The season turned at the beginning of this week. Days have still been hot, most of which were around 30’C / 86’F, and then some. Yet the planets annual wonky orbit around our star continues upon its merry way, and the ultra-violet radiation here, feels as if it is becoming less intense. Still a rating of ‘Very High’ for UV, is tough to experience when labouring hard. Earlier today Sandra and I, whilst lunching upon tasty gourmet lamb pies, chanced upon a couple of young tourists from Alaska, of all places. Lovely people, but such pale skin, and you’d hope they stayed out of the strong Australian sunshine.
The grasses are golden and parched. Some of the shrubs in the forest appear rather wilted, as if they’d been trekking across the desert for a few days with unfortunately damaged water panniers. What better time to harvest the potato crop from the soil, than when those tasty tubers had been dried to perfection? Four hours were spent under that hot sun, lifting a good quantity of tubers from the soil.
They tell me that confession is good for the soul, but I’m sure there are other things which would be better, like storing potatoes in sun-dried sugar cane mulch. Last year some of the harvest of tubers rotted because the sugar cane mulch we used to pack them in for winter storage, was damp. We lost about 40% to mould, and so this year decided to sun dry the sugar cane mulch as much as possible. Fingers crossed that works.
In the above photo, I’m using a garden hoe to dig under the potatoes, and then lift them from the soil. That’s my favourite hand tool, and they can be used for digging, cutting weeds, or gently nudging an errant dog who’d decided to make a soft warm spot to enjoy the summer sunshine, but end up in the way – all without bending over. What’s not to like about that?
It should be mentioned that a garden fork was used to loosen the soil prior to the digging. Those are wonderful tools too, and tested by time. My casual experiments with those hand tools suggests that it’s a good idea to avoid stainless steel garden forks. That particular variety of metal does not have the springey-ness of more durable grades of steel, which lead to a broken tine. Almost impossible to repair.
Stainless steel has a lovely bright finish, and looks great, but probably isn’t up to the job given its qualities. The fork on the right hand side of the above photo is over 35 years old, and can be forgiven for the slight wonkiness. The single damaged tine was bent back to a vertical position, and the job continued. Note to self: Be more thorough when removing errant floating rocks in the soil in future. Oh well.
It’s not a great idea to destroy soil structure through digging, but tubers do grow in the ground, and as such have to be lifted above soil level. We’ve tried growing potatoes in tubs and bags above the ground, but the yields were lower, probably I’m guessing due to the plant roots being exposed to hot summer temperatures. No, nowadays the tasty treats are grown in the ground, where they’re meant to be. Still, whilst digging with the garden hoe, it was a good opportunity to further break up the clay under the rich top soil, thus deepening the trenches, whilst mixing the two layers together.
Over the next few weeks, another load of compost with the usual batch of added soil minerals, will be dumped onto those garden rows. Always wise to add back, and then some, what you’ve just taken away. Historically, and it’s been tested, potatoes are so good for you, that people can survive on a diet deriving from 90% of those tubers. Sandra would probably agree with you lovely readers, in that if I were faced with that particular diet, there would be a lot of whinging.
Potential whining aside, we did grow a lot of potatoes, and will store them more carefully this year. But we certainly didn’t produce enough to survive upon. When digging the two garden rows, it surprised me that the top soil was only about a foot and a half deep before hitting the underlying volcanic loam / clay. I’ve been wondering if using the electric jackhammer on those rows would assist breaking up the clay and further deepening the trench? Maybe some Gypsum added into the compost mixture could help as well?Dunno really.
Anyway, in order to produce such extraordinary healthful tubers, the plants flog the daylights out of soils. Potatoes are therefore usually grown only in the most fertile of all areas. It interests me that the around 50kg / 110 pounds of potatoes would cost around $100 to purchase from the nearby farm gate, and the compost / mineral fertiliser mix used to beef up those garden rows, will cost about $100. Hmm.
In recent months, when Sandra has roasted potatoes in the electric oven, I’d politely asked her to do that activity in the outdoors oven. Surprisingly, they smelled really bad when cooked, which I was unhappy about experiencing. Mind you, these were not our home grown potatoes, and neither were they the one’s purchased from a nearby farm gate. They were supermarket bought potatoes.
For those who are unaware, Australia has had something of a potato shortage recently. The vast majority of production, comes from near to here in the Victorian central highlands, and then way off to the west in the state of South Australia. Due to hot, dry and crazy weather last summer (and presumably this one as well), yields from potatoes have been very low. The price for the consumer has gone way up too, and the $100 I mentioned, was from back in the day when the humble tuber was readily available locally. I’ve no idea how much the things would cost at the supermarket now, and yet that is where we purchased the last batch of ill smelling potatoes.
Sometimes it is a lovely thing to live in bubble-land, the rainbows, wombats and unicorns are delightful additions I sure can tell you. But eventually the rest of the world intrudes. It had never occurred to me that roasting potatoes could smell bad. We’d been consuming our own home grown ones, and also those purchased from the nearby farm gate, for over a decade and a half, and without us being aware, the outside world had, shifted. Sadly too for us, the old blokes who grow those tubers for the nearby farm gate, have at least two decades on my age, and that was behind the reasons why we decided to ramp up spud production the previous summer.
To experience first hand that a basic food item may possibly be coated with all sorts of chemicals, probably to improve shelf life and transportability, troubles me deeply. And I’m completely ignoring the potential for possible mineral and other nutritional deficiencies and imbalances inherent in the produce. Candidly speaking, it’s not a good story.
In less polite company, the word, pollution might be used to describe the situation. Over half a century ago, the authors of the Limits to Growth study produced a standard run model which tracks pollution, among other interesting variables, and then projects them forward in time. Doesn’t make for pretty reading, and seems to be tracking about spot on. But I tell you what, the experience with the stinky store bought potatoes, has motivated me to produce even more of the tubers next summer. And our own potatoes sure do smell beautiful when roasted, the difference is impossible to ignore.
A few hours before the idea for this weeks essay had even been a thought bubble, the heavens opened, and it rained. Six dry weeks with two heat waves, has been a difficult experience. Yay for the rain! We’re not out of the woods yet, but some rain is better than none.
That rain had travelled all the way across the continent, originating somewhere up in the north west. A tropical cyclone hovering just over the coastline up there, had pulled plentiful moisture from the warm Indian Ocean.
Earlier in the week, we purchased a trailer load of crushed rock with lime, and placed it upon the new path surface. The weather forecast suggested the possibility of rain, and when the sun shines again, the path surface will set hard.
The rock work in the triangular area between the two sets of concrete staircases was also completed. A hand brush was used to press the crushed rock with lime in between the rocks. That lot was watered well, and has dare I say it, set like rock.
Rain will continue to wash the excess lime off the rocks, and then into the crevices between them. It’s looking good, and the rock colours will soon re-emerge. It’s also very sturdy. Similar rock work is used near to the water tanks because it provides a solid all weather surface. There are moments during particularly heavy storms that you need access to the water tank inlet filters, and the rocks make for surer footing.
The apple harvest has been very good, despite the birds best efforts. Processing of that fruit continued this week. A large batch of cider was made. The apples are cut into quarters, then blitzed. A fruit press squeezes the pulp which recovers a lot of juice.
Boil the juice to kill off the natural yeasts, the local ones here are rubbish tasting. Add a bit of boiled sugar water, fresh sparkling white wine yeast (previously known as champagne yeast). Pour into demijohns, and that’s about as difficult as the process gets. In a few weeks we’ll ‘rack-out’ or in normal English, pour the contents into Grolsch style bottles.
Sure, people make this stuff in buckets, but sadly the local yeasts are terrible tasting, and have no place near apple cider. Demijohns with bungs and airlocks remove the problems the local flora represent. And meanwhile the introduced yeasts gain a foothold.
In breaking produce news:
Lima beans (a white bean) have been superbly hardy to the dry conditions this year. With minimal watering, they’ve just grown and grown, and are already being consumed fresh. Several fence lines have the plants growing up them. Most of the crop will be dried and eaten in the winter months, and they’re great additions to soups. They do however grow in heavily fertile soil here, which is not usually recommended for beans.
A lovely local lady provided us with some pumpkin seedlings of the Queensland Blue variety. We trialled them on a steep garden bed. They’ve done really well.
Not all of the ten grapevines are yet productive, mostly because the older ones which have produced clusters of grapes, are a few years in advance. The grapes themselves are beginning to swell in size. The smoky air this summer may affect the flavour, but I still intend to eat them all.
Bird predation on the fruit trees has been a bit feral this year, but neither have our avian friends consumed everything. There are a number of plums on the trees right now looking very ripe and ready to harvest.
Zucchini (courgettes) have massively grown in size this week, probably explained by their close relation to Triffids.
Thought the readers from the cold Northern hemisphere would appreciate a random sample of some of the breakfast fruit harvested at this time of the year:
It is of interest to me that as the soils here become more fertile, the many critters feasting upon the plants, are becoming larger. I spotted this healthy looking Skink today basking upon the warmth of a concrete step.
Onto the flowers:
The temperature outside now at about 10am is 17’C (63’F). So far for this year there has been 20.2mm (0.8 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 13.6mm (0.5 inches)
Comments
47 responses to “What goes up”
Yo, Chris – That’s a lot of potatoes! I’m sure if you scanned through your cookbooks, there’d be enough potato recipes to never get bored with the tuber. For added value, have you ever given, or thought to give vodka a try?
Ohhh! But the stainless steel fork is so pretty! I guess it’s a good example of “beauty is only skin deep.” 🙂
Given the ever rising costs of fertilizer, the next deer you bring down might end up being run through the scary old wood chipper. Once the forest critters are done with the corpse, do you have any plans for the skull? Decor?
I’ve seen that “Limits of Growth” graph, before. Looks like we’re right on track. Is anyone paying attention?
Rain after a long dry spell is always welcome. Until the novelty wears off.
The surface of the new triangle plot looks very rugged. You’ll have to give us another picture, when the colors start showing. After a good rain.
Looks like you’re well on your way to next years apple cider supply. I’m surprised your local yeasts are rubbish. I’d think that given all the years you’ve been mucking about with different yeast cultures, that things would have shifted. Maybe it just takes awhile.
I thought it interesting that beans can have too fertile soil. I suppose, as they capture nitrogen from the air, that one could overdo it. I might cut back, or eliminate the blood meal, when preparing soil for bean areas.
The Queensland pumpkins are really interesting. And, they’re blue! My usual seed supplier doesn’t carry the seed, but it is available from other vendors. My local seed supplier does have something called a Blue Hubbard Winter Squash. But, its ancestry is rooted in the Caribbean. If I did plant some, I’d have to figure out where to put them, far, far away from meh pie pumpkins. If I want to save seed.
Give the grapes a good wash, and they ought to be fine. Although, if you made wine from some of them, maybe a smokey note might be desirable.
The plums are looking quit luscious.
That’s interesting about your critters getting larger, due to the improved tucker. Of course, even humans will grow in size, given good nutrition.
The flowers, as always, are lovely. The rose reminded me of an article I saw recently about the thorns on roses. Or, more accurately, prickles.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/01/science/rose-thorn-prickles-evolution-study
Thorns and prickles. There’s a difference. Who knew? Who cares? They both give you a good stab. Lew
Hi Lewis,
I’ll take a look at those potato recipes, but given what history suggests from the outcome of relying upon said tasty tuber, let’s just say that I feel much like the farmers of the SW of England when they saw what was going on in the island over the ditch. Ethanol is a simple product to produce, no need to complicate it with taters.
Yeah, stainless steel forks, can’t live with them… I’ll grab a replacement for that tool over the next few days. It sure does look pretty though. Alas, function must take precedence in this instance, over form.
I like how your brain works, and once the bones have been picked dry by the forest critters (and they’re not mucking around), we’ll powderise the deer skeleton using the heavy low centre of gravity mower. Japanese steel is noted for its strength, durability and ability to maintain a sharp edge. Deer skulls, not so much.
As to the Limits to Growth, they made the mistake of being right. Nowadays, about as many people give a damn for the subject, as did half a century ago. A friend loaned me a first edition copy of the book, and it truly baffled me that the text was written in an academic prose given the conclusions. No disrespect to the authors, but they played to their natural game, not that it would have made any difference whatsoever to have tolled the alarmist bell. None. So yeah, few people care.
No worries at all, and in a few months time, the colours of the rocks will show through. It’d be nice to get some more rain, and soon. 🙂 There’s a layer of moisture over everything, but scratch just below the surface, and you’ll discover dry.
It’s possible that the kitchen is infested with bakers yeast given the long history of bread making, and that critter dominated earlier cider batches, thus the poor flavour? I simply don’t know. Nowadays, the batches of apple juice are boiled to put an end to such mischief. You’re right too, it does take a very long while.
That’s some good thinking, and yeah, more bone meal, less blood meal would work a treat. Of course, you could mix in more woody materials and that would even things out as well for the soil where your beans grow? Dunno. Peas have the same issue.
Those pumpkins are an absolute staple down under, and they’re what people think of as a ‘pumpkin’. Your orange skinned lot is not much ever seen. Funny isn’t it, the differences. And I recall reading a book penned in the 19th century which suggested that pumpkins are only good for animal feed. Either the plants have been bred extensively since those days, or the soils have declined… Yeah, genetics is an issue with that family of plants, and we tend to stick to only a single variety for each of the three types.
🙂 The grapes are for fresh eating. Truthfully the first batch of wine from earlier seasons tasted like grape juice, with a kick. Might have to do some more experimentation…
All of the critters here seem to be getting larger, and it was quite startling a few weeks ago to encounter the largest wallaby I’d yet seen anywhere. And yup, humans do the same thing.
Thanks for the article, and I’d not realised that prickles are different to thorns. I so hear you about that, yup, they both hurt when unexpectedly encountered.
Ha! Feet definitely fall into the first category, and an artist does have to study the finer points of anatomy should they delve into the realms of realistic depictions. When living in the big smoke, you’d occasionally encounter poster requests from art groups (legitimate, maybe! 🙂 ) for people wanting themselves to pose as life drawing subjects. It was not difficult to be left with the impression that they were unfussy as to the subject matter. Of course having more ordinary, everyday subjects, would challenge the artists in training. Yeah, the human body is amazing.
It does seem a lot to pay for an initial sketch of a foot, regardless of the artists name, but who is to know the mind of a collector? Bidding wars are strange things to be involved in, and long ago someone cost me a whole bunch of mad cash due to that exact situation. It’s stressful because you don’t know when they will hit their limit. People have strategies for auctions, but what plan ever survives contact with the enemy?
Not much more than 63’F here today, and foggy for the entire day. The fog was so thick that the solar panels didn’t produce enough electricity to fully charge the batteries. I do keep telling people not to bet the farm on this technology, but do they listen?
