfall outdoors was enjoyed by myself and the dogs, snugly warm on the correct side of the glazing. The wood heater provided a soothing background ambience. It’s so nice to see the return of the rains. This time the cloud band originated from the Indian Ocean far and away up in the tropical super hot north west of the continent. We do storms big down under. And it sure delivered plenty.
What is it with this week? A few days ago Sandra wanted to duck into a big supermarket chain to see if certain items were being offered for sale at discount prices. Do we really have to? Turns out if a bloke wants to drink coffee, he’ll co-operate and obey. So we walked past the sliding doors and into the big brightly lit high ceilinged building. This was not the usual supermarket, and I was immediately struck by a weird vibe.
As an interesting side story, late last century we travelled around the country in a hatchback with a tent, and just did the epic journey thing on the cheap. When in the state of South Australia, we camped at the caravan park in the remote town of Snowtown. Being of an adventurous disposition, we walked around the quiet township in the evening as the sun set. It was hard to ignore that a house was being offered for sale for $7,000 with the advertised advantage of having a new hot water service. My creepy radar was going way off the charts there, and turns out some serial killers were storing bodies in barrels in a disused bank vault. We walked right past the lovely old building when it was all happening.
Back to the supermarket, the price of a vacuum packed 1kg (2.2 pounds) brick of coffee grounds at $50 startled the senses. No wonder I’ve needed some time to recover from the shock! Anyway, the store had my favourite cheese, so why not grab some? Have to get out of there, was running through my mind, but not before I observed the insides of the check-out chicks mouth. In a fit of boredom, the young lady performed a monster sized yawn upon our approach. Nice teeth. Past the sliding doors, and very happy to be out of there.
I dunno about you lovely readers, but $50 for a brick of ground coffee is a lot. The sensitive person really does rather wonder about the cost of living crisis and where it will all lead – probably less coffee at a wild guess.
Anyway, on another economic note, the professional body purporting to represent my work interests sent me an email the other day with the results of a salary survey. Ooo, I wonder what people are meant to be earning doing this particular line of work? Turns out a graduate can expect $90k per annum, whilst a senior (Sandra and I) could potentially earn $110k to $120k. It sounds like a lot, however the average house price now exceeds a million bucks, and is going up faster than the cost of coffee. As a point of comparison, the average income in the country is around $100k.
It’s not a bad effort really to have an under graduate degree, post graduate qualifications, over three decades of work experience, ongoing training requirements, all whilst earning only 10% to 20% more than the average salary, and less than a person doing traffic management duties. Look, it’s a difficult sell and is suggestive that perhaps the middle class is in the process of being wiped out. No doubts the upper middle class will be next on the chopping block. Amusingly to me and almost unselfconsciously, the article went on to pose the hard question: Why is the profession having troubles attracting new talent? Candidly I can think of a few good reasons…
Yeah, the economic winds are unsavoury smelling of late. This coming week I’ll have to go into a bank branch, the nearest being a half hours drive to the south, or over an hours drive to the north. And despite using their services for forty years, sticking with them during a bank-run, they somehow now want me to prove who I am, like I’ve got nothing better to do with my time. I just wish it weren’t so far to travel. Oh well, a lot of branches have closed recently, some of which have left empty buildings. It’s no wonder some people have put ex-bank buildings to nefarious uses, the bad mojo probably attracts such things.
We managed to get at least one days work done on the new path this week. Excavated soil was driven back uphill and a minor narrow section of the path was widened. It’s looking good, and the recent rain will only serve to further compact and solidify the surface.
However, most of the excavated soil this week was applied to the lower half of the path.
Soil gets moved up the hill using the large yellow power wheelbarrow. Having such wide tyres (tires in US parlance) means that the soil surface gets compacted with each run. The path feels all nice and firm to walk upon, and is about the right width now. This is a good thing, because there is no more spare soil left to excavate. That part of the project at least is now done.
Observant readers will note that another large rock has been placed in the developing rock wall. And also, the rocks on the uphill side of the path (which can be seen in the next photo) have now been corrected so the entrance looks and feels just right.
The only other work about the property I was able to do this week, was begin the process of mowing. For an hour or so, I zipped around the citrus enclosure with the smaller low centre of gravity ride on mower. The trees are growing really nicely in that area. It is worthwhile mentioning that the wallabies have been frustrated by their lack of access to the young fruit trees which they had vandalised the previous week. The access holes have been systematically blocked up. Too bad, so sad for those marsupials, they blew their chance. Anyway, there’s plenty of other things they can eat around here.
Fingers crossed, we’ll have a good fruit season this summer and autumn. An owl killed and ate a possum the other evening, and all that was left were a few chunks of fur. Ollie the big dog, was only too happy to show me the fur, although it may be that he was simply enticed by the aroma. Dogs…
There’s still a lot of hungry forest critters around here, so I don’t count sun ripened tasty fruit until it’s being picked and eaten. The pears have been simply prolific, and maybe it is time to try our hands at making some Pear Wine later in the season.
The earliest fruit crops are either the cherries or apricots. Due to bird predation, the chances of harvesting cherries is rather low, but fortunately apricots are less tasty to the parrots, hopefully so.
The combination of rain and warmth has produced some delightful rich colour in the orchards. Lovely to see.
The many local ferns are enjoying the now damp conditions.
This week’s video is an update on the path project:
Onto the flowers:
The temperature outside now at about 10am is 5’C (41’F). So far for this year there has been 660.2mm (26.0 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 614.0mm (24.2 inches)
Comments
47 responses to “Method to the Madness”
Chris,
Friday through Sunday afternoon was mostly wind of varying speeds. About 4mm of rain. Ho hum. Now on Sunday evening, well, it’s different. Wind has dropped from 40km/hr to a more reasonable 18km/hr. It is also raining like it means business. The cold front blew in this afternoon, also, so the rain is falling at +4C. No snow. The passes over the Cascades are all getting snowed on.
Dame Avalanche and I ventured out in the wind early afternoon. There were still some sunbreaks and the wind hadn’t gotten too bad. The cold front hit after we got home.
Hahaha! Yes, dogs have good emotional manipulation skills. Hmmmm, similar to a five year old makes sense.
I got 2 boxes of books shipped to me recently. From my cousins in Albuquerque. Among other things, the boxes included all but one book from Tony Hillerman’s Leaphorn/Chee series of mysteries mostly on the Navajo Indian Reservation. I can find the missing book used, I’m sure. I just began reading the entire series in chronological order for the first time. I’m excited. I’ve read them off and on for decades.
So, like me, you don’t know how extroverts do what they do. Personally, I believe extroverts to be an entirely different species. 😉 I was surrounded by extroverts in Cubical Land, many of whom were morning people who began the day at top extrovert speed. Meanwhile this introvert avoided meetings with time wasting morons quite religiously, and NEVER attended meetings before 11 a.m. I figure one needs several hours to work oneself into being able to be in meetings.
I totally get the brain overload, even when socializing for brief moments. When the overload hits, the overload hits.
Isn’t the creepy radar interesting? And useful? I’ve picked up the weird vibes on occasion, quickly leave that place. It’s rare that you find out why, like you did with the Bank Vaulted Barreled Bodies. Always best to listen to that radar.
That new path is coming along nicely. Despite peak soil, you’re getting a lot of soil on it. It will look grand when you’ve got the rock wall completed along it.
Rhodies and forget-me-nots always look so good. We even had some of the latter blooming a week ago.
Hmmm, dinner is ready. Beans and ham hocks. Perfect for the cold rain we’re getting.
DJSpo
Yo, Chris – I suppose I’m more of an introvert, though people I know probably wouldn’t think so. But, I’m slow to warm to new people, and, actually, a bit on the shy side. I love my days where the only thing I have to do, is walk the dog three times. The rest of the day, I hold up in my apartment, doing this and that.
The new Winco has enormously high ceilings. I hear complaints that it’s too big. At least the high ceilings provide really adequate ventilation.
There were small towns, that creeped me out, a bit. Mostly in eastern Washington and Oregon. Once upon a time, they were happening places. No more.
Maybe not in the too distant future, small children will ask. “Daddy, what’s a middle class?” One of the Inmates daughter, here at the Institution, thought the Great Depression was some kind of a mental condition. What do they teach in schools, these days?
We have two banks in Chehalis, that recently closed. One has become a storage container outfit. You can rent those big cargo containers for temporary storage of whatever. The other one has become a credit union. Some outfit I never heard of.
Over in Centralia, two pre-Depression, terracotta gems (usually, kit built), have become something else. One was a print shop (remember those?), for decades. Now, it’s an antique store. The other one is also an antique store … with living quarters, up above. A newer bank building has been taken over by the local newspaper. I don’t know what will happen to their old building. As it’s across the street from the City Hall and Police department, maybe they’ll put it to some use.
The path looks really nice. The video made it clear what the plantings on that side will look like. The fruit looks very promising. Fingers crossed.
The ferns are just lush, and so interesting. The flowers are just lovely. The chestnut looks promising. Do they self pollinate? We’re almost to “chestnuts roasting on an open fire,” season. Lew
Hi DJ,
Glad to hear that the wind eased off a bit for you. The words ‘raining like it means business’, kind of conjures images of a nice steady downfall which replenishes the soil with decent moisture. Although, it may mean much worse with flooding, landslides and werewolves! Dunno where that last bit came from… 🙂 It’s good that the weather has cooled for the season, and without major fire incidents in your part of the world. You’ve had some worse fire / smoke years.
This morning was freezing here, well not really, but it sure felt that way. Brisk winds and 5’C made for uncomfortable outdoor conditions. Decided to go and see the bank today to sort out the mess, and their systems were down. It’s not a good look. Grumble, grumble, grumble. Oh well, and they’re a half hours drive away too. Hmm. The tasty Bahn Mi for lunch purchased nearby assisted soothing the ill feelings, just. Bit of a waste of time really.
Near to my friend Simon’s place, there may have been a minor tornado yesterday in the big storm (20mm fell here): ‘Strong evidence’ tornado hit Melbourne’s west on Sunday, ripping up trees, damaging buildings . The word rare, does not suggest to me that such things do not regularly happen. My understanding is that such storms usually touch down in remote areas, so nobody notices.
Jolly good timing to have dodged the cold front, and presumably you checked the weather radar in advance? Or did the Dame know that a storm was coming and suggested to you to hurry up? Is the radar good in your area? Some parts of this state have a sort of black hole with the weather radar, although admittedly they’d be expensive to operate and maintain.
🙂 Dogs are very clever. Exhibit a) The trio of fluffs spent as little time as possible outdoors yesterday.
Truly, there’s no finer gift than that – and you’re coming into the season where it’s indoors if inclement, and what better way to enjoy such moments. Have you read the full series before? Just had a look around to see if the author produced an omnibus edition for the series, and wouldn’t you know it? The cheeky rascal titled a book with that word. A man to keep us on our toes if you ask me. You may have just given me an idea. 🙂
Alien’s thriving on the energy of us humans, like what was going on in that John Carpenter film ‘They Live’. I don’t understand any of it, and like you also do, enjoy my quiet time. Ha! One of the benefits of small business is that there are usually few, if any, meetings. And when there are such things, they’re usually very serious. Actually the stormy weather yesterday was a great time to recharge the batteries, and when you need to, you just need to do so.
You know I have no idea why the vibe radar warning alert went to 11 in that place, and will studiously avoid it in the future – if at all possible. Agreed, it is rare that a person ever discovers the why of it all, but that barrel incident was big news down here and caused me to take such warnings more seriously given we walked right past the building. It’s hard for people to learn to listen, or even harder, to go with their gut feelings. I reckon we’re trained and conditioned against doing that.
Peak soil is awful isn’t it? I don’t reckon I can take any more from the new flat site, but maybe when the rocks on the uphill side are placed, there’ll be a little bit extra soil available due to displacement. Dunno, I’ll find out over the next few weeks. I’d like to haul some rocks back uphill over the next couple of warm-ish and dry days.
Go the forget-me-nots! And your insects would have appreciated the flowers as well.
Yum! Yum! As a mostly vegetarian, I can only but agree with your words which I’m modifying: Slow cooked Ham Hock in a soup is very tasty. I think we use split peas, or it might be a lentil of some sort. Dunno. How did it work out with the beans?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
🙂 Yeah, that’s how it works. I’m very social, but with limited social battery energy, so it all gets depleted pretty quickly. It’s hard to know how other people see yourself as well too. Some folks I’ve met are socially anxious, but for me it’s no effort to be dropped into social circumstances, I’m just wired to have to take time out afterwards. Dunno why that would be, it just is. Alone and quiet time is where I recharge my batteries. 🙂 It’s like what you said years ago about it being no hardship to be potentially dropped into solitary, and I got that. Everyone is different on that energy front.
The high ceilings probably have a lot to do with the structural design of the building, and yeah, ventilation would be good, and hot air over summer would rise away from the floor. Nah, that place is different, it feels ‘off’ to my vibe-o-meter, and I’ve no idea why, and candidly don’t want to know. I’ll simply avoid it in future. And oh yeah, ghost towns are so named for a reason, I hear you about that. Interestingly, the old gold mining ruins we sometimes visit north of here, don’t have that vibe. They’ve got a kind of faded and failed enterprise about them, like one day the activity stopped making economic sense and the people walked away.
Yeah, the kids might well ask that question about the middle class. I’m hearing stories third hand of the next class level up workers being made redundant especially with the banksters, but nobody I know of directly. Went to see the banksters today to sort out the mess, and their systems were down (it’s a half hours drive away). Interestingly the guy I was speaking with had come over a few months ago from New Zealand – possibly an internal staff transfer. Such a complete waste of time, so I’ll have to leave it for a few days, and then go back. I do have to work… Oh well.
Mental health probably wasn’t all that great during those Great Depression days, but such history is probably skipped over for obvious reasons.
Hopefully nobody is using those shipping containers for nefarious purposes? You do see them located around the rural areas as a sort of quick and cheap shed. Probably pretty hardy steel construction.
