Don’t Panic

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34 responses to “Don’t Panic”

1. 

   April 6, 2026

   Lew

   Yo, Chris – Brains behind the couch would be a good zombie lure. While they’re busy rummaging among the dust bunnies and misplaced socks, you can inventively do them in. 🙂

   Yes, leaders these days, seem to take to the airwaves with little content. “Sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Who said that. Ah, Shakespeare, The Scottish play..

   Gone are the days … Churchill gave rousing morale speeches, but couldn’t say too much about war plans. Secrecy, and all. But did address domestic concerns, or, turned over the airwaves to those with a plan. I don’t think we’ve had a good Fearless Leader speech since FDR had his fireside chats. Yup, he said, we’re basically screwed, but there are plans. And here’s what they are.

   Sees like there’s always a moment in end-of-the-world sci-fi movies where the Fearless Leader gets on the airwaves, to announce “We’re screwed, there is not plan or help on the way. It’s every person for themselves. Good night, and good luck!”

   I think the next two winters might be pretty grim. In a lot of aspects. “…the winter of our discontent.” Who said that? Ah, Little Willie Wiggle Sword, again. “Richard III.”

   I suppose you’re filling up the occasional jerry can of petrol. Laced with fuel stabilizer, for the generator season. How is the supply of fuel stabilizer, by the way?

   Your new shed looks so neat and tidy. Just out of curiosity, what’s the small shed between the new shed and the house? And, I see another small shed, off the other direction.

   Ollie digs such neat holes. 🙂

   “Where’s my firewood” picture: That looks like a nice, cleared flat space just waiting for … something. Or will it forever be a firewood staging area?

   The flowers are really pretty. Especially, the roses. Lew
2. 

   April 6, 2026

   Chris at Fernglade Farm

   Hi Lewis,

   Nice thinking, and yeah, as the zombie leans over to closely check the stench of dead brains emanating from behind the couch, along with the odd dust bunny here and there, of course, the neck is justat the right angle and exposed for a quick downwards swoosh of the razor sharp blade. Like your style with the suggestion, and it’s all so neat and tidy! Do zombies bleed though? I think not, although am unsure of official advice in this matter. What’s your opinion? I guess the undead carcass would have to be moved from inside the building. Can’t be helped, the pesky critters shouldn’t have been inside the building in the first place is my thinking.

   It has also been remarked upon that truth is often the first victim in war. Glad to read that you avoided mentioning the name of the Scottish play. Seems somewhat cursed to me, but I could be overly sensitive – although hey, I ain’t on my own there, and can count you in on that belief. 😉 Why tempt fate?

   Yeah, that’s my take on our good leaders speeches these days too. In many ways, it would be better if they did just level with the population and restore some semblance of trust. Anyone on the street knows that with such rising energy prices, something has to give, and I’d give the message that we need to begin cutting back, just in case. Prudence however being unfashionable. But it’s all probably a bit too much for them to admit though. The complete absence of plans alarmed me more than anything else, because it suggested that they we had hapless fools who just happened to be at the helm. There’s no shame in admitting that events are larger than our sphere of influence, and maybe now things are different. I dunno. It is a bit of an apocalyptic sci-fi moment, yeah. Probably didn’t need to be this way.

   That’s such a lovely quote isn’t it? The winter of our discontent. Says so much, and so little, yet paints a perfect picture of living through hard times. The Bard is good, no getting around that fact, but I noted that your great, John Steinbeck, used that line too. The Grapes of Wrath was an astounding and yet intimate read, of hard choices and bad luck leading to dire but survivable outcomes. If I may, our western society is quite good with inequality.

   Mate, I’m onto that, and have no fears regarding the magic chemical concoction. You see, the last time I bought a small bottle of the stuff, it was something like $35. Trust me in this, people will skip this minor detail due to the cost, and perhaps vehicle engine management systems in cars are now good enough to make-do with much lower quality fuel? Dunno, I’ve not tested that. But other small engines people use in their day to day lives, will not work well with off-fuel. It doesn’t take long these days for the stuff to go bad.

   Thank you, and work continued again today on the shed. I’m getting everything prepared to install the fourteen new-old solar panels up on the roof. Using second hand stuff slows the entire job down, but also reduces costs, so mustn’t grumble. Everything is now ready to go for that part of the job.

   Now, the white shed is for preserves and wine making etc. The galvanised steel shed is for firewood. My thinking is to have distributed systems so that a major problem in any one area, is not a show-stopper. Thus the new firewood shed and additional solar power array x 2. I’ve thought long and hard about this stuff. The wider civilisation favours ‘just in time’, whereas I tend to value ‘just in case’. It’s an uneconomic proposition though. Oh well, what do you do?

   In earlier years an entire solar array was knocked out, and we didn’t even notice until winter, so distributed systems have much to recommend them.

   Ollie has been enjoying the sunshine over the past week or so, but it rained this morning and the drains on the new shed were put to the test, and passed.

   Nah, hopefully there is now no need for firewood staging areas, unless we’re doing the work to create the fuel, and the weather suddenly turns. That flat site may become a materials storage area. We’ll see.

   Thanks, and the Salvia put on a great show and was hardly impacted by the hail storm of a month or so ago. Flowers are a bit thin on the ground right now, but in the past week, dandelions have popped up everywhere. Spotted the local bees enjoying them this morning.

   Yay for lower cocoa prices, but I get that. Had a 70% cocoa Lindt ball choccie tonight, so nice, but err, $100/kg (2.2 pounds) means they get doled out. Makes the treat all the more special don’t you reckon? At $4 a bar, I comprehend how they may linger on the shelf. Mind you, I spotted the 1kg Lindt rabbit was now being offered as an after Easter clearance at $155. Still way too rich for my tastes. Oh by the way, I checked on egg prices too, and a dozen cage free eggs were $8. Your recent egg snag was a bargain.

   Agreed, accents can be perceived as smooth or grating upon the ear. I’ll be interested to read of your review of the book, and hope that it doesn’t delve into the murky world of academic prose. Yes, some of the plum-in-the-mouth English accents are difficult for me to discern as well. They come across as a test of loyalty, or perhaps a status display, but don’t really know.

   A fine bit of atmospheric writing (he says eagerly taking notes!). Conjures both memories and technical detail.

   Your weather is starting to sound very nice indeed. By contrast, rain this morning, then delightful sunshine, before thick clouds moved in. Weirdly at almost 9pm it is still 16’C / 61’F outside. Didn’t have to run the heater tonight, but might slip on the fluffy sheepskin boots.

   The small birds here are usually settled by dusk, although they are quite active at dawn. Early risers… Hmm. Feral cats are problematic, but those deer you mentioned. Double Hmm! Hey, haven’t seen any since WWIII was declared on them by a neighbour, and the carcass here was merely a stripped skull and backbone the last I checked a few days ago. Nothing went to waste and the nearby ferns are growing strongly.

   Has the book improved, or are you skimming text? Yup, just like you mentioned with Rome, 99 problems.

   Did you and H survive the crazy run unscathed? I’ll be interested to hear what Carl has to say on the subject, if you can catch up with him that is. It’s hard to know when to plant those seeds if they’re kept indoors where it is warmer. We may have planted them late winter, early spring. Hang on, I can check… … 18th September, so around about this time of year for you, maybe.

   Cheers

   Chris
3. 

   April 7, 2026

   Lew

   Yo, Chris – In case of zombie apocalypse, you might want to Scotchguard the couch. Or, maybe get some of those clear plastic furniture slip covers. Zombies don’t exactly seem to bleed, but do seem to sort of ooze all over. 🙂

   Not zombies but dinosaurs. I saw a bit of a trailer for a movie out, this fall. “The End of Oak Street.” Looks good. I’m up for it.

   https://youtu.be/MKWroW0QDZE?si=XvBYokH_iYUp_r3R

   Well, Jimmy Carter tried to level with the populace, and look what it got him. “Why didn’t they tell us!” Maybe, because you (not you, those other people) didn’t want to listen. Just put your fingers in your ears and go, “La, La, La.”

   “Grapes of Wrath.” Mentioned twice in the Big B Book. Isaiah, 63.3 (Old Testament) and Revelations, 14.19-20. (New Testament.) Also, a line in the song, “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” A stirring, marching song, sung by the Union troops, during our Civil War. I finished the Great Courses, “Ordinary Americans in the Revolution.” The professor was quit good at giving the lectures. Prof. Richard Bell, a Brit, from the University of Maryland. He was of the opinion that the Revolution was our first civil war.

   I thought you’d be on top of the fuel stabilizer. The things you learn along the way. Like paying attention to the very small print, in the lawn mower manual, advising against using petrol with corn ethanol. I suppose they sell more lawnmowers to those who missed that bit of advise.

   Thanks for the explanation of the outbuilding line up. Looks like an ideal place to play hide-and-seek. 🙂 Materials storage area. Isn’t that the part we never see?

   I forgot to mention that before Easter, I saw some 2 oz, Lindt, milk chocolate bunnies at the Yuppie Discount store for less than $3 per. The way I’m rationing the bars, one will last me about 15 days. Yesterday was a chocolate day. The next two days will be walnut days.

   I also hope the book on accents will not be an academic prose slog. The interview with the author seemed pretty straight forward.

   We did make a high of 70F (21.11C), yesterday. The overnight low was 41F (5C). Our forecast high for today is 72F.

   I got quit a chunk of the strawberry bed, weeded. I temporarily covered it with bird netting, to keep the deer off. Eventually, I think I’ll protect it with a frame of PVC pipe and netting. As I will my long bed.

   My asparagus is beginning to come up! Just tiny, hairlike stems, just a couple of inches high.

   The Master Gardeners were here, this morning. I tipped them off to the nesting birds (there may be another pair, in a nearby rose bush), the deer and bunny.

   I’m going to plant my Ozette potatoes, this week, and asked if there was anything else I might add to the soil. Bone meal. An article I saw on the net, particular to those potatoes mentioned a bit of lime.

   One of the Master Gardeners makes me a little … crazy. She feels asparagus and potatoes are east of the mountain crops, and aren’t worth the time, on this side of the mountains. I pointed out that the Ozatte potatoes, have been happily growing at Neah Bay, out on the coast for over 200 years. Didn’t seem to cut much ice, with her.

   I finished “1177 B.C.” “…the failure of a minor element started a chain reaction that reverberated on a greater and greater scale, until finally the whole structure was brought to collapse.” The more complex a system is, the more fragile is is. We live in a pretty complex global world. Gives one pause.

   Things were pretty quiet, at the Club yesterday. No crazies, in evidence. Just a seemingly endless stream of small children, buying candies from the counter. The agonizing over choice. The calculation and recalculation of money available, vs the desire for ever more elevated sugar highs. It was all rather tiring. Lew
4. 

   April 7, 2026

   Pam

   Hi, Chris!

   Okay. I’m not panicking. Well, if the brain wasn’t behind the couch, where was it? Are you sure that it has been found at all? Ah, I see further not, you are not sure. Should you be building a firewood shed without a brain? You’re not weird and twitchy, I had those vibes, too. Thus, besides all my extra food plantings, I have been stocking up, even more than I usually do, on the staples. And the nice things to have on hand to make the staples more appetizing. One can only store so much petrol, though. And then there is water. You have put yourself in a better position with that than most people (if you get rain . . .).

   There is indeed a lot to like about your “proper plan”.

   Let’s face it – 97% power is what I consider excellent. It’s way better than the amount of electricity that our power company provided the first 20 years we lived here. There were constant power outages due to trees on lines. I would say that there were at least 4 weeks per year that we did not have power. That wasn’t all at once, but sometimes it would be out for a week at a time. So you are doing really well with your set-up.

   What a gorgeous building! May I cry because I don’t have one? Maybe someday.My goodness, there are all these extra things to be accomplished, like the conduit and the pipes. What did you use to dig the pipe trench? “However, there’s a plan,”. Oh my goodness – how I laughed at that! And “And! I told y’all that it’s been an unusually busy week.”

   No-one does neat like Fernglade Farm.

   Thank you for the beautiful flowers. I had forgotten that I am supposed to plant salvia seeds.

   From last week:

   We had a dog Ollie’s size named Rex. He was a Husky/Labrador mix and weighed 92 pounds (42 kg). He lived to be 14, so don’t you start worrying about Ollie. I also remembered that my parents had a cat that lived to be 25, I kid you not. It was an indoor cat, never ever went outside. You would think that would shorten its life, wouldn’t you?

   Hey, push-ups are not stretching, they are pain incarnate.

   I have reset my 9 lives, like an odometer in an old car. Is that allowed (in either case)? Anyway, you have to at a certain point as you have collected too many miles. Buyer beware!

   Our George Bernard Shaw quote for this week is:

   “I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.”

   Pam
5. 

   April 7, 2026

   Chris at Fernglade Farm

   Hi Pam,

   Glad to hear, and I ain’t panicking yet either, maybe. 🙂 That’s a fine question regarding the location of the lost brain, and the whole story is all very complicated, and definitely beyond my understanding. And hey, I heard from a third party, that it could have something to do with dark matter, maybe. Although if you do find the thing, it could be put to some good use here.

   Pam, that’s another good question about the missing brain and shed building all at the same time. It’s occurring, somehow. At a furious rate too. The weather was awful here today, and so I spent all day indoors doing paid work, and it is nice to have some flexibility in that regard. The forecast for tomorrow is looking promising, with some early fog then sun, and once the moisture is dried off the roof, the plan is to install the fourteen solar panels. But if it’s wet… The fast pace of the project is very much dictated by the weather, and we are heading towards winter. It is unwise to work on a slippery steel roof. Winter here can be 99% humidity for months on end.

