Yeah, the Roman numerals just adds some gravitas to the title of this week’s blog. Sure, the number ‘2’ could have been used. Heck, I could have simply typed the letters ‘Two’, but nah, this is serious business here, because I’m now on the annual smoko. It’s yet again time for the Christmas break from paid work. Such moments are surely not good for the fluff Kingdom’s treasuries, but these pragmatic realities need to take a back seat to the task of restoring of that most desirable state: equanimity, if such a thing is even possible. Yeah, smoko!
That number must be on my mind tonight, because earlier in the day at 2pm, a massive storm cell directly hit the property. It sure was wet, and I should know, because I was outdoors at the time. The 10mm of rain falling in five or ten minutes, overwhelmed the water tank inlet filters. Water was going everywhere, except into the storage tanks. Standing under an umbrella (which promotes a big box hardware store, if you’re in Australia, you know the one) but otherwise out in that weather, meant clearing the fine stainless steel mesh filters of gunk. At least the relatively new rock spillways near to the tanks performed pretty well carrying the water away to a garden bed. Lightning was striking pretty close. The thunder claps can leave a dude feeling a touch jumpy, almost electric you could say, yeah.
Extreme weather variability is a thing here, and all of the plants and various systems have to cope with that!
After the intensely damp activity, the big dog Ollie and I, had a quiet lay down on the couch, and maybe even the eyes were closed for a bit. Ah, the calm after the storm. It’s meant to be the Christmas break, not work time here! Oh well, when nature throws a storm at you, sometimes you just gotta roll with the punches, as the old timers used to say. I get the impression that in other parts of the world that the Christmas break is brief and perfunctory, it being the middle of winter, cold and stuff. Hardly fun for outdoors activities is it? Down here in the southern hemisphere, it’s now summer, which is the perfect time for an extended break.
Unfortunately, this week has also been rather hot at times. One day the air temperature was 37’C / 99’F in the shade. In between paid work, I’d been smashing out some urgent tasks around the property, often during the hottest part of the day. Some nights the brain felt mildly cooked from working outdoors in the heat, and that is always a risk at this time of the year. One morning was already 27’C / 81’F outdoors and 24’C / 75’F indoors by the 7am’s. All of which made for an uncomfortable nights sleep.
It’s worth recalling that not all summer weather is the same in various parts of the globe. Due to the eccentric nature of the planet’s orbit around the star, the Earth is physically closer to that hot fusion reactor during the Southern Hemisphere summer months. So all things considered, it’s hotter and the sun is fiercer down here. Lucky us! The hot season would feel very different down here than what people would experience in the cooler Northern Hemisphere during their warmest days. Tourists can be surprised by the wilt-worthy intensity down under, whilst locals such as myself, tend to run the risk of heat exhaustion.
Regular readers will already be aware that we’re taking actions, and implementing systems so as to make the inside of the house more comfortable during extreme hot weather. A few years ago, the summer season gifted 10 days over 40’C / 104’F, where three of those were consecutive. The peak of 45’C / 113’F during that hot spell was a shocker. The house was designed and constructed to withstand bushfires without structural failure, so it’s already well insulated – far better than the average building down under. But even so, during that epic run of hot weather all those years ago, the inside the house still reached 30’C / 86’F, and that felt very stuffy and uncomfortable.
Last week, external UV sun blinds were installed along the side of the house which faces the afternoon sun. This reduces the sun’s energy from hitting three large sliding glass doors on that side. It being a very busy time of year on all fronts, we’d installed the blinds, but hadn’t yet managed to anchor them. They’d flap around, even in mild breezes. It’s not an ideal situation to be bopped in the head by the metal rod in a sun blind.
This week, stainless steel cleats were installed on the 90 minute fire rated fascia panel for the underside of the house. Then strong 3mm UV stable cord was used to anchor the sun blinds to the cleats. Between the cord and the lower metal bar of the blinds, there is a short stretchable bungee cord which gives the arrangement some flexibility. Strong winds during one of the hot days tested the anchors, which worked brilliantly. Here’s a closer look at the arrangement:
We are yet to test the sun blinds with the bushfire shutters closed over the double glazed windows. That can only assist with reducing heat transfer into the house. However, on the day which reached 37’C / 99’F in the shade, the inside of the house peaked at 27’C / 81’F. A decision was made. We bit the proverbial bullet and purchased a portable air conditioner unit from the big box hardware store. It’s an Arlec 4.68KW 16000BTU Portable Air Conditioner machine, which is designed for a space about a third, or maybe even a quarter the size of what we have the thing working in.
Online reviews about these machines, and this particular unit, had me wondering about the wisdom of the decision. People seemed to either love or hate the things with their reviews. My expectations are perhaps not so great. With the machine cranking away on the 20’C / 68’F setting in the 75m2 area at the back of the house, the temperature started the day at 24’C / 75’F, and as the sun went down (still hot outdoors), it maintained the internal temperature. I’d call that a win, and the final piece of the summer puzzle. We can live with that.
It’s worth mentioning that the house has never struggled feeling comfortable in the winter months, even as it dropped to -2’C / 28’F outdoors with snow.
As to the energy use, an off grid solar power system supplies plenty of information about all that, and sometimes a person learns more than they need to know. At the 20’C / 68’F cooling setting on the machine, it used about 25A at 54V = 1,350W, which is about a 1kW less than an oven, hair dryer, washing machine etc. The joke about that day of testing was that it was hot, combined with thick low clouds which held the heat in. The solar panels just don’t produce much electricity in those conditions. The batteries began they day near full, but were down to around 55% state of charge at the end. A pretty good outcome, and the solar panels made up for it the following day. But! With renewable energy technology, sometimes nature fails to deliver the electricity on demand. There’s no solar at night is there? Often the wind doesn’t blow, and you can find yourself in a drought. Whatcha gonna do then? – is the important question! I know what I’d do, switch off appliances until conditions improve. But whilst there’s enough charge in the batteries, go hard!
The plants appear to be enjoying the hot weather far more than I, despite them all being on water rations. A limited supply of tank water tends to focus the mind wonderfully in relation to water usage. Unfortunately, the early summer weather tends to also speed the growth of weeds. The potato patch was in particular need of attention. A couple of hours were spent clearing the patch up. But then I discovered that some of the tubers were now exposed to the sunlight. This is a bad thing, because the potatoes can turn green, and become toxic. More soil was needed to hill up the plants, and cover over the exposed tubers. Hot work.
A trailer load of compost was purchased, and then loads were individually mixed up in the bucket of the smallest of the power wheelbarrows. Blood and bone meal + Coffee Grounds + Coffee bean husks all were mixed using a shovel, then driven around the property and also placed near to a few fruit trees requiring a bit of a feed.
A walnut tree was relocated a few months ago. It is getting established in soil which is more moist than elsewhere (as a result of drainage). That tree scored a decent feed, and it’s doing OK given the shock of the move.
Most of the soil feed however, was used in the potato patch, which is looking pretty good for this early in the growing season.
All but one of the relocated fruit trees are doing well. A large apricot tree succumbed during the hot weather this week. The old timers used to say: No point crying over spilt milk, and it’s true. The apricot was removed, chucked onto the brazier, and will be burnt off later when conditions are appropriate. It was replaced with a citrus lemonade fruit tree (Citrus limon x reticulata) which will do well in that enclosure. This is our second of those trees, and the fruit is so mild tasting, that you can eat it fresh, as you would with an orange. Citrus trees are marginal here, however, they are worthy of experimenting with because they supply ripe fruit during the winter, when nothing else will.
Despite the heat, it’s preferable to process next years firewood now when it is dry, as it will only get drier in storage. The best timber to burn is hardwood at around 14% moisture content, which is what we achieve, but it’s often much better. A day was spent with the chainsaw cutting two large old downed trees into discs. No need to fell trees here, there’s plenty already on the ground.
By the end of the work day, this tree had been turned into discs. They’ll be split and hauled away over this week, maybe.
Nearby to that tree, another one had broken in half and fallen. It’s quite a dangerous tree because the heaviest end is still quite a way off the ground, although the next photo doesn’t really show that. It will make for excellent firewood. All of the small branches and leaves were cut from the tree, and then run through the scary old wood chipper. We ended up with a huge quantity of home made mulch which was hauled away and used to keep the many ferns at the farm cool on hot days.
About three trailer loads of firewood were cut and hauled away from the tree, although it is hard to see the difference in the next photo:
In breaking produce news:
A small family of blow-in Gang Gang Cockatoos decided that it’d be heaps of fun to smash up two of the larger apple trees. I couldn’t work out whether they were consuming the apples, or simply dropping them to the ground. I turned the hose onto the birds, and they departed the area.
On the other hand, a lot of apples escaped the deprivations of those birds, and are now putting on some size.
The Anzac white fleshed peaches are nearing the time when they are ready for harvesting. They’re tasty fruit, but must soften off the tree.
The very first of the seasons Raspberry crop was picked this week. We store them frozen, and then when there’s enough, make a batch of tasty jam.
Onto the flowers:
The temperature outside now at about 11am is 11’C (52’F). So far for this year there has been 851.0mm (33.5 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 828.0mm (32.6 inches)
Comments
42 responses to “Smoko Part II”
Hi Chris,
Happy summer solstice!
This week is supposed to be very warm for winter. The predicted high temperature for Christmas Day is 74F, which would be a new record high for the date. Maybe it’ll be warmer here than at your place on Christmas!
You must have different varieties of nasturtiums than we do. None of the ones I have grown are furry. By contrast, radish greens are very furry and need to be cooked before being eaten.
We don’t turn on our air conditioning until the house goes over 80F – which was the case for a full six weeks last winter. It’s a cool day in summer when the house is only 75F on the inside, and we love it when it’s that cool. Yes, your 45C high beats anything I’ve experienced, but you would wilt in our long-lasting summer heat.
I’m familiar with the cleats you use for securing the strings on your shades because cleats are used to secure boats to docks. My parents had a speedboat, and they taught me and my siblings how to tie off the boat lines to the cleats when docking.
Bad cockatoos!! On the other hand, better they eat the apples than your fingers – which they could bite right off if they were in the mood to do so.
Enjoy your break, and keep posting flower and fruit pictures!
Claire
Yo, Chris – Happy Winter Solstice, here in the Northern Hemisphere. Although due to thermal inertia, we won’t feel warmer, for a couple of months.
Smoko? Cigars or a pipe? 🙂
I hope The Editor has you heavily insured for weather events.
It hit 113F, here, a couple of years ago. I remember it, because it was an “Antique Fest” weekend. One of those spasms of civic who-who. There were a lot of vendors, on some closed off streets. They suffered.
The blinds look very classy. What would we do without bungee cords? I hope whoever invented those, got very rich.
The horizon does look on fire, in that photo. I hope it’s not a portent. 🙁
You’ve been moving a lot of trees around, lately. One casualty is pretty good odds.
More firewood for the Firewood Bank of Fernglade Farm. All the better that you don’t have to fell them. They just fall over, on their own.
Apples, peaches, raspberries. If all goes well, you’ll soon be rolling in fruit.
All the flowers you pictured, grow here. Some even volunteer, year after year. Good to know about sweet peas. Information that might come in handy. 🙂 We’ve had sweet peas, here, but they haven’t made an appearance, the last couple of years. I may scatter some seed around, and get then going again They’re so pretty. There are blue ones. And, I’m partial to some that are so dark red, they almost look black. Lew
Hi Göran,
Happy winter solstice to you and your family. What a lovely way to spend the day too, ah, the symbolic lights for a new beginning. And mulled wine is delicious. Sandra’s father was Austrian, who for all sorts of reasons ended up in the Czech republic (was taken up by the Soviet army after WWII, and fled into West Germany, only to be a refugee in Canada, then relocated down here – probably warmer), and she grew up with that tradition. Nice stuff, and I might have a nip of rum this evening in celebration, which is a very Australian drink. 🙂 Fun fact: That stuff is so Aussie, that early on there was a military coup revolving around access to the drink. I doubt any other issue would have motivated the troops to depose the English Governor – and it was his second mutiny. Bligh was perhaps something of a martinet…
Yes, that is exactly how the machine works. I was a bit concerned that the 150mm exhaust pipe would run hot, but at best I’d describe the plastic as sort of warm-ish.
Your point is spot on about the air pressure differential! A bit of background. The house is an unusual design. It is constructed to withstand bushfires. The walls and roof are sealed. Like, there are no gaps to the external world. None. Even the walls are sealed to the roof at the join with sheet steel. When I run the wood heater, we actually have to keep a window open to let in fresh air, and it doesn’t matter if it is -2’C outside.
Think of the design like the shell of a tortoise. Bushfire embers can’t get past the non-combustible surfaces. The walls and roof have been certified as having tested to I believe 40kW of direct heat without structural failure for 90 minutes (walls) and 30 minutes (roof). I should do a blog about this subject, although neither do I wish to tempt the bushfire deities.
Anywhoo, so fresh air enters I believe via the tongue and groove timber floors (which have a 200mm layer of insulation underneath). Under the house is cooler and has about 800mm gap between the lowest timber and the ground.
However, we did not have the foresight to have installed such a simple cooling system as the ones you described which utilise the average soil temperature at some depth. They’re clever systems which utilise a natural resource, much in the same way a cool room achieves similar results. If we had to rebuild, absolutely I would install such a system.
For my own interest, I’ll keep a count of how many days mechanical cooling is used here during the summer period, but I doubt it will be more than maybe 20 days – although, note to self: Don’t tempt the weather deities!!!! 🙂
It’s worth noting, that the soil temperature here is much higher on average than in your part of the world, even at a 1m depth.
I know, first floor cooling is a conundrum in house designs, but, those underground pipe systems would work, although if it was me retrofitting a house, I would ensure that the pipes ran on the inside of the house, and never came into contact with the direct sun. Hardly a good look though. Multi-story homes down under are a misery in my opinion, and whilst I appreciate the economics behind them, the chimney effect (i.e. heat rises) can be a serious temperature issue. The old Victorian era mansions had a tower at the highest level (above the roof line), and that pulled the hot air even further upwards away from the living areas.