I’ve never seen terracotta used as cladding on a building, it’d be heavy I’d imagine. I couldn’t find images of the buildings, do they have another name or something like that? Kit built homes are a great idea, and I’m surprised that they aren’t common.
Thanks! 🙂 The new video format seems to have a wider appeal. Dunno why…
I don’t believe that chestnut trees self pollinate, but we’ve got maybe five or six different varieties growing, so fingers crossed. The first lot of burrs a few years ago were empty, so extra trees were planted as a consequence.
It’s cold here tonight and has just dropped to 3’C / 37’F. Hope there is no frost tomorrow morning. Oh well. Stopped by the supermarket this afternoon and noticed that 5kg / 12 pounds of potatoes were $25 due to the potato shortage. Hope the potato vines are OK tonight and not destroyed by a possible frost. It’s not good.
Your switch to almond milk was clearly meant to be. 🙂 Retail does it hard at Christmas time what with coping with the extra demand, although I hear that people don’t tend to leave things to the last minute like what used to go on way back in those days. Remember the crazy rush towards the last few days?
I saw that news as well regarding the actress. Funny to think that that space show competed directly with Star Trek.
The owls here cover a wide hunting area, so I’m not sure they’d use a nesting box. But to be honest, I don’t really know enough about their habits.
Thanks for the thought regarding the rocks, and yes the number seven does have somewhat more inherent balance than six. Hmm. Might have to do something about that. 😉
Far out, your storm was not dissimilar from the one which hit here. Those are some gusty winds. In the reply to DJ, I put a link to an article which suggested that a minor tornado may have hit the big smoke. The tree which fell onto the pop up market was simply awful. It would have happened quickly in those high winds.
Home vet, well done 😉 and the dogs here sometimes get stuff stuck in their mouths. Fishing it out is never easy and a little bit on the juicy side. Using the brush was a clever adaption, and I’d not have thought of doing that.
Hmm. That electronic chasing for priority in circuits can happen, and used to be a problem with the old lead acid batteries used in solar power systems. Who would have thunk it that complicated systems can do unexpected things?
It’s a crim offence for sure tampering with mail, but also such a weird activity for someone to do. And so easily caught.
Ha! Well, perhaps economic history is suddenly on peoples minds of late?
It’s a real balancing act when something goes out of print (or DVD in your case). Copyright is retained sure, and I’d imagine the folks producing the actual works have little say in the matter. But it is their royalties being cut off. Dunno, but do authors have contract rights to switch publishers if the item stops being produced? That’s one murky swamp of a problem right there, with all of that.
Ah, those exciting tariff days were different, because the US doesn’t have the over supply problem it had to face in those days. Think of the problem from an upside down perspective in that your country is now attempting to balance it’s trade and re-industrialise. Tariffs in the short term will slow internal demand as local costs increase in response, no getting around that. Man, I’ve got no idea what is going to happen with all this, but I truly expect that we are going to find out. Looks like in those days, food imports were the minor issue, whilst manufacturing exports ran a surplus, so nuff said. But then didn’t the dust bowl then further reduce food production, and what with the tariffs, costs only went up just as unemployment was increasing? Timing, bad, definitely. Just to chuck some complexity into the mix, the mechanisation of farming further put rural areas further out of work, yet the reduced reliance on horses meant that their food could be re-directed to humans in the cities. It’s a complicated story.
Nice one with the increase, and why am I reading in the local news that food aid in your country will come to a grinding halt very shortly? US says no federal food aid will go out from next month. I’d imagine that would be a deeply unpopular move.
Cheers
Chris
Hello Chris!
What a waste of time to go to the banksters’ place and home without them understanding that you are you… Imagine working at a bank, and not being trusted by your boss (or trusted by the computer) to do your job verifying somebody’s identity without the right computer approval. What a terrible job situation!
Up here in Scandinavia, established middle class people do quite well, but there is a growing rift between 40+ and 40- years old in the population. All advantages go the the older half, and the youngsters live by the crumbles. About 20 years ago, we kind of doubled the amount of places at universities, so there is now an immense oversupply of young economists, sociologists etc.
Not a big problem for those who sit in a comfy office with good coffee.
The farming world is being hit again and again. Now we lucky EU people are apparently joining the Mercosur free trade zone, so there will be cheaper food in the Supermarket. Yay for all urbanites.
There are currently approximately 1 in a thousand people in Sweden, who runs a farm and has money to pay some salary. There are ten times more farmers, but those are part-timers or pensioners who have other sources of income. Farmers here are not well organized, so their/our political voice is weak.
I am surprised that the new friendly format of the Videos is more popular. I thought that the money-saving instruction videos would be more useful to many people. Could it be that cost-saving awareness has not yet arrived to the masses?
Or is the distraction of watching a handsome guy walking in flowery opulence maybe more urgently craved?
Over here, fall is dark, and since we got a left-over hour from somewhere last night, I am slightly confused by the early dark evening.
I have been reading in the background the last couple of weeks, we had quite some activities. One of the fun things we organized was the Nordic Nut Championships – a taste competition for nut growers in Scandinavia. Fifteen growers joined the finals and we had lots of delicious nuts, even pine nuts (Pinus cembra).
I hope your chestnut trees soon start to deliver. I picked 30+kg from two trees at a place some 20km away from here during last week.
So delicious!
On Saturday, we start the sales season of (bare-root) nut trees and as always I am quite nervous. What if nobody wants to come and buy our trees? Every year in October, I kind of fret over potential sales problems, and every year in April we are more or less sold out…
I guess I will always be a bit worried this time of year. 😉
Peace,
Göran
Yo, Chris – I saw a headline, yesterday. I didn’t bother to read the article, as, it ain’t me. 🙂 That most old people’s major fear is dying alone. Please. Just let me slip away and don’t mess me about.
I saw an article, last night, about your occupation (besides stone mason) and AI. You’ll maybe get more out of it, than I did.
https://tech.yahoo.com/business/articles/39-old-accountant-knew-ai-000001929.html
Well, that’s the s….s that your banks systems were down. Invoice them for travel time and mileage. Or, if you really want to irritate them, call them daily to inquire, “Are your systems up?”
Once you train the eye, you’ll be seeing terracotta buildings, everywhere.
https://w.wiki/Fpsu
The article didn’t mention it, but I know I’ve read you could order them out of a catalog. The smaller buildings. Just like kit houses. They’d arrive on a rail siding, near you. All crated up, pieces numbered, with instructions for assembly. If they’re accessible, give them a feel (though you might get a bit of a side-eye). They just feel nice. Nicer than concrete.
Our high yesterday was 52F (11.11C). Our overnight low was 39F (3.88C). Our forecast high for today is 54F. The weather has settled down, with only occasional rain. We might even get a few nice days, later in the week.
The Master Gardeners were here, this morning. But not very many of them. Like the gardens, they’re winding down.
That’s pretty startling, about the price of potatoes. I can’t think of a time when potatoes weren’t cheap and plentiful. I sat down last night, to figure out if ordering things on-line, or buying them from Winco was more thrifty. Well … that was revealing. If I buy dried cranberries from the store, it’s about a third less for 25 pounds, than buying on-line. Figuring out the tea was a lot trickier. More variables. But, as near as I can figure, the store beats on-line by 1/3 to 1/2. The trick is, to build up enough of a back-log … to feel as secure as I do when a bulk shipment arrives.
Well, since you brought it up … 🙂 I think I’d put a taller, more peaked rock, behind the two rocks on the left. Hmmm. If you had six rocks on the right, taken as a whole, it would be an uneven number of rocks. The ideal. But would the whole thing hang together, as a visual conglomerate? Or should the rocks on the right also be an uneven number? Which would mean the total of the rocks in both groups would equal an even number. It’s a conundrum. 🙂
H was pretty good about me messing with her teeth. I think after two days she realized she couldn’t dislodge whatever on her own. I can’t remember her ever snapping at me. She’s more a passive resistance kind of a gal. 🙂
I think mail thieves hope there will be money, in the envelopes. At least, in the past. Nowadays, it’s more for credit card offers and checks that can be altered.
It’s why there are lawyers, that specialize in copyright and patent laws. Authors have agents who have a pretty good grounding in those things, but there’s usually a lawyer, lurking in the background, to at least run a contract past. As I understand it.
Just out of curiosity, I took a quick look at the copyright background of your favorite book. 🙂 You know the one. It looks pretty stitched up, until the 2040s.
Yes, it looks like if the government shutdown, doesn’t end, there will be no food aid, next month. At least from the federal government. States might pick up some of the slack, though, as the article mentioned, they wouldn’t be reimbursed. This is going to be rough, as Thanksgiving, and that other holiday, are on the horizon. I thought the picture of the shopping cart, was kind of interesting. I see frozen Brussels sprouts and broccoli, in there. Something I always keep on hand, to jazz up my meals and make them healthier. Lew
Hi, Chris!
I am an introvert, too, but – like you – I can get along with people. I like people, just in small doses.
I did the friend-group thing, also, when a lot younger. We all drifted apart eventually. Wow – I would have loved to hear System of a Down.
Well, if you did paid work on a day off, that’s not a day off.
All those big stores have bad vibes. First it’s the lighting, second it’s the music blasting at you the whole time you are trying to remember what you are in there for. What’s the thing with music in every public space? There’s no escape. If I want to listen to music I’ll do so at home or sealed up in a car or go to a music venue. As for the concert venues: You know who you are, you who are complaining about the noise when you knew it was there before you moved close by.
Once when driving way up in the Rocky Mountains, my husband and I realized that we weren’t going to make it to Grand Junction before dark and so decided to stop at the first motel that we came to. There weren’t many places to stay up there. We came to one; it was a kind of shabby place, but not too bad. My husband checked us in and then we went to our cabin. We started to move in our stuff, then noticed something odd: There was no lock on the front door or on the windows. We left so fast that you could not see us for the dust, never even checking out. VERY bad vibes there.
Yeah – less coffee. Better get to work on the camellias.
No way do I believe that a newly hatched accounting graduate can expect to make $90,000 per year. It’s a shame; yours is a very necessary profession.
I have seen a lot of bank branch closings around here over the last 8 to 10 years. However, some smaller, more local ones have taken their place. But now the local ones are being bought up by bigger banks; that does not bode well. I wonder if I am an oddity since I go into my closest branch once a week to cash a check and I do not go through the drive-thru because I want them to know me. It helped immensely when I was out of town and needed banking help and so just called that branch.
Ooh – that’s a really nice path. Rock accumulation is on schedule. NOBODY does paths like you and Sandra. It’s a treat to watch them develope and to review them. And that is wonderful news that you are keeping the wallabies out.
Ollie is a clown, him and his possum fur.
So far, so good with the fruit. Yes, the orchard – and the tree fern – is beautiful, as are the other ferns.
The forget-me-nots seem to go on and on. The rhodies are looking lovelier than ever; my, that’s a bright purple. My grandmother’s housekeeper used to make crabapple jelly every year from the tree in the backyard. The horse chestnut has a lovely shape. Thanks for it all!
Pam
@ Goran:
“Could it be that cost-saving awareness has not yet arrived to the masses?
Or is the distraction of watching a handsome guy walking in flowery opulence maybe more urgently craved?”
That is so funny! But true, I think.
I love your blog, I just haven’t ever been able to figure out how to comment.
Pam
Hi Pam,
Takes one to know one! 🙂 And I love my social time as well, but you hit the nail on the head – in small doses. Respect! As a side story, for all sorts of reasons my work day finished early, so I went to see the banksters again – but this time got the issues sorted out, maybe. The Indian bloke there who’d only recently arrived from New Zealand said how much he appreciated the calm energy I brought to the table, which is an odd thing to say, but all the same we had a good chat about life, the universe and everything. I do try to leave people in a better state than I find them in such circumstances. Clearly the computer folks at the bank had set up a huge problem for him, and hey, they even got me thinking about how safe are the deposits in that institution. An impressive achievement to which I spent an hour or two last night in the dark hours putting some brain cells towards. And there is a plan which has already been enacted.
Pam, the band were so awesome, and were better live than on a screen. It was weird for me, because as I sat there with the bags way back in 2002, surrounded by lots of space in the arena enjoying the other bands on that particular stage during the day, just prior to System of a Down coming to the stage, people poured in from all around like a big drain clogging up. And you could see that they all listened, bounced around, yelled into the void and did their thing in unison to the struck chords and soaring vocals. For me it was a swamp of overwhelming energy, but in a good way. Chop Suey? Intense… 🙂 1.5 billion views can’t be wrong.
Where do they go when they drift apart? And why? Dunno.
Yeah, I concede your point and have been working rather hard on paid work lately. Still, it will quieten down again soon. 🙂
You know what I wonder about? Who picks the music for those businesses. What an awful job to try and please everyone, and no one all at the same time. Now you mention it, I reckon the big box hardware store plays the loudest music at a wild and unscientific guesstimate, but that has nothing on some food places I’ve been too over the years. Some friends and I have an ongoing joke about that issue, and we’ve actually asked occasionally to turn the volume down. Is it really appropriate to have to yell at folks across the dinner table just to be heard over the din?
There’s a special place in the underworld of torment reserved for those whom move close to live music venues, cough, cough, err possibly famous opera house, and then allegedly demand that the venue reduce the volume. What makes something special, can be destroyed.
Far out, run, Pam, run! 🙂 The place sounds like the plot for a very scary thriller-horror film which nobody in their right mind would ever want to be involved in. We once paid for and then skipped out on a place because it was filthy, the tent at a different location by contrast, even in the inclement weather, was the better option.
Camellia’s – yep, and maybe even Ilex vomitoria would do well here. Mind you, it was 0’C / 32’F this morning and a few of the leaves on the potato vines blackened. Ook!
If the professional body got those graduates in the salary survey, I’m guessing, but aren’t certain, that they had about 3 years work experience. Everyday stuff costs a lot down here. What I do for clients is comprehensible so that’s a good thing. Used to have a mate who was paid well, but he could never explain exactly what it was that the business he worked for did, they just had a lot of mad cash – something with computers. Hmm.