Good stuff, and you’ve a keen eye for the weather radar, or else just got lucky on the walks to dodge the rain.
Inge would have been in Mr Stoker’s ear with the command: ‘Concision’, but alas that was not to be, and the Victorian era letters went on a bit much in the Dracula book. However, it was a riveting tale unlike Frankenstein. The good fictional doctor of that book just needed to stop vacillating and dithering. The protagonist was a nuisance and would have been killed by a vampire, rather than converted to the undead.
Dude, I feel awful saying anything bad about Jane Austen’s much loved fictional works, it’s just that I had a hard time conjuring any sympathy for the characters plight. Woe it is, to be a brutal pragmatist. Of course, it is easy to judge from the intellectual comforts of today, but I’m probably not wired right to worry about class issues and status in the first place. They just don’t rate in my awareness.
Was the catch up with Carl good? And did you get sucked into watching the big game? See, you’re immune to peer pressure as well. 😉
Cheers
Chris
Hi Pam,
Always good to hear that everything is OK. A day where not much happened is far preferable to a day when extraordinary occurrences, occur. A bit like that ancient Chinese apocryphal curse about living in interesting times. Dunno about you, but my brain does not need the stimulation!
Is it still snowy and cold where you are?
Foggy here today and a max of 63’F. Spent most of the day doing paid work, and it was good weather for that.
It is an interesting story, and the gentleman has now passed on. Just to throw in some Jeeves insight, he once remarked that he slept better when I was heading the accounts team. Unfortunately, the stress disturbed my sleep instead. There’s a conundrum there. It was an interesting experience though. One of the reasons I left working for the big end of town, and reoriented towards small business, is that there were times I felt as if I were a character trapped in a Wodehouse tale. Tell ya what Pam, you sure do meet some people in life. 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Hi Göran,
Hehe! Man, I’d love to have the energies of a bunch of such folks to harness for the various projects here. It seems so wasteful to exert their energy against machines in gyms which only produce heat and entropy.
Thanks for the laughs. Early on when first starting the blog, someone sent me a comment suggesting that all of the images were photo-shopped, like I’ve got time to do that… 🙂 Easier just to make things happen in the real world.
Ah, Ting, the gathering of notables to cast judgement upon feckless individuals. Yes, things are different in these enlightened times, and way back in the day, soil minerals were never wasted. Battlegrounds were scoured for bones. In the UK during the 19th century there was quite a dark trade in robbing graves for their bones. Phosphate has always been in short supply. It’d be interesting, in a morbid kind of way, to get a soil sample tested from the ‘Marsh of the Gallows’
Yes, very true about the location of the gallows, and I can attest that a dead deer 200m away on a hot day, when the wind is blowing in the right direction, is remarkably stinky. Fortunately visitors have been thin on the ground the past fortnight.
The forest critters are making short work of the carcass, and last night two owls were hunting near to the unfortunate deer, possibly taking rats and/or fox cubs seeking an easy feed. It’s raw out there.
Göran, that’s horrifically cold weather. And I read about your frozen water pump woes with a feeling of alarm. The heater mat was a good idea. Yes, it will be interesting for you to observe what plants survive the more extreme weeks of your winter. The knowledge will surely assist your future planting, scion and rootstock choices. I tend to reproduce what worked in the worst weather, on the theory that if the conditions have occurred once, they’ll likely reoccur in the future.
Yes, adapt, is but all we can do now.
Thanks, and the 6mm of rain last night were very well received.
Cheers
Chris
Hey Kallianeira,
Ah, you learn something new every day. You piqued my curiosity, and it turns out that smart meters apparently have the capability to throttle output from your inverter to the grid. Presumably this could be done via lowering the output voltage from your inverter to match that of the grid – at a wild guess. Electrons will flow from high voltage (what your inverter outputs) to a lower voltage (the grid). There may be communication between the two devices, but the meter could simply switch off the inverter output connection to the grid so rapidly each second, you probably wouldn’t notice.
If it looks like muzzling, it may well be, and the grid operators sort-of have control over the balancing of supply with demand. It’s not lost on me that some electricity plans now come with free energy between the strongest sunshine hours of the day. But, look at the huge costs once the sun drops near to the horizon.
There was an article on the subject today: Big swings in Australia’s electricity market have a frustrating effect on our power bills. The graph displaying the Average spot power prices in Victoria by hour of the day, tells the story.
Marxists don’t impress me much. The profitability of deep sea mining has more to do with, I’m guessing, economics and energy, than ideology. If it was profitable, it’d have been done for longer than you or I have been around. Hey, serious people tell me that gold can be extracted from the oceans, and I believe it to be true, it just costs more than it generates in income.
Ah rockmelon, a fine choice, and I prefer them to watermelon anyway. Good luck, and we all gamble with the elements, which sometimes works out in our favour. I lost most of the apricot crop to a late frost. Hmm.
Yes, to experience an abattoir is a memorable, err, memory. 🙂 People are remarkably clueless about such activities. As a young bloke I used to work with a steel distributor who was just down the road from the Pridham (now CSF I believe) rendering factory in Laverton. What a fine stink! And just for good measure, a nearby tannery cured sheepskins. The summer months were err, memorable. 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – I was curious as to what a “rock melon” is. Oh, I see. A cantaloupe. As with most of the other melons, we can’t grow them here. Not without a lot of care, and, maybe in a greenhouse.
But skulls are so cool! Give it a good clean, and put it on the coffee table. 🙂
Sort of related to “Limits of Growth,” I’m reading an interesting new book, right now. “Resilient Citizens: The People, Perils, and Politics of Modern Preparedness.” (Ellis, 2025). It’s not a “how-to”. The author states there are plenty of places to get that sort of information. It’s more an overview of the preparedness mindset.
I also started reading “Pickled, Potted & Canned: How the Art and Science of Food Preserving Changed the World.” (Shephard, 2006). It’s a history of food preservation. Engrossing.
I’m always surprised when I dig below the surface of my garden plot, even after a good rain. A few inches down and it’s dry. And, occasionally sandy. Woody mulch? There’s usually too much of the stuff, in my garden plots.
I think orange pumpkins got a bad rap, in Europe. After all, what good could come out of the colonies? 🙂 And, it was so easy to grow, even common folk could easily access it.
Art schools often had “life drawing classes.” For more advanced students. It’s what got the artist Eakins, in trouble. 🙂 I had a few when I was at Uni. And, no, “great beauty” was not the point of the classes. Renaissance artists often got into trouble, because the only life models they could find were local working girls. Identifiable in their paintings.
Our high yesterday was 50F (10C). Our overnight low was 37F (2.77C.) The forecast high for today is 50F. Starting tomorrow, we’re supposed to have a run of three nice days. With par for the course, overnight lows at freezing.
We chatted with Carl, and escaped before the sports mob, showed up. When I took H out for a walk around 6, there were explosions and fireworks in the neighborhood. Did I miss a holiday? Took me a minute to figure out, “Oh, “our” team must have won.” Glad that’s over. Now, maybe we can go to the Club and not have some game on the TV.
Cupcakes est mort! 🙂 And interesting business article. I see the chain was bought by a private equity firm. Well, that’s the toll of doom.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/americas-sweet-tooth-looking-chain-091401525.html
The person who wrote this article must be young. Cookies? Been there, done that. Just about every mall I worked in, back in the day, either had a Mrs. Fields or Famous Amos cookie store. Sometimes, both. I’ll have to count how many shopping malls I worked in. Seven? Nine?
Speaking of shopping malls, I watched an interesting documentary, last night. “Secret Mall Apartment.” About 20 years ago, in Rhode Island, a group of art students had been gentrified out of their digs, by the construction of a huge super mall. What to do? They discovered the mall had a lot of unused “dead” space. So, they constructed a cozy little apartment.
https://w.wiki/Ho5T
There was a bit of text, after the film. Now, this is ironic. As with many malls, it’s fallen on hard times. The owners defaulted on the mortgage. There’s some talk about turning some of the mall into …. apartments. :-). Lew
Hi, Chris!
Thank goodness “the planets annual wonky orbit around our star continues upon its merry way”. My son makes fun of me because, since I always get up in the dark, I am never quite confident that the sun is going to come up each day – until it does.
I know how you could tell the tourists were from Alaska – by their license plates . . .
At last we are to having warming weather tomorrow, maybe even 57F (14C), as you begin to have cooling. On my end, I can tell each day is a little longer. Yesterday, my neighbor gave me some seeds for a bean that she grew that I had really loved: Romano Purpiat Bush Bean (I am eating green beans from 2024 tonight; something ate all the 2025 ones before I could can them). However, we are still a long way from planting with the countryside still locked in a glacier, which is what it really looks like, except for things sticking out of it.
I don’t think I could get sugarcane mulch here. I suppose the equivalent would be straw. I like my hoe, too. It is the only thing of my great-grandmother’s that I have. I laughed so hard: Those are the saddest garden forks I’ve ever seen. I love my garden fork. It is especially good for forking up a heavy hardwood mulch that sticks together.
I have tried all sorts of above-ground ways of growing potatoes. None of them produced well. In the ground is the only way I can get a decent harvest. What’s the matter with us? Supposedly, other people get super harvests in containers.
You did a great job with that big haul of potatoes. I was going to ask you how deep the soil was; I don’t think mine is that deep. Yeah, but if the farm gate had no potatoes, then your $100 would have been best spent on soil improvements and growing your own. Unless they rot . . .
That’s the thing about potatoes: They were in the top 10 last year in the list of most-sprayed fruits and vegetables. Once I saw that, I started buying only organic ones, but they can be hard to source and, of course, way more expensive.
How wonderful to have rain and how wonderful to have already dug your potatoes.
The convergence of the paths and stairs is charming. Luck – or planning?
You have an old timey cider press; that’s really nice, especially if one has muscles. How interesting: Stinky potatoes and stinky yeast. Is there anything else?
That’s good news about the Lima beans. I am not surprised that they did well, being a staple of the South here. I don’t grow them as I would be the only one eating them and there is that space issue.
Wow! Those plums are such a beautiful color. Oh, pish posh. Go ahead a flaunt the gorgeous fruit, though it is just leaving citrus season in the stores here, so there has been nice citrus available, and we still have big, fat lemons in the basement. And really, I do thank you for all of the wonderful flowers. If we had any, they are under the glacier, except for the little Christmas petunia that I brought into the house.
Pam
Chris:
From last week:
And I tell you what, Chris – you have met more kinds of people than I can even imagine. Maybe that is what makes you a good writer (besides working hard at it).
Pam
Chris,
Ah fizzle! We got maybe 6mm of rain all told. The forecast originally called for 18mm over the weekend. Better than nothing, but it didn’t add to the mountain snowpack.
Took a relaxing day today. Dame Avalanche appreciated doing nothing also. I did my light morning workout and a light evening workout and stretch. The Dame nosed around the yard, lay about in the almost sun, chased a cat out of the yard. Almost caught the feline, too.
The local bald eagle flew low over my car the other day when I was leaving on an errand. I’ve been closer to them, but they are always majestic when relatively close. The ravens have been very vocal the past day or two for some reason. More visible than they often are also.
My surname originally? Well, once upon a time in Wales there was probably some guy named Owen. His son Dafydd was known as Dafydd ap Owen. his son was Gruffudd ap Dafydd. And so forth until the government decided that everyone needed to be consistent with keeping the same surname each generation. So Thomas ab Jon became Thomas Jones.
My mom’s paternal family, the Johnson family, originated in the highland bits of Scotland between Loch Tay and Loch Lomond. So, once there was Ewan, and his son was Angus Mac Ewan and his son was…until there was Ian and the whole lot after him, due to governmental decree or some such thing, became the Macians, anglicized to Johnson.
Then the MacLeods, well, the tradition was that there was a dude named Leod, son of the King of Mann. He became the head dude of some islands further north in the Hebrides. His ancestors and followers took up the name MacLeod.
In actuality, it appears that Leod was the grandson or something of a badarse named Olvir Rosta, meaning riot or brawl. Olvir was part of a family that was part Norse from the Orkney Islands and part Scots from the Thurso area and inland in northern Scotland. During one of the frequent fights between cousins to see who would rule Orkney, Olvir was on the losing side. He got some sort of revenge by burning to death one of the retainers of the victor, one Olaf. And Olaf’s house. At Christmas, even. Surviving son of the Burnt Olaf, Swein, exacted his revenge on a good part of Olvir’s family, eventually burning to death in her home Olvir’s evil grandmother (The Orkneyinga Saga called her evil and then some). Swein and his men bested Olvir and his men in a fight, Olvir fleeing to the Hebrides where he apparently settled, had a family, and probably became the ancestor of the Clan MacLeod.
Marvin from the books or Marvin from the movie?No contest there. The books. Eight days a week and twice on Sundays. If I start in on my thoughts about that movie, I might still be writing come Halloween.
Ah, thanks for the flower photos, as always. It has been pretty gray here again, although the sun did make a short appearance on Sunday when it was supposed to be raining. When the forecast is for sun, and it rains instead, we call the rain “liquid sunshine”. So, when it was sunny on Sunday when it was supposed to be raining, I called it “radiant rain”. The sun came out for a bit today also. And maybe tomorrow, also, once the fog dissipates.
Your skink photo reminded me of an event from the office once. Periodically, some guy would come in on business but would also bring a few of his “exotic” animals. Once he had a rather large skink. On this particular day, the Big Boss was in the field. Someone told him that Exotic Animal Man had visited. Big Boss was upset, because he had forbidden the animals to be brought into the building. He asked me about it. I told him the man had a Big Skink. Big Boss misheard and snarled, “I know he’s a big stink. Did he have any of his animals?” I quickly got on gaggle and showed him a picture of a skink.
That new path looks good with a little rock and lime. And a Kelpie. And a reclining Ollie. Good to see that you do the work, they do the getting tired.
Hmmm, just a thought. After you change your mind and decide to hand dig the basement that you deny you’re going to dig. 😉 Anyhow, after you construct the basement, you’ll have to find a Useful Purpose for it. Why not put in a treadmill, elliptical machine, stationary bicycle, some weightlifting equipment? Then you could have these great workouts in your basement, even read a book while on the stationary bicycle. That way you wouldn’t have to do all of the work around the property to stay in condition. You would also generate a lot of heat that way, which heat you could pipe into the living areas of the house on cooler days, meaning you wouldn’t need so much firewood.
Seriously, I’ve never understood the Gym People. Walk to the car park, drive to another carpark, do a hurried workout and shower, drive from that car park back to the work car park. Meanwhile, I could leave the office at the same time as Gym Guy, walk and arrive at the gym’s carpark when he does, enjoy a nice walk outdoors for an hour. Get home, do yard and garden work. I enjoyed being outdoors, built muscle, got some good conditioning done and didn’t spend any money on gym fees. And I was likely moving towards enlightenment, as I was also involved in some “chop wood, carry water” type things as part of it. Gym Guy had the aggravation of driving in downtown lunch hour traffic and having to find a spot in the gym car park during the noon rush.
