Rural night skies are bigger. Stars shine brighter, and the Milky Way smoodge spills across the sky. Friday evening we sat outdoors at a rural pub enjoying a pint and parma under the coloured lights. The table and chairs were rickety constructions which could have graced a backyard of my youth. We’d stepped a quarter century in the past, and had headed up to the large country town of Castlemaine for dinner and a show.
It’s under an hours drive north, but then again it’d be the about same time to head south into the big city of Melbourne. That’s what being half way looks like! Outdoors the lights wove in and around a sprawling old grape vine. The ambience was really quite delightful. By the time the sun went down, the place was jumping with locals. Country pubs are fun places where unusual things can take place. Observant readers will notice in the above photo that a small child is mischievously attempting to open a keg. Dad looks lost in reverie, or maybe he was smoking! Hard to tell now.
The city is an expensive place to live, where most activities are mediated. By comparison, living costs are cheaper up in the bush, as they should be. Amenities are far less, of course. The folks in the pub sure were doing it tough. I saw groups of friends both young and old, drinking, talking, eating and laughing. The background noise was a warm and friendly hubbub. One table even had a bunch of guys my age, with a token lady. Sandra and I both agreed that her good hair and raucous gesticulations would have enhanced the evenings philosophical discussions.
A feeling of mild envy had settled in. It was like stepping back into a social life which I knew a quarter century, or perhaps longer in the past. Maybe I need to get out more? Dunno. But we were in the small rural town to see a show. A late nineties / early noughties Australian band’s (Something for Kate) lead singer (Paul Dempsey), was performing at the local theatre. His name can be seen displayed in bold lettering, under the wide Art Deco doorway.
Fun fact, I’d always assumed that the inclusion of the word in the band name, ‘Kate’, referred to the singers ex-girlfriend, but no. Apparently it was alluding to his Jack Russell dog. A delightful and exuberant canine breed, worthy of such promotional activities. I get that. American readers would never have heard of the band. Australian Gen Z’s, same, same – also not heard of the band. It’s all good. In these days of streamed music, a few tech bros platforms mediate what is largely heard, which generally ain’t local stuff! Seems to be the way of the world these days, but it wasn’t always thus.
The National Youth Broadcaster, Triple J, plays a lot of local music content, whilst supporting young musical artists. It’s a good use of the government’s funds if you ask me. Their FM music can be heard in most locations on this vast continent. The station has a weekly segment which has been running since 2004 amusingly titled, ‘Like A Version’. For those who don’t get the joke, it’s a clever play on words referring to the US artist, Madonna, and her 1984 album and single: ‘Like A Virgin’, whatever that means. Each week for the past 22 years, local and major international artists bravely venture into the studio, and perform a cover song of an entirely different artist.
Opinions, everyone’s got one. Streaming services favour international artists, because you know, they’re international businesses. Doesn’t mean that there’s no talent down under. Here’s a local band, DMA’s, smashing a version of Cher’s song Believe, out of the park without the err, heavy vocal modifications used in the original version.
14 million views is a lot, and the lead singer was apparently chewing bubble gum the whole way through the live performance, as you do. That’s talent!
The bloke we went to see perform on Friday wasn’t the above DMA crew. It was Paul Dempsey, and he’s done more than a few Like A Version covers over the long years with his original band, but also as a solo artist. They’re good performances and caught my attention.
Popular music is a hard way to earn a living in a small and widely dispersed market like Australia. There are only a handful of big cities hugging the coastline separated by quiet. And once away from those huge urban sprawls, the inland towns aren’t all that large. Drawing a profitable crowd for a band is hard in regional areas. And the costs of getting from one city to the next, are not insignificant due to the sheer tyranny of distance. Please excuse the unintended pun, it’s a tough gig.
But then, we went to see the show on Friday night. For two hours, the singer was on stage, just him and his guitar, belting out excellent covers, one after the other. It was like witnessing a troubadour, or bard of old. A truly impressive performance and I had the impression he was pleased to have found a niche. The place was packed to it’s 700 standing capacity, and the crowd was happily singing along.
People like the familiar and comfortable, and popular song covers provide that in spades. It’s a good business too. For those with pretensions, I hate to burst your bubble, but some cheeky wag, who’ll remain unnamed, recently suggested that orchestra’s are the ultimate cover bands. Rarely if ever, do they play original music. Theatre companies do the same thing when re-hashing well tested plays. Heck, how many original ideas can a person have in one lifetime? Probably not many, and whilst I enjoy and listen to current music, there’s also comfort and warmth to be found in the past.
The weather this week has been profoundly influenced by that biggerer frozen continent well to the south of here. Cold, foggy, wet, and cloudy describes most days. One morning I was awake at 5am, battling rodents (who were almost winning!) whilst outdoors it was 0.8’C / 33’F. No wonder the cheeky rats and mice had headed indoors. Anyway, disrupting my otherwise sound sleep is earning the twitchy nosed little blighters my extreme displeasure. Take that ye pests! They soak half my brain! Oh well.
Oats and flour stores are now stashed on the dining room table. In these enlightened days, people don’t remember basic anti-rodent technologies. Take the humble table just for one example: the top extends over the legs and/or other supports. Rats and mice can climb the timber legs all they like, but they can’t hang off the underside of a table, that I’m aware of. It’s a simple solution, which works. Tables with legs at the four outer corners, are probably a bad idea.
I’ve zero tolerance for the rodents, especially since they’re unwisely interrupting my quiet repose most nights. If you want good mental health, start with good sleep – you read it here first! Make of that, what you will regarding my current mental equilibrium. Moving on, we bait the rats and mice in the house with some pretty nasty stuff. And they’re eating it, but the mischief continues. Hmm.
Anyway, it’s been something of a mystery as to why they’re not all dead. This week I’ve had no time for such abstract concerns. We spent most of the free time taking concrete action – literally. We’ve been digging trenches around the downhill side of the house, then backfilling them with cement. That’ll f…, err, mess with them! See what they’re doing to my brain here?
Based on investigations made underneath the house last week, we deemed that the most active locations for rodent tunnelling had been on the downhill side of the house. By the end of the week, I’d dug a trench 20m / 66ft long, and removed a lot of material. Cement was then mixed, and poured into the long lines.
It was hard work, and in particular not damaging the house firewall was a tricky business. There were six sections of the long wall, and I did between one and two sections per day.
Mixing up such large quantities of cement is no easy job either. The first day I used the electric cement mixer, but then afterwards mixed the stuff by hand in a wheelbarrow. It’s hard to get a wet, yet mostly dry mixture which will set fast in cold weather in the big machine. I also aim for a reasonably water tight concrete which uses slightly more cement powder. People skimp sometimes, in the wrong places.
By Sunday morning, I finally discovered the rat hole where they’d been entering and exiting the building. Ruby can be seen in the next photo for sizing comparison purposes.
Rats and mice are great tunnellers, but once we removed the top layer of large rocks on the second last wall section, the hole was discovered.Turns out the large rocks we used, hid what was actually going on just below the surface. We won’t make that mistake a second time, but no doubts there’ll be other new and unusual errors.
So as the week went on, removing rocks, digging trenches, pouring cement and the job continued.
By late Sunday, the job on the downhill side of the house was completed. We’ll have to get onto the rest of the house, but I believe that at this stage, we have thwarted the pesky rodents, for now.
For the immediate future, we’ll leave the concrete exposed so that we can observe any changes. Plus there is a plan to install another layer of fibre cement which will work like a plinth. That second layer will strengthen the material which is already there.
Almost forgot to mention, during the work, we removed the enormous quantity of large-ish rocks. You can see in the above photo how they were once used against the side of the house. The rocks relocated are now used to shore up the soil behind a long line of steel rock gabion cages. The plan is that we’ll add a third layer of cages to that area.
Heaps of soil was also recovered from the excavations of the trenches. It’s good stuff for the garden, because it is full of lime and massive earthworms. We used all of the material to build up a new path which runs on the slope immediately below the house. That job was in progress until the urgency for the new firewood shed took over our lives three months ago.
Ollie approves of the nice width of the new path project.
The next photo provides a nice overview as to how the various paths running under the house link up. It’s also worth noting that we are beginning to use the two sloping garden beds immediately below the house, for vegetables and seed raising purposes.
On a vegetable note, the radishes planted in March, are now ready to harvest.
And the sudden lurch into winter this week, has produced a huge amount of fungi.
Onto the flowers:
The temperature outside now at about 11am is 12’C (54’F). So far for this year there has been 336.2mm (13.2 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 317.6mm (12.5 inches)
Comments
51 responses to “Soaked”
https://youtu.be/EiPvf2e1X18
Reminder of times past. Friday night at Monash Union mid 60’s. Max and his band filled the house each time they fronted.
Hi Kezza,
Thanks for the memories, and hey, I was brought up proper wrong! 🙂 In 1975 through to the mid eighties 3XY (remember that?) was played in the household. Even as a young bloke the tunes were absorbed!
R.I.P. Max, and talent runs strong in some folks. One good turn, deserves another, and here he is in 2010 performing the bands biggest hit (1.4 million views can’t be wrong!): Slippin Away – Catherine Britt and Max Merritt (RocKwiz duet). If my ears don’t deceive me, the pair did not drop one single note.
Kezza, thanks for the story, and they’d have rocked the uni bar house for sure!
The first band I ever saw, was a free gig put on by Skyhooks who performed from a barge on the Yarra River, in the late 70’s, as you do. I was just a kid and tagged along. Living in the 70’s huh? 🙂 Before we moved out of the big smoke, Red lived a few streets away. Man, I saw him at the local shops the day after Shirley died, and hang-dog sad was written all over his face. World events at the time passed that loss into obscurity.
Some folks are put on the planet to entertain us. Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that. 😉
Cheers
Chris
Hi kallianeira,
A very thoughtful point, and truly I have the most trouble of all replying on a Sunday evening. I can write, or reply, and maybe sometimes even do both. 🙂
You’d have noticed by now, err, chatty? Sunday’s are the least likely to get a reply, unless your name happens to be Lewis, or Pam! Last evening I had more free time, but that is not always the case.
With the cord, and there is always a story. So with the tomato strings which the vines climb up in the greenhouse, I tried to be eco-friendly and use jute twine two years ago. It was a poop idea, and the jute kept breaking and the tomato vines would flop to the ground. Hardly ideal is it?
So this summer I trialled a nothing found in nature material, and what a difference! UV stable plastic woven cord with high breaking strain is awesome. Not one string broke this year, and they’re still going strong in the greenhouse.
This is the stuff I trialled and recommend: Grunt 3mm x 60m Camo Army Cord.
The name Grunt suggests hardiness don’t you reckon? 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
It’s been remarked upon elsewhere that nobody sends mad cash in that direction, without expecting a return on investment. 😉 To be honest, I’d stop all such wealth transferral activities, at best the situation presents a conflict of interest, at worst… It’s not pretty.
Man, the hole in the photo is pretty darned big, and perhaps both rats and mice have been using the rodent dug earthworks as a super highway. Now the hole has been dug and the trench of concrete (for that is what the cement is today) has barred their escape. The worm has turned! Chris has struck a blow for the Evil Empire against the rodent resistance.
They were quite desperate for a feed last night if the droppings from the activity are any guide. This morning we moved the chicken feed to an inaccessible spot, as well as the salt and sugar stores etc. Each day gets a little bit harder for them. Candidly, they’ll wake me again tonight, and I’ll try encouraging them to leave the house. The plan may work, and what the heck, I’m already awake so might as well do something useful with the time.
Had a bit of a pottering day today, doing stuff here and there. Quite good to lift the load, so to speak. I finally had a spare hour or so to test out the biggey chainsaw since reconditioning the entire fuel system. It worked pretty well, almost as good as new. Not a bad result for a fifteen year old machine – which works very hard. Learned that the steel used in quality chains, can’t be beat by the cheaper stuff. I tried to save some mad cash there, but what do they call it again? Is it a false economy?
Hehe! Yeah, after the pint things were a bit super chill! 🙂 Due to vast amounts of psychological tweaking to the old brain by working in the profession, both the Editor and I were on time for the gig. Probably about the fifteenth and sixteenth in line to get in. There are some benefits to this because the old theatre had couches lining the walls, with the dance floor being standing room – one of which we immediately nabbed and were comfy! Most people stood for a couple of hours. Winning!
Anywhoo, we got to enjoy the opener who was a really lovely Kaitlin Keegan who has one heck of a great voice. As the night progressed though more and more people were standing in front of us, and eventually all we could see from our comfy seated position were peoples backsides.
So we climbed up and sat on the back rest of the couch and enjoyed the show from there in the now more elevated position. Fortunately nobody told us off for having feet planted on the cushions!