Respect, and yours is a fine strategy of being known. And I do much the same where possible.
Thanks, and hope to get more rocks and maybe some surface on that path over the next few days. Wouldn’t it be fun if all the paths left a mystery for future archaeologists? The wombats and wallabies are continuing to test the fencing, and the owls are back again!
Yum! Yum! And crab apple jelly is rarely seen down under, it has a similar consistency to quince jelly (and is just as nice), probably because both fruit are so high in pectin. Have you ever attempted to replicate the jelly recipe?
Just remembered that it’s a long weekend this one for the big horse race thing on Tuesday.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Göran,
Thanks for the update from your part of the world, and as always I’m impressed by the community you’re a part of.
That’s pretty much what the banksters situation looked like, and I’d not considered that angle until you pointed it out. But it appeared to me that they had no plan B for the situation. Honestly, locking me out of the banking software last week was a real turning point for trust. Anywhoo, I went back there today and spent an hour with the nice bloke in the branch and hopefully sorted everything out. As a bit of background to the issues, I believe that anti-money-laundering legislation had passed parliament, and so the banks were catching up with the old ‘know your customer’ databases for everyone in the country because they had to be able to see who the ultimate beneficiaries for all accounts were.
Basically, my time was spent updating the banksters client database about me and my business. What they should not have done, is lock me out of my accounts last week. It has caused my mind to consider the issue of banking from an entirely new perspective, and I may write about that this week. Should be interesting, maybe. Sometimes a person must think, the unthinkable! 😉
Your country has not allowed the ratio of house prices relative to average income to widen to the craziness that is the property market down here. Plus you’ve retained the country’s currency which brings certain advantages from other parts of your continent. So yeah, income goes further. But yes, student debt is a deep problem (and I enjoyed the very first year of that scheme) and age related wealth inequality is also a very serious issue.
Over supplying my profession simply drives wages down. A friend of mine suggests that the push to get people into university education was an artificial way of reducing unemployment. Plus training costs were shifted from the employer, to the employee. My mother enjoyed free university tuition for her degree, and also received paid time off work to attend lectures and tutorials. None of that happens in these more enlightened days.
Coffee is good! 🙂 I had plenty of opportunity for the comfy office and preferred always to sit out with the staff and be available for them. Harder on me, but made for a more cohesive team.
Down here, I believe about 1% of the population are involved in agriculture, and there just aren’t that many productive hobby farms. I’m not sure exactly why, but it is possible that people equate a vegetable patch and productive garden with poverty. On the other hand, in the bigger societal picture, it’s crazy the reliance on finite supplies fossil fuels to produce food. I’m unsurprised that a similar situation exists in your part of the world, except you clearly have more of a culture of productive small agriculture. It’s been wiped out down under.
🙂 That format makes little sense to me either, so Sandra and I just keep trying random things to see what works with the al-gore-ithm. I’d like to think so, yeah! We’re not at a tipping point yet where such information and learned skills become valuable, but we’ll get there sooner or later. You saw first hand what happened in that very large country to your east way back in the day.
Man, jet lag hits me for a few days whilst the body and mind adjusts to the new circumstances. Where ever has the day gone – in your case… Here I have to recall to stop work at a reasonable time, because the sun is still in the sky into the early evening.
I’ve read your latest blog, and very much enjoyed it. The competition is a great idea. And have to laugh. There is a lovely Polish (I believe) couple who run the local cherry farm. They once amusingly told me that their family back home could harvest plenty of wild and windfall fruit because the folks had eaten all the birds. Of course it is an amusing exaggeration, but there’s a lot of hungry wildlife down under. I envy your easy gleaning harvests.
Good luck! And locally selected and adapted nut trees are hot property. Best wishes for a massive run on your stock. 🙂 And it’s been my experience also, that small business can be excitingly complicated.
Might attempt to relocate the walnut tree over the next day or so.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
It’s an intriguing fear that dying alone issue, because when you’re dead, do you really need the physical body back again? It’s almost a deeper philosophical question really, because I read somewhere in the past year a perspective, that ultimately we all die alone – it’s not like other folks would be rushing to join us on that experience. And I’m with you, and merely hope that people don’t mess me around as well. It’s not too much to ask for is it?
The bloke is clever, but to my way of thinking, he’s asking questions big business are interested in. And then there is this: Government use of consultancy firms under fire. The predictive stuff I’ve seen is good, but it’s also wrong enough of the time to be a problem. I’m very careful when it comes to taking on new technology.
🙂 Man, I sucked that bankster stuff up, and had a short work day, and late this afternoon went in to see them for an hour to sort out the mess. As you’d imagine I was very pleasant and graceful, and that was commented upon. I’m of the opinion that locking me out of the system simply to update the ‘know your customer’ database, was an error of judgement on their part. Although, the need was driven by the new anti-money-laundering legislation, so it wasn’t personal. Collateral damage more than anything else. In the dark this morning I cogitated upon what it all meant, where my risks were, and will now do something about it for a few hours. If I hadn’t had the experience last week, I wouldn’t have considered any of this stuff. To think the unthinkable, is often a useful experience, although I would have appreciated the extra couple of hours of sleep. It was 0’C / 32’F outdoors too and felt super cold. Some of the potato vines now sport a few blackened leaves. Hmm. Still, I kept my cool today, despite the challenges.
Now I know what I’m looking for with those terracotta buildings, I’ll keep an eye out. Candidly I would have assumed the buildings were of brick construction at a casual glance. Funny, and yes, terracotta is a lovely material. Mostly down here you see it as the material for sturdy plant pots.
The weather is about the same here, although slightly warmer and colder by one or two degrees. Hey, I spotted fuel at $2.14/Litre today which works out to be $8.13/Gallon. Very impressive.
Ah, so the master gardeners take the winter months off? But yeah, it is winding down for you. I mentioned above that I might try relocating one more tree this season – a walnut. It’s really struggled where it is currently planted, and needs to be closer to a regular water source, presumably until it is better established.
The potato cost was very much the same sort of sticker shock that the coffee brick produced. I’d mentioned to you a while back that there is a potato shortage this year, but even I was surprised by the price. Hope the potatoes planted out do OK after the light frost this morning. Let’s just say that I’ve got incentive…
Exactly with the back log of stores. 🙂 My strategy as well, and it can change if needed. We don’t keep as much chicken feed as what was required a few months ago.
Thanks for your thoughts on the rock walls. Is it just me, or am I feeling like there are now more questions than before? 😉 Hopefully we get to place some more rocks on the wall over the next few days. The weather is meant to be good, although Sunday is quite warm, then it will possibly rain a lot. We’ll see how it goes, but first – more rocks.
H is a refined lady to not snap at you when seeking assistance. And yes, that’s funny about her behaviour. Some dogs can be a bit highly strung on that front and I don’t believe that it is a trust thing, they’re just wired a tad jumpy. Calm always comes across as warmer.
Nobody down here would send mad cash in the mail these days, although sometimes a person must as I noted above, think the unthinkable.
When the chips come down, and it’s a legal question of uncertainty, you need a professional. Lewis, they made me read it. 🙂 My absolute worst subject in that my grades were OK, but all the same, I still failed a third of the English subject. What did I miss? Should I worry about this issue?
The states would probably have to go into debt to come up with the cash for the food aid. It is interesting what enters a persons shopping basket, and the only thing I would have purchased is the toothpaste. I keep saying to the Editor that we can make that stuff…
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – I really don’t “do” podcasts. But, at least they provide enough information to figure out what’s going on. I’ve always felt that entities use consultancy firms, in order to have someone to blame, or throw under the bus, if things go wrong.
I also noticed another interesting item, in the sidebars. Stephanie Alexander and her Kitchen Garden program, at Collingwood College. Here, Alice Waters did / is doing, something similar. Get kids to grow their own, and have some idea of where their food comes from.
It will be interesting to hear more about your trip to the bank. Did you have to provide DNA samples? Fingerprints? 🙂 Show your birth certificate? I think there’s a lot of things in play. Money laundering, security concerns. And government snooping into every penny transaction. Although pennies are going away. And effort to stamp out the gray markets.
Our high yesterday was 54F (12.22C). Our overnight low was 39F (3.88C). Our forecast high for today is 58F. Yes, the Master Gardeners take the winter off. They’ve got stuff of their own, to do. And, they’re volunteers, after all. The gardens are mostly dormant, and the weather is miserable. Though they’ve all got rain gear, and I’ve seen them work in miserable weather. They will be back, to decorate the entryway for the holidays. And then take it all down again, after.
If our gas was that high, there would be riots in the streets. Governments, at all levels, would fall. It’s when subsidies come back and bite them in the bum. 🙂 Also, to say the quiet part out loud, it’s why strategic petrol reserves are released, around election times.
I’ve got to get petrol, today. Report to follow.
Good luck relocating the walnut. They have such deep tap roots.
LOL. Once the plantings grow in, the rock wall won’t be an issue.
I wouldn’t worry about failing 1/3 of your English subjects. You’re picking it up along the way. 🙂 And not the stuff “they” thought was important. But the stuff that’s important and useful, to you.
Yes, governments at all levels, are running, or about to run in the red. See, subsidies above. Also, there’s a lot of chatter about “unfunded mandates.” “An unfunded mandate is a statute or regulation that requires any entity to perform certain actions, with no money provided for fulfilling the requirements. This can be imposed on state or local government, as well as private individuals or organizations.” So, governments further down the food chain, are hit with costs. Lew
Chris,
The Sunday rain was another 4mm. Hard rain for 15 minutes, drizzle for a couple hours. Awoke to -2C and thick frost this morning. Leaves have been very colorful for over a week now. Some are dropping, some have yet to turn color.
Banks. Ugh. Our local credit union moved from real people to kiosks with the “real” people in some remote location. This was before the virus that cannot be named. The volume on the kiosks was so loud that you could hear EVERYTHING even across the room, including account numbers and other personal identifying information. And the kiosks wouldn’t hand out some currency denominations. Theone live person there had to go in the back room to do exchanges for desired denominations. We quickly closed up the accounts and moved to another regional bank. We have been happy ever since. What could go wrong with more and more layers of technology? Oh, yeah, you could drive for a half hour only to find that the technology took the day off. I’d be irritated, too.
Many of the big banks have been closing branches throughout the region. Glad we’re with a stable smaller one that absolutely refuses to trade on the stock market or get bought out. Locally owned for local people. No fills. Real people. So far.
“My understanding is that such storms usually touch down in remote areas, so nobody notices.” Well, somebody has to notice. The “elites” would say that “Nobody who matters was inconvenienced.” That theme ran through the Hitchhikers Guide I think. Think the storms and flooding that hit remote portions of Alaska recently. Only destitute indigenous villages were destroyed, so there has been very little news available unless one knows how to search for it. Not a lot of people, nobody rich or famous, so limited coverage.
The weather radar and forecasts are adequate here. I sort of can tell, anyhow. Go outside, take a look around, notice what things look like form the direction the storms and weather fronts are coming from. This time of year, there is a definite “feel” to the air prior to a cold front. Plus, the clouds moving in were thick and towering, which means increased winds and cold for the more wintery months.
Oh yes, I’ve read the entire Hillerman series before, much of it two or even three times. It and the Du Pre series by Peter Bowen are two series that I can reread time and time again.
Being introverted can be fun, can be a challenge. The most introverted friends I have tend to think more deeply, know limitations better, and know when to say when. Even after a carving club meeting, I need the remainder of that day, if not an additional day, to recover. And that’s with people I like! Young neighbor makes me look outgoing. She can say “Hi, guy!” with my returned “Hi girl!” and she is talked out for an hour. Like me, she prefers plans in advance when being with people will occur. I gotta sorta work myself up to it. Quite often when working, my erasable board outside my cube would say “I can’t people yet.”
Dame Avalanche is perfect for two introverts. Sometimes on our walks she needs verbal reassurance. Other than that, she enjoys when the humans are quiet, just there. It’s that pack mentality, where a lot of nonverbal communication can take place. Oh, and when she needs something, she talks enough for all three of us. 😉
The internal radar thing, well, I prefer calling it “situational awareness”. Stop, look and listen. Observe and process. The brain might not pick up on it, but the senses do observe it and the gut level feeling is that “situational awareness” shouting at you. Martial arts can help teach it if the instructor is any good. One of my mantras, “Slow down, relax, observe, process” sorta gets into this. Being calm is a necessity.
Miagi per the Karate Kid movies: The best defense is don’t be there.” We’ve discussed Ken Gullette before. Here’s an incident he had a few years ago. https://www.internalfightingarts.com/blog/ultimate-self-defense-skill
Yummy! The beans turned out yummy. I mix several different types of dried beans together. I like split peas, too. For some reason, lentils don’t always like either one of us.
Pam got it right. Nobody does pathway as well as you and Sandra.
DJSpo
Chris:
There. You just never know who you will meet that is worth talking to, even in dodgy, stressful situations. Is it possible for you to give some kind of outline to what your solution was?
I have asked restaurants to turn down the music, also. The point of dining out with someone, besides the food, is to talk to them!
I have wanted to try Ilex vomitoria, but I don’t drink caffeine anymore. And I think maybe it is sub-tropical? That wouldn’t work here.
I don’t have that particular crabapple recipe – or any crabapples. As far as I know, you can’t buy them.
Hot dog! Go horsies! I just remembered that our time changes on Sunday. Yay! It will be light an hour earlier. Nowadays I am up 2 1/2 hours before there is a bit of light. I wish they’d leave it on the upcoming time.
On Sunday my son cut down the big, old split (which means it had two trunks growing from one 12.5 foot diameter base) oak tree that was leaning over the house. He had waited until he felt he had enough tree cutting experience since this one could have possibly landed on the house, being only feet away, and leaning over it.
I sat in Mr. Musty the Toyota as usual and held the brake with my foot so that Mr. M wouldn’t be pulled into the way of the tree while his winch was actually pulling on the tree. I always sit facing the tree to be cut.