   Oh, by the way, burn off restrictions were lifted early this morning. There must have been some pent up demand because I spotted the smoke from about five fires today.

   Hmm, those weird twitchy proddings are worth listening too, yup, and glad that you likewise take heed of them. All very good thoughts and actions, respect! And the water system does sort of look after itself, so long as it rains.

   In the big smoke here, the grid has something crazy like 99.9% uptime, and it is so good, that people don’t value it. They don’t know what the experience can be, like say what you and I living in a rural area would get to live with. Hmm. All very different isn’t it? And a week without grid electricity once occurred here, about maybe five years ago after a monster east coast low storm, and it was not pretty. So your experience would have been the whole next level. Presumably you had your generator, but those little machines chew a lot of fuel which you’d have noticed?

   Long ago we travelled to Nepal, and there was a sign in the hotel lobby (an old English Victorian era hotel with a delightful garden for meals) saying that the power would be disconnected at stated times during the week. Being naive at the time, I’d not quite understood why that would be. It’s an option.

   Actually, I was reading in the news that people are piling into electric cars (new and used) since you-know-what, thinking to avoid the ever escalating fuel prices. It’s only just dawning on the electricity suppliers what a huge drain it will be having all those extra batteries sucking energy from the grid, at peak times no less.

   Of course you may cry, feel free, and sometimes the utility of that new shed takes my breath away. You’re in good company, and wishing you such a shed for the future. Yup, maybe someday. I used an electric jackhammer with clay spade to break up the hard clay for the trench, and then hand dug the channel with a mattock. Produces a neat trench.

   Thanks! The language is super fun to use! And I talk like that too from time to time, depending on whom I am with.

   Yes, go the Salvia plants, especially the most useful Salvia officinalis.

   Rex and Ollie would be about the same size and weight, and that’s great news to hear. I’d been expecting that he’d get to 12 at best, and Dame Plum who adores the big dog will be shattered on that day, as will the rest of us. Those two Kelpies stupidly chased a large kangaroo to the forest edge today. Ollie and I had already only just done a wildlife check, but no, the roos, hopped in to the orchards early.

   25 years for a cat is an astounding innings, and well, cats do get up to mischief when in the wilds. And I’d have thought that would be the case too, but clearly not.

   🙂 Ha! One must challenge their joints and muscles, sorry to say, and if there was another way… It’s meant to burn! Thanks for the laughs. But, if you feel so inclined, do build up slowly.

   I like your style, and hadn’t considered hitting the reset button. Nice one. You’ve given me much to think about, and the possibilities are good with that strategy. And yes, haven’t we all?

   Thanks for the fun quote, the gentleman would make for a fun and entertaining dinner guest.

   Cheers

   Chris
6. 

   April 7, 2026

   Chris at Fernglade Farm

   Hi Lewis,

   How good is the name Scotchguard? Tells a story doesn’t it? And years ago that used to be an option with new fabric furniture, but you can actually buy the treatment in spray cans nowadays and apply it at home. Smells very chemically to my nose, but soon dissipates. All of the fabric couches have gotten that treatment initially, and it does make clean-ups easier, although for couches the dogs are allowed up onto, we also cover them with a sheet, which gets regularly washed. They’re not allowed onto the other furniture and are respectful of that limit.

   I dunno about the plastic covers on furniture, and have seen them used in some homes. To be honest, and I don’t know about your opinion in this regard, but it looked and felt uninviting. And often, I judged that the furniture just wasn’t good enough to go to the effort of covering it in clear plastic. The whole thing just seemed weird to me.

   But then, I’ve often wondered if such covers, disguise an inability to know how to clean and maintain common household items. It is a real skill to be able to clean and restore leather, or say know how to wash a rug or carpet. Did you ever come across furniture in your tat dealing days which simply needed a bit of care and attention?

   Oooo, I see what you mean about zombies oozing, although the curious mind wonders whether they’d eventually run out of ooze? Maybe I’m over thinking this issue? 😉

   Agreed, the courageous gentleman was lambasted for attempting to ask the population to accept less. You’re right, most folks stared him down in disbelief, and look where it’s gotten us today! A sadly lost opportunity to do something different.

   Ha! Mr Steinbeck was clearly unafraid of using a well worn line for a title. I can respect that, those things not being subject to copyright, and also sometimes the best ideas are other peoples. 😉 Actually, there’s some truth to that observation of the professors and the population did in fact rise up at that early time. It’s funny the difference in cultures, but that outcome just wouldn’t be the case down here.

   Ethanol doesn’t seem to be a big issue in vehicles, but for small engines with carburettors, I’d not recommend using the stuff. It actually produces a sort of sticky gum which can be an issue. Funny we’re discussing such matters, but I have to replace a fuel line in my biggerest chainsaw and it’s got a weird arrangement which I can’t find any instructions as to how to do it. So I’ve been cogitating on the matter for a bit, and realised it’s an updated version of a much older saw. Turns out people had to work out the same problem with the older saw, and bam, found an instruction as to how to do this pesky task. That’s a relief. In fact, the parts are so old, the guy had to do a nice work around, which I’d not considered. It’s amazing what is out there on the interweb sometimes.

   Of course, standards must be maintained so the photos won’t be released, and can you imagine the horror if the neighbours were to observe the slightest of messes. My reputation would be totally shot! Nope, ain’t gonna happen on my watch. It’s all super neat, maybe…

   That’s great news about the quality chocolate becoming cheaper. Turns out that some products aren’t inelastic as the economists may suggest. Actually fuel prices being so high, have anecdotally reduced the number of vehicles on the road. Some folks are attempting to gain an edge with electric vehicles: Australia’s EV sales surge in March amid growing fuel security fears, rising petrol prices . The additional strain on electricity grid will be profound the nearer we get to the winter solstice. With heaps on installed solar in the country, it won’t be the summer where there are problems. It’s almost bizarre to me to observe the dramas I had with this renewable energy technology playing out in the wider community as this stuff gets greater usage. They could have simply asked me how it would work, but then, err, it’s that less again isn’t it?

   The weather here was very sub fluffy optimal today, and I was going to begin installing the fourteen solar panels onto the shed roof, but wet steel roofs can be slippery. So, did a day of paid work instead, and we’ll see what the weather holds in store for tomorrow.

   Go the chocolate day! And that’s Monday here. 🙂 Small treats are the best.

   It’s now getting slightly warmer in your part of the world than down here, as to be expected. 59’F tomorrow, but supposedly dry – if you ignore the early fog. Then Thursday will be back to 70’F again.

   Good stuff with the weeding! Once the UV kicks into ‘High’ ratings, the weeds grow pretty fast. I reckon for about three weeks of every year, they outpace our best efforts, and the chickens don’t want to see any more of the plants. The netting is a good idea to keep off the deer, and hopefully there are easier gardens for their grazing. I’ve tried the PVC pipe with netting, but it depends on what variety of the stuff you use – I’d see what other folks in your area are doing. In super hot weather (well over 104’F) I found that the pipe flopped, but I probably should have used thicker plastic.

   Go the asparagus! And you may be able to harvest some spears this season. It’s their second year (from memory) isn’t it? Different crowns produce thicker or thinner spears from what I’ve noticed. If they’re too thin, it’s possible (at a guess) that the root systems need more stored energy, but it depends upon what sex the plants are.

   Hope the master gardeners are relaxed about bird life within the gardens?

   You know, people can get a bit weird about lime and potatoes, but the soils here are on the acidic side, and I’ve always added in lime to the soil stuff fed to the potato rows. Although official advice is not to do it. They might be wrong though, or speaking about an area which already has plenty of lime in the soils? Dunno and hard to know. That one is a mystery to me, but go thee forth and experiment is my thinking. I’ve got a funny belief that a bit of lime marginally lowers the risk of fungal diseases which might be a good thing with the tubers, and have put that to the test a time or two. Bone meal is good stuff. 🙂 Hope your Ozette potatoes do well.

   It’s a common affliction, and some people make me crazy too. 🙂 What do you do? It’s not our place to change such fixed minds, and maybe even if you get a good crop, I’m guessing that the success probably won’t make any difference. Serious people used to suggest that growing citrus in this mountain range was not worth the effort too, and they were wrong.

   Such historical accounts give me pause for thought as well. We live in very uncertain times, and the future recently became quite cloudy to me. At this stage I’ve no idea what’s around the corner, but my gut feeling says that we’re not going back to where we only once were at. Yup, fragile indeed.

   Oh, there was an article about a cyclist who became stranded when attempting to cross a swollen river up in the north east of the state. Had to be airlifted apparently. That’s a new one.

   Your timing was clearly good to have dodged the crazy element. Ha! That’s Easter for you with the kids and candy. I’m sure they had fun, and ours is but to endure. 😉

   I was thinking about watching the old Ghostbusters film tonight in a rare movie treat.

   Far out, I hope tomorrow is drier and I can get up on the roof of the shed. Winter is fast approaching.

   Cheers

   Chris
7. 

   April 8, 2026

   DJSpo

   Chris,

   Wow. The house next door sold. New neighbors are moving in. 6 years vacant. The newbies are a young couple, both of whom have university degrees but decided to chuck their jobs and enter the trades. He is an electrician; she is a plumber. They seem to have their heads on about climate change, less water, growing food, grass is dumb in this climate, etc.

   Meanwhile, we hit 23C Monday. Windy and cooler today, maybe gonna be 15C. Then warm back up. Oh, and “normal” is about 14C. Whatever that is.

   Don’t Panic. Always a good idea. Sad, though, when that is all the alleged leaders have to say. Most of us already live at an advanced level of “Don’t Panic!” on a routine basis. 😉

   I’ve heard about people losing the sense of adventure. Often it is found in a sealed box at the back of a closet with a bunch of stuff piled atop the box. But hiding a brain perhaps behind the sofa? Not a good idea. The dust bunnies would have a feast then.

   I note, however, that you’re not quite certain if that’s where your brain disappeared to. Or if it even disappeared. Seems to me that your brain has entered the Zone of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty. I understand that Waldo is often at that same location. Thus, Where’s Waldo? Probably with your brain, unmatched socks and disappeared ball point pens.

   I’ve been getting nasty vibes for several months. They are getting intense. The Princess feels something also. You’re not alone. What to do? What we’ve been doing, as most of us here do things somewhat differently. Be human. To summarize a John Trudell quote: “I am but a human being trying to find his way in a world in which being human is increasingly difficult.” And protect your spirit.

   Ohhh, I get it. You were doing your stretching routine, which can be somewhat meditative. You chose to listen to Great Leader as the meditative part of what you were doing. That is NOT multitasking. 😉

   Energy and water. Data centers that require massive amounts of energy and suck up untold quantities of water are sprouting up all over the deserts and semi-arid parts of this state. As New Neighbor said yesterday, “Data centers have more rights to electricity and water than people do.”

   Oh good! More solar panels for Chris. More solar collection even in the winter. So, say, 12% more energy collection? Great stuff! Oh wait. When there is zero solar radiation, 12% multiplied by zero is a zero increase. Well, Fibonacci! But the new panels will help on the low radiation days, of course.

   Ah remember, we are in the midst of a gigantic predicament. Governments might be able to solve problems, maybe. They are ill equipped to deal with even the smallest of predicaments. And with the current Gordian Knot of a predicament? Ha! Did I mention to act like a human being and guard your spirit?

   Your new shed looks great! Good timing for getting wood inside it. That cladding and the edge work is fantastic. And nobody named Chris slid off the roof during construction.

   That’s a nice ditch for the new drainage pipe. I see that all 3 Fluffies are near the ditch. Did they dig the ditch for you, perchance? 🙂

   Meanwhile, a nearby neighbor was digging near the foundation of her house yesterday. When Dame Avalanche and I walked by, I quipped that it would take forever to dig up that house with that shovel. Not missing a beat, the reply came, “I’m stubborn and committed to the project!” Just then, her husband drove up pulling a trailer. I saw today that the gravel they laid where she had been digging looks very good.

   Dude! The Shadow appeared again in one of your photos! “Where’s my firewood? The Shadow knows.”

   Alas! The pickling I’ve done, cucumbers and various other veggies, well, ummm, without the strict canning process with heat etal, they will last a fortnight to perhaps a month when refrigerated. Adding more salt than you are likely comfortable with may explain the additional fortnight. Killian’s human has had the same experience.

   DJSpo
8. 

   April 8, 2026

   Pam

   Chris:

   No, we did not have a generator those first 20 years of outages; I am not sure why. We do have one now and it makes all the difference – even though it’s a small generator – in the world. Before that we just lived like our pioneer ancestors, sort of. Good training, though, for our sons also.

   Lord help us – buying electric cars to avoid high petrol prices. that’s the first absurdity. The second is – the power companies are just now noticing that electric cars mean a bigger drain on the power supply? And what about AI?

   A very neat trench, but that wasn’t easy.

   I decided that I would try some push-ups since they are good for Chris. Ouch. Then I remembered (whew) that I am not allowed because of my shoulder. Too bad, so sad.

   The CAT has – you’ll never guess: O ring trouble. Luckily a supply of new O rings (thanks to Chris’ example and a mother’s strong suggestion) had already been acquired well ahead of time.