Ha! It’s a social lubricant isn’t it? Dancing is one of those skills where you’ve gotta be in it, to win it! And I was never much good at that skill, mostly because it was never taught or had the interest. I’m more of a mosh pit person which instead lacks grace and requires survival skills. Respect to you, and dude, people tell you in all sorts of ways if the skills are deficient. So if you hadn’t heard otherwise, you probably had some smooth moves. 🙂
The current thinking is that the continent of Antarctica had settled near the south pole about 100m years ago. Not as far back as I’d imagined. Apparently at that time, the Earth’s atmosphere was warmer than it is today, and there is fossil evidence of forests down to 85’S latitude, which isn’t the case today. Brr! Who knew that 450m years ago, that continent was on the equator?
Pretty lovely weather you are having. 72’F is about perfect. 🙂 The sunshine was equally nice here today, if somewhat more chilly at maybe 60’F for a brief few moments. The coming week is again stable and sunny, until Sunday, then it turns.
The artist has a sense of fun, and I particularly enjoyed the XBox 360 & Monster Energy painting. We’ve all been there! I see what you mean about the loose brush style, but surprisingly where there is reflected light, he uses what appears to my eye to be an entirely different style. Dunno, what do you reckon? The Honey Crisp Apple painting was one of the best to my amateur eye. Man, you can’t knock the guys work ethic. It’s impressive.
Does art school teach a person how to put food upon the table, please excuse the unintended pun given the former subject matter?
Go Land Sharks, Go!
That’s a major international problem: creeping wood sorrel! Those plants are in some of the raised garden beds, and are almost impossible to ever fully remove.
Ha! Early on when first picking up the coffee grounds all those long years ago, the folks were a bit slack about rubbish getting mixed in. They got pretty disciplined about it, but from time to time, the corners of those shelf stable milk product would end up in it. Disposable wipes were an occasional nuisance, and my tea spoon collection increased markedly. Yup, people can be slack with waste streams, and that was one reason the land of stuff folks one day suddenly refused to take used plastic from down under. I was unsurprised by that turn of events, and you’re experiencing waste streams first hand. I’m sure on a larger scale, the waste problem is a whole bunch worse.
Hmm. Ammonium sulfate for blueberries. It’s got a lot of nitrogen which the plants will love along with the drop in pH. Never used it here, the soils are already on the acidic side of the scale, but wow your blueberries will get a speedy hit of feed. Do you have to reapply the stuff?
Cheers
Chris
Haha, haha ,humans!
Did you really think that we were eating that poison?!
I instructed my minions to carry it off, giving the impression – to those of slower wits, and fewer legs – that it was being eaten!
We are using it to teach younger generations what your poison smells like. They will never be fooled by your primitive stratagems!
We will not be defeated!
Dig all you like: your Doom is inevitable!
There are many more of us than you, and we are far smarter!
Shiva, Destroyer of All, Queen of the Fernglade Rat Kingdom.
Lew phoning in sick. Moderate (? could be worse) flu I think.
Hi, Chris!
“Soaked” is literal, right? That’s how you spent last week?
It sounds like you had a really lovely evening and, let’s face it, you and the Editor deserved it. I’m glad it went well. You know, it’s hard to make a living with popular music anywhere.
Boyish, aren’t they? That’s a great song and DMA did do a smashing job with it. I like Cher. In fact, I Iiked Sonny and Cher.
It’s so green there! I hope we’ll catch up. It finally rained almost all day, just a nice steady rain, and it is so fresh outside.
How clever of you to notice the way the table is set up – as anti-mouse. Yes, that will fix them. Your trenches, I mean. How about that hole! Do you think it was the only one?
How did you remove all those big rocks? That’s so much harder than soil removal.
Your paths are like the paths of Paradise. So are your radishes. Mine never look that good.
I have feverfew coming up from last year. Yay! Such pretty plants, though it doesn’t seem to help my headaches. Some of my salvias are blooming, too; so nice to compare with yours. And my one old rose, New Dawn is also blooming. I am so lucky. Thank you for all the flowers.
And thanks for the last last week’s comment.
Pam
Hi Chris,
Yes I’m still alive and kicking.
Sounds like a great night out!
The town which was the location where “Groundhog Day” was filmed has an annual Folk Festival each July that me and other family members enjoy.
“Like a Version” – haha!
My sister in her younger days made up “Like a Sturgeon” and flop around on the floor.
Just a few updates:
The bed bug infestation of Marty’s apartment seems to be over at least for the time being. He’s been taking up a lot of my time. In addition to bed bugs he fell (well he falls pretty regularly) and this time had 3 stress fractures in two of his vertebrae. Wasn’t as bad as it sounds but he had a procedure where cement is inserted into the sites of the fractures. It was outpatient and he was back in his apartment after a few hours but of course the fall necessitated doctor appointments and an MRI beforehand. Just this morning I got a call that he had fallen yet again but nothing serious – this time.
I think he regrets hooking up with his latest girlfriend, Jan. Her dementia is worsening and she won’t let him alone. He has to lock his door sometimes to get some peace. His two buddies stand guard for him by the elevator bank near his room.
My sister, Kathleen, remains in Hospice. She’s worried that they’ll take it away because she’s not dying fast enough but they’ve ensured her that isn’t the case. Her husband has had to go out of town several times so we’ve taken turns staying overnight with her.
Doug and I are doing fine. He had 4 hives make it through the winter which is the best in a very long time. We had flooding rains in April but the spigot seems to have been turned off. I’m planning on a small garden in a new site that isn’t near farm fields and is much closer to water. It’s not that sunny so we’ll see how it goes.
Gas is pretty high here – near $5.00/gal but not nearly as expensive as yours. At least we have gas.
Seems like I only get on the computer every 4-5 days or so but I’ll check in from time to time.
Margaret
Hi Pam,
🙂 We’ve got both kinds of word based mysticism here, in that it is both literal (as you correctly noted due to prevailing poor weather), but it’s also metaphorical. Considering responses to, and also the vast amount of physical work done to counter the nefarious rodents last week, soaked up the good parts of my brain. What was left, may be described as sub fluffy optimal, but it has to make do. Awful isn’t it? And who knows what lost opportunities where kind of disappeared during that busy week? Faster than light travel, could have figured it out easy, but I was busy on more earthy twitchy nosed matters. 🙂
By the way, the Evil Fern Empire Struck Back against the rodent resistance last night, and two rebels were trapped and smited! Or is it smoted? Dunno, but the plastic fly swatter came in handy at 3am. Thank gawds the neigbours couldn’t have seen the late night antics, it’d be reported far and wide for decades to come.
Lost several hours of precious sleep too in the process. Had to do paid work all day and pulled down on the old internal resources to get through. Oh well, have to recharge them now.
It is hard to make a living in that music biz, and absolute respect to those who do. Thanks! And that country town is equal parts pretty and practical, so is a nice mixture of the two. It’s origins are with the mid nineteenth century gold rush, so there is some lovely Victorian era housing stock.
Incidentally, Mr Dempsey began the set with a rendition of REM’s Losing my religion, which is a song I’ve always loved.
Hehe! Yeah, that’s how it looks to me too. After a person has more than a few decades under their belt, you can see the glow of youth, even though I recall moments of dissatisfaction at that age. The singer has the voice of an angel.
That Sonny and Cher show never made a lot of sense to me in my youth, but they sure looked like they were having fun and that alone made it enjoyable viewing. Things were perhaps more loose in the 1970’s? If I had a body like Cher’s I’d flaunt it too, the lady is very pretty. But oh my, those extroverts and their ways – eg. If I could turn back time…
Thanks, and with more rain like what you described, your place will green up really quick. It was the crazy wet March weather which made everything here bright green. There’s more heavy rains forecast for the centre of this usually arid continent sometime later this week. Right now, here it’s warm, calm and sunny.
That’s the very question I’m wondering about too: Is that the only rat hole? Truly I don’t know, but the plan is to keep working around the whole house with that solid barrier. Well over half the house is good now, and that’s more than a few weeks ago. The dog’s enclosure will get a refresh out of all of this work too.
The rocks were removed with a strong steel rake into a pile, and then shovelled into crates which sat in a power wheelbarrow. They were one bad idea, but will work better elsewhere.
🙂 Thank you for saying that about the paths, they’re hard to make, but a treat to use. Actually, the radishes look more pink to me as well. The only difference was that seaweed / fish fertiliser I trialled. Dunno. What do you reckon about that?
Ook! I’ve never trialled Feverfew leaves for a headache. They’re good at possibly reducing body temperature, but have given me the occasional mouth ulcer if over-used, which wasn’t much. Use with caution is my thinking. Strong stuff. Go the Salvia’s and Roses! 🙂 Good to hear that the hard to get new Rose is doing well.
🙂 Always a pleasure chatting.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Margaret,
Thank you for taking the time to drop by and say hello. By the way, the news about Doug getting four hives through the winter is very impressive. Respect. And it’s heartening to hear of the experience.
Yeah, it was a fun night out going to the gig. But it was also lovely to see the active social lives of the folks in the town, which crossed all ages. Wonder if the locals know how lucky they are?
Hope the Punxsutawney summer folk festival goes off like a frog in a sock! 🙂
Oh, that is good. Yes, Like a Sturgeon, but doing the wriggling salmon dance – which is a real thing from years ago. Credit, where credit is due, the lady singer has had one heck of a career in a tough industry.
Thank gawds the worst of the bed bug infestation is over for Patrick. It would have been an horrific experience. What? Battling recovery from falls and fractures, plus his latest lady intrigue is a bit. Margaret, your words almost describe a scene out of the film ‘Fatal Attraction’, and dare I say it, but keep an eye on the pet rabbit in this instance. Good to see the Patrick has integrated himself in the new social environs. The last place wasn’t this exciting.
Are you having some good chats and making peace with Kathleen (not suggesting that there wasn’t peace already, but you know what I mean)?
April wasn’t that long ago, and the ground would have filled with water from those heavy rains. The same thing happened here in March, with intermittent prolonged bouts of dry and stable weather. Could be worse… Your garden plans sound sensible to me, and vegetables do OK in the shade, and in some ways they’re more resilient to hot and dry conditions. I’ll be interested to hear what your thoughts are once the growing season has run its course.
Bought petrol (what you call gas, which is actually a liquid) tonight for AU$1.80/Litre which works out to be US$4.79/ Gallon. Hmm. Diesel though, has not come down in price – which is to be expected. Locally that is US$6.65/Gallon.
Crazy days huh?
Cheers
Chris
Greetings Shiva, Destroyer of All and Queen of the dratted rodent Fern Kingdom, Registration number 6574382.
A long time ago, in a fernery far, far away…
The Evil Fern Empire sent out probes to all corners of the known existence.
Reports came back that a droid discovered evidence of a Rebel rodent base err, rat hole, in the not so snowy realm of Fernglade, before being mysteriously destroyed.
Upon learning this new information, Darth Chris, Evil Overlord, despatched the Imperial forces to investigate.
Image of plastic fly swat moving through interstellar space
The pesky rebels were cornered in the mountainous lands of fern and allowed no escape from the err, bathroom.
The feared Darth Chris, with the combined assistance from the Evil Empress, Sandra, used the dark side of the force to accurately control the Empires most powerful weapon – the plastic fly swat.
Boasts were made about: Bull’s-eyeing womp rats in my T-16 back home
During the long campaign, adrenalin coursed the blood, the force did whatever it is that it does, and mighty squeals were voiced when rodent rebels clambered over sheepskin footwear at high speed.
At that most crucial of moments, an ephemeral and mildly distracting voice was heard in the background Use the force, Darth Chris
Why hadn’t I thought of doing that? With a mighty swing, the Empire Struck Back!
Despite the double win, this war will be long, sacrifices will be made, and no doubts Shiva’s rodent minions will eventually triumph, for everyone knows that storm troopers are worst shot in the Galaxy! The dark side of the force is upping their average…
Anywhoo, despite the force, I still fear you Shiva rodent Queen.
Darth Chris, resplendent in glory, this time, maybe…
Hi Xabier,
Thanks so much for the laughs, and see what you set in motion here! Reply to Shiva, above. 🙂
Hope you’re doing well and that you have a most excellent growing season. And watch out for those rodents!
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Sorry to hear that you are under the weather, and not feeling well. Hope that you have recovered a bit today?
Candidly speaking, you’d be feeling better than the two mouses (ooo the spell checker gave the thumbs up to the word ‘mouses’ whereas the plural ‘mice’ sounds better to my reading ears – a word mystery for you) which copped it in the bathroom at around 2am this morning. I’d so had it with them. Are there more mice, let’s find out…
It was all a bit hands on really. And way too much excitement for my restful repose. Adrenalin and sleep are poor friends.
Hopefully you are keeping your water up and getting plenty of rest, whilst also trying to eat something. It’ll do you no good young man not to keep your energy levels up! 🙂 Look after yourself, and thinking of you.
If you need a laugh to lift your spirits, the comment from Xabier was very amusing, as was the reply.