This was the freakiest tree-felling I have witnessed. They always fall straight towards me because of the winch, but this one being a split oak (a lot of them are) as it fell, it split exactly in half, one half on each side of me (though not all the way up to me) and there was a short, fierce rush of wind and dirt and leaves, like a cyclone. Whew! Wish I had a video.
Once down, it was discovered that the main trunk was beginning to rot inside, so it definitely would have eventually fallen on the house.
Pam
Chris:
No! Not “diameter”! Circumference!
Whew.
Pam
Hi Pam,
Things may be different in your country, however, after the 2008 fiasco, and there seems like some sort of err, well, possible agreement in the west overall, that the folks as print the mad cash, will guarantee deposits up to a certain amount. Now in the land of down under, what that means I believe is that within a single, what they may describe as an ‘authorised deposit-taking institution’, and that has a specific legal meaning, my interpretation of how it works, is that if the combined balances attached to a persons name at that institution (and they have look through now which is what they were asking for last week, hmm, just sayin’) is less than $250k, the feds (i.e. the taxpayer) will guarantee the entire balance. It’s safe insurance at no cost to yourself. One cent more, and my understanding is that it ain’t guaranteed at all. Nada. Zip. None of it. And it’s a combined figure too. Bye bye to mad cash!
But on a practical note, let’s just say that you or I have to make a claim on that guarantee with the feds. Think worst case scenario here. The very first thing the bureaucrats will ask you or I is (I believe): Do you have any paperwork to substantiate the balances? Now as careful as I am, turns out one of my deposits was opened electronically, the statements are never sent, it’s all online on the banksters systems, and if you don’t diligently download the paperwork, that’s a serious problem right there. The whole thing looked as substantial as pixie dust to me under a worst case scenario. If this has happened to me, it could easily happen to others. So, what I would suggest to do is to obtain as much information as possible about the amounts held in deposit using the banksters systems and letterhead – which you can download now – and retain it, and keep it regularly updated – like say, once per month. I’m not mucking around here. It’s a risk you simply don’t want to have to face.
With these things, it’s often the small details like the above, which can save you a lot of hassles at some unspecified point in the future. If it’s not needed, then that’s great. But I ask you, why would the provisions have been put in place, not to mention last weeks demands to peer through the veil with all entities so that a persons combined balances at a particular institution can be totted up easily?
🙂 Well done you, and restaurants with loud music just make me want to go elsewhere. Like you, I too would prefer to chat.
Pam, you finally twisted my arm and I ordered some tea seeds from a cooler region than the existing tea camellia which is more suitable for tropical locales. Truly, I have no idea whether they’ll turn up, but it is worth trying. That unusually named local plant from further south and east of you, probably wouldn’t grow here either.
🙂 I’ve never seen crabapples for sale either.
I’d like the same lack of mucking around with the change in the time, but who listens to us, hey? What a delightful and fun saying, yes: Hot Dog! Looks like it will be a long weekend break from paid work – not that I get paid for public holidays these days.
That’s a big old oak tree, and total respect for making the decision before the tree smooshed the house. And yes, I’ve mentioned to you the tree which the champion axeman felled many long years ago, and that too had a massive rotten core (termites in this instance) and would have eventually fallen on the house. I have nothing but respect to the two of you for doing that work, it’s very, very, stressful. Now you can rest and relax knowing that whilst there may be other worries, you don’t know about them! 😉
A video of the incident would be nice, but probably in the circumstances it’s better to avoid any distractions! Just my take on things.
Did paid work today right up until dark fell at 8pm. A long, but productive day.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Brr! -2’C strikes fear into my summer soft heart. That’s as cold as it ever gets here, but admittedly it was 0’C yesterday morning. I’d imagine you’d be feeling the chill now, although Dame Avalanche would be in her element?
Holy carp! I’ve never seen or heard of kiosk banksters before. And like you, I’d have run as well. We have to be realistic, there are some nefarious folks around, and they’d enjoy nothing better than listening in to such loud loose talk which would possibly only invite trouble – as you likewise deduced. For me, when the systems went down that day, and the humans did appear to know how to cope, my first thought was that they weren’t evil or malicious, it was worse, the word ‘incompetent’ leapt into my mind. Combined with being locked out last week, then that incident, I began to truly consider how the entire arrangement appeared. I lost a few hours of sleep considering the implications, but no matter. Better to be prepared for the worst, and coast along when things go swimmingly. 🙂
Nice one and I’m mildly envious. Things are different down here, the concentration in that sector is intense. Not as many players as you’d imagine, and closing local branches makes a person mildly concerned as to the future.
What? That news was unheard of down here, and the media loves a good natural disaster. Whoa! ex-Typhoon Halong was a monster, and so much of that land lies at, or near sea level. Longer term, man, it’s not good. Rebuilding is an issue that is of considerable interest to me, what with the local risks, and a proper cheap mill might not be a bad idea.
I hear you about using your senses, and observational skills. The ants around here give quite a few hours warning of an impending storm, and low, thick black clouds are kind of hard to ignore.
🙂 The Demon Princes series of five books by Jack Vance is an absolute ripper tale, which I could delve into time and again. I’ll see about obtaining Mr Hillerman’s series.
It’s funny, but since we’re discussing the subject, in the long distant past folks have disparaged me for a certain lack of spontaneity, but I ask you, how does a person get stuff done without a level of planning? So yeah, I just try and balance out the energy needs, knowing my limitations on that front.
Speaking of your past work, nearby someone put in a very long fence, and there have been consequences. The council has now put in at regular intervals yellow posts delineating protected road side habitat. Such things have a legal meaning, which you don’t want to be on the wrong side of. Oh yeah.
🙂 Dogs can read the vibe, but as pack animals they’re usually quiet anyway. Barking and excitement is for rare occasions, not everyday. Dame Plum was punished earlier this evening. She’d slipped out from under a failed watchful eye and was on the road when a car drove by. Hearing the vehicle in advance and realising what had occurred, I called her, and she failed to instantly come. Not good, and fortunately the car (which was not driving fast in the first place) slowed and avoided her. My heart leapt into my mouth at that instant. Oh well, she’s earned some serious restrictions, and chasing rabbits is no excuse.
Exactly, situational awareness, also there’s an acknowledgement that things can go badly, even under the best circumstances. Plenty of people are oblivious to red flags which warn of impending trouble.
Yum! A variety of beans is a great idea. A lot of fibre with lentils, a whole lot. 😉
Thanks, and I hope to be able to install some new rocks tomorrow, maybe.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Oh, I’m terribly sorry about that, and recall your opinion on podcasts. Blame spending an hour of my day yesterday with the banksters. 🙂 What actually happened was that the link was the only one I could find on the subject which had enough text that you could simply read that and ignore the audio. Except I forgot to mention that aspect. Ook. It’s very strange, but I wasn’t able to easily find a normal article on the subject which wasn’t behind paywalls, cookie demands etc. It happens…
Does anyone at that level even fall on their swords nowadays? It used to be a thing which encouraged a certain level of care, but in these enlightened days consequences are apparently different. A lack of such harsh training breeds a certain sort of moral hazard.
The kids program is a great idea, and the lady has been pursuing that project for a very long time. It’s a good idea to show the young ones that food is not produced in a supermarket.
Man, a lot of questions got asked, recorded and I was id checked. What I’m guessing it is all about is clarifying who the ultimate beneficiary of funds held in deposit actually is, and then sticking that to them. Obviously there are implications for those who are allegedly involved in money laundering. But there are also consequences for how the governments deposit guarantee scheme works in practice – that seemed obvious to me after some careful middle of the night cogitation. Honestly, I’d prefer to have enjoyed the sleep, but no matter. It’s the tendency to avoid considering a worst case scenario which can leave people unstuck, and candidly locking me out of the system last week – even if it were an IT nerd error – was a real wake up call to have a closer and deeper look at my own arrangements. Easy to fix now, very, very, hard to fix later. I’m not saying it will occur, but then stranger things have actually happened in the past five years. There are a lot of things at play right now, agreed. Best to stay sharp, and have one’s ducks lined up, as the old timers used to quip. If it proves to never eventuate, that’d be great, it’s just that there are a lot of bubbles and credit. That last bit sounds like a meal of leftovers from the meal of the day before! 😉
The weather here was about almost the same, just a tad warmer during the late afternoon at 17’C / 63’F. Your Thanksgiving day is coming up soon – any plans for a roast chicken this year?
Can you imagine my surprise to discover mid this afternoon a large deer running around the inside of the citrus enclosure. That was a surprise, and Ollie and I cleared it off and away back into the forest. Turns out, the clever herbivores can jump the gates, but not the increased and over 6 foot fence height, which it looked panicked about encountering. Hmm. I’ll add some fence extenders to the two gates tomorrow. That’ll fix their bambi-esque shenanigans, maybe. In the meantime I strung up the hose between supporting gate fence posts and above the gate itself – that’ll work a treat.
You’ve said that about the release of the strategic fuel reserves in the lead up to an election, and it’s consistently worked for years. Respect! Hey, they do the same thing down here before an election, and put the price back up afterwards. Makes me wonder why as a society we keep voting back these tricksters? Hopefully you survived sticker shock? Never good…
Thanks, and I’ll find out how deep the tap root is for that walnut tree. 🙂 Plans changed today as there was a lot of work to do. Tomorrow I’ll get to that nut tree.
Oh, thanks so much for saying that, and I’d not considered that perspective previously. You know, the extraordinary idea that writing is a tool which can be used (but not limited to that alone) to communicate ideas to another person, was never even mentioned in High School English classes. There are times I do wonder if neglecting that concept is a deliberate strategy? Dunno.
Unfunded mandates are as an awful a concept as unfunded liabilities. It’s horrific to consider the unthinkable.
The local council has in the past few days placed yellow posts along the main road, and some side roads. Apparently they indicate vegetation which must be left alone, maybe. I’m kind of guessing all that began when someone nearby put in a huge long wire fence. It’s weird because people from outside the area were dumping rubbish on that land so I get why the fence was installed, but I reckon someone has cracked it and dobbed them in, probably because the land around the new fence looks messy. Foolish to not clean up afterwards. The posts go at regular intervals for miles too. Spotted a council person looking at the fence earlier today. Wonder what the bush telegraph has to say about all this?
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Re: Podcasts. No drama. I don’t expect you to keep track of all my quirks and foibles. 🙂
Sounds like the bank is setting up hoops, so that in some cases, they can wiggle out of the deposit guarantee. Probably the same here, but I’ve just never looked into it. I did take what you told Pam, to heart. I’ve never bothered to print out my monthly bank statement. My paper, my ink, my time … Yes, one doesn’t know what will happen. I just finished a newish book, “How Civil Wars Start and How to Stop Them.” (Walter, 2022.) It sounds like we’re well on our way, but the next one won’t look anything like the first one.
Our high yesterday was 57F (13.88C). Our overnight low was 46F (7.77C). Our forecast high for today is 58F. When I took H out of her midnight stroll, it was bucketing down. We both got very wet. Today and tomorrow are very nice.
I stopped by one of the independent grocery stores, yesterday, and just happened to talk to the butcher. He said he knew he’d be asked about the frozen, pressed turkey rolls (light and dark meat), that I prefer. Their wholesaler hasn’t carried any, in about 3 years. He’s going to try another wholesaler, and I should check back. I also asked if they had turkey drumstick and thigh. Yes, they do. If I can’t get the loafs, I’ll got with that.
I then stopped by the bakery outlet store, and picked up a package of stuffing. Basically, bread cubes. With a spice pack enclosed.
The hotel in Idaho has a table of nibbles and snacks for the guests. My friend tells me that maple bars, and bananas are big with their Australian miners. This is a maple bar … They are tasty.
https://w.wiki/FrNx
I really don’t suffer sticker shock, when I get petrol. Probably, because I only get it once a month, if that. I’m also aware that, compared to other countries, the price is really cheap.
I’m also reading a book of essays, and speeches by an author of history, David McCullough. He’s passed on, but his daughter and a friend put together “History Matters.” (2025). So, he talked about history, the importance of, writing, etc. etc.. I know I’ve read a couple of his books, and they were quit good, as I remember.
I saw an article, yesterday, on what we’re doing in this state, as far as the food programs go. From our local newspaper.
https://www.chronline.com/stories/washington-state-directs-state-dollars-to-food-banks-as-snap-funding-cliff-nears,390016?
You’ll have to think up some good conspiracy theories, as far as the yellow posts go. Put that out on the bush telegraph. 🙂 Scratching posts for wombats and kangaroos?
Well, it’s that time of the year, again. The Thing on My Back has reappeared. What, eight, nine years now? It’s getting to the stage where it ought to start draining, soon. So, I’ve been hot packing it, to hurry things along. It will be mess. Then it’s a week or more, juggling bandaids smeared with antibiotic cream, into a place that I really can’t see. Good times. 🙂 Lew
Chris:
I have paperwork for everything I have in a bank, for every month. I asked them to send me monthly statements and I do go over them. My son chides me: “You have too much paper!”, but it is the only way I feel safe. Thus, also, as I mentioned, knowing the bank employees. We do have free federal insurance (I think it is free) that covers total amounts in a bank up to $250,000.00, as you do there. It is called the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
I also have paperwork for all insurance policies and just about anything else you can think of. They are not in fireproof boxes, though, as they used to be. I need to get on that, for personal IDs, too.
I will be rooting for the tea to grow! It has been warm for so long (relatively so now) that my basil never set seed; I always save some. The Alpine strawberries are still going, though it turns out that Wooly Bears like them. I don’t mind. And nothing says “fall” like the Wooly Bears crossing the road. They are really cute and furry.
https://newlingristmill.org/cornelius-corner-the-wooly-bear-caterpillar/
“Now you can rest and relax knowing that whilst there may be other worries, you don’t know about them!” That is priceless! Thanks!