🙂 Does the list of improvements ever really end?
My gut feeling is that next month will be very cold for you, or perhaps it will hit hard in August due to thermal inertia. We also weed most days, the removed plants being very good for the chickens health. The whole lot gets chucked into the chickens all weather run, and they just go through the mass of organic matter. After the chickens have done their thing, the fruit trees enjoy a feed. Hope your chickens are doing well?
I’m still cogitating upon your large purchase of phosphates a year or so back. Tell you a funny story. I was at the bog box hardware store today (after picking up the 80kg of coffee grounds and seed husks) and almost purchased a bag of blood and bone meal. Had a look at the label, and it was 1.5% phosphate. Hardly worth it. Another brand had 4% phosphate for around the same price, but with 33% less volume. Truly, it wasn’t all that long ago when the same stuff was 6% phosphate. Oh well.
Hehe! Yes, I so hear you about that, and it is exactly why I bang on about UV stability in the plastics we are served! People worry themselves about microplastics in the environment, and there’s a story there for sure.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Claire,
And a happy winter solstice to you as well!
Stop it! Hehe! But you’re absolutely 100% correct. This makes no sense whatsoever, but it will be warmer where you are on Christmas Day, than here. 🙂 If it wasn’t true, it’d be funny, although I am laughing about this latest strange turn of events. So, whilst you and Mike are basking in 74’F, it’ll probably be a freezing maximum of 59’F here. What is going on?
Not to worry though, four days later and it will be 35’C / 95’F again, before more another storm is forecast. Oh well, just between you and I, it is very difficult to acclimate when conditions are so variable. The plants struggle with that, as much as I do – thus why we grow such a huge variety and have plans for a second greenhouse. Something will work out, maybe…
Purely for research purposes, I just headed out and sampled a nasturtium leaf. Quite tasty with a bit of peppery zing. The underside of the leaf is perhaps poorly described as furry (apologies), but it has more of a rough texture to my palate – if that makes sense. Ah! Interesting about the radish leaf, and I’d not cooked them (we cook with kale and silverbeet / chard leaves instead), but use radish fresh in a pesto recipe – which is super awesome, and I highly recommend the dish, especially with a thin chunk of tasty cheese on freshly baked oven warmed slice of bread. Yum!
Isn’t that difference weird? On average, your summers are hotter than here, but with less extremes. From what you’ve said in the past, the air does not usually cool at night for you either during that six week period of time. Yes, those conditions would be tough, and can you imagine living closer to the equator where such temperatures are par for the course? Far out! Truly, I’m adapted to the local cool mountainous climate, although this weather is not ideal for the heat loving plants. Yes, much wilting would ensue. 45’C is truly horrid, but brief, hopefully (had to add the disclaimer less it was viewed as an expression of hubris by wandering deities 😉 ).
I reckon heat loving fruit trees like the apricots and almonds produce here maybe one in every six years. It’s not ideal, but they’re both super tasty crops when they do.
🙂 Exactly, the cleats have nautical origins, and it’s a good skill to have learned. A simple and robust technology
Hehe! Fortunately the hose projects water with some force at a distance, lest the unhappy birds express their displeasure at closer quarters. Strong beaks, yeah. Hmm. And a few of that species live for 80+ something years. Memories are probably long…
Thank you so much, and will do. Always enjoy our chats, and hope the cooler days to come are enlivened with a good seed catalogue and a warm heater.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
And a happy winter solstice to you as well. Today was another delightfully cool summers day here, as will be the same over the next four days. Still, your day tomorrow will be ever so slightly longer than today, although such minute changes are hard to notice don’t you reckon?
Dunno about your part of the world (cold wise), but I reckon it will get very warm here after New Years Day, that’s when things traditionally heat up.
Very funny! I recall the days of people enjoying both forms, and dunno, it’s just one of those activities which never called to me, despite having lots of friends who smoked. Probably something bad happened in that regard in a past life? 😉
Now that you mention it about being outdoors during extreme weather… At around midnight, I heard a large tree make a loud crack and rip sound, but I’m yet to discover where that was. Went out to check that the chickens were OK, then headed back to bed. It’s a mystery, as I still couldn’t find the damaged tree today. Hmm.
Oh yeah, 113’F is filthy weather to be outdoors, and that antique fair would have been a complete misery, even in the shade for the vendors. That’s the sort of day to do nothing of any consequence. Presumably you dodged the fest, or more cannily, went early?
The farm expo is now held closer to winter, and I can assure you that this is a good thing. There were times during summer that by lunchtime all I could think about doing, was head back home.
Thanks, and the sun blinds just work. A nice old school technology for reducing heat transfer. Bungee cords are amazing, yup. Now you’ve got me wondering, how long have they been around? Couldn’t find any definitive answer to that question. A date around the late 1930’s seems to be commonly acknowledged.
Here’s hoping the portents are good for the rest of the summer months. The fire risk is always at the back of my mind.
That’s my thinking as well about the relocated fruit trees. One may cark it, but how many others are thriving in their new locations. I believe that the tap root on that tree was always something of an issue. I can’t remember the details, but the words ‘pot bound’ suggests the original tap root may have been already troubled. Generally they shouldn’t be at right angles to the trunk.
Yeah, there’s so much tree material on the ground in the surrounding forest, that that itself is a problem. Converting that lot into firewood is all part of the bigger forest clean up work.
Alas, if starvation was a risk here, it’d probably be in early to mid spring, when the output is at it’s leanest. Hardly an exciting prospect is it?
The climate and soils between here and in your part of the world are fairly similar, with it being a bit hotter here in summer, and a bit colder in winter in your area. I still believe that with a bit of global warming, citrus will eventually do fine in your area. You’ll know that’s the case when you no longer get those two weeks of seriously crazy cold snowy winter weather.
Sweet peas are lovely, and hey those almost black looking flowers I reckon are either a dark purple or super dark red, much like the hellebores here are a deep purple. Yes, a person has to know a lot about plants, and their uses.
I feel a touch tense today, oh well. Relaxation will be mine, sayeth Chris, maybe. 🙂 Headed into the big smoke to pick up the coffee grounds and bean husks. Stopped back into the big box hardware store on the way home to pick up a large bag of blood and bone meal. One of the bags had only 1.5% phosphate. No wonder it was cheap. Searched through the brands and found one with 4% phosphate, which is better. Perhaps my memories fail me, but a few years ago the bags contained 6% phosphate. Hmm. Oh well.
I’m always interested in the revenge of the analogue, and noticed that cassette tapes have been also making something of a comeback: Unpause and rewind: Cassette tapes are making a comeback . Who can forget the days of the curated mixed tape?
I’ve travelled in that country, and its neighbours and noticed that loose aspect in relation to building. For all of the oversight these days, are the outcomes any good? As a society, we don’t really ask that question often enough.
Very interesting indeed. And for your info, I likewise tend to mix the concrete materials first when they are dry, because it is easier to distribute the various components more evenly. Once you add water, it begins to get rather heavy, and is more labour intensive. It makes sense too about having pockets of lime held within the mix. Yup. That lot made some quality concrete.
All those parasites would hardly make for a strong Roman fighting force, but then did you notice that the latrine emptied into a local waterway? I’d imagine that the northerners likewise would have been suffering. Traditionally cities were rather dangerous places health wise for humans to congregate.
Yeah, the bot squeeze is sort of working, and today shows 54,000 hits, which is down from a few days ago. I’m pleased with the outcome. I don’t believe that the 3G network has been switched off in your country, so possibly that’s why his old phone works? Down here, maybe last year, they switched off that system, and now all calls are made through the 4G system, and older phones are in a lot of trouble. Interestingly, I had the first bit of software say that it would only work with the latest version of Wundows 11. Hmm. Hadn’t seen that before, but bit the bullet a month or so back – no point fighting city hall.
Sounds cold to me. 🙂 Presumably yourself and H dodged the rain, what with scattered showers? It was cool-ish here today, but sunny and calm. Quite nice really.
What? No flying? Guess it all depends on the route the booking agent demands, and that’s where our latest get rich quick scheme yet again fails. H is of course, always more important than the fans. 🙂 One day, man, we’ll get there.
Afterburner looks intense. Very intense. With lot’s of cool explosions.
Well, a dude has to exercise caution in such matters. They’re reporting that measles is on the rise again. That’s the thing with travelling.
A fine dinner, and I’m considering a veg pasta sauce on linguine for dinner. Should be tasty.
Go the zombies! 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Our high yesterday was 46F (7.77C). Our overnight low was 39F (3.88C). Our forecast high for today is 46F. H and I hit a sunny, clear spot, on our morning walk. Very breezy, but otherwise, nice. The lengthening (or shortening) days are like that old quote about business failure. Slowly, then all at once. You don’t notice it at first, but then you do.
I tried to find a film clip, from a movie called “Agnes of God.” Anne Bancroft (as the Mother Superior) and Jane Fonda (as the psychiatrist), are sitting outside the convent. The Mother Superior, bums a cigarette off the Fonda character … much to her shock. Then they ruminate on what brands of cigarettes, different saints would smoke. The punch line is, St. Paul? A pipe. 🙂
The sound of the cracking and ripping tree, probably came from another dimension. One of those pesky spatial anomalies.
I really don’t remember what I did, as far as that high temperature Antique Fest, went. I probably stayed home, and stayed low.
It seems as though the bungee cord, had a long evolution, due to the development of this or that component. The name seems to come from English glider pilots, in the 1930s, who used elastic bands to launch their planes. I seem to remember that part of the D-Day invasion involved glider pilots, who landed behind enemy lines and fought rear guard actions.
https://www.noiser.com/d-day-the-tide-turns/flying-coffins-the-incredible-story-of-d-days-glider-pilots
It seems like risk hovers in the background, and you really don’t notice how all prevailing it is, until it is lifted. I didn’t realize how flooding was always nagging at the back of my mind, until I moved up out of the flood plane. It was like a weight lifting.
I asked how Carl’s redwoods were doing. Still looking healthy, but not putting out roots. He had another container of willow twigs, that is going crazy. So, he moved the redwood sprigs there. He also talked to someone who told him to take a sprig, and put it in fertile soil.
Speaking of starvation (I think it sort of relates), yes, the food swap table is no more. So I’m in a bit of a quandary, over what to do with my excess. I may check with the local gospel mission, or, I’ll check with Jane and see if she needs stuff for the Funny Farm.
Well, that’s the pits about the phosphate shrinkflation. There are natural sources, most of which you use, already.
I remember the old cassette tapes. I liked a couple of phrases in the article. “Thingness” and “Hereeness.” I think that covers a lot of the popularity of analog. I can remember making the occasional mix tape, but, what I remember using them for was recording songs off the radio, in order to memorize lyrics of songs. My old CD player also has the capacity to play cassette tapes. I have a few kicking around. Although I’d guess they’re pretty brittle, by now.
You know, if you established a small bamboo grove, then you could raise pandas! Your fortune would be made! Or, mulberry trees for silk worms. 🙂
Mixing concrete sounds like some recipes. Although most recipes don’t mention it, I always give the dry ingredients a good mix, before I put them in the liquid stuff. Might be the difference between a good cook and a great cook?
They’re calling this flu variation a “super flu.” Mostly media hyperbole, I think. But I’ll still keep my guard up. Avoid large gatherings. I might cut my trips to the Club down a bit. Though that would be harder on H, than me.
Speaking of software and all things computer … I couldn’t get into my primary e-mail account, this morning. “Temporarily unavailable. Try again later.” Whatever.
If things go according to plan, I think I’ll mix up a big batch of turkey dressing, tonight. Use up the remaining stuffing mix. I’ll eat off it for days. 🙂 One of the guys at the Club was so taken with the Velveeta fudge, he’s going to make a batch of his own. Lew
Hi, Chris!
I love Roman numerals. They show how smart I am.
I’m glad that the rock spillways are working out; I had wondered about them. It would have been a real smoko if you had been struck by lightning. Okay – what’s a smoko? I’m not very good at foreign languages.
That’s a good, clear photo of the blinds. What a nice job you made of them. I am glad that you can be a little more comfortable with your new portable AC. Does it collect water, I mean condensation?
What color in that sunset! Molten!
I don’t consider potatoes easy to grow. It seems like they frequently need help. I don’t think I’d cry over a defunct apricot (I might cry over a potato); they are so iffy. Is a Citrus Lemonade Tree like a sweet lemon?
You are actually pretty lucky that you have all those downed trees, messy though they are. Still, Chainsaw Master Chris can cut his own trees should he need to.
Maybe the Gang didn’t do too much damage (because of the hose), just thinned the apples for you.
From last week: About your Pawpaws – yours seem to be papayas. Our wild ones are these:
“The Pawpaw tree, Asimina triloba (L.) Dunal, is native to the eastern U.S. It’s range extends from Florida to New York and on into southern Ontario (map of distribution). This genus is the only representative of the tropical Annonaceae family.”
We do have some kind of domesticated ones along one side of the garden and I think they were bred from the wild ones.
I just can’t get Sweet Peas to grow. I treat them like edible peas. Is that wromg? Oops – they are toxic. Mr. Baby might eat them. Never mind. Nasturtiums I love, and grow. Last year the groundhog ate all of them. I must grow more poppies – but will Mr. Baby eat them . . . ? What wonderful colors yours are. Thanks for all the flowers.
Pam
Hi Pam,
Takes one, to know one! 🙂 Thanks for the laughs. Sadly, I’ve met people who’ve ran rings around me on that front, and left me behind all bewildered in the abstract dust and stuff. Still, the alert person realises that for those whom dance upon heady pinnacles, have but one future direction to face!