Make sure that the lung biscuits aren’t retained, they’re no good in there. At least you’re heading into warmer weather.
I trust H is being well behaved in your hour of need?
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris, Slightly better today. Ate a bit, yesterday. No lunch biscuits, that was three 1/2 months ago. This is just body aches and pains and a slight nausea that won’t go away. I hit the Dramamine yesterday, and that helped. Later, Lew
Chris:
I wasn’t sure of how else you were using “soaked”. Your brain, eh? Makes me think of a brandy-soaked fruitcake. I wish it was Christmas.
I just noticed that the theater that you went to was of Art Deco design. Is it actually that old?
Have been smitten? Soon your rodent troubles will all be over. You could be a Sir yourself.
Ooh, lucky you to have been smitten with REM.
No, no, no! Worst idea ever, to turn back time.
We got an inch of rain (2.5cm) yesterday. It finally did a lot of good.
I wonder if my new liquid fertilizer has seaweed in it; it smells a bit seaweedy. Nope, just checked.
I never did get the hard-to-get new rose. I was pondering again today if I ought to try again next fall (it’s only available in the fall). I have been saving the one spot in the garden for something special, but I’m getting a bit tired of waiting. The rose I have blooming now is by the house, in the shade, and is over 30 years old.
I started some seeds not too long ago for a pepper I had never heard of. It is called a Felicity pepper and is a sweet, heatless jalapeno. I have some hot jalapeno peppers planted outside already. I came across the seeds a few weeks ago, so my 5 peppers are still quite small and very delicate from living in the fig room. I trundle them out to the garden in my cart when I go out there to work, so they can get some real sun and air, and then I lug them back up to the house when I go in. They sleep in my room and have a plant light on my sewing desk. I have decided I am a pepper nanny.
Pam
@ Margaret:
Hi, Margaret! It is so good to hear from you!
Pam
Chris:
Make that Darth Chris, Evil Overlord.
Gosh, what a funny story! Thanks!
Pam
@ Xabier:
I just saw that you are Shiva. I am afraid that I am on Darth Chris’ side. Beware!
Thanks for the laughs.
Pam
Chris,
Yes, I noticed last week, and you eventually said it, that you never say anything in advance about plans to leave the farm for a few hours. Good plan. Very good plan.
Hard work on the new concrete project. Remove stuff. Dig. Mix concrete. Pour concrete. Move the removed dirt to the delayed pathway project. That is a few full days.
Some of our recent days near and above 25C have had humidity below 25%. Today hit 30.5C and the humidity dropped to 18%. This is high dog days of summer levels of humidity. And breezy, too. The ground, soaked 4.5cm deep 3 weeks ago, is now bone dry. Wednesday should bring a cooler day with extreme winds and gusts over 80 km/hr region wide. Maybe a FEW sprinkles. Wednesday was supposed to be a yard workday with Young Neighbor. If the winds truly get violent, this will be rescheduled. Trimming trees in high winds is less than enjoyable.
Nice job by Darth Chris to use the force to swat two verminous scallywags! Were some of these nefarious critters to invade the dining area while you are feasting, would it be “Use the FORK, Chris?” Woe unto thee lest you try to “stab it with your steely knives but you just can’t kill the beast.” 😉
I felt an entire year older today. Then the Princess reminded me that a birthday was occurring. No wonder I felt old. 🙂 We DID get out for a rather fancy meal(for us) that was superb. We even brought home, for later consumption, some cake and ice cream.
Oh, and it’s one of those birthdays in which the age became tedious. The tens digit and the ones digit are the same number. The Princess said something incomprehensible about “Boxcars DJ” or something. I was trying to ignore her and concentrate on my most wonderful meal. 😉
OH well, twas a fun day. Time for cake and ice cream. Yum, the restaurant sent some chocolate syrup too.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
It was pretty funny, thanks for the kind words, and oh, but it’s fun isn’t it?
Oh yeah, soaked fruit cakes are the best. The big shed dudes made one for Christmas, and it had soaked in brandy for a year. I usually attempt to impress with a dessert, but was beaten in this instance, and it wasn’t even a close call. So good, but there is a plan in place to thwart their campaign of general food excellence this year, but I have to practice it first, more than a bit.
Yes, the theatre is an original dating from around the 1920’s. Oh, who knew? The earlier building was constructed in 1856 (the height of the gold rush) and it’s the longest continuously operating theatre on the mainland. Presumably there may be an older theatre on the island state of Tasmania, which was settled much earlier than this state (almost 50 years).
Pam, last night I enjoyed the first undisturbed sleep in about three weeks! Those rodents have terrorised us. The Editor remarked that my swacks with the fly swat in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, were accompanied by serious emotion and some naughty language. And there were no signs of rodent droppings this morning. None. Fingers crossed, but we’ll still finish the job of trenching around the entire house. Never again, this year was bad.
On that note, I happened to observe an owl late last night sitting quietly high up in a tree waiting to strike. In the house, those rodents knew no predator and roamed freely, except that they were wrong.
Thanks, but to be honest, a cat, or even the dogs would be far more effective than my rodent hunting skills. For example, during the Great Rat War over at the chicken enclosure a couple of years ago, I scored two rats, but Dame Plum notched up about twenty or more of the miscreants. Not quite the same score, is it? And in the recent Lesser Mouse War, again I scored two. Longer term, small farms like this place, and yours too for that matter, need a Mr or Ms Baby. I’m sure when the time comes, and the hurt passes, a new kitten will rock up to your place and say to you: “Pam, I’m here to brighten up your life, provide an occasionally furry cuddle, get up to more mischief than you could possibly ever imagine, and put a lid on the rodents and squirrels worst efforts!”
Years ago, I almost didn’t buy the tickets to go and see REM perform, and that would have been a lost opportunity. Some moments are like that, and the toss of a coin is all that decides them. It was a great performance, and the bands last visit here at the bottom of the world.
🙂 We are of one mind there, and some folks are like a good bottle of red in that they get better with age. I’d like to think that you and I can chuck ourselves into that category! Cher perhaps peaked at an earlier age.
What is in the new liquid fertiliser? Dunno, but I get the impression that fish meal is the likelier possibility than the rarer seaweed.
Ah, such rose details get lost sorry, but there is as you note, always next season and yeah, but is it really worth the wait? There are many less fadish, but just as nice varieties. I personally like the dense flowers with the strong aroma. And that’s been my take on those loveliest of plants, they’re adaptable, and I’ll bet the decades old rose growing in the shade rarely requires watering?
Go the pepper nanny! And I’m super jealous and wish you all the best for the chilli harvest. Yup, lug them out during the day, then inside again at night. Presumably space in the poly tunnel is now limited? 🙂 I get that. And spare a thought for me who now has to buy fresh chilli. Some of it has been err, surprisingly hot! Always exciting…
Did mostly paid work today, but managed to begin the job of installing the corrugated metal cladding on the downhill side of the cantina shed. Hope to finish that work tomorrow, but we’ll see.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Yeah, that’s the thing, miscreants can read too, just as easily as you or I, so why make things easy for them? We’re around most of the time anyway. Earlier today a car stopped up on the road, presumably so the driver could relieve his bladder. And the dogs went ballistic! Hehe! A good loud yell to tell them to “Leave it!”, put an end to the episode. But from my point of view, how do I know what the bloke was doing, he could just as easily be casing the place out. Dunno. Best to nip problems in the bud as the old timers used to say, don’t you reckon?
Most of the mixing of cement was done by shovel using a wheelbarrow. In some ways, it gives a nicer consistency. Earlier in the week, I had no idea how long the rodent proofing work would take, but it soon became obvious that only one or two (at most) sections of trenching per day could be done. Why bother using the big electric spinning machine, because cleaning it is a real pain.
Trying to work out the flows with these sorts of activities is difficult, as you’d know from your work days. Far out! I can only imagine what you had to deal with. 🙂 Getting a big excavator to do some digging is the easy bit. It’s what comes next plus the timing, which would have given you all the headaches. And then things would have inevitably gone wrong on occasion.
Ook! That’s some rather low humidity for this time of year, and not something I’ve experience with. To get to 25% humidity, the air temperature here would be pushing 35’C and beyond. 25’C and even 30’C is hot, but hardly extreme. What’s your take on the dry-ish humidity? Is the wind arriving by way of the south and east? Is it the way of things for this month?
The top layers of soil tend to dry out here as well during summer regardless, and that has a bigger moisture preservation strategy to it. Water wicks upwards through the soil, so if the top layers dry out, then that slows overall evaporation because the moisture stays deeper. Most vegies have root systems which extend further down into the ground anyway, so keeping the top inch or so of soil moist is a hard task even in damp summers. Of course that effect does slow plant growth, but hey, leaching of soil minerals is reduced as well. That strategy produces more difficult conditions, but with overall lower costs. Commercial market gardens, may be efficient growing techniques, but they hardly replicate what happens in less cosseted environments, do they? 🙂 Like everything, there is balance to be found, somewhere. And sudden changes are right out with plants due to them taking time to adapt.
Watch out for those winds, and like you, I do no pruning in such conditions. You may laugh, but years ago, the first time I used a long pole saw to trim a branch, the chunk fell onto my arm. It sure hurt I can tell ya! Nowadays I’m more careful. 🙂
On that cutting note, I’ve sworn off the cheaper cutting chains. Man, I tried to make the things work, and you’d be amazed at the esoteric chainsaw knowledge my already over loaded brain has had to absorb. But I’m done, there is no substitute for quality steel in this instance. Oh well, it’s a tough lesson to learn and the quality stuff is three times as expensive, but way many more times re-usable. It’s not even in the same league. Guess I have reach into the treasury and cough up the extra mad cash. It happens, and I do try the cheaper approach, for it sometimes works.
Oh, the capacitors for the new second hand amplifier turned up in the mail today. A local business, but they were flown in from London, as you do. That was unexpected. I went with quality components, and previous experience suggests that the difference can be easily heard. A job for a rainy day, and who knows when that will be.
Ha! Very funny, yes, use the fork! 😉 That’s good, and thanks for the chuckles. It may well be that the two mice took up bookings at the Hotel Cherokee. Thanks, now I’ve got that most awesome ear worm invading my brain space!
Happy birthday to you, and yes, time does move more quickly as a person counts more years to their experience. Those folks who take a linear perspective to that time thing notion are kidding themselves, despite their tricksy clocky measurement devices with alarums! A bit of a problem that, but we must be stoic, and a fancy meal with a fine lady is the consolation prize at such moments. Yum!
And yeah, the Editor sometimes stirs me up to, and one must do their utmost best to ignore such things as being beneath their dignity to notice. That’s what being cool is, although if you can manage that trick, please do let me know your secret is! 😉 And sometimes I can be a smarty pants too. It happens.
Your warm weather is perfect for ice cream. Dude, all this talk of food, and no details! Go on, what sort of ice cream did you score? Home made pizza for dinner this evening.
Had a shandy day of paid work, and also did stuff around here. The weather is quite stable and warm this week, and so I put some of the corrugated steel sheets as cladding on the downhill side of the cantina shed. Might finish the job tomorrow. Frankly speaking, I need a break from digging trenches and then backfilling them with cement. And more importantly I’m looking forward to another night of no rodent interruptions. I was at the point of having vivid bad dreams where I was swarmed by rodents. Nobody needs that.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Ouch! Those are some nasty and unpleasant symptoms, and hope that you are feeling better today?
Interesting, I’d not heard of Dramamine before, and good to hear that it’s helping. Man, it’s no good feeling nauseous for hours and hours on end. Hopefully you had a chance to sleep off the worst of it? Sleep is good at those moments to let your body do what it needs to do to fight the bug.
Speaking of fighting, I can confirm that last night there were no rodent activities observed. And I got to sleep long and deeply, which is something which had been missing from my life for the past three weeks. Although you are doing it tougher today.
Fingers crossed that the mouse days are now in the past, but we’ll remain vigilant for maybe another week. Frankly speaking, I was bit tired of battling the mice, but a dude does what is sometimes needed of doing.
You’d have not noticed the weather in your part of the world. It was pretty nice here today, and so we did a mixed shandy day of paid work, and also putting up some of the corrugated steel sheets on the Cantina shed downhill wall. The plan is to finish that job off tomorrow. It’s looking sharp.
And the capacitors turned up in the mail today. I’d bought them from what I’d thought was a local mob, but in fact the components had flown over from London, of all places. Who knew? They don’t weigh much, so perhaps that’s why they were airfreighted, which can’t have been cheap.
Oh well, I won’t trouble you with stories of home made pizza given your present circumstances, and diet of ships tack biscuits and water. I’ll bet they didn’t taste nice at all? Did you manage to keep any food down today?