That gym company built a new facility near the office. A walk to Gym Guy’s car park now being the same distance as a walk to the new gym. I asked Gym Guy once if he still walked to the car park and drove to the gym. He wasn’t amused.
Good job with the growing triffids. Mine never even came up last year. I’ll plant them differently this year. And I plan on significantly more tomatoes than last year. And more potatoes.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
🙂 The old timers used to suggest that practice makes perfect, and who are we to argue with such wisdom? If I may add, it’s an enjoyable experience here for me as well.
Folks, yeah, I’ve met a few. Hey, in an amusing anecdote from that time, the gentleman introduced me one day (out of the blue, of course) to his friend, who was a genuine titled Lord and big time property owner. Pam, what else could I do, but act within my class, and so the reply was: “G’day, lovely to meet you. Then I went back to work. A person must always be mindful of associations, and I know my station and want nothing of the upper airs. But neither is there any need for obsequience, one can carefully wend the awful social stratum’s, whilst doing their own thing.
Awakening in the dark, is suggestive of a philosophy which has at its core, the belief that the sun will eventually rise in the east, and set in the west. Look, it’s a sound perspective on the world, and if you’re wrong, a person would have to recognise that surely there are biggerer problems that day I can tell you.
Ha! Very funny with the license plates, but alas wrong. 😉 The young lady working at the counter for the gourmet pie shop was an extrovert, and upon encountering the unfamiliar accents, asked where they’d come from. My knowledge was derived from observation of the ensuing conversation, plus their skin was so pale that I feared for their exposure to the hot Australian sun. Your fellow countrymen were in for a real treat with the pies, and covertly I again observed that they were consumed in the shady garden. As an interesting side story, the accent was quite strong and I had a bit of trouble understanding what they’d just said. The northern accent itself was new to my ears.
Yes, straw is a good equivalent, although the sensitive person wonders what exactly is the straw stuff, and where was it derived from? Sugar cane mulch is very consistent, although I read that the growers have begun considering burning the stuff as a soil fertiliser. Plants make sugars easily, because there is little shortage of Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen in the environment, so no fear ever for sugar cane.
Yes, old hand tools are better. Nuff said. Actually, I bought a replacement fork today, and hint: It wasn’t stainless steel. Nice to hear that your fork has noble lineage.
I’m sure raising potatoes above ground works somewhere, just not where you and I reside. The yields were consistently lower from that method, but if people want to grow the tubers that way, who cares? We’ve both done the experiment, and now resort to the fundamentals.
Picked up more soil minerals today, and will attend to the garden bed over the next week or so. Really? Oooo, yuk! I’d not known that about sprays, and can only suggest that as time has marched on, this is what Silent Summer looks like. Another word to describe rising costs, is inflation.
A bit of luck, and a bit of planning with the path upgrades. A person must ask of the land, what is it that ye wants? Then wait until the concepts are revealed. I’m sure that there are easier ways to go… And I’ll now point out that you have a large gravel lined flat site for machines. That’s how it works.
The fruit press magnifies human energy and is not all that hard to use. Don’t believe the hype when it comes to difficulties. 😉 Such topics of further stinkiness are not considered polite discussions among gentile companions, just sayin… Hehe!
Sorry to hear that, and garden space is an issue here as well. The Lima (Navy?) beans are well worth the effort. What’s not to like about a winter vegetable soup? Yum! Maybe with some pearl barley.
It’s a pleasure to taunt you with colourful fruit! Yes, citrus, can there be a more important winter plant? I don’t think so. Hope the frost risk in Florida did not eventuate. Go the sole Christmas petunia to enliven your household, at such cold times of the year.
93’F tomorrow, but maybe some late rain. Things are different this week, maybe.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Ooo, the moons are aligned, and perhaps we are talking Jupiter, or maybe even Saturn, and why not go the whole hog – some mysterious yet to be discovered exo-planet in a far outer orbit’s collection of moon’s! 6mm of rain fell here Sunday as well. Dare I say it, but there must be something in the water. Sorry for the dodgy pun! 😉
Such forecasts have been fizzers here as well. Gets your hopes up, and then reality shatters them.
Good to hear, and The Dude Abides – you’ve just proven that point with your relaxed day. I did a shandy day of paid work, and a trip to the nearby big township to pick up a replacement nuker oven. Plus Bahn Mi lunch.
Had a fun chat to the store lady, about which oven to purchase, and the hard question was asked: “Which would you buy?” Candidly speaking, the machines all looked the same to me.
There’s a lot of poor decision making skills behind a hapless feline entering Husky land. The cat would have known that Dame Avalanche was there, and could only have been trying it on with the moment of living dangerously.
At your stage of the year, the birds are hungry. It’s the lean season, and just between you and I, and please don’t tell anyone, when times are tough, I regularly chuck some chicken feed out for the magpie family. The pampered chickens can afford to share their bounty.
Thanks for the intriguing tale of the Anglicising of many a surname, including yours. Ah what ancient stories and great spells that words recount for all to see, but few to hear.
That Olaf the Black bloke sure did get around, causing all sorts of mayhem in the far north of the British Isles. Political intrigue, dark plots of revenge, annulled marriage’s and how enlightened we all pretend to be these days when sprung from such blood soaked soils. Actually, the images of the area suggests a very harsh climate, crofting and low populations. Little wonder such folks departed to warmer shores down under, and thus displaced the surviving local Indigenous population and despoiled a once fertile land. It’s a cruel world we live in. Still, the land can be cared for again, if we but try. Not that there is much option.
Yes, I too felt that the books and BBC series depicted the story far better than the film. Let’s not go there, but I did go to the cinema with high expectations.
Dude, it was so grey here yesterday, that only an hours sunshine was recorded by the solar power system. Earlier today was much the same with drizzle. Like, what’s going on? And tomorrow will be 34’C with a forecast suggesting late rain. My brain hurts, and maybehaps this is a whole new different season?
Liquid sunshine depicts your conditions beautifully, and hope that rainbows did a special guest appearance with the radiant rain?
Ha! Sadly, such things happen, although it was good of you to be on hand and rectify said boss’s reptilian olfactory error. Truly, the Skinks may be offended… I’ve occasionally encountered superiors who had a penchant for emoting so as to cover up for a lack of general life experience, and yeah, what can you do?
Thanks, and it is a bit weird that the dogs were so worn out from their supervision duties.
Ha! Ain’t gonna happen under my watch! Although we may construct a stone walled cool store eventually. It’s a possibility. You know, on sunny cold day when there is excess solar derived electricity, we have a nifty industrial looking 2400W fan heater. The thing uses a lot of electricity, but sure does warm up a large area nicely.
I don’t get the whole gym thing either. Tell you a funny story, about three decades ago I knew a doctor who enjoyed walking, but admitted to me that she was embarrassed to be seen doing that activity by anyone who knew her. Apparently it was a class and status thing, which was entirely lost on me.
Yup, drive to gym. Walk on treadmill. Drive home again. Hmm. Sometimes things don’t need to make sense, but economics will sort that mess out, and people will then go promenading again, as used to be the case. Everything old, will be new again.
Really? Wow! Triffids are super hardy, and so best of luck for you – and that’s also how we all learn – one failure at a time. 🙂 Tomatoes love lime, potatoes aren’t meant to, although I’ve not noticed that it is the case. Who’s to know?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Different parts of the country describe those melons differently, but in this state, they’re referred to as ‘cantaloupe’, and no doubts our northern compatriots believe that we’re taking on airs and graces. There’s actually a whole lot of different varieties of melons, some of which are reputedly cold tolerant. My experience with those suggests that they grow in an environment warmer on average, than here.
Speaking of which, yesterday was a pea souper, with an hours peak sunshine, and today began just as abysmally but with the addition of drizzle. The moisture was very much appreciated. The fog eventually burned off and the sun shone. Quite a pleasant day. Did a shandy day of half paid work, and then a trip to the tip, plus sourcing. A Bahn Mi for lunch may have been consumed. Then back for more paid work, and a finish at a reasonable hour. Can’t ask for better than that.
A replacement nuker was purchased in a big box appliance store at a nearby big township. Plus a different big box hardware store yielded a replacement garden fork and another spare hoe. The big box appliance store was interesting, as upon entering I was almost immediately accosted by a sales lady, and had everything transacted correctly within minutes. I’m assuming sales commission was part of that story. Being a dude, there’s no mucking around and dithering and dathering with the purchase process. The usual questions were asked: What’s good? and the important one: What’s cheap? Plus I tried a new one: Which would you buy? 🙂 I’m sure that you have your own techniques and strategies for such moments?
Occasionally clients visit here, and the skull could not be seen upon the coffee table lest sensibilities be outraged. Easier to avoid experiencing that.
The Resilient Citizens book sounds fascinating and from the blurb it seems to approach the subject from a sensible perspective, i.e. what makes a person prepared and/or interested in possible perils? Learn anything interesting from the book? And the precis posed a cliff-hanger question as to ‘one’ item that every household needs. Beats me what it might be? A store of fresh water would be a good idea, but I do live on a dry continent.
Oh yeah, without food preservation techniques, long distance travel would never have taken off. And we’ve discussed Napoleon’s pragmatic interest in the subject. Has the author provided any interesting titbits of information from history?
The sandy sections of soil you mentioned, are probably OK, but it depends upon the colour of the sand. I get that here too, but the sand is a fine black dry sand, which I’ve always presumed to be a loam, but not sure really. And yes, too much woody mulch, is a very bad thing for growing vegetables. My very first garden bed was created out of mulch, because I’d read about it being the best thing ever to use, and it was a complete disaster. Might work somewhere, but not here, or at your place.
The self portrait of Thomas Eakins to me suggested intriguing eyes of someone who’d known and experienced darkness. Clearly the artist was gifted, and equally troubled, perhaps best not to be involved in his activities. Would I hang out with someone who is actively doing such activities, probably not based on the raspberry jam principle. Can I appreciate the astounding works produced, yeah, sure.
When I was a younger bloke I really enjoyed the grunge rock era, and the band Nirvana was an astounding burst of creativity. Yet the lead singer was clearly troubled, and eventually shot himself. The extreme nature of the person, lent the creations an edge over their peers, and you can hear it. Far out, look at Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ and the work suggests deep mental troubles, but the painting is not the man, and the man is separate from the depiction. The two discussions are conflated, and that’s what people do. Few people are saints. And there is no shame in running away from bad people.
Agreed, the human form itself in whatever form, is the goal of the artist. Great beauty is rare, and fleeting.
Alas, two steps forward, one back seems to be the way of things with your weather. Dude, what you’re experiencing is pretty close to winter conditions here.
The solar hot water service is playing up, and I suspect the remote temperature gauge may have a broken wire. Hmm. I’ll have to get up onto the roof to have a look at what is going on. At least the pump can be switched on and off remotely.
Deftly done my friend! 🙂 You made an appearance, and a quick escape. Sounds practised to me. Well done to your local lads at the win. I’m with you, screens on in the background when talking with people, are distracting.
It is an interesting article, and let’s just say that I’m cynical about such take over mobs desiring to produce quality product. Freshly baked biscuits used to be a thing in the big city department store, and oh my, it smelled so good. I don’t get to malls so have no idea whether they are thing down under. Dunno.
Just watched the trailer for Secret Mall Apartment, and it was a hoot. Well done that lot. So clever. Did I spot Jesse Eisenberg’s name attached to the film?
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – I’ve never cared much for the taste of cantaloupe. And it always seems to be on some kind of recall list. “Cantaloupe can be linked to food poisoning due to contamination with harmful bacteria like Salmonella and Listeria, which can cause serious illness. It’s important to wash cantaloupes thoroughly before cutting and to avoid pre-cut varieties unless they are properly refrigerated and from a trusted source.
Government of Canada Wikipedia.” A knife cut carries bacteria from skin to edible parts.
We’re having our own pea souper, here, this morning. And as with you, it will burn off, later. Our high yesterday was 52F (11.11C). Our overnight low was 34F (1.11C). The forecast high for today is 49F.
I wonder how much longer my nuker will last. It’s about at the five year mark. I’ve used that tactic, to make a choice, before. I’d guess it wasn’t the first time it was put to the sales person.
The “Resilient Citizen” book, is pretty good. I read a sizable chunk of it, last night. He’s sorted the attributes of resilient citizens into five “types.” Although there is some overlap. It’s interesting who he excludes. In his estimation, a resilient citizen goes above and beyond the basic 30 day supply of food. I wondered about that one item, too. I haven’t gotten to that part, yet. When I do, should I tell you? Spoilers. 🙂 I have a guess, though. He’s a “man of faith” though he doesn’t beat you over the head with it. I’m guessing … a Bible. Or any other work of faith that might apply to an individual.
The food preservation book is interesting. I don’t think I’d want to go to sea, anytime before the late 19th century. 🙂
Here’s something interesting about Munch’s painting, “The Scream.” Someone made an interesting connection, recently. That crazy sky? Might have been reflecting reality. It was painted about the time Mount Krakatoa blew in 1883. Causing very colorful sunsets, around the world.
“Beauty fades, dumb is forever.” Judge Judy. TV personality. Which reminded me of a trailer, I saw, yesterday. “Coyotes.”
https://youtu.be/bKtGRSyISu0?si=A0LDu2t35wewyZLc
Yes, Eisenberg was attached to “Secret Mall Apartment,” in some capacity or another. Financed, or something? Brought the whole thing, together?
I saw an interesting article, about housing in the US. Our Congress may be making some progress in making housing more affordable. Though I doubt it would impact the likes of me. 🙂
https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/08/business/housing-congress-affordability-costs
Well, here we go. We got a notice, yesterday, that HUD pre-inspections will start tomorrow. The HUD inspection is supposed to happen on the 9th of March. Oh, dear. That’s the same day the Master Gardeners are coming to divvy up the garden spots. Might want to reschedule that.
Surprise! The Yaupon seed arrived yesterday. I’m still waiting on the Yerba Mate, which fell in a black hole. I noticed something about the envelope I got. No postage mark. Just a slash in felt tip pen across the stamp. There was talk about doing away with postage marks. I guess this is it. Lew
Chris:
“G’day, lovely to meet you.” I swanee! You know your place . . .
Oh – is Alaska still part of the U.S.?
Hotdog! I do have a large gravel lined flat site for machines.
Dead rats. I think that was the other stinky thing. And that big Thing. Pee yew. I might be keeping myself away from your place for awhile.