It’s cold and windy and raining a bit. I have to admit, I prefer my hurricanes warmer, which they usually are. This is a firewood day. My son has been bringing loads in the CAT’s bucket up to the house. Big loads! He can only get away with that temporarily since the landscaping is pretty well non-existent on the side of the house where the big split tree was. It has to all be replanted.
Pam
Chris,
Wow. We got more rain last night. Maybe 5mm. The October total is likely nearing twice the “average” October rainfall. This is nowhere near the October record. The “average” for the entire month is 31mm or so. October 2016 saw 158mm give or take. That’s a LOT of rain for any month in Spokane.
Dame Avalanche had an adventure on today’s walk. First, two dogs were running loose and following us. One, with 3 legs, was part husky. The other was a largish male who decided he wanted to sniff the Dame’s female parts. She doesn’t put up with that, but all went in a friendly fashion. Then a gent I converse with occasionally got home, so we stood there watching the other two dogs until their owner came by and got them in her car.
Later, a man and his tiny young son were raking leaves from their maple trees. The boy pointed at Avalanche and said, “Hi Wolf!” He got to meet her and pet her and was all kinds of excited. Then it was “Bye Wolf!” and we continued on. New friends day for Avalanche.
I see that Lew mentioned maple bars. The Princess loves maple bars. Now, when a corner is the first bite taken from a maple bar, there is a definite pattern of cracks that occurs in the maple frosting. There are also some minor cracks near the bite on the bottom of the bar. Oh, and tooth marks where the bite was taken, also. These are very similar in every maple bar I’ve ever eaten. Anyhow, one of our master carvers used to take a block of wood and trim it to maple bar dimensions, do some carving on it. He mixed paint to the exact color, added the proper oddities and speckles that can occur during baking the dough. And he carved a bite out of a corner. He was able to get the tooth marks and the cracks in the maple and bottom of the bar just about perfect. His carved wooden maple bar looked like a real maple bar. Many people got fooled by them. He would carve one for you for $10 or so.
Yeah, kiosk banksters. Unbelievable. I visited 2 different institutions before we changed banks. The first? Well, the people in the nearest branch weren’t very friendly. When I discussed why we were changing banks, they said that within 2 years they were also going to the kiosk model, that that was the future of banking. I ran. The other bank I visited is where ended up. Very friendly. No plans to change being friendly. Every branch I’ve been in has been great. Very fortunate.
Yup, Halong was gigantic. I’ve heard that it will take at least 18 months for the destroyed villages to rebuild. I found a couple articles about it. One also talks about how hard it will be for the villagers to rebuild. Many are homeless and winter starts in Alaska, like, now. The second article also talks about a previous storm in the region as well as the current storm.
https://ictnews.org/opinion/typhoon-leaves-flooded-alaska-villages-facing-a-storm-recovery-far-tougher-than-most-americans-will-ever-experience/
https://ictnews.org/news/mourning-land-that-leaves/
Yeah, you do similar to me. Balancing the personal energy needs is paramount. Which means you have to know yourself well, and limitations, and…
Ooops for Dame Plum! Chasing rabbits is no excuse to ignore the Alpha Humans! Good job by the car driver. There are places for Running Dog. Other places? Well, roads are not good for Running Dog.
More frost expected tonight.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Very good to hear, and candidly I’ve worked towards a similar end point. As far as I comprehend things, it’s cheap insurance which you hope you never have to do anything about. In such matters, the first thing which gets looked at is, what does the paper trail have to say. And if there is none, that looks as substantial as fairy dust to me. Don’t you find it interesting that between one country and another (a similar arrangement is in place here), for these sorts of things, the regulations sort of all look the same? That’s the amount here as well for the combined deposits. Go figure, there must be something in the water… 😉 It probably doesn’t mean nothing.
Yeah, we also keep electronic copies of insurance documents. One of the things I learned about folks was that in the aftermath of the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires where an awful lot of people perished, many people did not consider the wisdom of keeping backups of important documents. Encrypted USB hard drives are your go-to here, and few people have the skills to gain access to a drive locked up with a program such as VeraCrypt. It’s a lovely thing that programmers put their time into such free open source software.
Well, you sent me on a rabbit hole deep dive into tea, and turns out I’d been growing the wrong sort of camellia plant here – the one with the larger leaves more suitable to warmer climates. We’ll see what happens with the smaller leafed colder tolerant varieties. 🙂 Can you imagine a hedge of tea plants?
🙂 I so hear you about that with the basil plant. I’m waiting for the radishes to set seed in the greenhouse so that the plants can then be removed and the tomatoes get planted out. It’s early days still in the growing season, so what, me worry? 🙂 Need a second greenhouse. Oh well… Don’t you just want to pat those delightful caterpillars? We get such critters here too.
Pam, I won’t mention that today was 72’F, calm with sunny blue wide open skies. Oops, broke my own rule there. 😉 That’s very funny too about the hurricane observation, yes, why can’t this storm bring with it some tropical warmth? Such large machines are known to make a lot of mess, sorry to say, but on the other hand, on a cold bleak winters day in a few months, plentiful firewood is like solid stores of mad cash with the banksters, but only better!
Moved quite a number of large rocks back up the hill today and placed them in the new rocks walls. It’s a decent start. And whilst sorting out the soil slope on the new garden bed surface one of the largest tree roots I’d seen was pulled from the ground. Who knew it was even there, and at one point there was a moment of doubt that the beast could be lifted from the ground. Made for a good photo opportunity.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
5mm is a very useful drop of rain, and hopefully will seep into the soil. It’s meant to be a La Nina year, isn’t it? With that frost, how is the grass looking? Presumably your dry tolerant grasses are looking lush now. 158mm would be a lot of rain for any month here as well, although I once experienced a crazy storm system that dropped 250mm in 5 days during summer here. Completely off the charts wet, and that year the burn off restrictions were lifted in early March. Nothing was going to burn outdoors then.
Ah, yes, well, dogs are sometimes amorous in public spaces much to the embarrassment of their humans. 🙂 Of course Dame Avalanche is having none of that funny business with some rando largish male, let alone a 3 legged Husky. Makes the sensitive person wonder where the fourth leg went… Anywhoo, prior to any goodies, those dogs have to prove their worth, which clearly a momentary sniff does in no way qualify their canine pre-eminence in the mind of the Dame. Still, the incident gave you much to discuss.
Man, Husky’s look like mini-wolves, so the kid’s greetings was pretty astute. Ollie and Dame Plum enjoyed some warm spring sunshine trapped within the citrus enclosure today. Ruby is a tad more slinky, so she escaped and followed us around whilst doing rock work. Yes, more rocks were relocated.
Never seen a maple bar, but have had a pint of Canadian maple stout which at 22% was kind of like a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster – and you know what happened with those! 😉 What is this thing? Oooo, looks lethal, and I managed to uncover a truly amusing recipe (I’m in awe of the text): Maple Donut Recipe (Maple Bars). Just between you and I, and I’ll whisper this next bit, my masculine constitution may not be man enough for such tasty treats. Although, I did have a small chunk of cheesecake today with the afternoon coffee, so yeah, why the heck not go the maple bar!
True mastery of the art form that carving work. Respect, and it would have been fun to see people getting fooled.
Hopefully kiosk banking does not become a thing down here, although you guys do innovate a lot of stuff which filters down the food chain to us at the bottom of the world. The folks working in that original branch may have been at risk of losing their jobs under that new efficient model, thus the surliness? Nice choice too going with the friendliness.
Trees would grow slow that far north, and supplies would be so far away. A caravan is not an option in that sort of winter, if it could even get there. It’s just wrong. Surprisingly, I’d imagined that part of the world had more forest resources with a local small sawmill to at least get something going shelter wise. Those are some seriously hard choices the folks up there will have to make, soon.
Dame Plum was on freedom-rations today, and has been super attentive. The dog went from hero to zero extraordinarily rapidly yesterday, and also used up one of her nine lives. Incidentally, late this afternoon she encountered an Echidna and I told her to ‘leave it’ (a very useful command) and the Kelpie turned and walked away. Ollie is always on a lead, for good reasons.
Frost! Brr! It was 0’C here the other morning, but you do frosts biggerer in your part of the world. Hope it wasn’t too extreme.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
No worries at all, appreciate that and hey, sometimes I forget my own quirks and foibles! 🙂
That’s probably part of the process, or more likely, an interesting side effect of it. A lot of these sorts of wealth in a time of crisis things very much depend on how future events play out. Those stashes which even now are found buried near to Roman villa’s in Britain, kind of suggest all sorts of ugly possibilities. Do you think the claim that: “My gold are the plants and knowledge”, would pass muster with a roving war band? Probably not, although a good feed and drink would perhaps soothe some of the less obstreperous types.
Oh, I should have mentioned that aspect. I don’t print such things either, but save them in electronic format and store them on an encrypted hard drive. I kind of figure, if I can’t print out a few sheets of paper from electronic records, everyone else is going to have bigger problems than that, so it’s kind of a relative process. Still, cheap insurance at very little cost.
Hopefully, events simmer down and folks on either side of that partisan, or is it particle, wall / divide, stop stirring the pot for their own ends. Did you learn anything interesting and of use from the book? Did it have anything to say about staying out of harms way?
Man, the weather today was truly glorious at 72’F with no wind and beautiful blue sunny skies. Bummer that you both ended up wet, and hopefully warmth returned quickly. You can do a lot outdoors in your kind of weather and avoid feeling knocked out by the sun.
Moved plenty of large rocks today, and the path project is progressing nicely. Have to laugh, I was smoothing out the soil in the developing garden bed when I hit a tree root. How hard can it be to remove from the soil I thought to myself, well turned out it was plenty hard to achieve that goal. 🙂 The root was immense, and I’d not even been aware of it’s existence. Oh well, I would have eventually discovered the buried object when we began planting up the garden bed. The monster from the deep… Sounds like a scary film title.
Shame the butcher didn’t take your name and number and try to track some of the turkey roll down for you. That’s proper old school customer service. I remember the days when things like that took place. Just checking back is a bit random for my tastes, and like you I’d keep the place in mind as a plan B.
Nice stuff, and the thought of stuffing from a roast chicken (or turkey in your case) is making me feel hungry, and I’ve already eaten. Go well with proper sized chips. Yummo! When I was a kid, I was fond of sandwiches on fresh bread, slathered with butter and stuffed with hot chips. Sounds awful, but so good. 🙂
I’ve never seen a maple bar before, and left a link to a very amusing recipe. I’m not suggesting to try the recipe, it was the story which was attached to it that made me laugh. Very much of the ‘tiramisu fail’ variety.
It’s funny you say that about fuel costs, but with small vehicles I tend to keep the 9 something gallon tanks full, not because we use a lot, but years ago – and you may recall, maybe – but a monster wind storm pummelled this area. Trees were down everywhere, and the power was out for something like 5 days. The thing is, if the power is out, usually so are the pumps at the petrol / gas station. So yeah, I try not to run things close to the bone. One of the recurring issues with the book containing the oral history of various locals who survived the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires was that many of them discovered that their fuel tanks in their cars were running on vapour on the night of the fire. The general conclusion seemed to be that this was not a good thing.
The author has a notable collection to his name, and I get the impression that he was interested in values and character – both unpopular topics in these enlightened days. Did any of the essays stand out in particular to you?
Sorry to hear that about the food programs, and is it my imagination (or poor math skills) that almost 1 in 8 people in your state are on food benefits? Do you reckon the funding issues and demand will affect your food boxes?
🙂 Yellow posts put up by the local council suggests to me that there has been, or will be, trouble. Had a picture of a koala on it too, and I’d wondered if wombats are somehow less photogenic? There sure are far more wombats than koalas up here. The marsupials should sue. I like you suggestion though, and it gave me a good laugh.
Get thee onto draining, and hopefully the thing runs out of juice. I reckon you’re right, it has been around for that long. Do you have any idea as to why it flared up again recently?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Spotted this article on a passive house: Ryan has lived in a passive home for five months. These are the pros and cons.
If I read the article correctly, the place cost I believe a cool two mill. Candidly speaking, if someone wants to do something good for the environment and use less ongoing energy, it’s probably preferable to construct a smaller house in the first place. I dunno…
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Yes, one must be hospitable to roving war bands. 🙂 I’d guess that throwing around a lot of coin, might make one a target. I can just hear some little squealer saying, “Oh, Fred always pays for his bread at the market, with those old silver dimes.” There’s some speculation, now, that a lot of pre-Roman gold and silver hoards might have been community wealth. It’s a new theory, so details on how that would have worked are slim. Another speculation is that some hoards might have belonged to temples or religious sites.
The author of the book on civil wars, is a political scientist, who has wandered the world looking into how they start. Or, why they don’t. Her book was written, probably longer than three years ago (judging from the copyright date..) How to avoid civil wars? Effective, pragmatic leaders, a strong social safety net, and addressing grievances, real or imagined. A better regulated media environment. Not only the internet, but also radio and TV. People are often stoked to civil war, due to perceived loss of status. Fear of losing status. It all seems pretty pie in the sky, to me. Especially, since, from my point of view, all the things she mentioned have been further eroded, over the past few years. Since she wrote the book.
Our high yesterday was 59F (15C). Our overnight low got down to 36F (2.22C). Our forecast high for today is 56F. Looks like more atmospheric rivers, will be coming in, this weekend.
I wonder if the tree root is left over from when the forest encroached closer to your homestead? Best get it out (and any others you find.) I learned something new, from “Fire Country.” Zombie fires. That burn underground, often old tree roots.
A hot chip sandwich sounds ok, to me. I might slather it with mayo or catsup. Or, both 🙂 . The maple bar recipe was very good, though she lost me at the deep frying. Just something I don’t do. Too much mess. There’s a certain segment of the foodie community, that don’t appreciate the cute little stories. Get to the recipe! 🙂 I don’t mind. Like the fast forward on my DVD player, there’s a scroll bar. But, I did read the part, carefully, about turning your oven into a proofing box.