   The fall kale, spinach, cilantro, and cabbages have all bolted. We’ve had so much heat over the last 2 months. I have dried the cilantro. I guess I’ll dry the kale like last year, I can freeze the spinach if I really want to. The cabbages are the saddest. I had big plans for those. Now all I can think of is making sauerkraut (already started that) or a kimchi-like food with some other things like last fall’s ancient daikons that were overwintered in the fridge.

   My son is now paying $100 more each time he fills up cans and brings home 40 gallons of diesel for his farm equipment. He is kicking himself a bit in the pants for not buying a tank before prices started going up.

   Almost forgot. I am now reading The Creaky Traveler in the North West Highlands of Scotland. Your ancestors were mentioned, in the area of Gairloch and Loch Ewe:

   “Viking rule ended in 1263, when Clan MacLeod won control of the area. Violent clashes followed between the MacLeods and the rival clan MacKenzie for the vast region. Then, in 1494, as a reward for battles fought and won for King James IV, the king by Royal Charter granted Hector Roy Mackenzie the lands of Gairloch and the title of First Chief.”

   We don’t know what happened to those MacLeods after that, but it probably wasn’t good. We see what pandering to royalty can get one.

   Pam
9. 

   April 8, 2026

   Lew

   Yo, Chris – Good work hunting down the answer to the chainsaw dilemma. We’ll make a reference librarian of you, yet. 🙂 What will we do without the internet, Font of All Wisdom? There’s some wild talk about putting data centers in space. I didn’t pay much attention to the article. But something about free power (solar, I presume), but that “other costs” (unspecified) would be high.

   Yes, what happens to zombies, when they can obtain no more sustenance? There were the “Boneys” from the book and movie “Warm Bodies.” They had dwindled to piles of ravenous bones.

   Here’s a bit about plastic furniture slip covers. In popular culture, they were sort of made fun of. As signifiers of low status and culture.

   https://livinginthepast.substack.com?utm_source=navbar&utm_medium=web

   There’s been a few articles, here, about a jump in EV sales. Mostly saying, not as much as expected. Here’s an article, similar to the one you linked to, last week, about tourist towns doing it rough.

   https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/06/business/mono-county-gas-california

   Yes, what is going to happen to those small places, that are out of the way? Places that were “destination” towns, for one reason or another. There’s a saying, that’s been around for a long time. “The town just dried up and blew away.” I spent a bit of time, down the rabbit hole, looking for the origin of that saying. It’s an idiom, which, as far as origins go, are a lot more slippery, than a direct quote.

   Our high yesterday was 75F (23.88C). Our overnight low was 39F (3.88C). Our forecast high for today is 59F. The weather service has issued a “frost advisory” for most of the valleys, in western Washington and Oregon. Including us. We’ll see.

   I’d say my asparagus is first year. Mostly. 🙂 Last year, I tried planting root, and only got one spear. So, I planted seed, and that’s what came up. So I’d say, this is mostly a first year crop?

   The Master Gardeners have an appreciation for the birds. No worries, there.

   As far as the stranded cyclist goes, well, some of them seem rather full of themselves. 🙂

   Next up, H gets a bath. After I fortify myself with a bit of lunch. A trip to Costco, tonight? Well, that’s the plan. We should get a food box, tomorrow. Lew
10. 

    April 8, 2026

    Chris at Fernglade Farm

    Hi Pam,

    It is good experience to do without, and the little generators are very handy machines, but my goodness they can chew through the fuel. I only use a small generator too, the bigger ones are a biggerer headache with much more to go wrong. We’ve all got advantages that our ancestors could only dream about too! A nice condition to be in really. 🙂

    Yup, swapping one problem for another is how electric powered vehicles look like to me. The thing is, it would be good if they could be charged during the middle of the day when there is excess electricity derived from the sun, the problem is that real world experience suggests that people charge them at night – during peak costs due to lower supply. And that’s a good question about the arty-fish-al server farms. Makes me wonder if the grid demand surpasses supply, who misses out? We might get to find out, and they use a lot of gas to produce electricity down under, especially during winter.

    A friend told me a few years ago that I dig trenches faster than anyone he’d encountered. A lovely compliment to hear, and he was helping me out with some of the solar power wiring that day.

    Speaking of such things! Ta da! All fourteen solar panels were installed on the roof, and I even connected up twelve of them with wires to a steel distribution box. The remaining two are for a different tiny 12V off grid system, and that wiring still needs to be done. The weather forecast looks feral for tomorrow, and we’ll see if I can even finish off the work, but at least I no longer have to clamber around the roof – which I spent most of the day doing. Me tired, but pleased. 🙂

    Hehe! Well done for even considering the push ups, and truth to tell, it was that exercise which helped the most with my shoulder as it built strength in the ligaments and joint, but I had to start very slowly. And admittedly, when I first began, about three whilst keeping my knees on the ground was the best I could manage. It was quite the shock, and glad that Sensei has now passed on, but I did hear some ethereal judgement from the beyond in those days. He had a strong will. His day job was a sports physio, so he had opinions on warm ups and cool downs, and when in an unsettled frame of mind, or not, he’d demand 100 push ups, and then some. I heard that when he was a younger bloke, he demanded even more from his students… Yikes!

    Seems to be the case with the o-ring issues, and hope that the folks hurtling around the moon in a little tin can don’t experience the down sides of a faulty o-ring. And well done for having consumable items ready to hand. Respect to you for the timely suggestion. 🙂

    How anyone can get a cabbage to form a nice head, is beyond me! So I hear you about that, and thus why I prefer to grow kale. It’s just easier. Hope the daikons are OK? They might rehydrate just fine, maybe?

    Oh well, missing an opportunity is a good lesson for your son to be more aware of the societal-seas which he navigates in in the future. People are just now waking up to the dark side of their earlier choices: Cost of filling up Australia’s best-selling car increases by $100 since start of Iran war

    Ah, back in those days Story Tellers were a local event, and their value was weighed by the local village, or notables. The scenery of Gairloch and Loch Ewe calls to my heart, and yet I now enjoy the company of more dense forests, temperate mountains and warmer climes. I know, awful isn’t it?

    The canny ancestors moved both west and north, but in each direction lay less fertility. Still, the castle of: Dunvegan is quite impressive although located in an adverse climate.

    Exactly, beware of the airs of those whom favours are requested of. My lot landed in Warrnambool in the 1850’s, probably for good reasons.

    No doubts your ancestors have similarly intriguing stories as to why they up-sticks and moved to the US?

    Cheers

    Chris
11. 

    April 8, 2026

    Chris at Fernglade Farm

    Hi DJ,

    Respect to the new younger neighbours, and I’d likewise try my hand at either electrician or mechanic, if I had my time all over again. Student debt is a serious problem, and it’s possibly one to which folks can’t recover from. I’m sorry to say it, but the return on investment from the three to four years of study, plus huge costs, just doesn’t produce a greater income these days. The University sector down here appears as if it is slowly contracting too. It was true in the 1990’s that employment doors would open, but regular over supply of graduates trashed any advantage there was to be had. They blew it and focused on quantity, rather than quality.

    23’C on Monday sounds pretty nice to me, and it was around 15’C here today, so same, same. Actually at least it was a dry day despite lots of dew on everything this morning. Had to wait until about 11:30am for things to dry out so I could install fourteen solar panels on the roof of the new shed. I’m racing against time to get the roof work done, due to the very humid winters which can make climbing around a rood a slippery exercise. But today, that part of the work got completed and 12 of the panels were wired up to a distribution box. Finished as the sun was setting… A long, but fruitful day.

    Ha! You’re right, we do all try our best not to panic, but leaders aren’t meant to say such things… Are they?

    Yup, the sense of adventure to head out into the wilds is rare in a civilisation concerned with safety – and dust bunnies. I hear you. If I may suggest, there is an element of generational aspect to that outcome, and well, self reliance is not taught, is it? I mean, man, I was a latch key kid who held down several paid jobs, whilst managing my studies, sports, friends etc. I rarely interacted with my parents, one of whom wasn’t even in the house and completely unavailable. Is this the case nowadays? And what do people learn by being helicoptered? And there is the backlash for not doing so. It’s a problem.

    The brain problem is a biggie too, and hey, if it’s gone, how would a person even notice? And yeah talk about the uncertainty principle… 🙂 Fun stuff to consider!

    Things have changed, and the Editor is likewise getting bad vibes too. My best guess is that the world is devolving into trading blocs. What to do indeed? Carry On, used to be good advice, for none of us have any impact upon the future direction. But one useful strategy is to not want too much stuff from the system which provides the same with entry leverage, but I may be biased in that regard. Exactly, protect your spirit – a fine point which many forget to do.

    Thanks, and I hadn’t thought of your explanation, but it’s great cover, and I’ll use it for sure. 😉 My natural disposition is to do one task at a time, and over the years the Editor (who has a mercurial mind) has had to adapt to err, not communicating ideas when I’m on the roof lifting heavy solar panels which could be dropped… It took a while to get to that point many long years ago when building the house, and I once fell off a ladder… Uninjured too, so martial arts training has some advantages. Everyone brings different things to the table, but timing is an essential art form to perhaps learn. 🙂

    Yup! I hear such conversations as well. People know. The solar dude mumbled something about: ‘dig it, and ship it’, with the emotional addition of a touch of scorn to the conversation.

    Your advanced maths fails me, but I acknowledge that you have the greater skills in that area. There are 36 panels installed, plus these extra 12 panels, so I don’t get the 12% number, but could be incorrect. But as you correctly note, 12% of nothing, is still nothing any which way you can look at it. To be honest, my back of the envelope calculations suggest that to get 100% up time, I’d have had to double the number of panels – and that would be a serious problem in summer. Very high currents melt cables…

    Agreed, predicaments are unsolvable by their very nature. However, that does not imply that there won’t be an outcome when faced with a predicament. At such moments I tend to cogitate upon alternatives, and pick the least worst outcome – which may be where we are at today with current events. Oh yeah, drill count in your country, has been going down.

    Thanks! And I’m well pleased with the new shed which stores firewood and garden tools, separates out the kindling, captures electricity from the sun, and rainwater from the clouds. Built stuff can multi-task… 😉

    Ruby is the dog who enjoys digging, but trying to channel that energy is difficult. Maybe I need to drag a dead rabbit across the soil of an area I want dug? It’s an idea.

    Very good, and the lady’s know how to wield tools too, and everyone gives where their skills direct them.

    Yeah, that’s what we’re sort of discovering. What’s the point of pickling cucumbers for the winter, if they only last a month in the refrigerator – but that result is very common. Hmm. More work needs to go into this task, but a bit tired and need to finish the shed project first.

    Cheers

    Chris
12. 

    April 8, 2026

    Chris at Fernglade Farm

    Hi Lewis,

    🙂 Thank you for the high praise. When I was studying, a person actually had to get off their duff and head into the library to do research. Libraries are an analogue internet. Hey, remember the microfiche newspapers and indexes? It all worked just fine, and taught a person a sense of self reliance, which is probably not what you get when the first option is to ask gargle.

    It’s funny too, the arty-fish-al first gargle list provided by a search produced an incorrect result too. I tend to prefer reviewing the source for research, and that proved worth the effort this morning, and the disparity was not pretty. Made me wonder how many people rely on the incorrect search result outcome?

    I can’t imagine that it’d be cheap to place a data centre in low earth orbit, and far out, imagine if some of the parts needed replacing? That’s a big hourly rate right there. On the other hand, it makes for an interesting story.

    Oh yeah, the boneys from the Warm Bodies film, even the zombies hated them. A very fun film. As was the half of Ghostbusters I watched last night. Actually, it held up pretty well, although I doubt the kids these days would recall Casey Kasem… A funny side story with that countdown, in those days they played a lot of local music, and the countdown used to sound alien to me. What is this music? As perhaps you’d have said the same about the local music scene down here.

    What a fun interweb site! Brings back some memories for sure, and asks the hard questions, like: “I Thought the Acme Company Was Real”. That’s some good humour.

    The electric golf cart was a clever idea, although the authoritas down here would have a pink fit because the thing ain’t road registered, so they’ve got no way to charge a person. But dude, I don’t drive 120 miles anywhere, like the lady in that article claimed to be doing. But exactly too, it requires an expenditure of lots of diesel fuel, to haul the same fuel. Those prices look eerily similar, but hey, down here is the bottom of the planet, and that is what isolation costs. If I may add, I don’t see how a carbon tax can restore the atmosphere to some sort of equilibrium, but maybe I’m cynical about such cash grabs. Using less would do it. The conclusion of the article was good: Fuel is not an inelastic product, and demand destruction will ensue.

    That’s a decent idiom about the town drying up and blowing away. It’s not like that didn’t happen up here in the late nineteenth century, then again after WWII. Hmm. Always wise to know something of the history of an area.

    And if I may add, imports aren’t cheap alternatives, if there are none to be had.

    Yikes! Hope your area avoids any frosty mornings this far into spring. The weather forecast sounds feral for here tomorrow, but we’ll see how that plays out. Hopefully the morning remains fairly dry.

    I forget such details with your asparagus, but that makes sense, and I’d leave the plant to do its thing this year having heard that.

    One of the new and unusual things I’m seeing with bicyclists pitting their might against the mountain at the more fashionable end of the range, is that they’ll stop on the road and begin mucking around with their phones. A very dangerous activity given how old some of the residents are over there. I had an elderly lady in a Toyota Landcruiser swerve at me the other day. I thought she was going to wipe out the Suzuki Dirt Rat Jimny and crush me to death, but no, she continued wobbling on up the road. I still can’t laugh about that.