Are they Lima or Navy beans?
https://herbivoreskitchen.com/2021/01/white-beans-the-ultimate-guide/
You mentioned smoky grapes; I can’t decide if that’s bad or not. Smoke can add an interesting flavor. I just noticed when putting wood in a fire for the billionth time, that my head must smell pretty smoky. I wonder if I carry that into town and people notice? I drive with my car windows down in all weather, so maybe it wears off.
93F is getting too far up there again. We had a lovely, sunny day today, much warmer. I had the house windows open for awhile.
Pam
Chris:
I see that in speaking to DJSpo you mentioned a 2400W fan heater, so I went up my room to look at the electric oil-filled heater that I have. It is 1500W and works just super on low. We have one in our other bedroom, too. For some reason, I have not measured it with the KillersWatts meter. Okay – I just did so. It is 640W on low. That’s a lot, which is why it can’t ever be used with the generator.
Pam
Chris,
Wow! Spectacularly sunny day today. Good day for a long walk with Dame Avalanche. And errands.
Dodgy puns are the best kind, right?
Good on the Banh Mi! Good way to salvage the shopping venture. I’ve had similar experiences looking for new nukers. So I end up looking at size and power. Gotta make sure it will do what we need it to do.
The Dame spends a goodly amount of time indoors. Two or three different cats think that they can explore the yard when she is indoors. Nope, she can often sense them in her domain even when indoors. This is twice now that she’s nearly caught a cat in the past few weeks. Two of the cats are rather overfed, lazy and don’t understand the concept of not being welcome, at least until the Dame almost has them in her mouth.
I didn’t hear you say anything about chicken greed and magpies. Or was it magpie feed and chickens? Or maybe chicken seed and greedy magpies? I heard nothing!
There were several warlords of Viking and/or mixed Viking and Celtic background who wreaked havoc all over the British Isles. The Dublin Vikings were a thorn in the side of the English and Irish and Scots for centuries. An exiled prince of Welsh Gwynedd married the daughter of one of the Dublin gang in the 11th century, so that the Dublin Vikings are in the family tree of Llywelyn the Great. Other notables were from the Isle of Mann, various of the Hebrides Islands into the 1400s, and, of course, the Norse earls of Orkney. Well, Thorfinn the Black of Orkney was actually 3/4 or more Celtic in ancestry but was brought up as a Viking. Badarses with sea power and mobility.
Yikes! You’re supposed to get more solar than that in the summer. That’s wild. Sounds more like your winter solstice statistics. Global weirding continues.
Ah yes, what, indeed, can you do with the offish boss? Well, that boss of the skink incident is the same Big Boss that I exacted payback with via the “installment plan”. Often with quotes on my erasable board, visible to all, that he could do nothing about as long as I cited the source of the quote. “Help, help! I’m being repressed!” was often used as I could tell that that was an irritant. Naturally, I cited the “peasant from Monty Python’s Holy Grail” as the source. Another was “I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way” via Jessica Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. There were several others, too.
For our last club meeting, the agenda I emailed out in advance listed the usual set up crew, but that one of these would be unable to work, so would spend the time supervising the rest of us and giving directions. I may have also mentioned that we would ignore the directions. 😉
Like Pam, we’ve got oil filled electric radiator type heaters. They work excellently in some spots of the basement that have no other heat source. The 600W setting is more than enough.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Using electricity here to either mechanically cool, or heat, the inside of the house, can only be done when there is enough sunshine for the activity. 🙂 There’s little point flogging the house batteries for that activity, unless there is no other choice.
Presumably your household has more than one of those oil heaters running at the same time, even if they’re all on the low setting?
Wood is the best source of heat for this ‘ere household and a boiler in the wood heater combustion chamber can capture 30,000W of energy and distribute the hot water around the house to about six hydronic radiators (and provide domestic hot water). The electric 2,400W fan heater is nice though it works best to take the edge off the chill, and it makes a big difference, as you’d also find with your electric oil heaters.
By the way, the standard household voltage down under is 240V, and I believe you run 110V, maybe? Both are deadly, but it occurs to me that your 1,500W heater uses 13.6 Amps (1500W / 110V), but here’s the thing, the 2,400W heater down here uses only 10 Amps (2400W / 240V), so believe it or not, the wiring down under would run cooler for the higher heater output (more amps = hotter or thicker wiring). The same heater on 110V would use 21.8 Amps (2400W / 110V) which would probably exceed the capacity of an individual household circuit in your area (15A to 20A maximum I believe).
Very funny, and yes, I swear I know my place. If I may cheekily add, the only people who believe that they can win the social climbing striving game, are those who’ve not ever interacted with the elite. Honestly, the best way to win, is not to play, but this option is not generally mentioned anywhere. You’d have seen such things as well given family history and stuff.
Ha! I’ve heard most accents from your country, but the Alaskan accent was new and quite thick, with hints of Canadian, but the individuals could have been fast talkers as well, which always befuddles me.
Hot dawg! Indeedy you do. Life is looking up with such beauties as flat land. 😉 Hey, I also dream of such niceties.
Fair enough, the osmé has mostly receded into the background. Truth to tell, there isn’t much of the big thing left to eat.
Pam, they’re white beans. Ook! Thanks for the clarification, and for the record, to be precise, they’re Cannellini Beans. Thanks for the link, and the lady enjoys an enviable diet. I’m no purist, and will absolutely sneak in a tasty cake chunk full of butter, milk and other yummies!
We’ll put the smoke theory to the test with the grapes, and truly it is only the wine makers who are cracking the sads. I’m far less fussy. Hey, we had a tenth of an inch of rain a little while ago after a hot day. Yay!
Isn’t it nice on a sunny winter’s day to let in the fresh air? Wood heaters challenge indoor air quality, so yeah I hear you about that.
Climbed up on the roof today in the heat in order to repair the temperature probe attached to the solar hot water service. Don’t know what was going wrong, but I sliced in a new section of wiring, and then protected the lot against the strong ultraviolet radiation which devastates plastic. The wire had been out in the sun for fifteen years, so no wonder it had issues. This time I added several layers of protection, which should buy some time, maybe. Hot work, I can tell you, and climbing into the roof cavity was no fun either. Oh well, it’s the jobs which ain’t done, that end useful infrastructure.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Yay for some winter sunshine! Dunno about your area, but sunny winter days here hold the promise that just around the corner, you’ll again feel the suns warmth.
It was hot and cloudy today, and by early evening, 2mm of rain fell. Much appreciated the wet stuff too. The season has definitely shifted to something else. Like in your part of the world, we have six distinct seasons, although western culture is a bit hung up on trying to overlay the other worldly explanation of four seasons, badly too, if I may add.
Go the long walk, and likewise did a few of those with the dogs today. Errands of course are what keeps the big old world spinning ’round, and food upon the table.
The solar hot water system has been playing up of late, and I traced the problems back to the temperature sensor probe attached to the panels on the roof. Plastic, sun, fifteen+ years, ’nuff said. Hot work being up there, but at least the roof surface was dry. Climbing into the roof cavity where the 400L header water tank and pump controller are, was not as hot as out in the sun, but way stuffier. Oh well, it’s the job not done, as takes the longest to finish, or so wrote Professor Tolkien. Soldered in a new section of wiring up on the roof, fed it through into the roof cavity, and then provided multiple layers of UV protection for the parts exposed to the sun. The system seems to be working fine now.
The temperature sensor appears to be a resistor, whose resistance falls as the heat rises at the solar hot water panels, with the controller unit switching the hot water pump off and on when required. Quite clever really.
Dodgy puns are awesome, as are doggy puns! 😉 We could have hours of fun with this stuff.
Yes, I’m very much of the dude school of shopping, as fortunately for me is also the Editor (who loves lists). Hit the shop, grab what is needed, then run. The Bahn Mi is the lure to get Sandra to go on the journey in the first place! A list makes the overall journey with multiple stops, an efficient activity.
There were a number of nuker machines, some of which were advertising that they had an inverter circuit – suggesting the magnatron operates at a far higher voltage. Just seems like more things to go wrong to me. Cheap inverters, are err, cheap.
The dogs here likewise spend plenty of time indoors too. Oh my, cats are lovely and stuff, but I could see how they’d follow their impulsiveness and put a Husky to the test. Is it wise to do so? You sort of answered that question.
Sargent Schultz – I know nothing, I am not here – I did not even get up this morning! 🙂
The Celts seemed to have held their own in the west and far north, but the onslaughts of the Anglo-Saxons, and then the Vikings took the centre and east of those islands, plus all of the northern island chains. The ancient Romans left a mess, which was slowly filled. Presumably the Norman’s had a bunch of trouble from the Vikings as well given raiding went on for centuries after 1067. I still never quite understood why Harold exhausted his troops quick-marching them south to meet the Norman invaders. Seemed an act of over confidence to me. They’d have arrived on the field, exhausted, and so lost the war.
Exactly, nature provides when she will, and sometimes, even in the heady heights of summer, the sun don’t shine. Why people don’t comprehend the variability of natural systems, is a subject which is beyond my understanding.
A bit more rain just fell then. 4mm all up today. Hard to comprehend how it was 36’C earlier, and now only 16’C and I’m wearing a woollen jumper. Brr! Although it’s quite pleasant inside the house at 23’C. Mustn’t grumble.
Some bosses are just hard work for everyone around them! Actually, the funny thing a person notices with dog training, is that the highly emotional and angry dog owners, often get the worst canine outcomes. As a boss I always tried to exude calm, and was protective of my staff. But far out, the people above me often didn’t apply similar techniques to my good self. I’ve only respect that you held out as long as you did, and dude, they wore me out.
Hehe! Fun stuff, and it’s good that the unable to work crew member would still turn up. Clubs and groups are made up of people who take the time to attend. This is known!
Thought you might be interested in my reply to Pam regarding electricity and heating. Higher voltage does come with some advantages. 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Man, I think about that risk, every morning when cutting the skin away from a slice of cantaloupe. Yup, they grow on the ground, have enormous surface area for stuff to grow upon, and well, poop is a fertiliser. You’re right, it’s risky. Funnily enough I hated the taste of that fruit when I was younger, and as you’ve sagely mentioned, time kills taste buds.
Did your pea souper burn off? It’s again a bit like that here tonight, which is odd because today was 36’C / 97’F, but now only a fraction of that temperature. A late storm rolled in, this time from the Southern Ocean, so its got some Antarctic bite with about a sixth of an inch of rain so far. Yay for the rain, but also Brr! No wonder the chilli plants are struggling to produce fruit this season. Oh well.
Anecdotal accounts suggest that around a decade is what you’ll get for a recently made nuker, so five years is pretty good. Probably also depends upon how much you use the thing, maybe. Not quite the three decades of the one I dropped off at the nearby e-waste collection facility though, is it?
The lady at the store who accosted me, handled the question with aplomb, and interestingly directed me to the machine I’d considered beforehand. I’d taken the time to read interweb reviews of the models they were selling to see what people were saying. Sales would be a bit like debt collection in some respects, and after a while, you’d have heard it all, and know how to respond. So you’re right, it probably wasn’t the first time the question had been posed.
The rain is continuing to fall outside, and bizarrely the temperature is dropping. 57’F now. I’m having to now factor in the weather when planning activities, and did paid work today, but also spent a few hours repairing the electric temperature probe on the solar hot water panels. Looked like the cable had been crushed somehow, but equally it could have been a decade and a half of sun damage to the plastic. Dunno. Cut in a new section of wire, then added several layers of UV and cable protection. I have known of birds to damage wiring in the past, so why give our avian friends the opportunity? It was hot work up there on the roof, and also inside the roof cavity. The system is good now, until the next thing breaks.
Absolutely, please do tell me what the one thing is, as revealed in the book, although I’d posit a theory that spiritual satiation, does not fill a hungry gut. Food may be a larger concern for me. Hey, reminds me of the old saying about enlightenment and chopping water whilst fetching wood. 😉
Yeah, six months in a leaky boat, is not an experience to fire the imagination from my perspective. But chuck in bad food, and just say no… How those early mariners survived such long ocean journeys is way beyond me. To think that for a while there, the British Admiralty disputed the benefits of Vitamin C. Makes me wonder if fishing lines trailed along with such vessels? I note that a cruise ship was allegedly boarded in our waters.
Oh poop! The best one liners, are other peoples… Alas, it is to be our lot to collect such clever sayings, for appropriate usage. 🙂 Judge Judy used to be playing in the background of a lunch room when I worked for the steel distributor.
Hehe! The coyote film looked like serious fun, and wasn’t taking itself too seriously, with buckets of gore and fire. If I may add an observation, the house was a very stylish design, but hardly a practical base from which to observe the goings on in the dry forest around them. Where are the defensive positions?
Thanks for the article on housing, and about the biggest change in those arrangements – from my perspective – was the removal of the wheel requirement for manufactured homes. That’s probably acknowledging reality. Your chief boss bloke was quoted as saying something I’ve long suspected – home owners are more likely to be voters in your country, and thus their wealth interests are looked after.
We’ve got a different spin on that story down here, although the politicians are talking a similar story for home owners and mortgage holders. Remember, compulsory voting is a massive difference. Turns out over a third of the population rent, and higher house prices are leading to bigger economic woes as rental costs go up. So those voices are getting heard, and perhaps not as a vote for an alternative, but a vote against the existing system. The alternative lot have some funny ideas, but are gaining traction. Hmm. This story has played out before in the past in other countries. One Nation capitalises on anti-immigration sentiment in a housing crisis. Our electoral system punishes fools, and right now, our leaders are looking a touch foolish – particularly as interest rates went up last week. A lot of people will be hurting.
At least you’ve got a month with which to prepare for the inspections. I thought funding for that lot had been cut? No doubts the master gardeners will adapt their schedule.
That’s great news that some of the seed order finally turned up. Did you look into speeding up the germination process? It’s been suggested elsewhere that unmarked postage stamps, are an opportunity!
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – DJ mentioned Vikings and Dublin. I just saw an article about the possible discovery of Ivarr the Boneless’s ship burial.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/archaeology/a70247639/ivarr-viking-burial/
I’m glad to hear you’re getting a bit of rain, even if it’s in meager amounts. Yes, our fog burned off around noon. Par for the course. Our high yesterday was 52F (11.11C). Our overnight low was 32F (-0-C) for a hot 15 minutes. Our forecast high for today is 50F (10C). Over the weekend, and into next week our forecasts mention “rain and snow.” We’ll see.
Damaged temperature probe. Revenge of the cockatoos?
Apparently, you haven’t known too many religious nutters. They’ll claim a lot of things, this side of starvation.
Ship boarded in your waters? Pirates? Ah, I see. Almost as bad. Bureaucrats. 🙂 Although, if the reports are true, horrendous for the crew and unsafe for the passengers.
Yup. All the good quotes are taken. Mostly. “You can lead a horticulture, but you can’t make her think.” Dorothy Parker.