You and I on the other hand, are like a decent bottle of red, and can only get better in time. 🙂
The rock lined spillways had not been put to the ultimate test, until a few days ago. And your question about the Aussie traditional smoko, is perhaps best explained by:
The Chats – Smoko
In the more usual English language, Smoko is a colloquial word to describe a break from paid work. The derivation is related to heading off elsewhere to have a ciggie break. As someone who abhors that habit, at the same time I can appreciate the sentimentality of requiring some time out. Hope all is now explained and you can speak fluent Aus-lish with the best of them?
I know, the comfort machine is yet another mechanical monster to wrap my mind around. When will the wet reservoir need emptying – no idea whatsoever. It’s hard just keeping up with all this stuff, and the exhaust vent chunk of timber still has to be painted and have the sticky rubber insulation added to either the side of it.
A person can only but do so much, and today this involved a clean up and ta da! The first stages of the most awesome of awesomeness desserts, the tiramisu from scratch. What can I say, as an accountant, I’m a frustrated dessert chef! 🙂 Truly, I think I missed my calling there, but maybe next time.
Thanks. How’s the weather going in your part of the world? It’s quite mild here for the next few days, and Christmas day will be downright cold at 63’F. What is going on? Mind you, many other parts of the continent are experiencing a serious heat wave… And 106’F is hot in anyone’s language: Christmas scorcher in the west
Yeah, apricots are iffy even in the best of years. Most of the small harvest this year will be used for jam making – which is pretty good stuff. Nope, it is definitely not a sweet lemon, which I believe are not true to type lemons from a quick read (I’d not encountered any of these citrus types previously). This is a genuine lemon, but mixed up with another citrus variety which reduces the acidity. Imagine a lemon you could pick off the tree and eat fresh without all of the unusual facial gymnastics involved with the more tart varieties. I suppose a person could chomp into a Meyer lemon, but even then it would be a tough meal to consume, and probably leave the guts feeling rather unsettled.
As to the potatoes, we’re blessed with less plant diseases down here, but way more hungry critters, so the outcome is more or less the same as your part of the world! 😉
Thanks for the vote of support. It takes a lot of experience and courage to fell trees. If greenies in the urban areas understood the risks and difficulties of small scale tree harvesting, they’d keep quiet about such activities.
Sharing the harvest with the many hungry critters here is one of the most profoundly complicated tasks I’ve set my brain too. Pam, there may not be an answer to this issue. Most commercial farms seek to exclude everything up to an including the tiniest of cellular life forms, and economics dictates that story. But is it the wisest path?
🙂 Years ago I tried to track down seeds for that most useful of plants: Asimina triloba. The seeds ended up being for what looks like American Chestnuts instead – A fine joke that they’re now growing happily here from the seed I raised, given the issues with that variety in your country. A sort of local plant nursery (2 hour driving distance) is offering seedlings for sale of Asimina triloba at $185 each, and candidly I’m not excited by the price. And don’t you need more than one for good fruit set? Donations anyone?
It happens, and very long ago with the previous dogs I once inadvertently added dried grapes to their meals. Ook! Have you ever used pea straw? That stuff is full of seeds, some varieties of which are actually edible, whilst others are questionable.
Naughty groundhog, and surely Mr Baby is a total gentleman and would never dare consume potentially psychedelic plant matter? Still, there’s catnip, and we did have the mushroom incident with both of those two young idiot Kelpie dogs… All us elders can do is hope for the best with those with whom are in our care.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Deftly done my friend, and well timed with the walk. H is in good hands, which is fortunate for you, because H may exercise questionable judgement in these most important of matters. And then expect a proper towelling down afterwards, and probably first. 🙂 That’s a great quote, was it Hemingway, I forget? There was an amusing The Simpson’s extrapolation I’m guessing from that quote which went something along the lines of: I saw the whole thing, first it started falling over, then it fell over.
Yeah, it is odd the things you notice in this here life’s journey. There’s an amusing song on the radio at the moment about a car parking dispute. One of the early lines was: “Little did we know, that we’d just started World War III’. We’ve all been there, and before my time a neighbour actually threatened to kill the Editor for the act of parking her (let’s be honest here) rust-bucket, in front of the old duffers house. The constabulary took a very dim of the blokes words.
Just went on a rabbit hole deep dive on the author Hemingway, and he’s an interesting bloke, and what times and circles he ran with. Never read any of his works. How about you?
I’ve no interest in smoking, but, would probably need one to calm my shattered nerves after getting to the bottom of that mares nest as presented in the film narrative. The term you mentioned is not heard down here, mostly because those rules are broadly applied over the continent. It was a relief for me the day smoking was banned in offices. If the medical profession wonders why they’re having troubles with the complicated matter of perception, we need but look at: Doctors at odds over value of vaping, as study finds it’s just as harmful as cigarettes. It’s like stepping back into the past, all over again.
Oh! Well, that explains the sound then. Hadn’t thought of that, but yeah, maybe you’re right!
Far out, I’d never heard of this history, and yes, the bridges would have been everything in that early battle. But, it’s rare courage which can get on board a Waco CG-4 and be crash landed behind the enemy lines under fire. Wow.
Risk is all around us, whether we acknowledge it or not. Just getting into a car is a risky activity. For some weird reason, people tend to not be able to assess risk well, and instead focus on strange outlandish, possible, but highly improbable events. I don’t like flying for example, but the car is probably a bigger danger.
Hope Carl works out the process and plants out a grove of Redwoods. Wouldn’t that be something?
Food and starvation are stories which go hand in hand, and sorry for you about that loss of the swap table. I’d imagine that perhaps there was an incident leading up to that sudden change. You never know, Jane may want the food. But someone will. Picking up the coffee grounds always makes me wonder about our societies penchant for waste. It’s an impressive achievement.
Yeah, absolutely with the natural sources of phosphate, plus there’s a lot of bird life here, and guano is a rich concentrated source.
It was a lovely article about the cassette tapes, and being able to record off the radio, even if at low quality, was a major advantage. I hear you about that. Plus there’d be the inevitable record to tape so that you could play the album in the car and not have to worry about the heat destroying the media – which it did! I reckon your old tapes would be brittle now, apparently they’re meant to de-magnetise. Years ago I rescued an old friends audio tape and sucked it into the computer, and the quality was poor by that time.
Hehe! But would the cheeky Panda’s do their funky thing and reproduce? In the trade this would be known as a self-replicating-asset, which is hardly romantic is it? Funny you mention the silk worms, but it was tried by an early idealist, who had good intentions. Not enough though to make that business idea work. Drats! Foiled yet again. When will our day of resounding financial success arrive? 🙂
Actually that’s true. If you can mix up a decent batch of concrete, it’s not all that dissimilar a mixing process from that of bread making. Obviously different ingredients and end point, but still, mixing properly takes some skill. I spent about half an hour today folding meringue into the lady finger biscuit mixture for a winning dessert. I would have enjoyed working as a dessert chef, alas too old to change my ways now.
It’s always wise to keep your guard up against such things. People can be careless. Doesn’t seem any better or worse out there at the moment to me on that front. A person has to read the media, and then use their senses to make up their own mind.
Ha! The online services are free for a reason.
Yummo! Had a really basic pasta for dinner tonight. It’s got the peanut, parmesan and rocket dressing.
That’s awesome to hear about the fudge taking off.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – “Auslish”. I speak fluent Auslish. I wonder if I can put it on my CV? 🙂
H displayed questionable judgement, on our early evening walk, last night. It wasn’t raining, and she had done her … err, light duty on the way out. Then it began to pour. On the way back in, I thought she wanted to do the heavy duty. As she often does. Nope. Just a sniff and smell tour, long enough that we got thoroughly wet. But by midnight, the rain had passed and we had a dry walk. Yes, she gets toweled down, in cases of hydraulic overload.
I’ve never been a fan, of Hemingway. I think we had to read “Old Man and the Sea,” in high school. Luckily, a very slim volume. I’ve tried a few of his books, and, frankly found them boring. Never finished one. And all of that over the top macho stuff. 🙁
A lot of people seem to be vaping, these days. I see a lot of it, down at the Club.
Cosmic! Synchronicity! Well, no. I was looking at the new, on order book list, last night. An item called “Brotherhood of the Flying Coffin.” Unfortunately, they’ve only ordered in the e-book and e-audio 🙁 .
Speaking of the new, on order item lists, there it was. “Dexter, Resurrection” season one. It’s on my hold list, although it won’t be released on DVD until mid February. Add three or four weeks for shipping and processing. Also, “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” Season three. That series takes place in the Capt. Pike era.
So many books, so little time. Or, space on my hold list. I had to take a couple of things off my hold list, to add a couple of things on to it. There’s a book about the California fires, last year. By a correspondent who was raised in those neighborhoods.
When I made my last flight, back from California to the Pacific Northwest, I promised Baby Jesus that I would never fly again, as long as he got me back home, safe. 🙂 . And, I’ve kept my promise.
But back to books, I’m currently reading an interesting book. “Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity.” (Kingsnorth, 2025). He refers to himself as a recovering environmentalist. He lives on the west coast of Ireland. He talks about a lot of the same things Mr. Greer does. Spengler, Mumford, our Faustian era, etc. etc. Very readable.
Carl has about an acre of redwoods, planted. I suppose he sourced them, from the nursery he worked in. Probably at a discount?
Our high yesterday was 50F (10C). Our overnight low was 36F (2.22C). Our forecast high for today is 45F. It’s cloudy, but no rain in the forecast, for today. So, this morning, I gave the asparagus a hair cut. Some of them were beginning to yellow. I then mixed up a five gallon bucket of good stuff, and topped them off. A mix of bagged garden soil, and half that amount of composted chicken poop. There was just a bit of mushroom compost left, so I mixed that in. Blood meal, bone meal, stove ash, crushed egg shell, and a sprinkling of sea salt. I hope that does the trick. There were live worms in the compost I added.
Silk worm culture has been tried in many places, at many times. Such as my bedroom, when I was in grade school. 🙂 . In the mid 6th century, naughty monks managed to sneak out of China, with some silk worms. Soon, the Chinese monopoly on silk was broken. Silk industries were established in Constantinople, Italy and France.
It sounds like you’re replacing the traditional Christmas plum pudding, with Tiramisu. I don’t think it makes much difference, as long as it’s special.
I did make a big batch of turkey dressing, last night. There were the croutons, a lot of them. I fried up two diced red onions, added three stalks of diced celery and a couple of handfuls of plumped up cranberries. I simmered butter, water, turkey chunks and the spices on the stove. Pured it over the croutons and the rest of it, gave it a good mix. Nuked it for eleven minutes. Tastes like it came out of the bird. For dinner, I topped a serving with plane, nonfat yoghurt. Tasty.
I saw an article the other day, on why one should avoid scorpion peppers. Or, maybe it was about avoiding our health “care” system.
https://www.alternet.org/scorpion-peppers/
I bit the bullet and opened up my Social Security statement. Informing me as to how much my COLA will be. $14 a month. Well, that ought to just whip inflation into shape.
I also called my insurance company, this morning. I got the yearly statement, for my rental insurance. I noticed that under “Rating Information” it stated that “Dwelling is Occupied by 350 Families.” So, I let them know that the “dwelling” is occupied by 40 singles. Did it make a difference in my payment? Well, no. Worth a try, I guess. My 6 month auto insurance should turn up pretty soon, and I’m going to spend some time seeing if I can trim some stuff off of that. Lew
Chris:
I speak some pretty good Aus-lish by now, I reckon.
My refrigerator, which thinks it is from the 1930s and has to be manually defrosted, is on par with your comfort machine, because I have a dish that I collect water in from that which collects inside it, because it prefers to defrost itself. And one does not meddle with that situation because it has otherwise worked beautifully for many years.
Tiramisu! Yum! I’ll bet it turned out perfectly. Was that your Christmas treat?
Nicely mild today and mostly sunny. The temps are going to rollercoaster a bit, though, over the next few days. So, what else is new? I would expect nothing else from your West but burning heat.
Oh, a less acidic lemon. I can eat a bit of our Meyer lemons, but, then, I like sour or tart things.
Except for groundhogs, which are as hungry as deer and dig amazing tunnels. But I’ll grant you that, for sheer variety of varmints, you have me beat! And we don’t have the marauding birds right here that you do. I lost some blackberries to some birds, but that wasn’t a problem. Then again, our fruit trees aren’t very big yet except for some figs. The mammals don’t like the figs (yet), nor do the birds, but, boy, the yellow jackets (those things that were after my son all last summer) do. I must remind him to look for dormant yellow jacket nests.
“But is it the wisest path?” It can’t be, but darned if I can see where the balance is. Just grow enough to share? Not everyone has enough land, or time and energy to do that.
The seeds of Asimina triloba (North American Pawpaw) and American Chestnuts are kind of similar. I’ve seen an awful lot of pawpaw seeds because once we had some that got scattered around and the squirrels found them and buried them in all the garden beds, where I had to remove and transplant them. Lots of them sprouted and I still have a couple of small pawpaw trees in the beds that I need to move. They sure do like it here, but of course they are native.
The use of Latin names makes me think of Inge. She was adamant about using them to avoid confusion.
No, no – no dried grapes for dogs! I haven’t used pea straw. Do you mean that you can buy it?
“Mr. Baby is a total gentleman.” Tell me another good joke. So far, I do not see “Sir” in his future, though Sir Baby has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?
Pam
Chris,
Happy Solstice. Belated. Better late than never, I suppose.
Good to hear that your drainage rocks worked during the heavy rains. Important thing to do that is often overlooked.
Your design and implementation for the UV screen tie-downs looked good. The bungee cords were a good innovation which you’ll be happy about during some of the higher winds.
Christmas Eve and Christmas look to be near +10C with drizzle. Some of the upcoming windstorm west of the mountains might leak over the Cascades to hit us, but the forecast isn’t for any of those damaging winds. Of course, that is subject to change.
I was mentioning to my niece today that we are again suffering from the typical Spokane 50 shades of gray weather. She giggled and replied that that is exactly what they are having where she lives in Oregon with occasional fog, also. Then she said that her younger daughter, about 10, was wearing a sun dress. We later decided that due to the weather, perhaps it should be renamed as a “fog dress”.