Hope you’re feeling improved today.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Taking another sick day. I ate a bit more yesterday than the day before. Rain is back. Prof. Mass has a couple of posts on it. I’m watching a lot of Brit mysteries and zombie movies.This one’s Italian, 1979
https://youtu.be/VbzouLjCWxg?si=bZNDfwoTwoD5Bm3G
When the mouse enemy starts sending you messages like that, they’re getting desperate. Lew
Chris:
Soaked in brandy for a year? That sounds mighty good. The pressure is on for you next holiday season.
That’s neat about the theater. It is truly venerable. I didn’t know Tasmania was settled that early. In fact, besides Tasmanian devils, the only other thing I know about Tasmania is that we used to watch their footy team.
I didn’t realize until sometime last night that you actually did swat them with the swatter: I mean, you didn’t miss! I think that’s a record. Certainly it deserves an Elephant Stamp. I am so grateful that you got some sleep. I got this bit of Shakespeare from – who else? – Wodehouse: “Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care”.
But Dame Plum has more appropriate equipment. You could have cheated with a firearm, but I’ll bet a rat is a pretty hard target to hit, unless he sits there and stares at you. I do hope a Ms or Mr Baby shows up some day.
No, I never water the old rose. It’s a hefty climber, with several thick trunks and probably has roots like a tree (down in this clay soil that holds water). I would never buy a rose that did not have a fairly strong scent. You don’t even have to go anywhere near to our rose while it is blooming right now to smell the heavenly fragrance.
There is no more poly tunnel for now as the figs can manage okay out in the open, even though some nights have still been pretty cold. Even the frames have beem stored.
At last you have had time to work on the cantina shed. The mousies took over and now I don’t recall if the new firewood shed is completely finished, except for adding more wood, of course.
I meant to tell you about a dog. Monday I had to go to a lock & safe shop to have a spare Honda key made. They have a dog greeter in there. He’s a really big dog, very low key, seems to feel his job is to make the rounds: lobby, go check in the back, back to the lobby, lie down on his huge dog bed between two old easy chairs, and chew on his real bones. Then start over. I had to wait awhile and it was amusing to watch (and pet) him. He also knew not to ever try to go out the front door. I love shops with dogs. I come across one every now and then.
Pam
@ Lew:
I am so sorry that you’ve been feeling so terrible. Is it better? When I get really nauseous, like I can’t hold any food down, I take Bonine. It has Meclizine HCl, which is in some other things, too, though I’m not sure about Dramamine.
Pam
@ Lew,
Hope you get over the belly bug soon. Nasty stuff.
DJSpo
Chris,
Thirty and forty years ago, a lot of homes got robbed hereabouts. Why? Death notices and funeral schedules printed in the newspapers. Miscreants read the schedules, waited for the grieving parties to attend funeral proceedings, conducted raids. Pretty sick people in my view, but the point was made to me long ago not to air in any public medium if and when I wouldn’t be home. Glad you’ve learned that also.
Wheelbarrow and shovel has always been my favorite mixing method for concrete. My smaller batch projects use a bucket and hand trowel. Same idea. However, a friend was pouring new concrete floors in a building he owned. I used the big batch electric machine for mixing, he poured the concrete.
Douglas Hofstadter, author with a PhD in physics, once wrote a book “Goedel, Escher and Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid”. He was talking at one point about work, workflows, how long things take. He came up with Hofsadter’s Law: “Everything will take longer than you think it will, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.” Very true that, and he used it as a way to introduce a lengthy discussion of self-referencing ideas.
Today the humidity increased. Cloud cover arrived Tuesday evening, keeping the temperature up and increasing the humidity. The winds hit about 8a.m. today along with a cold front. Gusts officially peaked at the weather station about 77 km/hr on several occasions. At 6:30 p.m. the temperature has dropped to +9C. Drizzle has been occurring off and on all afternoon. Not much rain, but it is nasty out, with all sorts of stuff mixing with the “Rain Falling Sideways” bit of the storm. The main highway south of here was closed for a few hours this morning due to dust storms and a multiple vehicle accident. Needless to say, Young Neighbor and I decided to reschedule our yardwork session.
Very astute question, by the way. The low humidity Tuesday was, indeed, accompanied by winds from the east, a rare occurrence here. Always brings in some kind of drastic weather things.
Typically, November through March are very wet. April still about 30mm of rain, May slightly less, June increased to 30mm again. May often with a small system or two and a few thunderstorms, June mostly thunderstorms. However, the past decade or longer this has changed. This was the first April in several years that had about normal rainfall. The rain spigot has been turning off in early April in prior years or even in March, leading to paltry rainfall amounts in April, May and June. Humidity 25% and lower is unheard of in May. We are rather behind normal for the “water year” which began October 1. My feel for things, as well as the forecasters I use, all agree that this cool and windy 5 days will not drop much rainfall east of the Cascades, especially in the desert areas and here. June will be dry also.
Dude, no laughter from me. The very idea of trimming a limb and providing it with a human landing spot is NOT a good idea, nor is it funny. I mean, not even Monty Python or Douglas Adams worked something like that into their stuff!
It used to be that there was a difference in quality between the lower cost items and mid to higher cost items, with all but the very cheapest items being functional to some extent. Now? The cheapest items are a money trap, needing to be replaced at such a rate that purchase of the quality items becomes less expensive in the long run.
I get the difference in quality electronic parts. As you noted, the difference can be heard. Longevity issues occur as well.
Thanks, you got the entire household, including Dame Avalanche, laughing at Hotel Cherokee.
Okay. The meal. For birthdays and our anniversary, we bite the bullet and splurge (for us) at Texas Roadhouse. The Princess ordered her typical Margarita. I had a large bock ale. We both had salads. She had what she calls French Fries and you and I call chips, while I had a cup of chili. We both had prime rib with raw horseradish on the side. Leftovers were brought home. The ice cream was vanilla but went perfectly with the chocolate cake and chocolate syrup.
Today, being wildly stormy with leaves and flower petals and other bits of trees flying sideways, was a perfect day to stay indoors and do very little. Meaning, Dame Avalanche slept all day. Being smart humans, the Princess and I followed the husky’s example and also took a number of short snoozes throughout the day. Didn’t realize we were so sleepy.
And thanks for the birthday wishes. Yes, time progresses in a fluid fashion. While the measuring devices maintain that time marches ever onward at a uniform pace, any observant person knows from experience and observation that the progress of time fluctuates due to subjective reasons. “Time flies when you’re having fun.” Or the week before Christmas seems to last for a lifetime or three when you are 7 years old, while the 2 week or so Christmas break from school only seemed to last for a day or two. 😉 And life seems to fly by faster and faster the less young that I get. Yet, time flies even faster still when I’m having fun.
The moral of that is: if you want time to come to a standstill, make sure you are perpetually miserable. 😉
Dreams of being swarmed by rodents? That is not good. Nightmarish, really. If you start musing about things like that during the day, then you would be suffering from day mares, right? Best to eradicate the rodents.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Oh yeah, the dessert was like that moment the d’el came down to Georgia, and he knew he’d been beat. 🙂 My friends clearly lifted their dessert game, but I’ve got a plan.
Funnily enough, Tasmania was settled pretty early on by the Europeans after the First Fleet landed in 1788. That year was when they established an off shore penal colony at Botany Bay. An auspicious beginning for a country if ever there was one. The probability of the folks returning to Britain was low, so the British authoritas had the problem of what to do with convicts who still despite everything, misbehaved. Being unceremoniously dumped at the ends of the Earth with no possibility of return was not a fearful enough prospect for some. So they sent that lot to an even harsher penal colony in Tasmania, and also Norfolk Island (which would have had the nicer climate). The state I live in wasn’t settled until almost half a century later in 1834, and really only took off after after the gold rush of 1850 onwards. Your country is much older by comparison.
You’d be amazed at how small the population of that island state is.
The mousey wars were a most hands on experience. For every direct hit, there must have been fifteen or twenty near misses. Mice are fast, and super clever creatures. I’ve only respect for them, but the rodents must in turn respect my firm boundaries which are stay out of the house and chicken enclosure, or face the most dire of consequences.
Thanks for the lovely quote, and it’s so true. 🙂
We’ve lost an extraordinary amount of sleep over the past three weeks due to the acts of the rodents. Still, the critters gave me a kick up the backside to fortify the house more thoroughly. It was easy, and just a lot of work…
Exactly! Use the right tool for the job, and Dame Plum can handle rats in a larger environment where there is more room for movement. I had some doubts as to her skills in the confined house environment. I’m not mucking around, whilst trapping the mice in the bathroom with no escape, we had to dismantle all of their hiding places so as to keep them on the run, and there were a lot of those places. A dog is unable to do that work.
Hehe! There’d be someone who can shoot rats and/or mice, but it ain’t me! 🙂 What a mess would result from that activity.
We’ll see what the future holds in store on the cat front. You never know, and sometimes the universe just provides.
Ah, climbing roses probably do have such massive root systems, and need not fear dry weather. Pam, that sounds lovely with the aroma of your roses and some of the David Austin ones are bred for their smell. 🙂 Such wonderful plants those.
That was quick to remove the poly tunnels, and it just doesn’t seem that long ago when you had the occasional frozen morning. Hope the little figgies grow well, reproduce well and importantly, sell well.
Yup, the new firewood shed project is done. The plan is to fill up the shed throughout the year and give the wood time to dry and season. Funnily enough, the Editor went to the local Stihl dealer today (plus other activities in that area) with instructions to pick up several new chains, and they only had the wrong sort (in my opinion) for the area. Being alert to the difficulties those types of chains would cause me, she did not buy any which is something I very much appreciated. Made me wonder how much the people at the shop knew about this stuff? The old farm machine repair dude would never have tried to sell me those other types of chains. Oh well, and at the time all those years ago, I didn’t know what a great thing I had with his service. It’s been a long journey learning about everything since then! As you’d have experienced living rurally too, no doubts? Who teaches you any of this stuff? But we do get better at it as the years go on, or that’s the theory anyway. 🙂
Oh, and we installed the rest of the corrugated steel sheets on the cantina shed today. Then took a well deserved break. I still have to add some minor flashing and silicone weather sealing to the edges, but need to go to the big box hardware store to get the materials for that work. It’s looking sharp!
🙂 Lovely stuff, and dogs in work places and businesses are such a wonderful way to take things down a notch. I enjoy them too in such places. Hey, a pooch may enter your life unexpectedly at some mysterious point in the future?
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Awful that such things go on, but a person can only do their best and I’m aware of the risk. To be honest, after bushfires, there is often looting (and worse if rumours are anything to go by!) so it’s hardly surprising that areas are closed off to the general public after disasters. Some folks lack a moral compass.
Yeah, the small batch cement mixing would work a treat, and provide for an even better mixture. And I absolutely 100% agree with you, scale is everything! I’d use the electric mixer for bigger projects too, like when we poured the cement for the posts with the new firewood shed. I could have done the work with a shovel and wheelbarrow, but the sun was shining and electricity was otherwise going to waste.
Tell you a funny story about that electric cement mixer machine. It’s got a 200L tub, and was one of those machines which I purchased bigger than necessary. It’s never once struggled and can mix a very large wheelbarrow load all at once. But now I’m left with the uncertainty due to lack of experience – is the machine too big? Dunno. A mystery. The tires go flat on the thing though, and I’m looking to replace those with solid rubber tires – which work well if kept out of the sunshine.
Go Mr Hofstadter, who is probably more clever than all of the rest of us combined to come up with such astute observations – which are true. To be honest, I’ve only the vaguest of ideas how long any of this stuff will ever take to complete, and yet with his concept of strange loops – the sensitive person has to wonder what the word: ‘complete’ even means? To his way of thinking, it may be that the beginning is also meandering it’s way to the ending. A conundrum! And also hope the physicist upset the established order by introducing metaphysics to the field. He’d certainly be a more fun guest at dinner parties!
Just had a weird rat interaction. A Bogong moth was attracted to the light shining through the glass door. There is also (for good reasons) a very solid stainless steel mesh screen door. A rat jumped onto the outside of the screen door, and I was looking at its guts from the underside through the glass door. The noise raised the hairs I sure can tell you. What a year it’s been for those creatures, and I’m wondering if the late February hail storm has reduced their food supply – as it has ours?
Those are some strong wind gusts, and hope that the local trees were unaffected? Well sometimes physical realities dictate activities. Those were some very unpleasant weather conditions, and hope things have settled down and calmed since?
There is a lot of arid land to the east and south of you, and it’d work (I’m guessing) like a heat engine, and the excess energy has to escape to somewhere else. Yeah, my gut feeling suggested that the humidity was very low for your month of the annual cycle. Interesting to hear, and I too take weather forecasts from multiple sources, and try and read the ‘tea leaves’ so as to get an idea for how things might work out.
Long term forecasting is a challenging job, and only ever indicative of what conditions may be. Like everything, it depends. Until the season is done, the numbers recorded, it’s all speculation and guesses.