Now if it were just easier to get loans on manufactured homes … That was an interesting article on One Nation and immigration. Here, I don’t think the connection between immigration and tight housing has been made. At least that I’ve seen. Though I do admit it crossed my mind.
Sure, the official inspection is a month off. But Little Mary Sunshine will be pulling an inspection, anytime from today, on. She didn’t show up, yesterday, to work. Not unusual. I’ve decided not to get to bent out of shape about her imminent arrival, and will shot for getting everything in order by next Tuesday. If she shows up before, well, she can come back and check again.
I looked into a few articles, last night, on germinating Yaupon. Seeds need to be striated for a couple of months, then kept warm and moist, but not too wet. The nursery also sent some seed for Beautyberry, which I had never heard of. A little something extra. It sounds interesting.
I spent a couple of hours, in the garden yesterday. I potted up 8 parsley, for the Master Gardener sale. I think I’ll do 4 more. I buried some kitchen scraps. Weeded.
I saw an interesting article yesterday on the current state of dogs, and us. At least here in the U.S..
https://www.alternet.org/americans-are-asking-too-much-of-their-dogs/
It got me thinking about my relationship with H. How I interact with her, and how other people interact with her. I take care of her, and protect her. But I can’t say we have what I’d call a … gooey (?) relationship. Other people get rather ga-ga over her. Which I think is kind of silly. Lew
Chris:
Well, we only have the 2 electric oil heaters and sometimes one is on and one is off. I like to have my room quite cold to sleep in (that has been easy to accomplish lately!), but Mr. Baby may prefer his bedroom at a different setting. But we do heat our house almost entirely with wood. Hot water is electric.
In Baby news: This morning, for the first time since we became a glacier, Mr. Baby decided that it was okay to walk on the ice. It was okay – until he got off the small flat area and started heading downhill, though not by choice. I laughed so hard as he slid downhill on his rear. Luckily, he did not go too far and he does have crampons of a sort attached to his paws . . .
As for crampons: A friend of mine was telling me about the great “ice cleats” that she has had for 20 years. You attach them to your shoes. I tried to order some from where she got hers, but they were sold out. Oddly enough, I was looking at the restaurant supply website where we order our rice, and they had ice cleats. So I have ordered some for all of us (they were mysteriously cheap – uh oh) with the rice and we shall see.
I was telling a couple of my neighbors that I ran into on the road about this and they asked me when was the last time I needed ice cleats around here. I told them 1994, as that was last when we had this type of situation. They teased me that, since the ones I ordered might not get here till the ice is melted, I might not need any for another 32 years, and so I told them that it might be best just to put the cleats in my will, self already being 69.
Yes, I’ve seen social climbers, but it is amazing what a name can bring at the right time, in the right place, my grandparents being well-known and well-placed. And yet my grandfather earned every penny that he ever made, starting as a milkman in the Great Depression.
Does a tenth of an inch of rain deserve a “yay!”?
I don’t see how you worked up on the roof in that heat.
Pam
Chris,
Another nice day with sun today. The sun is supposed to disappear as the clouds roll in overnight. Dunno when the clouds will leave. We might have weather next week. Maybe.
Anyhow, after the walk with Dame Avalanche, I decided to take advantage of the sun and the fairly dried grass. You know how it is: “chop wood, carry water.” Today “rake leaves” got added to that, as the weather turned at just the wrong time in the autumn to get all the leaves raked up. Dunno if I’m enlightened or not, but the front is all raked up now. The half of the back that didn’t get done will be completed the next warm spell.
Six seasons. Maybe 8. As opposed to the four seasons Alaska has. Early winter, mid winter, late winter, next winter.
That plastic lasted 15 years, and then some, in your heat and on the hot roof? Not bad. Sounds like your improvements and repairs did the job.
I liked your explanation of the 120V vs 240V systems. 1500W requires 20amps or more with the alleged 120V. Did that once. Blew the circuit breaker. 600W is enough. One of the two heaters is almost never used, and the other one just a few times a year. Good to have them when they are needed.
We could have fun with puns until we’re both old and doddering.
I appreciate the dude shopping method. The Princess prefers to browse. Get her to the 2nd hand goods store and she can spend hours there. She usually has me drop her off, then she calls when she is done.
Sometimes I run errands with Killian’s human. She also prefers the dude shopping method. Gives us time to get enchiladas or banh mi.
Yeah, Harold Godwinson. Danish mother who was related to the king of Denmark by marriage. He suffered from bad luck, poor judgment and bad battle tactics. Not all of his army had arrived at the battlefield, nor could they all have fit into the formation. They continued to arrive in a trickle. For whatever reason, Harold’s brain seemed to freeze during the battle. However, his haste and poor judgment leading to the Battle of Hastings, rather than waiting for a massive English army to gather, well, it literally cost him the kingdom and his life. William having burned his ships, well, just keeping the Norman army contained until a massive army was gathered would have been unbeatable.
The Vikings were everywhere. After a pack of Vikings were awarded Normandy and became the Normans, well, other Vikings plagued them sometimes. It’s more a case of where the Vikings DIDN’T go. I’ve even got a picture of a Viking dragon ship that Neil Armstrong found on the moon! Something tells me it’s but a cartoon, but the point was made.
Ah, people in industrial cities are so far removed from nature it isn’t even funny. You’ve mentioned the lack of insects in Melbourne. Imagine what people who don’t see bugs would do if the power was out for a month! They’d have no clue how to do anything, mostly. The point being that industrial society and all of the technology isolates most people from nature so much that people have no clue about things. Milk and eggs magically appear in the store. I think that’s part of why many people don’t understand the limits of solar and wind.
My neighbor has two cars, one for him and one for his wife. They can be remote started from indoors, allowing the car’s interior to be heated or cooled depending on the time of year. The only outdoor exposure is thus from walking to and from the car. A lot of people are like that. Nature appears to be this thing that causes periodic inconveniences, nothing more. Sigh.
I noticed the same thing coaching softball, working with teenagers, leading work groups, etc. Calm and protective leadership is important and gets much better results. Easier on the nerves for both the boss and the staff.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Also the electric oil heaters switch off the element when they get up to temperature, lest the device turn into a boiler and too much pressure builds up inside the thing. So even though they are switched on at the wall socket, they may not be using electricity. Yeah, I likewise prefer sleeping in a colder room, and fresh air makes for sounder sleep. It’s been my observation that a person can always throw on more blankets. Cats are of course different, and love their creature comforts and winter warmth.
Hehe! Ah, Mr Baby goes upon an unexpected adventure, on ice. 🙂 That’s funny, the dogs here would have a total freak out if faced with such glacial conditions. That famous groundhog did suggest that there is a bit of winter left for your part of the world to experience. Who knew that sharp claws had more than one use?
Ook! Pam, there’s cheap, and there’s good, but it has been my observation that many things are mis-priced these days and the cleats might be good and cheap. The land of stuff is suffering from a bout of over production and is possibly dumping product on export markets. Ours is but to take advantage, whilst the stuff is available. And! If such winter weather has occurred once, it’ll happen again, so you might be proven wiser than your neighbour for being better prepared.
At the very least, what you’re experiencing now is that it is better to have the cleats and not use them, than need them and not have them. 😉
What you say is very true, and also your experience suggests that social mobility was once much easier. Hey, if needs be, I can ignore the school for disadvantaged kids, and talk up the more English than the English grammar school. Who’s to know the difference? Anyway, I’m probably wired wrong because I care not a fig for status. Something to do with being an INFJ personality type, presumably.
It does deserve a ‘yay’, and for the record, ended up being a quarter of an inch of much needed rain. One must be grateful for any moisture in such years. By the way, there have been drier summers, to which I looked back over the records with a sense of horror.
I’ve gotten used to the heat, and will no doubts be smashed when winter arrives, in force. 🙂 It was hot up on (and in) the roof I can tell ya.
Did some chainsaw milling today, it being cold and cloudy and stuff. I learned something. Seasoned hardwood is very difficult to mill with a chainsaw. Oh my, I may have suggested to the Editor that the wisest course action was to buy a proper bandsaw timber mill. We’ll test out how the chainsaw mill works on green timber tomorrow. I do not wish to injure myself on this task. But all the same, many projects require lumber.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Sun today, but what does ‘weather’ next week really mean? Sounds like secret Spokane climate lore, which cannot be shared lest there are consequences. 🙂
Cold and cloudy here today, with a max of 15’C. Crazy stuff, but Antarctica exerts some remote authorita. Leaves are useful soil mineral additions, although the trees sucked out most of the goodies before letting them fall to the ground – but they didn’t get everything, did they? The wonderful thing about leaves is that they can be collected and blitzed up with a mower, thus increasing surface area which makes it easier for hungry soil critters. I’ve seen some folks around here cart them off to landfill, and yet others burn them (when appropriate to do so). The soil critters however, are always hungry.
You’re enlightened! 🙂 Well, as much as any good caveman with Viking blood can be. Ugg! Ooo, where did that come from?
I can live with 8 seasons, yeah. Ha! Very funny, and oh my, I did worry that the Alaskan tourists would test their skin against the local sun. It’s not pretty to be seriously sunburned.
Yeah, I reckon the repairs to the remote temperature probe will be better than what was originally there. It surprises me to discover systems which aren’t quite up to surviving local harsh conditions, but then you’d have seen that back in your job. I sometimes wonder if the thoughts for such outcomes were: This’ll be cheap!
Thanks for the correction, yes 120V, which is half as nice. Yeah, Goran mentioned that he’s been enjoying weeks of -3’C and the house water pump was in danger of freezing. Electricity is a wonderful energy source, although batteries are not a fan of such low temperatures. Fortunately not a problem here, maybe.
Hey, we might already be old duffers! 🙂
Oh yeah, that’s a good point, and the Editor likewise browses in those same circumstances. And like you, I know what is coming and avoid the experience like the plague. A mystery as to why such things happen, but then, do we really need to know?
🙂 Now, that’s appropriate. Enchiladas or Bahn Mi, are inducements for a dude to tolerate moderate shopping outings. Like heading out into the wilds, isn’t it?
Agreed, that is what I would have likewise done. Cut the invading Norman army’s supply lines. Evacuate and burn the land ahead of them so they run out of food. Amass decisive forces. Burn their return ships. And then pick them off at leisure as they become sickly. Harold paid a high price for hubris, but that’s history for you. Brain freeze probably occurred because he was tired. The ancient grandmaster of strategy, Sun Tzu, suggested not to wear the troops out through stupidity.
Hehe! That’s funny, and yes the wreck of a Viking longship on the moon, would make an amusing commentary upon the realities. Such foes leave unguarded homes during the raiding season, just saying. I’d have organised to have had their crops burned and villages destroyed whilst they were occupied elsewhere. Such favours as they delivered, should perhaps be returned with interest. Sends a strong message.
When I was a younger bloke, friends would often get together and play strategy war video games (on a local network, not online) and one friend in particular always followed the Viking strategy of sending out raiding party’s, one after another. It was awful to be on the wrong side of, but eventually you discovered that his home turf was only lightly defended.
Agreed, and that’s the truth of it. A person who’s never had to get their fingers in the dirt, can believe that growing edible produce is super easy. It’s when you put your back and mind into that activity, you realise just how hard producing stuff is. And the bigger the volume of output, the more troubles there are. Experiencing the 30 or so Cockatoos the other week, was a disturbing experience. Hmm. The city weirdness has been very much on my mind this week. In the biggest city of Sydney, they’ve been getting mysterious balls of gunk washing up on their beaches. Turns out that they’re a bit lax up there with sewage treatment. Yuk. More to come on that story…
Ah! Yes, I’ve not experienced such technology, and have to deal with nature, like getting up onto the roof when it is 35’C, but at least cloudy. Sweat. I’ve heard of those remote fob operated vehicles, and know only keys. The funny thing about such cars is that you can sometimes accidentally not take the fob with you, and then not be able to get the machine started again, once stopped. Plus the codes can be nabbed and the thing easily stolen. What’s good about that?
But yeah, I get your point and see people up in the more fashionable end of the mountain range disembarking from large vehicles wearing shorts and t-shirts in the middle of winter. Truly, there’s a lot of talk, but most people don’t tend to tone it down for the benefit of the environment. I get the impression that secretly they’re hoping someone else takes the hit, so they don’t have to. It’s no big deal really, because nature, resource and energy depletion will have the final say in the matter. It’s not nice to hear grandstanding though, is it?
Did some chainsaw milling today, so as to freshen my knowledge of this activity, and oh my! I took on a three year seasoned log and man, it was too hard. All of the tree species here are hardwoods, but when seasoned, they only get harder. I’m a bit sore tonight, but lesson learned, and I won’t repeat that error. Also did part paid work too. It’s a busy time of year.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Another cold summer’s day here at 15’C / 59’F. Crazy stuff hey? Oh well, mustn’t grumble. Did a couple of hours of paid work, and then decided to head outdoors in the cool weather, and test out the chainsaw mill. Well, it sure was an exciting experience I can tell you. I tackled a log which had seasoned for about three years, and it was super dense and hard. In fact, was too hard for me, and I’ll try a green log and see whether it is a better and easier option, otherwise I’ll sell off the chainsaw mill. All the tree species here are simply too hard and dense. Maybe a proper bandsaw is the way to go. Expensive sad to say.
The Great Heathen Army sure did cause a lot of mayhem and destruction over a number of years. And Ivarr the Boneless had very short supply lines, so would have been especially pesky. The name of the bloke is interesting too.
Yeah, ended up getting a quarter of an inch of rain yesterday, which was pretty good, and the cloud and cold air hung around today. Monday and Tuesday will be hot again.
The same thing happens with fog here as well, with it burning off mid to late morning, usually – the other day was a notable exception. 32’F is brrr! territory. A five blanket night for sure. It’s the time of year for weather extremes, that’s for sure, so it would be nice to see a little snow. Surely H would approve of some icy stuff?
It’s funny you mention the cockatoos and that damaged wiring, because the same thought occurred to me as well. Long ago I’ve had solar power cables up on a roof cut right through by, something… Nowadays, they’re in hardened conduit, so the birds have no chance, but that wire wasn’t. Is now.
Actually, they’re not all that common down under, except I have noted over the past few years that many a middle eastern drama seems to be playing out in never ending protests which appear to involve religion. I’d hate to be a retailer, or someone residing in the city near to that constant activity. Not a fan, and it smacks of a lack of community cohesion, which troubles me. So yeah, a lot of things get claimed, maybe in different ways.
That’s funny, yes that lot, and some of the claims were astounding. It’ll be interesting to see what comes of the investigation.
Humor and pathos are wonderful things, and some folks even command them both! The quote you supplied was a very funny mixed and twisted metaphor, although I could not quite comprehend how it was at one time considered taboo. The originator would have been a fun dinner companion.