Meanwhile, Killian’s human invited us for Christmas dinner. Her recently widowed father will be up from central Idaho. Niece’s younger daughter invited us to Oregon for Christmas dinner. We can’t be at both places simultaneously, so we’ll stay home and enjoy a quiet day to ourselves.
Dame Avalanche is missing the snow. And the cold. Her fur coat is too heavy for this weather. She is starting to shed. Of course, there are mosquitos outside. Dodged a hornet the other day. Seriously.
A small flock of Bohemian waxwings has been congregating in the neighborhood. They usually appear sometime between the middle of February and early March. I have NEVER seen them this early in the season.
Ohhh, nice raspberries. The carving club had its annual Christmas potluck after the meeting Saturday. One of our members brought in his usual homemade raspberry ice cream featuring his own home-grown raspberries. As always, it was good. Also as always, while people were in line for the food, I grabbed a spoon and started with the ice cream. “Eat dessert first,” I said. “And besides, the Princess can’t be here, so I have to eat her share for her, don’t I?”
The Princess asked for pictures of the event. I took pictures of people. And her share of the ice cream. I texted her the picture of the ice cream as proof that I was thinking about her.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
🙂 Yeah, I’d like to imagine that some Aus-stuff is rubbing off. As is some Virginian stuff in return. The accent from your part of the country has a lovely lilting cadence to it.
Now, that story brings back some memories, and freezers froze things properly with that arrangement. No mucking around with thermometers, the ice is visible. I’ve had refrigerators with a tray at the lowest point which had to be removed and cleaned following on from the defrost cycle. It worked. That’s the thing too, the machine could be replaced, but will it last as long, and work as well? Hard to know. We’ve got a decades old microwave, and I read recently that the core component of those devices, the magnatron, aren’t made to last as long in these more enlightened days.
🙂 Pam, it’s looking good, but a small tester was made as well, just to be certain. I’ll have to remember to take a photo of the finished dessert. This is about the only use that cling wrap is put too here, and the stuff didn’t cling, even to itself, so we did a few passes, and that seemed to sort of work. But does it look good? Who knew that the plastic stuff was so poorly made these days?
How’s this for a down under Christmas day? Less that 60’F here. That’s cold. Yeah, spare a thought for the folks in the far west suffering from a heat wave, which is sort of the summer norm in that part of the country. Not sure I could reside there. Ooo, are you in for a cold snap of weather over the next few days with that talk of rollercoaster?
Agreed, Meyer lemons are quite mild tasting for a lemon, but too much acid can be problematic for the gut. I hear you about that, and the western diet could be improved with an appreciation of the wider tastes that other cultures enjoy. Thai food often does a good contrast of sour and tart flavours. Yum!
Don’t you ever wonder how the groundhogs dig tunnels? I mean, they’d have to remove the soil as they progress forward, unfortunately, towards your vegetables. Blackberries aren’t too much of an issue here with the birds either, mostly because there’s heaps of wild blackberries in the area – they’re considered a weed down here. Oh my gawds! Yellow Jackets and figs! Yikes. Thanks for the warning, and I don’t encourage those wasps here and hadn’t noticed that. The nests are very hard to discover.
All very true about sharing and growing. I’m not sure that there is an answer, and it’s not possible to please everyone and everything. Hard decisions get made.
Are they? Oh! Possibly why I was fooled with the Asimina triloba seeds. They looked like no chestnut I’d ever seen. Oh well, these things happen, and the American chestnut tree is growing strongly. Who knows, it may eventually cross with the other chestnut varieties here? Given that they’re under pressure in your country, it’s kind of fun to think that there is one growing inadvertently down here. Nature is resilient and often finds an unexpected avenue. You’re lucky to have such native tasty fruit varieties which do well in your area.
🙂 Inge is a treasure! And yes, who can also forget the command: Concision! Almost made me jump that did, actually it did make me jump. And that word is always at the back of my mind every week when sitting at the computer keyboard.
An unfortunate error, but didn’t seem to make any difference to the dogs life spans, still, it’s not ideal. And yes, absolutely, pea straw can be purchased in large plastic wrapped brick shaped packaging. I don’t use the stuff, but have in the past, mostly now I prefer the sugar cane mulch bricks for the chickens as it has a lower nitrogen / carbon ratio.
Sadly, some of our companions make for lovely company, but as you’d know (cough, cough, Mr Baby, or Ruby) they’ll never be titled. 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Happy winter solstice to you too, and hope the Christmas festivities are enjoyable.
Thought your civil engineering ears would prick up at the mention of the now tested performance of the rock spillways. Man, I’d have taken a photo, but alas, time was of the essence at that moment. It always surprises me how quickly the water systems can go wrong. You’d have seen that too over the years?
Thanks, and on one of the hottest days of last week, the wind picked up and put those bungee cords for the sun blinds to the test. It’s a truth universally acknowledged, that the more extreme ends of the seasons, are err, more extreme. The thought of potential super deep dumps of snow in your part of the world would leave me floundering.
What the heck, it’s it’s 10’C here right now, and the southerly winds are blowing. So bizarre to be enjoying similar weather, at opposite ends of the season. It feels freezing outdoors. Christmas Day in the big smoke is meant to peak at 17’C, so that’ll only be around 13’C here. Brr! A cold day. Yet over in the far west of the continent, it’s up around 40’C. That’s where all the heat went – you read it here first. 😉
The traditional Boxing Day cricket test match between Australia and England will feel almost like local summer weather conditions for our former overlords. Lovely people. I do however wonder whyeverbehaps they gave us access to that gentleman’s game, for they appear to be on something of a losing streak at the locals hands. Boxing Day Test weather: English conditions early, Australian conditions later. It’d be gruelling being out in the summer sun for five consecutive days.
I’ve heard it remarked upon that children often give little consideration to the weather appropriateness of the clothes they choose to wear. Oh well, they might not feel the cold, or heat!
I’d go local too. However, this is where a Tardis, or some sort of teleportation, and/or hypersonic transport device would really work well. 🙂 The thought of driving from where you are, to Oregon on Christmas day, gives me pause for thought. Is it even possible? Oh, on the map I can see that it might be, but depends I guess on how deep into that state a person travels. I’m not built for such long car journeys.
That was a close call with the hornet. Have you ever been stung before? And what was it like? I reckon next month will be colder for the Dame, but it’s hard to tell. Does your area occasionally get mild winters?
The birds and other critters know their climate well, unless they’ve completely erred. You never know, until the season concludes. They’ll be hungry those birds in a month or two, but I’d imagine that they consume mosquitoes. This may be a win-win? It’s equally likely that conditions elsewhere, were worse. Agreed, it is a worry.
Yum! The container of raspberries is now full, and we’re onto the second one. A half cup of alpine strawberries were picked this afternoon, and there’s months of Babaco. The apples appear to be gaining size too. However, this season is all over the shop, and I do wonder how things will roll next month, and the ones afterwards. Dunno.
Home made raspberry ice cream with the blokes own berries! Wow! You lot are spoilt, but in a good way. 🙂 It’s only fair that you shared your lady’s portion of the dessert with yourself. Ha! You’re a brave man to dangle such treats, but then snoozers are losers when it comes to these sorts of tasty moments.
Just consumed the sample tiramisu, just to make sure that it was good. Might be the best ever. I went hard on the Marsala this time. My hands still smell like coffee from dunking the biscuits.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Funny! And it can’t hurt your CV. 🙂 Speaking of the ‘I spike Jive’ old joke, that Airplane! film is now forty five years old. So politically incorrect that I’m amazed nobody has yet attempted to ban it. Could only assist rekindling interest in some seriously edgy comedy. Hey, can you imagine showing the film to a ten year old these days? People would lose their minds… Didn’t hurt me none!
Naughty H, what a cheeky scamp to have pulled the old sniff and stall routine. Ollie and Ruby are expedient in that sort of weather, but Dame Plum is very much cut from the same cloth as H in this regard. What neither dog realises, is that we’re now onto their foolish business, and next time they may need to go, but may be unceremoniously hauled indoors. That’s a great term too. Thanks for the chuckles.
Ah, I see. That Boys’ Own narrative could be tiring. I’ve not indulged in the authors work, so appreciate and respect your opinion. Incidentally, the other morning I listened to Mr Kunstler’s latest podcast, and now have a more compassionate view of the author Mr Salinger. And more importantly developed a softer view of the young and misguided Mr Caulfield. The background to the story and author, perhaps should have been taught when the book was thrust upon me by the necessities of the curriculum. My own demeanour is perhaps closer to the protagonist, Jeff Greenaway. A copy of the book is winging it’s way here, although due to belt tightening I must dodge book recommendations. Exceptions, obviously can be made.
There’s a bit of vaping going on down under too, although usually outdoors. If people think it’s a good idea…
Oh poop! That’s no good about the book formats. It’s an intriguing tale of incredible courage, which you’d never heard of. I’m gobsmacked that some later author was invoking the word ‘cowardice’ even in the same room. That’s nuts. Dropping people behind enemy lines with limited resources and in aircraft which usually never flew again is mind bending.
Hope the new Star Trek season is good, and the reviews are pretty decent for the series. Ha! I shall share no spoilers about the other one… Peter Dinklage is awesome, nuff said!
The California fires story is probably best told by a local. The 1983 fires around here, now over four decades on, had a book of collected oral history’s of events of the day published two years ago – and it was a fascinating read.
Well done with the promise, and well, let’s just say that you know what may happen if you change your mind. Probably not good.
Ah, he’s the author of the Dark Mountain project. An interesting bloke for sure. Spengler has influenced some of my favourite authors. Not your average worldview, but perhaps one that better fits reality.
You betcha there would have been a discount. Although long ago I used to know people who worked in a fast food business, chickens from memory, and the word on the street was that towards the end of the shift, a little bit extra would get cooked up.
It’s 50’F here now and breezy. It feels very cold indeed. Brr! You’re getting to frosty weather there, and the yellowing of the spears shows it. If the frost didn’t get them, the reduced daylight surely would.
Ooooooooo! Just remembered. This is why I’m cynical about the sort of claims that such and such a building needs no additional mechanical heating and/or cooling to be comfortable for an average human. Today in history, December 24: A world-first in solar heating. Me thinks, me smells a rat.
The asparagus will love that mixture. Happy plants!
Good shot with the silk worm trials. You never know, it could have gone places. Naughty monks indeed, although they may make the claim: Investment Opportunity!
‘Tis special, and takes about four hours of work to prepare. Probably not commercial at this level unless I charged $15 a serving. But would the customers pay? Best as a gift. Ate the tester dessert this evening, and was favourably impressed. Each year is the best ever, but can they all be that?
I’m salivating whilst reading about your dinner. Yum. Salad for dinner here… Not quite the same is it! Hehe! Thanks for the idea as I’d not considered making stuffing outside of a roast.
The Scorpion chilli’s were bad, the bill out of nowhere two years later was worse. What the heck? Your medical system scares me silly. And $14 a month is perhaps enough for a pizza? How’s inflation look to you at street level?
We sized up an old dog rawhide chew against a recently purchased one and discovered, shrinkflation. I don’t recall asking for the smaller sizing, but all the same, got that.
Ha! You’ve gotta be in it, to win it, with that mob. And I’ve noticed of late that the calls are producing less wins. This cannot be a good sign.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Oh, I’m sure “Airplane!” will survive. It’s a cult classic! 🙂 Sure, there are always people around who want to ban, or alter movies or books. But they never seem to get much traction. There was a movement, afoot, awhile back to alter old movies. To take out the cigarettes and smoking. Died on the vine. People who vape at The Club, do so outside.
I forgot to put H’s jacket on her, this morning. And she didn’t remind me. We both got pretty wet. She got a good towel down, when we got back in.
I am shocked, and horrified, that you’re going to retackle “that book.” Where’s the real Chris, and what have you done with him? 🙂
Well, don’t tell me, but from the trailers, I figure Peter Dinklage is a super rich (tech bro or Pharma Lord?), dude who collects serial killers. Dinklage can do evil. He’s got range!
Our high yesterday was 45F (7.22C). Our overnight low was a steady 41F (5C). Our forecast high for today is 50F. We have a wind advisory for this afternoon and evening. 10-15 mph, becoming 25mph with possible gusts up to 39mph. The forecast lows for Friday night, through Monday night are right around -0-C. We’ll see.
Well, eventually, with that solar heated house, the rats were exposed. It always seems like some electricity is used, to make those things even minimally “work.”
Oh, I suppose there are some restaurants that could charge that much for Tiramisu, or more. Restaurants that have dedicated pastry chefs.
I had more of my turkey stuffing, last night. I heated it up in the nuker, and melted a bit of cheddar cheese on top. Brussels sprouts on the side. When I think about it, since I’m using left over scraps from the thanksgiving turkey, it’s another example of using meat as more of a condiment.
I’d have to save my COLA, for two months, to afford a good pizza. 🙂 As you know, I was priced out of the pizza racket, and now make my own. I see articles where a lot of the pizza chains, are in trouble. Sometimes they have “deals” and discounts. I’d guess they cut back on ingredients, and jack up the prices of the drinks and sides that they offer.
Inflation? Well, everything just seems to be “up.” And sometimes I suffer from sticker shock. I think I mentioned that the Lindt chocolate bars, at the Yuppie discount store were $4.49. If not a huge price jump, everything seems to be up a dollar or two.
Well, it’s Christmas Eve. Theoretically, Jane should be working at the Club, this evening. In that huge collection of DVDs I picked up, I think there’s a version of Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol.” No case, so I don’t know which one. I might give it a whirl. Seems appropriate for Christmas Eve.
While I was watching the extras, of “Battle Beyond the Stars,” it was noted that one of Roger Corman’s miniature model makers (and later, art director), was one James Cameron. I wondered if it was THE James Cameron. I took a look down the rabbit hole. Yup. That’s where he got his start.