    Have you got a Costco in your area? Those things are massive, although I’ve not set foot in one. And hope H was well behaved for her bathing experience?

    Cheers

    Chris
13. 

    April 9, 2026

    Lew

    Yo, Chris – I fell down the rabbit hole, over Dunvegan Castle. I figure that’s where they invented veganism 🙂 . I especially got caught up in the Wiki-poopie link about the “fairy flag.” Looks like your mob has had a long acquaintance with the fairy folk. Must be some way to leverage that. Although from reports, they can be quit unpredictable.

    You pretty much plumbed your place, so you might find this article about plumbing, and economics, interesting. 🙂 By the way, the book mentioned in the first paragraph is on order, at my library. And, on my hold list.

    https://www.npr.org/sections/planet-money/2026/04/07/g-s1-116575/how-bill-phillips-used-flowing-water-to-model-the-economy

    Microfiche and microfilm. The Centralia Library used to have a microfilm reader, with all the back copies of the local newspaper, on film. I wonder if it’s still there, or what happened to it? They have a garage there, that used to park bookmobiles. Now it’s just used for storage. It may be languishing, there. Or, who knows what happened to it. A lot of the bookstores I worked in used to get weekly microfiche updates, on what the different wholesalers had in stock.

    Sources of research are getting pretty wonky, these days, due to A I . I’ve seen articles where cooking and recipe sites, and some gardening sites, are completely artificial constructs. With bogus information. And, they’re hard to spot unless you do a little … research. If the supposed “person” sponsoring the site, has no internet presence, other than websites, that’s a good tip off. Other websites on numerous subjects.

    I think “Warm Bodies” is kind of a classic. I rewatched it, not long ago, and it’s still sort of charming. As is the original “Ghostbusters,” which I also rewatched, sometime in the last year.

    Oh, I remember Casey Kasem. But somehow, his countdowns didn’t appeal, to me. Don’t remember or know why. We had a lot of local countdowns, that were a lot more interesting.

    Our high yesterday was 61F (16.11C). Our overnight low was 36F (2.22C). Well above freezing. I didn’t see any frost. Our forecast high for today is 63F. I saw another article about a predicted “Super El Niño,” for this year.

    https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/07/weather/super-el-nino-extreme-weather-climate-disaster

    Maybe the elderly lady in the Land-cruiser was what they used to politely call, “In her cups.” But, yes, a narrow miss like that does leave one shaken, for quit awhile.

    Aargh! I meant to say Winco. We do have a Costco, up in Olympia. I tagged along with someone who had a membership, years ago. They are pretty impressive, if you buy in bulk. I think the Club gets some of the stuff they sell at the counter, there.

    But, anyway … Yes, H got her bath. She behaved herself, admirably. As I was washing her, it occurred to me, that no matter how much I irritate her, she has never, once, snapped at me.

    So, then it was off to Winco. I spent less, than I thought I would, even though I was stocking up on some things. Sugar (both white and brown), salt. Tea. Walnuts and dried prunes. I hit frozen vegetables, pretty hard.

    I can’t say I noticed many prices that seemed “up”, to me. Although the “good” Mac & cheese is pushing $4 for a box. Although I add so much veg, I get two meals out of it. I thought maybe soups, stews and tinned beans (baked and chili) were up.
    What I’m really watching is tinned tuna. For the longest time, both Winco and the Yuppie Discount store have had a good brand, at less than $1 a tin. I don’t expect that to last. It takes a lot of diesel to run those boats. I wanted to get some honey, but couldn’t find any that wasn’t in a plastic bottle. I’ll have to look around for local, in glass jars.

    Speaking of honey, I saw an article about bees and the government research station. Try and ignore the politics. There’s a lot of other interesting information.

    https://www.kcur.org/environment-agriculture/2026-04-06/usda-bee-lab-closing?utm_source=npr.org&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=national_highlight&utm_content=homepage

    I think it’s going to be a popcorn night. I have three possibilities, but I think it’s going to be “Greenland 2: Migration.” I need to hit the library, later. Pick up a few things. Books. Then down to the Club, and, I may go to the pet store. Dawg’s birthday is on Saturday, and I might see if there’s anything “special” I can get her. We should get a food box, today. Lew
14. 

    April 9, 2026

    Pam

    Chris:

    I believe your friend about how fast you dig trenches. They appear, completely done, so suddenly. That roof work looks like the hardest to me; it’s so precarious. And you have to get heavy stuff up there in the first place. I wonder what those solar panels weigh?

    I didn’t realize your Sensei was a sports physio as well. I do think, though, that 100 push ups might be a little extreme.

    Daikons – maybe.

    What I would like to know is how many Americans own diesel vehicles compared with regular petrol vehicles. I had assumed it was a fairly small number, but if so many do in Australia, maybe they do here. Diesel has been more expensive than gas here for quite awhile. I’m pretty sure of that.

    That’s one very impressive castle. Skye has always seemed a rather magical island to me. In more ancestral news in The Creaky Traveler in the North West Highlands of Scotland, we find the MacLeods selling land to the British Fisheries Society to build a village (which became Ullapool) for a fishing venture involving herring. The fishermen would rent the crofts, with just enough acre for home use, not enough to raise anything to sell.

    “Moving quickly, in 1787 the Society purchased a thousand acres of land from Lord MacLeod, including 57 arable acres that had been farmed and seventy-four acres suitable only for pasture. In June the sloop Gilmerton arrived with 8,000 bricks and 1,967 pieces of timber and other goods, etc.”

    It appears Lord MacLeod got the better part of the deal as the herring eventually left the area, at the same time the world market for herring diminished, and the venture collapsed.

    Warrnampool looks to be a pretty nice place. How interesting that you are not so very far from there still.

    I can’t think of any stories of why my ancestors left there homelands. For some reason, no-one on either side ever talked about it. Maybe it wasn’t for mixed company.

    Those refrigerator pickles that you made? You can bottle (can) them like other stuff. That’s what I do.

    Pam
15. 

    April 9, 2026

    DJSpo

    Chris,

    Climbing on roofs in the winter is rarely a good idea. I’ve had to do so maybe once. Not one of my favorite events. Had to move some snow off a roof before the roof had a serious issue due to the snow’s weight. Twas before I had a roof rake to do that safely from the ground. No slipping or sliding or falling occurred, but it still wasn’t fun.

    Once upon a year the alleged leaders tried to say useful sounding things during hard times. Today’s lot seem to have given up on that and revert into saying “Don’t Panic”, although maybe not quite so clearly. I’d rather see the words written in bold, friendly letters on the cover of a book. 😉

    Today’s helicoptering seems strange to me. I DO know that I had a lot more freedom to run around and play and invent games and explore. We had some well-defined limits that were adhered to. We grew up using our imaginations, never expecting every waking moment to be pre-programmed for us.

    I know how to tell if you’ve misplaced your brain. The zombies skip over you and terrify everybody else.

    Hmmmm, Dunvegan? Sounds to me like that’s where somebody began to eat meat. On the east coast of Sutherland was Dunrobin Castle. That’s where reformed thieves went when they gave up robbing for Lent.

    Yes, you’ve got the gist of my version of “carry on”. do more on your own, rely less on the current system. Moving more into that direction is a way to “carry on”.

    Good job, building a house, falling off a ladder, landing uninjured. Leaning how to fall properly is one of the first things I was taught in martial arts. I must say, however, that “and I once fell off a ladder” is almost lyric.

    Oh, that 12% number? I pulled it out of the air for the sake of discussion. You caught my point – x% of nothing is nothing. I also knew that you would have some idea of how many additional panels you would need, as well as the downside come peak solar season.

    More solar panels,
    and more and more and more.
    Too much current,
    the wires get hot:
    I once fell off a ladder.

    Indeed. Built stuff can multitask. Men, not so much.

    Oh, wow! Nice picture you drew there. Chris painstakingly marking the pathway for a future trench. Chris diligently dragging a dead and smelly rabbit along that route. Chris releasing Ruby, hoping for Ruby’s expert assistance digging along the pathway outlined by the rabbit. Ruby answering to feral ancestors and ROLLING in the smelliest spots.

    DJSpo
16. 

    April 9, 2026

    Chris at Fernglade Farm

    Hi Pam,

    When I was a young bloke and had the original 1982 Suzuki dirt rat Jimny with the 61 cubic inch motor and four speed gearbox which I used to go camping in the remote alpine areas, I bought a mattock. It’s a great hand tool for digging, and I’ve still got it today, although it’s hard to know why. The blade end has been so worn down by use, that it’s next to useless. But the steel itself never broke or bent. They don’t make hand tools like that any more. Bought a quality shovel this morning, probably a good idea to have a spare or two.

    When up on the roof, the mind has to focus on the job at hand, all day long. Your son would have experienced that wear and tear on the brain, when he re-roofed your place a while back. The panels at a guess are about 20kg / 44 pounds each. Best to concentrate and get into the work zone. I usually run the radio so my mind floats away to the music which I don’t find distracting, but others do so. We’re all different in that regard.

    A big storm hit here this afternoon, but before that I neatened up the wires in the distribution box (whilst up a ladder) and! Dug another short trench, as you do, for the cable which connects the distribution box to the battery room. The sun shone wonderfully for a brief moment, which allowed me to test the output of the solar panels. And that was when I discovered that two more circuit breakers needed to be ordered – which happened at higher prices than only a few weeks earlier. Oh well.

    Actually, Pam I’d not known Sensei in his more hard-core earlier days, but he used to drill students to 300 push ups per class. Fortunately for me, I got to meet an older and perhaps wiser master. 🙂 I’m not sure I could have kept up with that regimen!

    I’ve not grown Daikon radishes, and tend to prefer the smaller faster growing Pink Lady Slipper variety, but have to constantly remember to succession plant them. Not always easy to manage that aspect of those plants given they can grow to maturity in four weeks. Some of them germinated in the past day or so.

    Just did a deep dive into the subject, and it looks like about just under a third of all vehicles sold down under use diesel fuel. Hmm. Those folks would be financially hurting, and prices are back up to where they were last week at about AU$3.30 a litre or US$8.78 a gallon. There are tax incentives for people to purchase what you would describe as ‘trucks’ and we’d call ‘utility vehicles’, like the Ford Ranger, or Toyota Hilux (which may not be sold in your country, but sure is popular down here). Europe may be worse with diesel vehicle uptake.

    There are weird eddies of magical energy in Skye for sure, and I’d not suggest to go there with a dark motive, that’s for sure. Have you ever consumed herring? Such are the fates of those whom roll the dice. And agreed, it was a smart move.

    Yeah, I’ve remarked before that the movement of people within your country astounds me. The thought of packing up and moving to another state, has only rarely been considered in this household, and that was during the health subject which dare not be named because the goobermint was rather heavy handed. I live probably sixty or seventy miles from where I was born. Dunno, but my best guess is that the flow of people from one place to another will soon slow, although I could be wrong. This will have enormous implications for the housing market which appears to rely upon new comers to maintain artificial pressure on supply and demand.

    🙂 I’ve enjoyed leisurely dinners which took a dark turn when the subject of the Irish potato famine just popped into the conversation. Far out, don’t mention the potatoes is a general rule nowadays. Anywhoo, I could make similar claims about highland clearances, but see no point in pursuing the subject further. A friend who is an immigrant clarified the matter a few years ago by suggesting that people are not heading somewhere, they’re instead fleeing somewhere. Hmm. An interesting insight, no?

    Cheers

    Chris
17. 

    April 9, 2026

    Chris at Fernglade Farm

    Hi DJ,

    Man, it’s been one stormy old day down here today, but warm. And it’s hard to tell now whether all the noise outside is wind or rain, or perhaps both. Just took the dogs outside to do their business and dodged the current bout of heavy rain. Ollie encountered a very large wombat and perhaps wanted to be friends, but instead received a sharp rebuke of ‘leave it!’ The wind is occasionally buffeting the house.

    Anywhoo, earlier in the day the wiring in the new (actually a reused) distribution box was cleaned up, just to make it all look nicer. Then after some digging, and further wiring, the dozen new solar panels were connected up to the house system. The sun shone briefly on cue, and displayed a solid 24 Amps at around 55V recorded at the batteries (24A x 55V = 1.32kW) and all was good with the world. Except I noticed that I’d neglected to replace the circuit breakers between the charge controller and the batteries with higher current devices, and had to put in an order for those two things which are manufactured in your country. Prices had gone up since my last order, but mustn’t grumble. I set the controller to a lower amperage limit and then switched off four of the new-old solar panels. Sort it all out next week when the things arrive in the mail. But that stage of the project is now all done, other than some minor tweaking with the programming.

    Oh my gawds, the loads which heavy snowfall would place upon a roof would give me an attack of the vapours. We may take high wind loads into account with roof designs, but excessive weight – I don’t think so. It’d be a disaster, so I get why you were putting yourself at risk there, and those roof rakes sound super nifty. Much safer. Ah, the risks when we were younger! 🙂

    I’d prefer the words presented in that format too. Much friendlier, and possibly more useful. Who knows what mischief our leaders have in mind, and it’d be good if they levelled, but then that didn’t work out so well for President Carter, did it? His speeches are really something else.

    Exactly, there was a level of risk involved in our up bringings which people can’t seem to reconcile themselves with these days. I don’t know what to make of it all, but my gut feeling suggests that there is middle ground to be gotten to again at some point in the future.