Well that’s the thing with a pruning saw on a long pole, a person without experience gets to learn how gravity works out in practice. 10 metres a second is alarmingly fast! I will point out that Newton was reclining at his ease in an apple orchard after all and possibly less injured.
I hear you about that, and sometimes the more ‘spensive stuff is also rubbish. It’s a minefield out there… The local Stihl dealer tried to sell some full chisel saw chains to the Editor this morning (who was there at my request because she was in the area), whereas semi chisel chains work better in the forests here (for me anyway). There is a real loss of local knowledge, but then our society actively out-sources brain capacity. Look at the lust for arty-fish-al boondoggles to save people from using what nature gave ’em, but for cheaper (on many fronts)!
🙂 You got me laughing too with the cheeky Eagles reference.
Oh wow! Just checked out the menu and the pictures of the food were superb. Yummo! The humble Margarita is a wonderful standard which hits the spot, and I’d not heard of a Bock beer before, but approve of a full bodied darker ale – except your lot has the heritage aspect to it as well. Nice choice. What the heck, raw horseradish is mind blowing and sinus clearing stuff. Respect! Boom! The plant grows like a weed here.
Exactly, they’ve always been called chips down here, and as a cultural difference, are generally sold in chunkier cut versions than fries, which are usually called chips as well.
Hope you enjoyed the well deserved food coma! 🙂 What fun you two would have had with the meal. Your current weather dictates the need to rest and recuperate. Funnily enough after three weeks of disturbed sleep, I too had a long nap after lunch. Just crashed out with brain shut down. Before then earlier in the day I did manage to install the remaining sheets of corrugated metal on the wall of the cantina shed. Looking sharp. Actually some of the edges are a bit sharp, and we’ll add some trim and use silicone to weather seal the edges over the next week or so, weather depending.
🙂 So true about time, and one wonders with the fluidity of our experience of the effect all means, is it a particle, or a wave?
Thanks for the laughs, and nary a day is wasted!
Yup, rodents now seem to be banished from indoors. They have not gone anywhere though – refer to the above!
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Did you see the note at the end of the Zombie film trailer about the provision of the ‘barf bag’? Sorry to bring this topic up in your present condition, but I’ve not encountered that kind offer from a cinema before and it was a charmingly thoughtful surprise. Perhaps in these latter more enlightened days, we’ve become desensitised to the gory antics of the undead?
Glad to hear that you’re feeling better today, and hope tomorrow brings even more improvement. At least the rainy weather is just the thing when you’re off your feed.
Ah, the Professor mentions that the rain band will extend towards DJ’s place, as it worked out. Holy carp! I’d not realised that Virginia and Georgia were so dry. Not good, but then I’d imagine they’d have a higher likelihood of summer storms, maybe. Great to hear that the rivers and dams in your part of the world are in fine condition for the coming summer months. There is a lot to like about that.
The Zombie film trailer reminded me of some of the spaghetti westerns made in that part of the world during those years.
Well, dude, as I was typing away replying to DJ, a fricken large rat jumped onto the screen door to nab a massive and juicy Bogong moth. Whoa! Scared the daylights out of me, and I was able to see the underside of its guts through the door glazing. Far out! I get the impression, that perhaps due to the hail in late February, the rats and mice are hungry indeed. This has been one crazy year for them.
On a more positive note, my sleep was undisturbed last night by rodent activities. Fingers crossed, we may have thwarted them, for the moment. When we’re digging the trenches on the uphill side of the house, I might keep the dogs close just in case a rat tries to take a dive under the house via a freshly dug trench. Gives one an attack of the vapours considering the possibilities… Oh well.
Hey, got the final few corrugated steel sheets installed up on the wall of the Cantina shed earlier today. It’s looking pretty swish-o! There is still some edging and sealing work to do, but we have to go and get some materials to complete that work, like tubes of silicone sealant. A truly wonderful and robust material.
Anyway, crashed out after lunch. Me was tired after several weeks of night time activity due to the Lesser Mouse War. Plus every morning required a half hour to an hours cleaning because they poop and wee everywhere. At least that activity shows what they’ve been up to. Anyway, all that combined cleaning work was a lot of extra stuff to do. Mustn’t grumble though, as the English are won’t to say.
The rain looks as though it is returning here on Sunday, but until then, the weather has been glorious. Today was just a beautiful day, although the air is cooling fast, and the sun is nearing the horizon a bit past the 5pm mark. This time thing marches on, doesn’t it?
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – No, I’d missed the bit in the trailer, about the barf bag. But how about a nurse and ambulance standing by? Which set off a whole chain of associations, about the movies. You know how my mind works … 🙂
Back when TV was taking over the land, movie theaters were doing it rough. They tried all kinds of gimmicks to get eyes in the door. Still do. From what I read, they’re turning into virtual theme parks. Developing new streams of income, other than what’s on the screen.
But back to the nurse and the ambulance. William Castle was the king of the movie gimmick.
https://listverse.com/2011/05/24/top-10-william-castle-film-gimmicks/
A wonderful film portraying this, is John Goodman’s “Matinee,” 1993. Spoilers ahead.
https://collider.com/matinee-john-good-man-joe-dante/
As far as the Italian movie went, there were extras on the DVD. A film buff really knew his stuff, in discussing the film. Here’s how it went. George Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead” was in the can, and had been sent to Italy for musical scoring. Just about everyone in the Italian film industry got at least a peak at it. They knew it was going to be a money maker, so, they made “Zombie,” in less than a year (light speed), and, it was actually showing before “Dawn..” hit the screens.
The Italians brought something a bit new, to zombie films. Putrefaction. The advanced decay of the walking dead. There were some film cuts, of both films, showing the difference. Romero’s zombies are really in pretty good shape, all things considered. The Italian zombies are pretty far gone. Worms in the eyeballs, etc.
The Italians also went for real shock value. The camera doesnt’ flinch away from some pretty gruesome stuff. Like closeups of wood splinters in an eye. I had to look away. 🙂
Last night I watched Romero’s “Day of the Dead.” Tonight, I think, “Zombieland.” Hello, Woody! 🙂
We’ve been getting rain, on and off. At least I don’t have to worry about watering the garden. There were a couple of days there, where I didn’t get out, before the rain came. Everything looked pretty good, except the German Chamomile looked a little witty. No harm done.
Your Royal Theatre is such a nice old Art Deco building. Nice to preserve some of those. Just to remind people that architecture doesn’t have to be carp.
You’ve posted pictures of the Earth Stars, before. I really like those fungi. So … unearthly.
I felt well enough to push myself, a bit, yesterday. I’m still taking the elevator, mostly. I tire easily. And get these hot flushes, that come and go. I did a couple of loads of laundry. And, H and I took a short ride. Picked some stuff up at the library, and a quick trip in and out of the yuppie discount store. Mask firmly in place so I don’t infect the minions. I might still be infectious.
Appetite is getting a bit better. I made my version of junk food, last night. Micky D’s egg McMuffin. Of course, Dawg is dirty for fried eggs, so, she got a bit. I fry in olive oil, so she gets a bit of that in her diet. I wonder if that’s why her coat is so nice?
I wonder if the rat had been sampling a bit of the bait? That might have contributed to its poor condition.
I also watched a couple of episodes of “My Life is Murder,” with Lucy Loveless. I keep hoping they’ll return to Melbourne, as in the first season. No joy. But, the mysteries are still engrossing, and the interesting secondary regular characters add a lot. Lew
Chris:
Very interesting stuff about those hapless miscreants. You are pretty sure you have some one of them in your background? And I say that the chances are good that a relative of mine got sent over that way, having been from the same homeland area. Funny to think of the United States as being older. I always think of us as such a young country.
Then in the long run, your tools are better than Dame Plum’s.
I don’t think the employees at your local Stihl shop know nothin’. It’s a scary thought. No wonder you miss the old dude so much, but clever Sandra. We do get better as the years go by, though not about everything.
I don’t know about a pooch. Of course, I’d love it, or a cat, or most anything. One of the nurses at the assisted living place where my mother was – I still go by to visit people – told me last week that her father had a pet groundhog when he was a boy. It followed him around and its name was Daddy. Darned if I’d want a goundhog to be within 25 miles of me.
I see you now have frustrated rats trying to break through the door. That’s some tough wildlife you have over there.
Pam
Chris,
With some things, such as Big Bertha Snow Blower, I tend to go bigger than is necessary. Then I know it should be sufficient for the massive jobs. Sounds similar to your concrete machine. Eerily, while using Big Bertha a few years back, I noticed that the tires had gone flat. Fortunately, I have a portable electric air compressor. That took care of that problem. Rather quickly, even.
How to know when a job is complete? Per my father, who got it from his father…”No job is complete until all of the cleaning up afterwards is complete.” 😉 Yup, a strange loop. I once told somebody “I am a strange loop”, playing on the title of Hofstadter’s second book. The person looked at me strangely and said, “Dunno about the loop bit, but I will admit that you have the strange bit going for you.”
Another of my favorites on my erasable board at work got into that idea. It read: “The following sentence is true. The preceding sentence is false.” Things like that always made my boss’s head spin, so I made sure to have an ample supply of such things.
The rats and mice sound rather desperate. You may be onto something with that epic hailstorm destroying their food supplies also. Severe hunger. Desperate times. Desperate measures. So, don’t go anywhere without your swatters and a good knife. Be ready. Always be ready.
I haven’t heard of any serious problems with trees and the wind here. Today was still windy, but not as bad. Today’s gusts were about what Wednesday’s prevailing winds had been. In other words, 48km/hr gusts today. Also forecast for tomorrow and Saturday.
Could be worse. The Princess has cousins in teeny tiny Poplar, Montana. Many highways were closed today from Fort Belknap, Montana east into North Dakota. Severe blowing dust, no visibility and wind gusts approaching 130km/hr. That entire region barely had any snow or rain this winter, so the normal dry conditions are already beyond hideous. That area has three seasons, snow, mud and dust. Unfortunately, this past year mostly skipped the snow and mud seasons. Extra dust is the result.
When I was about 8 years old, one of my classmates received repeated lessons in how gravity works. We would play various games at recess on the basketball courts outdoors. The hoops had no nets. Jeff would stand underneath the basketball hoop, back turned to the shooters, waiting for a ball to land in front of him. He habitually stood at exactly the wrong spot. Each and every made basket resulted with the basketball landing on top of his head. And he would get mad. We would all laugh, which made him madder. After two or three weeks of this happening multiple times each recess and at least two recesses a day, well, yes, he eventually figured it out.
In science class the following year, teacher asked if anybody knew what gravity is. I raised my hand first, so he called on me. “Gravity is when Jeff stands underneath the basketball hoop and gets bonked on the head whenever a basket is made.” 🙂
Horseradish is wonderful. Nice bite to it. Sinuses get cleared out. There are times that horseradish can’t be beat.
Perhaps time is a strange loop.
DJSpo
Chris,
I just found this about petrol prices.
https://theonion.com/gas-station-price-sign-using-scientific-notation/
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
My lot, I believe, moved down under during the 1860 highland clearances. My grandfather had a thing for genealogy, and because he clearly had too much mad cash, he’d commissioned a researcher to produce a book on the subject. I was very young at the time, and had only brief views of the work, but noted that the name ‘Furze’ was used, hinting at other origins, as that is an old Anglo Saxon surname. It would have been more juicy had they been convicts, because everyone loves a good redemption tale don’t they? The thing is, the English ended transportation down under in the 1850’s, because the gold rush meant that people actually wanted to go down here, and some folks knew of err, a method of free passage! No convict ship was ever lost at sea, although some Captains skimped on provisions which were then sold to settlers once docked. It takes a certain kind of mind to do such a thing.
Yeah, the English trialled sending convicts to your country first, and the war of Independence put a stop to that human trade. Much wailing and gnashing of teeth took place in the old country. Dunno what happened in the America’s, but down here the folks were used as a free labour force. But no, absolutely, the America’s were settled by the Europeans, long before Australia. Mind you humans have been on this continent for something like 60,000 years, maybe longer.
Exactly! One must use the correct tool for the job. Dame Plum is a great ratter when the space is open and clear, but in a confined space, the dog would struggle. By the way, the rats have learned to climb up and consume moths on the screen door to my right. It’s eerie to see and hear. One did that only a few minutes ago.
Well, agreed, and people know what they know. I was the same, but on some subjects I’ve been forced to take a deep knowledge dive so as to make sense of it all. You know, recently I reconditioned the 15 year old Stihl chainsaw and brought it back to ‘beast mode’! But truly, on such subjects, I can only speak for local experience. What goes on in other places, is a mystery to me. For example, in the US the poplar tree is categorised as a hardwood species, and that may be so. But the local species of eucalyptus trees are twice as dense again and slightly harder than oak. It’s feral out there so again, use the right tool for the job. 🙂
Yes, I too was impressed that Sandra didn’t purchase the full chisel chains, which were not described that way, but instead given the mysterious name of ‘super’. I abhor mysticism for the sake of flogging product! We do get better as we age, and this is a good thing. 🙂
Far out! You’re triggered by the idea of a pet groundhog, and I’ve known people to keep pet rats. I’m sure they’re fine creatures, just somewhere, or elsewhere, but far away! 25 miles sounds about right to me as well.