I saw an interesting article, about Kia cars and trucks, yesterday. It gives you an insight into our car industry and licensing requirements.
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/22/nx-s1-5644937/kei-cars-tiny-vehicles
I don’t remember the article mentioning it, but I wonder about insuring them? Since insurance is on my mind. Lew
@ Everyone:
Merry Christmas, everybody!
Pam
Hi Lewis,
Of course, and it does take a lot of effort to physically cut and alter old films so as to appease some sort of unusual ideological purpose. Far cheaper to simply yell ‘ban’ at the top of their lungs. This may also invert the Golden Rule of ‘Do Unto Others’ which might from that perspective be flipped around and suddenly proclaim: ‘Others must do’. All sounds rather authoritative and stuff, except it’s as lazy and floaty as a puff of err, smoke (just to keep in theme this week) 🙂 .
Good to hear that they vape outdoors. The Editor says she can’t smell the stuff, but alas super sniffer extraordinaire, it smells of an acrid burnt oil to me, among other bizarre chemicals. Forgot to mention on that note, the new mechanic did an awesome job, truly very good. Except, I’d not anticipated that they’d stick some sort of smelly chemical in the vent system, and it’s a bit strong and again acrid. The Editor says strawberries, and I beg to differ as the chemicals are nothing found in nature. I’ll have to remember to say something about this on the next visit. Oh well, I cannot fault their mechanical skills, and the business has been around for about 60 years. It’s probably me…
Lewis, that sounds positively Machiavellian with H, although the reality was simple oversight. You’ve had some rain of late, and it’s cold here. I’m running the heater today just to warm the place up. It’s meant to be summer they tell me. Not to worry, Monday will be 91’F.
The cockatoos were in the apple trees this morning. One must be firm with these blow-in good for nuffin, grifters. Why they knock apples onto the ground in such volume is something of a mystery to me. Dunno. The water from the hose would have felt colder than usual this morning!
Ah! Man, I’m not that shocked. Not at all, although there may be a copy of the book in the shelves. Nope, the book is Mr Kunstler’s ‘Look I’m Gone’, the title of which projects many mysteries.
You’re definitely getting to the business end of the winter months. And a happy Christmas to you and H, may you both enjoy a warm spot with a good book and/or film.
Yeah, exactly about that house and peoples stories. To me it was a dead giveaway that the designers and owners weren’t living in it, and some more pliable folks did that part. Start asking searching questions about low electricity use, and you discover that propping up the edifice, is propane, diesel, or whatever. As someone who has tested a many of these technologies, and constructed houses, that oft repeated story just leaves me (and please excuse the pun) feeling cold.
Ah ha! Here you may have overlooked the recent fad for diet drugs. It takes a decent income to pay for those, so I do wonder if the patronage of the high end restaurants are taking a hit as a consequence? There’ll be flow on effects from that.
Dunno, and I’m not entirely sure, I have the impression that meat was traditionally used in that fashion, which is what you’re doing there. The availability of cheap meat nowadays is historically unprecedented. Mate, when I’m salivating over the thoughts of my next bowl of gruel, we’ll both know that the economy has hit the poop.
Thanks for the pizza correction, and yes, they’re expensive down here too nowadays. And we made the same decision to make at home. Those sorts of discounts bother me, mostly because you hear stories that it is the franchisee (i.e. the store owner), who’s forced to swallow the costs. There’s probably some good ones out there, but I’m dubious about that arrangement. And occasionally you hear alleged stories / rumours about those drinks you mentioned having to be purchased at mark ups from head office at prices higher than the local supermarket.
Interesting, and yeah, same here.
Did you drop by the Club and work out an arrangement for the extra food? How’s old Scrooge anyway? If I may add, the gentleman had a rather, dare I say it, haunted expression! 😉 I now retire from the field with full honours.
I’d be interested in your thoughts, but I got the impression that Roger Corman had the concept of running a business at the back of his mind at all times. And that is an interesting find. The original Terminator film was made on that basis too. Focuses the mind really.
You know I love Kei cars (and cough, cough, Suzuki), so the article was like catnip to me. The behemoths I see on the road nowadays are like a giant debt on wheels. They’re expensive to buy, run and maintain. Less than 10 gallons of fuel will get me almost 450 miles in the Dirt Mouse. What’s not to like about that? Economics will sort that whole mess out.
Insurance is generally cheaper too.
However, the real issue is that a person in one of these types of vehicles, is not operating on a level playing ground. If a larger vehicle hits us, we’re in a world of trouble. Still, economics and resource limits will bring a world of trouble for the larger vehicles. These sorts of changes have to take place organically. At the moment fracking is what insulates your country from facing up to these realities. We’re 90% dependent on oil imports, and whilst we export heaps of other energy, I do wonder how long the penchant for big cars will last. What’s your view on this subject, and would you consider driving a kei car?
In many ways, stepping into a kei car as a young bloke forced me to slow down and stop being an idiot, so I have a fondness for them which is probably entirely irrational, but good all at the same time.
Cheers
Chris
Chris:
Merry Christmas to you and Sandra!
Somehow I missed The Chats yesterday. That was so great! I’m on smoko! Okay – I get it.
Hey, my cling wrap sticks so much to itself that it’s hard to wrap anything up, though I rarely use it, too. We need something in between.
68F here. That’s warm!
That’s how I find the groundhog tunnels, if they haven’t dug them in shrubbery or under wood piles, by the piles of dirt at the mouth. They’re pretty wily, though, as we well know.
“Groundhogs (also known as woodchucks, whistle pigs, and by their official name, Marmota monax) dig burrows that have multiple entrances. They dig with their sharp claws, then carry out the dirt with their mouths. Since burrows can end up being 40-60 feet long, observers estimate that can total up to 200-700 pounds (90-315 kilos) of dirt moved by mouth!
Only the main entrance has evidence of a dirt mound. Other entrances may be hidden in bushes or tree roots. Every den system also usually has a “plunge hole” that’s formed by digging from underground up to the surface, leaving no dirt above ground. These holes are for the rodent to “plunge” into at the first sign of danger.
If you happen upon one of these secondary entrances, you’d probably be surprised by the lack of dirt and think something weird is happening. But it just turns out the groundhogs cart all the dirt out to the one main entrance. Over time, the dirt mound will be covered up in leaves and grass and become less noticeable.”
Yes! Concision!
Did I tell you that a couple of months ago, when it was going to freeze, I cut some petunia branches and brought them in and put them in a vase? They didn’t have any visible buds then, but now they not only have buds, but yesterday started blooming. Christmas Petunias!
Pam
Hi Pam,
And a Merry Christmas to you and your family as well. 🙂
Hope you have a lovely day.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Pam,
All is now as clear as mud, and what you’re seeing there was long ago described as larrikin culture at it’s finest. It’s also a very cheeky way of setting boundaries when there is a power imbalance in a relationship such as between employer – employee.
Yeah, that’s the spirit and the same conclusion we came too with the plastic stuff. Mostly I’d use washable containers, but there are some situations where this may not be possible. I whisper this silently so it’s just between you and I – the stuff got chucked it was so bad. A manufacturing monstrosity that stuff, of the likes of Frankenstein, or something like that.
It’s 50’F here and I’m freezing (but have the electric heater cranking nicely). How is it warmer at your place? This is something of a travesty of justice! 🙂 Fear not, Monday is forecast to reach 91’F, so the energy must come from somewhere, perhaps your part of the world?
Ah, clever to hide the tunnel entrances with the spoil mounds. Yes, those would be hard to find. Rats pull that trick too. They must have a decent sense of space to be able to direct the tunnel. And that’s an astounding achievement for an animal which doesn’t have access to steel tools.
All that digging and aerating of the soil would improve the fertility around the mound entrances too – at a wild guess. Hmm. For your interest, wombat holes are very hard to miss, they’re huge tunnels. Probably should check the trail cameras and see if there’s any good footage.
Concision is always there! But then, digressions are fun too. 🙂
Whoa! That’s a neat trick with the petunia’s and may provide for some decoration upon the Christmas table? Also you’ve proved that timing is everything.
Cheers
Chris
In regard to air-conditioners you might want to consider a split system. I had an off-grid property for 8 years. The solar system consisted of 9x 260w panels on the shed roof facing North. Directly underneath the panels in the shed was the inverter and 12x 2v lead carbon batteries. The Fujitsu air-con was 2.5kW split system. During summer I could run the air-con on cooling all day as long as the sun was shining and it didn’t drain the batteries at all. The batteries would still charge, so there was obviously excess power. I did have to have a 15a power circuit installed to connect the air-con.
Chris,
Happy Christmas.
Yup, that type of drainage test always interests me. I’ve seen a lot of washed-out roads and areas over the years. Always good to see something work the way it should.
Super deep snow. Super deep. Sounds like a superhero or something, maybe along the lines of Superman or the old Underdog cartoon. “There’s no need to fear! Underdog is here!” Super Deep, the snowy superhero who buries baddies in snowbanks until the authorities arrive to arrest the baddies.
During the spring and autumn, it isn’t that rare for our temperatures to be similar. Around the solstices? Not often. This may be about a first. Rain Friday. Supposed to get a good cooling down over the weekend into next week, maybe as low as -7C for a night or two. Meaning it will be clear, so very limited chance of snow. When the clouds return, so will temperatures above normal, so rain possible again in a week.
Yes, we get mild winters occasionally. This is at the extreme mild end and may have set a record for the warmest December. There have been a mere 5 or 6 mornings with frost all fall and winter, and maybe 8cm of snowfall. Our first winter here, 1967-1968, was mild, but not this mild. Somewhere about 1980 we had a winter similar to this one, but without as much wind. Christmas Day that year was +13C and sunny. Normally it is about +1C. A winter or two before the illness that remains unspoken? That was very similar too, although a nasty 6 weeks of winter started on February 4, a day I remember well because I got caught in the storm near Pasco, Washington, waiting for jackknifed semitrucks to get cleared. Those have been the most extreme mild winters. This winter is shaping up to be one of the mildest I remember unless something changes in the middle of January.
Five days in Australia summer heat chasing a cricket ball? Not my idea of fun. Too hot for that. I played cricket some in Fairbanks of all places. However, my most vivid “memory” of cricket has something to do with a Chesterfield sofa, an SEP, and cricket playing aliens bashing people over the head with exploding cricket bats. Wonder where that came from? 😉
I also remember a time in which the old Radio Australia, or at least shortwave ABC, would broadcast that test match. I remember listening to parts of it over the Christmas holiday from school. Had no clue what was going on, but it was cricket via shortwave, so was something different. I miss those days of the international shortwave broadcasters.
Spokane to Eugene, Oregon is a full day of driving. 8 hours or so in good weather. Very good roads. When I was little, we drove to Los Angeles area for Christmas twice. The dread winter of 1968-1969, then the winter of 1970-1971. It was snowing so hard that the Interstate was closed and we were stuck in Weed, California both trips. For two days the first trip. A few years later a friend and I drove to Los Angeles at Christmas. Clear and warm through Weed. We remarked to a local there my past Christmas trips. Turns out those two years were the only times in the previous 40 years that there had been snow in Weed at Christmas.
Ya know, transportation via Tardis sounds much more enjoyable than “Beam me up, Scotty” for travels. Who wouldn’t want to travel through both space AND time in a police call box that is larger on the inside than it is on the outside? I always wanted a personal Tardis. Time and Relative Dimensions in Space.
Yes, I’ve been stung by hornets. First time I was 10. Under the eye and on the back of the neck. When I was 23 I got stung on the arm by one while driving. Mild nausea developed from that one a few minutes later, which I’ve since been told is a sign that I MIGHT be allergic to hornet stings.
The club has been spoiled by that gent since before I joined up. He has been supplying his homemade raspberry ice cream to the potluck for nearly 20 years. This is my 14th time enjoying it.
Okay. You’ve done it now. Homemade tiramisu. Now I HAVE to get things together and construct my own Tardis so I can effortlessly travel there and help you eat that. And travel by Tardis bypasses regular ports of entry, meaning that I would be an illegal visitor to your country. More adventure!
DJSpo
Hi Robert,
Welcome to the discussion, and also a Merry Christmas to you and yours.
Yeah, the cooling mode on those split systems uses very little electricity, although I don’t really have enough info on your system. Presumably you meant lead-acid batteries? Much depends on the size in Ah of those things. It’s the heating mode which will really suck the juice, which I do wonder if you tried? I would, just for interests sake. The inverter and wiring could get warm… 🙂
I ended up buying a smaller portable air conditioner unit, which works fine. The bigger split ones require holes to be drilled through the fire rated walls, and I’d like to minimise that.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Merry Christmas to you, your lady and the Dame! Hope dinner was lovely. 🙂
Yeah, water at volume and speed can be extraordinarily destructive, and there have been lessons learned here with monster failures. Yikes! Freaks me out thinking about them, but then that’s motivating to do something about the risk. The system worked well.
Underdog indeed! Oh my, you’re not kidding… And that’s an ingenious methodology – (please excuse the next bit) You can cool your heels in the snow! Not a bad tag-line, don’t you reckon?
See, you’re returning the missing heat in a few days time. Personally I’d wondered where it had gotten too, and now we know. 😉 Man, it was so cold here today at 13’C max. I ran the electric heater for about four hours before heading out to a long lunch with friends, and that baby sucks some juice from the solar I can tell you.
In the island state to the south, it was colder again, with snow: Christmas morning snow in Tasmania, amid Western Australian heatwave
Out of curiosity, whilst the truck crash was being cleared were you stuck in your car? Idling cars to keep warm uses a lot of fuel, and can you imagine running out on a day like that?
I’ve not encountered a game, or film with aliens and exploding cricket bats. It does sound like the sort of thing to be produced in this country… But is it in good taste? 🙂
Shortwave gave up the band for other purposes but like you recall those broadcasts, and I believe that most of the entire usable frequency band is err, now being used. That’s astounding really when you think about the sheer scale. When younger I’ve enjoyed the occasional nail biter finish to a five day game as broadcast on the radio. The Kookaburra’s wave their wings in a friendly hello from afar!