    A nice test with the missing brain theory, but just playing the de’ls advocate here, what if you’re wrong? 🙂 You go first perhaps! Hehe! I have remarked to the Editor that all I have to do, is out run her when it comes to a zombie attack, which should be easy, maybe, if I don’t perhaps fall afoul of rapidly implemented girlie trick number three – AKA the trip and fall. Hmm. Never underestimate people is the rule of the day when faced with an undead crisis!

    Ha! I thought that too upon encountering the name of the castle. It’s a joke just asking, nay, demanding to be told. Get out, it isn’t, is it? Oh my, it is! Well it’s been remarked upon elsewhere that in the dim dark past of the aristocracy is more than a pirate, raider, all round thefter, or four. Maybe even twenty of such folks… A big pile of loot, takes a lot of nefarious actions. Nobody gives such things willingly. Although there was that Eddie Murphy ‘Trading Places’ film, which I quite enjoyed.

    Respect, and is there another way? Flailing and whingeing, doesn’t seem to get a person anywhere.

    Yeah, some schools of martial arts tends to throw their students around, and it is an instructive experience as you may also have noticed…. Here’s me as a teenager:

    

    I respect your maths prowess. And it’s a great point, which seems lost on folks when it comes to solar derived electricity. How it’s expected to work in the more snowier parts of your country, is beyond my understanding.

    And thanks so much for the poem. Good to see, and very amusing. We had some purple rain on the radar again today. Your words put me in mind of poetry:

    I never meant the hail to cause you any damage,
    It was just mere atmospheric flatulence,
    Or stratospheric rectal leakage,
    (whatever that is)
    I only wanted, one time, to see you laughing
    In the purple radar rain
    Maybe I only want to see you frightening
    In the purple rain,
    Yeah, maybe I did!

    Those naughty weather sprites, but I dare not challenge the elder ones any more… Gotta know when you’ve been bested.

    Dude, you nailed it. That’s exactly what Ruby would have done. Thanks for the laughs.

    We’ve got both kinds of winter tomorrow. Murky and cold. 😉

    Cheers

    Chris
18. 

    April 9, 2026

    Chris at Fernglade Farm

    Hi Lewis,

    It’s a fine joke isn’t it? Some witty observations demand to be aired. DJ made the exact opposite joke too. Fun stuff, although I’d imagine the occupants may take a dim view of our mirth? Some people can get a bit snarky when they’ve got a name, which has an alternative and amusing meaning.

    Actually I recall an episode at the volunteer brigade when the cap’n was drawing a complicated scenario on the whiteboard for our edification. Now how unlikely is this, but after a while and much explanation of the goings on, the drawing morphed into a stylised dudes appendage. Me and some of the other guys sitting down the back were quietly chuckling about it, and the cap’n looked seriously irritated. Far out, some folks have no sense of the absurdities of life. If I was in charge that day, I would have simply said: “Oh! Sorry about that. And stop it you idiots, this is serious business!” but also had a laugh to suggest that it’s all OK. Some teachers are just humourless. I’ve bet you’ve met a few of those over the years? And I’m guessing that the Club went through such a change a year or two back, but seems to be on a better course now, maybe. At least the pantry is back, and that is such a good thing.

    The Fairy Flag intrigued me as well. Hmm. The lullaby with the line: Grey do thou become duly. speaks of the realities of a tumultuous and dangerous life. The flag bearer was often felled in battle, despite the day being won, sometimes only just. I wasn’t entirely certain what an Elf dot is. Have you got any idea about that?

    Hope the economic book is a good read. I was impressed that the article concluded that the 1970’s oil crisis defeated the logic of the Phillips Curve, thus proving perhaps that there are diminishing returns to economic policies. But also, it has been my observation that the vast majority of economists have a blind-side when it comes to energy. They simply do not model it correctly or even comprehend the ramifications of the stuff, despite some actually doing so.

    Yeah, that’s how databases and indexes worked back in the day. Microfiche sheets. Quite a reliable technology too, although the indexes were only as good as they were, and not one iota more. Record stores also used to have those vast ordering / catalogue books, and it took weeks for a vinyl LP to arrive from overseas. It was all very much a mysterious process. Man, I was gutted the day I learned at the bookshop that some books, no matter how good, can be out of print. The print on demand has some advantages nowadays.

    It’s an intriguing thought too that the microfiche and reader might be gathering dust in the garage.

    Well, that arty-fish-al thing gave an incorrect answer yesterday, and didn’t even blush when caught out. I’m yet to come across one of those fake interweb sites, but it’s only a matter of time. And doesn’t it remind you of the old calculator advice from way back in the day? You’d be told that you should at least have a vague idea what the answer should be to a calculation, prior to accepting the results of the display. Good advice, for the same is true of the arty-fish-al thing, navigation systems etc. If the computer is advising you to drive off the end of a pier, maybe a person needs to switch their brain back on. 🙂

    Yeah, Warm Bodies is a fun film, and a great twist on the zombie genre. Sympathy for the undead, or at least only some of them.

    Those countdowns held no appeal to me either, but I’d occasionally encounter them on the radio on a Sunday night so knew what the bloke sounded like. In those days, like you suggested, there was a lot more local tunes played on the air, and those artists could make a sort-of decent living. The concentration of power the err, biggie services have nowadays, and servings they supply is not healthy. A few make it big, some make a living, but most are at a loss and fall by the wayside.

    They’ve been suggesting the El Nino this year down here as well, but chuck in the caveat that it’s still early days, and there are many more climate drivers on this continent than what the Pacific Ocean has to say. But yeah, it could be a problem.

    Ha! That thought had likewise occurred to me as well about the lady driving straight at me. It’s a nice use of words which you don’t hear said these days. I see bicycle riders crawling up the mountain road, and then roaring down, and sometimes I get the impression that they don’t understand the risks they are running with some of the older drivers up in that more fashionable part of the mountain range. Hmm.

    Ah, Winco, of course. 🙂 And that’s been my observation with the other folks – buy in bulk. Buy lots in bulk. You won’t regret it, unless you’ve run out of storage space. I get why the Club would go there for bulk supplies.

    H is clearly a communicative lady who knows her own mind. Dame Plum will sometimes growl at me if I’m annoying her, but likewise, she’s never snapped at me. It’s a bit disconcerting though, well it was at first. Nowadays I reckon she may be just a tad moody!

    They didn’t get much running around time today. I was up a ladder, and the Editor went into the big smoke to stock up on supplies. I can’t supervise the dogs from up a ladder, and didn’t want the distraction. Anyway, cleaned up the wiring in the distribution box, and then connected the whole thing up to the house system. There was a brief moment of sunshine where I could test the panels, and all was good with the world. They worked a treat, but I had to throttle the output because I’d messed up and only ordered two high current circuit breakers when I should have ordered four. Sorted that out late this afternoon and discovered they were $5 more each, in only a few weeks. Oh well…

    Cleaned up, put everything away, headed indoors and the rain began. About 3:30pm it was feral, another fun purple rain incident on the radar. Don’t blame me this time, ain’t nothing to do with anything I may have said, thought, or even gesticulated. I learned my lesson… 😉 No hail this time, just back to heavy tropical rain. Today has been strangely warm, yet tomorrow won’t be.

    Sugar is a good idea to stock up on, yup, it’s handy stuff. Forgot to mention the Editor founds oats at half price, and so she nabbed a fair few boxes. Walnuts and dried prunes keep pretty well. I forget, do you get the walnuts in a shell, or buy them shelled?

    Depends on the size of the tuna tin, I reckon. How many oz are we talking about here? Still, $1 is pretty good value, so you’re gut feeling is what I’d be thinking too. And yup, fishermen and tourist boats are saying as much in relation to diesel prices, which I may add, which briefly dropped a little bit for a few days, but are getting back up there.

    Thanks for the politics warning. Sometimes those articles read a bit weird to me as they’re quite heavy-handed with random bouts of blame, so I appreciate that. Everything those beekeepers are doing sounds good to me, but it’s also not lost on me that generations of beekeepers bred up a particularly vulnerable insect, because it suited them to do so. And people spray insecticide like it’s a fragrance – it should only ever be used sparingly. The European honey bees will no doubts adapt and save themselves. Things however, will no longer be the same with the insects. That battle is lost.

    Oh! Go the Greenland migration film, and hope it’s good. The trailer looked pretty epic. Happy b’day on Saturday for H, and please extend cordial tail wags from the fluffs. You can tell her that Ollie encountered a very large wombat a couple of hours ago! I told him to ‘leave it!’ although it was easy to divert him because he was on a lead.

    Cheers

    Chris
19. 

    April 10, 2026

    Lew

    Yo, Chris – No sense of humor. Exhibit A: Little Mary Sunshine, our building manager. Though I sometimes suspect she’s “on the spectrum.” She’s gone for a week, by the way, and didn’t send out this month’s newsletter. So, I don’t know how we did on our inspection.

    I couldn’t find out what an “elf dot” was, either. I took a look around the rabbit hole, but no joy. I thought it might be some kind of a heraldic devise, but apparently not.

    I’m looking forward to the book on economics. As you could tell from the article, economics in plane English.

    Out of print books. Every once in awhile, someone would come in to one of the bookstores I worked in, and say, “I want every book by (insert famous and prolific author here: Examples: Agatha Christie or western writer Louis L’Amour.) in paperback. I’d have to explain that publishers rotated through the titles, and not every title was in print at one time. We could get some, but if they wanted them “right now,” they’d have to start checking out the used bookstores. Ah, remember the completest, from the tat trade.

    The Editor left you alone, unsupervised up a ladder? Not prudent 🙂 . Reminds me of an old “Little House on the Prairie,” episode. Everyone goes to town, leaving Ma Ingalls alone at home. She gets gangrene in her leg, and has to cut it off with a butter knife. At least, that’s the way I remember it. 🙂

    I would throw those oats in the freezer, for a few days. I do that, with a lot of things. Oats, rice, flour … anything that might harbor critters. The walnuts I get are shelled. Out of the bulk bins at Winco. They are currently $5.18 a pound.

    Hmmm. Size of tuna tin? 5oz. Enough for a couple of tuna fish sandwiches, or melts. I tossed in a can the other night, in one of my rice and veg mixes. H got a bit.

    Well, “Greenland: Migration,” was pretty good. Worth a bowl of popcorn. But there were a few plot points that were unclear, or unexplained, that bothered me a bit. But that’s just me. 🙂

    Well, we got a food box, yesterday. Seems like there’s always one weird item. In this batch, there was a squarish, glass jar. Grilled veg (eggplant, asparagus, pepper and zucchini) in vinegar. From Peru. Sort of murky in there. I won’t be touching the contents, but the bottle itself will make a nice counter canister for dried herbs of some sort. On to the rest …

    A pound each of frozen pork and ground beef. A two pound brick of processed cheese “product.” A dozen eggs. 4 individually wrapped deli sandwiches and 4 cheese and sad fruit trays (dumpster.) A pound each of good, salted butter and cheddar cheese.

    4 individual flavored yoghurts, 2 pounds of white rice, 2 bags of generic / cheerio like cereal. 2 one pound bags of macaroni pasta. 2 two pound bags of ‘Northern White Beans.’ 3 packets of shelf stable chicken. 2 jars of peanut butter.

    Tins: One each of cream of chicken soup, quartered artichoke hearts, tomato sauce, cream style corn, peaches, mixed fruit pears and black beans. Two tins each of garbanzo beans, diced mangoes, diced tomatoes, and green beans.

    There was produce. Four small apples, one yellow bell pepper, 2 carrots, one yellow onion, and a pile of small potatoes. A large bag of mushrooms, that are so far gone they’ll be headed for a compost hole in the garden. Not a bad lot, all things considered. I may keep the artichoke hearts and one pack of chicken, for a pizza. I had similar, years ago, and it was quit tasty.

    H and I are headed out to see Doctor Amanda, the vet. I’ll stop by Jane’s, on the way back. She lives close by. She won’t be home, but I can get some wood ash, for my garden. I think I’ll give her the frozen ground beef and pork. I talked to her, last night, and she’ll be coming back to do counter shifts, every other Monday evening. It will be good to see her, again. Lew
20. 

    April 10, 2026

    Pam

    Chris:

    I have a mattock. It’s one of my favorite tools. It’s quite old, I we brought it with us from Texas in 1989. It had been left behind in the small 1930s garage of the house we bought, so it may have already been old. I know what you mean, mine is not sharp either. I bought new shovels (hope they are quality, seem to be) a couple of years ago as the ones we had were pretty disreputable, Reputation is everything to a shovel.

    You are so right about focusing whilst on a roof and 44 pounds seems like a lot to have to carry up to a roof. I had to go downtown yesterday. I stopped to watch some fellows replacing a slate roof on one of the colonial buildings. Amazing how they just clambered about without even seeming to think about it. There was one man who looked to be about my age, and seemed pretty crunchy to me. I made sure that I did not stand under where he was working.

    No way can I listen to the radio if I need to focus on something.

    Shoot – you keep getting storms and we are dry as a bone, with some quite hot weather coming. Wildfires are a worry.

    Chris – 300 push ups are insane!

    I only grow daikons for kimchi. I love the small French Breakfast radishes; I sometimes eat them for breakfast. One has to constantly plant them, too. I must have gotten some bad seed this year as most of the FB didn’t come up. I bought more seed and am having another go at them.