I’m probably slack about keeping my petrol tank topped up. It usually gets down to about 1/4, before I fill it. But that’s the thing about wildfire evacuations. There are traffic jams, and people not as prudent about keeping their tanks topped up, are trapped. I haven’t started the book on the Paradise fire, yet, but I’m sure there will be stories …
McCullough really wanted to get at who the people he was writing about, really were. He depended, heavily, on letters and personal diaries. I wonder if he ever passed on exploring a personage, due to lack of information? Some of his books took as long as ten years, to write.
I don’t know what our food boxes will look like, this month, or even if we’ll get them. I thought last months boxes were on the “light” side.
Well, right after I wrote you, yesterday, I hot packed my back and … drainage! Blood, puss, crude and corruption. As I said, good times. 🙂
I really don’t know what causes this yearly cycle. Always in the late summer / early fall. Maybe my back gets sweaty-er, or something. Even though I’m careful to wash it with a long handled brush, AND a luffa sponge. Anyway, now we’re onto large bandages with antibiotic cream smeared on them. Always hard to hit the spot, as I can barely see it, let alone reach it. One of the few times I think a wife would come in handy. 🙂 The first couple of times it happened, I did go to the doctor. Speculation was, it’s an hair follicle (though, I don’t have a hairy back, back by any stretch of the imagination … you needed to know that, right? 🙂 ), or infected pore.
One wonders what Ryan does for a living, to afford such a house. LOL, I also wonder if some of these people plan their houses with Grand Designs Australia, in mind. I want to get back and read some of the sidebar articles, on other houses.
I saw an article, yesterday, on insurance and houses. I do wonder what happens if a homeowner is carrying a mortgage, and can’t get insurance?
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/idaho-man-says-turned-down-113000970.html
Since this is an Idaho story, I think I’ll ask my Idaho friend, if she has thoughts. Since they have bought and sold many houses, and their daughter is a real estate agent.
I suppose, a person could take potential insurance money, and put it in savings. If they were disciplined. But would that satisfy a mortgage holder? Probably, not. Banks always want to get a third party involved, to assume the risk. Lew
Chris:
A hedge of tea camellias sounds delightful. Do they bloom?
We had rain in the night and winds up to 25 mph (40kph), they say, and when I got out to the garden to look at my rain bucket it showed 3 inches (7.6cm) of rainwater, and that was over 8 hours. Beautifully sunny today, though.
I look forward to seeing the rocks in their new home, but what on earth did the tree root belong to?
I see where you mentioned to DJSpo that Dame Plum ran out into the road and almost had a mishap. Heart in your mouth, indeed. She is going to lose her Dameship if she doesn’t watch out. Can one lose such a title?
I made cabbage rolls yesterday. They were really good. I have a friend whose mother was Polish, so I figured that she might have a recipe and she did. I had never tasted one before.
What’s this about yellow posts?
Pam
@ Pam,
If I might hazard a guess: if Prince Andrew can be stripped of his princehood and other titles and whatnots, Dame Plum could probably lose her Damehood.
DJSpo
Chris,
I read that article on Ryan’s passive home. I concur with your opinion. If the goal is to use less energy and be better for the environment, a smaller house is a good place to start. Small house constructed the way his is would use very little energy and have a much smaller footprint.
More frost and our first autumn fog today. Thick fog. The temperatures haven’t quite gotten cold enough to cause the grass to go dormant, although today’s high never quite reached +5C. For now, the lawn is as green as it ever gets.
250mm of rain in 5 days? Ych a fie! (Yuck! in Welsh) Even in this sandy area I’d be hip deep in mud with that much rain that fast. Wow. There would be urban flooding and standing water everywhere. I remember during a bad thunderstorm several years ago, there was enough standing water downhill to the north of us that a guy made the national news. He was paddling his kayak in the flooded street.
All right! Rocks were relocated. and this time with Ruby’s slinky assistance. Dame Plum did sort of ask to have her activities curtailed, sadly. At least that orchard is large enough to allow some running around.
Yup, you found maple bars with those recipes. That’s them sure enough. They are too sweet for me. The Princess likes them.
Our artist who carved the maple bars was Tim, the master carver who died a year ago. He had a great sense of humor. He had an entry a few years ago that he called “Pencil Box”. He carved what looked like a big cardboard box filled with pencils. He had carved all of the “pencils” also. All shapes and sizes and colors. The entire project was from one piece of wood, so even though the pencils looked real, they were all attached. There were people trying to pull pencils out of the box.
He also carved what looked like a very worn man’s leather wallet, complete with worn spots, creases, cracks and even the corner of a properly colored $20 bill peeking out of the wallet. The Princess came in the back door to the show that year, saw that about first thing, and exclaimed, “Who entered that old leather thing as a carving?” I had her pick it up and then she had a good laugh.
Then there was his series of “XXX, Slightly Used”. Like a bunch of bananas, one of which has been peeled and has a bite taken out of it. Thus, “Bananas, slightly used.” He did something similar with a packet of cookies. I think he did another food item or two, also. I suggested that he complete his “slightly used” series with a carving of a human brain entitled “Brains, slightly used”. He thought for a moment then said, “That would be hard. Maybe I can carve the Three Stooges and call that carving ‘Brains, Slightly Used’.” But he died before he could get to that.
The flooded areas of Alaska from that typhoon are mostly roadless. As in, you literally cannot drive from Anchorage or Fairbanks or even Nome to get there. Accessible by airplane or boat. And trees? That part of Alaska is hit or miss, I understand. I know in the interior, like Fairbanks, the tree growth depends on how close to the surface the permafrost layer is. Near the surface, short trees. Further beneath the surface, taller trees. On a drive once from Fairbanks toward Denali, I quickly learned the secret to the roads. Tall trees, you could drive at highway speeds. Short trees ahead? Slow way down because there will be huge frost heaves in the roadway due to the permafrost being near the surface.
Good for Dame Plum listening to you about the echidna. All those spines and needles. Ych a fie! Rakhi the Samoyed tangled with a porcupine. Twice. Got needles stuck all over from that thing. Neighbor that I grew up with was a veterinary technician. She kindly removed the porcupine needles both times.
When I need a laugh, I read some of the quotes this dude has posted from conversations with his daughters. Four of them. He posted stuff for years as they were growing up. One of them went like this: “My 7 year old wants to become a doctor and heal people. My 4 year old wants to be a porcupine so she can stab people with her butt.” Often, I can see things from the 4 year old’s point of view. 😉
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Oh yeah, tea camellia’s produce delightful, yet small white and yellow blooms in summer. It remains to be seen whether the more cold tolerant variety of seeds arrive from the land of stuff, but we’ll see.
That’s an astounding quantity of rain, and was that part of the Hurricane Melissa which caused so much damage on those islands way to the south of you? Your place may grow like a jungle when such moisture is combined with sunshine. 🙂 And glad you were nowhere near the eye of that particular storm. Sometimes summer storms will occasionally dump four inches in an hour, and they freak me out due to the potential destruction. Looking at the forecast, Monday may deliver an inch of rainfall. A good day to spend indoors. It’s a changeable time of year for sure. The horsie race the next day may get wet and cold too.
Truly I’ve no idea why there was such a large root system in the ground, but the timber is very slow to decompose. Could have been a remnant from the original earthworks in 2009, but equally likely was much older. I’ve spent the past three winters cleaning up the old loggers mess dating back to the harvest from the post 1983 Ash Wednesday fires, and those folks were notably less neat than myself. I’ve observed that the massive upside down burned tree stumps rarely had the arms attached.
What a question regarding the Kelpie’s title, and it’s all rather relevant given today’s news. The head of our government has clearly made a decision in relation to your very question: Stripped of his titles and his home, Andrew’s humiliation is complete. Given the bodies piling up around this matter – did they suicide, or were they suicided – it’s probably not what I’d describe as a safe discussion. Dame Plum on the other hand is a true lady who made an unfortunate decision, yet survived the consequences. And for that, I’m eternally grateful.
Hang on a second! Pam, what the heck? Is a cabbage roll the European equivalent of an enchilada? 🙂 Unfortunately the climate is slightly too cool here for cabbages to form proper heads. Anyway, I’ve never had much luck with those plants, and the moths give me nightmares! Have you ever grown a cabbage which produced a head?
The posts are a mystery, and you can quote me here: “They don’t mean nothin!’ There are some large words emblazoned vertically upon them which proclaims: ‘Protected Area’. What does this mean? Is it to ward off the leaf change tourists? Truly, nobody has spoken to me about this matter, although I appear to be paying for it. A mystery… There are times when I feel that despite all the odd things going on in your country, things are stranger again down here.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Yes, that’s exactly the core issue. In many ways, it’s not dissimilar to the rhetoric around vehicles. As someone with a background in physics and the more practical side of civil engineering, you’d appreciate the simple concept that: Mass costs. How folks don’t get that idea is beyond my understanding.
Whoa! DJ, you went from summer to winter (well from my reckoning) in a very short period of time. I’ve been observing here for a lot of years that the season of fall, whatever that means, is becoming shorter over time. 19’C here today, but cloudy with 2mm of rain.
Thanks for the Welsh exclamation! I see that you are still deep in study for that language. Yeah, that happens in the big smoke as well in that one or two inches of rain can lead to major flooding. It’s an urban area with all the drainage infrastructure compromises that entails – like roads on low lying areas etc… Or flooded underpasses… Ych a fie! 😉 Ten inches of rainfall over five days was a crazy amount of rain, but the forest drainage systems just coped with the volume of water. There have been huge rainfall events here, which drain into the Maribyrnong River which reaches the bay near to the city, and those occasionally deliver some floods. Here’s one from 2022: The day Melbourne residents woke to the Maribyrnong ‘consuming’ their neighbourhoods. Just checked the records and 132mm of rain fell over two days back then.
Dame Plum and Ollie enjoyed lazing around on the fresh grass in the warm spring sunshine in the large enclosure. Ruby has a different personality from those two.
🙂 Proving that your lady is also sweeter than either of us!
My mate, Tim the master crafter
When pencils were short
And drawings required
He carved and carved
A masterpiece of confection
Every colour known
Or at least, remembered
By children from a certain age
Or in later days remembering
The box of pencils
We carried of yore
To undertake the classwork of bore
Tim’s mirth for sure
Would have had the last laugh!
Sorry for that, don’t even know where it came from, but I recall you mentioning that cheeky lyrics and your friend were somehow entwined. Both of his works sounded like funny jokes to me too. And the Three Stooges concept was spot on for that trio of trouble.
Unfortunately that was my take on access to those remote settlements. Boat, or not at all. You’d hope some barges laden with materials get pressed into action. It’s really odd how our society has a one size fits all approach to housing. Using available local materials would really speed things up with rebuilding after a disaster. If say I used green timber in a house up here, even after a major fire swept through, the authoritas would have a major meltdown. Mind you, timber has been used that way for millennia. Why try to resist the environment with an abstract notion of what a house is meant to be? It’s an odd notion.
Oh far out! Did you remove some of the needles from the questionable (!) Rahki the Samoyed? 🙂 I went back later to check on the echidna and it had moved on. They do a lot of digging for ants and grubs so they’re really good for the forest soils.
I like a good laugh too.
Did some paid work today, but also headed north to the cool store to replenish the apple and pear supplies. Yum!
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Probably the only option for those who wish to remain aloof from the frays. Man, it’s been remarked upon before that during troubled times, sometimes old scores are settled, and so I appreciate the insight regarding the free flowing coins. And sometimes tongues will wag. Having a temple with lots and lots of precious metals is probably a bad idea for when the Vikings come calling. Even so, those raiders hit Skellig Michael, and a more impoverished looking place (but truly epic all at the same time) would be hard to find. Easy to defend that monastery with only a few souls.
Effective, pragmatic leaders, a strong social safety net, and addressing grievances, real or imagined. A better regulated media environment. The author isn’t asking for too much! Alas, agreed, it is a bit pie-in-the-sky wish list, sorry to say. Thanks for mentioning those core ideals, and they seem very important to me as well if we were to chose to live in a stable society. Dunno what people expect would happen. Sounds like the book was a sobering read.
19’C / 67’F today with lots of clouds and a bit of drizzle. Keep the umbrella and towel handy for those storms. 🙂 We’re in for a biggie storm Sunday night into Tuesday (the big horsie race day public holiday). Looks like the worst of the three storms up your way will pass to the north and south of where you are, maybe. But it’ll get wet in your part of the planet for sure! We might get more than an inch, but perhaps less than two inches, all well received. Hmm, I probably want to get some more rocks on the new path project before then, just to sure everything up. We’ll see.
Did some paid work today, but also headed north to pick up some apples and pears at the cool store. I have no idea how last seasons apples can still be in such great condition, but they are. On the trees here, they’re tiny little fruit-lets.
I was also wondering that about the root lifted from the ground. And absolutely, fires will go underground here as well. Yup. Very, very hard to put out. I’ve never seen it myself, but have spoken with locals who’d discovered a root smouldering months after the initial fire was extinguished. Incidentally, the root may have been left in the ground from the salvage log operations, I mean, only the stumps were ever removed from what I can tell.
My mother used to have a deep fryer, which used lard, and I’m talking dripping collected from meat roasting and other such tasty meal preparation activities. It’s worth noting, that for decades I’ve been a mostly vegetarian, and never as an adult have I deep fried food. I believe the lady departed this mortal coil at the age of 71 years. Just sayin… 🙂 So I hear you about the mess, but there are possibly some health considerations in play too.
Well, foodies are just like the rest of us then. Hehe! I tend to appreciate the cute stories, but equally enjoy the more technical side of the endeavour.
Man, you’d be amazed how much fuel gets used up by an engine when it is sitting there idling away stuck in traffic. It’s more than people generally realise. Ooo, I’ll be very interested to hear if there is any good chunks of information in the Paradise fire book.
In a decade of research and writing, you’d imagine that few, if any, stones were left unturned regarding an historical character. The problem with history is that there’s always a bit of hagiography going on don’t you reckon? I once read an amusing quote about a rather popular prime minister many years ago, and it went something along the lines of: ‘The only people who like him, have never met him’. In an amusing post script, your current president met him, and didn’t like him, possibly for good reason too.