Pam, they’re hungry, and so are getting desperate. I’ve often had the idea float into my brain that the late winter and early spring, lean time, sets the upper limit with critter populations here. It’s brutal, but that’s what I’m observing this year.
By the way! I almost forgot to mention. Early last week whilst travelling through forested roads on the other, northern, side of the mountain range, I spotted two deer which were of a variety I’d not seen before. They had lighter coats with spots and were smaller than the red deer. Oh my! Never seen those before, and hope they don’t make their way over here, although it is not far. Ook!
Another lovely cool sunny day here. A bit of paid work. Then headed to the nearest outer urban area with the trailer to pick up supplies for various projects. Had a Bahn Mi for lunch whilst there. Got home and with the new materials fixed up the trim on the cantina shed, then applied some paint.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
It’s an interesting issue isn’t it? And it’s one to which I never really know at what point to jump in with a purchase, but I’m leaning in your direction of bigger really is better. There are however, economic dimensions as well, too. How much mad cash can you fork over? 🙂 Like with chainsaws, the first I ever bought was a mini-boss. The old farm machine repair bloke was licensed for second hand equipment sales, and so he traded the old one in and eventually sold me a new one. They have value, those machines. Anywhoo, traded onto a farm-boss, before eventually settling on the now 15 year old beast. It’s been something of a journey.
But I’m with you, getting slightly higher specifications than you need, will mean that any machine is casually working along. It’s pushing things beyond their limits, which tends to break them. Truthfully, sometimes the old beast chainsaw, is not good enough for the trees here.
Those portable air compressors are awesome machines. Yup, and being able to inflate tires at home is a very useful thing to have. Pumping air or water uses very little electricity.
Ha! Did your father also have a place for everything, and everything in its place? There are some days, when the tasks aren’t finished, that we haul the ‘stuff’ to a convenient place so that it can be quickly brought out for the next work day. But stuff is organised here.
That’s funny about the strange bit, and everyone has opinions don’t you reckon? 🙂 I had the impression that Mr Hofstadter was somewhat disappointed with the interpretation of his first book, thus the second which focused on his core idea of strange loops. Man, I don’t need to read a book to know that life can be very strange at times!
Candidly speaking, your boss probably wondered more about his / her next pay rise! 😉 The things I’ve seen over the years… And I recall baffling a very wealthy well connected dude who was troubled that I didn’t have a mobile phone to my name at the time. He scored the inscrutable face number three along with the words: “I don’t need one. I’m free!”
Having no land line here, and the goobermint identification application required for earning an income, I kind of had no choice in the matter. Becoming an un-person is an un-wise path despite misgivings.
By the way, it’s the ‘IN’ in INTJ, or INFJ, or INFP which makes people do such things as your white board witticisms! My secret super power is occasionally really pis…., sorry I meant to type, annoying people to a considerable extent!
Yeah, I’m getting the impression that food sources out there, are a bit thin on the ground. The rodents have been super feral this year, and one did the jumping onto the screen door to nab a Bogong moth trick whilst I was replying to Pam. The noise scared the sh.., I mean to say, ‘Poop’, out of me. Where has the decorum gone this evening I ask you?
Well, the thing is I’ve still gotta dig the trenches, then pour concrete on the uphill side of the house. The Editor has agreed to maintain a human and canine presence at all times during that work. Better to be safe than sorry with the rats for they may dive under the house. They’re neither small nor timid.
Those are still some strong wind gusts, and I’d not want to experience such prevailing winds for too long. Although, that’s the sort of wind energy required to run a big turbine. It’s not usually windy at your place though is it? Isn’t here, and the wind mostly comes in gusts, except for extreme storms like the minor tornado or the super cells.
Montana looks so pretty and wild in the images, but I hear you – an extreme climate. Dust storms can occur here too but those high winds they experienced there, are off the charts strong. Dirt roads here too, and we’ve got both mud and dust as well! The state goobermint apparently recently announced that they planned to spend significantly less on pothole repair in rural areas in a budget saving measure, not that they’re appearing to spend less, just on the rural areas which don’t vote for them.
Poor Jeff, for he was a slow learner, but at least he finally got there. Far out! It’s funny, but everyone makes decisions at different speeds. The Editor says I make snap decisions, whereas she takes more time to process information. This actually has been a point of contention in the long past, but now I comprehend the difference, and strangely, we often come to the same conclusion. However, sometimes though, I’m wrong. Like the recent prediction as to fuel rationing last month. The price simply went up instead. And! We keep records as to the gas bottle usage, and it may well be that the gas chemical is not the same as it only once was, or the bottle ain’t being completely filled. I had wondered how prices for them stayed the same. Hidden inflation, I guess. We may also be enjoying propane instead of the more usual butane. Hmm.
I like horseradish too, and such a powerful kick. Had some tidy toasty chilli’s in the Bahn Mi roll for lunch today. Yummo! Had to go to the bog box hardware store to pick up some materials for projects, like finishing the cladding on the cantina shed. Plus we’re re-doing the dog enclosure fencing tomorrow. Blame the rodent proofing work because part of that fencing is attached to the house and needs to be cleaned up. It’ll probably make more sense in the photos.
🙂 For sure, time is a very strange loop. What does the Ozymandias poem suggest about the subject?
Cheers
Chris
Hello Chris.
I concur, time and timing are mysterious. Sunday nights are when I have the most leisure and inclination to write and you have least.
It looks like your big box local is the competitor of mine. The Grunt cord ain’t on their catalogue. Never mind, I have plenty of other things to do for the moment.
Have I been jinxed? Another Fowler jar broke yesterday. There were two heating in a pan of water – they had been minutely inspected for intactness – and at only 40° the water was suddenly very milky… what gives?
A mouse was lurking under my fridge this morning. The cat and I team up, me with a grabber tool, and last time the critter was got. The one today was luckier. It ran out while the cat was on the other side of the fridge, encountered my foot in its route to the dishwasher (which is where they seem to get through the wall) and retreated. It must have escaped while we were looking the other way as after a further quarter of an hour all I had extracted was a few stray dust balls and a couple of lids that had not landed in the recycling as intended.
A good weekend to all,
kallianeira.
Hi Lewis,
Yes, reading your comment about films, nurses and ambulances, my mind also went in a dozen different directions. Some at the same time, and err, fortunately returned to this space, but in a somewhat soiled, dazed and confused state. Oh well, it too shall pass! Like your style though.
Good to read that you are feeling better today, and the lively comment was a real pleasure to see. 🙂
Cinema’s are much the same down here, although these days there are far less of them and no Saturday double feature matinee that I’m aware of. And hey, remember the drive in theatres? Last I checked, only two were operating in the state.
Thank you for the introduction to Mr William Castle and his many fine film gimmicks. I’d not realised that he was the person behind the Rosemary’s Baby film. I read the book and it was an odd trip for sure. Way too many caring and interested neighbours for my liking! Some of the gimmicks were great, and his films had big names too.
A lovely film review, and it’s a good point too, to worry about the things you have some control over, like snogging your girlfriend during the Saturday matinee! Who cares about a missile crisis, it’s not like a person on the street could do anything about it. I can see John Goodman playing the role of the huckster.
Now that’s clever marketing for the film industry of those days. Those Italian folks probably made the films with budgets which would be less than the usual Hollyrood catering costs too!
George Romero picked up the putrefaction aspect in later films. Maybe it’s just me, but the thought of worms and/or chunks of timber in eyeballs is a touch unappetising. Zombies have rather strange and disturbing palates, don’t you reckon? All that hankering for brains is unhealthy. 🙂 Ha! I get that looking away stuff, and note that the fast forward button is rather useful at times. Such visuals leave me with nightmares.
Far out! Dreaming about the mice last week was sending me a bit loopy. One of the dreams was so intense, that I swear I could smell mouse in the dream state, and may even have cried out in shock. You know what bothers me the most though? There could have been a mouse up close and personal. Hmm. The Editor observed that I swung the fly swat on Tuesday morning with some serious passion.
Ooo, the zombie trailer was good for Day of the Dead, and I’d not seen that one. I quite liked the more recent Land of the Dead, which had Dennis Hopper and Simon Baker in it. Fun stuff. But Zombieland is much funerer, you read it here first! I love that film, and the sequel was a blast. Even the unsubtle product placement was amusing. There are some doubts that there will be a third in the series. A shame and the world is lesser for this lack. How did the original film hold up for you?
The lack of need for watering, suggests that your timing for becoming ill, was kind of good, maybe? On a serious note, sometimes the body can hold out until the timing is right, and then you can get dumped into sickness. Such occasions are never good, and I’ve noted in the past with studies (remember I worked full time as well) that a ‘post exam slump’, was a real thing. My desires for such further studies are non existent.
Yes, the Art Deco theatre is beautiful, and look at the crowd it draws. The place was jumping with life and energy. A person’s physical environs can impact upon their well being.
The earth star fungi seem to be rather common this year for some reason. It’s good to see the mushrooms hard at work breaking down plant cellulose into more interesting products.
Respect for getting back into life, and these times are what the elevator is for. Hmm, hot flushes sound a bit fever like, which is no good. Remember to take it easy too, and keep the fluids up.
Dogs are filthy for fried egg! And they pester me for chunks as well. Oh yeah, and my lot get a bit of coconut oil in their breakfasts. They also love Olive oil, clearly as does H. Dogs with good diets tend to smell less and have clean shiny coats, in my opinion.
The rats jumping onto the screen door to grab moths attracted to the house lights, look remarkably healthy and somewhat large. A bit frightening really. On that note though, I’m reading that baits apparently aren’t as effective as they once were. Hmm.
You never know what the future holds for the show, and they may return. How’s the bread making activities going in this series?
As usual we did a lot of activities today. Some paid work. Travelled to the nearby big outer urban suburb to pick up materials which will be used to finish the cantina shed refresh. Had a Bahn Mi – which was very tasty, and they even chucked in some chunks of pork crackling. Yummo! Once home again, we added the additional trim to the cantina shed, then painted those sections.
The corrugated steel sheeting sits out 15mm or 3/5ths of an inch out from the original fibro cement sheeting. So some of the rounded edges of the steel sheets were showing on either side. A bit of extra trim hid them nicely, it just had to be painted. Fingers crossed that I can weather tighten the cladding with silicone sealant tomorrow, but we’ll see. The weather forecast suggests that there’ll be lots of rain on Sunday.
Is the rain continuing in your part of the world?
Cheers
Chris
Hi kallianeira,
No worries at all, and it’s best if the lovely people here comment when the moons are aligned. Of course I’ll leave it up to you to decide which planet and moons we’re talking about here, and that’s cool.
Mostly if I have troubles replying to comments on a Sunday night, I’ll do that on Monday night. It’s an easy and simple system, and hopefully you’d agree with that summation?
It happens, and hey, there used to be a local hardware store in town, until there wasn’t. The big box one is a half an hours drive away towards the south in an outer urban area, so it is not a duck down to the local shop kind of experience. Fortunately we can grab a tasty Bahn Mi roll whilst on that journey.
There is however, a Mitre 10 hardware over in the eastern end of the mountain range at the township of Romsey, and they’re lovely folks. The business is just not on the same scale though. But it is far quicker to get to from here.
As a general rule, I don’t do any form of advertising here, overt or otherwise. A Code of Conduct applies to me as well as you, and it can be read – it’s somewhere on this screen, or maybe the home page, I forget! If I mention a specific product it’s because I’ve used the stuff and paid for it with my own money.
The interweb is a strange mob, and every single day I am hassled with unsolicited offers to advertise stuff. Have these people nothing better to do with their time? Hmm. Pesky folks.
The other weird thing about this big ol’ information super highway, is that I’m seeing more and more content, which is created by arty-fish-al writing software. That stuff needn’t apply here either. I’m old school and believe that every automation, is an amputation. People outsource their brains…
Oh my! It happens with the Fowlers bottles, and some of my lot have inexplicable cracks, which look interesting through the thick glass. I’ve not experienced one breaking though at such low temperatures though. Was the glass in bubbling water and jumping around a lot (although at 40’C you wouldn’t think so)?
Out of sheer curiosity, do you cook using an electric induction cooker? I’ve had some interesting experiences with those and jam making. They create hot spots, and work best with the heavy duty carbon steel fry pan, although I may be biased with that opinion.
Could equally be a jinx situation though. Have you been making proper offerings to the Elder Ones of late? The folks of the land of Faery are known to be of a mischievous bent.