    I finally looked up the percentage of diesel vehicles bought here in the U.S. and was told 3%. That’s kind of what I figured. I know one of our neighbors bought a diesel pickup truck to haul his sailboat on a trailer. It’s a pretty big boat; two people could live on it. In fact, I think he and his wife used to sail around the Caribbean.

    I have not tried herring. I don’t remember seeing it in a store here. I like fish alot, but seldom buy it as it’s so expensive and I also worry about the freshness, so I usually buy it frozen.

    From what I can tell, a lot more people in my country move around than stay put (note that we moved to Virginia from Texas in 1989). And that’s not just one move for most people. My parents moved frequently, though moved us only once, faraway, when I was growing up. In this country during the Great Depression in the ’30s lots of people were on the move looking for work. It could easily happen again.

    “People are not heading somewhere, they’re instead fleeing somewhere” – that’s an interesting thought.

    Did I tell you that the neighbor who borders us with the property that is now marked down to $6.5 million from $10 million, had another property right over the mountain behind us? This was a bigger property, not sure it even had a house, of 500 acres. That property did sell recently for $10 million, purportedly as a cattle property. I find that hard to believe. I would think it more likely that maybe the Keswick Hunt Club might have bought it, or a member, for horses,

    https://keswickhuntclub.com/

    Pam
21. 

    April 10, 2026

    Pam

    Chris:

    Chris – which one is you in the martial arts photo?

    Pam
22. 

    April 10, 2026

    Chris at Fernglade Farm

    Hi Pam,

    Very funny. 🙂 Grandmaster Raoul Kent appears as an elemental, whilst I was serenely at ease whilst he was about to throw my body across the mat. Life can be strange at times how when another person of stature takes us, those who are blown around by the harsh winds of reality folks, and steadies the otherwise vague rudder. I’ve been remarkably lucky in life to encounter a few such folks, and they’ve steered a course to safer shores. I guess like all else, they loom into life, demand hard work, then waft away on the breeze of chance. Have you ever encountered such a guide?

    Whoa! 1989 would mark perhaps the year of the mattock? No? Dunno about your perspective, but the tool is like a garden hoe on steroids! 😉 I’ve read that the miners during the gold rush era favoured them as well, although the design may have involved one end as a pick, the other as the clearing edge.

    Steel quality was often hardier back in the day, and there are compromises to be made with hand tools which involve springiness, strength, ability to hold and edge etc. Of course, it is unstated that hand tool failures produced increased sales. In such a dire environment, all the best tools have to be, is slightly better than their competitors – and the manufacturers would know that. And exactly, reputation is everything when it comes to hand tools!

    Pam, the old bloke up on the roof may be crunchy, but if he’s been in the game that long, I’d suggest that he knows his business. Almost seventeen years ago it became obvious here that a very dangerous tree needed felling. Think of the large oak next to your house, but perhaps worse. So I couldn’t find anyone to do the job, and ringing around, this old bloke turns up with a card proclaiming the title ‘champion axeman’, and he lived up to the hype. Charged me AU$2,400 an hour for 15 minutes work too, but absolutely, he lived up to his claim and dropped the tree perfectly. Turned up early to do the work so I didn’t see his skills on display, and remarked that the tree had kept him awake half the night. A true master of his craft, and it was a special treat to have made his acquaintance. Although he was a rough nut!

    The lesson there – ours is not to intervene, as you rightly noted.

    Fair enough, and the Editor would agree with you in relation to the radio – although I had the thing switched off on Wednesday when lifting the fourteen solar panels. But at other less critical times, the music occupies the noisier parts of my mind.

    Fingers crossed that you get some rain, and soon. I hear you about the wildfire risk and note that we’re only as good as the weakest link in an area.

    Master Raoul was earlier in his teaching career a martinet and expected everyone else to reach for the stars. The 300 push ups was perhaps a step too far. All I wanted was to know was how to deal with the bullies at school, and in life, and learned those lessons in spades.

    Oh yeah, the small French breakfast radishes are a treat, yup. 😉 Hmm, you know I had that issue with cucumbers a few years ago and learned that us small time folks need to look after our own interests in that seed regard.

    Well, gasoline is more plentiful in your country, whilst the heavier oil derivatives are in shorter supply. As a young bloke I considered purchasing a 454 HO Trans Am painstakingly converted to right hand drive, which had the most astounding decal on the bonnet, but reality kicked in – could I afford to maintain this beast? Economics are a real bummer. You are a long way from the coast, and those intriguing islands. It’s the same story. Increased costs suggest to expect less.

    Agreed, when inland, questions as to the freshness of seafood become moot. I’ve never tasted herring either, but when I was a kid, flake (shark) used to be commonly available. It sure was tasty battered and deep fried served with chips, salt, lemon and white vinegar. Yum!

    Yeah, the sheer movement of people within your country looks astounding to me and nobody seems to acknowledge how amazing it is to be able to do that. My mother moved to far northern coastal Queensland in the 90’s so she didn’t have to help us with child rearing, but that was not the norm. Mind you, the population is a bit more footloose nowadays, but not like what goes on in your country. Think of things like a game of musical chairs, in that you may end up where you are. And that’s what a possible future looks like to me.

    I heard that fine quote from a good friend who is also an immigrant, and it changed my perspective.

    Ha! Don’t mess with the wiles of the local aristocracy, and if they think it’s a good idea for the land… At that base price it’d be almost impossible to make money in cattle farming as a business. However, if a person was seeking capital appreciation whilst owning big hats, then who knows what is possible? Right now, the future has become murky to me.

    Cheers

    Chris
23. 

    April 10, 2026

    Chris at Fernglade Farm

    Hi Lewis,

    That can happen with folks on the spectrum, but, they do have a sense of humour, you just have to put in the work so as to discover what it may be that makes the particular person tick on that front. The Editor went to see a comedy show recently by a self professed young lady on the spectrum by the name of: When you’re the last to know – Abby Howells (the short clip is very amusing!) And then there’s always the risk that you’ll completely stuff it up through no fault of your own, communication being a difficult thing. Dunno about you, but I’ve come to the conclusion that if rapport doesn’t earn any traction, my next approach is simply not trying to annoy the individual. 😉 There’s a lot to recommend the approach!

    It is weird isn’t it that they’d introduce a concept such as an Elf Dot, and then say no more upon the matter, almost as if it were so obvious what it was, that no explanation was warranted. It is very possible that nobody nowadays actually knows, and given the Fairy Flag was wheeled out in battle when things were turning badly, it may even be ancient blood splatter for all we know? Perhaps also it is best not to get involved in the business of the elder ones.

    Yeah, it’s an impressive feat, and I noted in the article that the inventor of the Phillip’s Curve was given a very hard time by his peers when presenting the plumbing representation, until it worked. Few things are as powerful as success. Please do let me know if the book is worth a read?

    I once dated a girl who’s father was into model trains and used to run a shop for them. Oh, it’s still a going concern. You don’t hear the word ‘completist’ used much any more, but it certainly describes the super-fan / collector. Man, I just wanted to get parts two and three of the book I’d picked up at a second hand bookshop and was disappointed to discover it was out-of-print. But, now you mention it, I do now own the complete series of works the author produced. Hmm. Lewis, is the prognosis looking good? Ook! Don’t spare me the worst… 😉

    Well, if the government trusts me, so can the Editor, maybe. 🙂 Look there’s a lot of work to be done on the shed project still, and one can’t take up all of the Editors free time, can they? I did stay focused on the job for about maybe five hours, but needed a serious nap afterwards to recover the ol’ worn out brain.

    Hey, I’d not remembered that episode, or more correctly, blotted it out due to trauma, but going on a wabbit hole, they used something called paregoric in those days. Talk about hands on home surgery in that situation, and lancing the infection was what it took. Any longer and the leg would have been gone, then worse… By the way, that condition is still a problem these days. I tend to wash cuts and abrasions with ethanol, but you know, everyone is different in regards to the risks they take on. And people may be skipping their tetanus vaccination – that bacteria is still out there and not gone anywhere.

    I’ll keep your freezer idea in mind with the oats, but am yet to find weevils, pantry moths etc. in a batch. However, there is always the first time, and my gut feeling suggests that the stuff is sprayed with insecticide. I have encountered these insects in the past with a bag of mixed grains, and it was not an enticing look.

    That’s a good price for the shelled walnuts and last I bought those, it was around the same down here. Tasty snacks and very good for you having good plant fats.

    Ooo, shrinkflation is real, and cans of tuna down here start at 3.35oz / 95gms. H would very much appreciate the fish, and it’d be very good for her too I’d imagine.

    Narratives and characters have to make sense, and I don’t know whether I’m a fan of characters who do an about-turn near to the conclusion of a story merely so as to neatly wrap up loose plot ends. Redemption is an arc which has to be recounted, not a switch, I’d have to suggest.

    Murky… Your gut feeling serves you well, go with it. 🙂 Nice one, and I’d have done the same. Sounds like the box was a pretty good haul with the usual hits and misses. The good salted butter and cheddar cheese would have pricked up my interest too. Hope Jane appreciates the gifts, and a swap for the wood ash is pretty decent. A bit of home grown nitrogen, and you’re onto something there! 😉

    Took the day off (well mostly did) any and all work. The weather was filthy, and winter is fast approaching. Headed north and picked up apples and honey, and did a nice walk. Came home, lit the wood heater and just chilled. Nice to have a day off. Autumn here is remarkably short, and the drizzle turned up from time to time, and the Antarctic wind blew hard. Yet north of this southerly weather system they’re enjoying 40’C / 104’F temperatures. The vagaries of climate…

    Cheers

    Chris
24. 

    April 11, 2026

    Lew

    Yo, Chris – In the case of Little Mary Sunshine, I don’t want to put in the work. I just steer clear of her, as much as possible.

    Blood splatter? Call Dexter! 🙂 Fairies walk through the blood of a battle field and then across the flag? Oh, I think you’re right about the “everyone knows so it’s unnecessary to explain” phenomenon. Although sometimes I think that’s a gatekeeping thing.

    Model trains have fallen on hard times. I noticed a signboard, that there’s to be a model train show, at our local fairgrounds, later this month. Not that long ago, I stopped in to take a look. Back in the day, the model train shows took up three or four buildings, at our local fair grounds. Now they’re down to one. I also noticed it was mostly old dudes.

    I had stopped in as I wondered if anyone had any of the little lead figures, that used to populate train sets. Nope. I also find the miniature buildings fascinating. There were a lot of those, many in kit form. But, all I saw was plastic. I don’t know if they still exist, but there used to be a few magazines, that told you how to build realistic landscapes for your trains. And how to build and age the buildings. Out of “real” materials, not plastic.

    You may remember in the movie, “The Station Agent,” a model train store played a big part, early on. Also, Sheldon’s devotion to model trains was sort of a running gag, through both series.

    I’ll give it to you straight. In some areas, your prognosis as a completest, does not look good 🙂 .
    But, look at it this way. You can recognize the feeling, and empathize a bit with other people suffering from the dreaded malady.

    A tetanus shot is on my list, next time I get up close and personal with a doctor. I’m due, I’m sure.

    The second Greenland film takes place five years after the comet’s initial hit. Though there are still chunks of it, coming down. So, everyone is always banging on about radiation. Some areas are worse than others. Storms blow through with high concentrations of the stuff. But not a clue as to where the radiation comes from. I suppose from the power plants. But a line of dialogue tossed in, would have been appreciated. Also, the son is diabetic, and needs insulin. It was a big plot point in the first movie. It’s only mentioned once, in the second. Insulin only keeps 10-28 days, at room temperature, without refrigeration.

    After going to the vet, I swung by Jane’s. I knocked, a couple of times, but there seemed to be no one about. The front door was unlocked, so I put the frozen meat and butter in the fridge. I called Jane last night to let her know. Had to leave a voice mail. Then I went out to the fire pit, and dug out two coffee cans full of wood ash. I don’t need much for my small patch. That will hold me for a couple of years.

    H was trembling, when we were waiting for Dr. Amanda. But, once everyone started making over her, she was fine. Really wasn’t any solid reason for her gimpy foot, and, of course, it was not manifested while we were there. There’s a suspicion she may be “putting on” a bit.

    I’m a bit miffed with her, today. Even though I covered the three month flea pill, fore and aft with peanut butter, she wouldn’t finish it up. At $90 a pop … So, it sits in her dish with a bit of peanut butter, still clinging to it. I’m starving her out. It’s off to the groomer, this morning.

    Our high yesterday was 68F (20C). Our overnight low was 41F (5C). Our forecast high for today is 70F. Rain is forecast for early in the AM. Prof. Mass has a post about the “super” El Niño. He feels it’s too early to call. Lew
25. 

    April 11, 2026

    Pam

    Chris:

    I am not sure I can think of a single such guide. With me, it’s more a case of many, who wafted in (as you say) and then wafted away, after having left me a more knowledgeable person. It still happens to me frequently; perhaps because I am watching more closely for them now. You are one of them, though thankfully you haven’t wafted away!

    My mattock has a pick on the other end. And there is no springiness in my mattock!

    I would have liked to see that master axeman in action. I expect you would have, too!

    I always have saved seeds, but the groundhogs ate literally everything last year, except 4 tomatoes and the squirrels ate 2 of those. And the cucumbers were spared. I did save those seeds and may plant some tomorrow. And they didn’t like dill and I saved those seeds from last year. I also have quite a few seeds from 2024. Looks like there will be no more temps near freezing this spring. And – Yay! – the baby fig trees have moved outside from upstairs in the house.