Fingers crossed with the food boxes, and hope it is OK. A lot of people will be hurting from this. And maybe angry.
That all sounds rather unpleasant, but you’re getting onto sorting it out. 🙂 What else do you do? It is weird that it happens at this time of year. The protein levels in food stuffs is much lower in your part of the world in a few months time, the spring lean period, but not now. But it could be environmental too, like extra heating or something like that. A mystery.
That’s possible about planning the build with that outcome in mind. Still, it’s not free is it? And as to the insurance, well I’ve been saying that for many long years, and am surprised that people now seem to becoming aware of the issue. Did I read correctly that the bloke had a mortgage at the age of 70? My mind is attempting to come to grips with how he would meet the regular payments. Another mystery. I’ve read that more folks down here are now retiring with mortgages, and am wondering whether they’re giving their kids a helping hand. But the risk… I dunno, about that.
What, me risk? (said in best Alfred E Neumann voice)
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – I think it was a general understanding, among the Vikings, that monasteries were ripe targets. And some were. Patrons often gifted a lot of flashy bling, to monasteries. But Skellig Michael? Probably, not so much. It was probably a disappointing raid.
Our high yesterday was 52F (11.11C). Our overnight low was 37F (2.77C). Our forecast high for today is 55F. Yup, it looks like we’re in for a bit of weather. When I took H out for a walk, the wind was already gusting to 20mph. Might hit 30mph or even 40mph, tonight and into tomorrow. With rain. I’m finally seeing flood watches and warnings. But north of Seattle and out on the Olympic Peninsula.
Most cool fruit stores have pretty stringent climate control. A narrow band of humidity and temperature control, that sort of puts the fruit into suspended animation. How were the prices?
One of the best donuts I’ve ever had, was made by the Mennonites. I believe they used lard to get that melt in your mouth texture. Along with a lot of other things, in the foodies world, lards reputation rises and falls. And rises again. As with a lot of other things, probably moderation offsets some potential bad effects.
The Paradise fire book, might be next up in the pile. I got the “1929” book. I read a bit of it, and it’s pretty dry. All 450 pages of it. Galbraith is cited as one of the primary sources. The author, Sorkin, also wrote a book about the 2008, meltdown. “Too Big to Fail.”
I think McCullough had a fondness, for whoever he decided to tackle. But didn’t gloss over their shortcomings. An honest historian? 🙂 He also had a research assistant, who worked with him for years.
I saw another article on the government food programs and food banks.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/30/politics/food-banks-snap-funding-shutdown
My Idaho friend had this to say, about house mortgages and insurance. “Home insurance….. if you have a mortgage, the norm has always been is that you have to have insurance or you are in violation of the contract. The bank could confiscate the home. BUT, I don’t think they’d have much luck reselling because a new owner would have to have “proof” of insurance before closing. NOW that’s why I was saying earlier I’d quit making payments and just become a squatter in the house. Insurance companies see these homes as a liability.”
I also saw an article about the rising car insurance rates.
https://www.npr.org/2025/10/30/nx-s1-5542448/car-insurance-rising-premiums
I hear stories … Cars are so expensive to repair, these days, that even minimal damage can cause the insurance company to “total out,” a given vehicle. I also saw another article, that a record number of people are behind in their auto payments. Not a good economic indicator.
Happy Hell-o-weenie! H and I are laying low. I might make up a batch of the Chex mix, tonight. I might have a spooky movie, in the stack. A new one, “Weapons,” maybe. Or maybe something lighter.
I started watching a new-ish Australian mystery series. “Return to Paradise.” Pretty good. Lush backgrounds. The town is fictional, but it was filmed in New South Wales, around Bilgora and Avalon beaches. Lew
@ DJSpo:
Oooh – I suspect Dame Plum had better be more careful or, besides losing her Damehood, she might end up with a mugshot down at the police station, if those are the circles she is moving in.
Pam
Chris:
Could you get that type of tea camellia from the U.S. or India? Not that they won’t get there from the land of stuff, but my neighbor ordered her rabbit scarer directly from the land of stuff and it took a really long time to get here.
Yes, that was Hurricane Melissa, but it has been beautifully sunny since the rain, though windy. I don’t know how jungley it might get this time of the year, but we haven’t even been down to 0C, which you have. For which I am grateful.
I love this time of the year when the leaves are colorful, yet they are falling off more rapidly (especially with the wind), and I can begin to see the houses that are hidden the rest of the year along the winding, narrow 2-lane highway that I drive into town. Some of them are large, old manor houses from the 18th and 19th centuries.
I have answered DJSpo about his comment concerning Dame Plum and Prince Andrew and I am glad to hear your report that she is actually a true lady, her head just temporarily went, and that she has mended her ways.
Once I got close to growing a whole cabbage. It was a fall-planted one, which is why I am trying again. I have some young ones out there growing from seed planted outside. The one before was a fairly well grown bought plant. I am having no moth trouble, but the small cabbages may not make it through the winter.
I don’t think anyone could call a cabbage roll a northerly enchilada, yet the insides are similar . . . and the tomatoes on top. How weird, I almost bought a canned enchilada sauce today with that in mind.
I don’t think yellow posts are going to scare away leaf change tourists.
This morning I stepped on Mr. Baby’s tail. He screeched, and then hissed at me when I tried to rub it. I always wear super soft soled shoes when in the house, so I can feel everything I step on that’s on the wood floors, I mean even a bit of dirt, so it didn’t hurt him that much. Later he came in the kitchen and said he forgave me.
Pam
@ Pam,
And if Dame Plum continues down the bad path, we might even see her picture in the local US Post Office! Imagine an Australian dog on the US FBI most wanted list. Sad, very sad. Hope she gets it together first. 😉
DJSpo
Chris,
Nicely said – “mass costs”. And there’s also the thermal mass inside the house. That guy put in a lot of large rocks and boulders, admitting that it takes longer to heat the house when cold because of them. Similarly, when the house is too warm, because of the boulders’ thermal mass, it will take longer to cool the house. Thermal mass is good when it is working for you (think rocket woodstoves), but when it is working against you it can be expensive. Maybe the house is superbly insulated and whatnot, but it’s definitely not what I would build or even want to live in.
Glad you enjoyed the Welsh. It is pronounced about like “uck uh vee”. Except the “ch” sound is deeper in the throat, sort of a throat clearing noise. It’s one of those words that sounds just like you need it to for many situations.
Agreed. Summer to winter very rapidly. That’s Spokane. And yes, foggy, frosty, high below +5C? Yes, that is weather in many of our winter months. Today started similar to Thursday, then warmed up to +7.5C. But with the air inversion, the air quality degraded to “unhealthy for sensitive people”, meaning neither DJ nor Dame Avalanche should exert themselves outdoors. No walk. Rain forecast overnight, windy Saturday. Should clear out the smoke. Then warm up to milder autumn temps near 15C.
That 2022 storm was a lot of rain in two days. I’ve been in a few southwestern US thunderstorms when in New Mexico. You know the type of storm: up to 50mm of rain in less than an hour. Flash floods everywhere. We get the occasional thunderstorm like that here, but not often.
The Princess thanks you for mentioning her normal level of great sweetness.
Mate, thanks for the nice poem about my friend. We have an area of the house with pictures of several of our deceased carving friends. Tim’s is one of those. I’ll print that poem and put it near the picture.
I’m trying to decide on my next pyrography project. Hmmm, maybe that Three Stooges project. It’s one I am capable of doing.
“Why try to resist the environment with an abstract notion of what a house is meant to be? It’s an odd notion.” Agreed. That statement has applications in many different topics. The Native Alaskans have a rough go of it to begin with. Add the modern building codes, well, ouch. Then there’s the SNAP benefits issue which I think Lew has mentioned? 25% of indigenous Americans in this country are on the SNAP food assistance program. These folks that just lost their houses are in very dire straits. Family and other Native villages will try to help, but it will be hard.
I think I removed a needle or two from Rakhi. The neighbor removed the remainder. She knew how due to her job.
Today was go to the stores for supplies for me, too. I was talking with the cashier at the local Malwart. Turns out I watched her grandson play basketball at the local major university for 4 years. Good player. He is now in the USA professional junior league, or developmental league or whatever they call it this year. So are at least two of his teammates, but none on the same team. The conversation made the trip much more enjoyable.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
We’re a bit closer geographically to the land of stuff, although I’ve read that actual, like, genuine pirate activity is on the up recently in the Strait of Malacca. All sorts of crazy things are going on there which inevitably increase shipping costs for the rest of us. Shipments from your country don’t traverse those waters, so have a higher probability of actually arriving. In relation to the tea camellia seeds, nobody from your country were selling them. My understanding is that the conditions for the plants are good, particularly up in the PNW nearer to the coast, but there just isn’t much grown. Coffee has a similar issue in your country. Coffee is grown up on the mid north east coast of this continent, in fact I recall a town with the name ‘Coffee Camp’, which is suitably unoriginal, if I may say so. And know a bloke who’s parents used to own a coffee plantation up in that part of the country.
The best rabbit scarer are either the foxes, or owls. I’d lend you some spares, but they may not enjoy your winters. 🙂
Yeah, the timing for your recent heavy rain wasn’t all that great, and thanks as I’d wondered if it was from the tail end of that monster hurricane. The potato leaves look a bit weird after the frozen frosty morning, but hopefully they’ll recover. This morning was really foggy, and we shot this weeks video just as the fog was lifting. The Halloween edition…
🙂 Beware the leaf change tourist, although I may be biased and freely admit that. Winter is the time to see the bones of a garden, and hopefully those old manor houses don’t sport the odd ghost or four.
Yes, that’s it exactly. Dame Plum is a true lady who merely made a poor decision which only put herself at risk. The other bloke, well, I’ve heard it said that some folks have dark tastes, and who knows what entities are in charge of those ships whilst the lights shine when nobody is at home. A bit like the Mary Celeste really, and best avoided.
🙂 Pam, I applaud your efforts, and although I love cabbage, long ago retired from the field in total defeat. A sad moment, which I soon got over! Now Russian Kale is my favourite replacement. It’s just easier in every way. How the commercial growers produce heading cabbages is way beyond my understanding!
The recipes do look kind of similar to me, although I prefer the corn flat bread things. Yum! So did you end up buying the can?
Hehe! Very funny! The yellow posts scare the locals. I still don’t know what they mean.
Mr Baby is a true gentleman to make amends for his over reaction. I will add that sometimes the dogs plop themselves down on the kitchen floor as a trip hazard. Probably a cunning plan to ensure that in a moment of human imbalance food gets dropped on the floor. Playing the long game is what it looks like to me. Of course, Mr Baby would never stoop to such low Kelpie tactics, maybe… Hope his tail is OK? Sometimes the chickens mill around the door to their enclosure and I’ve occasional trod on one of their feet, and rarely are the feelings expressed by the birds kindly and pleasant, no it’s 100% pure hate. I know, awful isn’t it, and only choice treats seems to soothe the savage dinosaur.
Moved heaps of rocks back up the hill today for the new path project, and even split a few boulders.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Yeah, that’s the thing isn’t it with thermal mass. It takes a lot of energy to warm up, then maybe a bit less energy to cool down. Years ago, we had 3 days in a row over 40’C, and one of those was 45’C, and the nights did not cool below 20’C. I reckon, but can obviously never test it out, thermal mass would have been great, at first, but later would have been a pain. When the cool change eventually arrived, at least I can open the doors and windows and reduce the heat rapidly.
Rocket woodstoves do work and they radiate the heat which is ordinarily lost up the flue. We do a similar thing with the water jacket and radiators. Overall with wood heaters I’m of the opinion that a bigger combustion chamber is better, mostly because it’d usually not be over stacked with firewood, and so the steel would be less stressed. Of course, any tool can be abused don’t you reckon?
Thanks for the useful Welsh saying. A great way to confuse people. 🙂 And the sounds themselves express a certain discontent with a situation.
Hopefully the rain and wind clean up your local air, and those inversions happen in the big smoke. From this distance, the air looks filthy, but these things happen. You’ll both enjoy the 15’C days when they arrive. Man, it was only 20’C here today, but far out it felt hot working in the sun.
We split a large boulder and turned it into three large chunks of granite. It didn’t look that big at first, but like an iceberg there was a bit hiding underground. I’ve got this ongoing joke with the Editor in that whenever she says that we probably need to give up and do something else – that’s the time the task will suddenly be completed. It happens a lot. And the boulder split right after those words were said aloud. There’s another days work to do on that boulder, but we created about ten large rocks, and then hauled them back up the hill. The new path project is progressing…
That New Mexico type sudden storm is the sort of weather which can happen here. The forecast for Monday suggests Heavy Rain with 10mm to 30mm possible, and Melbourne Cup Day looks wet as well. Like you and Dame Avalanche, weather conditions may keep me indoors…
Sweet! 🙂 And that is obvious from this great distance.
DJ, that’s such a lovely thing to remember your friends and family. And so glad you enjoyed the cheeky poem. Your description of Tim’s work brought to mind the old timey wooden pencil cases where the flat plywood lid slid into place. Probably didn’t have electric routers to produce the channels for the lid in the timber box sides in those days either…
The project sounds like a fitting memorial to your friend.
It is weird how remote living doesn’t seem to be an option where some slack from the over arching regulations is allowed. To be candid, it looks like a push to move folks into towns, and that’s not for everyone. Those folks up north of you are in for some serious trouble, no getting around it. Looking at the photos of the devastation, I didn’t see any easy local materials with which to rebuild, even to code. And the elevation above sea level was not encouraging for the future. Still, barges can bring a lot of materials back up the inlet if there is the means to do so.
Nice to have access to neighbours who know how to do stuff.