The article mentioned loans on manufactured homes. Presumably the banks are wary of losing their funds to a business which may go belly up? Other than that, I can’t see the reason for the difficulties, except perhaps it may interfere with more profitable lines of business… It’s interesting the immigration side of the story, in that I get the impression that the person on the street simply wants the volume slowed, whereas experts in the media keep saying that the artificial pressures on housing demand, which push up prices, don’t matter. Somewhere, sooner or later, enough people will make a vote against the existing arrangements, that it will matter. And we’re getting political parties who talk sense on one hand, and crazy stuff on the other – if it gets bad enough, they’re in with a chance. People forget their history, and our electoral system punishes incompetence, above all else.
Nice strategy, and I’d do that too. No point being left on tenterhooks for days on end, is there? Hope the inspections are relatively painless.
Never heard of Callicarpa (beautyberry) plants either before, and there are a few up-north local varieties. The berries look interesting, and it is nice to get some free seeds – the plants might be real winners.
Parsley will sell for sure, and nice to hear that you got to spend some time outdoors, even though it is still deep winter.
Thanks for the articles on dogs, and I was left with the impression that the author may have been over-thinking the entire relationship. The indigenous folks had dingoes, and they were treated as family, equals and part of the tribe, even when the canines were doing stupid and embarrassing activities, as they do. Dogs are uniquely adapted to human social structures, and I’d put that into the don’t worry about it category. And agreed, it is kind of silly to go ga-ga over a dog. To me, they’re companions and part of the household, and they do their bit around the place.
If I may add, people aren’t having kids because of economic issues. If the authoritas want people to have kids, fix the cost of living crisis and make it easier for them to do so. Won’t happen, but that’s at the core of the issue.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – And, in news of the world … How’s your stock of Neodymium? Just don’t store it close to the refrigerator. 🙂
https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/11/business/rare-earths-importance
And, a couple of articles from your part of the world.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/11/travel/lincolns-rock-blue-mountains-sydney-overtourism-intl-hnk
The other I won’t link to, as, I’m sure you’ve heard all about it. The 14 year old kid who swam kilometers, to save his family who had been swept out to see. Now that’s a resilient kid.
Yes, Ivarr’s name got me wondering. Why two “Rs”? Lincoln once quipped, about his wife’s family name, “The Todds spell their name with two d’s, which is pretty impressive, considering one d is good enough for God.” 🙂 And, “the Boneless”? I figured maybe he had a bad case of ED. Probably wouldn’t use that name, to his face.
I thought you had some pretty good success, with the chainsaw mill? Greener, smaller logs?
Our high yesterday was 54F (12.22C). Our overnight low was a steady 34F (1.11C). Our forecast high for today is 53F. Rain will return early in the AM. H and snow? Pretty much took it in her stride, as I recall. The novelty wore off pretty quick.
LOL. That quote was almost a gardening pun. I was out in the garden, a couple of hours, last night. Buried more kitchen scraps and did some more weeding.
Manufactured homes depreciate pretty fast. If things go south, and the bank wants its money back, that’s more likely to happen if there is some land attached to the home. At a guess.
One doesn’t hear the term much, anymore, but you probably remember the concept of the Peter Principle. I think it applies to politics, too. I think, these days, some political parties have some good ideas … and then throw in the crazy stuff to appeal to the widest number of voters.
Ah, the word I was looking for, as far as dogs go, was “infantilize.” I think a lot of people do that to their dogs. I think when I got H, she had a certain amount of that, in her character. I treat her as an adult dog, which she is. Some people at the Club, treat her as a two yer old. Which she isn’t.
“Garbo laughs.” I actually got a laugh out of Little Mary Sunshine, yesterday. A first. Our new night managers have a newish baby. I said that I hoped it didn’t cry much, as they might have to rehome it. :-). You may remember our current (but not much longer) night manager had to rehome his first dog, because it barked. Lew
Chris:
Just think of all the stress you and I are saving ourselves with our lack of interest in status.
Oh, so! A proper bandsaw timber mill could be in your future. Congratulations, if I may be a bit preemptive. Well, I can’t top that, but we all just got new headlamps at our house. Also, you will be interested to know that my thermometer on the back porch just registered 130F (54.4C), so it looks like a new thermometer may be in my future, too. Though maybe I’d rather have a bandsaw timber mill . . .
Pam
@ Lew,
Ivar the Boneless. Well, I’ve read that an English monk made a translation error. Two Norse words are rather close in sound, but vastly different in meaning. The original Norse word for Ivar’s nickname should be translated “despicable”. Ivar the Despicable. Which makes a lot more sense.
And ED? Why, I’ve heard that that stood for Existential Dread. For several guys I’ve known, they would suffer from that if they also suffered from the other ED. 😉
DJSpo
Chris,
“Weather” next week? Perhaps precipitation, perhaps not. And if it does precipitate, what variety it will be will depend on the time of day it falls and whether the storm front is mostly from the Gulf of Alaska or points further south. If at night, it would be snow. If during the day AND below +5C a storm coming from the Gulf of Alaska would also be snow. Not accumulating but still falling white stuff. Snow, aka frost giant dandruff.
Ha! But I prefer to be called a Viking with cave man blood. 😉 But what’s in a label? Grak!
Cheap? Yes, I saw too much of that. Unfortunately.
This old duffer doffs his hat.
Some things just are. Delving too deep for the answer is likely to produce nothing but angst, heartache, and even more uncertainty. Best sometimes to accept that things are the way they are because that is the way they are.
Except I never needed an excuse to romp through the wilds. Being in the wilds was reason enough to be there. The nearest I ever got to an enchilada in the wilds was my preferred trail food for overnight cross country skiing or when archery hunting far from camp: beans and tortillas wrapped in foil. Easily heated over a small fire, or edible unheated if need be.
Yes, you have the exact strategy in mind. And William even burned his ships himself, sort of to motivate his men to be more desperate to win. Harold did rather need to have immersed himself in Sun Tzu’s writings. Might have helped. Instead, he snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
Funny you should mention the strategy of raiding the raiders’ homes when they are out raiding. In Game of Thrones, young Robb Stark never lost a battle. However, he left but a token guard at home, so his enemies took his home castle. Ooops! Win every battle, lose the war.
I was always aware of that hazard when playing the old board game Risk. I won more often than not simply by NOT losing my early power base while messing with my opponents’ power bases.
In my part of the neighborhood, earwigs are a huge irritant. I’ve tried growing corn. The plants grow well. The ears start to develop. Then the earwigs infest the ears, eat all of the corn. I’ve tried about everything to protect the corn, but absolutely nothing has worked. So, I don’t grow corn. Accept, adapt, move on.
Once when I had my car in the shop for a week, they let me have a loaner car. Nice pickup truck that rode very nicely. It had a key fob. And every time it stopped, the engine shut down after a few seconds, so as to cut emissions while idling at red lights. Step on the gas pedal and the engine restarted. I thought that was a lot of extra wear and tear on the starter.
Oh no! That wood seasoned for three years had to be harder than concrete. Dad cut down a black locust tree once. Someone told him to cut it to length and split it ASSP. He didn’t heed the advice. A year later he tried cutting it in lengths for the fireplace. It was miserably hard work. I learned a lot of new words while listening to him that day. 😉
Today was household chores day. Yup, yet another version of “chop wood, carry water”. Today’s version was “Sweep and mop stairs. Don’t forget to breathe.”
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Yeah, one less thing for us to worry about, that’s for sure. Nobody can keep up with the Joneses anyway, so why try? 🙂 Alas, but there are other stresses which impose themselves upon our quiet enjoyment – and that is something all of us have to deal with.
It’s the plan, although the Editor is a bit grumpy about the expense. A trip to a nearby timber yard revealed eye watering prices for lumber, although admittedly the product looked good. Nice finish too. When faced with a new firewood shed, a second greenhouse, and maybe some other stuff, the bandsaw mill will pay for itself given the raw product here is more or less free.
Truth to tell, the refresher trial of the chainsaw mill yesterday, suggested that I may be an old duffer. I don’t shy away from hard physical work, and split boulders and hauled large rocks today, but that portable chainsaw mill is very hard on the lower back and shoulders. Why injure myself for this activity, when there are easier methods?
I reckon the big yellow power wheelbarrow can be adapted to haul logs, or we can drag them behind the big powerful Japanese low centre of gravity mower. The logs can sit on little wheels at each end, like a train carriage if they need to be dragged. Easy enough to do.
Pam, your thermometer is displaying that perhaps the wood heater should be backed off a bit. At 130’F it sounds a tad warm inside the house. I’ve heard of people trying to make the steel plate glow red with those units to produce such a remarkable temperatures. 🙂 Hehe! Hey, when the batteries in the remote weather station unit (AKA the tug boat on a stick) here required recharging, the thermometer gave a reading of -40’C / -40’F. Didn’t feel that cold to me.
Are you intending to go for a simple thermometer, or something more fancy?
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
There’s a lot of “what ifs” in your possible weather forecast, and do hope you get the gently falling from the sky crystal white stuff over the next few days. It’d be nice, wouldn’t it? You’ve had a bit of snow this winter, but not as much as I’d have expected, still precipitation has been the order of the day, of late, for you. And for your interest, snow would not fall here until temperatures dropped to around 1’C or less. It would never snow at 5’C here even if that frozen continent to the south pushed some super chilly air over the Southern Ocean.
Dude, this morning it was 8’C outdoors and I felt freezing with the house temperature dropped to 16’C overnight. Brr! The next couple of days promises a maximum of 35’C so hopefully the chilli plants get their act together and produce some fruit. One can but hope.
Ugg! That’s the secret greeting (oops, now splashed all over the interweb) for Vikings with cave man blood. It has been noted that you’ve used this greeting in the past, just sayin… 😉
There’s always compromise with projects for outcomes due to the variables: cheap; fast; and good. Alas, none of us ever know when crucial chunks of infrastructure utilise the cheap and fast option, which I’d suggest is the worst path of the lot.
Agreed, acceptance is a wonderful state of mind, and one to which I aim as a worthy goal on its own right. But also note that it is not always achieved, despite striving. Oh well…
My thoughts exactly, the wilds are there, and they remind us to beware of hubris, lest we come unstuck. In an urban environment, people come unstuck as well, but its a different kind of trouble often with similar endings.
One would always aim for a cooked dinner, even in adverse conditions. But I do like your style and it would be edible, albeit cold. Of course I sense that there is a story there, much like Jack London’s ‘to light a fire’ but with a nicer ending given that you are still among us in the land of the living. Anywhoo, say the Titanic is preparing to pretend that the vessel is a submarine, why not prior to being immersed in some -2’C water, grab a sugary confection from the kitchen beforehand, just to fuel and fortify the body for a few hours of awkwardness? Six pairs of long johns wouldn’t have hurt either. And a woollen hat, and maybe a wool scarf. A dinner suit would not have, dare I say it, suited the unfolding events.
Really? That William was a strategist, and thus why he won the day against the hubris riddled Harold, who always held the upper hand. By the way, William’s strategy was also mentioned as foolishness by Sun Tzu, who quipped that it is a bad idea to cut off lines of retreat for either yourself, or the enemy. So that battle was fought by two foolish folks, one whom commanded less tired troops and perhaps was slightly less foolish. I appreciated the amusing one liner too.
You can see the same story playing out in the WWII Battle of the Bulge, in that the Germans threw everything they had at the American army, and in many instances acted disgracefully, were worn out by losses and the conditions, and so lost the field.
Yeah, Robb Stark was a good bloke, excellent commander, and yet dreadfully inept at the graceful art of expedient compromise. I’m still waiting for the concluding books. 🙂 Haven’t watched the series.
I’d not heard of the game ‘Risk’ before, and it looks intriguing. Checked out some of the strategies, and spotted my personal favourite ‘turtling’, which is what you also suggested doing.
Oh! Earwigs are pesky here as well, but something keeps their numbers down to sustainable levels. But yeah, corn ears are very tasty, and not just for us humans. Rats can be a problem as well. The crop failed to even germinate this year regardless of variety, although I’ve seen stands of the plants at lower elevations. Yup, adapt, accept, and move on.
Absolutely with the wear and tear on the electrical system and starter motor. You may observe, that the stop-start function has not caught on. With a manual gearbox car, that system would be a nightmare. There is a LITE version of the Suzuki Dirt Rat Jimny I wish I could have nabbed, but it was a six month wait at the time, and I care not for all the bells and whistles in what I ended up with. At various unexpected moments the car shrieks a crash warning, and let’s just say that I’m dubious of such computing power, and am still around.
Dude, that super seasoned log was a sore trial on my shoulders and lower back and hey I’m used to hard physical labour. I’m not into that story, and a proper bandsaw mill will be much easier, although the Editor is cracking a bit it right now in relation to the spend. A damaged Chris won’t be able to do much is my thinking, and sooner or later sensible decisions will be made, compromises will be met. We’re just not quite there at the moment.
Hope you continued to breathe whilst doing the needful. 🙂 Cleaning definitely falls into that category, yup.
Might do some more boulder splitting and rock hauling tomorrow. Did some today, and the rock wall on the uphill side has progressed.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
That story of exotic material shortage, is not lost on me. If I identify weaknesses here, let’s just say that plans get put in place to shore up the soft squishy undefended bits. Your goobermint has placed about 60 elements of the periodic table recently, onto the critical mineral list, and few people noticed. A lot of the stuff which eases our lives are produced with some seriously exotic materials. It astounds me to experience just how good things actually are. Your big chief has been making overtures to down under, and we’re good mates anywhoo, but it also helps that there are some tidy deposits of rare earth elements, which aren’t all that rare – all in a name. What fascinates me about the story is that few people realise just how filthy a process it is to refine the rare earth minerals – which is why it usually happens in out of the way locales. 🙂
Hmm. Leaf change provokes similar problems over in the more fashionable end of the mountain range, and hey, we’ve been to that spot in the Blue Mountains in the 90’s. Epic, but devoid of anyone else in those days. Look, I’m torn on this subject. The tourist hordes make the local businesses more viable, and gives them a boost. I avoid the area on weekends as seeing the rubbish dumping and stupid behaviour irritates me, and the locals end up collectively paying for that service – plus the heavy toilet usage. But then the local businesses do OK, which is cool, and around and around we go, where it stops, nobody knows. Although I have a hunch. Economics will put a limit on such activities and so in some ways it is a self correcting process, when everything old economically, is new again. The more fashionable end of the mountain range, always had some form of tourism, even way back in the day when steam trains ran between Melbourne and Swan Hill, and beyond. In fact, there were more business activities in those days.