    I was visiting a friend in town today at her assisted living place when the relative of a resident there announced that he had to be going so he wouldn’t get stuck in any of the roadblocks set up because –
    President Trump was coming to town! I did hurry a bit to get home and ran into no problems. I looked at the news later and he is holding a gathering at his vineyard here in Albemarle County, though I think he has actuallyturned the vineyard over to his son.

    The price of petrol had gone down when I filled up today, first time in a week. It was $4 per gallon.

    We now hear from a more up-to-date MacLeod clan member in The Creaky Traveler in NW Highlands. This young man was met by the author and said: “Before I got involved in this music scene (the very popular Gaelic music there) my only connection to the MacLeod clan was a tartan sweater my mother gave me when I was twelve. This music makes me feel connected, and I want to share it with my own kids and friends.” See, there is something you are missing in the music scene.

    Pam
26. 

    April 11, 2026

    DJSpo

    Chris,

    Thanks for the photo. It appears that Sensei is going to throw you around until you have a great fall. Learning to fall is very important. Right up there with breathing.

    It has been an intense couple days. Nice weather and yardwork. Then errands and a midweek hiatus. More yardwork scheduled today but delayed. Had to get the Princess ready and on the road to another funeral. Not a close relative, but close enough. Ugh. Then more yardwork. Me tired.

    DJSpo
27. 

    April 11, 2026

    Chris at Fernglade Farm

    Hi DJ,

    Sage advice, thanks! Remember to breathe, there’s a lot to like about that, and breathing properly is also a neat trick to learn. You’d have likewise noticed that part of training, and longer distance exercise is knowing how to breathe?

    Oh man, so sorry to hear that your lady has suffered another loss of kin. Even if they’re distant, it’s still always hard and represents a loss of cultural continuity. Hope your lady can find someone within community to rope into the rites, but you know, sometimes the universe provides. Usually timing is far from optimal in such circumstances, or at least that’s been my experience. Oh well, please accept my condolences for your family’s loss.

    Good to hear that you’re enjoying both the yard work and nice sunny weather. 🙂 Antarctica has exerted some authorita over this section of the continent, and it was 4’C this morning, and barely made it past 10’C today. Talk about a complete Brrr! Whatever, we got stuck into the task of fitting out the internals of the new shed. An interesting use of recycled materials occurred.

    Cheers

    Chris
28. 

    April 11, 2026

    Chris at Fernglade Farm

    Hi Pam,

    Nice to hear, and yes, they’re mysterious folks who are generous, with a dash of altruism, with their time. Thank you so much for the lovely words. 🙂 Pam, when I was a young bloke I reckon I was in dire need of guidance from such larger than life characters, and they appeared out of nowhere. Of course I did fail to listen closely to the lessons, which is always the way with colts and filly’s – and we should expect no more than that. And here I’d be curious as to your thoughts, but as time marches on, the half remembered words start to make a lot more sense, and this perhaps is the beginnings of wisdom? Maybe? 😉 About the only upside of this getting older biz I reckon! And I learn as much from y’all too.

    You got my brain wondering about just how much of this ‘ere interweb site has been used with all of the thousands of photos uploaded over the past dozen years. I needn’t have worried, apparently only 31% of the storage has been used, so that suggests that there will be more photos to come. And for quite a while too, fingers crossed. 😉

    The old gold miners of the 1850’s would have instantly recognised your mattock, and then promptly put it to good use. Mine has a sort of blunt-ish but strong, axe shape on the non digging end which is useful for cutting through tree roots. Actually thanks, for you got my brain thinking about whether the local manufacturer makes other styles of mattocks, and they do! Who knew? Might have to look into this matter. By the way, the expensive shovel I bought recently has a local hardwood handle and local steel. Not cheap, but it will last and do the job.

    Hehe! The master axeman was way too canny to have had bystanders. When I turned up, and the tree was already horizontal, his side kick had the most awful flu – but was still working. The cheeky sidekick rascal was clearly unhappy with how the circumstances were working out for him, so he dropped his tissues on the ground. Which I later picked up, and then came down myself with a truly horrid flu. Still, I was grateful that the very dangerous tree was now on the ground. And the the monster eucalypt had a massive termite nest about a third of the way up, so no wonder it’d been dropping limbs onto the house like nobody’s business.

    Oh far out! I so hear you about those garden deprivations. So, being the canny and resourceful fellow I may be, a brief investigation into the subject of: what eats groundhogs? took place. Look, I’m not comfortable with the results, but yeah, we’re talking here: coyotes, foxes, hawks, owls, eagles, bobcats, and black bears, large snakes, wolves, and domestic dogs. Hmm, take your pick of predator, and that may resolve your groundhog issue. Although Ruby was busy digging more than a few holes today. Like what gives with that? Probably rats, and maybe rabbits. Her face was covered in clay at one point, but she looked pretty happy.

    Go the baby figs, set them free into the warmer outdoors! Sorry to say, but I opened up a jar of this years fig jam today and consumed some on freshly baked oven bread for lunch. I know intolerances, sorry, but it was very tasty.

    And for the record, at lunchtime I did feel a bit crunchy. There’s a story though. Antarctica has been flexing it’s muscles and this morning was 39’F and it just didn’t warm up today. Brr! And I cut so much steel for many hours. I thought that the activity would never end. Lots of scrap was used up to make some tidy racking for all of the uPVC pipe off cuts which can be very useful. Then hand tools needed to be hung, etc. The internal areas of the new shed were all sorted out today. Onto the 12V solar bits of the shed tomorrow. Fingers crossed, the whole project should be done before another week is completed. And the peasants rejoiced! 🙂

    Very cool, although like your example, I’d have left town for much the same reasons – not wanting to be caught up in the traffic.

    Vineyards are nice places. Due to the fungal issues on some of the vines, we removed the lavender which had been shading those plants, and I reckon that will help. Not to worry, there’s plenty of lavender growing elsewhere. Lovely stuff.

    I’m not whingeing, but prices have gone up, down here. On Friday, diesel had gone back up to AU$3.30 a Litre or US$8.78 a gallon. What did our leaders expect would happen one day? – that’s the thought which goes through my head.

    Exactly! And respect to the young bloke taking up the cultural mantle of his background! It is missing, but it soothes my soul that such things appear when the times call for them. The eddies which push here and there, are powerful forces and usually can’t be directed – which is in itself a beautiful thing.

    Cheers

    Chris
29. 

    April 11, 2026

    Chris at Fernglade Farm

    Hi Lewis,

    Yeah man, I so hear you about that. 😉 A year or two back I did a deep dive into that subject, and look, if there are no alternatives and you have to deal with a really difficult person, there are techniques to apply to smooth the choppy social waters. All of which take time and energy to refocus a persons thoughts. But unless there is no option, I just can’t be stuffed with that, and like your example, avoid them or keep things to a bare minimum. Life is short, there’s only so much energy to throw around, and my best guess was that there was little upside and the tricks and tools required constant vigilance and maintenance.

    Nothing wrong at all with a strategic retreat. Is there?

    Hehe! Very funny, yes, that blood splatter character could perhaps shed some light on the subject of the Elf Dots on the Fairy Flag. I like where you’re going with that too, but such gate keeping exercises require gate keepers to recall what the whole thing was about in the first place. Being too mysterious runs the risk of the knowledge simply being lost to time and entropy. But it was weird how the many accounts would just describe the marks as ‘Elf Dots’ and leave it at that.

    Lewis, I’m embarrassed to admit that I went along to the model train shows due to ulterior purposes which accompany the general state of being young, but all the same, enjoyed the shows too. The work put into the displays impressed me as well. And I recall those little lead figures from way back in the day. They were often army figures too, uniformly painted camo-green from head to toe, or at least that was the case with the ones I encountered.

    Model trains is actually quite an expensive hobby, much like restoring old cars etc. A person requires the time to make their own displays, or deep pockets to skip that bit. So yeah, old dudes are probably par for course. And magazines are a dying art form, although I have a hunch that a super cheap, back to basics production magazine with wide cheap circulation, might do OK.

    Oh yeah, that was an excellent film, ‘The Station Agent’ and I recall the earlier scenes, yup. It is probably a thing, isn’t it with Sheldon and co.? Thus the power of the running gags.

    Thanks man for the straight talkin’ prognosis, and yeah deep empathy is part of my wiring, so yup I can understand and appreciate the drive towards the malady.

    It was every ten years I believe, and the bacteria is in the soil. Hasn’t gone anywhere. Just another part of life that wants a chunk of us. Ook!

    Speaking of soil, no work was done with that stuff today. Nope. The Editor roped me instead into getting the internal fit-out of the new shed done. And because we were using up a lot of the scrap materials available, I ended up cutting steel for many hours with the angle grinder. Hard work and I was relieved when that part of the task was completed. Anywhoo, all done now, and it’s looking pretty sharp. There’s even overhead storage for the masses of scrap uPVC piping we’d had stored all over the place. Now it’s in one spot. Plus tools are neatly hung off walls etc. The plan is to get the 12V solar panels wired up and connected tomorrow.

    The weather though was at times feral today, then the sun would shine, although the air was still freezing (please excuse the summer soft exaggeration!) It was only 39’F this morning, and that big frozen continent to the south of here flexed its muscles. Brr! Cold again tonight too.

    Not a good health problem to have in a post apocalyptic future. Nope. My gut feeling about that health issue is that it won’t be good at all for those whom have a need for that regular shot. There was some talk about an Open Insulin Project a while ago, and wonder what happened to them?

    There’d be less radiation in the southern hemisphere at a wild guess in that film scenario, but it depends where the comet hit, doesn’t it?

    Nice work, and also good score with the wood ash. I use heaps of that around here, and the environment is good with the stuff, especially if the fire history has anything to say about the matter. Produces nice green looking grass and ground cover plants, so I spread it around on damaged clay, then two years down the track, it looks good.

    Poor H, we all endure indignities from time to time. Maybe that’s the case with the foot. I’ve never encountered that, but dogs can do weird things, and when Ruby was younger she did use to chew on her front leg, which is a sign of anxiety they tell me. So yeah, could be a mental dimension to it all with H. Hope she scored some nice treats at the vet?

    Ha! Dogs are clever. They know. How did the battle of wills between you and H end up? I tend to smoosh up pills for dogs between two spoons, then wet down a beef jerky strip and smear the stuff on that. It’s all gone. The Editor is a bit more forceful and does what the vets sometimes do and chucks it down the dogs throat. Whatever works.

    Ooo, it’s getting warmer in your part of the world now. Nice! 🙂 Hope you enjoyed some sunshine? And I agree with the Professor, it’s too early to call. Indicative of the possibilities, yes, but that’s not the same thing, is it? And the media down here mentioned the forecast barrier.

    Cheers

    Chris
30. 

    April 12, 2026

    Lew

    Yo, Chris – A couple of observations. There are mattocks, and then there are Pulaski. 🙂 Also known as a “fire ax.” Interesting back story on its development.

    In the picture your sensei looks a bit … demented. 🙂

    Some people aren’t worth the effort. It’s best to just cut loses and move on. There used to be an old saying, that some people were “hard work.”

    “Strategic retreat.” “Live to fight another day.” I got curious about that phrase. What a rabbit hole.

    https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/214999/for-he-that-fights-and-runs-away-may-live-to-fight-another-day-wisdom-or-moc#216784

    Also attributed to Oliver Goldsmith, a poet/novelist/playwright in the late 1700s. Also attributed to Tacitus, the Roman historian, circa 50 CE. Let’s just say the sentiment has been kept alive, through the ages.

    Elf dots. Maybe some kind of elf scat? 🙂

    Barclay and Manoil were leading lead figure makers, back in the day. And, I suspect there are quit a few modern reproductions floating around. I inherited several Christmas or winter figures from my Uncle Larry. And got interested in them. Besides all the military stuff, there were railroad station figures, farm and agricultural figures, gardening figures, and even several for a typical British village. Even a figure of the village idiot. 🙂 Zoo animals and circus. I have a book on what’s out there, and it’s truly mind boggling.

    The internal fit out is a good thing. The finish work. How often have we seen other people’s projects, where the bulk of the work is done, and then the frosting on the cake just sort of peters out. You see it on farms, a lot. I don’t know. Maybe it’s a case of “good enough.”

    Our high yesterday was 73F (22.77C). Our overnight low was 48F (8.88C). Our forecast high for today is 60F. As forecast, we got rain overnight, and it looks like it was a good drenching. The next week will be pretty rainy. A good thing for our gardens.

    The main chunk of the comet, in Greenland, came down around the French / Spanish border. For some reason, the Greenlanders were migrating there, as it was thought to be some kind of safe haven.

    Yesterday, I dropped H off at the groomer, and then headed to the Club for a cuppa. I had an idea, and picked up a can of tuna, from the pantry. More on that, later. I headed for home and planted the Ozette potatoes. The instructions that came with them said not to use lime (black scab?), but a bit of peat moss was recommended. The hole and returning soil got a dusting of that, and bone meal. Which I happened to have on hand. The timing was perfect. I got the call to pick up Dawg, just as I finished.

    LOL. They always put some tat decor on Dawg. Either on her collar, or, like this time, two yellow bows with bling, on her ears. Usually, I remove them as soon as she gets home, but decided to leave them as we did the Club / birthday trip, this morning. So, everyone made over her new do/decoration. She liked her birthday biscuit. She spent a lot of time gnawing on pieces of that. My friend Scott showed up, and we got to chat a bit. So, a big week for her. Vet / groomer / birthday. I don’t know who is more relieved it’s all over, her or me. 🙂

    When we got home from the groomer, I attempted to get the flea pill down her, again. A bit of tuna and juice from the tin. Took two tries, but she got it all down and licked the bowl clean. I’ll have to remember that, for next time.