No way! Cool. What a small world it is, and always nice to have a delightful chance conversation.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
The Vikings would have had to turn a profit on their raids, but I believe there were some raids on Skellig Michael (you may have mentioned them with the book a few years ago) and that seemed like a fools errand to me. A memory just popped into the consciousness of the Viking raid in Norah Loft’s book ‘A Wayside Tavern’, when the proprietress made herself amenable to the sudden new circumstances and hooked up with the boss who’d suddenly grown weary of raiding. Some of the historical episodes in that book were equally dark and amusing, which is a difficult balancing act. Did you end up sending a copy to your friends in Idaho?
Have any of the flood watches and rain reached your area? Hot 27’C / 81’F and windy here tomorrow, then Monday will be filthy cold and wet. What’s going on? 🙂 It was a pea souper here this morning. Maybe it’s just Halloween having fun with us all?
Funny you mention that about the prices, $30 nabbed me 4kg / 8.8 pounds of really good apples plus 2kg / 2.2 pounds of pears. Not bad, and for comparison, the supermarket cost $36 for 7 apples + 7 pears + 7 lady finger bananas. You may now no longer wonder why I head north for the cheaper prices… I noticed the other day that chocolates are smaller than they used to be. Hmm.
Ooo! A tasty donut, but as you noted, probably best consumed in moderation. No big deal as an every now and then thing. Trust me, chips cooked in lard are superb tasting, but probably not much good for a dude, but so tasty. 🙂 Actually the food at home was one of the issues I left as a young adult. Most of the time I didn’t eat their meals, unless there was no option, and so much of my mad cash earned went towards food costs.
Is there such a thing as an honest historian! 🙂 Jokes aside, some folks have less of a barrow to push than others, and you can kind of get that vibe from their writing. How can a history of the events in 1929 be dry? Save us from texts intended for entry into the intellectual heights of academia. In reading about the author there was a reference to the able researcher who held the job for many years. It’d be an interesting job that one. The other day I spotted a headline for an article suggesting that the keeping of diaries is now in decline and that this will present problems for future biographers.
Yes, the food-budget-jobs-debt-issue looks like a seriously bad recession to me. It’s awful, but those programs were funded on debt, so this sort of result was always going to happen sooner or later. The economic winds are turning ugly.
Either option is best avoided if you ask me, but similar arrangements are in place down here with mortgages, except the bank forces the risk for the asset upon the individual by using recourse loans. If the asset is destroyed and there is no insurance, the debt is attached to the individual regardless. You guys have non-recourse loans which is not a thing down here, so people can walk away. Incidentally I read long ago that in your country some loans are 90% nonrecourse and 10% recourse, so knowing where a person stands paperwork wise is probably the safest option. Some folks buy the remainder of the 10% recourse zombie loan and then go a hunting to see whether they can recover it plus interest and fees. How some folks sleep at night is beyond my understanding.
As to the insurance article, well, go back a ways in time, and the only way a person left any town was by joining the military in one form or another. I’m dubious of the claim that insurance costs will come down soon. Let’s just say that I’ll believe it when I see it. And it makes me wonder who the average person is, for whom that article is aimed at.
Hehe! Indeedy, it is Hell-o-weenie!!! That’s funny and thanks so much for the laughs. Did you get around to making the chex mix? And I want to know, did you manage to produce a dinosaur shaped err, treat?
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – I haven’t sent the books to Idaho, yet. I’m re-reading “The Japanese Inn.” Then I’ll send them off. Although I might wait until after the holidays. The mail, and just getting through the post office, gets pretty chaotic.
Our high yesterday was 57F (13.88C). The overnight low was 52F (11.11C). The forecast high for today is 60F. The last three walks H and I have taken, we’ve gotten very wet. It was windy, yesterday. The wind fell off, during the night, and now it’s building back up again. Still no flood watches locally. But the areas keep expanding, further north.
Something you need to look into, for your chapeau collection. The Asymmetric top hat. For that rakish look. 🙂
I sent along your comment on mortgages, to my Idaho friend. I didn’t realize it was such a difference, in type, between here and there.
Our fruit prices are a lot lower. I can usually find good apples for less than $1, per pound. Same with bananas.
“1929” is going back to the library, today. At the front of the book is a “cast of characters,” that runs to nine pages. Captains of Industry, Bankers, Wall Street People, Government People … the list goes on and on.
I asked The Font of All Wisdom what the “average” income is in the U.S.. It referenced the “Motley Fool,” website. $66,622 in 2025.
There was some kind of Halloween doings, down in our lobby. I didn’t pay much attention. We got a notice yesterday that there’s a glitch in “fire panel trouble board.” On Tuesday, a security company will be trying to run down the problem. They may have to enter our apartments (if we’re here, or not) and the alarms will be activated for “extended periods of time.” H and I will be taking refuge at the Club. I’m not putting up, with that. My hearing is pretty good. It won’t be, if this keeps up.
Yes, I made up the Chex mix, last night. You’re supposed to use 3 cups of 3 kinds of cereal (rice, wheat and corn). But I cut it to 2 1/2 cups of each. Mostly, because that’s what my biggest bowl, that will fit in the nuke, will hold. So, I decided to settle in and watch “The Postman.” Bummer. Defective DVD. All I could see was a broken up single frame, with odd bits of dialogue that came and went. So, I watched a new-ish Marvel, “Fantastic Four” movie. It was ok. I didn’t “get” your comment about “dinosaur shaped treats.” What do dinosaurs have to do with Chex mix?
The library had something on their on-order list, that I put on hold. And oldie. “Roger Corman’s Cult Classic: Battle Beyond the Stars.”
https://youtu.be/2t7z_44nGio?si=cRogEJVswU7loIhI
John Boy Walton saves the galaxy. 🙂 Ought to be a hoot. It reminded me of an old Japanese Sci-fi that I must have seen at the old Lombard Theatre. Ah, there’s a trailer.
https://youtu.be/14UNZDoErtI?si=bzLH7tRAl8X7GRyV
The aliens want our women. Can we pick and choose, who to send? 🙂 Lew
@ DJSpo:
Chris says that Plum is a chastened young Dame and has vowed to behave, so I won’t be looking for her wanted photo – not that I am in a police department that often.
Pam
Chris:
We have foxes and owls, but thank you for the offer anyway. The question is: Are they at work?
Oh, boy – a Halloween Edition! Does it have scary wombats?
I expect there is the odd ghost here and there. In fact, how could there not be? And I know of the Mary Celeste.
I have a good bit of Russian kale going, too. You are right – it is so much easier.
No, I did not buy the canned enchilada sauce. I have had bad luck with those. Unfortunately, an authentic enchilada sauce requires some specific chilis and I don’t want to track them down. Remember, I lived on the Mexican border for 8 years.
Is Mr. Baby’s tail okay? This afternoon I was talking to him in the front yard while he was banging it on a big metal garbage can, which made a resounding noise. Seemed okay to me. While we were out there he kept his eyes glommed on the road and eventually a neighbor appeared on her very large horse (she’s a very large neighbor). That rarely happens anymore. I expect she was brushing him up on his road manners. That must be the biggest animal Mr. Baby has ever seen, next to the CAT.
Pam
@ DJSpo:
Oh – you said “post office”. I do go in there, but I don’t think they have the villains up on their walls anymore. Not enough room with all the regulations of what you may not mail.
Pam
Hi Pam,
Conditions are pretty decent for the owls and foxes, and is it that much to ask for the predators to do their jobs? Actually a boobook owl and friend have been hanging around for the past couple of nights, so they’re doing something, but haven’t yet put in their timesheets… 🙂
Mostly the wombats, despite their size, amble quietly away from Ollie and I, and we leave them alone. Everyone is happy with the arrangement. Could a wombat be scary? Maybe, especially if a person was harassing them as an influencer from another country allegedly seems to have done a few months ago. They can bite and have quite powerful jaws. Looking at this week’s video again, the fog was lifting as we filmed it… Not so scary. Bummer!
Exactly, but as the song from the 80’s attached to the Ghostbusters film suggested: I ain’t ‘fraid of no ghost. Except they can be a bit spooky when disturbing one’s sleep, plus a little bit upsetting. Candidly I have no idea why I sat through 80’s horror films like Poltergeist. Do any of us need such visual images in our heads?
If ever you uncover the secret for growing the perfect cabbage, please do let me know? Of course, like those giant pumpkins people seem to want to grow, it’s probably a lot of hard work don’t you reckon? And then there’s kale which seems a bit weedy, and there’s a lot to like about that.
When a person has tasted the real deal enchilada, perhaps all others become merely a pale imitation of the true great? Purists would probably have a pink fit with the vegetarian fillings we chuck into those tasty treats. But hey, I won’t tell if you don’t! 🙂 I hear you about being in the right place, at the right time.
Mr Baby is practising his percussion skills on that metal drum of his. I’ll note that the dogs here enjoy generating their own distinctive sounds as well. A large person requires a big horse, this is known. And yup, down in the valley below is the council owned land where the local pony club meets. So you’ve got animals which can carry a human for some distance, but in actuality require huge vehicles towing monster sized trailers, to move the animals and the riders around. At some point a sentence or two back, it all stopped making sense. Most of the pampered horses I see, probably couldn’t put in a hard days work.
Cheers, and better get writing!
Chris
Hi Lewis,
That Japanese book is such a great read. Are you enjoying it? The post office folks around here are true delight, so clearly things are different in your part of the world. I won’t tell you about the recent issue where the Editor was stung by an address interweb auto-fill over ride mistake, and what a drama ensued. It pays to be alert! But it also pays to have people on your side so as to get miss-directed mail recovered. It kind of looked like the well heeled person was allegedly miffed at the inconvenience we inadvertently caused, but who really knows. I had to fix up the interweb side of things here to ensure that the err, unhelpful software enhancement, never reoccurs. Sometimes events slip through your fingers in seconds…
It was briefly 88’F here today and when outdoors my brain felt cooked. I’m so unused to that sort of solar ill treatment right now. Oh well, we worked this morning. The walnut was moved, and despite your misgivings, it had no tap root to speak of. It’s now in soil which has more natural moisture, so I swear the leaves grew during the day in the heat. Five gallons of water with seaweed solution would have also assisted the tree. Checked all of the machines, cleaned the greenhouse of radish and beetroot plants (which were roasted for consumption sometime this week) and finally planted out the corn seeds. The surface soil felt warm, but dig a little bit and you could feel the cool.
Big storm is rolling in tonight, apparently. Right now it’s warm and calm outside. Any sign of those flood watches in your part of the world?
The Asymmetric top hat is stylish, and a little bit raffish, but it also sends a strong message which doesn’t quite gel with my overall symbolism. 😉 My favourite hat is a very traditional Akubra, looks very country if I may say so, and this sends a far better message! That company makes some truly excellent head gear. Although equally I love the traditional Hanna Hats of Donegal Irish hats, and have those for both summer and winter. Quality hats, never go out of style.
Oh yeah, nobody down here can walk away from a mortgage, or any loan for that matter. They’re sticky.
Man, I haven’t seen fruit prices that low in a very long time. The other day I randomly observed an older couple with not much in their trolley, being advised that their bill came to $308. Incomes are higher here, sure, but so are the costs.
Yes, the cast of characters is perhaps both long and memorable. You informed me that Rome collapsed for 99 reasons, and there were probably thousands of individual poor choices which lead to that outcome. Takes a lot of folks to do that.
What a fine name for an economics website. Our species relies upon symbols. The average calculation may also be suggesting that some folks earn quite a lot.
Oh poop about the noise. Yes, running on Tuesday seems like the path of wisdom. That’s the thing with industrial deafness, once you can’t hear, you can’t hear.
I saw the advertising for that Marvel film, and wondered about it. Oh, the dinosaur, don’t collectors pay high prices for weirdly shaped Chex mix items? A bit like the big-J toast collectors novelty items I read about a few years ago. After all, I see no reason why major deities couldn’t attend to a kitchen. As good a place as anywhere else.
Oh you’re in for a treat with that film (which I’ve never seen or knew existed). Please do let me know your thoughts. The utoob comments were hysterical and it was clearly much loved. There’s no dog in there… 🙂
The aliens seem all rather arbitrary in their longings… Have they nothing better to do? And surely all that advanced technology was at the dare I say it, root of the problem! 😉 In these enlightened days they tell me that computers are coming for our jobs and women…
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – I’m enjoying “The Japanese Inn,” but have started the “Paradise” book. The Japan book doesn’t have a “use by” date on it.
🙂 . I figured out why those disaster books are so compelling. They introduce a cast of characters, and you wonder who is going to live and who is going to die.
Yup, you have to keep an eye on those autofills. Also, the autofills for words. Sometimes useful. But, I don’t understand why if I hit the “return” and the word is autofilled in, it has a space behind it. Then I have to backspace, to insert any kind of punctuation. Seems to defeat the whole purpose of saving time. And, sometimes, the word it “guesses” at, is totally off the plot.
No tap root? Are you sure it’s a walnut? 🙂
Our high yesterday was 59F (15C.) Our overnight low was 39F (3.88C). Our forecast high for today is 56F. It was pretty dry, yesterday, with only a few spatters of rain, here and there. Today is supposed to be really nice. Then, back to the rain, tomorrow. What with the dry-ish break yesterday, all the flood watches and warnings have disappeared off the regional weather map.
Here’s an interesting bee and bear story, I saw yesterday. It happened over DJ’s way.
https://chronline.com/stories/bear-ravages-washington-apiary-killing-thousands-of-bees-destroying-hives-and-gorging-on-honey-to,390263
Nothing screams “Australia” like an Acubra hat! 🙂
Ah, I see about the dinosaur comment. Was it Chex cereal, or something else? I can’t remember. There’s something I’ve always wanted, from the Land of Stuff. A brass kitchen god. I don’t know why. I see them on E-Buy, but usually the prices are too high to satisfy a whim.
And then there’s the movie that says the quiet part, out loud. “Mars Needs Women.”
https://youtu.be/ZNmwwz07ftA?si=rMqvUJuiWVwcwLix
I hadn’t realized it was a made-for-tv film. Can we negotiate to send mother-in-laws, too? Kind of a package deal. Lew