Interestingly, during the Great Depression, the country trains on weekends were free of charge, and it surprised me to hear that recently the same thing was announced. Lot’s of opportunities for bush walkers I guess, it was a thing during the depression era. Probably will be again.
Anywhoo, the world could get by just fine if tourism once again became a thing for the wealthy, or the super adventurous, or the military. It wasn’t all that long ago, those were the only folks as travelled anywhere. Just sayin…
That kid deserves a medal, and swum an extraordinary distance in rough water. Impressive. Agreed, a very resilient mindset.
That’s a funny quote from Lincoln in relation to his spouses maiden name. 🙂 Wasn’t he shot? Just saying… Anyway, yup, true, nobody wants ED. Extraordinary Dithering bores the daylights out of me, and we’ve all been cornered by long winded folks who’s conversation goes nowhere. And people who can’t tell a good story are afflicted with that too, and yet try to share the whole boring in three dimensions stuff. Awful ain’t it, that ED business. 😉 I have some suspicions that the gentleman in question had a very short fuse.
There was a bit of success with the chainsaw mill, but the refresh trial left me with the distinct impression that I’d: a) damage my shoulder (Pam would sympathise here); and b) injure my lower back. At the moment, both are fine, but need I peruse a strategy which leads to crap outcomes? Speaking of which, the Editor is very grumpy about the cost, but too bad, so sad. The upfront capital cost is far cheaper than the overall spend for all the lumber needed in future projects. It’s a no brainer, we’re just not quite over the line yet. We’ll get there. I’ve long realised that I can make snap decisions, whereas the Editor takes a lot longer, and will procrastinate if given the opportunity. Neither is better or worse, and we usually end up in the same place, it just takes some time.
H is to be commended for her stoicism, but did it snow? Sounds cold to me too, although it was 15’C / 59’F here today. On principle, because it is summer and stuff, I’m feeling a bit chilly tonight, but refuse to light the wood heater. Brr! A warm cup of mint tea is assisting matters. Yup novelty is fine and stuff, but it does wear off.
The comment amused me, and glad to read that it produced a smile, maybe. 🙂 The soil critters will approve of your buried scraps.
Split some boulders today, and then hauled rocks back uphill. Work on the new path progressed, and all was good with the world.
Vehicles depreciate pretty fast too, and banks seem to be OK lending for that asset.
The Peter Principle is always at the back of my mind, and hey, worked as a CFO, just sayin! 🙂 Actually the work was quite manageable, the people, was the harder bit, so the principle is probably true. I hadn’t considered that it applies to politics, but that’s a great point.
I see, yes, some folks do ‘infantilise’ their pets. It happens, although it ain’t yours, or my bag, and I simply appreciate their companionship and the colour and life they bring to this household. Pets are fun, when sometimes life isn’t all that much fun. Sometimes I call Ollie, brother, and other times I call him, bubbles, especially when he is being an idiot, which is rare. Maybe it is me being the idiot with that nickname? 🙂
Nice one, and you’re working the crowd like a true master of the art. 🙂 Getting a hard won laugh like that, is pure gold.
Cold again tomorrow, but it’ll warm up over the next few days. I feel a bit chilly tonight.
Cheers
Chris
@ DJ – Re: Monks. Sometimes, you just can’t get good help. Where’s the quality control? 🙂
Over the years, I’ve read quit a bit about the creation of … the Bible. Over the years, there’s been real advances in scientific instruments to take a look at “what lies beneath” those old sheep skin manuscripts. In a none invasive way. Sometimes it was a translation error, sometimes a “typo” and sometimes intentional.
These new methods of analyzing things have also revolutionized the fields of art and archaeology. Lew
Yo, Chris – Exotic materials from exotic places. Australia! The fifty -third state! Preceded by Venezuela and Greenland. Canada might be in the mix. Or, at least Alberta, which, apparently has a secessionist movement. They better think long and hard about giving up their healthcare system.
Those secession movements never seem to get anywhere. Greater Idaho? Oh, I think there might be a big shakeout, when we get further down decline.
As far as the cliff goes, someone needs to invent a nifty story, to go along with it. Yes, it’s a complicated balancing act, between income and quality of life.
https://w.wiki/Hqg2
Sometimes, in stories, you see a statement like, “He/she never traveled more than 15 miles from home.” I haven’t left our county, in probably 20 years. It’s a card I play when people think I need something from Olympia. 🙂
It wasn’t John Wilkes Booth what done him! He was framed by Mary Todd Lincoln! 🙂
Somewhere along the way, the Editor and you will strike a balance. An opinion based on previous back and forth.
Our high yesterday was 55F (12.77C). Our overnight low was 37F (2.77C). Our forecast high for today is 46F. Starting tomorrow night (Sat), there’s a possibility of snow, for the next week. Which is as far as the forecast goes.
I spent some time, last night, stripping the remains of the Scarlett Runner beans, off the hog wire trellis. Next up, green beans off the chicken wire trellis. You know, I planted some radish in the former pumpkin tub. Along with some carrots and beets. The radish came up, and then stalled, over the winter. Healthy looking, but small. Well, over the last two weeks, they’ve really taken off. I pulled one last night. I diced it up and added it to some rice, frozen veg and the last packet of turkey meat, from Thanksgiving. I can’t say it added a lot to overall flavor, but every once in awhile I’d bit into something … zingy. 🙂
I discovered some sneaky toilet paper shrinkflation, last night. I opened up a new pack, and thought, “Is that cardboard cylinder in the middle of the roll, larger? Yup. it sure was. The cylinder from the previous pack fit easily inside the cylinder from the new pack. With room left over.
I got gas, last night. $4.30 a US regular grade gallon. How would that translate into the Australian price? I wonder as my Idaho friends are always banging on about how wonderful their gas prices are, in the paradise that is Idaho. Never mind that they have to drive 50 miles, or more, for medical care or serious shopping.
I think our local auction may have moved into town. I’m not sure, but they might have upped sticks, and moved to another facility. Lew
Chris:
Yes, I remember when my son used to use his portable chainsaw mill; it was grueling. Perhaps that’s why I haven’t seen it in such a long time. That sounds like a very clever idea for hauling logs with the power wheelbarrow or mower. I see some interesting times coming up.
I forgot to mention that the thermometer (a simple one with red liquid in it) was outside. We have thermometers with batteries, but I am tired of replacing the batteries; they don’t seem to last very long. I don’t know what to do.
For the very first time, I saw a coyote corpse – it was a big one – on the side of the 2-lane highway that I drive into town. They’ve been around us for at least 15 years, but one usually only hears them, not sees them. I suppose this glacier that the whole place has been locked in (it is beginning to melt in places that are not on a north slope)drove them to range where there was not the solid ice.
Pam
@ Lew,
I’ve also kept up with the creation of the Bible research. It’s very interesting. A recent study found what I long suspected: none of it was written down until the 7th century b.c. Maybe in the 8th, a bit. And most of the Old Testament AFTER the construction of the 2nd temple. Oh well, not what I was taught, but it fits with the actual history of the region as well as comparative religions of the area.
DJSpo
Chris,
Some white stuff would be nice, especially in the mountains. With a seasonal average of 114cm or so here, and having gotten 25cm, well, it hasn’t really been winter. Not really cold either. Being the middle of February, there’s really no chance whatsoever that we’ll get anywhere near “average” snowfall in the lowlands or the mountains. Light rain sprinkles right now but not supposed to amount to more than 2mm or so.
Really? 16C overnight indoors? That’s what we set the thermostat for overnight. Hasn’t gotten that cool indoors at all this winter. I call 16C a good sleeping temperature. 😉
Ugg! Gack! Forsooth! That should cover a few eras, maybe?
Oh, yeah, right. Acceptance is the goal to aim for. Sometimes the route to acceptance is a difficult one, filled with treacherous emotional footing.
One of the things that many people don’t know how to do is to make their own shelters in the wilds. I learned how to construct a makeshift lean to out of natural materials. Also, I never hiked, skied in the backcountry or went hunting without having a solid rain poncho and one of the heavy duty space blankets – not one of those useless mylar ones. Used the poncho, space blanket and candles a time or five while taking a break in heavy rain. Dry and warming.
Truly, William was more experienced in fighting wars than Harold, but, as you said, both suffered from severe cases of hubris. Of course, the Europeans at that time violated a lot of Sun Tzu’s ideas.
Dad told me a few things about Battle of the Bulge. I’ve read others. His unit, part of the 102nd Infantry Division, had recently been moved out of the area. They had been where the worst of the onslaught hit until about 10 days before the attack.
No, not much of a story with carrying the beans and tortillas. Sometimes the conditions weren’t good for a fire – too dry and a spark could burn off thousands of acres rather quickly. Or too hungry to care. Although one time, I lit a small candle and patiently warmed one up that way. Took awhile, but I was in an extremely patient mood that day. After dining, I then heated some tea over the candle.
I’m also waiting for the concluding books of the Game of Thrones series. I don’t think they’ll ever get written. The author is aging, in poor health (which he won’t admit but take a look at him and it’s obvious), and can’t say no to starting and helping with other television projects. And writing his prequel books. He gets upset when questioned about it and has been rather surly at times. Sort of an “I don’t owe my readers anything. I can write what I want.” Some other authors have blatantly said that about writing book series when defending him. I tend to disagree. The books made him money and got him his tv contracts. Without those first books in that series, he’d not be even close to being rich. He owes his fortune to those who bought the books.
Knowing that he had given the script writers an outline of where he intended the story to go, and seeing the public’s reaction to that, well, it’s very possible that he doesn’t know how to end the books now. And he kept adding infinite levels of complexity and characters, so it was going to be near impossible to unwind things to get to any coherent ending.
I’ve mentioned the Tony Hillerman series of books, I think. Some Native writers, actors, directors and producers have been airing some of the series on television for a few years. For some reason, George R. R. Martin is also one of the executive producers. He’s got his fingers in a lot of tv productions.
Turtling. So that’s what it’s called. My friends despised my strategy, but it did work. They refused to try it, or to even keep me from dominating my favorite starting area (Australia, with a foothold in Asia). I haven’t played that game in decades.
I could probably get the earwig population down if I raised a few chickens and let them roam the yard. But then, Dame Avalanche would want to “play” with them. And the larger hawks and the bald eagle might decide to swoop in unannounced. I’m content with adapting the way I’ve adapted to the earwigs.
My friend had a car that had those crash alert sensors. Not only would an alarm sound, but the car would stop. It was an irritating system too, in that if his lawn needed mowing, the sensors thought that the long grass was a major hazard, preventing him from driving in and out of his driveway. I still prefer the old 1969 Datsun 510. I could understand that engine. 🙂
Good luck with the log splitting mechanism and wished for upgrades. At least you understand your current limitations and also know that those will change as you get less young.
DJSpo
Now I am confused. I thought you had said as much – about smart meters throttling output from one’s inverter to the grid – and was simply trying to illustrate the case. The suspicious thing was that by then the battery was full and there was enough sunlight for the panels to be still producing power. But with nowhere for it to go they had to stop working.
I see you purchased some second hand panels. I have a slew of them, having replaced the solar array shortly after moving here. They are too precious to throw out. My partner had a plan for putting lighting and power in the shed that did not see fruition and they are stacked against the house and I even have the connectors and other hardware. Maybe someone living off-grid will want them if I list them on Gumtree. Do you know a better place to offer them?
Your landscaping mixture of crushed rock and lime sounds intriguing. Does it perform similarly to concrete? Is the rock from your own place that you crush yourself to get the colour to match? Could ordinary aggregate be used? I want to try making some drainage channels and water barriers here.
“Marxists don’t impress me much. The profitability of deep sea mining has more to do with, I’m guessing, economics and energy, than ideology.”
I meant mining on land to replace what was sent out to sea as a rort to keep business as usual going. But did not mean to put words in anyone’s mouth, least of all SZ.
Sorry about your apricots. What a disappointment! They are one of the most delicious fruit and the hardest to get flavoursome exemplars from the shops.
The season has certainly turned here as well. Though the days are still hot, the morning and evening light is softer and one does not begin to sweat immediately after turning off the shower.
Hi Pam,
Your son made a wise decision, from my perspective, although you have a mix of trees with some softwood species – which the machine would suit. Anyway, why risk injuring yourself when there are other options is my way of thinking about the matter. Either machine can haul a heavy log, I’ve just got to fabricate the necessary components.
Oh poop! The red thermometers are very hardy, and I guess your recent cold weather conditions were a bit too challenging. 🙂 I believe the red liquid is an alcohol based substance, much better than the old days when they used mercury… Ook!
I only use rechargeable batteries for everything which requires such energy sources. I certainly recommend the Eneloop batteries for AA or AAA size. The use once variety of that technology just seems a bit wasteful and are probably more expensive in the long run.
Oh my! Well, times are tough in your part of the world, and roads and verges are usually snow and ice free, so no wonder the coyote would have undertaking risky business – which ended badly. Haven’t seen a lot of roadkill around here lately, but then um, the roadsides are equally parched, so critters are elsewhere – like here. 🙂
Split some more boulders today, and then hauled rocks for the new path. The sun’s energy is declining, which is a relief. Tuesday is forecast for 95’F. Oh poop! Oh well, one must deal with what is, and not what one wants, like some decent rainfall. 🙂 Glad to hear the ice is beginning to melt.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Kallianeira,
🙂 You know, years ago I wrote an essay about how off grid solar power actually works, in that if the suns energy has nowhere to go (batteries full and little requirement for electricity inside the house), then the potential electricity simply gets disappeared. Does this sound familiar to you? 😉 Anyway, so some dude begins trolling me after reading that and suggesting that the off grid system is so wasteful, unlike grid tied systems. What can I say, schadenfreude is not pretty, but I chuckled to myself that day long ago, knowing full well that once enough grid tied systems were installed, the same experience would be enjoyed by a whole lot more people. That, my friend, is how the technology works, and you are experiencing and observing it first hand. Thus why I suggest if you wish to maximise the potential energy generated, first charge the batteries, then turn devices on, like the air conditioner. As long as you’re not pulling from the grid, or your household is involved in some weird too much sun and so free electricity in the middle of the day plan, you’ll be making the most of the electricity being generated up on your roof.
I only use eBay because of the feedback system, so cannot offer you any advice. The stories I’ve heard of other selling systems with dodgy social behaviour, makes me avoid them like the plague. Good luck. They’re valuable, but who knows that fact? Not many, if any.
Lime is more forgiving than concrete because rain can infiltrate the joins and repair cracks. The ancient Romans knew of the stuffs value. Technically speaking, the crushed rock I used is described locally as Tuscan toppings with fines. The fines are the sandy lime component. I’m unsure of what is available in your part of the world, but ordinary aggregate (think blue metal screenings) generally lacks the fines which bind the lot. If I may suggest, look for a local product which is also described as ‘rock crusher dust’ – the material is amazing fertiliser too, and the darker the colour, the wider variety of minerals contained therein. Good luck!