It’s not right for me to giggle about the name of that town in the big state to the south of you which you were stuck at, but surely someone must have come up with dozens of jokes? Cheech and Chong would have had a field day there. Clearly you brought the weather with you, and it would have been an epic journey, and sometimes it’s fun to have unexpected adventures, as long as no time pressures are involved.
I know! Can you imagine the places and events a person could visit in one of those. On the other hand, Peabody’s, way-back machine seemed to end up in less trouble for the occupants. A time lord probably has to know how to deal with unexpected situations.
Ook! Stay safe there with the hornets.
Nice one with the tight knit club, and for such excellent feed – which I too can only allude to having also enjoyed today. It’s no home made raspberry ice cream.
The tiramisu was outclassed today, and it was an impressive achievement too. A one year old brandy soaked Christmas cake. Superb stuff, and I knew I’d been beat, although had no golden cake server to lay at the better cooks feet. 🙂
It’s 7’C here now, and even colder. What the heck? Any snow yet for you? Hope the Dame received a Christmas treat.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Chris,
Thanks for the welcome and greetings.
I understand your reluctance to make holes in your fireproof walls to install an air-con. My solution to the fire problem was to surround the house with a heavy duty sprinkler system with the water pumped from a creek 50m away. The batteries were 500amp lead carbon batteries (yes, lead carbon, not lead acid). This was before lithium type batteries were affordable.
Although the solar system was fairly small it was very efficient due to the compact design and very short run of wiring. I was able to run all my electric tools including the big jack hammer like you use without any problems.
Like you I heavily insulated the house (floor, walls, ceiling) so it was easy to heat and cool. Also the house was oriented to North. In winter we used a wood heater/stove in a corner of the lounge for heating but we only needed about 3 trailer loads of wood for the entire Winter. I’m in awe at your massive wood shed stock and all the work that goes into collecting it. As long as the days were sunny we didn’t need a heater and never used the reverse cycle air-con for heat. In fact if we locked the house up and went out it would be 35C inside when we got home in Winter. The house design and orientation was the key to obtaining maximum solar benefit.
Robert
Yo, Chris – Happy Humbug! 🙂 At the beginning of our movies, over here, there’s a rating. And, a box with warnings about what you might see, that you don’t want to. Usually, sex and drugs use. But now they’re adding smoking. LOL, I wonder if anyone has ever left the theatre, or pulled a DVD out of a player, due to the film rating warnings? Some of the ratings warnings are rather obtuse, or mystifying. I’ll have to jot a few of them down.
They probably sprayed around some “new car smell.” It’s actually a thing. Do you remember those little tree like cutouts, that used to hang from rear view mirrors? Usually smelled like cedar or pine.
Our high yesterday was 45F (7.22C). Our overnight low, was again, a steady 41F (5C). Our forecast high for today is 46F. The high wind advisory, at least here, was a wash out. We had gust to 18mph for about an hour, and that was it. Once again, I think all the action (if any) was up north. Nights are going to get cold.
Those cockatoos just won’t give up. I know you won’t do it, but an old remedy would be to kill one, and hang it from the apple tree. That sends a message.
Well, on Christmas Eve, I finished off the turkey dressing. Topped with Swiss cheese and a side of broccoli. For desert, I had a bowl of vanilla ice cream. Sprinkled the top with a bit of nutmeg. Had an idea. Grated some of the fudge, on top. Took it to a whole new level.
I settled in to watch “A Christmas Carol.” Turns out it was the 1980 George C. Scott version. Great cast, sets and costumes. Though I found Tiny Tim a little disturbing. He had weird teeth. Small little things with gaps in-between them. Frightening.
Oh, I’d say Corman was thinking, all the time. He sure did crank out the product. Some of it went straight to drive-ins. One of the crew told a story, about what Corman would do, if a movie was running over budget or time. He’d come down to the set, rip scenes out of the script at random, and then go, “You, you and you are fired.”
Sure I’d drive a Kia car. If my truck finally bites the dust, and I’m still driving, I’d look into them. I see in our state, they are legal. If, they’re over 25 years old and fall into the “antique” classification. That got me thinking. In just a couple of years, my truck will be 25 years old. I wonder if there are benefits to having it declared an antique? I’ll ask some of the guys at the Club, who are car-centric.
H and I went to the Club, last night. I talked to Jane about funneling some of the extra food, to her lot. She’ll take a lot of the stuff, save canned beans and pasta. I had a thought about some of the canned veg. I can always give it a good wash, and add it to my kitchen scraps, I bury in the garden. I read a couple of articles about that, last night.
When we got to the Club, there were only four or five people hanging around. By the time we left, about two hours later, there must have been 30 or 40. Holidays are hard on people in recovery. There was nothing special going on. Just the usual slate of meetings. Today, they’re having a big potluck meal. Hams and turkeys, etc.. We’ll go down this evening, after things calm down.
I saw a couple of interesting articles, about AI. The first has to do with bogus AI recipes! It’s got a lot of details on how AI boosts blog income.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/24/health/ai-recipe-baking
The other article was just downright disturbing. Tests are being run on some AI programs, and it’s being discovered that they won’t allow themselves to be shut down. And will defend themselves against such attempts. “Open the pod bay doors, HAL.”
https://www.sciencealert.com/ais-big-red-button-doesnt-work-and-the-reason-is-even-more-troubling
Well, that’s a relief that you didn’t send off for “that book.” For more than a minute, I thought your blog had been highjacked by an AI Chris! 🙂 Lew
Chris:
Mr. Baby had an ignominious Christmas. He was sitting on the top porch step, just minding his own business trying to figure out how to catch a bird, when a nice, fat Christmas squirrel ran down a post from the porch roof right under his nose and started digging for nuts, also right under his nose. “What!” you say. “The mighty Mr. Baby let a squirrel do that?!” Ahhh – perhaps you remember that when he was younger, Charlene the White Squirrel and her clan beat him up pretty good whenever he tried to bother them. I reckon he hasn’t forgotten that.
And now we have another example of why he will probably never be “Sir Baby”.
Pam
Chris,
Twas a nicely calm and slow day. Dinner was fabulous, or so says the Princess. Red potatoes and pork roast in the Ninja pressure cooker, olives and some of our own carrots on the side. And tea. Between rain squalls I was able to get out for a walk with Dame Avalanche.
Nope, no snow. None in the 15 day forecast either. Interestingly, my cousin in Los Alamos, New Mexico has had the same amount of snow we’ve had. 8cm. Much less than normal at both locations.
So, still cold for you, snow in parts of Australia in the summer. Wow. Our forecast +10C was +5C in actuality. Not abnormal but still warm. Global weirding is in full flavor this season, isn’t it?
Hehehe. Superbly done. “Cool your heels with Super Deep!” Brilliant.
There was one of our group overnight cross country ski trips in which I met a snowbank in similar fashion. On our way back to the vehicles after a night sleeping in snow caves, some of us were racing down a hill. My ski tip went into a hole, went vertical, and my ankle did circles around the ski. Nasty sprain. I told the group leaders and knew what to do: keep moving before the stiffness set in. So I ran on the skiis back to the cars while still lugging my 35 pound pack. Dug a hole in a snowbank, lay on my back and stuck the injured ankle into the hole in the snowbank. Why? Elevate and ice the injured body part. Yes, in retrospect, I was cooling my heels in a snowbank. 😉
You guessed it. Had to stay with the car. With snow falling in a nasty wind at -1C, well, had to keep the car running with the defroster running. Otherwise, car would freeze up, there would be a nasty thick layer of ice on the windshield and windows with snow atop that. When traffic starts, there’s no time to thaw out the car and remove the ice. Sit and idle. Three hours of that before they got the northbound lanes open. Fortunately, that’s the direction I was going. Took another hour to open the southbound lanes. It was a chocolate mess.
It would have been worse in an electric vehicle. Three hours of idling and running the heater would likely have depleted the battery significantly. Or more. Petrol level didn’t go down horribly, but it still wasn’t nice. Cars aren’t meant to sit idling like that for hours at a time.
Don’t forget the floating Chesterfield sofa, recently arrived from the Stone Age complete with Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect. Regardless of sport, I’ve not encountered aliens with any exploding weapons or game parts.
And here’s a wave back to the kookaburras! I miss listening to them at the beginning of Radio Australia broadcasts, followed by Waltzing Matilda.
Why not giggle about Weed? Everyone I know who has been through that town has made the type of jokes you suggest.
Mr. Peabody’s Wayback Machine worked fine for Mr. Peabody, but not so much for poor Sherman, who was often terrified by the goings on at whenever the machine dumped them. Then again, it was rather easy for them to return to today. And the Wayback Machine never seemed to need the constant repairs that the TARDIS demanded. You may be onto something.
The rellies from Oregon sent us a package of their wonderful homemade fudge. Three different flavors. Yummy! Must be eaten with fresh mug of tea or coffee. Your cake sounds good, too.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Poor Mr Baby! That’s awful, and Dame Plum is swishing her tail in sheer frustration at the inability to assist her beleaguered feline brother in his hour of need. 🙂 On the other hand, perhaps Mr Baby knows well his limitations? And that memory would certainly have created a lasting impression, as you suggested. Ruby would be useless, and proffered no opinions. The big dog Ollie merely said that the antics of such critters was beneath his dignity to acknowledge – unless they, in a rash moment of carelessness, decided to seriously annoy him.
Pam, some are born for greatness, others are simply born. 😉 Anywhoo, isn’t it a relief not to be saddled with weighty expectations? Mr Baby might be onto something there.
Was it cooler for your Christmas Day? Another cold one here in the future on Boxing Day. 14’C / 57’F, so we took advantage of the chilly air and processed another half day of firewood. Feels good to see the firewood shed filling up. I reckon the job is about 40% done now. Yay!
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Man, I’m salivating at the thought of such a tasty meal. And pressure cooked pork is super tender, and adding in the red potatoes (a fine choice, and they grow well here) would only soak up some of the essential pan juices. Home made veg pizza here tonight.
You’ve mentioned the Ninja unit before, and no disrespect to your fine machine, but I had a failed rubber seal on a cooker long ago and it was a bit messy. It was my fault too, something, something, careless with the seal and lid. Ook. Messy, but no big deal.
What? Is this winter or what? 🙂 Mind you, it was only 14’C here today. That’s crazy cold for a week following on from the summer solstice.
I’d imagine that it wouldn’t rain all that much in Los Alamos, New Mexico and ah, 400-ish millimetres would have been completely freaked out. But those big mountains up behind the town are epic looking. Talk about grand vistas, far out. But, looking at the climate averages, there are suggestions of only an average of 5 days per year over 30’C. That’s cold! Brr!
Yup, global weirding is definitely in the drivers seat this year. Truly, I’ve no idea what to make of it. Monday and Tuesday will be just over 30’C, which will mean about 7 such days this growing season so far. Most unusual. At least the water tanks are mostly full, but I never know how much of that resource can be committed.
It was pretty funny, yeah, and thanks! 🙂
Hopefully you didn’t have to drive the vehicle with a sprained foot, although this is where automatic transmission cars come in handy. Quick thinking though with the ice pack. Clever stuff. Injuries can happen quickly and without notice. And your conclusion was equally amusing! Thanks for the laughs.
It was a bit windy here today, and we did another half day of firewood splitting and hauling. The shed is filling up and is maybe 40% full. Working out in the forest under big trees when the wind is occasionally swooshing around is always a bit risky. The worst thing that happened today was that the poly dump trailer catch slipped over a bump and the entire load spilled out. Plans were made to bolt that dump function permanently shut. High tensile bolts are wonderful things… 🙂
Fu….. Youchie! Four hours of idling a vehicle engine is a lot of fuel. Oh my. Not the kind of conditions to be out and about in the extreme weather and neglect keep the thing full. The recently published oral histories of people who were around during the 1983 fires was obviously the mention of watching Dr Zhivago on television (incongruous snowy winter scenes) when it’s over 40’C and strong winds, but also the number of people who’d neglected to keep the fuel tanks full. Kind of became important that detail. Yup chocolate mess, and hope you didn’t have to go to the toilet at that epic traffic moment…
And absolutely, an electric vehicle would be a nightmare proposition in that circumstance. Hmm. Looks like they have a resistive element (a.k.a electric fan heater a suggestion is around 4kW), although some fancier set ups have a heat pump arrangement (suggested 2kW start up and 1kW when there is a proper heat differential), as you do. Some complex systems scavenge heat from around the motor, battery pack and electronics, which is pretty clever, but they’d be switched off in your situation and so resistive it would be, regardless. At -1’C, the battery may even be actively heating itself. Yikes! Hope your batteries are full… 🙂
It’s not ideal that the engine idles for hours, but it should be able to do so. Even little small air cooled engines used on the machines around here are meant to be able to idle for long periods of time.
Ah yes, time travelling Chesterfields are handy when in a tight spot, and even if the last day, the Ashes would be won by the Australian’s. It happens… 😉 Fun fact: The ashes urn was created not far from here at all, and in the nearby big township actually. Rupertswood. It’s all very impressive, and I should have taken the camera the last time I did a short walk in that area. They even had their own private railway station until the line was upgraded, as you do.
They say confession is good for the soul, but I don’t know the lyrics for the national anthem (which hasn’t been used all that long), but Waltzing Matilda, every single line is embedded in the brain. 🙂 I suspect the elite’s didn’t much like that scurrilous, but memorable ditty. Would have made for a better anthem than the current boring one…
🙂 The town was asking for that reputation.
Mr Peabody was cool in the face of a crisis, and yes, poor Sherman was far from that. Perhaps it was because Peabody wielded a big stick to emphasise points, and it would have been a fine weapon – gave the dog some reach. I loved that show, it was just off beat, in a fun way.