Ha! Thanks for the story of the mouse that got away from you both. And hey, I’ve seen the dogs only metres from a rabbit and somehow not see it, so your cat is in good company. I now have something of a loathing for mice after the past three and a bit weeks, but there’s also a touch of awe for their audacious behaviour. You gotta give them credit.
And wishing you a good weekend too. Looks like Monday may bring you some very solid rain. Fingers crossed.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – From our “Seemed like a good idea. What could possibly go wrong?” department.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/a-closely-guarded-plan-to-cool-earth-is-revealed-130000281.html
Isn’t silica the stuff that comes out of volcanoes and kills people? Oh, a different kind of silica, so no worries about it falling back to earth, and breathing it in. Maybe the chemtrails mob should get onto this. That would put a stop to it. 🙂
There was a drive-in movie theatre, when I first moved here, in 1983. I don’t know when it closed. Quit awhile ago. I think the land is now part of the landfill and solid refuse / recycling transfer station. According to a look down the rabbit hole, there are still five drive-ins, still in operation, in the state. I saw a documentary a couple of years ago about US drive-ins. Some are thriving, by developing other streams of income. As with regular movie theaters. Everything from beer gardens to weekend swap meets.
What I find odd is that I have no memory of the missile crisis. At all.
In “Day of the Dead,” the zombies seem more interested in internal organs, other than brains. And is that a rubber chicken, being pulled out of someone’s innards? 🙂 A lot of the acting is over the top. A lot of scenery chewing. That’s not to say it’s not a good movie, worth seeing. And there’s a semi-tame zombie, named Bub, who is rather enduring. 🙂
I watched “Zombieland,” last night. Woody, delivers. I saw it when it first came out, and it holds up. I see the library has the second one. Might be time to give it a re-watch.
But, no worries. Looks like there’s an app, to get early warning of an impending zombie apocalypse. What it boils down to is, watch the rich people.
https://tech.yahoo.com/science/articles/apocalypse-early-warning-system-man-020000250.html
I’m looking forward to seeing pictures of the spiffed up cantina.
I hadn’t had any vegetables, to speak of (other than garlic and a can of seasoned lima beans), since I got sick. Time to get my healthier eating, back on track. So, last night I made up my monthly Mac & cheese, and stuffed it full of all different kinds of veg. Tasty. And enough for dinner, tonight. H got a bit of plane yoghurt on her kibble. She likes that, too, so, gets some, maybe once a week.
H and I manage to stay dry, yesterday. But this morning, we got pretty wet. It will start clearing, on Sunday.
The wood lice have been knocked back by the nematodes, but I noticed quit a few clustering near the Swiss Chard sprouts. So, there I was, at midnight, scraping them off with a trowel, and smushing them. I deployed potato traps, nearby, last night. The trick is to get the to a size where they’ll leave them alone. Now that the potatoes are well up, they’ve given up on those.
And, lastly, this from our Disappointing Books Department. I saw something that looked interesting on the library “on-order” list. “Scapegoat: What the Invasive Species Story Gets Wrong,” (Follmann, 2026). Turned out to be rather a dog’s breakfast (no disrespect to dogs.) Yes, she thinks efforts to eradicate most invasive species, is pointless, but blames such efforts on, wait for it, capitalism. And then there’s some long tangent about language and semiotics. I should have been warned, if I paid more attention to the author’s background. She’s got an MES (Master of Environmental Science), and is concerned with ecology, language and philosophy. Whatever. Back to the library it goes. Lew
Chris:
That was a fascinating history. Thanks. So your lot were the saintly group, not the sinners. And, darn, I read a good quote recently on ginger hair, but where? I’ll have to crank up the old brain, if it still works after the 96F (35.5) temps coming up this weekend.
You’d think that rat was a squirrel. I get you about being startled. This morning I had a squirrel jump up and hang on the back door, looking in the window to see if I had any nuts. It was Tufty, who is supposed to know that I only feed her away from the house. But they wants what they wants.
I don’t get why they class the poplar, or, at least, our Tulip Poplar, as a hardwood. Its wood is similar to pine. We sometimes burn it anyway, there is so much poplar around here. Back when we had an abundant understory, before the deer destroyed it, I cut some poplar saplings and made a trellis out of them for the end of the porch. I put it together while the wood was still wet. That thing looked so nice and lasted over 20 years, until it had to be removed for some outside house repairs.
Hey! We had a pet rat! He was inherited from one of my sons’ classes. He was Mr. Baby-colored – white with big back spots. We named him, er, Ratty.
He was so smart. He would come when I whistled and I would take him outside to play on the lawn. He loved that. Inside he lived in a fish tank, with a home in it and I fed him real foods, not junk. He was allowed freedom in the house when the cats were elsewhere. I still miss Ratty; he lived to be very old.
Wow, that’s all you need – a whole new variety of deer, one that will fill whatever niche of depredation the ones you already have don’t.
I am only half joking with this. I’m going to be mighty hot soon.
https://www.ergodyne.com/chill-its-6260-lightweight-phase-change-cooling-vest-rechargeable-pcm-packs
Pam
Hello Chris and everyone.
>it’s best if the lovely people here comment when the moons are aligned. Of course I’ll leave it up to you to decide
As led by lunar intuition, naturally.
Simply, if it were my site, I’d want to have the last word each week so I would be tempted not to put through late comments.
I read your code of conduct but the details usually escape me so I try to anticipate and follow as others do. Actually it reminds me of the way I learnt hymns in church as a child. The interpretation of discreet cypher phrasing is an enjoyable challenge when it is not straight out impossible for me to decode. (What is that three-letter business you and Lew keep mentioning?)
>there used to be a local hardware store in town, until there wasn’t.
One could perhaps say the same of here, except that there still is… a zombie hardware store. Hearsay only. I infer from what others say that it used to be a viable and functioning business. People are known to go to another town for supplies, which is virtually a day trip.
Is your state more geologically special than mine??I was looking up toppings, crushed rock etc and without my even filtering all the results were from Victoria. All the quarries seem to be there too. What gives, again? Are we just interested in turf up here?
>every single day I am hassled with unsolicited offers to advertise stuff.
That has to be a sign of success :/
Are you getting bots (if that word is acceptable) try to post here? When I had a website with a mailing list the majority of entities which ever subscribed were the same.
>Oh my! It happens with the Fowlers bottles, and some of my lot have inexplicable cracks
I may have done something silly like put warm tap water in the saucepan and cold milk into the jars. I didn’t think the disparity would be significant with those tough bottles and that the heating would be quicker. Of course I lost time and wasted power as well as the broken jar. Or it could be that the jars weren’t quite level with the hem on the teatowel under them affecting stability.
My stove is old style conduction? with a ceramic top so it uses normal cookware. Not much experience with induction methods – a week in a holiday apartment and making coffee on a cousin’s stove is all. Are you happy with yours after sorting out the jam making types of idiosyncracy?
Re offerings – I have made no changes that I can recall. The Old Ones may be making themselves known. They certainly got a few extra litres of yummy milk rich water on the soil after that event!
Admiration to all creatures that have made it this far in time, whether we enjoy their company or not.
>Monday may bring you some very solid rain. Fingers crossed.
I had better not say anything: you know about weather and jinxes.
kallianeira
Hi Pam,
Oh, I reckon saintly is perhaps stretching the truth a little bit, let’s just say that they weren’t caught. Probably a more accurate description, put it that way! 😉 Ginger’s don’t get a lot of respect, but who cares, people are just jealous of the uber cool style.
Did you figure out what the great ginger quote was? And those are some hot conditions for this early in the growing season. Still, the rain you had the other day, combined with the heat, may produce a jungle in your garden? Is a cool change predicted to follow on from the heat? It’s meant to rain here tomorrow, a lot.
The rats are a bit scary, and they have no fear. With the trenching and backfilling with cement job around the house, we got to the dog enclosure today, and wondered. What the heck were we to do? So the dog fencing was entirely dismantled, then reconfigured in a better way with three new timber posts cemented into the ground. ‘Better’ being the word of the year here.
Actually it was a complicated job because Sandra and I had to figure it out as the possibilities for the dog enclosure revealed themselves. Never our best conditions.
Go Tufty, although if I may give the expectational squirrel some sound advice: Try not to push it little lady! Pam, all of the wildlife here escalates the worst of their behaviours, until err, dire circumstances, and um, an equilibrium is restored. I tend to find that the older critter residents tend to teach the younger ones. Still, like with the mice, things can run off the rails. There is a story there…
I don’t get that about Poplar being classed as a hardwood either, although as you noted, the timber is perhaps more durable than pine. To be honest, it’s probably for the best that the understory has been thinned out, as it will give the taller trees better growing conditions due to lower competition. And that will mean more feed and housing for forest critters.
No way! Cool! I’ve known people to keep pet rats, and your story replicates what they told me. They’re very clean and lovely pets. And what a delightful name too! Ratty… 🙂
It’s weird that a new species of deer was seen, like where did that lot even come from? Hang on, I’ll have a look and take a guess as to the particular variety. My best guess is that the pair were Fallow Deer (Dama dama). The two were remarkably small and at first I’d thought that they were large feral dogs, but no.
I’d heard of such vests, and if they work for you, then why not? There are no prizes for struggling through extreme weather.
Cheers
Chris
Hi kallianeira,
The moons and their movements are possibly the best guide to these sorts of things. I’ll let you in on a little secret, comments are closed on old blog essays after 7 days. Saves my brain from having to work out, where someone commented – and way back in the day, it’d happen with essays penned years in the past. So, nah, all closed, and the juggernaut continues!
The main thrust of the code is to avoid defaming, anyone, or anything. In this most litigious of lands, well, I can’t afford that kind of silliness. Best if the occurrence was nipped in the bud. And yup, people have been bounced over the past twelve years.
Hymns were fun to sing, and usually they had some sort of cadence to the words so yours approach is not far from experiencing deeper meanings. Actually late in high school we used to sing hymns like a proper football choir. You could almost feel the roof tiles rattling in the old church. Honestly, if I were a deity, such enthusiasm would sing to my soul, but all we got were after school detentions. There was something magical about the effort.
I’m not sure, but the letters TLA have been interpreted elsewhere to mean: Three Letter Acronym. Truly, such word play is dipping into the realms of mysticism, or comedy.
Australia is a big country, and once outside of the handful of coastal cities, it takes a long time to get anywhere. Long ago I met an overseas tourist in this state, who had no real concept as to just how far it was to drive to Perth. Far longer than just a packed lunch and a tank of petrol. Things are different in other countries.
Dunno, but the crushed rock with lime, or the blue metal screenings (the dust of which is a fine fertiliser) are extracted from quarries not too far from here. You’d imagine that with diesel fuel being so expensive, that there’d be more local quarries in your part of the country?
There are a couple of Indigenous quarries around these parts which I visited a few years ago. Really pretty places. I’ll see if I can track a photo down… … Intuition Clouds My Vision
Yes, the bot comments are particularly dull and get deleted. 🙂
Oh far out, that may probably have done it with the Fowlers bottle. I wouldn’t have thought that the temperature difference could cause that breakage either, but clearly, something did so.
Ah, I know those sorts of electric stove tops, and they sure get hot, and stay hot – which is what you want. The induction cookers are finnicky and it may be merely the device I use, but it creates hot spot. So with jam making, it kind of heats up one part of the liquid, and not other parts, despite what the thermometer reports. We get jam up to temperature now on the induction cooker, and then do the rolling boil on the gas stove top. And that is the only time we use gas for cooking now. There’s probably a trick to using the induction cooker for jam making, but err, busy. Dunno.
That’s how they roll and best if the Elder Ones decide you’re OK, and hey, don’t tell anyone, but the magpies get a little bit of oats soaked in milk most days now. After the hail storm in late February, everything here is doing it tough, but I’m on friendly terms with those lovely birds.
Respect to all of the critters, yeah, even when their antics send us loopy! 🙂 All part of the bigger journey don’t you reckon?
I know nothing! What rain? But be careful I don’t recommend using my never fail ‘rain incantation’ – see note re hail storm above. Escalation clearly doesn’t work well… 😉
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Hehe! I’d heard of cloud seeding efforts, but that silica one is well, the article read to me like it may have been an advertisement. Years ago I invested in drilling down to hot rocks on this continent for the purposes of generating steam and electricity. A lot of holes were drilled, my funds diminished, and eventually the shares got sold. Given all of the competing things for goobermints mad cash, I have some reservations that they’d spend vast amounts on geo-engineering projects.
Some silica substances are not all that good for health, and artificial / engineered stone benchtops, panels and slabs became prohibited imports down here due to the dust risk. As you suggested, what could possibly go wrong?
The chemtrail folks are surely making fun of us all. But yeah, they’d create a lot of noise if that project ever came to fruition. As a civilisation, we probably don’t have the resources to pull that dimming the sunlight trick off. Sounds good, in theory.