I see and many thanks for the correction.
Oh poop! With the number of mature apricot trees, there should have been five times the number of fruit, but yeah, they’re an awesome fruit and bottle well. By the way, we use a Fowlers Vacola bottling system, which must be over 50 years old. Super tough glass.
🙂 My thoughts as well. The UV is now in the ‘Very High’ category so it isn’t too painful to be working out in the sun. ‘Extreme’ UV ratings are unpleasant, and those who’d never experienced them, don’t know the misery. Oh well. Hope you are getting some rain.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Ah, our seasons are tracking similarly, but from different extremes. And Tuesday is forecast to be 35’C and windy, lovely, both kind of horrors. Hope you get some rain and snow soon.
Things are warmer here, and I am somewhat summer soft. 😉 In the winter months, the coldest we’d experience indoors is 12’C overnight, maybe 11’C at a pinch. The only heat source we have in winter is the wood heater. And I like my undisturbed sleep and so could get up and re-stack the wood heater in the middle of the night, but that’s what extra blankets are for! Dunno about you, but I tend to sleep more deeply in the cooler weather anyway and will often have the window open letting in fresh air, even when it is near freezing.
Forsooth is a new one, and to which era does it relate? So hard to keep up with the cool kids. 🙂
I know man, acceptance is super hard to reach, but it wouldn’t be a goal if it were easy, would it?
I so hear you about making a proper shelter in the wilds out of what you’ve got. When in cadets, they’d take us kids out in the bush on bivouac, which refers to camping with light weight shelters – less than a tent. So we each had these plastic tough ground sheets, and sort of arranged them all together to keep the worst of the conditions off us whilst we slept. You know what is possible, I do too, but not many others have such experiences.
Just had vegetarian enchiladas for dinner, and I doff my hat to you good Sir for mentioning the possibility all those months ago. Super yum!
The Europeans have a different sensibility than Sun Tzu, and yeah that was very clear. You could see that the ancient grandmaster preferred stability over all other outcomes. Truly I wondered how Napoleon was able to recruit more able bodied folks to his cause after the disastrous winter Russian campaign. Maybe the folks had not read the news of the day? That really baffled me.
Your dad was remarkably lucky to have been relocated before that horrendous WWII battle.
True, the recent nearby fire in Wombat state forest was adjacent to a camp ground, and you just knew what happened. I’ve seen people around these parts light fires in barrels, and then leave – all the while embers are tracking into the air. Oh well. I’d have not thought to use a candle, but they sure get hot. Nice thinking.
The books came before the series, and absolutely there would not be one, without the other. But there are things such as ghost writers, although I will admit that in my collection of Robert E Howard’s Conan stories (leather bound, low acid paper and hefty – useful for a bar fight I reckon), the final few stories started with the voice of the author, and then changed to conclude the short stories. So I’m torn. I’d not engage a ghost writer to pen this blog, put it that way… Hehe! I get the impression that concluding the series would be a burden for the author.
That’s a good point about public expectations, and far out, can you imagine the fact checkers pouring over the drafts? Oh my gawd! Anyway, Robb Stark was a moron for he failed to bend with the wind when it was blowing in the wrong direction. I’ve no desire to watch the series, as I might feel the lack of depth in the portrayal of authors work. It’s complicated.
Ha! Funnily enough, the game is biased towards taking Australia and the Pacific first. 🙂
The dogs here would likewise be idiots with free roaming chickens, despite earlier attempts at training. No the birds are not chew toys… Dam Avalanche is in good company. Yeah, live and learn is a fine strategy, and one to which I also use.
I love a Datsun 510 as well, known as the 1600 down here. A lovely car to work on, yup, and lot’s of space in the engine bay. Ah, I fear autonomous braking systems, and have not yet experienced one. It’s bad enough the machine shouts warnings at random moments for no particular reason. School report: Easily distracted, and could do better.
Exactly! Couldn’t have said it better. I’m adapting to age, dare I say it, over time! 😉
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Well, there are already bases here, and we’re an accommodating bunch with a long history with your lot. The Great White fleet upon arrival was feted, the officers were shown a good time, the seamen, probably had more fun, and everyone got well fed and drunk. A good time was had all around. I’ve no doubts that if push came to shove, we’d do the same thing all over again, so why even take over? 😉 I believe that you’ll get Greenland as payment for services rendered, at the very least (and I’ve got no skin in that game, but that’s how it looks to me). Yeah, I’ve heard that the Albertan’s are restless, sure. Not much will come of that. And that’s my take on the present world, those movements won’t go anywhere.
Dude, being an Aussie, sometimes I can play up the idiot card, and just for fun, when hearing a Canadian accent, I’ll ask them what part of America they’re from. Keeping a straight face is the hard part and also not laughing, and hey you may not be able to pull that trick, but the reaction gleaned tells me everything I need to know about such succession movements. 😉 It’s all talk dude. Such lovely warm polite people too.
But agreed, further down the road in history, all bets are off the table. What did the old Roman’s used to say about the centre not being able to hold, or something like that?
Yikes, and you’d hope that visitors to the precipice don’t interpret the story literally. Oh yeah, we can do this too… Some folks used to jump from the West Gate Bridge in Melbourne which is 50m / 165ft above the water, and a few survive. An unpleasant business. Man, people are falling off these sorts of cliffs whilst taking selfies. It’s an embarrassing way to go.
🙂 Since learning of the consequences of peak oil and global warming, my experience is pretty much the same as yours and about the same time too. We once drove to Canberra to attend the Editor’s favourite uncle’s funeral, then came back home again. Home is nice, pretty much everything can be had within an hours drive. Why go further? That’s a nice strategy you’ve got going there too (he says noting the words for later use!)
Exactly, it was the double D, which sounds a bit pervy now I’ve just penned that, but we’re specifically to referring a name here, aren’t we? 😉 Didn’t the sadly departed John Lennon of the Beatles fame once quip something similar regarding a deity? Could be bad juju to mention this subject given the track record.
That’s how events roll here, we do eventually find that balance. Not always easy, but then there wouldn’t be wars would there if negotiation and compromise weren’t a thing.
In metric, it was double your temperature today at 24’C / 75’F. I do detect that things are slowly warming up in your corner of the planet. We split more boulders today, and then hauled and placed the rocks on the new path. Lunch was very late at around 3pm. Had a nap. Went to the nearby town to grab an ice cream, which was a very tasty peppermint with choc chips in a waffle cone. Yum!
The old dried vines are pretty gnarly aren’t they? I’ve been tempted occasionally to use a blow torch to speed up that job, but cooler heads prevail. For your interest, radish does the same thing here in that it stalls during the winter. With a bit of planning and earlier planting, that tasty plant can provide fresh salad greens in winter for a pesto. Yum! A good vitamin hit at a dodgy time of the year. It’s getting warmer if they’re growing. Good stuff. Few plants grow to maturity as fast as radish. That’s them alright, and occasionally zingy is the trick. I reckon Pink Lady Slipper variety is the best of the lot, but you might have access to varieties unknown down here due to import restrictions.
Whoa! It’s just not cricket to mess around and supply – more fresh air on a toilet roll. Outrageous, and whatever will they think of next? Hmm.
Last I checked the Aussie is trading at US$0.71, so US$4.30 = $6.08 a gallon, divided by 3.8 = $1.60/Litre. Which bizarrely is the price I filled up at last week. You see, oil is traded in US dollars, and US dollar has fallen – probably to incentivise your export market, and reduce imports – and so the Aussie rose in consequence, thus petrol suddenly became cheaper all of a sudden.
50 miles is a big drive for me. 🙂 So I can’t really speak for the thought of having to go such distances to obtain basic day to day items. That arrangement would perhaps trouble me.
Probably cheaper rents for the auction house? Who knows?
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – What a terrible thing to do to the Canadians! 🙂 I agree with your assessment of the personality, of the country. Generally, lovely people. Quit a few of “our” comedians, hail from Canada. I feel quit bad, about the current state of affairs, between our two countries. Do you know, Americans traveling abroad, when asked, often claim to be Canadian.
“Things fall apart; the center cannot hold…” Wm. Buttler Yeats, from his poem “Second Coming.” Written about 1919. I think King used it, in “The Stand.”
Here’s our local suicide bridge, down in Portland, Oregon. Lovely structure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vista_Bridge
Double “D”? Delores del Rio? 🙂
Our high yesterday was 46F (17.22C). Our overnight low was 36F (2.22C). Our forecast high for today is 47F. H and I got wet, yesterday, but not too wet. We’re about to have a surprising two nice days. Then, into “might snow” mode.
I’ll have to give “Chris’s Radish Pesto” a try. I just checked my recipe box. Yup, I wrote it down. Hmmm. Might make a good tombstone recipe. 🙂
Thanks for the petrol conversion. That will wow my Idaho friends. I’d happily pay that amount, if we had good health care.
H and I ran down to the Club, last night. Even though the pantry was topped up, Wednesday night, by Friday it was looking a little thin. Still stuff to eat. I decided I’ll let it ride over the weekend. Might encourage other people to bring in some tinned goods.
It was a popcorn night. I watched “Roofman.” Based on a true story. A burglar specialized in fast food places, by cutting through the roofs. He was caught, sent to prison, escaped from prison, and, on the run, lived inside the walls of a Toys R Us store. It stars Tatum Channing and has a nice turn from Peter Dinklage as the horrible toy store manager. Your grandfather would have had a choice name for him, initials D. H. 🙂 Lew
Chris:
We do use Eneloop for the AA and AAA rechargables, but thank you for mentioning them.
You have what I call whiplash weather.
Bubbles . . . hee hee! All it needs is for him to call you Big Daddy.
Pam
Hi Pam,
Good stuff, and I only have good things to say about Eneloop rechargeables, but what are the batteries you’ve had to dispose of?
My head is spinning around and around like that horrific scene on the original Exorcist film due to the weather see-saw. I don’t do horror films nowadays, although have no idea of your opinion in this matter. Nightmares…
Ollie is a gentleman, and ignores my occasional act of silliness. 🙂 It’s pretty funny though isn’t it? Like Mr Baby – who’s name has no doubts been well earned.
Oh far out, I’m so late, and better get writing. Had today off work, and there was even a breakthrough moment with the open question of the bandsaw mill. Yay! Economics will always have the last laugh, and you can quote me on this.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Ah, such lovely unsuspecting people, and which for the record, I’m yet to meet a poorly natured variety, although it will happen sooner or later, they have to put up with my occasional bouts of spontaneous silliness. Man, it’s like the sad tale of the baby harp seals. Wonderful people.
I likewise feel a bit bad for the current state of affairs between the two otherwise close countries, and will also note that much of the disagreement devolves to poor choices and bluster. Those folks are OK by me. Speaking of which, and you called it a month or so back, many such folks are residing down under assisting with the local extreme conditions: Sharing emergency resources becoming more complicated as fire and flood seasons overlap. Interesting times, huh? The lead photo is pretty similar to the forest here for good reason because the local brigade took another photo opportunity with tanker number 2 (Mount Macedon 2).
A person sometimes has to act the chameleon in order to smooth the social niceties.
Yeats was a fine poet, who held a deeper perspective of time, than his life experience would suggest.
It is a pretty bridge, presumably with Mount Rainier in the background? Candidly it looks nicer than the West Gate Bridge which I used to travel over on a motorcycle, and that’s when you feel first-hand how much that monster construction bounces up and down. When in stationary traffic, it gave me the willies, and so I now avoid it like the plague – of course, the thing did actually fall down in 1974, so my fears are not entirely unwarranted. Recently a replacement tunnel under the river has been dug, and it may now be open for traffic.
Yes, Del Río is stunning.
Twas a bit warmer here than where you are today, at 28’C / 82’F. Quite pleasant if I may say so, and whilst it is on the warmer side of things, neither am I ready for your 46’F experience. Brr! 😉 Took the day off work, visited a local cidery for lunch, which was remarkably pleasant, and had a long afternoon nap. Nice. Also we had a breakthrough with the whole bandsaw mill discussion.
Radish leaf pesto is definitely a fine addition to a lunch, although reserve some decent cheese, yellow, of course, and some fresh proper bread. You won’t be disappointed, although I substitute peanuts for pine nuts. Walnuts would work just as well.
Nice thinking, and Sun Tzu would applaud your strategy with the Club pantry, as do I. When the need becomes clear, folks assist. You wait and see.
Good stuff, watched the trailer and forwarded on the recommendation to the Editor. Looks intriguing. Go Mr Dinklage, and the scene with the dye bomb looked pretty funny. Yes, and hey, I can still not understand how he got away with calling every other dude that. An impressive achievement.
Now, my writing, not so impressive, and I better get a wriggle on. Talking about lumber took up hours this evening… Oh well, it’s all positive, but at the same time, I’m late.
Gotta run, and cheers!
Chris
Yo, Chris – That was an interesting article about shared resources. I see Canadians are just as prone to giving their kids whimsical names as we are. 🙂 Although it sounds like we’re entering an age where “helps not coming.” Due to being involved in their own disasters.
That’s Mt. Hood in the background. It’s the iconic mountain you see in most pictures of Portland. Has been a great ski area, and, there’s a nice looking WPA lodge up there. The other mountain you can see from Portland, is Mt. St. Helens. What’s left of it. You can’t see Mt. Rainier, unless you’re at some height.
Our high yesterday was 46F (7.77C). Our overnight low was 37F (2.77C). Our forecast high for today is 47F. According to Prof. Mass, we’re in for a 10 day run of cold and wet. Overnight lows, here, will be in the 20sF. Did he say anything about lowland snow? Nope. Just banging on about snow in the mountains for skiers, and how the local newspaper will get it wrong. The government weather forecast is for maybe a snow / rain mix, tomorrow morning. And for most the the next 7 days.
I was down at the Club, yesterday morning, and ran into Young Nick. Hadn’t seen him around since the change of administration, a year ago. He’d bring food for the pantry, in past. LOL. Although I’m always urging him to bring … soups, stews, chili, any canned meat or fish, or fruit. What did he usually bring? Yuppie stuff from the yuppie discount store. 🙂 Oh, well. I did mention to him that the Yuppie store has the cheapest tinned tuna, around. Still less than $1.
Last night, I watched “The Martian,” with Matt Damon. I saw it when it first came out, but it’s about ten years old, now. I don’t know if you saw it, but, you’ll never complain about lack of variety in a diet made up mostly of potatoes, again. 🙂
I finished reading “The Resilient Citizen,” last night. So, what was the one item every resilient citizen should have? A dinning table. Somewhere where people gather around, as, a true resilient citizen has an interdependent network of support. Didn’t expect that, did you? Well, neither did I. Lew