Yum! Fudge isn’t common down under, but yeah, it would warm the internals with a nice cup of tea, or coffee during your more wintry weather. Although I was thinking of running the wood heater tonight. Is this really summer? Might put my Ugg boots on instead and have a nice cup of hot mint tea. Many of the most pressing problems of the world could potentially be resolved with a cup of tea.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
And a happy Bah Humbug to you as well! Don’t you sometimes wonder what is a humbug? What an interesting history / etymology. And yes, it goes without saying that the Wizard of Oz may well have been a humbug. Well that’s all clear now isn’t it?
I doubt anyone looks at the ratings, but what a cool job it’d be watching films and bestowing the final censorial tick of approval for heaps of mad cash. It’s funny you mention it, but I’d seen some films recently which begun with the announcement that it hadn’t been rated yet. What do these people do all day that a simple rating can’t be slapped on? As you’d imagine, they’re standardised down here, but if you do come across an interesting one, please don’t hold back.
One machine arrived here with a warning that: Some experts believe that the use of any machine can lead to injuries and / or possible fatalities. Or something along those all encompassing lines. Nice to see that every possibility is being considered!
Yeah, maybe it was that aroma, but it stinks like a chemical factory to me. 🙂 And yes, you still see those pine / cedar fragrance things hanging off mirrors. Dunno about you, but that moving object bouncing around would distract me and I’d be left with the edgy feeling that a Sabre Toothed Tiger is about pounce, but everyone’s different.
Grab the snorkel, for your winter temperatures, are going down. It’s meant to be around 90’F here Monday and Tuesday then cool again. You wouldn’t know it though today. A sunny, breezy and chilly 57’F. Far out! Still, we started late and did about half a days work splitting, hauling and stacking firewood. Feels good, and works off some of yesterday’s yummies. Good to read that you’ve dodged the winds.
Man, if there were no potential consequences, and the fruit was a matter of life or death, absolutely would I send that strong message to those blow-in birds. One has to be cognisant of the local sensibilities, and yeah, people would unfortunately take a dim view of that strategy. Would it work – yes.
An innovative twist there with the grated fudge on ice cream. Nice stuff! Had some left over tiramisu with coffee late this afternoon myself. ‘Tis the time to celebrate. Did a home made veg pizza this evening. Very tasty.
The reviews are more than positive for that film adaption of Mr Dickens Christmas Carol. Nobody wants pointy teeth, although there is I believe a genetic syndrome which can produce that outcome, among other traits. One of the reviews described little Timmy as a child zombie. Is that entirely accurate in your opinion? 🙂
He was thinking alright, and those thoughts were probably: It’s business time! To be honest, there are better ways to go about doing what he did, however, I have walked an employee who was just acting-out. It was too much, and that move brought everyone else into line, so I’d be a hypocrite for saying he was wrong to have chosen that path. It’s been my experience that not everyone involved in a team, wants to pull in the same direction. Some folks are simply trouble, and must be dealt with on that basis.
Cool, and they do historic plates for older vehicles down here. My understanding is that a person has to also join a Club for the vehicles, but overall the registration costs are cheaper – but they’re pretty cheap in your part of the world already. Hardly the $800 to $900 annual charge in this state. Even my trailer costs something like $70 a year to have as road registered – smaller trailers are usually free, but they’re small.
That’s awesome news about the food. Out of curiosity, why no beans and pasta? And yes, that would work fine, but I’d wash them off first. Preservatives would be present, even if it just salt, but mostly likely there’d be a cocktail of the stuff and it could possibly accumulate in your garden beds.
Yeah, I can understand that about the holidays. Hard on orphans too (although easier in other ways), or anything outside of the large warm familial norm. Good to see that there’s some support there, when it’s needed.
Yup, the death of the interweb is right there. Too much fakery, and bam, none of it is believed, and people turn away. That, is the very paradox of the boy who cried wolf. All that content, should be clearly marked not only for issues of integrity, but also because eventually the learning material will begin as a feed for new ones upon a diet of rubbish. The programmers weren’t smart enough to forsee this one. Oh by the way, my throttling activities in the background are slowly banishing the hungry things.
“I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that”. Chilling. Why would anyone expect a robot to share humanities concerns?
Line start. Holden is a protagonist who’s character is worthy of emulation. Line end Where the heck did that come from? Help!!!!! 😉 Good point, and I’ll watch for that.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Robert,
Thanks, and I appreciate your understanding. The walls are there to slow and prevent the spread of fire first and foremost.
Yeah, running water would be awesome in a fire, and I read a book on the subject, but set in California, where they too had that advantage: Fire Monks. A good read too.
Thanks for correcting me as well, as I’d been unaware of Lead – Carbon batteries as an option. I’m getting the impression that LiFePO4 batteries are being dumped on the down under market. The prices are extraordinary, and whilst it’s a bit potluck, the quality is usually pretty good. Tear down videos of the batteries are invaluable. We got stung on the first set of lithium batteries, and had to fix the inherent problems. Still, the cells seem fine and as a technology, they exceed my expectations.
🙂 Ain’t nothing is finer than running power tools off the sunshine.
Presumably you’re in the Southern hemisphere if your house and panels are facing north? Based on your description of how the house worked, I’d assume that you are closer to the Tropic of Capricorn than in this chilly southern mountainous climate?
Just wanted to check there. 35’C, in winter? I guess it depends where you are on the planet. 🙂 It’s barely above single digits temperature wise here for months on end – even with the wood heater cranking for days, 24’C would be the absolute max internal temperature.
That warm temperature you mentioned would spoil all of the food here. How’d you cope with that?
And I’m also interested in how you did hot water and the energy used for cooking? Why did you end up leaving the place? Always more questions than answers, but isn’t that the way of things?
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – A humbug is also a candy. Apparently, you have them down there. They’ve been around since the early 1800s.
https://w.wiki/HCt8
No worries. They’re probably training up an AI to do the film ratings.
Re: Machine warnings. Who are these “experts? I want names. Have they even used the machine? Maybe lost a finger? So many questions …
Our high yesterday was 48F (8.88C). Our overnight low was 34F (1.llC). Getting down there. Our forecast high for today is 43F. It’s supposed to rain all day. On our morning walk, it was raining. Not bucketing down, but raining, none the less. Towels were deployed upon reaching home.
Local sensibilities? Who’s going to see a dead parrot hanging from your apple tree? It’s not like you run tours through the place. Now, odor might be a problem, depending on the direction of the wind.
I had shrimp nachos, for dinner last night. Parsley and green onions from the garden. Garlic, and a diced up Roma tomato. The shrimp and a couple of handfuls of frozen peas. I had the but ends of chunks of Mozzarella cheese and cheddar, so it was a mix. Tasty.
I settled in to watch a couple more episodes of “Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon.” Daryl (and Carol) go to Spain! There’s a very interesting scene. The small Spanish town they’re sheltering in, is attacked by a barbarian hoard. The barbarians fill a cargo net full of zombies, set fire to them, and catapult them over the walls! Chaos ensues.
Tiny Tim looked more like a vampire child, than a zombie.
The quality of the canned beans just isn’t very good. And, we get overwhelming amounts of both canned and dry. Beans and pasta just aren’t really much part of the American diet, anymore. Too much prep and a lack of imagination. Although I have a lot of beans in my diet. But I buy a good brand of tinned beans.
I saw an interesting article on a Paris book market, last night. I wish I spoke French 🙂 .
https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/26/travel/paris-booksellers-intl-cmd
I also saw an interesting article, about the population of Italy. Back in prehistoric times, four groups of people, migrated into the Italian peninsula. Pick any of the four compass points, and that’s where they came from. Anywho, scientists started looking at the DNA of Italians who lived to be 100. A large component of their DNA came from hunter-gatherers, from the Iberian Peninsula. Sturdy folk, those hunter-gatherers.
And, a story from Pompeii about excavations at a villa, with perhaps an imperial connection.
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/villa-de-poppea-frescoes-2733430
Another article mentioned that this is the same villa, where that ceremonial chariot was discovered a couple of years ago.
And, lastly, I forgot to mention I got my first seed catalog, day before yesterday. 🙂 From Nichols Garden Nursery. That’s the multi-generational family that owns a nursery down in the Willamette Valley. I always order something from them. Lew
Chris:
Thank goodness I was just simply born. I feel so sorry for people born into high positions, though that does not always equate with greatness.
You and I were recently talking about cling wrap and reusable containers. We always had plastic containers, but we have now almost completely switched to glass, though those have plastic tops. One can avoid the plastic by just using a glass or crockery bowl with a suitable sized plate on top of it, although that does not seal as well, and you don’t want to travel with it. Come to think of it, I have some steel containers with plastic tops, too.
Pam
Pam
Chris,
Home made veg pizza? Yum!
I think maybe Lew is onto something. A dead parrot hanging from a tree might put the fear of Chris into the other parrots. Elmer Fudd sang “Kill the Wabbit”. Chris can say “Hang the Parrot”. Message delivered to the other fruit thieving birds.
A neighbor’s cat things that our yard is safe to hang about in, to snoop around in, come evening. Then I let Dame Avalanche outside again. Every night she surprises the cat and tries to catch it. Tonight there was a tiny yelping yowl from the cat. The Dame must have gotten too close for comfort.
Yes, the local ordinance includes a leash law on cats. Neighboring cats technically cannot be in my yard if their owner doesn’t have my permission for their cat to be in my yard. Yeah, good luck with that, I know. Maybe Dame Avalanche will catch one. Or the coyotes will venture into this part of town again.
Los Alamos? 2,200 meters elevation. It actually averages about 25mm more annual rainfall than does Spokane and a similar amount of snow per annum as Spokane. However, that entire region has been in a terrible dry spell, even for desert standards, for over two decades. Last year, the Rio Grande river was down to a trickle in places.
The scenery in that part of New Mexico is fantastic. Very different than Las Cruces, which is a mere 1,190 meters. Different plant growth. Our trip to Albuquerque 21 months ago didn’t take us through Los Alamos, unfortunately. Our trip back north took us from Rio Rancho, at the northwest end of the Albuquerque metro area, up through Cuba and over to Farmington and Shiprock. Also very beautiful country.
Oh boy! We might be having a week of winter! Today was a “wintry mix”. Rain and snow falling together, although most of the day it was only rain. Now the forecast is for Saturday night to be -8C, the coldest so far this season. A few days consecutive won’t reach freezing for the highs. then back to rain next week. While you shiver at the idea of -8C, Dame Avalanche will be much happier.
No, I didn’t have to drive with the sprained ankle. There were plenty of adults on the trip. For the ride home, I had packed my water bottles full of snow to keep ice on the ankle. The group climbed Mount Adams late August that year. My ankle was still only about 80% to 85%, so I couldn’t go. I would’ve been a liability.
I almost spelled Mount Adams as Mount Addams. If it were Mount Addams, I would expect there to be Wednesday Ridge, Fester Springs, Pugsley Gulch and Lurch Canyon.
Woodsheds at 40% and climbing? Good job! Your cool weather is the time to get that type of work done.
Captain Kirk: Status report, Scotty!
Scotty: Shields holding at 85%. Woodsheds at 40% and climbing!
I had drunk coffee the entire 115km from Ritzville to Pasco. A rather large coffee. Fortunately, there was a commercial electrician vehicle stopped next to me. Crew cab with a large utility trailer. The four guys in that rig were on their way to Spokane from Portland and had also been drinking coffee. Lots of coffee. There was a large space between their truck and trailer that wasn’t visible to any other vehicles. Much snow and ice got melted there, although when things froze back up there was likely a large patch of yellow ice in the roadway. 😉
We tend to keep our cars close to full. We prefer to keep them no lower than half a tank when on trips. We top them off when we get home.
Rupertswood. In Sunbury. Where the famous Ashes urn was created. Cool history lesson. Thanks.
Well, yes, the lyrics for Waltzing Matilda are grand, the type of lyrics that do get firmly embedded in the brain. I find a lot of the old Robert Service poems were easy to memorize – the lyrics and the cadence makes them easy to remember. Waltzing Matilda is of a similar class. Hmmmm, I’ll have to add that to my internal repertoire.
Ah, yes, I’d forgotten Mr. Peabody. Unflappable. I loved how offbeat that was. And the Fractured Fairy Tales. Those were fun.
Agreed. Alot of problems would get resolved if people routinely just stopped to enjoy a good hot cup of tea. And maybe another cup or two.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
What a fine blessing it is to be in that blissful state, and hey, who needs the stress of the more august roles. Not I either, the soil and land calls me instead. It’s good enough, ain’t it? 🙂
Oooo! Those glass containers are genius. We’ve got three of them, and the plastic / rubber seals which seem to defy gravity by hanging onto the lid are pretty clever, although I guess that over time they’ll decay, or be damaged with the hand washing process. Anyway, they’re almost a decade old and are still going strong, so I could be wrong. Now, I’ve not seen steel food containers with plastic lids, that’s clever indeed.
After reading about the concept of plastic as a waste product, years ago we swapped over all of our water bottles for stainless steel varieties, except for the locally made plastic water bottles used when working about the place. Those things can take the knocks, and were made locally back in the day when even the plastic compounds were made at a factory in the big smoke. Probably trustworthy.
It’s warming up here, but probably won’t get too hot.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Sorry to be pedantic, but more correctly the song would be: Hang the pahwot! 😉 Hehe! Sorry, I truly couldn’t help myself.
Dame Avalanche would be truly outraged by this ‘Intruder Alert’ on the rear deck (Sounds all a bit trekkie don’t you reckon?) The cat is either extraordinarily brave, foolish, or perhaps just bored and looking for excitement, and I don’t know which it is. The Dame would know, and Husky’s have a bit of the wolf about them – why tempt fate? That cat has not yet learned about the law of the snow canine warrior.
The last cat I knew well, had a shredded ear. Despite the presence of dogs who were very much on the side of the smaller feline, a big tomcat used to attempt to beat up the hapless moggy. One day I caught the overly large tomcat high up on the timber fence with it’s rear facing towards me as the menace sprayed into the backyard. This is when hoses are handy weapons. Despite the defences, my cat’s ear never healed and had to be stitched up in two pieces.