It’s pretty clever to come up with other income streams for a drive in, and those are some good ideas. It’s a bit like the rural theatre we went to last week -there’s the beer garden, bar, pizza’s, private functions etc. Clever to diversify, try things out and follow the market.
I wasn’t even born during the missile crisis, it being 1962 and all. You’d have been young too. It was all over pretty quickly, two weeks or less.
Ha! Thanks for the visuals of the rubber chicken! Just read up on the character Bub, and what an interesting deep dive that was. Zombies which can learn, but still lust for human flesh! The later instalment of the series had ‘Big Daddy’ zombie who was also intelligent, but in this case, untrained and set on a course for revenge. Hey, enduring is the right word, for Bub appears to have survived.
Go Woody! What a fun film, and thanks for confirming my thoughts on the story in that it delivers. Like you, I also saw it when first released.
The thing I reckon about private jets, is that they’re great, until they’re not. If you asked the earlier incarnation of the band Lynyrd Skynyrd (I heard their biggest song the other day) what their opinion of private jets are, I’d imagine you’d hear some strong words. Still, it’s clever thinking to track such abnormal aircraft movement as an indicator of something. A lot of secret bases in the middle east were outed because of the use of fit-bit devices. There are smart people everywhere.
Finished the painting on the cantina shed earlier today, but didn’t get around to applying the silicone sealant. That’ll have to wait now. We worked long today. We’d been wondering how to do the anti-rodent concrete trenches around the side and rear of the house where the dog enclosure is. The answer became obvious, just dismantle the pooch enclosure and then rebuild it in a better format. And that job was started. Far out… Four timber posts were removed from concrete, whilst three posts were cemented into the ground. Me tired.
We had to work out the details, whilst we were doing the work, via the brainstorming method. A messy way to conduct a project, but there was no fixed idea beforehand, and nothing was clear. It’s looking good now though given where it is headed, but is a bit of a mess, it being incomplete. And it’s going to rain a lot tomorrow. Oh well. At least the new layout is a big improvement over the former dog enclosure, which they don’t use much.
So good to hear that you’re feeling heaps better, and are able to stomach some veg. Here is to gourmet Mac and Cheese with vegies! 🙂 Had a basic pasta for dinner tonight, nothing too fancy. Lunch was a cauliflower and curried cheese dish which is far tastier than it sounds.
Dogs love yoghurt, and because we make our own, they get a small spoon of the stuff everyday in their breakfasts. In a de-industrial far distant future, I’d miss yoghurt, and dental floss for that matter – handy stuff.
Oh poop about getting caught in the rain with H. It’s not raining at your place on Saturday, because you sent the moisture down here which should arrive in a few hours time. 🙂
Yeah, wood lice are a nuisance, and they hide, and eat. Respect for dealing with them. I still haven’t dealt with the aphids on the mustard leaves – the hail storm killed a few of the smaller birds which do the heavy lifting when it comes to such insects. They’re still around, but in lesser numbers. What do you do? I have no idea what the consequences would be for spraying the aphids? Dunno, so I probably won’t do that and enjoy the plants they’re not on.
The title of the book sounds great, sorry to hear that the content was a touch off. It can happen. Invasive species aren’t all that bad. Nuisances yes, but inevitably they settle into the background over a long enough period of time. Even the rats don’t get everything they want, and the climate and food availability sets their ultimate numbers.
Did you get around to another zombie movie today?
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – The goobers are going to go broke, anyway. Besides, the current admin chooses to ignore, or disbelieve in climate change . It’s even forbidden to use the term in any government reports or papers.
I was around 12, when the missile crisis happened. About the time I had the paper routes. Even before then, I was reading the morning newspaper, over breakfast.
Here’s a horror movie of a different kind. “Deep Water.” Released in theaters here, May 1st. One review called it a “double dip disaster.” 🙂
https://youtu.be/yHIV7BO1dkk?si=BaOafe_Kz72gHce4
Removing posts set in concrete. Not my idea of a good time. But, your fluffy collective might at least find the changes interesting.
I added another Roma tomato and peas to last nights Mac & cheese veg medley. Heated it up and added dollops of plane yoghurt, on top.
On our afternoon walk, it was dry. And, ten minutes after we got back inside, the skies opened up. Midnight, we were just heading back in when it started to rain, again. So, missed it, again. More scattered showers, today. Then a bit of clearing, tomorrow.
I checked on the Swiss Chard, on our midnight stroll. Wood lice haven’t been in evidence, since the rain came back. Oddly, since they seek moisture. I did find three small slugs, who are no longer with us. Apparently, they were attracted to the potato traps.
I took a break from movies, last night. I finished watching the series, “My Life is Murder.” You asked if the lead character was still making bread. I discovered she makes sourdough, to flog at the local cafe / coffee shop. There was also a close up of her very fancy espresso machine. I thought of you. 🙂 I think tonight will be a popcorn night. Finally get around to watching “Send Help” “Eat the Rich” movies have become an actual film genre. Lew
@ Lew:
Thanks for the cooling earth article. This is what would happen if that company gets their way:
“Silicosis is an incurable, progressive pulmonary disease caused by inhaling fine silica dust. The dust particles trigger inflammation and irreversible scarring (pulmonary fibrosis) in the lungs. This scarring stiffens lung tissue and makes breathing increasingly difficult over time.”
Pam
Chris:
I had thought the ginger quote came out of “An Irish Country Childhood”, farming in the west of Ireland in the 1930s and early ’40s, by Marrie Walsh. It is chock full of legends and old customs.
Oh, my goodness – you had to dismantle the dog enclosure!?
I only have to wait until Tufty succumbs to Mother Nature, or at least old age, as she is an old girl and, as I mentioned once, the last of the squirrels of Charlene’s era. So I’ll put up with her intrusions.
Yes – but with no understory there are no replacement trees for the big ones already there.
I have my doubts that those $200 vests even work . . .
Pam
Hi Pam,
Thanks for mentioning the book, and the blurb and reviews were delightful. What a lost time, not all that far in the past, and will form again in the future. I’ll bet west Ireland was a very wet climate!
On that note, it rained here all day long, and continues to do so. Welcome to winter, down under style. Too damp to be outdoors, so we took it easy, grabbed a gourmet pie for lunch, and even managed to pick up some of the correct type of saw chains at the small local hardware business over in the eastern end of the range. They’re a dealer too, and I was genuinely surprised that the more local folks had only the inappropriate (in my opinion) style of saw chains. Made no sense to me. Oh well.
Yes, sadly the dog enclosure had to be dismantled. Think of it as an upgrade! 🙂 It was just too hard to create the concrete trenches to thwart the rats and mice with the existing arrangement. I don’t believe that the rodents are tunnelling there, but why do only half the job and be left wondering when the twitchy nosed miscreants will do their next smash and grab through a lesser protected location?
Ah, I see what you mean regarding Tufty, and may she continue to delight you with her antics. The range of possible life spans for squirrels is all over the shop. Up to twenty years seems to be the upper limit.
Pam, there may come a point where you have to limit the deer activity, or even protect young saplings. From day dot here, twenty and a bit years ago, all young trees have had to be protected from the herbivores. That lot work to keep the forest understory open, which is perhaps, maybe, how it should be. When a big tree falls, that creates an opening and feed for newer trees – which is how the forests down here work.
You need… Project Farm! No seriously, this guy is awesome at testing products: Cheap vs Expensive Neck Fans – One Blew the Rest Away!
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Sad to say, the goobers are broke, they just don’t know it yet. Look at the ever increasing bond yields! Nothing says: I just don’t trust you irresponsible lot! like that outcome. Not how I’d arrange things, but nobody asked for my opinion.
Oh hey, almost forgot to mention from yesterday that the zombie ‘Bub’, or is it more correctly: ‘Mr Bub’?, redefined the classic reading homework for the undead! Mr King’s, most scary (and left me with nightmares for weeks) Salem’s Lot. Honestly, when your friend is suspended outside the window in mid air, beckoning, it’s probably a bad thing.
Not as bad perhaps as the drunk bloke who allegedly bit a flight attended on his way from Australia to Dallas. He was dropped off at Tahiti into the welcoming arms of the local constabulary, and the peasants rejoiced! The funny thing about it all, is that apparently he wasn’t an Aussie, so whilst he may, or may not have had his life here, they’ll most likely kick him out of the country never to return. The whole ICEY thing in your country is a way over the top response. Just wait until they mess up a second time, are apprehended, do time, then kick them out, never to return. You’d be amazed at how effective the quieter and less proactive approach is viewed down here. Gives people warning too that there is a new Sheriff in town and there will be consequences.
I know about the climate change disbelief. It’s an option, and Alfred E Neumann’s advice is prescient here, what me worry? I agree, treating the atmosphere like a sewer is going to end badly, but my thoughts and opinions in the matter count for very little. Instead I focus on what I can do to improve the household resiliency. What other people do is akin to a bunch of hot air.
Oh! Respect to the kids who got out of bed in the dark hours to deliver the daily news. 😉 Dude, maybe your brain wiring suggested the truth to you about the crisis. Ain’t ever gonna happen. Dunno about you, but I’ve heard peoples fears, and then disregarded those knowing that the more likely outcomes are a, b, and possibly c. Maybe even d. In some ways, fear is pedalled in our society as a distraction technique – don’t look here, what about this stuff over there… The aliens are coming out of the woodwork. Sure they are.
Thanks for the film trailer nightmares. I can’t watch that film! Far out. It was bad enough sitting through the Airport 77 film with my grandmother just under half a century ago. But look at the sharks!
The electric jackhammer is pretty handy at breaking up concrete which anchored the timber posts around the now dismantled dog enclosure. Mornings have become somewhat more complicated since the fricken Lesser Mouse War of 2026. It’s a problem, which we’re onto, but like everything, it just takes time, energy and resources – but more importantly, change.
On that note, we had a more chill day today. The rain has been more, or less, unrelenting. So we headed off to nab a gourmet pie, and decided to test out the local-ish ice cream store in the drizzle and wintry conditions. Not bad. Picked up a few ‘proper’ style semi-chisel chainsaw chains at the hardware store there, and all was good with the world. Lit the wood fire early and had a long nap this afternoon. All very pleasant.
Nice work, and hope the plain yoghurt bugs help balance out your guts. We’re eating the last of the growing seasons tomatoes, probably this week. There are plans to do a full clean out of the greenhouse in a few days time.
Tidy stuff, and the weather gods are clearly on yours and H’s side, although you may have just checked out the radar before heading outdoors? Still raining here.
Take that ye pesky slugs! Garden pests… The plan here is to pull all of the green mustard plants tomorrow, and feed the aphid riddled leaves to the chickens. Reseeding of radish to follow.
This talk of espresso machines and home made bread is like music to my ears!
Go Rachel McAdams! We’re not in the office any more – what a fun line, and probably well deserved. I have to see this film. Was it enjoyable?
Cheers and better get writing.
Chris
Yo, Chris – I meant to mention, more architectural detail. The sunset photo of the Bridge building? Father, son and beer keg? I noticed that the building has a false front. And interesting building technique, you often see in Wild West movies.
https://w.wiki/NX9$
I see your bitey airplane guy (they should have given him the full rabies shot protocol. I understand it’s very painful) and raise you Monk Seal guy.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/14/travel/hawaii-lani-monk-seal-attack-arrest-hnk
Judging from the guy’s name, well, I didn’t realize we had any Land of the Bear oligarchs, in our state. Which reminds me, there’s one of those in the movie “2012.” Loathsome character, along with his loathsome adolescent twin sons.
I can’t say I’m a fan of the federal agency you mentioned. Especially when they harass elderly, venerable Native American actresses. As far as I know, they haven’t been in our county.
Dawg and I stayed dry, for the rest of the day. It will be pretty nice, this coming week. I checked the weather when I got up, this morning. There was a fog advisory, for this area. Looked out the window. Yup. Fog til noon.
Gourmet pie and ice cream for desert. Sounds tasty.
I had a popcorn night (with cheese!) “Send Help” was very … unexpected? It took a really dark turn, towards the end. Theme wise, it reminded me a bit of one of the zombie films I watched last week. “Better of Zed.”
A bit more on the film genre, “eat the rich.” The phrase goes back to the French Revolution. (Rousseau: “When the poor have nothing to eat, they will eat the rich.”) So much for memory. I could have sworn it was a French film, that I saw when I was at Uni. Nope. English film, 1987.
https://w.wiki/NXDf
When I first saw it, I thought it was great. I managed to find a VHS copy of it, and insisted a friend watch it with me. Oh, dear. Not near as interesting, the second time around.
I didn’t see any slugs or even wood lice, last night. I’m going to check the potato traps, this afternoon. I think this would be the week for me to do some serious planting. Pumpkin, zucchini, green and Scarlett Runner beans. I should also pick up tomato starts, this week, before they disappear. I’m sort of waiting to see if the Master Gardeners bring back any from their yearly plant sale. Which is this weekend. Lew