    As a fringe benefit, I had a couple of tuna melts, for lunch. Sourdough English muffins with tuna, tomato and Swiss cheese, melted in the nuker. Tasty. Lew
31. 

    April 12, 2026

    Pam

    Chris:

    There is a lot of upside about getting older. One thing is that you just plain know so much more because of just having been around so long. That is comforting and makes one feel like a smartypants (beware that fall after the pride). I like it when things pop into my memory and I can say: “Oh, that’s what it was all about.” And you can at least kind of see the end of the road, and that is comforting when it seems hard to go on, to know that there is rest after this.

    Yay! More photos, more blog posts!

    Oooh – does that sound like a lovely new shovel. Today I was looking for a “baby” shovel and could find nary a one. Last year, along with the regular sized shovels I bought 3 half-pint shovels, about half as big. They are especially useful for filling pots with potting soil. Hmm, where might such a thing be around here? if I follow my nose, I think I shall come to figs . . .

    Yuk. Not the master axeman story I was expecting.

    Did I mention having seen recently a fox carrying a baby groundhog across the 2-lane highway into town?

    Yeah, well – I had a very delicious baked sweet potato this morning.

    You’re not crunchy, you’re just overworked. Just one more week, eh?

    What I am wondering is what tricksy things my leaders are up to. It’s not like there is a general election coming up . . .

    A few of my Copenhagen Market cabbages look like they are trying to form heads instead of bolt. I grew those and Golden Acre in the fall. And I had the first French Breakfast radish this morning; it was so crunchy and juicy. I thought of you when I threw the leaves away. I really don’t know if I’ll get enough to make pesto.

    When I was peeling potatoes this morning, I suddenly thought of Helen Nearing as she said that she often judged people by how they peeled potatoes, as to whether they were careful people, judging by whether they wasted potatoes by peeling off too much skin. Then I thought of hers and Scott’s book “The Good Life” and wondered if that is where they got the name for the BBC TV show “The Good Life”. See how these inspirational things come to us older folks?

    Pam
32. 

    April 12, 2026

    Chris at Fernglade Farm

    Hi Pam,

    I like that, yes, after trials and tribulations, there is rest. Some of my friends who are a bit younger than you or I, are unsettled about the current events. Despite being very young, I saw the petrol rationing of the 1970’s with people literally going nowhere other than to the local pub, shops and work, or the recession of the early 1990’s with people being turfed out of jobs (myself and the Editor included). Things have been so good, for so long, that my friends have not physically experienced such turmoil and uncertainty. But you and I have been around the proverbial block, and know that things don’t go back to where they were, but neither is it a fast descent to the stone ages. Yeah, no pride here, just hard work! 😉 But I absolutely agree with you, the “Oh, that’s what it was all about” insight, comes from sheer life experience, and there’s something good to be said about that.

    🙂 We’ll keep plodding along here having fun in this delightful little corner of the interweb.

    I’d never seen a half-pint shovel. Interesting, and apparently good for work when kneeling too. Yes, your nose knows, and you did mention that they were kind of useful for filling pots with soil! Good luck!

    I know, the master axeman was rough as bags as they used to say, but knew his skill and lived up to the hype. Some folks can afford to dispense with the social niceties, but I didn’t appreciate the flu I can tell ya. It was yuk. But then mustn’t grumble because he resolved the problem when nobody else would touch the tree.

    Go the fox! With rabbits being a problem around here, I tend to leave the foxes alone to do that necessary work. You may discover that with Mr Baby now sadly departed, predators like foxes may move in to the unoccupied niche? Dunno.

    🙂 Lovely! And I hear you and thanks for the laughs. Hey, discovered a large patch of rocket growing randomly in a garden bed – vegetables are escaping into the wilds here – and made a yummy pesto with a slice of tasty cheese for lunch.

    One more week, maybe. It all depends on the weather. Today was revolting at 48’F with wind and repeated bouts of drizzle. Still, I worked outdoors, rugged up for sure, and connected up the 2x 12V solar panels to the little off grid solar power system. Another task for the new shed, done. The forecast suggests that there will be a little bit of rain every day until next weekend. How am I meant to get the project done with weather like that? Ook!

    It makes a person wonder doesn’t it? Pure speculation time here: The only way to way to rebuild a local manufacturing base is to you know, show to the wider population that it is a task which needs to be done, all other considerations to the side. How do you tell people to stop living large? You don’t have to, cutting the Gordian Knot, the easiest thing to do is I’m guessing, simply wreak revenge on the very people living large at the expense of those whom aren’t. Depending on how it is sold, it could be popular, but even so, if there is a change of players, the course won’t be corrected. A collision of some sorts was going to happen sooner or later. It ain’t the end of the world, but may feel like that for some folks who’d been used to perquisites. Dunno. We’ll get to find out how it works out though.

    Whoa! Respect to you, I’ve never managed to get a cabbage to produce a head – of any size. Well done. Yum with the radish too, such a lovely mildly zingy root vegetable. Doesn’t take much leaf matter to produce a pesto, although I’d make it fresh due to the sheer surface area of the ingredients because it really does go stale very quickly.

    Those two were inspirational, and just between you and I, after reading the ‘Living the Good Life’ book, I had a vague feeling that Helen was the brains behind the operation whilst Scott was the idealist. Dunno. You may be horrified, but I eat the potato skins, after washing them of course. Fat cut chips with skins really is a very tasty treat. Yummo!

    Cheers and better get writing!

    Chris
33. 

    April 12, 2026

    Chris at Fernglade Farm

    Hi Lewis,

    I’d never seen a Pulaski tool for sale down here, and it’s an awesome idea. The cutting head on the mattock I use has a rougher edge and not as sharp as a proper axe. Interesting, and I might have to track one of those down. Thanks for mentioning the hand tool. The forest firefighters down here swear by the Rakhoe tool, which I always found to be a bit unwieldy to use, but did have the advantage of providing more of a distance to the flames due to the longer handle.

    Ha! I ain’t arguing with you about the eye popping Sensei. There are both mental and physical aspects to martial arts, I mean, take the forceful projection yell: Kiai! It works, and lucky for me at that moment long ago, I was oblivious as to the mental projection of the Sensei. My face suggests complete trust, and I was not wrong to do so.

    That’s been my experience as well in that some folks, are just plain old ‘hard work’, and they sap my energy. I have observed other folks handling them with good grace and ease, but I lack that tolerance. Dunno why either, but agreed, limited energies are better spent on other activities. 😉

    It’s clearly long been a useful strategy, and Sun Tzu likewise mentioned the lack of wisdom in conducting a fight on losing grounds. There was a good quote in the analysis which suggested that: Positioning yourself for defeat is no strategy for victory, so find a position that leverages your advantages. Why accept the enemies ground and time of choice?

    Ha! Elf Scat indeed. And how funny would that be?

    Man, there was a name for the figurines too: The Dimestore soldier. That’s new to me. Actually the farmer and farm animal plastic and painted figurines used to be gifted by the dentist in the 1970’s as an inducement to annually visit the business. And I recall the solid bases for the figurines was trimmed down presumably to save on manufacturing costs?

    Every village has an idiot, and hey, that’s what real community looks like. 🙂 And the idiot might be the size of Lenny in ‘Of Mice and Men’ and throw his weight around. Hmm.

    Well, I can see how that happens, but my profession has drilled me upon the gentle art of finishing tasks, no matter how unpleasant. Should be one of those lessons that everyone gets, don’t you reckon? Speaking of which, I wired up the 2x 12V solar panels to the much smaller off grid power system today. And it was positively Antarctic out there with 48’F, cold winds and repeated bouts of drizzle. I was happy to finally retreat indoors and warm myself by the wood fire. Far out! Winter isn’t coming, it’s here already!

    Your gardens will do wonderfully in such weather, and I’m now getting envious of your delightful sounding warmth. I know, so summer soft… What do you do?

    Big comet, massive destruction, and best avoided. The low light levels of Greenland during the winter, would be a problem for a large population, all other considerations to the side. If an environment is too unreliable, then people are only one mistake away from starving.

    Yeah, listen to the local advice with potatoes, and I can only speak for the soils here with the addition of lime. I see, apparently, common scab of potatoes is a soil-borne disease caused by the bacteria-like organism Streptomyces scabies. OK, lime increases the pH of soil which favours bacteria over fungi. Whereas blight is a fungus, so that would prefer more acidic soils I’m guessing. As in all things, there is a middle ground here. The advice down here is that: ‘it’s generally accepted that the disease is usually controlled satisfactorily if potato soils are kept at pH 5.0 to 5.2.’ Thus proving that potatoes prefer acidic soils, but I reckon if they are too acidic, then the plants can’t take up extra necessary minerals. What you did with the peat moss and bone meal sounds good to me.

    Ha! H got glowed up, as the kids would say! Good to see that you enjoyed a chat with Scott, and hope his lady is doing OK. Ah, the ever present risk of over stimulation. 🙂 We’ve all been there!

    Nice work tricking H into consuming the pill.

    Yum! Your lunch sounded enviously tasty. We did fresh tomatoes (with salt, pepper and chives) + fresh made pesto (discovered a massive patch of rocket which seems to have naturalised here) + oven fresh bread.

    Oh my, I better get writing and the Editor has headed off for dinner with a friend so I have to cook too tonight. Ook! Hope I’m not too late and better get writing, but first cook. Yes, if wanna eat, better cook! 🙂

    Cheers

    Chris
34. 

    April 13, 2026

    Lew

    Yo, Chris – LOL. I went on a search for the Rahko, down the rabbit hole. No, I didn’t mean a rake, which is in its infinite wisdom, decided I was in search of. But by adding “Australian” to the search, I got some results. Bunnings has some interesting security to get through, and then offered me an A I “buddy. No thanks. But, I finally got a look at it. Looks like a useful tool for cutting fire lines.

    And then I found this. Didn’t know you had a side gig 🙂

    https://www.fireresponse.com.au/product/mcleod-tool-2/

    I later thought I should have come up with a gentler adjective for your Sensei. Intense?

    That long screed on the wisdom of retreat also had a Star Trek Klingon joke, tucked in there. How many Klingons DOES it take to change a lightbulb? 🙂

    Even when I grew up in the 1950s, most figures had gone the way of molded plastic. We’ve talked about 1950s “play sets,” so it was everything from soldiers to farm animals, to dinosaurs. Knights, Robin Hood sets, Ft. Apache, etc. etc..

    https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=1950+s+play+sets&_sop=12

    You keep referring to the “smaller off-grid power system.” For lights in the woodshed? Or … ???

    Our high yesterday was 59F (15C). Our overnight low was 46F (7.77C). Our forecast high for today is 61F. Looks like our next week is going to be a mix of sun and showers. Some overnight lows will approach freezing. “April Showers, bring May flowers.” And down the rabbit hole, I went. 🙂

    More accurately, “Sweet April showers, do spring May flowers.” Thomas Tusser, 1557. Interesting fellow. A poet / farmer, among other interesting things.

    https://w.wiki/L8Zi

    He was buried at the church of St. Mildred Poultry, London. It no longer exists, but a saint of poultry? Further investigation is indicated! Well, no. The poultry refers to Poultry Street, which along with Milk Street and Bread Street, were specialty markets dating back to Anglo-Saxon times.

    When we rejoin the folks at the Greenland bunker, five years after comet strike, supplies are running low. Sunlight is greatly diminished. You can’t see the stars. And then there are tectonic problems. Which ultimately destroys the bunker. And that’s just the beginning of the problems for our plucky little group.

    The Ozette potatoes were not quit what I expected. It’s a small bag full of large, marble like root. Each with a little sprout coming out of it. I planted two to a hole, four holes. There are plenty left over, and I might take some to Carl, this morning. And, offer some to the Master Gardeners.

    I decided to make pizza, last night. A 16″. That yeasty smell in the kitchen, as the dough rises, is so nice. I had some mild turkey Pepperoni slices, in the freezer, from a food box. Also, some cubes of pepper jack cheese. Not enough cheese to cover the whole pizza, so I filled in with Mozzarella. I took a tin of tomato sauce and let it simmer for awhile, to thicken up. I added dried oregano and basil, to it. Garlic and pineapple chunks. Chopped fresh parsley, on top, when it came out of the oven. Pretty zippy, but tasty. And plenty left over to have cold, for breakfast. 🙂

    Once made, I settled in to watch “Juan of the Dead,” on U-Tub. I’m surprised the Cuban government allowed it to be made, and released. The sub-titles were a bit distracting, as they lagged a bit behind the action. And, I don’t think everything was translated. But, one can get used to a lot, when the subject matter is so interesting. 🙂

    I also picked up a new book from the library, that I started reading, last night. “The Dangerous Shore: How a Motley Crew of Scientists, Mobsters, Double Agents, Retirees, Volunteer Pilots (and a Boy Scout) Stopped the Invasion of America.” (Vladic, 2026). It’s mostly about German espionage, along our east coast, during WWII. It’s a real door stop. 500+ pages of text. But, from what I’ve read so far, readable and accessible.

    I also noticed that the author had written another book, “Indianapolis: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Naval History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man.” It turned out, our library had a copy, sitting on a shelf, out in the hinterlands. I put it on my hold list. Lew