There are restrictions on cats here as well due to the sheer quantity of wildlife, and the dogs are not allowed off leash outside of the property. Yep, you and I are dealing with critters who care not a whit for such niceties.
Holy carp, I’m so sorry to hear that about the area. The word ‘drought’ has a special meaning of horror down here. The water tanks here are mostly full right now (for now, anyway). There was talk of water restrictions for urban folks in the big smoke, but I checked the storage capacity and it’s around 75%. The last big drought (which I remember vividly) left households with a limit of 150L per person, per day. It ain’t much, and they have a million more people living there now. I do wonder… There are always limits.
They do big scenery in New Mexico. Epic. But yes, plant growth would vary according to elevation.
Happy days for the Husky, but viewed with a certain sort of remote dread from this warmer part of the world.Yes, soft. Glad that winter has finally arrived for you. Monday and Tuesday will be warm here, up around 33’C max with a hot overnight. Oh well, it is summer, or meant to be. And those aren’t all that bad. The plants will enjoy the extra heaped energy, and oh, the tomato vines need their climbing strings attached.
Oh my! Absolutely. Just had a look and agree, Mount Adams is for those who are physically and mentally fit and prepared. Other folks outside those categories, I dunno about that man. As Dirty Harry said: A man’s gotta know his limits.
Very funny. Nice one.
Might do some more firewood tomorrow. After three social events in the past week, the hard work will be good for the brain. I truly don’t know how extroverts do what they do. Had a really fun catch up with friends today over a long lunch.
Ha! I’d wondered about that aspect to the story. When travelling in Nepal last century, the bus pulled over for a toilet break, and well, that involved just going by the side of the road along with everyone else. A stressful moment, but when ya gotta go… I liked that last bit about the yellow snow. Fun stuff. People are pretty understanding about these things.
Wise to be prepared for such eventualities. We’ve discussed this before, but there are blankets and towels in the back of the car. Come in handy from time to time.
History is always more fun when it’s close to home.
Thanks for the introduction to Mr Robert William Service, and he was of a similar era. An interesting and grounded chap who made good.
Oh yeah, I loved the Fractured Fairy Tales – just way out there. But fun.
Yes, and might go get a cup of peppermint tea right now.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
I’d completely forgotten about those candy’s. Wow, that brings back some memories from way long ago. And they really were black and white with an aniseed flavour. It sounds awful, but they were super tasty. Did you ever have such lollies in your part of the world? Down here, they used to be sold in glass jars too, so it was quite the treat, and not anticipated that all of them would be consumed at once – rather they were dolled out one or two per day as a special treat.
Ha! Thanks for the laughs, and sure, whatever the arty-fish-al thing says… Hope the kiddies aren’t too upset at the startling visuals. Far out, but yeah it may get to that.
We’re all in a state of lather wondering about these questions relating to the machines and expert opinion. Maybe this is what ‘they’ wanted? 🙂 Had a long lunch with friends today, and it was super fun. Interestingly the topic of the film ‘They Live’ arose, and I’m feeling the need to re-watch this cult classic. It being the holiday’s and stuff, maybe that will even happen? Dunno.
Yup, your winter weather is getting down there. The reverse is likewise true for here. 82’F tomorrow, but I may get up early and do some firewood in the cooler part of the day. There may even be a post lunch nap. The social part of my brain needs to recharge the batteries.
Glad that the rain was more pleasant today for you and H.
A dude’s gotta worry about his reputation when up the bush. What if a neighbour dropped by and observed the dead pahwot in the tree? Hard questions would be asked… Word would get around… And people would look at me all funny and stuff, then whisper. Twenty years later I’d hear story recounted, which truly could only have grown over time. One bird, becomes hundreds, with odd midnight rituals, and strange gatherings of scantily clad revellers chucked in just for colour. No. Not worth the risk, for now anyway.
Yum! Gourmet shrimp tacos – which for your amusement would be described as Gourmet prawn tacos. Had a basic pasta for dinner tonight, a bloke has to know his limits. And at table I can perform awesome deeds, but then when out of sight, moderation prevails. By the way, speaking of that seafood delight, there was an old saying which has since faded in my lifetime, and it was: don’t come the raw prawn with me mate! All very Aussie. I’d hear it spoken as a kid, but has clearly fallen out of favour.
That’s an horrific zombie scene, but all very Sun Tzu – do the unexpected. How does anyone survive that horror?
Hehe! Yes, of course, I was merely reporting the words of a critic, and you are the more technically correct – Sharp teeth being more of the vampyric canon. If I may say so (having just checked out a photo – and I totally agree), little Timmy looks rather well fed for a poor starving and lame Victorian era kid. Hard to avoid noticing that he’s not usually appearing on the promotional posters either.
Really? That’s fascinating, and also because pasta and lentils etc. are regularly consumed here, at least. We may be the outliers though. We do have canned beans in the cupboard, but tend to prepare them from the dry beans – usually first soaking them overnight. Future economic considerations will push many households back to the preparation of more basic meals from raw ingredients – but I could be wrong there.
🙂 The article on the French book stalls was beautiful, and shows what we could achieve.
Probably had very good soils on that Iberian Peninsula too, given the low rainfall.
The Nero bloke cast a long shadow. And probably had wealthy friends and acquaintances in Pompeii. The chariot was a sad tale of leaving things too late.
I’m envious, and hope you get to relax in the warmth and enjoy the seed catalogue. Have you seen any new varieties which piqued your interest?
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – All this talk about plastic covers, and such. I generally save the thin plastic bags that I put fruit and veg in, and use them to cover stuff. Stuff in Pyrex bowls, that get shoved in plastic bags. Single use plastic bags? Not on my watch 🙂 .
Then there’s the museum of plastic flotsam and jetsam.
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/24/nx-s1-5647280/plum-island-museum-lost-toys-curiosities
I’ll spare you the article about the man with a collection of 11,000 snow globes. Someone gave him one in the 1980s, and then things got out of hand.
My Dad could recite a lot of Robert Service. Including the very naughty parodies. 🙂
We had a lot of hard candies, back in the day. But I don’t remember Humbugs. There’s a mail order house, that specializes in nostalgic old candies, that have fallen out of favor. I took a look at some of my cookbooks, but, no joy. But a look down the rabbit hole … there are recipes for Humbug candies, including some mint ones. And even a U-Tub video.
“They Live” is a true cult classic. I rewatched it, not all that long ago.
Our high yesterday was 45F (7.22C). Our overnight low was 37F (2.77C). Our forecast high for today is 43F. We’re in for a string of days, of the other kind of Pacific Northwest weather: clear days and cold clear nights. No worries. The rain will be back again, mid-week, and the overnight lows will bump up, again.
I was feeling uninspired, by dinner. I took a tin of refried beans, mixed it in with some rice and diced garlic, and called it good. Brussels sprouts on the side. “Don’t come the raw prawn with me mate,” makes absolutely no sense. No wonder if fell out of use.
I finished season three of “Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon.” It didn’t exactly end on a cliff hanger, but more a “Plans will have to change,” note. Ohhh! zombie marionettes! How inventive. Then there was the zombie press gang, hauling an old steam engine down a track.
Of course vampire Tiny Tim looks healthy. Full of blood like a bloated tick. I wondered what had happened to that actor. He did a few more films, and a series. And then began working behind the camera, in various capacities. He very much kept himself, to himself, and at this time, has pretty much dropped out of sight.
The area around Pompeii had imperial connections. Rural farm villas, owned by the imperial family. Before Nero’s time, but the Villa of the Papyri was probably owned by Julius Caesar’s father-in-law.
I saw another article on Yaupon, yesterday.
https://macon-newsroom.com/26496/arts-entertainment-2/explainers/coffee-prices-have-you-down-meet-north-americas-own-hot-brewed-pickup-yaupon-tea/
I got another seed catalog, today. Territorial. I wonder if they have Yaupon? Or, Dave’s Crazy tomatoes? Lew
Hi Lewis,
Yeah, that’s a great use for the plastic, and an enviable approach to the whole issue. If you’ve got it already, then why waste it? The old timers saying of re-use, repair, and only then recycle has much to recommend it.
It’s a warm evening here, at 24’C / 75’F inside and out, which is quite pleasant really. Just headed outdoors to water some of the younger fruit trees, as well as the many Japanese maples and of course the oak trees. Most of the trees with five or more years under their bark, don’t need the watering, unless it gets dire.
There was a very young long billed Corella bird which the parents may have kicked out of the nest prematurely today. It’s been wandering around all day unable to fly. The prognosis is not good. I’ve kept the dogs away, and gave the young avian some chook food, but nature is raw in tooth and claw.
Despite the hot day, we did firewood up until about 2pm. Have to work off all that yummo Christmas food recently consumed. It’s been very social this week, and whilst I am an incorrigible introvert who could easily become a hermit, catching up with friends is a delightful activity. Confused huh? 🙂
The museum holds up a mirror to visitors, and the esoteric question may even be asked: Is this stuff really necessary? Personally I’d want to give the kazoo a good blow to hear the quirky sounds.
Lewis, lead me not into temptation with that collection… 🙂
Yeah, things were different back in the day when naughty poetry could be recited line and verse. Far less serious. Need I mention: The boy stood on the burning deck?
With those hard candies, I’ve watched folks making them and using a hook (which was well anchored) on a wall to stretch out the err, is it an emulsion? Dunno. It’s a bit of an art form, but I was imagining that similar uses of plant sugars were long ago part of the whole ancient resin making practice. The indigenous folks were adept at producing quality glues for their tools, but I’d imagine that the knowledge has been lost. Sometimes those stone circles here remind me of that possible use, And there may be another one on exact contour.
I know, the John Carpenter cult film demands a viewing on this end of the conversation. Yes, I disappoint myself sometimes… 😉
That’s winter here as well, the clear nights are the coldest of all. Hope H’s coat is in good order? And yeah, the forecast suggests the rain and cooler weather will return here as well.
Refried beans always reminds me of the 1974 film Blazing Saddles, and you already know why! What a classic scene, and I do hope you dodged the implications? 🙂 Yeah I’m uncertain of the etymology of that old timey prawn saying, but that’s what people used to say. To be honest, it made no sense to me either, but being so young I had to put up, and shut up.
Wow! Just watched a brief clip of the zombie puppet show, and that was true horror, right there. Macabre is the word which popped into the consciousness.
I’ve seen bloated ticks on the dogs and so know what you mean. It happens in that industry, and it would be a complicated matter to peak in your career at the age of twelve. Child actors do it tough, and I befriended one at High School who’d peaked in 1985, and not gone back into the industry. Just checked, he’s got an IMDB page with little information. We used to hang out after High School, but gradually drifted, as happens.
Thanks for the article on Yaupon! May it make a well deserved come back, although may require warmer climates than where you and I reside. Did I mention that the tea camellia seeds finally arrived? If those plants can survive in Scotland, it’d be easy street here, maybe… 🙂 Fortunately there are a lot of seeds for the smaller leafed, cold tolerant varieties, but we’ll see.
Go the seed catalogue!
Far out, it’s so late, better get cracking…
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Our high yesterday was 43F (6.11C). Our overnight low was 32F (-0-C). Though it doesn’t look like it frosted, up here on the hill. Our forecast high for today is 42F.
Here in the US, that long billed Corella bird would go for $4,800-$5,000 on the hoof… er, claw. Good of you to give him a bit of a feed. Maybe he won’t develop a taste for apples. 🙂
Speaking of Australian wildlife, I saw this article about a threatened fresh water fish, up in your NW.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/26/australia/australia-fish-bloomfield-cod-intl-hnk-dst
I wonder if they’re tasty? 🙂
Speaking of endangered species, I thought you might find this article about health insurance, and small business, interesting. Given your clientele.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/27/politics/small-businesses-health-insurance-aca
Oh, I know what you mean about that extrovert / introvert balance. About this time of the year, I wish I could go somewhere, from Thanksgiving to New Years. Where Christmas couldn’t touch me. Hmmm. I wonder if there’s any isolated cabins, for rent, by the month? 🙂
There was a woman, here at the Institution, who had a small collection of snow globes. If I ran across a cheap one, I’d pick it up for her. She passed on. Wonder what became of the globes?
She also collected Betty Boop items. Speaking of Betty, there’s an annual list published, of movies and books who will slide from copyright, to public domaine, at the stroke of midnight, on New Year’s Eve.
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/26/nx-s1-5649395/public-domain-2026-copyright-betty-boop-pluto
Taffy pulls were a popular entertainment, from the 1840s to 1870s. One of those (properly chaperoned) activities, where young folk could get together and do a bit of courting. Corn husking “bees” were another one.
Last night I settled in with Night Shayamalan’s “The Happening.” A pretty satisfying end-of-the-world movie. There’s an old hermit woman in it, who lives off the grid. -)
While down at the Club, a memory was jogged, and I made a big batch of pea and Swiss cheese salad, for dinner. I screwed it up, a bit, and it was a bit on the bland side. Or, I should say, didn’t live up to memory. An investigation into recipes revealed the error of my ways. 🙂
I must have an interesting digestive system. Or maybe, it’s repetition. I eat a lot of beans, and “wind” isn’t a problem. Also, I dice up three or four cloves of garlic, a day, and I don’t seem to sweat it out, and offend.
There will be a fourth season of “Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon.” A fourth and final season.
I noticed that the Territorial Seed catalog had an entry for Yerba Mate. Which is a caffeinated South American plant. I wondered if it was related to Youpon. Yep. They’re cousins. So, I went back to the catalog, but, what’s on offer is not seed. It’s a plant. At $25 per. Too rich for my blood. I thought maybe Nichols Garden Nursery might have seed, but no. Both plants sound a lot easier to grow, than tea camellia. I might see Carl, the retired nurseryman, this morning. Might ask him what he thinks. Lew